Gone to Texas

Hey guys,

I know this blog runs a bit late, but the last days have been pretty busy for me (doesnt matter in what way ;-)).
Like now its 1am, so this will only be a short one.

On Friday has been what they call "Gone to Texas" over here. Basically you get another orientation and then at night every department has a preparty, providing free food and drinks, before the big party with all the freshmen starts in front of the main building.

It turned out to be very valuable to attend this orientation cuz right afterwads west mall was spreaded with promotion stands all over. Have a look.

So we ended up running from stand to stand multiple times to get the freakiest things. I loved the t-shirts and got around eight 4 free. For lunch I had about between 10 to 15 chicken wings of all different kinds. Of course 4 free as well. The next picture gives you a total overview over all the things I got. Nice, isnt it?

At 6pm the preparty of Natural Sciences started. Its just amazing what all is done for the students. There were more give a ways and endless pizza and drinks plus live music.

Well, the said to be boring highlight of the evening was quite interesting but after a hour it was enough for me. Therefore Enrico and I decided to quit and meanwhile "visit" Cain & Abels to party into the first day of classes.
Here we go and thats all for today.

6th Street on Thursday

Hey we have been to 6th street this thursday checking out some of the cheap one dollar beer places. Because of wrong online information the night started waiting at a bus stop for a bus never to arrive. Just by chace we caught an UT Shuttle to get to campus from where downtown is not too far.


We ran into the Library first and had a couple of beers before we met with Daniel and Brandon. Strolled around through some other bars and clubs afterwards. Finally we decided to go to the Aquarium for more beer.
The places on 6th street are mainly bars and pubs where on 5th and 4th the clubs are more for dancing.

Loads of stuff

Hey got a phone call today. "Hi this is Hunter, got fired cuz my restaurant is closing down. Will be there in 30 mintues, you have time to help me carrying up some things a got for our apartment?"

Well, here we gooooooo. In this picture you see the back of Hunter´s pickup.


You see all the stuff he brought plus this huge empty spot. Guess whats missing. Here we go....


55 bottles of beer and lots of glasses! A nice evening for free. Thanks dude.

Spiros

Last night, we were out to a club called Spiros. It was not crowded at all but therefore we knew the barkeeper Brandon and got wasted. Guess its the best to have a look at the pics.


I was introduced to the owner Josh, wearing a orange shirt on the next pic. He is a nice person and of course he was told the German way of prosting.

I ended up in my apartment setting up a nightly meal. Thus, I turned on the oven put in some chicken wings and went to bed straight away. Lucky we still had Enrico sleeping in our living room. So nothing bad happened.

Prost Markus

Well there is one more thing to add. We got digital TV this week. This means from now on we are able to watch at least one soccer game of the German Bundesliga per week plus the german soccer highlight show.Juchuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!! Check out how Hunter is trying to set up the receiver. Click the pics to enlarge.

Orientation and Campus Impressions

Hi, this morning the orientation was sheduled and it has been as boring as expected. Lots of talking and presentations but nothing serious we havent already heard before. At lunch break we had a free pizza in a gym.



At least we now know how to register for classes next week. Afterwards we had a stroll over the campus and to the university Coop, a huge store where they sell all that crazy university stuff.




The campus is huge. Imagine, 50000 students will be attending UT this semester. Its one of Americas largest universities.
The football stadium holds around 70000 people. Have a look its huge.

Carlos 'n Charlies

Hi,

yesterday we went with Brandon, a guy I ve met at a pool party, to Carlos 'n Charlies. In total there were around 8 people including Thomas and his roomate Daniel, plus Enrico our "latest german arrival". Carlos 'n Charlies is a cute palce at Lake Travis located directly on its waterfront. There was a band playing and everything with Absolut was 2$. We hang out there for a while, and of course had a couple of Prosts.



Around midnight we decided to go downtown. We drove back in a Mustang and got caught for speeding although there was one of these little radar detectors in the car. So we had to pull over and got a ticket. Obviously the same as in Germany.


On 6th street we just popped in and out a couple of places. Its a shame that everything closes at 2am. Thus, we have been back home around 2.30am.

Thanks for the cool night to everyone. Hope you have had as much fun as I had.

big suprise

Hey guys, we have some curious things happening in our apartment. Looks like a ghost is somewhere around. Not only that we have had an exploding xbox this week (thats true, have never seen something like that happening before), there was another suprise waiting when we returned home yesterday. It´s a bit hard to explain and nobody really knows how it has happened, but somehow the detergent fell down from the storge clipboard, hit the dryer, smashed the vacuum cleaner and bursted on the floor. The whole room looked kind of blue and a huge spot of the carpet in front of the door full of detergant. It took us hours and at least seven kitchen rolls to get it fixed because it seemed foaming forever. We filled five buckets with foam and at the end it worked out pretty well.

So far so good.

Walmart, Cain & Abels + Lucky Lounge

Today a we first hit the road to drive to Walmart. Because Flo has moved into his new apartment with his girlfriend there were some things to buy. Ok, a few things have been for my self, too.

