First week at Omaha and UNO

Posted: August 29, 2010 in stay in omaha
Last Sunday we went for the first time to the HPER Building (Health, Physical Education and Recreation) to do some workout. The building is still under construction, but you are even allowed to use the fitness center, some sports halls and the indoor Olympic swimming pool. After that we were invited to a picnic with many inhabitants of Omaha which had prepared a huge buffet for dinner. It tasted very good and we played a very exciting soccer game but with a bad loose at the end :(

From Monday to Wednesday I had my first class sessions. I'm glad that we were able to change our chosen graduate courses into undergraduate versions because that would have been a tight semester ;). But after this week I changed another course because of some misunderstandings in content and grading, so I'm finally enrolled to these classes:
IT for Development,
Database Administration,
Decision Support Systems and
Information and Data Quality

My first impression of the lectures, classes and contents is very good. Everybody is friendly and helpful and I think that I will enjoy these classes ;)

Later this week Stefan visited us at Omaha, before he will fligh to his international semester at Vancouver. Therefore he rented a Chrysler 300C and we drove to downtown of Omaha. It took about 30min from Scott Village to there, so it's a quiet big city... but we were very impressed of the city itself. Finally we found the old market and we went to a restaurant for a burger ;) The city is also very charming at night as you can see on the pictures I've uploaded.

Yesterday we went finally to the Zorinsky lake close to Omaha. Markus got some very good information about the lake but when we arrived, we saw that the water fun park was closed (but why? It opened new this summer?) and you are not allowed to swim in the lake. So we relaxed there and caught some sun ;)

Here you have some impressions of the first week, enjoy it:

Tobadill, Munich, Geneva, New York, Omaha

Posted: August 19, 2010 in stay in omaha
My trip to Omaha and UNO started on the 17th of August at 1am after a 3h sleep. We (my girlfriend, her sister and me) got a little coffee breakfast and then drove to the Munich airport. The Check-In at the airport was a little bit complicated, because at this time, not many people work there, but with the help of my girlfriend, everything worked smoothly ;). The following trip to Geneva was, except of a hard landing, ok.

On the Geneva airport I heard, that the flight to New York got a 55 minutes delay, because of a thunderstorm. Waiting time got shorter by a free WiFi ;). But now I got stressed to get the continuing flight to Omaha. I had to get my luggage, make the passport control and change the terminal in New York within 30min. Of course, it was too short and so I missed the continuing flight. Continental only flies two times a day from New York to Omaha, therefore I had to wait 7h for the next continuing flight :(

A agent at the airport in New York gave me a hint, to get there also a free WiFi. So I skyped some hours with my girlfriend. Some sleep and waiting and the time goes (thankfully) by. The last flight was a little bit cold and loud, but I was more than happy when I arrived at the Omaha airport. Thanks to the guys of UNO for picking me up at the airport!

On the first orientation day, we got a little impression of the Health Services at UNO and the US. Made also a TB-Test and then got a campus tour. We visited some important buildings at the campus and got our first meal in the US, a Chinese meal ;). After some more presentations, we bought all the important things for our room at Scott Village (Bed, Bath, Kitchen...). But finally we were glad to be at home to get a "normal" sleep ;). Here you have some impressions of my trip to Omaha:

Vienna trip and confirmed visa

Posted: July 20, 2010 in preperation
As you already know I made these days a trip to Vienna to get to the appointment at the US-Embassy and to do a sightseeing tour through the city.

Although I got some different information about the location of the embassy (thx Melli :P), we found directly to the building by looking up the address of the embassy on their homepage. High security standards showed me how it will be staying in the USA ;). But the interview and the organization was very nice.

Beside the appointment we visited a lot of attractions in Vienna. For example the Schloss Schönbrunn, Belvedere, Hunderwasserhaus, Figlmüller (best schnitzel worldwide ;)), Donauturm and the Rathaus. We made a run to a public viewing, but one hour before the finals in the world championship started, we weren’t able to see the video wall anymore, so we raced back to the hotel and watched it there ;)

All in all a very nice, but very HOT, trip to Vienna. Maybe anytime again with more time available and in spring or fall season.

Two days later I received the Passport with the clipped in Visa back. Now I have finished my preparation for my international semester at UNO...

Enrolled to classes

Posted: July 07, 2010 in preperation
Last month I was looking for classes which I would like to visit and finally enrolled to this 4 classes:

Visa Paperwork?!?!

Posted: July 06, 2010 in preperation
After filling out a lot of forms and pages and repeating filling out my personal data about 50 times, I (hopefully) did the nessecary paperwork to get the visa on monday ;) I did have a lot of problems and I thought i should write some information down, for your help and your better and much faster success in filling out these forms:

What you need:

• Data of 2 persons, which are able to confirm your personal data. Not allowed are close family members!
• A foto, which match the rules of the embassy
• Your Job experience in the last 5 years (dates and contact information)
• Your education data. Everything after your elementary school
• The DS-2019 which has been sent to you by the american university
• Your Passport

Very important:

• Save your DS-159 after every step!! I forgot it, and have to fill it out for four times, because the timer was running out all the time :P

Hope this information might help you for your visa-application ;)