FranceBlog in English

There I am, back again. Back with my family. After 5 weeks. That is so great to be back. My trip was „interesting“ . On friday I flew from New York JFK to Atlanta and then to Stuttgart. Prior the flight from JFK (Delta) to Atlanta I noticed two very heavy persons and I said to myself, hopefully they wont sit near me. Hmmm, not much to say. One guy sat directly near me (was a 2 seats on each side small plane) and the other one, a heavy tattooed and wide and heavy, Gang Member looking person was sitting in front of me. Not from the beginning. But the pilot said, some people have to rearrange due to weight distribution in the plane. Great. The man beside me was sitting on his seat and partly on mine ( I am not a narrow person either, but not fat) and the other one moved to the seats in front of me. Due to his weight and the fact, he put the seats in the back position I was pretty boxed. Not much room to move. It was only 2 1/2 hours from JFK to Atlanta. But not very pleasant ones.

The flight from Atlanta to Stuttgart was not better. Not heavy people, but egoistic. I don’t like those persons, that just move their seat in the back position without looking or doing it smooth. The small german lady in front of me moved her seat back very fast and my knee could not move as fast as it should have been moved. So the pain was there , but that would not change anything. I really hate those people. With 30 minutes delay we arrived in sunny, blue sky Stuttgart and my pain was gone.

At the border control in Stuttgart the waiting time was huge. That is so unfair. When you arrive in the USA, you have to wait at the immigration. Because from the for example 30 Booths with Border Patrol persons only half of them is poplated and most of them are for the US Citizens first, then for Non US Citizen. US citizen are gone fast through that, we always have to wait. Now in Stuttgart there were about 50 US Citizen and 170 germans. But there were 3 !!! Border Patrol persons for the US persons and only 1 !!!! for the germans. Great. The 50 US citizen were fast, again, and we had a huge lane. When the three guys were without work they allowed us to come over. How nice. At least the waiting time for the luggage was shorter. My luggage was already there and I could leave the Airport fast and hold my kids and my wife.. after 5 weeks.

With the kids we went to cinema on Sunday and watched the movie ASTERIX, very funny movie. It is so great to be back and spend the time with my family. More coming soon… enjoy

Zooooooom, my 5 weeks in Upstate New York are over now. I had a lot of new stuff to test and to learn and it was fun. My new, old colleagues and friends made this time flying by. That is good, because I missed my family extremely. Tonight we went with 7 other colleagues to a italian Restaurant ROMA: Was great, but not very cheap. Anyway, Now I am going back and I can stay with them, go to france and enjoy family live again. I spent more time this year in the US than in our new home : France… But that will change. So the next weeks I will be in germany and then Montpellier with my lovely little family. I miss them so much… more coming soon in this BLOG 🙂

Yeeeeha, wow, I never thought I would be that excited sitting in front of a TV and watching Super Bowl Football. Really, that was a blast. The NY Giants were the underdogs and they had to play against the so far undefeated (18:0 games) New England Patriots. Since I am a guest in the US and i am in NY State I am of course Fan of the Giants. 🙂 What else should I do ? The Giants were defintely not seen by anyone to be the winner of this match. The Patriots had a perfect season so far and won every game…But the Giants had Eli Manning, their Quarterback that made the impossible possible with the other team members. It was the 4th quarter. 2:59 minutes to play. The Patriots just got the lead 14:10…The Giants still had three outtimes and used them so perfectly, that they scored another Touchdown and Fieldgoal 30 seconds before the end of the game. The Patriots of coursed tried to get another Touchdown but it was not possible to get another Touchdown. No everybody was crazy and the Giants made the SUPER BOWL 2008 17:14 !!!!!! What a exciting game…

But the weekend was not totally controlled by Football, no of course not. I used this last weekend here in Poughkeepsie,NY to visit my very good friend Axel and his wife Kelli in Princeton,New Jersey. After having a cold friday with ice rain the saturday was nice,sunny and mild. So it took a little more than 2 hours to drive down to Princeton. Was a nice day with Axel and Kelli. We went shopping (for Dinner) and sightseeing. For Dinner we had Spare Ribs, wine and some delicious whiskey (provided by Steffen from germany…) Axel and Kelli have two dogs and a cat.  Hmm, usually that is a big problem for me, since I am extremly allergic to cats. But Tommy seems to be different and I had almost no allergy signs. Just a little bit after a day, but usually it takes a few minutes to hours to have me breathing hard and sneezing. So that was really good for me.

On Sunday we also did some sightseeing and we drove to mother nature to walk the dogs. After all the rain it was pretty muddy. The little rivers were wide and flooded some areas and the walkways were pretty wet and muddy. So we and especially the dogs were very dirty after that walk. It was really a funny weekend and I enjoyed beeing with Axel and Kelli.

A few more days and I am finally flying back to my family in germany. It was almost 5 weeks now and I am desperate to go back to Dagmar and the kids. Can’t wait to be back. I hope that there will be no more snowstorm or so this friday. Don’t want to spend any extra day here. Of course time went fast due to a lot of work, but I want to go home and finally go with my family to Baillargues in france. We are all excited about that… A bientot

You can see more pictures on my Webpage

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…