Later Thomas & I hook up with Casey, a girl he met via the web on craigslist. We first went to a italian restaurant. Afterwards there were dollar beers in Cain & Abels, so we went there and had a lot of fun + beers. Have a look. Hunter rang me up after work and decided to join with a bunch of friends.


Around midnight we headed it out to a club called Lucky Lounge. We had several rum&cokes there. At the end a live band played and somehow I managed to get an stage to take some crazy shots. Arriving back home I received a funny voice message from Thomas. But not details in here, if you want come and listen.

Have a good one Markus

getting a mobile

Hi,

had some fun today while getting a new mobile. Well, let´s start at the begining.
On the weekend I read about a deal where you get a prepaid nokia almost for free and thats extactly that what I was looking for. Sounds not too bad. Here is how it works (in theory). You drive to the store (called CompUSA) do a price matching with traget weekly ad and get the mobile down from 79$ to 40$ after tax. Then you get two mail in rebate coupons. One worth 30$ the other 20$. That brings it down to 40$ - 30$ - 20$ = -10$. ;-))
Wow, that means you will get 10 bucks back at the end.

As said this is theroy. The hole trip thourgh the city was, like you will see, kind of an odyssey. I told the other Germans about the plan and it the end there were 4 of us sitting in a tiny pickup. Hunter drove us to the store, which we expected not to be that far away because he decieded to leave at 8pm knowing that the store closes at 9pm. Well at the end we got there at 8.50pm and caused some trouble. First the assistent could only find one, at the end three of the mobile packages. Pricematching worked and I payed everything together on credit. Just before leaving the Manager cam e up and said that they have done a mistake. There would be rebate forms existing.....
We pretended not knowing about these sings as we are stupid germans, but he wouldnt let us go away. So at the end there suddenly was a fourth mobile and we made an other deal where we will pay 10$ after rebates.
At this point the odyssey started. Hunter was gone and our bus was sheduled for 9.30 pm. But when we left the shop the clock showed 9.50pm. Wow, we were debating with the personal which still was there completely. The solution had been, that the manager gave us a lift in a mustang back to downtown. Tell you, this was a crazy ride. We were sliding round the corners and spinning the wheels.
After a fast dinner at TacoC we were supposed to take the last UT Shuttle back home. It turned out that the 11.30pm shuttle isnt existing. This means we stuck miles away from home.
Somehow we manged to take a bus which brings us close to home and then I rang my roommate Jeremy with me lately activated mobile. Thanks for the lift dude.

The activation of the other mobiles took till 3am and then everybody got to bed within seconds.

Well, I guess thats the effort you gotta put in if you want to take such a deal. But it still was a very funny night and we all finally have mobile.

Party Week

Hi folks, guess it´s time for an update. Here you go.

As highschool starts after that weekend there have been loads of parties this week. For me the party week started on wednesday where we have been to house party at west campus. Paul a friend of my roomate, took us there. The house belonged to 2 girls and a guy and actually it has been one of the girls brithday. So they set up some kegs, jelly shots and good music. I ended up answering a lot of questions because, as expected, people dont know much about Germany over here. I will post some pics of that night, as soon as I get them.
The next day I went to the mall and tried to sort out the cell phone options. A thing which takes definitely tooooo much time. It sucks, cuz they are independent retail sellers everywhere. And they all have different deals. Plus having a mobile over here is weird. You get a local phone number, but you have to pay as you get called. That means, persons calling you wont be charged because local calls are for free, therefore you gotta pay. Strange isnt it.
On Friday two germans where supposed to arrive at my place. It look liked its going to be an easy evening but while waiting a huge pool party started. The pool area had changed within minutes. People everywhere, empty plastic cups and of course kegs. And guess what .... we just grabed a cup.
At 3am when all the beer was gone we drove around in a tiny beatle looking for some fast food. I didnt realize that this car is so low. On the bumpy roads my head was knocking against the roof all the time. Have a look (I know it doesnt turn out well, but believe me, you dont wanna sit in the back of a beatle).
Yesterday I was with Luis another German and we went downtown to party. First everybody met in an apartment drinking beer. Vorglühen like we use to call it. The night club itself was quite big and we did a lot of dancing and drinking. After lock out, some girls manged to get beer from a petrol station on our way back (normally no alcohol is sold after midnight). So we headed to the pool for chill out. I got home at 6am and havent had much sleep since a nice german boy woke me up a couple of hours later. I bet there are many mistakes in here but I least you know why.

last days

So, there´s just a small update today. I moved into my new apartment 2 days ago and therefore had to do loads of organisation over the last days. What else happened. I registered at UT and went through all the offices an internatinal student, I guess, just has to. Tomorrow I have to show up at the medical center to get a health check, a thing which is also required for every student at UT.
By the way, Sunday night was shopping night. As WalMart is open 24/7 we have been there around midnight. Got the basic things you need when you move to a new place.
The pictueres above show how the place looks like right now (living room + my room). You get really easy used to the life over here, although it´s extreme hot.

As I´m still a bit tired from yesterdays pool party, where we chilled out and drank some beer at the hot tub till, i´m gonna end this one here. Have fun.