søndag den 21. oktober 2012

Stine´s home again

Hello, Awrite!
So now I´m home. It has been very interesting to experience USA. I found out that I have been lucky to have seen twa different American cities (New York and Washington), because they are so different. New York is a city that never sleeps and even when it´s night, it´s day - because of all the lights and screen. Besides, New York contains all nationalities and looks, and that is very exciting. Washington is much more clean than New York and also calmer.
And now I´m home again. It has been most interesting.
Stine

Georgetown Universidad


Hoy visitábamos la universidad de Georgetown en la cercanía de Washington y la universidad se parece a un castillo. Una estudianta británica, que estudia en la universidad de Georgetown, nos exhibía en el campus. El campus es grande, pero es muy íntimo. La mujer se llamaba y llama Aisha. Aisha le gustan la universidad y Georgetown. Aisha vive en un apartemento con otros estudiantes. La visita en el campus era muy interresante y ahora sabemos más de la vida de universidad. Hay muchos carreras differentes en la universidad y Aisha estudia estudio de extraños.

Nueva York y Washington han sido muy interessantes, porque son differentes. Nueva York es grande y tiene rascacielos, Times Sqaure, Empire State Building, El Barrio y La diosa de libertad. Washington tiene la casa blanca, donde el presidente vive. Vivimos en la cercanía de la casa blanca y de Obama. Los estados unidos son interessantes, pero mañana volvemos a casa.

Olivia cumple años hoy y mañana. ¡Feliz compleaños!

mandag den 8. oktober 2012

Mount Vernon






Yesterday the 7th of October we visited Mount Vernon, which is an American Estate that belonged to the former president of the United States, George Washington. Today Mount Vernon is an American reminder of the life and legacy of the father of the United States, which of course was George Washington. It is, too, the most popular estate in America, situated only 16 miles south of Washington DC. Some of the things you are able to see when visiting, many of then we of course did see, was the mansion, lots of original buildings, Washington’s tomb, his extensive plantation, the slaves’ quarters and a working blacksmith.
On the farm there is a museum and education center, which tells the detailed story of the life of George Washington.
Some parts of the farm have naturally been reconstructed through the years. 


Back in the days it was the home of the first president of the United States, George Washington and his wife Martha. He and his wife lived at the estate for more than 40 years. The mansion they lived in was built in 1757 by George Washington who himself was the architect of the project. Before George Washington inherited the estate, which had been in the Washington’s family in generations, was owned by his father Augustine Washington. Augustine Washington sent for his son to come home so he could take over the place, but in the year 1752 he passed away, and left the estate to George, if he would provide for his widow, and make sure she could stay at the farm with George and Martha.
Mount Vernon was originally named Little Hunting Creek, but this changed when Lawrence took over the place, and gave it the name that it is known as today.



 

lørdag den 6. oktober 2012

First day in Washington


The sixth of October 2012

This morning, or it was almost dawn, when we left our lovely hostel at 41 Street in New York, to take the bus to La Guardia, the airport, where we were going to fly to Washington DC from. And ohh my, we had a lot of time to kill, more than two hours, before we could board our flight. So we were definitely not in a hurry, as imagined, when we couldn’t leave our hostel because of some problems with a deposit. Finally we could board our plain, it was so small, we couldn’t even see through the windows. The noise on board was so loud, we didn’t even know if our ears had crashed. We had at great look over Manhattan, and the landing was absolutely perfect, no stomachs were floating around in the plain, and we landed so soft that Helena didn’t even notice that we did. The view over Dulles and the surroundings were amazing in a really different way than New York; it was a little like home; green parks, white and smaller house then in The Big Apple, big fields, and a lot of trees.
After landing we had some trouble finding our luggage, we had to take a train from gate to gate, it was all very confusing. In the end, though, we actually found it, and we could move on. Thank God our teachers had booked a couple of minibuses, to take us directly to the Hotel near The White House.
It is so nice at Harrington hotel, there is so much room for us, a better view, and two bathrooms for only the four of us, instead of being five for one small one with only one mirror. In fact we have five mirrors now, and we all think that is enough.
Stine and Olivia have now moved in together with to lovely girls, Anne and Camilla, who of course are thrilled to live with us until Wednesday morning. And Isse has moved in with Helena, Anna-Bell and Malou right across the hall.

Now to the exciting part; we simply went for a walk at the Mall. We saw The Washington Monument, a very enormous colossus, and actually the biggest one in the world, and, too, the tallest construction in Washington. The Reflecting Pool that was empty for water and is going to be refilled over the next three days; Lincoln Memorial with a really large wide statue of Lincoln himself. At last we saw The White House, which of course is white and has a lot of security observing the curious tourist outside the massive fence securing the President from the outside world.


