Homestay Tour #3 – Indianapolis, Indiana

Next stop: Indianapolis, Indiana

On Wednesday August 13th we arrived at 10:30 am in Chicago after a van brought us there from Rock Falls, IL. In Chicago we met other CBYX participants who also stayed in this area the past days. Everyone was catching up but unfortunately it wasn’t too long until we had to say goodbye to everyone again. Most likely I will see the majority of the other participants only next July in Washington D.C. where our final seminar will be held. Everyone was traveling further to their final placements but Philipp and I get the chance to continue our travels for a bit longer. After waiting for around 5 hours at Chicago Union Station we caught our bus at 3:20 pm. We took the Megabus which brought us directly to Indianapolis. The ride was quiet comfortable. Every seat has sockets and there is WIFI available in the bus. Of course it wasn’t working that day… oh well I am getting used to that.
It took us a little more than 3 hours until we saw the skyline of Indianapolis – our next stop of our long homestay tour.
In New York City everyone received a travel plan which informs us about the dates, times and places we are going to travel as well as the names and addresses of our hosts. Actually this is not too much information, so we had no idea what our next host would be like. It just said ‘John will pick you up’. But who is John?

We were quiet excited and when the bus stopped we had a brief look outside and tried to guess who our host might be… We left the bus, grabbed our luggage and looked around until we saw a young couple sitting on a bench. They were looking like they were waiting for someone. So we went up to them and asked: ‘Are you John?’ and fortunately he said: ‘Yes’.
John and Courtney were our host’parents’ for the next 3 days. Actually they are just a few years older than we are so we like to call them rather hostsibblings instead. John was a participant of the 29th CBYX and lived back then 1 year in Wiesbaden. It was great staying with a host that knows all about the program and has been in our shoes not too long ago.
Since we traveled back into the Eastern Standard time zone it was already 7:45 pm when we arrived and we didn’t do anything else than just going out for dinner. We went to Cracker Barrel one of my favorite places to eat when I was in Missouri back in 2008. We had lots of delicious food and it was nice getting to know John and Courtney.
When we arrived back home we had the biggest laughs EVER because they showed us a homepage called: www.peopleofwalmart.com. I highly recommend everyone to check out this page. It is hilarious!!! There are photos of people shopping at Walmart and apparently one can spot the weirdest people there! We had a blast looking at these pictures! Later I headed to my wonderful room where I had a very comfy bed to sleep in.

We slept in the next morning since we didn’t have any plans for the day. Courtney had to work and was gone until later. Fortunately John was able to work from home. Meanwhile I was writing my blog, updated everything and wrote e-mails since it was the first time in a loooong time that I had WIFI for longer than just 5 minutes. By noon John was able to finish work and he took us out for lunch.
The place we went to was quiet interesting: ‘The Heidelberger’. A restaurant that also includes a little bakery and a shop where people can buy EVERYTHING Americans would ever consider German. We had quiet a culture shock when we first entered. Horrible German music was playing and all kind of ugly kitschy stuff was on the walls, in the cupboards and hanging from the ceiling. They had plenty of German food as well as fresh German bread, cakes and pastry. Since we decided to have lunch there. So we sat down and studied the interesting menu. Actually it was all sausages with potato salad. I am not the biggest fan of sausages, but well since I am from Berlin I guess I had to try the ‘Currywurst’. The food was alright, but I didn’t like the potatoe salad too much and the Currywurst ist better in Berlin to be honest. We were very un-American and stayed at the place for quiet a while after we finished eating and chatted away with John. He doesn’t get the chance to talk too much German ever since he is back in the USA and he asked us to speak some German with him to practice. Of course we didn’t say no (since it was so much easier for us) and had a great conversation about Germany and the USA and it’s differences.

