My 25th Birthday and Thanksgiving Day...

...It's a pity, but I'm also getting old. I turned on November, 27th 25 years - quarter century. After a long day at the college I met with some friends at a nice bar called "The Gin Mill" which is located on the Upper West side. We had an awesome evening there and celebrated the first hours of my birthday as they should be celebrated.

Peter and me:
Markus, Gloria and David:
I nearly "choose" the best day for my birthday, because this year the November, 27th was also Thanksgiving (it's always the forth Thursday of November in the U.S.). Also on the day before Thanksgiving everybody is going out and therefore the streets and bars were crowed.

We were very lucky because we've got an invitation from friends from the college. I always wanted to participate at a very typical Thanksgiving dinner and it was really like it should be...food everywhere where you looked :-)
We had some appetizer (olives, tomatoes, British Columbia salmon, etc.), than a very good salad, than the turkey with a lot of sides (stuffing, mashed potatoes, rice, etc.). After this we were already full, but we got a variation of cakes like apple pie, pumpkin pie, apple strudel, vanilla ice, cookies, etc....and we as the Austrians brought some wine to prepare hot spiced wine because the people did not know this. They all loved it.

Special thanks to Melissa and Jessica who invited us for the dinner, including the perfect prepared Turkey - Jessica you have fabulous cooking skills :-)
Last but for sure not least also thanks to all other cooks like Rachel, Melissa's mum, and all others...

I was Shipping Up to Boston . . .

...One of our next, long planned, roadtrips was to Boston, the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Boston itself is very important for the U.S. and is also one of the oldest cities in the States.

We left New York City on Friday morning and arrived in Boston at 01:00 PM (bus trip took us 4 hours). First we checked-in to our hostel (we were a bit scared, because the reviews were not good, but all of us got nice rooms and we had no problem):
After this we went to visit the Harvard University - I was really looking forward to that.
"It is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is also the first and oldest corporation in North America."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard, November, 26th 2008)

Below you can see John Harvard:
One building of the Harvard Business School:
Reading in the library of the Harvard Business School :-)
Harvard football stadium:
Very funny evening in a bar at Harvard Square:
(starting from left: David, me, Peter, Markus, Jessica (girlfriend of Nils) and Nils)
To conclude the campus and the buildings of the Harvard University are really amazing. If you are in Boston you have to visit it.

On the second day we went the Freedom Trail and watched all important sights like
- Boston Common
- Massachusetts State House
- Park Street Church
- King's Chapel
- Old South Meeting House
- Old State House
- Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market
- Paul Revere House
- Old North Church
- USS Constitution
there. The freedom trail is a red line on the ground which goes trough Boston and passes the most important buildings. It was very nice and it's a easy concept for tourists because otherwise you get lost without a good map.
On Sunday we visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as it is a must for us, because our majors are all on the technical side. MIT is one of the most famous technical universities on the world!
We went around the campus and made a short walk trough the buildings and also visited the MIT museum which is really nice and worth to visit. There you can see important research projects which originated at the MIT.

The main problem during our time in Boston was that it was really freezing all the time. We had some degrees below zero and with the wind it was even much colder.

Once again we took megabus to bring us to Boston. The bus trip was again safe and we had no problems. So for sure I would not hesitate to take megabus again.

NBA Matchup - New York Knicks vs. Dallas Mavericks . . .

...After the great NHL game some weeks ago, we rocked again the Madison Square Garden. This time we had tickets for the NBA matchup between the New York Knicks vs. Dallas Mavericks.

We were again quite lucky, because there were "enough" fans in the MSG, but it was not sold out as during our last session. The game was fun and we saw again overtime, what does not happen very often at basketball games. I really love American sports events as they really know how to entertain the people during the breaks or even timeouts. The atmosphere was again great, but unfortunately the NY Knicks lost in the overtime.

Sidefact:
The famous German basketball star Dirk Nowitzki, did also play yesterday and he was the best player on the field. It was also one reason why we watched exactly this game, because two Germans friends were with us.

