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[leogoesusa]

A reactivation attempt - Hendrix life update #2.1

I have been putting this off for way too long and with every week I’m putting it off my motivation to start posting again diminishes. The more happens the less I know how I’m going to organize this post. I guess I won’t organize it very well. 

I got here in August and life got busy right away. I dove right back into the Hendrix bubble. I reconnected with my friends, met the new internationals, made a new building my home, met my residents, and got familiar with my new responsibilities as the “Residence Director of the German Language Immersion House” (such a fancy title for such an easy job). 

The first week or two after I arrived on campus I had a bit of a hard time adjusting to this “new” Hendrix for me. Most of my friends have graduated either in 2016 or 2017 and I didn’t know any of the new students. I compensated the excess amount of free time by hitting the gym daily but to be honest, I often thought to myself “you could be at home right now, finding a cool new apartment, finding a cool new job, graduating, living life...but you’re here with all these college kids getting drunk and not moving forward in life”. It didn’t take long for that thought to disappear. I picked up a new hobby: ultimate frisbee, made amazing new friends, found new things to do, and new traditions and am back to “Hell yeah, I never want to leave this place! What are responsibilities? Real life is for losers!” 

A quick rundown of the first month at Hendrix is: Shirttails was more fun than it should have been, I reunited with so many people that night! Robots and Foam Party were just as gross yet fun as expected, the party scene has changed but not significantly, I went on a spontaneous weekend trip to Eureka Springs, Fayetteville and Crystal Bridges with Julia from Germany and Andrea from Spain, started a tradition of going for Sushi on Saturdays with Claire from France and changed the “Kings night” from Wednesday trivia to Thursday karaoke. 

I also signed up for the annual date auction again with a “Pillow fort and a movie” date. The whole auction raised 1345$ for Advocates for World Health which was pretty amazing. 

Oh, and I am in Zoology - supposedly one of the hardest classes here on campus. Every week we have a lab where we either look at different animals or dissect something. In the case of the picture below: an earthworm. We also already dissected a clam and a parasitic worm (the last was pretty scary and disgusting). Even though I’m just taking 2 classes (Spanish and Zoology) I have plenty to do, especially with zoo. 

My Saturday Sushi date:

Alright, that’s a short and sloppy post, but hey, better than nothing. Now I can hopefully start posting more regularly about things that happened more close to the day I’m posting.

Yay me!

[leogoesusa]

Day 15-19: Las Vegas and Yosemite

After our day at the Grand Canyon we started the drive to Las Vegas. To break up the trip we used the “roadtrippers” app to look up something cool to look at on the road. We found a little ghosttown called Chloride just off the highway we were driving on. It used to be a silver mining town with over 2000 inhabitants. Today there’s below 200 people living there and most of the buildings are abandoned and it’s nicely creepy around there. We just walked through the town a little bit and explored. The old jail is still there (pic below), it only has two cells and a room for the guard. They also still have an old graveyard and an old train station (interestingly without any rails anywhere nearby to be seen though). 

After that stop in Chloride we tackled Las Vegas traffic and - after 2-3 U turns and a bit of cursing google maps - we arrived at our hotel directly on the strip. It was only early afternoon so we walked up the strip a bit and did some shopping for going-out dresses and heels to go out that night. I had been sick already that day, but we still decided to make the most of the night so we went to check out the strip at night.

As a girl you really don’t need to do much in Vegas to get into clubs. We did not pay the cover fee at any club we went to and didn’t pay for drinks either. On Friday we got into a Beach Club and into the XS club.

During the next day we went to ride the big ferris wheel in the middle of the city. It gives you a great view all over the city and you see that there’s nothing but desert all around it.

The second night we didn’t even plan on going out at all because I was not feeling very well, so we just went to see the fountains at the Bellagio. When we arrived there a guy talked to us and asked us if we wanted to get into the Hyde club at the Bellagio for free and drink free Champagne there. At first we were like “yeah, right. Free champagne. Where’s the catch?” but we decided to give it a try and showed up outside the club shortly before it opened. We did end up getting in and drinking for free along with 10 other girls, which was pretty awesome!

Then the next day we drove to Mammoth Lakes near Yosemite. We took the road through Death Valley. Driving through it was really enough, it’s blazing hot there (duh..) and besides dry planes and sand dunes there’s not too much to see.  

Turned out, Mammoth Lakes is on the other side of Yosemite, and driving to the Visitor Center and Yosemite Valley takes about 1 1/2 hours from there. So we decided to spend one of our days there hiking in the area up to Crystal Lakes. From driving through the desert in Death Valley to hiking in the snow at Mammoth Lakes in less than 24 hours - what a contrast. There was supposed to be a trail with lots of switchbacks, but it was covered in snow, so we pretty much just went straight up the hill, because we couldn’t see the trail. Although there was snow everywhere up there, it was not really cold. I was fine in my shorts and T-Shirt. We put up my hammock between the trees right next to the water and just relaxed a bit before going back down (which was even trickier, because the snow was so slippery. We just ended up jumping down to dig our heels in so we won’t slip and fall.

Then, on our last day of the trip, it was finally time for Yosemite. We drove in and our first stop was the lookout at Olmsted Point, from where you can see the Half Dome and have a beautiful view on Yosemite Valley. From there we wanted to hike down to Tenaya Lake; there was supposed to be a decently established trail down. However, since it’s spring time, the snow is melting, and there’s more water everywhere, this “well established trail” ended in a little swamp, and there were thousands of mosquitos on the way, so we turned back and decided to drive down instead.

The lake was beautiful and we put up the hammock again. It was quite cold there though so after a little while we got back into the car to drive to the viewpoint near El Capitan.

There was a parking lot along the road into Yosemite Valley, from where we could see El Capitan and two different waterfalls. It was only a 0.5 mile walk to one of them: Bridalveil falls. That was our very last real stop on our roadtrip and it was amazing.

Tina got slightly obsessed with iHop while we were on the road so we had our last meal in San Francisco there. I had no problem with that, I love iHop and I’m gonna miss hashbrowns a lot! We then spent our last night at an airbnb in San Bruno and I drove her to the airport early next morning.

I am super broke now, but it was absolutely worth it and we had an amazing three weeks on the road!