The last thing we are going to write about is our breakfast, for at least the next couple of days, or for as long as it lasts. We have bought some nice white milk, cornflakes, and something to have it in and to eat it with.

fredag den 5. oktober 2012


El Barrio

Ahoy hemos visitado el barrio en Nueva York en el noreste de Manhattan con nuestra clase para que ver este parte de la sociedad. En el barrio hay un museo, que tiene pinturas de pintores latinos. Las pinturas son muy diferentes porque los pintores usan ejecuciones diferentes y se expresan en formas personales. Hubo una mujer, que trabaja en el museo en calidad de guía. Era simpática y intelligente. Ahora sabemos más del barrio.

Luego dábamos un paseo en Central Park que es un parque urbano público situado en Manhattan. El parque tiene forma rectangular. El parque es 4 kilómetros. Hacía un calor sufocante y la mayoría de las chica de nuestra clase llevaban pantalones cortos, gafas de sol y camisetas cortas. Muchos niños visitan el parque y juegan de pelota. Hay muchos estanques, árboles, bosques y céspedes. Nos gusta el parque.


Busy day


Thursday, 4th of October 2012

Today we went to MoMA, Museum of Modern Art which is a museum for art of the twentieth century, where we saw Pablo Picasso’s cubistic painting Les demoiselle d’Avignon, which was much bigger than we expected it to be. We were really excited about seeing the exhibition of the paintings of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, but they had taken the paintings down to replace them. Instead we saw the American exhibition with artists as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jackson Pollock. It was very American indeed. We saw the chair “The Ant” by Arne Jacobsen, a Danish designer, and we found it to be very cool that a Danish designer had made it in New York, and that New York wants his stuff on a museum. Very prestigious.
Some people took the art more serious than others and Helena and Isse were not two of them. This white painting with a bit colour down in the left corner is apparently very expensive art - don't Isse and Helena look more artistic?
 
 
 
 
 

We visited the City University – Center for Latin American and Caribbean studies, where we heard of Latinos in New York, from a professor who knows a lot about the Latin American immigrants’ history. It was very enlightening and interesting, and it gave some positive and surprising facts. Afterwards we had time to go shopping, and we found a couple of stores that we visited at Fifth Avenue.

Tonight is our last night with our French studying classmates that are leaving us tomorrow for Quebec in Canada. We will have a blast, when they are gone. Hopefully. :D
Tomorrow we are going to see Spanish Harlem, which is a Spanish part of Manhattan, where we will visit “El Museo del Barrio.” We are also thinking about visiting “The Empire State Building” and “Broadway”, when we are finished with tomorrow’s program and have some time off to do what we want.

When we were shopping we saw these Lady Gaga shoes, and Isse just had to try such a pair.
1. It looks stupid
2. They cost almost 200 dollars
3. They are strange to walk in
4. The salesman said Isse looked like Lady Gaga - positive or negative? :D




This picture of Nasdaq is to Isse's father :D
We also went for a bustrip to Harlem where many black people live. We drove in this bus which we think was bulletproof (anyway sounds cool). In Harlem we could feel that people were more poor and living under worse conditions of life than most people in inner Manhattan. It was interesting to see the difference, but most of us were really really tired on that trip and sometimes it was really hard to hear, what they guide said in the mic.

tirsdag den 2. oktober 2012

1st day in New York

Today we started out with eating breakfast at the hotel. It is not amazing but not bad either. We can choose between cereal, bagels, yoghurt, bananas, and toasted bread. There are not that many things to put on the bread though. We slept already at 21 because we were so tired but then we woke up pretty fit at 7:20 without any alarm waking us up.

Then we finally made it to the Statue of Liberty! This photo was taken before we took the fairy to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Within four hours we got to see the great woman perfectly – and we realized that she was slightly smaller on the vertical site and pretty much larger on the horizontal site than we´d expected – and we sailed on to Ellis Island, where the arrival hall for immigrants was placed. It was an interesting museum with cool exhibits!..





And the toilets… well, if you look at Isse, you might notice that a dwarf would be able to limbo under the door – very relaxing, when you´re sitting there doing your stuff, right? It must be a prejudice that Americans like things bigger –because these doors are not covering it all, at all! Anyway, moments like this really make your day, when you need a laugh!..
 And you most certainly do need a laugh, when the weather news says 50 % chance of rain, and it then ends up raining the entire day! This picture was taken at the 9/11 Memorial – a park you get to visit for free to reflect over the non-existing limits of man or to grief – 3000 people died September 9th 2001…
The memorial was designed like this. Grey waterfalls where the water ends in a black hole, right where the World Trade Center twin towers used to be – sad and beautiful at the same time. All the names of the many people who died in the terror attack stand on the frame of the square – they will never be forgotten…

 
And the food today… not really anything to write home about! American food is more expensive than we thought it would be. And at the menu price wasn´t the most important piece of information – the amount of calories was. Strange country…