Things I've learned so far... regarding traffic

10. I find it extremely difficult to figure out when a sidewalk is a sidewalk and when it is acutally ment to be a sideride. I also find it almost impossible to determine when a bike path is a bike path, when it's a kind of parking lane and when it's just a generously drawn sideline.
11. My internal navigation system has kicked it. Yes, this is a good thing. Unfortunately, it doesn't ake into account that while sometimes a highway is the only way to get somewhere they shouldn't be used by bikes (don't worry, dear parental units. I didn't try to go anywhere on the highway!). Also, I think I may have accidently rollerbladed onto the roof of the student union. Should that be a bad thing, they really shouldn't have made it accessible by rollerblades.
12. I always thought the traffic light system in Konstanz was the worst I had ever encountered. I was wrong. I appologize. The worst/oddest system of traffic light cycles is definitely on Long Island. There a lights for people on foot, but they will only go on if you push the button (and then they might not even if you do push the button, but they definitely won't work if you just stand there). I think there should be rules on how close these buttons have to be to the actual crosswalk, how visible they are (e.g. hidden in a tree is not okay), etc.
13. Signs. There seems to be signs for everything. And they are very specific. Some of them look like somebody just decided to put on a sign one day, so he went out to buy some paint and a piece of metal. I came up to a junction and read the following signs: "Right lane must turn right", "Left lane must turn left", "No turn on red light". Now what about the people in the middle lane? Do they get to do whatever they please? And then there was this one - what does that even mean?!

More things I have learned so far

5. I need to work on my "I'm a mature woman now"-image. Starting with getting past the point where everyone seems to think I'm a teenager. The taxi driver who gave me a ride from the airport was trying to be friendly when he said: "So, you're here for school, huh? You'll be going to Stony Brook Prep?". Really?! I am waaay past high school - in SO MANY ways!
6. It's really, really hot here. And humind. Fortunately, this is the United States - most buildings have air-con. Unfortunately, the stairways do not. Even more unfortunately it seems that a high percentage of elevators are currently broken. In almost every office building of sorts I have had to find somebody the elevators (or stairs for that matter) where a) hard to find and b) broken, being repaired, out of commission - possibly they eloped. Who knows. Anyway, pretty much every office I had to go to was up several floors - I'm the kind of person who never showers directly after heavy excercise, because usually I don't REALLY start sweating until I'm finished. On the long run, showing up at every air-conditioned office and breaking out in a full sweat and having to make sure I don't drip on whatever form I was filling out: NOT cool (sorry, couldn't resist the pun!). Fortunately...
7. There are now ground floors. Okay, yes there are ground floors, but in contrast to Germany nobody calls them the ground floor. The ground floor is the first floor. So, for example though I live on the 2nd floor, I'm actually on the first floor you reach when taking the stairs. So everytime I figured out where I had to be (the probability of the elevator not running was exponential to the "largeness" of the number) and started up all those flight of stairs, I realized it was never as far as I'd initially assumed!
8. I am only short by comparison. In Germany, there was friendly teasing in some of my circles of friends, regarding my (lack of) size - German woman are usually about 10cm (make that 4 inches) taller than I am and, for example, I was the shortest player on my rugby team for some time. I always tell people that since American woman are 164cm tall on average and I am just a bit shorter than that I am only statistically short. And let's be honest, I am rather short than average. But here,... why I practically tower over people!
9. The bugs here are nasty. I just got back from rugby practice and my feet are a mound of HUGE bumps resulting from the five minutes between the time I took off my cleats, put on sandles and took off in the direction of home!

How did they know?

How could they know? How can there be a sign telling you that you are going the wrong way? Isn't every way somehow also a right way?


Okay... now I get it! They come in pairs on campus. After every "Do not enter" sign there is a sign for those who did enter a one way road the wrong way to tell them they are going the wrong way.
Except - Now I'm still trying to figure out how this goes together with the whole "the brightest minds in the world"-thingie.

see what I mean?

This one reads - Welcome to Stony Brook and the beginning of an incredible journey.

Things I've learned so far...

1. People used to ask my parents why their children sound like they're from New York. I don't. I really, really don't.
2. When I was about 14 I was told not to worry that people said I dressed - differently. Supposedly I already at that age I dressed like a college kid: shorty, t-shirts, hoodies. So, not to worry, by the time I would make it to college, everyone would have caught up with me. By the time I made it to college, students in Germany still don't dress that way. And while my T-Shirts have become a bit more "cut" and my shorts a bit shorter - it seems as if anything more than halfway down your thighs is still quite long. And maybe I should start wearing flip-flops as well. Then finally I'll fit in.
3. Americans should do what pretty much every other country does: Each type of bill should have a different color. It makes life SO MUCH MORE SIMPLE. Really. Trust me.
4. For all the "let's go green" - there are some fatal flaws in the whole concept. For example: "Ride your bike, it's greener, it's healthier, it will make you fitter" is a good idea. And yet there are some small details which haven't been observed that would make it more easy, e.g. bike racks in front of shops.
More to follow...

