Thomas Schneider's USA Blog

After seeing the fast runners of the Marathon at the south end of Central Park I went to the Queensboro Bridge to watch the main field of the Marathon. Afterwards I met with Jan in his apartment where we watched the last runners standing on the fire-ladder (see pictures, video, Jan's live report pictures and official website)

New York's spooky carnival-like Halloween Parade is a never ending gigantic party (see pictures, video, Jan's pictures and official website)

http://www.studivz.net/group.php?ids=616e14ea6b39decb

The Holy Name Society of St. Ann sponsored a Pizza Night. (see pics)

Today Vlad, Juliana and I watched the longest-running musical on broadway: "The Phantom of the Opera". A gigantic show with a big live orchestra and a very impressive stage design. Here are some pictures of our cast.

The 4th Annual Pet Parade in Hoboken awarded Best Costume, Best Group Costume and Best Pet/Owner Look-Alike. (see pics and hobokendogs.org)

On the last weekend in September about 160 servitors of the German National Academic Foundation met in Berkeley for the yearly North American get-together. We had many interesting talks of the chancellor of the UC Berkeley, the German consul general and a nice time during the workshops, sightseeing and tasty buffets. (see pics and video).

Today I found three totally different music groups while skating in the city that had one thing in common: they were all damn good ! (see video)

Today the African-American Day Parade took place in Harlem. (see pics and video)

Yesterday I was at the 50th German-American Steuben Parade that started with a mass hosted by "His Eminence Cardinal Edward Eagan" in St. Patrick's Cathedral that was read in German and English. Afterwards the German crowds moved upwards 5th street where the 3 hours parade took place. The parade was a nice mixture of American-German groups and groups from Germany that resembled the famous parades that take place during carnival in Germany - cool. (see many pictures and http://www.germanparadenyc.org)

This weekend was the Italian Festival in Hoboken with excellent live music and real fireworks in front of NYC's skyline. (see pics and video)

On Saturday I went to the 10th anniversary of P.S.1 Warm Up, a mixture of art and dance music with DJs and live bands: voted "Best club in NYC" and "#10 of The 20 Hottest Beach Parties in the world" (see pics and videos 1 2 3)

During August my two brothers Matze & Manni and Karo visited me for two weeks each. We had much fun while doing sightseeing in the city, visiting museums and relatives of Karo in Bethlehem,PA, or just relaxing on the beach and in Central Park.

I just came home from a 33miles (50km) trip with Leah, my bike. Actually I wanted to go to the Atlantic cost but when I entered Verrazano Narrows Bridge with my bike in order to drive from Staten Island to Brooklyn, two policemen told me that this bridge is for cars only and I have to leave the bridge immediately :-( ... On my way back home it started to rain cats and dogs. You won't believe how much water fits into a shoe... next time I'll trust in the weather forecast again.

After 9 days of preparation (Novena) with a mass and party in the evening, yesterday St. Ann's Feast - an old Hoboken tradition - was celebrated. After the mass at 10am with the archbishop of Newark there was a 6 hours parade through the streets of Hoboken where the women of St. Ann's Guild carried the statue of St. Ann with brass music from the Newark Symphonic Band and hundreds of people - a tremendous Catholic-Italian-American party all over Hoboken. Joe, a former school teacher hired me to help stacking candles at the Novena and the feast day. So I joined in and helped the men from "St. Ann's Holy Name", talked to many nice people (some came from California just for the feast day) and had a lot of fun. (pics and videos)

The Party came to Hoboken - 10 days of preparation to St Ann's Feast in our parish. A combination of masses, folk festival and live concerts. (pics)

Half a day without water in Hoboken as some workers broke a pipe: "We can drop laser bombs on hamburger-sized targets thousands of miles away but our "professional" contractors don't have a map of where the big important pipes are." Instead of doing my own cooking I had to go to my favourite pizzaman in Hoboken - Benny Tudino's - and enjoyed the famous "biggest slice in town".

Yesterday I went to CP again for a meetup skating event - we skated around CP and afterwards I did another small round with KJ we found some funny Hula-Hups. On my way home to 33rd street I found Mickey and Minnie-Mouse and two nice Bolivian Flutists. Today I hope to finish my Bachelor Thesis to have more time for recreation during the next weekends ;-) ...

Yesterday I went to Central Park to play Volleyball with some guys that play there every week - it was a lot of fun even if some of them played really good and we had to stop after two matches because it started to rain. (pics)

Drew, my roommate, brought me a newspaper of an artist who looks @ today's society in a critical way. Enjoy the newspaper and the videos at http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=3956 ! I'm lookin' forward to going to the MoMa with you August visitors.