The Heidelberger

Yep, all German… actually I am not a fan of any of this

German bread, potato salad and Currywurst

In the afternoon it was time to go to a huge American mall. It was the first time since 4 years that I have been to an American mall and I totally forgot how much I love it! All the different stores that we don’t have in Germany plus everything is so much cheaper here – what is not to love about that! Since we are still traveling and my suitcase is already full and heavy I can’t buy anything but I am sure I will make up for it once I arrived in Portland, Oregon (where they don’t even have a sales tax which makes it even cheaper – I can’t wait!). We had an extensive look around and just strolled through the mall which was really lovely.
We went back home to decide where to have dinner and in the end decided going to Applebee’s. I have never been there before and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. After finishing, we went to Walmart just to check out ‘the people of Walmart’ in real life that we saw the other night already on the homepage. Unfortunately it was quiet empty and we didn’t get to see too many funny people haha.

The next day started just like the other one because John had to work, but again luckily only until noon. That day it was time to discover downtown Indianapolis. John is an excellent tour guide and showed us some amazing places. The first thing we noticed were the weird people all over. There was a comic convention going on, that is why there were plenty of people walking around town all dressed up in comic, manga or whatever costumes. We had some great giggles. After grabbing some lunch, we started our tour.

Inside a mall, a beautiful atrium with real trees

First we visited the capitol of Indiana. We were able to go inside and have a look around which was really nice and interesting. The halls inside were huge and I was impressed that just one state has such a big capitol. John told us that the architects that planned the city of Washington D.C. went afterward to Indianapolis to plan it and built the city following the example of Washington. That is probably also the reason why one can find a capitol there as well.

The Capitol of Indiana

Inside the capitol – beautiful building!!!

That’s me between the American and Indiana flag in the capitol

We continued to walk to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument which is just down the street from the capitol. Although it was hot and I felt a little bit sick we still decided to walk up there instead of paying to take the elevator. 330 steps later we made it! The air up there was so stuffy because the windows were closed and it wasn’t air conditioned!!!!! This is something to mention, because there is air conditioning EVERYWHERE in the USA… Anyways we had an amazing view over Indianapolis and saw all the important places which John pointed out to us.

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument of Indianapolis

330 steps to the top – we did it!

View over Indianapolis – honestly, not too exciting, but still cool to get and overview

Our way back down the stairs was a lot easier and we continued our tour by walking further east to the Watanabe Gardens. It is a very pretty little park where many museums and a canal is located. We passed the Indiana State Museum and had a lovely walk by following the canal until we got to the NCAA Hall of Champions. It is an exhibition all about sports and people that became very successful with it. Since it was already quiet late the kind lady at the entrance let us in for free. We got many information about all kinds of sports and everyone can touch and try many different balls and sports equipment.
After we left we had a beautiful view over the White River to the one side and to the skyline of Indianapolis to the other side.

Skyline of Indianapolis with the canal of Wanatabe Gardens

The canal and on the left, the buliding with the flags is the NCAA Hall of Champions

Modern art in Indianapolis

Gardens right besides the White River

We made a quick stop at a comic book store and the guys enjoyed having a look around and I felt like in ‘The Big Bang Theory’. It just looked like that – I was just waiting for Sheldon Cooper to walk in.

Comic book store

The two nerds Philipp and John

And suddenly in a small candy shop right next to the comic book store I saw these guys:

Not Sheldon but therfore these two guys! 🙂

We made our way back to John’s house which was around 20 minutes outside of downtown. After going through tons of coupons our hosts collected we decided to get pizza from Papa John’s. That was one big and fat pizza, but it was good! Since I felt a little bit sick I called it an early night and went to bed soon.

Saturday was a lovely day! Everyone slept in until we left around noon. Firstly we picked up some food at Popeye’s. A place where you can get Louisiana styled chicken. Having that in our tummies we went to the Indiana State Fair!

