It's sunny!

Greetings everyone!

Though this might sound a bit cruel to all of you who suffer from long days and weeks of cold and unpleasand weather back in Germany, here in North Carolina it's the exact opposite. The 15 degrees difference in latitude between Jena (50° 56') and Chapel Hill (35° 54′ 22″) really makes a difference!
Most of the times it's sunny, and temperatures around day time are well above 20°C (or rather 70°F). So everyone is encouraged to go outside during free time to catch some tan and enjoy the warmth of the sunbeams. Flowers and trees are blossoming all over the place to the great displeasure of allergy sufferer who are having a hard time striving against the huge masses of pollen that float around these days. They cover almost everything, from the shoes and clothes you wear to cars and buildings and kind of look like an omnipresent dirty light green coating.

These Some pictures taken just recently. The first one is taken on campus showing a building near Mitchell Hall. The second one is part of South Rd. (my way to work), and last but not least my apartment.

That's it for now, stay tuned for more to come.

-Jan

Viva la México

Hi guys,

this is just to show you that fast food is NOT the only source of food, but in fact a lot of nice little restaurants can be found on Chapel Hill's Franklin Street. Herbert and I went to this Mexian Cafe called Bandido's and food as well as the atmosphere were both really nice! Herbert went for Buritos, I tried out Nacho's with Dip, very tasty! Even though no frozen magarethas were on the menu, I strongly consider going there again some time.

Bye, bye for now.

-Jan

Shoping in The States

Hi there,

I'm runnig samples on the mass spectrometer at the moment. Since it is taking them forever to produce trustworthy results, I just quickly want to share some experience on the topic shopping.
There are quite a few grocery stores around here, one of the most prominent ones is Harris Teeter (I go there almost all the time). Interestingly enough not only the variety of products is huge, bur also the sizes they have there. Family sized packages all over the place! And i guess that anyone who loves fast food would love to put up a tent at the cooling shelfs they have there.
Once I went to a mall with Herbert in order to get some new clothes. You would not believe the selection of sizes they have there until you witness them with your own eyes. About 75% of the clothes are L/XL or even larger! The limit is not 2XL, not 3XL but 4XL! I should definitely try one of these on and take a picture some time. ;)
The sizes of the buildes of course correspond to their content:
Okay, sample runs complete. Guess I can call it a day for now. See ya!

-Jan

Duke wins NCAA Tournament

Hello people!

This years America's basketball college league season has come to an end yesterday in a final clash between The Blue Devils (Duke University, Durham) and the Bulldogs from Butler University (Indianapolis). Everyone around here wanted Duke to loose, since they are the number one rival for UNC (the RWE to FCCJ if you want). It was a really close game, but in the end the Blue devils won by a 2 point lead and as soon as the tail lamp went on of the Bullogs tried a three pointer from the middle line, unfortunately only hitting the rim of the basket and the game was over. [59:61]
So the devils reign again and most of the people at the UNC are really unhappy about that, even though the trophy is staying inside North Carolina.

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

-Jan

Zircon Chronicles Easter Egg!

Hi guys!

Just on a very short notice: I recently finished a small video that we (Herbert and I) recorded in the ski resort using my cellphone. It's not the greatest quality, and definately jittery, but I hope you guys like it. ;)



Have a nice day!

-Jan

Happy Easter!

Good day to you folks!

Yay, once again it's easter time, and children (regardless of what age) are looking for hunting hidden easter treasures, stay at home and enjoy themselves or go to church. Surprisingly overe here people do not tend to stuff themselves with delicious chocolate eggs and rabbits. But that's not too bad, as those sweets would most likely capitulate melt away under the influence of the merciless solar radiation.
To round things up here a few easter joke that I came across:

How does the Easter Bunny stay fit? EGG-xercise and HARE-robics!

How do you catch the Easter Bunny? Hide in a bush and make a noise like a carrot!

Why shouldn’t you tell an Easter egg a joke? It might crack up!


Now if you'll excuse me I'll have some tasty moon pie! See you around!

-Jan

Hitting the slopes at Sugar Mountain, yeah!

Hey everyone,

if you thought that exercising winter sports in North Carolina during this time of the year is impossible, you were utterly wrong! But where to find the necessary snow? Answer: Sugar Mountain Ski Resort!
It's about a 3,5 hours drive from Chapel Hill, so Herbert had this brilliant idea to go there last Saturday, and long story short we packed a few things and hit the road towards North Carolina's probably best spot for downhill skiing.
We had a lot of fun on the road trip. Driving on an American highway while listening and singing to loud Aerosmith music really is one hell of an experience! Time flew and we reached our destination at about 2 pm, which is okay as we were going to take full advantage of the twilight-ticket, allowing us to hit the slopes until 10pm! Herbert chose to run down the hills via Snowboard, I went for skis. As soon as we were geared up we headed towards the nearest lift to take a shot at the first few tracks. After a couple a of test runs we went all the way up to the top and had a blast. Although most of the snow was artificial and therefore quite icey, it was most enjoyable.

Around 9pm the sun set and the lights went on as we continued to go downhill. When the lifts closed, we both were really exhausted and felt blessed for this wonderful day. It was quite hard, at least for me to keep oneself awake during the return, and as soon as we arrived at our apartment I almost instantly fell into my bed. Unfortunately the skiing season is now over for the year, but even though travelling almost 7 hours just for one day of skiing was totally worth it!
Ok, enough talking for now as I need to get some work done.
Have a good one!

-Jan