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

After hours and hours in trains and cars our lovely small group of 10 people made it to Rock Falls on Saturday, August 9th at around 7:30 pm. The city has around 9000 inhabitants and is located in the north east of Illinois at the Rock River.
When we arrived in the parking lot of the ‘Country Inn and Suites’ many host families were already waiting for us. It was lovely greeting everyone and with a little delay also Selina’s and my host family arrived. From the minute we first met them, Ken and Lois were so welcoming and kind. Although we have been on the run for so long the first event already happened right after we arrived. Ken and Lois took us to a wedding reception of their great niece. Selina and I felt a little bit out of place since we couldn’t change clothes and get ready properly. But still it was great that we got to see an American wedding.

The bride is about to throw her bouquet

Decorated tables at the wedding reception

The location of the reception was beautiful and people were dancing, drinking and having a good time. Fortunately we also got some food: potato salad, a ham sandwich and potato chips. This is definitely different from a German wedding meal but great for us to experience. After eating a giant piece of the delicious wedding cake we got really tired and we left to Ken and Lois’ home. They live just outside of Rock Falls in a lovely neighborhood right next to a huge cornfield! Selina and I both stayed in wonderful rooms with a big comfy beds – just what we needed!

Cooooornfields!

Sunday morning started with homemade blueberry muffins and fresh melon and mango – delicious! At 10 we were ready to leave for church. Our host family attends the First United Methodist Church and I was very curious what the service will be like. Ken and Lois introduced us to everyone. It was great meeting all these nice people. The service last 1.5 hours and we sang a lot, the pastor held speeches, prayed and every member as well as Selina and I got a piece of bread which we had to dip into grape juice, they call this act communion. I liked the new experience a lot and am thankful that they took us. After the service we ate another big piece of cake because it was the birthday of pastor’s wife.
After some more chatting with everyone, it was already time for lunch. We went with our host family’s convertible car up into a beautiful area to eat a brunch. By that time it was just 1 o’clock and we already ate tons of calories and that weren’t the last that day!!!
When we got back home everyone helped around the house because they planed a party for that night on their deck. Selina and I prepared some chocolate covered strawberries and watched Lois cooking and baking. It is her greatest passion and we had the most delicious food ever during these days!!!

Selina and I preparing chocolate covered strawberries

As an afternoon snack (!!!) we had a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich – not mentioning that we were having dinner just a few hours later… At around 7 the first guests showed up and it was great meeting so many new people and chatting with everyone. Lois’ brother came with a three wheel motorcycle and proudly he allowed us to sit on it. We surely enjoyed that!
Just a few moments later our host family’s neighbor who repairs golf carts wanted to give us a ride on one of those. So we were driving through the cornfields with a golf cart – what an experience!

We would like to continue our travels with that vehicle!! 🙂

Probably not with that one though…

The evening was lovely with – guess what – more food as well as a nice campfire to make S’mores: a cookie sandwich with a hot marshmallow and chocolate. Although they offered us more, we could hardly eat one, considering what we already had that day. The evening ended at the lovely campfire with good company.

Enjoying the campfire

Monday started just like Sunday ended – with food. Ken made homemade blueberry pancakes to prepare us for the day. This became a day I won’t forget in a long time since it was a very, very nice one.
In the morning they took us back to church because Lois is the president of a club called ‘Loafs and Fishes’. They serve breakfast and lunch several days a week for each and everyone who comes. No one has to pay nor to proof anything. No questions are asked and so everyone can walk in and get a hot breakfast. We were introduced to everyone and started right away to help. I cooked some fried potatoes with vegetables and Selina helped making the scrambled eggs. Once we finished cooking we helped serving the food. I was so impressed by all the volunteers that helped making all this possible and I enjoyed talking to some of the guests and having the great feeling of helping with a good cause.

Preparing the potatoes

Selina and I sharing out hot breakfast

By 11 we were done and started with the next chapter of this day: sightseeing! Ken, Selina and I as well as Philipp, another CBYX participant, and his host dad Glenn went to see the mighty Mississippi at it’s widest point. This is right at the boarder to the state of Iowa.

THE MISSISSIPPI!

