FranceBlog in English

Well, I would be almost ready to pack my belongings, but my planned four weeks are enhanced to a five week stay. So I will be back at my family on Feb. 9th instead of the 2nd. What am I doing after work ? Well, going with my new colleague Gus for Dinner, watching TV, listening to Music, surfing the Internet of course. Surfing can be tough here in the Hotel, since many Students from the Marist College live here and „eat“ all the bandwidth

Right now I watch the Guinessbook of Worldrecords Top 100 LIVE Show. It is amazing what crazy Worldrecords are present. Eating the most worms, longest, shortest person, longest nails and so on… Yesterday was the Miss America Peagant. Miss Michigan won and she descerved it I would say. 🙂 Hey she is blonde like Dagmar 🙂 I skype daily with Dagmar and on the weekends also with the Kids. Oh I miss them…

About the music… I am listening a lot to the Radio, VH1. Some band got stuck in my head. So there are for example SHINY TOY GUNS with „Le Disko“ and „You are the one“ (http://www.shinytoyguns.com ). If you liked the 80s you will love them. Synthesizer Pop.  Who loves the Music of Nickelback should listen to Buckcherry „Sorry“ , „Everything“ (http://www.buckcherry.com ) and also to Theory of a Deadman with „Santa Monica“ , „Hello Lonely“. Fantastic Rock music. Also one of my all time favorites Lifehouse (http://www.lifehousemusic.com ) give their best. If you like Vanessa Carlon or Katie Melua you might also like Sara Bareilles. She is a very talented Singer/Songwriter and he actual song „Love Song“ is high up in the charts. So check out http://www.sarabareilles.com for her music. If you never heard of all these bands before and usually don’t listen to..who cares, listen a bit, maybe you like it 🙂

Next weekend is SUPER BOWL XLII weekend. The New York Giants play against the New England Patriots. The Giants won their last weeks game and are not a little unexpected in the Super Bowl. The Patriots are the favorites, since they are undefeated in the current season. Of course almost everyone here in New York is a Giants fan now. All merchandise goes away fast. So I will watch the Super Bowl next week probably 🙂 Many greetings from icy cold Poughkeepsie

Halftime, two weeks are over. They passed by like crazy. We are pretty busy here, that is also the reason why I am working this weekend. But I don’t care, I am alone here now anyway. Christian and Art have left and no I am on my own. But that is ok.

Last friday Christian and I had Dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. We had a deliciuos Bloomin‘ Onion and Prime Rib Steaks. Hmmm, delicious. Was a funny time. On Saturday I went to visit my old friend Gerry and his family. Was a quiet evening. He made some nice Steaks on the BBQ grill. Hmm, also delicious. Overall I am glad that I am so busy. I miss my family and so it is easier for me.

Ok, have a good day… not much to report right now 🙂

It snowed abot 20cm (7 inches) of snow last night. White, heavy, sluggish snow. Since it is a little about 32F (0C) it is not powder. I had not much sleep either, since the snowtrucks started around 5am to clean the parking lot of the Hotel and the roads. They put lots of salt on the roads also (5mm huge). So far I am the only one at work here in the office. The others live far away. Anyway. It looks nice.Let it snow

Time goes by very fast. So my first week in Poughkeepsie was nice. Lot of work to do and my colleagues here are great. I know Art, my current Lab colleague also since several years so it was a lot of fun to see each other. Christian ( also from germany and curently on Assignment in Montpellier) is also here so we spent the past week several nights in the Restaurants and Bars in Poughkeepsie. They are both only 2 weeks here in POK so we use the time.

I had my best Steak ever last week. With both guys and another friend (Paul & wife) we went to CREW, a small Restaurant near us. I had the smoothest and most delicious Filet Mignon ever. It was so smooth that it is watering my mouth while typing this… The steak was perfect. With a blue cheese crust on top, mashed potatoes and some vegetables. Price was normal. I went to many many Steakhouses in the past 14 years here in the US. From „cheap“ to „expensive and fancy“. They were all good, but not as good as this Steak at CREW, So, whenever you come to Poughkeepsie, please go there and eat something. Filet Mignon if you ask me 🙂

Besides a „normal“ false Fire alarm here in the Hotel it is pretty quiet here. The Students from Marist College are not here yet. So it is really quiet here.

What were we doing this weekend ? Waiting for the snow. Since I am here the temperatures went from pretty cold ( -13C ) to pretty mild (up to 17C ). But they are expecting snow that night with up to 30cm (a foot of snow). It was pretty windy and cold today.

Christian and I went shopping yesterday in Conneticut at the Danbury Mall (less sales tax than NY) and today we went to New York City. I saw in the news, that the Queen Elisabeth 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 cruise ships are in NY City. It was a historical cruise. The QE2 had her last trip across the Atlantic. It will „retire“ in Dubai. So they wanted to make a big Firework tonight. But since we could not look at the ships closely (close to public, except if you for example pay the 65000USD for the full 90 day cruise) and we wanted to be home before the snow we only watched them while driving by. But it was a great feeling.

In Manhattan we had a easy day. It was not as crowded that much and we walked relaxed through Manhattan. Christian was also filming with my HD Camera, but my Laptop is not powerful enough to edit the material, so I have to wait until I am back at my PC. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and had pretty good lunch. New York is always fascinating. I was here so many times in the past 14 years, but there is always something new to look at.