Hi all,
today I went to the city to do go Shopping in Manhattan Mall and afterwards I attended a Volleyball Meetup in Hells Kitchen. We were 16 people in our twen- or thirties from all over the world - China, Greece, Romania, Germany (with two other girls - one of them doing her flight training to become a pilot in NJ) and all over the US. Street volleyball is a little bit like basketball as you won't like to slide over the ground as you do in indoor volleyball - nice game with smart people. All right, good night, Thomas

Drew's parents came on Saturday and brought their dog with them - he likes playing with Drew's new sweet kitten (see Images and Videos 1 2).

Today I went to the city with my skates - I just wanted to do a quick tour to Central Park but ended up with a 5h, 12km skate from 32nd street (final stop of the PATH train) surrounding the whole Central Park and back. The city was like a never ending party - so much music, people and concerts - WOW ! Have a look at the Videos - especially the Dancing skaters, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and the images... Party on, Thomas

Today I found a very impressing parish here in Hoboken - the "family of St. Ann's Parish, a Catholic faith community", who are "called by God to love, forgive, unite, listen and share" and "to be an exciting spiritual community guided by the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Capuchin Franciscan tradition of humility, simplicity and service to the most in need." as they say on http://www.st-annchurch.com.
A really simple but very impressive mass: As today is Father's Day in the U.S. the priest invited all fathers to come to the altar, sang a really cool prayer for them (yes, a really "Sister Act" like one accompanied by a rocky organ) and we gave them a standing ovation for all their care they gave and give us. The female cantor sang like Whoopi Goldberg and the songs really sounded like in a good pop opera. The best of all - they have a book where all the prayers and the whole sequence of the mass is written down - for language fools like me who otherwise would not understand as much and could not join in. Seems like I have found a new spiritual home for my stay here.
Happy father's day,
Thomas

Today I started taking some videos of the Hudson River, the Skyline and a Skate Park in Hoboken -> Videos.

As a registered user you can post comments on each blog and image, can receive a notification when new content is available (My account -> My notification settings) or share images from good ol' Germany (Create content -> Image). Have fun!

I just went to Hobiken and bought Leah - she is pretty, slim, fast and I got her for only 20 bucks - not for a night or a week - for a lifetime - repair service included... Have a look at her but close your mouth ;-) ...
On my way down Washington Street I met Susanne Wetzel who is professor for Cryptography at Stevens Institute of Technology. I know her from a summer academy of the "Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes" in Neubeuern last year as she was head of our working group. She asked me to have a dinner with her and maybe to hold a talk at Stevens during my stay... A really productive day.

Some of you asked what I'm doing here: I'm doing some research for my Diploma thesis on "Practical Secure Two Party Computation" during an internship at Security Technology Research Department, Bell Labs - Alcatel-Lucent in Murray Hill. I live in Hoboken at 1011 Willow Ave about 10 blocks from Hoboken train station from where the NJ Transit train takes about 50 minutes to work and the Path train about ten minutes to NYC .
Famous cryptographers are working in my department: Vlad Kolesnikov who supervises my thesis and Juan A. Garay - both like German Weißbeer like the one served at Loreley - the first German Biergarten in NYC we went yesterday after work. On December 11th I'm going to return to Germany to finish my Diploma thesis with Prof. Strehl as my supervisor.

Sittin' here in the flight from NUE 2 PAR. After having done the check-in really last-minute (it sounds strange to hear your name in the "you are too late" announcement while running through the terminal) the starting phase was as like sitting with Karolin in the 50m tall chain roundabout on the Berg yesterday. The world down there looks as like the well-known Google-earth pictures but where is the zoom-button? Clouds like balls of cotton wool below and the shining sun above our narrow airplane with 48 seats - feels like in an overcrowded lecture hall. It's not easy at all to say goodbye from all you, my friends from Winkelhaid, Erlangen, my family and most of all Karolin! (I miss U already 30 minutes after take-off and regret that you did not take the 2x23kg offer ":-( ). Thanks for all your congratulations and the wonderful party on Friday - especially your nice wishes in the book. However 6 months are nothing compared to a lifetime and I hope to let you take part in my adventure in the U.S. with some pictures and quick notes like this one. Let's go and lookin' forward to seeing some of you in August or September.
Thinkin' of you, Thomas

Hello everybody,
Here I will blog some impressions from my stay in the U.S. during the next 6 months.
I will write it in English in order to avoid switching between English and German too much.
Sorry for any language mistakes and have fun while reading and looking,
Thomas