At the Mississippi Dam – behind is the widest point of the river

We continued our tour while crossing the Mississippi and I touched the soil of Iowa for the very first time. There we went to have lunch at a place called ‘Pizza Ranch’ where we had again a lot of food it was really good though. Also I had a dessert pizza for the first time in my life. That was interesting!
Feeling all stuffed we went up to an lookout point where we could see the beautiful Mississippi river from the Iowa-side. Very close to that point we went up a scenic dirt road until we reached the idyllic ‘Wide River Winery’ – ready for tasting some wine. I have never done that before and all three of us had no idea which wines we should choose to try. Fortunately the lady who owns the winery was very lovely and helped us by just pouring in whatever she thought we would like. In the end we had 6 different wines – red and white ones, dry and sweet ones. The lady was so impressed that some Germans found the way up to her winery that she even made a picture of us which she uploaded on their Facebook page.

Wine tasting with Glenn and Ken

The lovely owner of ‘Wide River Winery’

Host sisters for 3 days 🙂

We made our way back to Illinois were we visited a very, very interesting place (that’s at least what I thought): a Dutch windmill right at the Mississippi river! Although I have lived in the Netherlands last year, I never visited a windmill – shame on me! But now I finally got the opportunity. You could already see the flags of the Dutch provinces waving outside in the wind. In the windmill one could try on the typical Dutch clogs and read more about the windmill’s history. Dutch settlers built a windmill and a dike right at the Mississippi river.
Next to it there is a visitor center where you could see more windmills from all over Europe as well as buy Dutch souvenirs there like tulips, porcelain from Delft and of course miniature windmills. With this short Dutch experience at least I was confused!

The Dutch – American windmill! Can you see the flag of Friesland??

Such a cliche!! hahaha

Yes that’s what Dutch people are wearing!!

The dike at the Mississippi – love it, so Dutch!

No this not me in Holland, it is indeed in Illinois!

We drove back to Rock Falls where we rest for a little while until we headed off to the next event. We had a picnic dinner with the other CBYX participants who stayed in that region and their host families. Everyone brought something to eat and although we haven’t seen each other just for two days there was already so much to tell. Everyone had great experiences and spent some lovely days in Illinois. While we had dinner together everyone had to introduce themselves and tell what they did so far. This was so much fun and we all laughed a lot!!! We rounded the night up with taking pictures from all of us.

Our lovely little CBYX group staying in Rock Falls, IL

Katharina, Kevin, Mathias, Korbinian, Benedikt, Selina, myself, Philipp, Sabrina & Svenja

Our lovely host family Ken and Lois 🙂

At home we chatted for a little while and showed Lois pictures from our families, friends and house at home until my eyes got heavier and heavier and I finally went to bed after this amazing day!

Our last full day in Rock Falls started with some homemade monkey bread. Probably one of the best things I ever had!!! Thanks to Lois who is an amazing baker! Ken, Selina and I then took off to go to Lois’ brother-in-law’s farm. Richard collects tractors and owns around 50 of those plus some kettle and many acres of cornfields! We walked around for a bit and he explained everything to us. We could sit on a tractor and enjoyed the cliche picture of an American farm.

Just one of the many farm bulidings – the hay is stored there

Well yes that’s me on a tractor hahaha

One of the 50 tractors that Richard collets

Selina and I on of his biggest tractors

The Germans checking out the American farm life

And another tractor, I look tiny

After that experience we went back to church where Selina and I helped some more with giving out lunches for kids who needed them. It was lovely working with these ladies together and learning more about what the organization is doing for the community.

Selli and I helping giving out lunches

For the afternoon Ken had the plan to take us to Dixon where we were visiting Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home.
Dixon is just 30 minutes away from Rock Falls so we got there in no time. Fortunately Glenn, Philipp’s host dad arranged some free tickets for us. We started the tour with a 10-minute movie about Ronald Reagan. It explained where he grew up and lived as well as how much he always loved his home town and never forgot where he was coming from. I thought that we would also get to know more about his life in general and especially his politics but no, it was simply about his relationship to Dixon. The tour continued in the house where he lived between age 9 to 12. A volunteering lady showed us around and explained everything. She did a fantastic job but we Germans where a little bit disappointed that there was nothing original. The house itself was rebuilt and the whole interior was made up. When they rebuilt it in the 1980s they asked Ronald Reagan and his brother what they thought it looked like back then. In my opinion this wasn’t really authentic but at least we got a first impression. I was hoping to learn more about Ronald Reagan’s career or at least see the original house of his childhood. Anyways, we got some nice pictures and later we also visited the river where he used to work as a lifeguard during his high school years. I was really impressed how big they promote Ronald Reagan in this region without having to much original material, the marketing section of Dixon did an incredible job there for sure!

