Why actors shouldn't chew gum during a scene!

Well we shot some scenes yesterday at a gas station for my final project, which never will get finished because the cold destroyed the tapes. Anyhow, gladly I could rescue this blooper which demonstrates why actors shouldn't chew gum during a scene.

Jenny Chow

Hey,

I feel really guilty about not writing in here anymore but the problem is that I have so much to do right now. I really really don't have time. I hope I can write a short update soon because it happened a lot lately.

So that you don't get bored with the page I'm gonna show u another video we recently did for Script Analysis. Honestly, I'm not very proud of it technically speaking, but it was a one day project so I think we did fairly well. It's two scenes from a stage play we adapted for the screen. The name of the stage play is "The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow". It's about an adopted chinese girl, Jennifer, who grew up in California and suffers from a psychological disease that doesn't allow her to leave the house. In order to meet her real birth mother she constructs a robotic-self called Jenny. The two scenes are from the end of the play, the so called climax.

Enjoy!

Me and My Life - Part 2

Finally, here is part two of my introductory video!

Enjoy!

Me and My Life - Part 1

Finally, the day has come where I upload the first part of my video I had to do for my class Digital Tech and Film. Basically, the assignment was about shooting and cutting a video where we present ourselves and our life. That is what I did - presenting some things from my life back in Europe as well as some insights in my life now in the United States. Since I'm a filmmaker and there is a little producer in me I decided to upload the video in two parts in order to create a cliffhanger so that you have to come back in order to see the second part (if you haven't seen it already on facebook) - hehe ;

)More updates on recent events coming soon, but I get buried under a pile of homework, assignments and studies I have to do.

So long - enjoy!  

First Part (second will be shown at the beginning of November)

Chicago

This weekend, I did my little road trip to Chicago. I started my trip right after my Script Analysis class on Friday heading to Chicago for the international short film festival. I checked the rout on Google Maps and it said it's gonna take like 4 hours to get there. From Bowling Green, Ohio through Indiana to Illinois/Chicago. Well, it took me a little longer than that. First of all driving on a highway in the United States is not quite the same as it is in Austria. Your just allowed to drive 65 mph which is something like 110 Km/h if you speed chances are that a police car is chasing you down the highway giving you a speeding ticket. But the biggest difference is the distances, you drive like miles and miles straight ahead which makes you kind of dizzy 'cause it's boring, there is nothing to do actually and when you have a car in which the air condition doesn't work and it's freaking hot outside you get even more tired. So this lead to the thing that I almost fell asleep like three times opening my eyes in middle of two lanes. That's why I had to take some pit-stops for recharging my energy. The other thing was arriving in chicago on a Friday evening is not that of a good idea because I drove directly into a traffic jam which took me like an hour to get to the hostel I was staying. But, rumor has it that Chicago is the second shittiest city in the United States concerning traffic because whole Chicago is just one huge construction site - and I made it through it without any break down. Haha I'm really proud of me.

The reason why I went to Chicago was the International Short Film Festival which I attended on Friday night watching some nice comedy and scifi/action movies. Honestly, I think they weren't any special at all so I'm really going to consider submitting my short movies to similar festivals. After the screening, which ended 11 pm we had a little guided city tour in the famous Chicago trollies, which was actually pretty nice a city tour at midnight, but unfortunately I was really really tired from driving and the tour lasted like 2 hours passing by one skyscraper after the other I kind of fell asleep after the first hours hehe. But anyhow, the start was great and the had some free pizza and drinks. After that I headed directly back to the hostel trying to get some sleep in order to have enough energy for Saturday. I tried to get some sleep in my room with four french guys and a guy which nationality remained undefined to me on the, well I guess I can really say it on Americas worst mattress. I swear to god that was more anything else than a mattress - that was unbelievable it felt like lying on the ground in the woods or something. But better than nothing.

