San Francisco

“If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re goin’ to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there”

Our last destination of our trip together was San Francisco. We had some really good days there with sight seeing (especially the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz), partying and just chilling at the peer.

After three days Nico left together with Ben and Ulf to LA, but Manu stayed to meet his mother and his brother in Frisco. So this was the place where we had to say goodbye to each other after our amazing 4 months in the US We were in 16 states and many great cities and it was a fucking good time, man

Alcatraz

Us in front of the famos Lombard Street

Peer 39

Grand Canyon / Hoover Dam

After a trip during the desert and a stopover we arrived our second destination: The Grand Canyon. We don´t wanna say too much. Just look at the overwhelming pictures below!

Hoover Dam

Viva Las Vegas

Our (Ulle, Ben and us) first destination after our leave was Las Vegas.  We arrived at the evening , so we first saw Vegas at its most impressive time, with all the lights from the hotels, bars and casinos. Just amazing. Unfortunately Nico became sick at the beginning of our staying, so he could not really enjoy it.
But the other three of us had a really good time there. The movies about Las Vegas don´t overact. It´s just a huge party there! The club of the Cecar´s Palace, “The Pure” e.g. is one the best clubs we’ve ever been.

After three days we drove together with two other Germans we know from Flint and who also went to Vegas at the same time like us (Stefan and Basti), to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Just look at the following post;)

Sexy gents at the "XS" (f.l.t.r: Basti, Stefan, Nico, Manu, Ben)

Us with Ben and Ulf at our luxurios hotel room

That were 2 Cent machines(free drinks while you are gambling)

Our hotel "Treasure Island"

Good bye Flint!

f.l.t.r.: Stevie, Ulle, Denis, Manu K., Nico, Simon, Thomas, Christine, Ben

On June 21st, we had to leave Campus Village and Flint. We had a really good time there, so we were sad to say “have a good one” to that space. We were looking forward to our next destinations Las Vegas, San Francisco and LA, though.
Before we left, some of us painted the Bulldog, the emblem of Kettering, like its tradition in there (look at the picture above). It shows the bulldog in the colors of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bayern.

Dinner at President’s house

All the exchange students got invited to the house of the President of Kettering. This is like the White House, here lives the current President. It’s a very nice house in a great environment.
We didn’t know that there’s such a nice neighborhood in Flint.
We had a great dinner and after that every student had to tell a story about his experiences in the US.

Cedar Point

Manu, Ben, Nicolai, Tobias, Nico, Tanja

On Tuesday the 9th Tanja, Tobias, Nicolai, Ben and us went to Cedar Point, which is an amusement park with the biggest and most exciting rollercoasters in the US. It has 17 rollercoasters and a lot of other things as well.
You can see some of them on the pictures below. This was a very long but awesome day!

Dragster - in 3,8sec from 0 to 120 mph

New York again

Nico:

On May 29th Tanja arrived in Detroit and because Flint is not that interesting we went to New York for a week.

Detroit Metro Airport

The day we arrived we enjoyed the sun in the Central Park. At the evening we met us with Manu K., Andi and Bader (other exchange students from Kettering). They were on a three-day roadtrip to NY and that was their last day. Together we went to Staten Island with the ferry. Staten Island is not that interesting for tourists but you get an awesome view of the skyline of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge. On Staten Island we saw a memorial of 9/11 which was very nice.

Brooklyn Bridge at night

9/11 Memorial at Staten Island

The next days we went into the heart of Manhattan, visited the MoMA (Museum of Modern Arts), the Empire State Building by night (great view), Trump Building, Times Square, the Bronx, Rockefeller Center, Financial District, Grand Central Station, Ground Zero.
At Ground Zero there’s an outlet called Century 21, where you can find nearly every brand for a very good price.
Unfortunately we had no luck with the weather, it rained 4 days.

Trump Building

Times Square

Nightview from the Empire State Building

Grand Central Station

Rockefeller Center

On Friday Ben and Frieder joined us. They were on a roadtrip to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and their last station was NY. Together with them I visited the ‘U.S.S. Intrepid’, an aircraft-carrier from WWII. There was also a submarine and a Concorde. At this time, Tanja visited the Guggenheim Museum.

U.S.S. Intrepid

M.I.G.

Concorde

At night we went to the Pacha New York, one of the most famous clubs in the world and we had a great time.

Frieder, me and Ben at Pacha NYC

Tanja and me at Pacha NYC

On our last day in NY, the weather became better and I took this opportunity to go jogging in the Central Park.
I warmly recommend to everybody to go jogging or at least to go for a walk in the Central Park, that’s really awesome.

After that, Tanja and I wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty, because we have postponed it because of the bad weather. Unfortunately they had closed very early, but we got an alternative

In front of the Statue

The Alternative

Furthermore we drove to Brooklyn and took a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. There you also have an awesome view of Manhattan.

Manhattan view from Brooklyn

Champions of the soccer tournament: Team Deutschland

Because we had won all our games in the first round, we skipped the quarter final. In the semifinal we played against the Pikes, another fraternity and won 1:0.

The final was postponed because we had tornado warnings and that was too dangerous to play outside.

So the big day has come on June 10th and the weather was awesome. We had to play against the Delts, which we already knew from the first round. The game was exciting and the atmosphere was great and at least we won 1:0!

After that we had a great party at Campus Village which nobody will ever forget.

"Auf die Knie, auf die Knie!"

Toronto

Our second station in Canada was Toronto. We stayed there from Saturday till Monday. The weather was perfect and so we had a really good time there. A highlight was the tour with a police boat. Three police men took us on a short trip around the Central Island of Toronto. Just amazing!
Aside from that it was a cool weekend with a lot of fun, and we were sad when we had to leave Canada.

Our tour around Center Island in a police boat

'The White Hats' from Germany

Center Island (view from the CN Tower)

CN Tower at night

Niagara Falls

On friday, May 22nd our apartment made – together with 3 other German guys (Tobias, Ilker and Peter) – a trip to Canada. Our first station was the Niagara falls. The falls were very impressive! Furthermore the Canadian Side is much better than the American is. The city of the same name like the falls is a very touristic place with a lot of attractions like a kermis. There are also nice clubs. At the evening we did party at one of these very nice clubs near the falls and it was great fun!

f.l.t.r.: Frieder, Manu, Ben, Tobias, Ilker, Nico, Peter