The "I got my Mom for help"-effect

So, sports being a big deal does come with benefits. For example, a pool to be used when no team practice is going on. Currently, my ears a still full of water from testing this priviledge yesterday.
It didn't go exactly as planned - that is the swimming part did, it was the part after that made for one of those "I can't believe this is happening"-moments.
I returned quite wet and ready to get changed to realize that I had somehow managed to jam my locker which contained all my clothes.
Not good.
I put quite a bit of effort into getting it open.
To no avail.
I went back into the pool ask the lifeguard-dude for help (or where to find help) and he directed me to the front desk. Which I had sort of expected, but had been secretly hoping there would be an alternative to walking out in the lobby in my bathing suit.
So I wandered out in my bathing suit only to find -
noboy.
Considering my options would have been wandering the entire Indoor Sports Complex in my bathing suit I opted for hanging out in the lobby looking lost and confused hoping somebody would show up who could help me.
Somebody (a female somebody, which was even more convenient) did show up. Opened the door to "building maintenance" went in and just when I was about to knock came back out again, saw me still standing in the front lobby in my bathing suit and said: "Do you need some help?".
I almost said: "Yeah, do I look like I usually run around lobbies in my bathing suit?!" - because a) I don't (hang around in lobbies in my bathing suit) and b) I really don't look like I run around in my bathing suit. Or anywhere for that matter. And if you've seen my in a bathing suit lately, it becomes quite obvious. I have tan lines from my shorts, tan lines from my t-shirt(s) and tan lines from the one day I did run around in my bathing suit.
Instead I said: "Yeah, I jammed my locker..." and we went back into the women's changing room she said: "Which one." and I said: "This one." And she grabbed the handle and -
It opened. No problem. Great.
This is the "I got my Mom for help"-effect as in you can't find something in your room and the moment you get your Mom she walks into your room and -
There it is.

You are following some of the brightest minds in the world

Here on campus there are several bus routes with big buses and little buses and some in between buses. The bigger buses have an "inscription": You are follwing some of the brightest minds in the world.
Actually there are signs all over campus with "statistics" reminding us how amazing this university is. How many inventions and patents have sprung from these bright minds, which ranking we are included in etc. I wonder - do these signs stay up all year, or just during the first few weeks of the semester in order to make sure everyone is properly brainwashed.
I few years ago, my previous university was chosen to be a part of this new program in Germany where they were picking "Eliteuniversitäten", which were supposed to be the top universities in Germany which were then endorsed with all kinds of money. And so a new one-liner became popular among the student body: "Konstanz, here studieth the Elite. And me".
What we don't have in Germany is University Sports. At least not the same way as here. The campus is almost empty but there are already signs everywhere. "You are in seawolves country". What does that mean anyway? Apparently, for one, I shall have to start wearing red if I want to fit in (at least on "Red Friday"). I get the whole, if we identify with our team we identify with our university and then we are united and united we stand and ... well I guess it makes everything better.
But really, do we have to turn everything into a "wolfie" this or that thing? The wireless net is "WolfieNet", there's a restaurant named after the Seawolves (apparently it serves extra large pasta portions), the convenvience store is the WolvesMarket or something, there's a hugh "Seawolves quilt" hanging in the middle of one of the lounges (Tradition's Lounge I think...) - I'm sure you get the picture.
Shame I never looked good in red.

