Dangerous Times

It is sunny and the snow is melting. A beautiful, yet dangerous combination. A few lucky people just escaped being hit by this load that came thundering down without warning. There were lumps of ice in it, so I guess getting hit in the head would have been rather uncomfortable.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

It is snowing. Again. So NKU has declared a snow day. Again.

And it is not the only institution that is closed for the day, the weather page I follow lists over 200 closings in the Cincinnati area. I am not too excited about it though, as I have no classes today. It is actually a bit inconvenient, as my beloved Starbucks is closed and the student cafeteria is offering no late night food services. Tomorrow is however a good day for a snow day, so;

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Valentine's

My RA (Resident Assistant) is of the creative sort and my floor is therefore always nicely decorated. For Valentine's she cut out hearts to stick on everyone's doors. She also cut out names to glue on to the hearts - ten points for effort. I helped by constructively laughing at bad colour combinations.

The little bags have been there for a few days now and they keep on being filled with various sweets. Pity Valentine's is almost over.

Year of the Tiger

Happy Lunar New Year! The Asian Student Association threw a combined Valentine's and new year’s party on Friday. Most of the evening was spent munching on free food, gathering fortune cookies and, in my case, trying to avoid participating in various games and karaoke singing.

After the party, I managed to get a group of people to join me watching the opening ceremony at the family restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings.


It took some lobbying to convince people to come, but most people seemed to enjoy watching it once we were there. The parade with all the countries was a particular hit, as we had quite a few nationalities represented in our group. Some of the people from the warmer countries even discovered that they also had an athlete, or two, participating in the games.

Preparing for Valentine's

I am busy decorating cookies, cutting out hearts and writing cute, little notes. Valentine's is serious business in the States and the campus is booming in red and pink. The student diner had cookie decorating and Cupid bow and arrow shooting on the program today. Everyone mocked my cookie-decorating skills, but at least it made a pretty decent picture.

Snow Day

"Northern Kentucky University is closed on Tuesday, Feb. 9, due to inclement weather. All day and evening classes are cancelled beginning at 9:30 a.m."

It is snowing. The weather forecast says "winter storm" and "snow emergencies", whatever that is. Personally, I think the term storm is used a little loosely. From what I can gather it seems to mean "snow that stays on the ground". I am not complaining though. I think this is the first time I have gotten a weather-related day off, unless you count the time in Hong Kong we got to leave class early because of a tropical cyclone warning.

I am a little puzzled by why they chose to close it as late as 9.30am though, as it was pretty evident that they would end up closing judging from what they normally do during this type of weather. I definitely feel for my flatmate who had an 8am class.

The University owns at least four of these snow ploughs, so it is not like the concept of snow is something new.

Super Bowl Sunday

Colts vs Saints.
60 minutes of game play.
Four of hours of pure entertainment.

Despite being considered one of the most important events on the American calendar, the people around me seemed disappointingly indifferent about today's game. Luckily, the Student Baptist Union was organising an open party where I could join like-minded football enthusiasts. And indulge in an awesome amount of food and snacks.

My team, which I bonded strongly to over the four hours, did unfortunately lose 17-31 to the Saints. It all seemed to be going well until the last quarter when the Saints suddenly picked up the speed. Mimi had on her side problems deciding what team to support, as she always felt strongly for the underdogs.

Kentucky (Fried Chicken) Fun Facts

Kentucky - the proud birth place of KFC. But what more?

Location: Kentucky is an in-between-state, sometimes referred to as Midwestern and frequently termed Southern. As I live in northern Kentucky right on the Ohio border, I would say my area is more Midwestern, but there are probably a number of people who would disagree.

Climate: Winter is freezing, cold, snowy and miserable. Summer is apparently hot and humid.

History: One of the previous slave states, but Kentucky was largely split during the Civil War. Tobacco and coal mining were, and still are, proud drivers of the economy.

Famous People: President Abraham Lincoln, boxer Muhammad Ali and actor Johnny Depp were born here.

Good to Know: Bourbon got its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held horse race in the States (Vas keeps on talking about this, so I guess it must be slightly famous). "Happy Birthday to You" was created here in 1893. Most of the world's Post-it notes are produced here. And, uh, did I mention KFC?

Stuff to Do: Play Cornhole - a wonderful game involving tossing small bags filled with corn.

I am where the little red dot is. Click on the picture to see more details.

If the mountain won't come to Muhammad...

...Muhammad must go to the mountain.

During my first week here I expectantly made my way to Cincinnati, a fairly large city on the Ohio-Kentucky border, in order to do some shopping. After countless hours of searching for "the shopping area" I slowly started to realise that Cincinnati did not actually have one. There were of course a few stores scattered around the place, but the city mainly consisted of businesses.

At least the story of my fruitless wandering is quite a hit with the locals: "You went to Cincinnati for shopping?! I don't think I have ever heard of anyone doing that before". There is of course shopping around here, but since a car is the key to getting to these places, they are pretty inaccessible to me.

But, I did not suffer for long as I soon discovered online shopping. My current crush is amazon.com and not only have I been buying text books, but also a new camera (Canon 450d) has found its way to my mail box.

The newest member of my Lonely Planet guide collection.

As my US geography skills are slightly limited, I bought a big map to help me.

Perfect North Slopes

As suggested by its name, Perfect North Slopes, was perfect. Well, not really, but it was good value for money - it had some decent slopes and a really fun snow-tubing area. The daytrip was arranged by the international student union, and many of the participants had never been exposed to snow-related activities before. People came in jeans, summer shoes and without jackets and gloves. Luckily it was possible to hire some of the equipment, but a few people still found the climate inside the skiing lodge more appropriate.

The weather was, to everyone's surprise, great. Sun, blue skies and temperatures right above zero. The warmer weather also made the artificial snow less icy, which I think everyone was happy about - particularly the beginners. I stayed on the beginners' hill for the first half hour to offer support and share my vast amount of forced experience, but found it too dangerous to linger longer than necessary, as there were constantly out-of-control skis, snowboards and people to watch out for. As with one poor girl who kept on crashing into the same (padded) pole.

 All in all it was a good day. However, a few members of the group claimed they would never want to repeat the experience as it was "too cold, painful and difficult". I was of course shocked to hear such statements.