Thank you Tina! And thank you everyone that made this trip so awesome! Thanks Brooke and Vanessa, and Vanessa’s family for hosting us; thank you Jason, Tyler, and Victor for having us and getting Tina drunk with me; thanks Alex and Zane for the connection to the guys and for all the tips; thank you all airbnb hosts; we had a great time!

Now it’s time to relax and do absolutely nothing in Reno until my family comes over to start the next roadtrip.

[leogoesusa]

Day 11-14: Phoenix & Grand Canyon

After a 6h drive through the desert (somewhat less scenic than Highway 1 to be honest) we arrived in Phoenix. We stayed with Jason, Victor, and Tyler; three good friends of the twins in Tempe. Upon arrival we were greeted by Jason and exchanged lots of fun stories about the twins while drinking beer and watching the sunset on their roof.

We only had one full day in the city and it was too hot to really go explore it, so we decided to go to the Phoenix Zoo.

Most of the animals did what we should have been doing too: take naps in the shade. But we spent a fun day there despite the heat (also, Starbucks is literally everywhere; even inside the theme parks in L.A. and inside the Phoenix Zoo, so iced coffee to the rescue!)

After the Zoo we rented a paddle boat and paddled up and down the Tempe town lake for a good hour. Then we went to eat and back to the guys’ house, where we introduced Tina to some American drinking games like Slap-cup. She got it pretty quickly and kept stacking on the guys haha

Since we didn’t go to sleep until 3am and woke up at 7am to leave Phoenix, our energy levels were not necessarily good when we arrived in Sedona to go hiking. But that didn’t stop us. We did a really pretty hike to the “Devil’s Bridge”, one of the last natural land bridges. It was hot and not easy, but the view on the bridge was absolutely worth it. Also the red rocks all around are providing a view all throughout the hike. One day in Sedona was definitely not enough, and I will certainly come back there soon. (I know you’re reading this fam, let’s pass through there :P)

After that hike we arrived at our motel in Ash Fork, about an hour from the Grand Canyon. We got our keys and went into our room. First impression: well, we’ve lived better, but ok. It was kind of old, smelled a little funny, not too nice. But then we went into the bathroom - cockroaches. We tried to shower there, the bathtub was clogged. It was just terrible overall, so we didn’t stay there. We booked another motel in the next town - Williams, and told the owners in Ash Fork that we weren’t staying and told them why. We were really polite and they were really understanding luckily. They refunded us our money immediately and we left.

The motel at Williams was lovely though, so we got a good night’s sleep (and a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, YAY) before making our way to the Grand Canyon the next day.

We drove up and parked our car. First we went to one of the viewpoints to take a first look at the Canyon, it’s pretty impressive! Then we hiked into the Canyon. There are signs everywhere with tips on what to bring and how long to hike - because “Going down is optional, coming up is mandatory!” We ended up hiking down for about an hour and then decided to turn back. Coming up wasn’t as hard as we thought it would, but it still took us close to twice as long as going down did.

On our way out of the National Park, Tina really wanted to do one of the helicopter rides, so we drove to the Grand Canyon Airport. She got on a 30 minute flight that provided more than spectacular views on the Canyon. 

[leogoesusa]

Day 9-11: San Diego

So we arrived in San Diego on Friday and were greeted by Vanessa’s dad, put our stuff in her room and then drove to downtown San Diego to find a 18-and-up bar (unsuccessfully, but hey, we tried).

The next day we got bagels in the morning and took them to Oceanside beach to have breakfast there and just walk up and down the beach. The weather was still not too nice so it got quite cold and we decided to grab a coffee before going back to Vanessa’s house. At 12:30 we all left for Tijuana to celebrate Vanessa’s grandma’s 75 birthday - a big Mexican birthday party. It was so much fun, a LOT of very good food, everybody was dancing and having a good time.

The only bad thing about that day - technically the next day - was crossing the border. The other girls had no problems coming back luckily. But I was not quite as fortunate. I got stuck at the Mexican border at 1am for about an hour. I had to switch from my student visa to my tourist visa, which my embassy told me was not supposed to be a problem at all - boy, were they wrong. The pulled me out, took my passport, and placed me in a no-phone, no-talking, waiting area with two homeless guys, a drunk person, and one more guy that was just randomly pulled out. Then an officer came and escorted me to an adjacent building and put me in that building’s waiting area. It was not a fun experience. But the guy that was taking care of my visa stuff was really nice and soon after I got to the other building he told me “well, this is not how it’s supposed to work. Doesn’t mean we’re not gonna do it, but usually this cannot be done.” and after he talked to his bosses they ended up making an exception and giving me my B2 status. I have never been so relieved in my life. All this time the others had no idea what was going on and were just waiting on the other side of the border for me. We got back to Vanessa’s house at 3am and all passed out right away.

Our second day in San Diego, the girls had to work again. So Tina and I decided to go explore the city a bit. We ended up going to Balboa Park, walked through it for a while, saw the rose garden, and went to the Museum of Man including the exhibition about cannibals. It was pretty cool.

When we got back we had dinner with Vanessa’s family and then Brooke, Vanessa, and I went into her hot tub in the back yard. It was a perfect last night in San Diego.

The next morning we got up at the same time as the girls to get a last breakfast together at a really cute diner in Oceanside. Then we said goodbye again - but since we know that we’re gonna see each other again really soon it was ok this time. Miss you guys already though!

After breakfast, Tina and I got on our way to Phoenix. :)

[leogoesusa]

Day 6-8: Los Angeles

After arriving in L.A. and checking out the walk of fame and the Chinese theatre on the first day, we spent two days touring the Universal Studios and Disneyland.

On Wednesday we took the metro to Universal City and spent the day at the Universal Studio. The weather was cloudy and chilly, but pretty perfect for a day there, and we got really lucky with the amount of people there. We never had to wait in line longer than a couple of minutes. It was an amazing day!

They just recently opened the Harry Potter section and the rides were pretty new. Generally, the had a lot of 3D and 4D rides where it feels like you are actually flying behind Harry Potter or in a Space Ship, or following the Simpsons around etc.

Our “lunch” was a huge Simpsons donut called “The Big Pink” and we also tried Harry Potter Butterbeer (not exactly our kind of drink, extremely sweet and creamy, but it was an experience).

After Universal, we still had a bit of time left until sunset so we took an Uber to Santa Monica, saw the pier and walked down the beach to watch the sunset. 

Although Santa Monica and the beach are beautiful, I still think San Francisco is the prettier city overall.

