Trip to Chicago...

I spent the days from last Wednesday to Saturday in Chicago together with my Godmother Yvonne and her husband Markus. Since I did not find a good deal on Priceline, I stayed at the Hostel in the Loop, whereas Yvonne and Markus were at the Hyatt. :-( But the Hostelling International was a great location: Clean, modern and very central in the loop - it was even voted the best big hostel in the world! So if you decide to visit Chicago on your own, check it out!
It was rainy the first day, so we decided to go shopping in the Outlet Mall in Aurora. After a long shopping trip we returned to Downtown and went to Wilfire. There I ate a Trio of the filet with different crusts... it was awesome.
The next two days we toured around Downtown and also went to the Navy Pier where we watched a Imax movie due to the rainy weather. The second of the two days was sunnier, so we went up the Hancock Tower to the observatory to enjoy the view and the skyline of Chicago - the gold coast, the Loop and the Navy Pier. We then walked alongside the coast line to the Grand Park. This took quite a while and was over 5km long... So we were pretty exhausted once we enjoyed the sunny weather on the lawn with a sandwich and something cold to drink.
On the last evening we went to Ruth's Chris, a very well reputated Steak house... and guess, yes we ate filet again :-) that was probably the best filet I have ever had. ... 12 ounces (340 grams) and tender like nothing else... (seebthe pictures). After that we visited the Blue Chicago, a very well known Blues bar with live music every night. A band played great Blues and also performed some songs with a female singer that had a great voice...
On Saturday afternoon, I had to get back to the airport for my flight back to Minneapolis... so the four days in Chicago passed very quickly and we had a great time together... I am already looking forward to going back in two weeks, where I will meet Carole again... :-)

Kayaking on the Chain of Lakes...

A couple of guys went kayaking last Sunday on the chain of lakes close to downtown Minneapolis. It was a lot of fun, since I have never tried it so far.
Jennie and Annie lead the trip from the Center for Outdoor Activities. They instructed us with the basic techniques and safety procedures in case we flip over. After that we started at Cedar Lake and made our way through Lake of the Isles to Lake Calhoun. It was pretty windy on Lake Calhoun with pretty big waves... a lot of fun!
We stopped at a little beach on Lake Calhoun to eat lunch. After that the expected thunderstorm/rain was getting closer so the trip leaders decided to turn and paddle back. Well, the trip was therefore a little shorter than expected but still very enjoyable. Even though you can barely see it on the pictures, the trees are turning green right now. So it was a pretty day outside where we have seen also turtles, gees and other birds. Wecould even see the skyline from the lake which was awesome.

Here you go with a couple of pictures...

bomb threat after Virgina Tech shooting...

After the shocking incident at Virgina Tech on Monday, a couple of Universities received bomb threats on Tuesday. There was also a threat at the UofM on Wednesday, after which 7 buildings got evacuated. Luckily, these buildings were all on the other side of the Mississippi. So our classes took place as usual. It is still kind of desturbing, that there are other people who try to make a hoax out of this... Nevertheless, I am happy that the UofM takes it seriously.

Today, there will also be a memorial event for the students at Virgina Tech. I think the whole student community is mourning and feels also very sad about the event in Blacksbourg.

Al's Breakfast and trip to St. Paul...

Last Sunday I got up early after 6 hours of sleep to enjoy the sunny and warm spring day outside. First, I walked 150 yards to Al's Breakfast in Dinkytown where I enjoyed a great american breakfast; a short stack of blueberry pancakes, scrumbled eggs with tomato, swiss and basil and a side portion of bacon and wheat toast.
The restaurant is reportedly the narrowest full service restaurant with seating... there are 14 seats lined up at a counter. It is funny, since I was there 10 minutes before opening (9am on Sunday) and there were already two people waiting... the line up then got longer until the opening (see pictures). I also got to know Marcia and Michael who invited me sponteanously for the breakfast, just because it is a special thing to eat at Al's and since I am a foreign exchange student... Something funny which has to be noted is that if people leave and others are waiting behind the seats, you may have to move with the food in order to make it possible for the new guests to sit next to each other... really funny tough!



In St. Paul I walked around Harriet Island to enjoy the Mississippi and the Skyline. Then I discovered the rather sleepy downtown and made my way up to the huge cathedral. A chirch service was in progress when I entered so I did not take any pictures from inside. But I have to say it is a big and very nice cathedral. Around the area of the cathedral, you can also find some very nice streets with colorful houses. After discovering the neighbourhood I went sponteanously to the Historical Museum of Minnesota to discover a little the state's past. I read a lot about the natives and immigration into the state during the last 150 years, and I even saw a picture of Dred Scott who once stayed at Fort Snelling and started a famous supreme court case regarding slavery (regards to Dr. Drolshammer and his class about American Law Culture). After that visit I enjoyed the sunny day in front of the State Capitol and almost slept... it was an awesome spring day - I hope it stays like that!

Twins territory...

Last Monday we went to the Twins - Yankees baseball game here in Minneapolis at the Metrodome. So we took the bus after classes from Carlson School (two stops!) to the stadium. People were already mingeling in front of the stadium as I know it from Europe, but no fanatic fans were visible ;-) What suprised me was that we were allowed to drink beer outside in front of the stadium! New manners here in the US ;-) they finally get a bit closer to Europe... hihi ;-)

So Duc, Ivan and I checked out the food stands; first we ate a burger or a corn dog, accompanied with a beer. We then discovered roasted turkey leg... like a chicken leg but about 3 to 4 times bigger... so we had to try it... (see pictures below)... it was great but also filling. Well, that wasn't the last thing we ate on that day.
We then started to watch the game when the Yankees made two homeruns in the first two innings. Rather disappointing for us as "Twins fans"... Although our team had a bad start people were still cheering for the Twins. So the game was pretty interesting, and it got even better when we decided to go on with beer and food :-)



After 2.5 hours we lost 8:2 but we also enjoyed a great atmosphere at the Metrodome. By the way the Metrodome holds 48'000 people max and is supported by an air-inflated roof. So there is overpressure in the stadium; we were literally blown out of the Stadium when we left!!! You can actually very well see the Metrodome on Earth Google... check out the flag in the sidebar.

Once on the bus back to the west bank, we decided to go to Bullwinkles for another beer and chicken wings (25cent a piece ;-) ). We ended the evening with Honey beer and barbecue chicken wings... awesome!

highest quality of life in Zurich...

Well, this post is from a real Swiss guy currently living abroad for anyone who might want to consider coming to Europe and visit Switzerland, or who is considering studying or working in Switzerland.

Mercer Consulting has been studying the quality of life for 251 cities accross the globe, and Zurich (biggest city in Switzerland) has again won the first place in this study and Geneva ranked second and my favourity city Vancouver third... in another study from the Economist, Switzerland ranks second concerning quality of life...

Here you go with some pictures of Zurich and a link to the Tourism site.