Way to go Heels!

Heya!

Yesterday Herbert and I went to check out one of the most American sport you'll find, just because it's hardly played anywhere else (besides China I guess). ;) I'm talking about baseball! It was a novelty for both of us. The UNC Taar Heels faced the team from High Point University (somewhere westcoastish I believe). And of course we had some hotdogs and cotton candy to get into the baseball mood! ;D Our seats were really nice as well, very focal. The game lasted more than 3 hours, but it was fun!
For those of you who have absolutely no clue about the game (like me before watching it): Basically 10 turns, called Innings are played, in which each team gets to throw (pitcher) and to bat (batter). The aim is to hit the baseball deep into the enemies field, ensuring they don't catch it right away so the batter can start running towards one of the 4 base points. As soon as he passes all four of them he completed a run, scoring one point for the team.
It was a really close match, not decided until the very last inning. The Tar Heels managed to secure the 2:2 tie, and it was their turn to try scoring. These are the final moments:

Always nice when the team you are cheering for wins, especially when victory was not achieved so easily. ;)
So that's that. Hope I could carry at least some of the baseball spirit to you guys back there in good ol' Germany. Have a good one!

-Jan

Snatching a OneCard

Bazinga!

It took me more than six weeks to finally get one, the mills of American burocracy truely run just as slow as German ones, but now I can call myself the proud owner of a UNC student identity card (Thoska equivalent). With the help of this neat little piece of plastic I am now able to borrow books from library, borrow films for free, go to the gym and many many things more. It's super, it's awesome, it's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! ;D

-Jan

It's the Beer Olympics!

Hey folks,

once again the time has come for brave souls of the UNC geological science department to gather around and compete in a devastating tournament of struggle, emotions, fun, and a hell lot of beer! Yes, the annual Beer Olympics have come! The event started Saturday 3 pm and only god knows when it finally ended. ;)
According to tradition teams of two persons each, dressed up as representative figures of a certain country would battle against each other in American standard drinking games such as Beer Pong, Beer Ball, and Can fliping. Besides a long table, the key instrument for the first two sports is a table tennis ball which is thrown by hand to hit an object on the opponents side and if successful, trying to drink as much as possible in order to win the game. I was astouned how serious the players were about this: "It's not a game Jan, this is war!"


The following nations competed in the drinking contest: Australia, Iceland, France, Scotland, New Jersey and Africa, although technically speaking not all of them are actual countries! There were two more teams to compete for the dress award, namely Pangaea and Greece. A jury composed of 3 non participating individuals were deciding the winners for the dress contest, while the drinking pretty much was decided by the capabilites of the competing teams. The video enlosed shows you 2 teams fighting in the final game for a medal (medals turned out to be small liquor bottles).

Everyone was really into it and there was also a non drinking game where you tried to hit the opponents wooden board with little sacks. Very enjoyable! After the games we met in one of the organizors apartment nearby for some dinner and to relax a bit. ;)

So far about my weekend, have a good start into the upcoming workweek!

-Jan

Anadarko Symposium

Hey people,

sorry for the lack of news, but unfortunately my computer became infected with an annoying virus, messing up my Windows system files during the removal. Not very easy to re setup your system with neither a CD-Rom drive nor a Windows CD but somehow I managed to restore an old system status. ;) So thankfully everything is back to normal now, enabeling me to give you a brief summary over the last recent activities.
As the title already implies, this post has something to do with a symposium which was held last Friday, and some of you might now be thinking "What on earth is this Anadarko thingy?" To clarify things, the UNC geological sciences department is hosting a yearly symposium along with the Anadarko Petrolium Coorporation, which in fact is one of the world’s largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. Every year in April, students and future PhDs are presenting their findings in a short presentation each. The fruitful collaboration exists six years already and will continue to go on at least a few years longer.
Afterwards around 20 geologists went to have some drinks and chit chat in one of Carrboros (small town within walking distance from Chapel Hill) notorius bars built on an old railway track (it's called The Station). We talked and laughed quite a lot, it was fun.
It would be really nice to have some equivalent in Jena as well, even though everyone was really busy because of all the preparations going on.

I'll catch you later!

-Jan

Chapel Hill - The place to be

Dear readers,

for starters, I'd like to give you a small round tour of the place that I am currently staying at: Chapel Hill.
About 55.000 people live in this town, at least half of them associated with the university. The settlement basically consists of a farreaching combined campus + hospital area at the centre and residential areas spread around it. The cultural and social centre (comparable to Jena's Wagner Gasse) is Franklin Street. The broad majority of the people around here is very friendly, liberal and open minded (prjudices about southern states at least here are at absolutely arbitrary). Also there is a lot of cultural diversity, as there are many international students enrolled at the University of Carolina (UNC). The two main attractions on campus are the Bell Tower (picture to the right) and the Old Well.
Of course there are fastfood restaurants and grocery stores all over the place, and many of the american residences (my apartment included) look just like in a storybook. One thing that's kind of annoying is that busses are the only means of public transport but won't drive as frequently as compared to Jena. In return the shops here are open almost all the time, even on sundays, which is very convenient! Another ting I really like about this place is the weather! I practically left winter behind me when departing from Germany to be greeted by heart-warming sunbeams when arriving in Chapel Hill.

People around here are absolutely crazy about basketball! Currently the national championship called NCAA (college league) is being broadcasted in nearly every public building in this area. North Carolina is well known for it's top-notch basketball teams, especially the Tar Heels which is the basketball team of the UNC. Last year's team even won the national tournament, but unfortunately this year the entire season was one major fiasco.


The picture to the right shows a building where I'll certainly spend most of the time during my stay in the US doing geochronology research. It's the geological department on campus called Mitchel Hall. It's a decent mixture of laboratories, work spaces and classrooms, although I still wonder why the latter is open during lessons. More bits of information on this topic are sure to come!

That's it for now. I'll catch you later.

-Jan