On Thursday we drove out to Anaheim to go to Disneyland!

When I went to Disney in Paris, my sister and I got really lucky and didn’t have to wait in line for anything besides Peter Pan’s flight. This time, we unfortunately didn’t get so lucky. There were a lot of people in Disneyland that day, walking around was exhausting and you couldn’t really just have a look around because it was too packed. We waited in line for all the rides. Usually between 30-60 minutes, but once we accepted this fate for the day, it was still a great day at Disney. We got to ride all the bigger rides we wanted to and we walked through and saw the rest. The best ride of that day was Indiana Jones and the Thunder Mountain. We also got to meet Chewbaka and saw the new Star Wars part of Disneyland.

After sunset, they had the “Paint the Night” parade where all the Disney characters were lighting up and parading through the park with music and everything. It was enchanting and really beautiful.

The fireworks and light show after the parade was equally as mesmerizing. They played a mashup of numerous songs from different Disney movies and had a huge firework that went with them.

The last morning in L.A. we did the hike up to the Hollywood Sign. We drove to Griffith Park and hiked up there in about 1 1/2 hours. It was hot and dry but worth it. On the way to San Diego we got stuck in traffic for about 3 hours, which sucked. It’s memorial day weekend, so everybody was going places and the highways in the city were packed. The drive to San Diego took us about 4 1/2 hours instead of 2 1/2, but we made it eventually and I was reunited with Brooke and Vanessa <3 :)

[leogoesusa]

Days 3-5: Roadtrip on Highway 1

On Sunday we left San Francisco to start our roadtrip down the scenic highway 1. We did the trip in 3 days, stopping at random pretty places and towns along the way.

Day 1: San Francisco to Monterey

We left our airbnb in Daly City in the morning and made our way to Highway 1. While driving down we were more than mesmerized by the beautiful view that you get on that highway. The first random stop we made was at an old lighthouse that we saw from afar and that was just a little bit off the highway. We took a walk around, stretched our legs, and continued.

Along the highway there are people selling fresh fruit in regular intervals, advertised by big signs like “Sweet Cherries” “Big Strawberries” etc. (and they were not exaggerating when they said BIG strawberries). So our lunch/snack for that day were apricots and strawberries. Yum.

The one planned stop we made was in Santa Cruz. It is so much like in the movies. A boardwalk with an amusement park on it, including one of America’s oldest rollercoasters: The Giant Dipper. We strolled up and down the boardwalk, walked on the beach a bit, rode the Giant Dipper and then drove on.

Our final destination for that day was Monterey. We arrived there at around 4pm and went to the beach to see Lovers Point and the Kissing Rock (two rocks that touch in the middle and have a hole beneath where the waves come through, really pretty). Day 1: a total success.

Day 2: Monterey to Santa Maria

More scenic views from Highway 1.

Our first planned stop this time was Carmel Beach, one of the supposedly most beautiful beaches. It was quite chilly and pretty empty when we were there (granted, it was about 9am) but there were lots of people taking their dogs for walks and the beach is indeed beautiful.

The next stop was at the McWay Falls in Big Sur. A spot that apparently not too many people know about, but that has been recommended to me by a friend from Arkansas. Great tip! It was so beautiful. It’s a small waterfall directly on the beach. There’s a small trail going down to a lookout where you can take amazing pictures and enjoy the view on the waterfall. Unfortunately, you cannot go down to the beach though.

A more spontaneous stop was at San Simeon, a tiny town along Highway 1. Honestly, we just needed a bathroom, so we stopped there, enjoyed a coffee at a little Café (sitting next to a sign that said “All kids left alone will be given espresso & a kitten”), and then kept driving to Santa Maria. We made a drive that Google maps told us was supposed to last only about 3 hours last over 7 hours that day ;)

Day 3: Santa Maria to Los Angeles

We didn’t make too many stops that last day. We stopped briefly at Santa Barbara, again, for coffee. And took a short break in Malibu. However, traffic into the city still made our 3h drive last way longer than it should have. 

When we finally made it to our airbnb in Los Angeles (which is directly on the Hollywood Blv. and the Walk of Fame!) we unpacked a little bit and then straight away went back out to walk down the Walk of Fame. We also saw the Dolby Theatre and the Chinese Theatre with all the hand- and footprints of celebrities.

All in all these three days roadtripping down Highway 1 were beautiful and comparatively relaxing. I would recommend that highway to anyone!

[leogoesusa]

Day 1&2: San Francisco

First stop: San Francisco

On Thursday I arrived at SFO and met my friend Tina at the airport. We took an uber to our airbnb in Daly City (right by the beach, beautiful little house; we had our own room and shared the kitchen and bathroom with four other people). That day we didn’t do much else, we walked to the closest grocery store to get some things for breakfast and then faceplanted in our bed.

The next day was day 1 of sightseeing in San Francisco. We first picked up our rental car and brought it back to our airbnb, then took another uber (uber is the absolute best way of getting around here!) to the Golden Gate Park. We got off right in front of the Academy of Science in the middle of the park. We wanted to go in but it turned out to be around 40$ so we decided against it. As we were walking away from the building an elderly lady approached us and said that she had two free tickets that expired the same day and that she really didn’t need them and we could have them. More than happy about this lucky coincidence, we thanked her, took the tickets, and went into the Academy. This museum is tailored to children and very fun and interactive. It was great!

Afterwards we walked through the park for a bit and then walked to and through Haight Ashbury (the hippie district) where we went into almost every store and looked around a lot (so many vintage stores etc. it was painful to be broke college students that day). From Haight Ashbury we walked to the Painted Ladies, but to be honest, the houses we saw on the way there were very often prettier and fancier than the Painted Ladies themselves. But oh well, ticked that sight off our list.

Our last stop of the day was the Golden Gate Bridge! It was super windy, but it’s definitely a sight worth seeing in San Francisco. We took hundreds of pictures next to an on the bridge and we crossed the whole thing (that’s a really long walk, longer than you would think from just looking at it, but ultimately worth it; now we can say that we have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge). Exhausted and hungry, we drove back to our airbnb and cooked dinner there, made some plans for the next day and passed out.

Day 2 of sightseeing started out at Union Square. We walked through Chinatown and did some souvenir shopping and window shopping. Chinatown has one main street leading through it and there were lots of people around. Then we took a cablecar (yay!!) down to the fisherman’s wharf. We walked around pier 41 and pier 39, where we saw the sea lions that live there and looked through the shops and restaurants that are on the pier. We also had a look at Alcatraz from afar, but we didn’t have the time to make a trip there.

