Albany 3 - Fake cheese and nice people

Last week I wanted to eat something really American - fluffy bread with cheese sandwich slices. When it did not taste quite like cheese, I had a look at the ingredients. Well, no milk inside, oil instead. Then I also had a look at the front side of the "cheese", and there it was in big letters: IMITATION Pasteurized Process Cheese Food. Those who are able to read are at an advantage indeed.

During my cheese dinner - better cheese imitation dinner - I put on the TV. 4 programs and it got better and better: 1. baseball, 2. golf, 3. lokal news about a dog that had finally found a home, and 4. a Helmut Lotti concert. I somehow got stuck to the crooner concert, at least until I had finished my dinner.

Taken together, my last week was very nice. On Tuesday I had an appointment with my professor and supervisor here, George. We looked at my system dynamics model for two full hours; he took a lot of time for me. On Wednesday, George took me to a county fair because he wanted to show me the real America. At an American you can find animal shows, amusement rides and food. It was a great afternoon. Oh, and then we got the opportunity to show our dancing skills. First I was asked for a dance by some folklore dancer. A little later it was my professor's turn. We watched a pig race, and since the next race was pot-bellied pigs, they were looking for pot-bellied men to perform in a show. When George (anti-pot-bellied, short and slim) was asked to join the belly dance he gave his best. Another system dynamics professor announced the sheep on the fair which took part in a kind of contest. ("And here you see three Romanow sheep ...") He did this because his wife has a sheep farm.

You see, people are very cool here and very, very nice. They take care of me, and that is very nice. But they also have high expectations.

I already know some really nice students from the conference in Boston. We went to the musical Grease together which was performed for free in a park in Albany. We were from Iran, Korea and Germany, and I learned that it is not unusual that people cite poems during a party in Iran, but that Grease is quite unknown there. It's known in Korea though. Well, it started raining and we got soaked, but it was fun.

This weekend, my host parents from Indiana came to visit me. When I was 16, I took part in a four-week school exchange and stayed with a couple in their 60s in a small town in Indiana. Now they drove 750 miles to see me and their nephew. You can imagine how happy I was about their visit. We spent most of our time eating. Today, before they left to see their nephew, we went to eat out. Since the restaurant seemed quite popular, we first had to wait for a table and then they let us wait for ages for our meals. So all the waiting turned out well for me, since I got to spend some extra time with my host parents.