housing settled...

Meanwhile, I also settled the housing. I will be living just two blocks off-campus where I found a great place in a two-person flat. I am quite curious and hope to have a great time together with my roomie. I let you know about my housing as soon as I am there...

visa... I finally got it!

Last Tuesday was my appointment at the US Embassy in Berne for my J-1 visa. The procedure was not much better than 4 years ago during my first trip to the US... all the forms and to be filled and information to be provided was just a pain in the a.... waiting outside the embassy for nearly 1 hour, and waiting inside for about the same amount of time... and I also had to give my finger print and answer some short questions... but I finally got it and everything went well.
So I am pretty much ready to go, except for the housing which I am currently organizing. I found a pretty decent room close to the campus. It will probably take several days and I will also have settled my accomodation.

world-locator tool published...

Another nice feature has been installed. neoworx provides a great tool to locate the blogger and the visitors... right now it looks quite empty, but there have already been people from South- and Northamerica, Asia and Europe on my blog (according to my blogcounter statistics)...

shout box online...

I discovered another cool feature for my blog. Visitors that want to place a comment without using the comment option in the blog can now use the shout box in the sidebar. It also provides smileys and other options to express whatever one thinks! :-) I hope you enjoy...

"bookmark me" link available...

As of today, you can not only subscribe for RSS, but also bookmark my blog by using the link I created on the sidebar...







I guess I spend too much time adding features to my blog... :-) It's fun though...I keep you informed about further tools and gadgets on my blog...

time and weather information added...

I added time and weather information on the right for Minneapolis. There is more to come...

skype status bar installed...

There are still three months down to my departure. Nevertheless, I already added a skype button on the sidebar. The button informs you about my online status. If I am "online" and you want to chat with me, you can simply click on the button and will be connected with me through skype... in other words: a great tool to stay connected over the ocean
:-)
If you do not have skype so far, use the link on the right in the rubric "links" and download the program.

translation...

I have decided to translate the first posts into english, so that everyone will understand what's written on this blog.
Bloggers that are not familiar with certain english terms find a link to LEO, a online dictionnary for French, German, Spanisch and English.

RSS Feed installed...

As of now, you can pull new posts automatically to your RSS reader... just click on the RSS logo and add the url to your feeder.





Furthermore, the blog is currently being expanded. I added some friends in the friends section on the right and also added a counter that counts visitors... So far I haven't found a counter that show hits on the blog, but I do not give in and will search again. If anyone of you has an idea where to fina a hits-counter, which can be shown on the blog, feel free to send me an email: tomy_abroad@mysunrise.ch

Preparations...

I finally booked the flight: I am leaving Sunday 7th January at 12.55 with Swiss to Chicago and with United to Minneapolis where I will arrive arround 19.30 local time.

The desired courses have been accepted by the "Anrechnungsstelle" at my home university as desired... :-) I only have to get the elected courses during the first week in Minneapolis... due to visa restrictions, I am only allowed to "preselect" the classes, they will finally be approved during introduction week.

So, what's left.... I only need to get an accommodation... and yes, the visa application on the US-Embassy in Bern...

the excitement...

Minneapolis and the Mississippi

Skyline of Minneapolis and the Metrodome

I will leave Switzerland in January in direction to Minneapolis where I will attend my last semester of my studies at the Carlson School of Management...

Carlson School of Management

Tomy goes abroad....

Hi all, ...the blog world has finally reached tomy :-)

On this blog you will find my stories and experiences during my exchange term at the Carlson School of Management in Minneapolis.