From fisherman’s wharf it’s not too far to the famous Lombard Street. We didn’t get very nice pictures of it because there were so many people walking around and tourists in cars driving down Lombard Street, but it is indeed very curvy and really pretty. It’s definitely a unique street and it was worth the walk. From there we walked back to Union Square and spent a good 2 hours at Victoria’s Secret. It was Tina’s first time in a Victoria’s Secret so we took our time :P

We ended the day on Billy Goat Hill Park. According to an “insider tip” from pinterest there was supposed to be a swing on a tree in that park. Unfortunately, all that was left from that swing was a short rope on a branch, so that was a bit disappointing. But the view from that park was still spectacular and it was a good end to our second day in San Francisco.

We returned to our airbnb, cooked dinner, poured ourselves a glass of wine and watched the sunset from the dinner table. The first stop of our roadtrip on the west coast could not have been better (well, maybe a little less windy).

[leogoesusa]

On to new adventures!

Today, I officially checked out of my dorm room in Veasey and out of Hendrix College. The past week has been a series of goodbyes and it has been hard. Very hard.

The first big goodbye was Oumaima and Cyril after our last trivia night last Wednesday. We all returned to the Spanish house to spend the time until Oumaima’s departure at 3am together. I cried for approximately 4 hours straight. Not just about her, but about everyone leaving. We all sat on the front porch of the language house and ate our feelings. We emptied 8 tubs of ice cream and this big tub of cookie dough.

For the next days we just kept saying goodbye to people. They all left one by one; day by day the campus became emptier and emptier. 

Saturday was the day of the senior’s graduation ceremony and Saturday night we went to Kings one last time with as many friends as we could convince to come. The night ended in a more or less planned cuddle puddle with Alex, Sanya, Sarah, Zane, and me in Veasey. It was a great way to end this year in Hendrix surrounded by people I love.

The hardest day was Sunday. After getting up, I had to say goodbye to Emmi. My bad influence, my crazy alcoholic hoe, my lesbian girlfriend (at least according to persistent rumors on campus). There were tears, but with her being European, it will be easy to meet again in the very near future!

The even harder goodbye, maybe the hardest since it was 2 in 1, was the one from the twins, Alex and Zane. Sanya and I met them in the “drunk trap” where we first met in the first week of last semester and it took us about 20 minutes of hugging, crying, and talking to say our goodbyes to each other. It might not be soon, but because they are so full of Wanderlust, I am sure I will meet them again eventually. “Man trifft sich immer zwei Mal im Leben” (you always meet one another twice in life)

The last few days Sanya and I slept at the Spanish house to be together with Andrea before she left. We emptied out all the alcohol we still had and dedicated Sunday night to drinking, listening to sad songs, and crying. Sounds bad, but it really helped haha

On Tuesday, the last one, Andrea, left. This was one of the easiest goodbyes because I will be seeing her for another year here in Conway soon!

Then today, I said my last goodbyes to Sanya and Ross after we both checked out of Veasey. It was hard, but since staying in touch has worked so well with Maria, I am not worried at all about staying in touch with Sanya, which made parting easier.

Just leaving a small collection of memories and people here:

Top row: me, Paige, Taz, Emmi, me, Parker, Emmi, me, Andrea

middle: me, Oumaima, Sanya, Zane, me, me, Zoe

bottom: Sarah, me, Emmi, me, Sanya, Alex, me

But now it is time for new adventures! Tomorrow morning at 9am I am boarding my plane to San Francisco to meet Tina and to roadtrip through California and Arizona, stopping -among many other destinations - in San Diego to visit Brooke and Vanessa! Then I am staying with Isi and Tom (and Jana!!) until my parents and my other sister, Meike, arrive in San Francisco for our roadtrip all the way to Orlando. I am more than excited for these trips and, Hendrix - see you soon!

[leogoesusa]

Last Hendrix Life Update

I will try my best not to cry while typing this up, no promises though. One last life update before a goodbye-post next week. In true leogoesusa-fashion, this will be a random collection of short stories and events.

A couple of weeks ago, Emmi, Sanya and I decided that we wanted to go for a bike ride. Alex offered to be our much needed tour guide to Cadron Settlement Park. Sanya ended up turning back but Emmi, Alex and I rode the bikes that we rented from the library there and, there, Alex did the mountainbike trail while Emmi and I did the short hike to the painted stones and outlook over the Arkansas river. So far so good. Then we started our way back, but the odds were against us. Alex’s bike broke - one of the pedals kept falling off. He tried to fix it with a bottle opener and a key - McGyver style. And it worked for a little bit but it kept coming undone. We got really lucky, and a guy in a big truck was just pulling out of a driveway and asked if we needed help. We loaded the three bikes into his trunk and he gave us a ride back to Hendrix.

Reference on the snap-picture: “We have a problem.” was the message the twins received when Emmi and I couldn’t find a uber in NOLA.

In my last post I mentioned that we were recorded on the “Hear Hendrix Again” album. The week after the album finally got released and they put on a release show where Alex and I, along with all the other Hendrix talents on the Album, performed the songs we recorded. An open mic followed, all held at the Black Orange.

As always, theme parties are a big thing in Hendrix. In this case: White Trash Bash! which was at and mainly behind the Front Street Apartments. A great party with people chilling in a tree, a dog roaming around and cuddling everyone, and lots of beer. 

The same day, before that party, we finally did the slip&slide! We had been talking about doing it for weeks and weeks and now it finally happened. Coincidentally, the same day, the Lacrosse team also had a slip&slide set up behind Front Street so we just combined our parties and had a huge slip& slide. We drank beer, sat in a hillbilly hot-tub, and played slip&slide flip cup!

The last weekend before finals was probably the craziest weekend of the semester. Friday afternoon “bong-off” was held. I participated in the girls bong-off. Girls bong beers until they puke, spill, or give up and only one is left. We bonged 1 beer, 1 1/2 beers, 1 beer, 2 beers and then 1 and 2 until only one girl was left. I ended up chugging 12 beers and got 2nd place!

In the picture it’s me with my “jockey” Elisabeth. Each freshman “horse” had an upperclassman pouring and holding the bong for them. Once I was out they took me back to campus and to the caf to put some food in me and then put me in Brooke’s bed to take a nap so I would be ready for Toga the same night.

