Beaches, Boards and Burgers

It's been a while. University has started and I didn't really know what I should write about. Too much to say, too hard to describe all the amazing days here. But I took a couple of photos that I wanna share with you. So please don't expect some deep and wise words. ;-)

I've been to two beaches yet: Newport Beach and Seal Beach. Newport Beach is where all those rich people live. The Beach is very spacious and nice. Here are some shots:

 

I took these photos on a sunday afternoon. As you can see there are only few guys in the water. The Ocean is pretty cold at Newport Beach. 

The next beach that I've been to, is the Seal Beach nearby Long Beach. I went there to surf with my german friend Hannes and his roommate Ibo. Actually they convinced me to try it. Guess what - I LOVE IT! Seal Beach is not as beautiful as Newport Beach, but it has one big advantage for surfing: good waves for rookies and way warmer water. I took a few photos:

 That was fun!

So far I covered beaches and boards. Now some words about burgers. Some of you might know that I love good burgers. So I wanna try to find the best burger in the O.C. Today I wanna introduce you to the burger of a place called the Habit. I generally wanna differentiate between fast food burgers and gourmet burgers that you get in more expensive restaurants. As you can see, the Habit is a fast food place and so far the best place I've been to. The citizen of the O.C. are very crazy about a fast food chain called In-N-Out. But I've decided that I prefer the Habit over In-N-Out. Now have a look! 

 

So what is the difference to typical fast food burgers in Germany?
1. The good fast food burgers are made fresh by order, you can really taste the difference.
2. They actually have what McDonalds pretends to have: good ingredients.
3. You can have your burger patty medium :-) Nom Nom Nom!

For those of you who'd like to hear something bad about the fast food here:
I've been to Burger King. My fault, i know! THIS WAS TERRIBLE! If you ever go to the USA, DON'T GO TO BURGER KING! No more words about that place. Thank you.

That's it so far. In the next post I'm planning to write about fun facts as well as generally interesting facts about the USA and the people here.

Take care!
Christoph

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