Manuel 2.0

Here is just a short photo update, live from Toronto.

CN Tower, seen from Toronto Islands

Niagara Falls

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This weekend is Memorial Day weekend in the US. The last Monday in May is always dedicated to the memory of soldiers died for freedom and a nationwide holiday.

With four other interns I seized the occasion and went on a trip to Niagara Falls and further to bail out over the border to Toronto in Canada. I’ll be back by Monday night and won’t post anything new until Tuesday night.

I found the picture above while roaming for photos suitable for this post. At least the people might look familiar to some of you. It’s composition is almost unique: Three people, studying three different subjects, living all in different places on two different continents but still speaking German in a Spanish restaurant in New York.

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Not in terms of food but definitely in terms of comfort and style Hooters marks one of the absolute low points of my Fast Food Nation Tour 2009.

When it comes to business, the dress code in the USA is quite strict. Compared to the places I have worked at in Germany, it is by far more formal. Siemens is comparatively easy with this. But even there they have explicit regulations, e.g., that knees and shoulders of girls have to be covered.

This strictness seems to produce a lack of publicly presented flesh. Hooters filled this niche by having the waitresses serve with an absolute minimum of a dress.

I am the last one who is going to preach about loose moral. Instead, I felt pity for the girls because the restaurant was not heated that much.

The walls of the place on US 1 in Princeton were plastered with sports memorabilia and plasma screens showing different sports in seemingly endless repetitions of the same scenes.

Music and the chattering of the other guests made it hard to follow a conversation on your own table. The continuous flooding with stimuli made it impossible for me as well as the others from Siemens to relax; not even for a single moment. On top of that, it took 1.5h to order and get three simple burgers with simple fries as well as to pay. At other places, the whole transaction normally needs anything between 30 and 45 minutes.

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Last Sunday was my last weekend day in Princeton because I’ll be in Toronto over the Memorial Day weekend. Thus I had to celebrate something like a farewell from here, a place where I have spent a total of six months now.

Albert Einstein lived in Princeton from 1933 when he had to flee from the Nazi regime in Germany until his death in 1955.

It might sound like a joke, but to my knowledge this is the only Einstein museum in Princeton. An guess what? It’s located in a clothes shop! Apart from some Einstein t-shirts, you mainly get hats and Princeton University memorabilia there.

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Some days ago we saw the premiere of the latest Star Trek movie in the IMAX in AMC 24 Hamilton. There is not much to say about the movie ecxept that the special effects were good.

What I really like is the sign on one of the doors telling you to leave your hand guns in the car.

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Today was the Wall Street Heart Walk and Run 2009. And at last, I had a sports event in New York with nice weather.

Start and finish was in World Financial Center and the race went along those narrow winding streets of downtown Manhattan.

Siemens was one of the major sponsors of this event and had organized everything for participating Siemens staff: t-shirts, caps, food, drinks and even a bus transfer from/to Iselin, NJ. The bus left Iselin quite early. Instead I drove to Jersey City myself which was less fun but saved me some time in the afternoon.

This photo was taken shortly before the start. In the background you can see the gap that 9/11 put into the skyline of lower Manhattan.

The event itself was mostly organized by New York Road Runners. These guys are 100% professional in the way they secure the trackand handle thousands of runners rushing for a bottle of water after the finish line.

This time I really stepped back a little to have a look on the streets and not just the shoes of the next person which I try to overtake.

Update:

The results are out now. My official time is 18:41. Overall rank is 88. With 4648 participants I am among the best 1.8%. The time is even worse than this year’s personal record of 18:06 in Princeton. But I beat all other Siemens staff.

On the way back to my car I took a last look on the Manhattan skyline – probably the last time for this year’s internship.

And from Exchange Place, also Jersey Cities skyline is worth a picture.

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My time in the US us running out, so it was high time for the final meltdown of junk food: Fuddruckers, the only fast food chain I came across that sells burgers with one pound beef patties.

On a Saturday night we found the place crowded with people and it was hard to get a table where we could sit with six people. I went for the “1 lb. Barbecue Burger”.

It is so big, that you cannot hold it with one hand. After eating for some time and the first feelings of satisfaction I became really afraid, because it looked as if it did not get smaller.

The end of the story is that I finished it. I have no idea why people would like to eat such burgers. For German meals 120-150g of meat are suggested. I had 451g in one single meal!

Anyway, it was a great deal since it spared me the breakfast on the next morning, too.

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Some weeks ago I found out that there are boat rental places along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Today, Oleg, Jonathan and I went to canoenj.com on Alexander Road in Princeton, to rent three canoes for a day trip on the canal.

We did not take the whole thing too serious and had some relaxing hours paddling slowly north.

On the first lock, Jonathan could impress us with his French canoeing skills.

It was pure luck, that he did not get a ticket for parking his canoe here. Normally, the cops need a maximum of 10 minutes to serve you with a ticket in Priceton.

The canal has a lot of animals that you do not see when driving around US 1. For example, there are these larvals which spin nets in the trees.

The turtles usually were to shy but I caught these three doing sunbathing on a rotting tree in the canal.

The nature here is left almost completely to itself and this tree had plenty of time to grow in an arc half across the canal.

Later, we had a lunch break.

Again, Jonathan risked his life playing with the cops.

And after so many high spirits it had to come to a bad end: Jonathan crashed into Oleg’s boat!

Not used to canoeing we were happy to return after 19.5 km. Anyway, it was a relaxing trip and a great way to see the area from a different perspective.

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Last Monday I took off for one of the weekend days I worked over the last month and drove to Island Beach State Park, located on the shore of New Jersey.

Instead of lifeguards we found a group of American anglers. This “sport” here includes a big pick-up truck with a special mount for fishing rods. Special signs next to the road tell you to lower the pressure in your tires to have more grip. After doing so you can drive directly onto the beach where you can set up you fishing equipment and retreat back into the car.

Since my mom and I were the only human beings on the beach not intending to do fishing we also were the only pedestrians among maybe a dozend of pickup trucks.

With strong winds blowing from the sea, the air was really cold and I was happy to wear my ski jacket.

This poor guy suffered even more from the bad weather than we did and commited suicide while sunbathing.

After all, it was very quite there and we found some beautiful spots.

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My mom came to Princeton for a short visit and I was busy showing her around New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey. This post collects some of the curiosities we encountered.

“Stinkpot”! Great name for an animal, isn’t it?! I looked it up on Wikipedia and found out that 1. it really deserves this name and 2. people still keep it as a pet.

Here, you have to watch out for “Mosquitos Crossing”!

And – once again – a useless warning taken directly in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art where we saw the great “Cezanne and Beyond” exhibition.

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