I think they should make it a requirement for the winner to make it to Toga haha

Ultimately, I think I was the real winner of the night, because the girl that won ended up throwing up for 3 hours and passed out at 9pm without ever making it to toga.

Miraculously, I woke up by myself after a 2h nap and successfully put on my Toga (well, I had to have Vanessa help me tape my boobs, cause I was going bra-less and Emmi fixed it in the back, but it was on and stayed on throughout the party). Due to bad weather, Toga was unfortunately in Worsham, but it was still an awesome night. After the party Emmi, I and some friends went to the fountain because some of our friends had the genius idea of going into the fountain in the pouring rain. Afterwards, they were obviously very cold so we went into the biology building and up to the greenhouse where it is always around 30°C to warm up a bit. Eventually, P-Safe showed up and everyone had to leave ... ^^"

Picture: left to right: Elisabeth, Bridget, Brooke, me, Emmi

During finals week the campus had 23.5 hours of quiet hours so we had to take the party off-campus: to Kings. One last time, Leah and Patrick performed at Kings and in the very end they called all the seniors - and me, I’m special :) - up on stage to sing “Wagon Wheel” together as a goodbye song. 

People I know from right to left: me, Patrick, Jerry, Leah, Zane, Alex, Sarah, lots of other seniors haha

After finals were over, Emmi and I went with Taz and his friends to go cliff jumping at Greers Ferry Lake. An appropriate last trip to my year at Hendrix, since my very first trip here was also to Greers Ferry for my OR trip, so I started and ended this year abroad jumping off cliffs.

[leogoesusa]

Hardstock

I’m almost impressed with myself that I’m not posting a “Hendrix update #endless” but a post actually focussing on a specific event that I’d like to share. And it has been less than a month since my last post - go me!

Anyway, today’s topic: Hardin hall’s open mic “Hardstock”

Alex and I have been talking about doing an open mic since late last semester but we never got around to doing it - until now. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we had been practicing for the auditions for Hardstock before spring break. We got together with some friends before spring break to jam and someone brought up Hardstock so we decided that we wanted to do it. Tricky thing was, the auditions for that were only 3 days after we first got together to try out some songs. We practiced for three days straight, I lost my voice the day before auditions, we still auditioned and we got to play.

Ironically, I lost my voice AGAIN two days before Hardstock (there was about 3 weeks between auditions and Hardstock, so I was back to healthy and lost it again). However, following a 24-hour plan of taking 2 Ibuprofen and chewing 2 Aspirin every 6 hours, I got it back in time for our performance on Saturday. I played it cool until the last minute but I have to admit, I was so nervous on stage. I’ve performed and sang in front of people before, but not like that, not in front of only peers and singing songs that we picked ourselves and all that. But it was an amazing experience, I loved it, and we did a great job.

On top of the open mic, a friend also asked us to record two of our songs for his Odyssey project. He is putting together a full length album with Hendrix talents. Hendrix has an actual recording studio with crazy expensive equipment. We recorded “Old Man” by Neil Young and “Hallelujah”. The album should be released sometime next week and he is also filming a documentary about the music scene on campus and there will be a release show for which he has asked us to also come up and perform.

I really missed singing! Singing, making music with my friends, performing and recording songs, I love all of it and I’m so happy and excited about the opportunities I am given on this campus!

The video of Alex’ and my performance will (hopefully) be on Youtube soon.

Edit: Here’s the link to our performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJCH4BxlFi0

[leogoesusa]

Spring break!

Spring break finally happened! We all really needed it and couldn’t wait. And it was over way too fast!

For the first couple of days of spring break we stayed on campus. Luckily, we were not the only ones so we met up with our friends every day to daydrink, to cook behind Front Street, to play games and to party.

The picture below is left to right: Emmi, Jess, Sanya, Me, Desh (in the back), Paige, Wendy and Oumaima. We grilled behind Claude’s apartment and all ate together, played frisbee and started daydrinking. Friday through Monday we had parties at Claude’s apartment every night. It was a lot of fun!

Picture: Claude, Bosco, me, Desh, Emmi, ? (whoops, I’m bad with names here)

Monday was particularly fun. We played frisbee golf on campus (as simple as it sounds: you pick a target and hit it with the frisbee in as little tries as you can) and frisbee-golfed our way to Front. Behind front street there were all the Lacrosse guys and they were shaving the freshmen’s hair. A really entertaining tradition they do every year over spring break. They give them awful haircuts like bowlcuts, mohawks, one guy even got an avatar-arrow on his head. 

Then we played stack cup behind Claude’s apartment and didn’t stop drinking until midnight.

During the time we were on campus, Emmi and I basically moved into the Veasey TV room. We had naps in there daily and twice, we even slept in there because Emmi could not get back into her dorm after midnight for some strange reason.

On Tuesday we finally went on our real spring break trip: Panama City Beach!

We had major complications with the car, the people from the car rental were supposed to pick us up at Hendrix but after calling them and reminding them and everything they ended up being 2 hours late. Ultimately putting us about 3 hours behind schedule. We still made it to PCB safely at around 1am and moved into our beautiful apartment on the beach!

We spent our first day on the beach and on the balcony chilling and tanning. Unfortunately it was our only sunny beach day. The rest was rainy and we had lots of thunderstorms.

On Wednesday there was supposed to be a foam party at Club La Vela right next door. We left our phones in the apartment so they wouldn’t get wet but our apartment hat a long code to type in to get back in so we needed to think of a way to ensure that drunk us would be able to get back in so we wrote the code on our legs. Ultimately, only Emmi and I could get in because it would have been crazy expensive for our underage friends to get in. Inside it was 80% guys which made it really hard to just dance together without having hands all over our waists all the time. We still had a lot of fun, but we just wanted to be let alone that night haha

The main thing we did in PCB though was: EATING. We made awesome breakfasts, went out for sushi when we went shopping on Friday, cooked in the apartment regularly and snacked on chips and sandwiches all the time.

On Friday we went shopping during the day to a big outdoor mall nearby. I entered a Victoria’s Secret store for the first time and was not able to resist. I spent way too much money that day but it was all worth it. :D

Friday night we then finally all went out to Hammerhead Fred’s where a big glow paint party was on. It was great music to dance to and the glow paint was pretty cool too. Although, I know now: it does not come out of clothes which is pretty annoying.