If you want to look at the pictures I took so far check out the album: http://fotos.web.de/bigmek/POK_Jan_2008

So, I will see if we get snow tonight and let you all know. C ya

Well, right now it is very nice to go shopping in the USA. The Dollar is very weak and or example a 100 USD product only costs me about 68 Euro. Many articles have often the similar price. Something costs 50 USD in the US and 50 Euro in Germany. But with the exchange rate this 50 USD ist only about 34 Euro. So I can save a lot of money. Additionally there is a winter Sale going on for the next weeks. So there are rebates from 30 percent to 90 percent. That is so great. A pair of Goretex Boots that were 129 USD were deducted to 109 USD and then additional 30 percent were taken off. So about 76 USD, a little more than 50 Euro for very good pair of Goretex shoes.. unbelievable. The US is like a huge Shopping Mall..I bought Jeans, Shoes, Sweater…For just a few bucks.

After this I drove down to Montgomery,NY the current home of the OCC – Orange County Choppers Store (www.orangecountychoppers.com ) I wanted to see the bikes in the showroom. Additonally I wanted to see the new V-Force Customs (www.vforcecustoms.com ) Store from Vince and Cody. They left the OCC crew and opened their own store. But there was nothing to see. I can’t wait to see the new OCC Head Quarter that is under construction right now in Newburgh.

The funniest today was my trip to the Outback Steakhouse. That is my favorite first Restaurant stop in the US. Since I love steaks there is no other thing to do but eating a 18 ounce ( about 510 gramm) Prime Rib Steak. But before doing that I had a funny experience. I wanted to wear my new clothes, so I did that. While walking by a family from the parking lot to the Restaurant entrance I heard voice behind me. „Sir, is that a new Jeans ?“. I turned around, smiled and felt the left over label that was on the leg. Wow, that was kind of emberassing. Not too bad, but emberassing. The lady said, „Oh i wanted to tell you before you enter the restaurant, then it would be more emberassing“ 🙂 how true. Well, it was ok. After having my Steak I had to refuse the dessert. No more room left in my stomach. The waitress was smiling. She said she wanted to be polite and ask, because I am that tall, but after that huge Steak she knew that I was probably not eating anything more 🙂 So, that was my first full day in Poughkeepsie…

I do not spend the beginning of 2008 in france, no, I spend the time in Poughkeepsie, New York. After just 3 hours in bed (we had a little party at our Neighbours place) I took of to the Airport. The flight from Stuttgart to Paris was ok. I had a nice small talk with Peter. A german living near Biarritz in France since 4 years. We had a fun time in the plane. In Paris I had to take the Shuttlebus to come from 2D Terminal to 2E. 2E is being renovated right now. Since my e-Ticket was not showing the departure Terminal I had always to explain it. Also at the security check were three guys checking the passport and boarding pass. Was kid of funny, because we were already checked and one guy left and another just came and re-verified… They must have been bored. When I finally came tom y seat in the plane I was sitting in the row in front of the emergeny exit row. Damn, well was ok, but the emergency exit row has much more leg room. My luck was the girl sitting behind me. She was not speaking any english word so she could not stay there. The flight attendant asked me, if I mind changing seats. I said sure. no problem. I finally had a nice roomy seat. Flight time was going by. FIf you ever fly overseas you might find a magazine from SKYMALL (www.skymall.com ). You can buy useless or crazy articles like a Ice cooler with engine, it can be used as a scooter and a Umbrella that is storm safe. funny was the fact, that one of the Movies was Rush Hour 3, which was shot in Paris… France is everywhere. We arrived with 30 minutes delay and after the usual delay at the immigration ( took 1 hour to finish) I was able to get with the Air Train to Hertz. Yeah, Immigration. 4 planes arrived at the same hour and so were hundreds of people from Manchester, Mexiko City, Paris and Frankfurt waiting in line. Only about 8 of 30 Counters were available…

Ok, at hertz I got a Hyundai Sonata. That is really a nice, roomy, comfortable car. Not a small one. But france and USA are very similar when it comes to some things. For example the bad roads. Besides the big Highways many other roads are in really bad shape. The bumps, holes and so on are really bad. So I drove from JFK via I-678N Van Wack Expressway via Whitestone Bridge to Hutchinson River Parkway N, I-684 N to I-84W and some miles on Route 9 to my Hotel in Poughkeepsie. There is still some snow in Poughkeepsie. But the roads are ok. I also did my shopping at Wal Mart. Good idea, because when I unloaded my car it started to rain. Since there were -10C yesterday and only 4C today there was a icerain warning. So I did not continue to drive to my Steakhouse. After such a long day I wanted it easy. So I had some food in my room. Oh yeah, I already changed my room in the Hotel. When I wanted to lay in the bed I noticed a sweet smell of a sweet parfume. I also found stains on one pillow and also a sweet smell. So the bed was not clean. Now I the same type of room just on the 4th floor not the third. Now I will live here in Poughkeepsie for the next 4 weeks. Unfortunately again without my lovely family. But soon we will live together in France. Many greetings from upstate NY