On Saturday I went up like 10 am, wandering around Downtown which didn't impress me at all. New York City still remains my favorite city so far. On 1:15 pm the screening of the shorts started again and I have been there until like 5pm. I took the train home, taking a nap and a shower and went to the Navy Pier which is some kind of an entertainment area because I wanted to see Transformers on the IMAX screen. When I arrived at 6:30pm the 7pm show was already sold out so I had to wait 3 hours for the next show. I really can tell you that 3 hours can be a very long time waiting on something. First of all I thought well it's not that bad, I ended up riding the fairys weel, the carousel and all the things by myself. All the people looked at my as if I were crazy because just couples and parents with their children were riding and me - all alone. That was a strange feeling, but I somehow started to like it, it was kind of fun the push yourself over the limit concerning embarrassment. Hehe - I finally attended Transfomers at 10pm which kind of overwhelmed me auditive and visual vise so that I had to throw up after the show very badly. Thanks for that Michael (Bay) and Steven (Spielberg)! ;)

The rest of the evening was just unbelievable strange and weird, If you wanna know what happened wait like 2 years and you can watch it as a movie because I really have to write a script based on some of those events. ;)

Finally!

Finally, I passed the driving exam on the road. This means I can legally drive in the United States, since I drove illegal the last few days. Hehe It was pretty cool actually since I had another examiner this time and he was pretty relaxed and did talk to me in full sentences instead of half finished imperatives like "right", "next left". The examiner even told me about Heineken kegs and asked me if I don't like their music because I had my iPod plugged to my radio. hehe

Anyhow I passed and I'm glad about that since I need it in order to get into bars as well because that's how they verify your age, otherwise I needed to bring my passport to the bars and even that option was uncertain since not all bars accept foreign passports.

I think I didn't talk about my car so far. I bought a car like 2 weeks ago a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire SE. It's a used car (obviously) and I got it for like 3.000 euros which is a pretty good price vor 127.000 miles. And it got automatic transmission - of course - I really start to like it, especially the cruze control. Hehe! I'm very happy with the car because it taught me a completely new feeling of freedom. Now I can go wherever I want and whenever I want to - that is a really great feeling. I also got my title and my license plates today and I also have insurance for my car so I'm set and ready to go.

This is why I'm looking forward to going to Chicago over the weekend since their is the international Short Film Festival. It's gonna be my first road trip and I'm going all by myself. I'm gonna start my trip tomorrow noon and I'm going to be in Chicago in about 4 hours, so by 4 pm I should be there. I'm curious how it's going to be - it's going to be a whole new experience. Hehe

I'm really going to try to take some pictures of the trip so that I can write a post about it. So, that was the update on one aspect of my life in the United States. Of course there is going to be more like what's the university like, where and how do I live and who are my roommates besides Martin. And I also plan several other road trips like to New York City in about 2 weeks for the New York Film Festival.

So stay tuned! ;)

FAILED!

Well, the time has come, finally it was time to get to my driving exam since I already have my car. I know I have been lazy with updating this blog, but that's because I really and when I say really, I really mean it - really - had a lot to do for university like homework and stuff. There is coming some more informations soon about everything you just missed so far. Anyhow - I have to update that now, because today I had an appointment for my driving exam ... and well - call me crazy but somehow I knew I won't going to pass it from the moment when I saw my driving examiner - it's this typical asshole you wish isn't going to sit next to you in the car during your driving exam. Anyhow, I think I did not that bad but obviously he just looked at his rules very strictly and didn't judge the overall driving experience. Anyhow - I failed! If you want, you can see my sheet online here - Road Test Scoring Sheet

My next appointment is next week Tuesday at 2 pm, keep your fingers crossed for me that I won't have to drive with the same officer.

My second birthday!

Finally ... finally ... finally! I declare the 24th of August as my second birthday. One week ago, I was surfing a little on eBay looking for some nice posters, as all of a sudden I found a screenplay. To be more precisely, the screenplay of Fight Club. For all of you who are not in the picture right now why I'm that excited about that - Fight Club is my favorite movie! Anyhow, I found it and it was not only the actual shooting script, which they used on the set, but it is also personally signed by actor Brad Pitt, yeah that's true baby! And now guess who won the bid on eBay! Yeah that right - me! This is the most precious thing I own I guess, cause it doesn't have any material value to me rather than emotional value. I was so excited when I found it today in the mailbox. It's soooo fucking awesome! Yeah!

Still try to orient ...