Saturday we just chilled most of the day and in the afternoon we decided to go to “Ripley’s believe it or not” which has a museum part, a “7D theatre” (moving chairs and an interactive zombie-shooting game), a mirror labyrinth and a laser maze. That night we ended up just staying in and watching movies. Something most of us haven’t done all semester, just chill on a couch all evening - I definitely haven’t so that was very nice.

Sunday was just a 12h drive back to campus. We were so happy to finally be back after that long car ride. So I would say our spring break was less adventurous than expected but still a total success!

[leogoesusa]

Hendrix Life Update #6

This is going to be another random life update with small pieces of everyday life and little stories supported by pictures.

There’s intramurals (friendly competitive games with teams formed by students) for a lot of sports here in Hendrix. Last semester we did Volleyball intramurals, this semester it was soccer. Until intramurals I had never actually played soccer before. For that we actually did pretty well. We had an actual soccer player on our team - Vince - and a couple of girls and guys that were pretty good, like Molly and Zoe. 

Allow me to introduce 5 members of the team “Better late than pregnant”: back: Miya, Sanya; front: me, Molly, Emmi

Of course there are still parties on campus every weekend. This picture is from the 90s party in Martin. We went all out for that. Especially me. Me, Molly, Sanya and Emmi worked for several hours to put my hair in little bobby pins to make this fantastic afro. I got told that I looked like a spice girl several times throughout that night. Haha

Another fun thing we did was organize a scavanger hunt. Sanya, Emmi and I put together a scavanger hunt for us and our friends. It was 3 stages with 5 tasks each, each stage hat a clue on the back of the envelope leading to the next one and at each stage there was a cup of everclear punch that had to be emptied before continuing. Tasks included things such as “take a picture with the caption: I can’t believe we fit in here”

Other tasks were:

“Knock on someone’s door and sing “Never gonna give you up” to them caroling style.”

“A male member of your team has to wax a hairy part of their body with the waxing strips provided”

“Two members of your team have to be handcuffed together from this point on”

“Take a picture of the Purple Cow menu”

and many many more. We had a blast, but it was a lot of work so we might not end up doing that again anytime soon.

People in this picture:

Alex, Desh, Bosco, Deric, Emmi, Paige, Sanya, Jess, Tyler

Molly, Me

After one of the Martin parties Emmi and I had an eventful night in the Biology building. The party was shut down because some girl pulled the fire alarm. Emmi and I went to DW Reynolds with a friend that has class there, so he was able to let us in. He showed us the greenhouse on the roof and then we went to the zoology lab. In the middle of the night we were looking at cells under a microscope, at hundreds of different shells and dead animals, and we were petting a bearded dragon and a living snake. It was pretty unusual and I was so excited because unfortunately, the Uni Graz does not have the financial resources to provide us with this kind of stuff. They had so many so well preserved animals and cell samples. I might have been a little drunk, enhancing my excitement, but I was really damn thrilled up there.

Emmi, Sanya, and I were talking about getting matching tattoos one night when we drunkenly ended up in Veasey Lobby - as always. However, sober us still thought that it was a really great idea so we came up with motives that we could do and after a few days of consideration and brainstorming eventually agreed on arrows. To represent moving forward, traveling and just as a symbol for our friendship. The same week we went to a tattoo studio to make appointments for our tattoos. However, we ended up picking a walk-in tattoo studio and got them right away! The guy that did them did an amazing job and we are so happy with this fairly spontaneous decision. I got this arrow on my arm, Emmi got a much simpler one on her back and Sanya - this is her first tattoo, so she was freaking out a little beforehand - got a beautiful, small but detailed one on her ribs.

Last Tuesday the weather was absolutely beautiful so Emmi, Taz, Parker, and I decided to go hiking to Petit Jean. Emmi and Taz have no classes on Tuesdays and Parker and I are free after 11 so after lunch we drove to Petit Jean and did the hike behind the waterfall. Since it had been raining and thunderstorming for the past week, the waterfall had so much water and it was really beautiful.

We also brought the hammocks that you can check out at the WAC with us and put them up next to the river to have the most amazing hammock naps ever. the weather was so beautiful and I even got a little tan already. When we first put the hammocks up, we attached one of them to a tree that looked really sturdy but didn’t end up being as reliable as we thought it would. When we sat down in the hammock, it went well for a couple of minutes but then we felt the hammock lowering and when we looked over, the tree was falling. Luckily it caught on another tree so noone got hurt. But when we set the hammocks up again we made sure to check whether the trees were still alive and sturdy. :D

One more party pic: Glow party / rave in Martin. We all put on colorful shorts and white shirts and the guys in Martin provided neon-paint to put on our bodies. It was a lot of fun!

Right now it’s already spring break but we are not leaving for Panama City Beach until Tuesday. So for now we are still on campus and it’s pretty empty. But that does for sure not mean that it’s boring. We’re having parties at Front St. every night, grilling behind Front during the day, we are daydrinking, playing frisbee, and simply enjoying the nice weather and the freedom of spring break.

Midnight twister behind Front Street. :D

[leogoesusa]

Hendrix Life Update #5

I don’t even really know where to start. So much has happened since I last posed on here. 

Let’s start with Mardi Gras in New Orleans!

It was supposed to be Sanya, Jess, Emmi and me and we were supposed to camp in a guy’s backyard from couchsurfing. Ultimately it was just me and Emmi and luckily we were able to stay with Soulé in her parents’ nursing home again. We arrived on Friday around 9:30pm and straight away got ready to go to the city center. Soulé was so nice to drive us there and we immediately started our search for handgrenades. The first obstacle that we faced was crossing Canal Street since there was a parade going on there. It took us about 30 minutes to cross that street and then we walked down Burbon Street for another good 20 minutes until we finally found what we were looking for: handgrenades. Our mood increased immensely from that moment on. We found an awesome club called “The Swamp” and spent the rest of the night in there. It had an inside part with platforms to dance on and an outside area where you could take a break and get drinks. The music in there was really good and we just danced the night away. When we decided to leave we faced our next obstacle: getting a ride back. The uber drivers for some reason could not find us even though that app has location services. We were both far from sober (I was of absolutely no help at that point) and Emmi tried to get a uber for about 2 hours. She may or may not have panicked a little and called friends of ours that were also close to NOLA and texted them “we have a problem” at 4 in the morning. Ultimately we got a ride back to the nursing home and face planted in our beds. I woke up to my phone ringing and texts on it “Y’all alive?” and “If you don’t respond by 10:30 I might call the cops.” - another apology to Zane and Alex for worrying them like that.