That is Ronald reagan’s boyhood home

The 40th president of the USA and us

Back in Rock Falls we had a quick look around at a shop where Ken used to work and then came back to have our final dinner on the deck. We had homemade hamburgers and Selina and I helped preparing the corn we ate at the side. It was a great last evening to round up the incredible short time we spent in Rock Falls. We took it easy that night since the next morning we had to leave at 7:30 to catch the van that brought us to Chicago.

Preparing the corn

Eating the corn!

Lois was up all evening to bake cookies for us and prepare a huge lunch bag with sandwiches, crackers, sweets, veggies, water bottles and even some ice so that everything stayed cool.
On Wednesday, August 13st we left in the morning. It was lovely seeing everyone saying their goodbyes and I bet everyone had a great time.
Even though we first didn’t expect that our time in this little town would be very exciting still I enjoyed my days there a lot. Having Selina as my host sister for 3 days was great and I am glad we got to share this experience.
Thank you Lois and Ken and the community of Rock Falls for making us feel so comfortable and giving us the best time!!! And a special thank you to Lois for letting Selina and me gain 5 pounds just within a few days! 🙂

Anneke

Rock Falls, IL

Our Amtrak Train: New York – Chicago

On August 8th 2014 it was time to leave wonderful New York City to start the long journey to my final placement. 35 out of the 75 participants took an Amtrak train from New York Penn Station to Chicago Union Station. Since we were such a big group we were allowed to enter the huge metal train first. The only things we knew before our first Amtrak adventure were that there were sockets as well as WIFI and that it also might get a little chilly. So we all brought laptops, phones and some warmer clothes; ready for an 18 hour train ride!
Our first impression: AMAZING! The train was really spacious, we immediately saw the sockets and we could move the seats a lot so that we could sleep really comfortable. It seemed all perfect. We were happy, excited and said that we want to travel with this train through the whole country… well, a few hours later we thought differently for sure!

This was the view just a few miles behind NYC

We had fun for sure!!!

Everyone was in a great mood – in the beginning!

Lena and myself

The WIFI didn’t work which was not ideal but oh well we still had each other to chat and could use our laptops offline: transfering photos, writing our blogs, watching movies and so on.
In Albany, NY we stopped. First we thought for 10 minutes then it became 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 hour and 30 minutes… We had no idea what was going on. In the end we stayed in Albany for over 2 hours and actually it was supposed to be just one short stop. This is what happened throughout the whole trip: the train stopped in the middle of nowhere or ages at a certain stop, plus it was going super slow in general!

This is what we saw for hours and hours and hours: corn fields!

Everyone is always complaining about trains in Germany but now I would recommend everyone to take the American Amtrak first. You would never ever complain again. As it got later we went to the train’s restaurant. It was so expensive and on top of that the food was not good at all. We shared some pasta, which was seriously the worst pasta I’ve ever had in my life. While we had dinner there was no electricity all of a sudden which meant, no light. Dinner in the dark – what an experience!
Also, I don’t want to go into detail about that too much, but the restrooms were disgusting – not even working at all for some hours.
When we tried to sleep it felt like the air condition got even cooler than it already was! Even though we wore shirts, sweaters, jackets and scarfs we were still so cold. We fell to sleep eventually and when I woke up I saw that we were in Cleveland, OH. The train was going slower than ever and with a delay of 6 HOURS (!!!) we made it to Chicago after 23 hours!

Just a very short stay but that’s Chicago

We were starving, we were cold, we were tired but oh so happy to finally leave this Amtrak train!
Our group divided here and some traveled further to their final placements. 24 of us took another Amtrak train to Princeton, IL instead which we almost missed due to our major delay.
The train from Chicago to Princeton only took 1.5 hour which felt like nothing after the last trip. We got really excited to finally meet our first host family. The group divided again and 10 of us rode with a van from Princeton to a small town called Rock Falls, IL. Here my friend Selina and I were staying together with a host family for 3 days.

Anneke