I'm in.

So this is my first blog. If you are interested, but you haven't heard what's going on yet, here are some basic facts: I'm going to spend one semester in California. I live and visit the university in Fullerton, that's in the Orange County. I stay at the lovely Carpenter family, they are my hosts in the homestay program. I'm planning to travel to some nice places and I'm armed with my Canon 650D and my iPhone 4S to take lots of photos. Some of you might know that I've dreamt to go on tour with a band in the USA. Now things are a little different, but it's still a dream coming true. I'm in.

On this photo you can see my daily perspective when I'm having breakfast. The Orange County seems to be awesome. You've got a sunshine flat rate, lots of friendly people and you just feel happy. The sun causes problems though, here they a have huge lack of rain. That's one of the reasons why there are less oranges in the Orange County this year. Isn't it ironic?! If Germany shared its rain, both parties would profit from that. I hope that makes you feel better sitting at home with the typical German weather. (or wherever you are)

I've already made a couple of friends. This is Roxy Carpenter, my family's dog. 

Ain't she sweet? It's not my intention to brag, but it was quite a challenge to catch her in a calm moment. Roxy's favourite is (surprise!) retrieving the ball (yes, like retriever do). So we do have a daily session while I'm having breakfast on the backyard porch. She always drops the ball next to my feet and starts rushing down the stairs to catch the ball that I'll kick down the porch right in air. I have got to film this because it's really funny. But that is a challenge for another day.

"Hi guys, this is Roxy. You wanna play?!"

Today is the 16th of August. The last two afternoons I spent at my university, the Cal State Fullerton. I have no photos so far that could represent the feeling being on campus. It's enormously big! But here are some impressions that I caught with my iPhone.
  CSUF Titan's baseball


In front of the campus

On campus I also got this:

 

M&M's with peanut butter taste awesome. Unfortunately you can't get them in Germany.

So what does Fullerton look like? If think it looks like a typical American suburb. The only thing that surprised me so far was the fact that there are those old school power poles here and the wires are not below ground.

The Americans are very friendly. There's much more conversation with people you haven't met before. Most of them seem to be really happy and optimistic. I don't want to say that everything is perfect here, but that's a thing we should adopt: being happier in every day life.

Greetings to all my friends!
Christoph