Saturday we wanted to go to the city center during the day but busses were not driving and cabs were way too expensive at that time so we just took an extended nap instead and then pregamed in the nursing home and went back to Burbon Street in the evening. We wanted to “keep an open mind and see what other clubs are fun” but when Burbon Street was so packed that we could barely move we just went straight back to the Swamp and spent another really fun night there. This time it was Emmi that wasn’t of any help in finding a ride back to Soulé’s but thanks to a very nice airforce-guy that helped me get a uber we made it back safely again.

Some little pieces of everyday life:

A couple of weeks ago on Sunday Emmi, Zane, Alex and I went to a thing called “The Hash” close to Little Rock. It’s people getting together to go for a run following a trail prepared by one of the members of the group beforehand. They made a trail through the woods and neighborhoods there with crossings and dead ends, with a bottle check and a beer stop. Once everyone is back at the beginning they do rituals and songs, most of which include drinking beer. The hungover running on Sunday afternoon was exhausting but we had a lot of fun.

We still try to keep the tradition of cooking dinner on Saturdays up.

Zane is a really good cook and invited us to dinner a couple times, and watching movies with friends on his couch is very comfy.

Theme parties are still a thing here at Hendrix:

USA-party at Martin

Winter Formal with the Girls :)

Valentines day is a big deal in the US. I got a Valentine’s card from Sanya and a kiss from Emmi.

We also had a “romantic” Valentine’s dinner/breakfast (2am on Valentines day haha) at iHop with Sanya, Emmi and Deric. Thanks to Vanessa for giving us her car and letting us satisfy our unhealthy 2am cravings. :D

Also Emmi, Sanya and I (are trying to) do something active every day. That can be going to the gym, playing tennis, playing volleyball, going to Zumba, anything. Not counting the week after NOLA we have been really consistent and kept each other motivated pretty well.

A less healthy, yet consistent, habit that Emmi and I have picked up is going to Kings pretty much every Wednesday. She has no classes on Thursday and I just have one so we get to go out on Wednesdays. ;)

The weather in Conway is so nice at the moment. In February I am used to negative degrees celsius and possible snow. Here I am getting >20°C and sunshine and naps in hammocks in the afternoon. It is amazing!

Ok this was possibly the most random update and mix of pieces of information that I have ever posted on this blog. But at least I finally posted again so yay me! :D

[leogoesusa]

Feels good to be back

Over Christmas break I was back home in Austria. Seeing my family and meeting up with some of my friends over the month in Austria was really great and spending Christmas at home felt good. However, since everyone went back to school/Uni in the last two weeks of my stay I started to miss Hendrix and looked forward to returning. While I was at home we went snowboarding a few times, visited my dad’s side of the family in Vorarlberg, I met up with my friends to catch up and to go out and I really enjoyed having Austrian food for a while.

Nevertheless, coming back felt amazing. I missed my friends at Hendrix and everything about life here (ok, maybe not the studying and doing homework part). It’s a little bittersweet though because some of my best friends are no longer here. Especially Maria is greatly missed (!!). The only positive aspect of her absence is that we rearranged Brooke and Vanessa’s room and it turned out awesome. They now have a “living room”-area with two beds as couches, a TV and tables for beerpong/flip cup/etc. and their beds are on the other side. Before parties we meet up in their room to pregame and have fun together. I even slept in there once already (sneakily becoming the new third roomie haha) because my roommate accidentally locked me out Wednesday night.

Also, we got snow! And since southern Americans have no real clue how to deal with that we got the day off - at least I did, all three of my classes got cancelled. People were building snowmen and having snowball fights all across campus. Even the Dean of Students was hiding behind trees and throwing snowballs at people. My friends and me had a big snowball fight in the middle of campus and got so many people to participate, it was so much fun. Everyone got really excited about snow, especially Sanya since it was her very first time seeing snow!

We also have 4 new international students: Emmi from Finland (the blonde in the front), Jess from Australia (on the very left), Oumaima from Marocco and Gian from South Korea. On Saturday we got Pizza from Walmart, made in in Galloway and ate it in the TV room while watching “Legally Blonde”. That room has already become our meeting place and I love the group that we have now.

Of course - we also still play lots of Settlers and I even got Sanya, Emmi and Molly to spend the Sunday in the Black Orange with me. I wanna keep that Sunday tradition up and since last semester I spent my Sundays there with Maria, Giacomo and Oscar, I had to find new coffee/study-buddies to go there with me. I succeeded :P

[leogoesusa]

Hendrix Life Update #4 + Going home!

The last Hendrix life update before Christmas break! Time has gone by so fast, way too fast! So many memories have been made this semester, I have made the most amazing friends, travelled and left my comfort zone. I couldn’t be happier but I also couldn’t be sadder that this semester is coming to an end because half of the exchange students are leaving us. :(

The weekend before finals we had a Glühwein-farewell party for Maria and all the other internationals that are leaving. I made Glühwein and everybody (except Oscar... picky baby :P) loved it. We drank, chilled and danced all together one last time and had a really great night. :)

Since we used Alex’ apartment for that party we also got to experience the downside of being the party-host: cleaning up the morning after. Haha. 

After that party it was “Schluss mit Lustig!” (the fun is over) and time to study for finals. Who guessed it? Biochem - once again - tried its hardes to break me. Before my last biochem exam I pulled my first all-nighter of my Hendrix-carreer, and trust me, spending the night with biochem is not fun - even if you have (too) large amounts of coffee. I was not a coffee-drinker before I came here, but late night study sessions have made me an addict, it’s bad. Going on a coffee-run at 5am in the morning is a strong indicator that my coffee-habbits here are not healthy. 

The last weekend on campus we finally got to go hiking. Me and my friends had been talking about going hiking all semester and we just never ended up going - until this weekend.

Saturday morning Maria and I got Maria’s roommate’s car - an awesome black Jeep!, picked up Zane and Alex at front street (who were equally as excited about the car) and drove to Petit Jean State Park. They showed us around the park, we went to the lookout, the top of the waterfall, then did the trail that leads to and behind the waterfall, went to a really pretty place high up where you could overlook the valley, saw the “Bears den” and ended the day in a small diner. It was a great adventure for the last weekend in Hendrix and especially for my last weekend with my adventure-buddy, one of my best friends and big sister, Maria!