I'm here now

So here I am. On my new island (please feel obligated to watch Braveheart if you don't get that reference :-D). I made it safely to campus only to realize that I arrived together with what seems like several thousand Chinese and Indian exchange students.
Seriously, if you walk past the Student Activities Center, which houses a huge dining room with a big window front coming from the West, you might think you were in India. If you approach from the East, you probably would assume you just reached mainland China.
At least I know I am instinctively navigating the Adiminstration in the right sequence because I have happened upon rush hour several times. A lot of them have come with friends, or made friends very quickly because they always travel in packs (that and the fact that they are usually clutching their passport is how you tell them apart from "normal" Asian-Americans) and, for example, when I went to get my student ID there was about 20 Chinese getting theirs. This had an unwanted affect on my ID picture. Thanks to my mother I am in possession of some passport pictures that actually look like me (if you have had the priviledge to view my driver's license or passport lately you will realize that yes, there was a time when Shannon had long hair or even better yet, my train pass which features me not realizing a picture being taken and giving a classic "huh?!" expression).
BUT, because there was so much going on the ID-printer person was sitting there with his eyes glued to the screen giving instructions: "Have you passport ready", waving one hand in the air (you kind of had to time it correctly to hand you ID to him), " have a seat", waving the other hand towards a chair all this time his eyes did not leave his screen "look directly into the camera and smile if you feel like it" (really, he said that, apparently smiling is optional) and "Hold" - then the camera clicked.
UNFORTUNATELY, at this moment there was some prett funny stuff going on outside with the other ID-person (a real life New Yorker in her fifities) trying to handle all these foreign student who could only understand half of what she was saying (to their credit, I'm sure their English teacher didn't have a New York accent - to her credit, some of those Chinese names are difficult to pronounce, i.e. you never really know if you pronounce them the way they're spelled) resulting in general confusion which I found quite amusing. That added to the "smile if you feel like it" comment resulted in another picture to be put in the category "Shannon's odd ID pictures" featuring a half-amused, half "I'm not sure if I feel like smiling" with sort of raised eybrows and not sitting quite straight expression. Plus, I wasn't sitting all the way straight and the camera was zoomed out quite a bit so it almost looks like I was sliding off the chair while the picture was being taken.
So much for planning ahead.
This also reminds me of the story of how we took a "Mystery Drive to China" when I was a kid... a popular story, which shall possibly be recounted at another time.

I travel with a helmet

I am almost packed. There are still a few things that need to be packed - or not packed. Depending on how much space I have. For example my helmet.
Last year I flew to Scotland together with my bike and had my helmet attached to my carry-on. A little boy saw this and tugged his Daddy's coat sleeve: "Daddy, why does she have a helmet?".
And I said: "Ah yes, it's these cheap airlines. You never know what's going to happen. And they make you pay extra for everything - now you even have to bring your own life jacket!".
And the little boy said: "Daddy, did we bring our life jackets?!"

there's something weird going on

Today I baked cookies.
Generally, not a noteworthy thing (unless you happen to follow the cookie smell into the kitchen). But as I cracked open the egg I was shocked to discover "twins".

My mother came running alarmed by my "oh my goodness" yelp. And surprisingly was much less surprised than I - claiming to have had three twins in one egg-paket. There is something going on with the food.
Seriously, the other day we picked some of my sisters tomatoes and look what we found then!

Baking Friends...

The other day I was busy making cookies and brownies when my younger brother walked in. While munching on a cookie straight out of the oven he said: "Keep baking like this and you will be quite popular with your room mates. Baking abilities are a sure way to making friends."
My baking talents have always been quite popular and my brownies are legendary on four continents. But then it struck me. In the land of cookies, brownies and baking mixes - my abilities are no longer as impressive.
How sad. I shall have to finde a new way to bake some friends.

Finding closure...

When I got back to Germany three years ago the first place I went within hours of landing was SoLa - the summer camp I have been involved in since I was 17. On my list of things to do before I leave for the States there was one important point: Go to SoLa. I just got back and now have one week left before I leave and somehow it seemed quite fitting to end my time here. A good way to bring closure. Say goodbye. Move on. Look back at a special "place" that played a large role in who I am today.
After three days of setting up and one week of teenagers I arrived back home in the usual fashion: Happy, tired, satisfied, dirty, with lots of mosquito bites, plenty of stories to tell... and a bag of dirty laundry. I find it amazing how quickly we form habits - for example, we build our own toilette facilities. We use big tanks (they can hold 1000 litres), build plattforms on top of them and then place boxes with toilette seats on top. We used to build little "cabins" with thick plastic sheets, but as the years progressed we now have wooden ones. The plastic ones made for interesting entertainment at night, when the kids thought it necessary to take a flashlight with them and place it on the floor - the resulting shadow show was quite fascinating. This year, our toilettes where in the woods and somebody set up flurescent lights. Actually, this caused the bathroom to be better lit at night than during the day! Most people returning from camp deal with two new bathroom habits: For one, people forget to flush (but quickly re-adapt) and secondly, if you feel the need to go during the night, SoLa-returners find themselves searching for warm cloths.
This year part of our camp was on a hill and I was one of the lucky inhabitants of a tent whose floor was at a slight slant. This did have positive results as well. For example, it made it easy to tell time at night. One of the girls sleeping in my tent would slide down. Around 2am her feet were next to my head, two hours later approximately at shoulder height and by the time it my moment had come to rise and shine I started feeling cramped between her and my bag. One morning she woke up almost entirely on my mat - apparently she shifted onto it after I left!
At the end of camp traditionally all the people helping out form a huge line and all the participants file past and say good-bye.
This year, as I shook over 300 hands and hugged countless people it felt as if was saying good-bye to my years of "coming of age": Growing up. Figuring out who I am. Finding my place. Not that I'm there yet. But I'm getting there - and maybe it's time to move on to the next stage of my life.