Fall Break

Finals are over and its time for the fall break here in Omaha. We had two days off (15. & 16. October) and we used these days for a trip to Yellowstone. To be precise we started on the 11. October and went back on the 17th October.

We were a group of 10 and we drove over 2.000 miles these days. On the way to Yellowstone we visited the Bad Lands National Park which is in South Dakota. After this we visited the Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the Devil Tower. After over 20 hours of driving we finally reached our cabin in Montana. We were surprised at first because most parts of Yellowstone are located in Wyoming and we thought our cabin will be in Wyoming too.

Our cabin was really nice, equipped with a sauna and a hot tub. Unfortunately we didn't have time to relax there because we wanted to see as much as possible of Yellowstone.

Kitchen of our cabin

Yellowstone is full of geysers and every few kilometers the landscape can change. So instead of writing too much I just show you some nice photos Felix made.

Midterms

A pretty big difference between studying in Germany and here at UNO are the homework and group projects you have to do the whole semester. You get points for different things. For example for handing in papers, for presentations, team projects, quizzes or other types of homework. It's also common to have more than one exam. You normally have one exam in the mid of the semester (midterm) and one at the end. Some classes have even more exams and in one of my classes I have no exam, just group works and individual short papers.

The midterms are in the first two weeks of October and everyone is studying a lot for it and there is also homework to do. Which is another difference to Germany, because if you have exams, your normally finished with the course and you don't have to worry about homework.

I personally prefer the system here at UNO over the experiences I had so far in Germany. Since I do the things I learn in class I can remember all the things better. In Germany it mostly feels like the following picture. Most students learn a few days on high pressure for their exam and then forget most things after that. So everyone who watched Men in Black knows what I mean.

So lets see how it works with the midterms. Right after that I will go to Yellowstone with some friends, so you will hear from me after that!

First week in Omaha

So, a little late, but here is my second post. One week is over now and time is just flying by and I experienced a lot of new things.

The first few days all international students (We are way more than 100 I think) were introduced in some important services like On-Campus Housing, Campus Security, Health Services and so on. On Saturday we visited the zoo in Omaha. It has one of the worlds largest indoor rainforests and indoor deserts. Here are some  photos:

Aquarium

Aquarium - Shark

Yeah! Kittycat!

Pic from the desert

Jungle :)

Some parrots in the jungle

So as some of you now, I live On-Campus at University Village and I will post some photos next time. I live in an apartment with three other people (one German and two Americans). University Village is located on the North-Campus. Unfortunately all my classes are on South-Campus and I have to go there by shuttle. So I need about 15 minutes to get there. 

On the first weekend me and other internationals went downtown to see "Jazz on the green". This is a free jazz concert that takes place every summer. It was a warm summer night and we had a great time.

Jazz on the green

Jazz on the green

See you next time!

About this blog

Welcome to my blog. My motivation for writing this blog is my exchange semesters in the United States.

In december 2010 I applied for the GlobalITproject. This is a transatlantic exchange-program between Europe and America and I will spend the next four months in Omaha and I hope my language skills will improve a lot.

Last week I finally got my visa (what a trouble to get a visa for the USA) and by now  I completed all tasks for my journey. My flight goes on Monday, 13 August at 11:20am from Hannover airport. My first stop will be in Amsterdam and from there I will fly to Minnaepolis (this will take 9 hours). From there I will fly to Omaha and will land there at 6:26pm.

For my exchange semester I enrolled in this three classes:
1. Management of Software Development: Tuesday 18:00 - 20:40.
2. Managing the IS Function: Thursday 17:30 - 20:10
3. Managing the Distributed Computing Enviroment: This course is online.
As you can see, perfect times for me :).

Well, all right! I will post more soon!