Finally, it’s time to say goodbye. A temporary goodbye to Hendrix and to most friends but a long goodbye (although ultimately only temporary as well for some) to some friends. Maria, Giacomo, Oscar, Jocelyn, Cedric, Johanna, Melanie and Laura are not coming back next semester and will be greatly missed at Hendrix!

After the last day of finals, Beth (Mama’s roommate at Hendrix) picked me up at Hendrix shortly before the dorms closed on Wednesday and I have stayed with her. Today she offered me her car (something that I am definitely not used to, people in Austria offer to drive you places but don’t usually offer their cars to people they just met) and I went back to campus to spend some final hours with those still left on campus. We went to Panera for breakfast one last time, played Settlers in the Black Orange and then Sanya and I dropped off Maria at the airport. It was a tearful goodbye but at least for this one I am sure that I will see her again. It might be a couple of years but Buenos Aires, be prepared, I am coming! :)

Tomorrow it’s finally time to go home! By now I am really excited to see my family and my friends again and can’t wait for the flight to be over already. I just want to come home to everyone, eat Bandnudel mit Kartoffelsoße and lay in a hot bubble bath for hours. :D

[leogoesusa]

Thanksgiving in St.Louis

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving and we had no classes from Wednesday to Sunday. So on Tuesday after class Sanya, Miya, Molly, Cat and I squished into Cat’s car and drove all the way to St.Louis. Sanya, Miya and I stayed with Molly and her family (and her puppy) for this holiday. The drive there was about 7 hours and us girls all stayed in Molly’s room. Two of her brothers were also there and her mom was really lovely and just fed us all weekend. It was amazing. haha

On Wednesday we went to the St.Louis Zoo, which is free! Unfortunately, the weather was not really good, it was cold and very windy the whole time and when it started raining we finally left, got Bubble Tea and went back to Molly’s house. 

The next two days basically consisted of eating and binge watching Netflix. On Thanksgiving day, Molly’s mom and her brother cooked all day and in the meantime I sat on the couch and watched one episode of “Narcos” after the other. At around 6 her relatives arrived, we set the table and I had my first traditional American thanksgiving dinner. With turkey, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls and - most importantly - pumpkin pie! I guess the main purpose of this holiday is to make you unable to move because you’re so full. Nevertheless, only an hour after the dinner, we went to an outlet mall for early “Black Friday Shopping”. We were gone for over 4 hours and once we came back I was just ready to fall asleep. It’s crazy, how full the stores were and how many people were looking for great deals and cheap stuff. I am very proud of myself for not buying anything that evening! :D

On Saturday we did something active after all the couch-potatoing and eating. We went iceskating during the day and then in the evening Cat picked me and Sanya up and we went to the City Museum.

“City Museum” is, in fact, not really a museum but more like a giant playground! It has caves, tunnels and slides where you can climb up, down and around the whole place. The most amazing part was the 10-story slide. It took us forever to discover where it was but it just goes down in a spiral and is a lot of fun!

Another great part is a tube-like path in the outside part of the museum. It is extremely high up and you can see very far from up there. In the evening the city looks really pretty with all the lights.

Altogether it was a great weekend and Molly’s family was so welcoming and caring. I loved it. We returned to campus on Sunday after a long drive in the rain, in a small car with too much luggage and we had to take detours because some roads were flooded. 

I really need to update this blog more often. ...^^"

[leogoesusa]

Hendrix Life Update #3

Long time no see.. or update. Since fall break!

Quite a few things happened since then. The greatest one being Halloween in the United States! That’s a holiday that we don’t really celebrate in Austria but that people go all out for here. My roommate decorated our door, she is so creative. We almost won the contest of “coolest halloween door decoration.” 

The Halloween party (and one of the biggest parties on campus in general) is Ghost Roast. It is always on the friday before Halloween, so this year it was on Oct. 30th. My friends and me dressed up as pirates and really had a great time at Ghost Roast. But I still don’t get how parties just end so early here! I’m used to parties going until at least around 4 in the morning.. here they end at 1 and there’s hardly ever any afterparties or anything. The last song they play at bigger parties like that is “Wagon Wheel” and that tells you that it’s time to leave. Kind of like when they play “I am from Austria” back home. 

Then from Nov. 6-9th I finally made it up to Reno to visit my sister Jana, my cousin Isi, her husband Tom, and their adorable baby twins Zoey und Liam! I essentially just spent a weekend cuddling babies, it was very therapeutic. haha

Jana also took me to the Ultimate Rush Swing in Reno, where they strap you to the end of a reeeeaaally long rope, pull you up very high, then you have to “pull the trigger” yourself and release and then you free fall and then swing really fast. It was thrilling and gives you an adrenaline rush. Besides that I also changed my first poopy diaper, fed a baby for the first time and got puked on - a lot. Luckily Jana warned me about that so I brought enough extra shirts to change. But even with all the extra shirts I had to throw some in with Jana’s laundry so I wouldn’t run out. ;)

The week after I returned from Reno was not too good. It was busy and we had some unnecessary drama in our group. Fortunately, it was “Freedom week” for the soccer and field hockey team, which means they are done with their season and they had parties every night. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday we made use of these opportunities. ;)  Monday was a Hawaii themed party, Wednesday there was no particular theme and on Friday they had Re-Roast with Halloween costumes. On Saturday a band played in Worsham - STRFKR. So we went to that concert first and afterwards there was “Playboy-party” in one of the apartment complexes. To that party girls basically wore lingerie and guys wore either no shirt and a bowtie or a robe. I do have pictures of that party but they are not exactly fit for the internet. ;) Once again, the party ended way too early but other than that it was fun. 

Today we had a tornado warning and everyone had to get to the ground floor of the building they were in and go to one of the safe rooms (in my case: I was in the SLTC and had to go into worsham to stay away from the windows). Unfortunately, the sirens turned off 15 minutes before my class started so I had no excuse not to go.... :P

Later, during class we received flash flood warnings. 

But some people just choose to see the best in everything. Tornado warning, flash flood warning, rivers and lakes forming on campus where there previously definitely were none - better get some Kayak practice in in front of the library, right? ;)