Baseball

Today, I watched the Milwaukee Brewers play the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park. The stadium was built in 2001,  and has a roof that can be opened and closed depending on the weather.
There were more than 40 000 spectators watching the game. It was an interesting cultural experience, not because of the baseball game, but because of the spectator culture. People were sitting on the parking lot outside, drinking beer, and kept on drinking and throwing peanuts inside. It seemed like no one paid attention to the game, but they were only there because of the loud music and because it was allowed to drink there.
This was the second of three games that they are going to play against the Cardinals this weekend. Tomorrow the games will continue, and it looks bad for the Brewers.

Water in the US

The water here in Milwaukee is far better than it was in NY, DC, Atlanta and all of the cities I've been to in the States so far. I would say it is almost the same as the water in Norway. Probably because Milwaukee has similar cold and rainy climate as Norway, but Norway has still by far more rain than any place I have been so far.

On almost all public places in America, there are water fountains that anyone can use. Milwaukee is almost as south as Italy on the map, so they have warm summers, where these probably will be needed.

The World's Busiest Airport

When travelling to Florida, we had to transfer at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, which is the busiest airport in the world. Here we had to spend the night because of the delay we had when flying from Milwaukee. Finding our way around was not easy. At the airport there were trains going in different directions, and a lot of shuttle buses going to different hotels. When landing in Atlanta we had a lot of time and managed to find the right shuttle bus that was going to our hotel, but it was a lot harder finding our way around the airport the next morning when we were in a hurry, which resulted in us missing our flight to Florida. This gave us another four hours of time, before the nest departure to spend at the airport. My suggestion for people who are have to transfer when flying in the US is to avoid these big airports, as they are always going to be busy, and the distance between the gates might be too big to go between, if the transfer time is short. Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta handles around 80 million travelers each day, while General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee handled less than 8 million travelers during the whole year of 2008. 

Panama City, Florida

During spring break, a lot of Americans go to sunny places such as Cancun in Mexico, Bahamas, Jamaica, but the most popular destination for students in America is still Panama City in Florida. This is where it all started in 1938 as a  swimming competition for college coaches. The students joined as spectators and were offered free beer during the competition. This attracted even more students through the years, and today it is an annual event for more than 500 000 students.

Panama City is a city close to one of the biggest beaches in the US, and has a relatively good temperature during spring break. The big amount of tourists during spring break, makes the locals try to show their best offers during this period of time, and it is also possible to rent scooters/motorbikes, play golf/minigolf or visit America's biggest club: Club La Vela with a capacity of more than 6000 people. Even though there was a lot of things happening there, while we were there, I do not believe that the city is very lively through the rest of the year. It was a very interesting cultural experience for me, but I am sure that I will never go back there on vacation later.

Spring Break

The last week, a lot of things have gone pretty wrong for me here in the states. Me, an Australian, a Frienchman and a Brazilian had booked our tickets to Panama City, Florida for Thursday afternoon. Everything was going to be perfect: we were going to travel in suits, looking fresh and fit for a week in the most popular travel destination for students in the states for spring break. I can say one thing for sure: things did not turn out exactly the way we had planned. Our first flight from Milwaukee had an eight hour delay. We ended up being in Atlanta, Georgia around two o'clock in the night, so we had to spend the first night in a hotel there, and then catch the next flight  scheduled to six o'clock the next morning. After a three hour of sleep, we rushed to the airport again, just a couple of minutes late to see our plane go up in the air, standing there, helpless. We begged the company for new tickets, and were luckily put on the next flight some hours later that day. When we came to Panama City, we took a taxi to our hotel, and were told that we could not use our reservation, since we were not 25, so we took a taxi to the next hotel we were put in, which was a really bad hotel, so we put in an extra couple of hundred to get a better hotel, which also was closer. We were hungry, tired and worn out when we arrived, and just after two days I managed to loose my passport and my wallet,  and could not join my friends out the next days, but I still managed to have a good time on the beach, mini golf resort and at the hotel the rest of the week.

In order to stay at Strtich during spring break, you have to fill out a form saying which days you want to stay. None of us filled out this form, so when we came back, they would not let us in before they had called resident life, and made sure that we could stay in our rooms over the break. So now I am just going to rest for a couple of days, before I go to the Norwegian Embassy in Washington DC to get a new passport.

The Land of Oppurtunities

The good thing about living in the States is that there is always something to do. If you go for a walk downtown Milwaukee, you will see posters for all kind of events. Including the metropolitan area, Milwaukee has more than 1,7 million people and an hour south in Chigaco there are more people living in the city than in the whole of Norway. This is probably the reason why there is always something happening. Yesterday me and a friend wanted to try something new, so we got into our Thai-dye shirts and went to a alternative-reggae concert. During the concert, people made a big circle and people that had something to show could go into the middle to do their tricks. It was very fascinating to see all the people showing different things such as blowing dog balloons, making tricks with a crystal ball, juggling, dancing with hula hoops or with ropes that were on fire. It was like everyone tried to express their individuality, by showing their skills. This really made me thinking what skills I have, and it made me realize that I do not know any tricks like this. Maybe now is a good time to learn?
Video of the girl dancing with ropes that were on fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlNqkMWhoiM

Mid-Term Exams

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through the semester already, with mid-term exams coming up this week and next. The exams over here are a lot simpler than exams at Norwegian universities. The exams are simply 30-50minute tests, usually with one page of multiple choice scantron test plus some questions that you are expected to answer shortly on. This is very easy compared to the "normal" Norwegian exams where you sit 5-6 hours writing pages of answers.