Actually I had no idea what to expect since I have never been to a State Fair – if you ever get the chance to go to one, you should! It was really interesting and fun! They have a huge fair ground in Indianapolis where they hold the State Fair every year in August for two weeks. The Fair is roughly divided into a few sections:

• barns with different animals

• pavilions where exhibitors show whatever they have: fruits, vegetables, drinks, wine, prepared food and also local companies present their products

• an amusement area with rides

• and in between everything is connected with hundreds and hundreds of food stands where EVERYTHING was fried!

Hundreds of pigs in one barn

Champion World Largest Boar

This sign was hanging just next to the pig barn… weird?!

We love our enviornment!

Fried, Fried, Fried…

We had a look around everywhere and got an impression of what Indiana is like. Our hosts told us that the people visiting are quiet representative for the average person living in a rural area in Indiana. It was really interesting and all visitors – parents, their kids and also elderly people seemed to have a blast. Since we already ate we weren’t too hungry, but we got a delicious milk shake and John had a funnel cake which I tried because they told me it’s something really typical for this area. It was delicious but really, really fat. It is basically a deep fried dough topped with some powdered sugar.
We went into all the barns and exhibition halls to see all the superlatives that the farmers have been growing and won competitions with, here are some examples:

Possibly the best corn of Indiana

More cooorn

Watermelons

Pumpkins… so many different ones

That’s my favorite: the hay on the top with the blue ribbon won the first price… Can anyone tell me how it is different to the other ones?

Cheese sculptures

We finished the day off by going on some rides. Actually I was quiet a wimp and just went on the swing ride with Philipp and John. The two guys also went on to a few others. I just get sick of everything that just turns and spins repetitive.
As a conclusion I would like to say that we had a lovely day at the Indiana State Fair. It was definitely something very different and I am pretty sure we don’t have anything similar to offer in Germany. Especially seeing all the people presenting proudly their agricultural products impressed me a lot.

When we got home we just watched a movie called ‘Eurotrip’. John told us that he watched it some years ago and that he really liked it since it talks through all these cliches over Europeans. Basically the plot deals with 4 American high school students that go over to Europe and travel the continent, meanwhile they are experiencing all the cliches Americans possibly have over the different European countries. It was quiet hilarious and after that I was exhausted from the exciting day at the state fair and went straight to bed.

Sunday, August 17th was already our last day in Indianapolis with John, Courtney and their two dogs which I haven’t mentioned yet. I have to say that I am always a little bit afraid of dogs – especially bigger ones, but those two gave me an easy time and I actually like them.
After sleeping in – again – we went for a late breakfast or probably rather lunch to a place called ‘Steak ‘n Shake’. The first thing we noticed were the super low prices. You can get a burger with french fries for under 4 $!!! This is actually impossible. Another thing I totally forgot about the USA is, that you always get water for free and it is quiet commen to order it. In Germany you always get bottled water and if you ask for tap water, most of the time you won’t get it. Here you just always get it for free and, of course, free refill just like with every other drink. I love that!
We were already quiet full but we couldn’t resist getting a shake as dessert. Everywhere in the shop they advertised it and our host family also encouraged us to get on so we thought, ohhh well, why not… It was indeed amazing, but so freaking much that unfortunately we couldn’t finish it.

Our lovely hosts John and Courtney with Philipp and I and our super healthy lunch!

Our bus was leaving from Indianapolis downtown at 3:20 pm and would bring us directly to Cincinnati, Ohio. John and Courtney drove us to the stop and we said our goodbyes. Our bus left on time and we were just a 2 hour bus ride away from our next adventure in Cincinnati!
It was a great time in Indianapolis and I am very thankful that John and Courtney took the time to show us around even though it was during the week and they actually had to work. We had great conversations and laughs with John about weird Americans and weirder Germans. I will think back to this time with a big smile on my face. Thank you, also for showing us so many different fast food places! 😉 Especially visiting downtown Indianapolis and the Indiana State Fair will stay in my memories for a long, long time. Thank you for the great time in Indianapolis!!!

Anneke