At the entrance of the MSG:
A part of the NBA group (for sure all of us had a Knicks finger):
First look at the video cube:
Pictures from the game:
Earvin "Magic" Johnson was also in the stadium - one of the best basketball players ever:
The New York City Dancers:
Old school dance cam - this was really funny:
Knicks Singing Bee:
Now I have completed another part on my off-college-to-do list for my fall term here in New York City, because I visited now the most famous American sports events - tennis (US Open), basketball (NBA), baseball (MLB), football (Canadian League), and ice hockey (NHL).

US Quantum of Solace premiere . . .

...Yesterday, we got to know that the US premiere of the new James Bond "Quantum of Solace" takes place in New York City, at the AMC Lincoln Square (68th Street at Broadway). So we didn't want to miss the opportunity to see Daniel Craig and other famous people there. We had to wait for some time and we couldn't get very close to the red carpet when the famous people arrived, because the security guys put us always away (they said: "Keep moving - Keep moving - don't stay here, bla bla"). Anyway it was great to see Daniel Craig and Robert De Niro in real.

The following famous important people were there:
- Markus and I :-)
- Daniel Craig
- Robert De Niro
- Becki Newton
- Debra Messing
- Molly Sims
- Julia Stiles

Here are some reports from yesterday with better pictures from the stars:
- http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/8HaW0uQn4FN/Quantum+Solace+2008+Tribeca+Film+Institute/-qpxQuZAx4B

- BBC News

Something sad about the New York Times, because they mixed Austria with Australia:
...
A devastating betrayal sends James Bond from Australia to Italy and South America on a mission of vengeance that pits the suave super-spy against a powerful businessman with diabolical intentions.
...
(Source: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/356351/Quantum-of-Solace/overview, November, 12th 2008)

AMC theatre at the Lincoln Square:
Daniel Craig (I have to buy a new camera, to be a better paparazzo):
Robert De Niro and Becki Newton:
I'm now really looking forward to seeing the new James Bond movie. It will be in the theatres starting on November, 14th.

Some Campus Impressions...

...I want to give you also some impressions from my campus here. This post contains only pictures from outside, but images from the class rooms, gym, library, etc will also come.

The college was also included in some quite famous movies or series:
* Law & Order - various scenes from Law & Order have been filmed on the City College campus.

* Love Story (1970) - The Harvard graduation was in the Great Hall in CCNY's Shepard Hall.

* Bananas (1971) - the character Nancy, who is taking signatures for a petition in Fielding Mellish's apartment building, is a student at CCNY

* Wall Street (1987) - Michael Douglas's character, Gordon Gekko, tells Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) that his accomplishments are "not bad for a City College boy. I bought my way in; now all these Ivy League schmucks are sucking my knee caps."

* Crossing Delancey (1988) - Sam is wearing a City College of New York sweater when playing handball

* Cocktail (1988) - the character Brian Flanagan was studying business at CCNY

* Reversal of Fortune (1989) - The CCNY campus was used to depict Harvard for this 1990 movie. Many of the scenes taking place in the law school, including the office of Professor Alan M. Dershowitz and several classroom scenes, were filmed in late 1989 at the CCNY School of Architecture, located in Shepard Hall.

* The Substance of Fire (1996) - Scenes in the publishing firm run by Isaac Geldhart (Mr. Ron Rifkin's character), a Holocaust survivor, were shot in Shepard Hall.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org, November, 7th 2008)

Campus Map:


North Academic Center (NAC):

Wingate Hall (left) and Harris Hall (the one with the clock on it)

College Logo:

Sheppard Hall:

View from the Sheppard Hall to the Campus:

Sheppard Hall:

Senator Barack Obama - America Voted for Change...

...It is an important event in the history of the United States of America and we were very close to it. Senator Barack Obama will be the next president of the States.

It was so crazy out there, when the results from the last states (11:00 PM ET) came that the race for 270 was decided - really amazing and unforgetable moments - people were dancing, crying and you could hear everywhere "Yes, we can - Yes, we can - Yes, we can, ..."

If you have missed the great victory speech from Barack Obama - watch it via the New York Times website...

Some pictures from the bar where we watched CNN.