So second week of orientation and things still change. We finally moved in to our apartment. (more information on that will follow shortly with pictures and roommate description). We also started registering our courses which was a bit of strange 'cause we had to wait until this week. Unfortunately, most of the courses were closed already so I need to go to professors personally next week and ask them if there is room for one more student. Currently I have 12 credit hours which is enough to be a full time student here but I want at least 3 credit hours more which means one course. At the moment I'm registered to the following courses:

* Introductory Writing (English Course)
* Introduction to Film
* Film I: Cinematography
* Digital Tech & Film

I try to get in either Script Analysis or History of Film. I also got the list of books I need for my courses and they are insanely expensive. I pay for my 3 books for Introductory Writing 150$.

I also plan on starting a short film project outside of courses, for which I contacted a professor via e-mail. He is pretty nice and told me that I should come to one of his office hours because he wants to get in touch with me and he will support me with knowledge and equipment - so I'm going to start writing the script soon which will be a short movie in length of 5 - 10 mins. The movie is going to be character driven, this means it won't contain a lot of action, otherwise it would get too complex, Yeah well, I'm curious about that.

Yesterday Martin and I have been too Wallmart with the two asian girls because they have a car and they drove us. I just can tell you that buying grocery or whatever in the US is insane. Everything is soooooooo big, they are just family sizes and like 10 different brands for each product. I thought I drive crazy. We have been there for 2 and 1/2 hours to get our stuff and I was just exhausted afterwards - Unbelievable. I really need get used to it.

BTW: We found a piece of home in the middle of Ohio:

This week all the freshmen came to Campus. Finally, the town gets crowded. There are several events this and the next week. Yesterday, was the welcome bash at the baseball field. You can see Freddy and Frieda at the picture above which are the mascots of BGSU. We got free food and beverages. It was also a band playing. It was quite fun.

Today, I spent my day with Andres a guy from Costa Rica. He is also an international student. We played for 2 hours Playstation 3 which was pretty cool and headed to a dodge-ball tournament. Afterwards we went to the arcade and had some pizza. I also noticed that since I just spoke english the whole day that this somehow exhausts me a lot. My english gets worse and worse and I simply can't talk properly anymore - it sounds like school english, just worse. You can even see it right here in the post. I guess I just need another couple of weeks to get used to it.

Anyhow, that's it for today, I added some more photos in the orientation week set. Just click Orientation Week on the right hand side.

My Precious ...

Today - Finally! :) I woke up at 8:45 and got up. Took a shower, shaved myself and get all cleaned and nice - because I got my MacBookPro today. Fred arrived at Founders Hall 9:30 with his roommate. The three of us drove up to Michigan which is approx. one and a half hour from Bowling Green. Since we were to early we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks and headed to the Apple Store.

It was 11:10 when we arrived at the Mall and it was like heaven - hehe! They had everything you can imagine - unbelievable. One of the employees headed to me and asked me if he could help me. I told him that I want my MacBookPro today and told him everything I wanted started with the configurations of the machine to the software I wanted. 10 minutes later he was back with all my stuff inclusive an iPod nano which I received fro free - yeah! :) We took the stuff and drove back to Ohio - stopped at a BestBuy which is something like Saturn or Media Markt and at Burger King, gettin' one of those tasty veggie burger.

Almost the rest of the day, I was in front of my Mac installing programms and configuring everyting. I like it pretty much. It's awesome! :)

You can see the whole story told in pictures here:

The Apple Story

By the way, it was also the first time that I had the chance to try out the new Apple iPhone. Oh my got - I just want it. It's sooooooo cool! Yeah, maybe some time in the future. We'll see! ;)

This week orientation week started on Thursday. On Thursday we had some presentations from different people on what they expect from us and what rights we have concerning the university as well as the united states itself. The most funny presentation was on how to act properly in relationships. Meaning in relationships with authority like professors as well as personal relationships and romantic relationships. It was not that new to us since we almost have the same rules, but it was funny when people from eastern country asked things like why man sometimes hug man or why it's normal that a girl can kiss you on the cheek for saying "Hello". It was pretty interessting since we are so used to our way, that we sometimes don't see other perspectives on the world.

On firday we finally got out Photo ID cards. You can see mine on the top of the page. We also finally got our BGNet-Accounts with which we can log-in on computers on campus or as well join the BG-Network on facebook - hehe. You can find several interessting people on there. We also had some presentation on the health care system and on insurance. We already bought insurance in Austria, but since we are not sure if it covers everything the B.G.S.U. requires we had to let it check by the insurance department. If worse comes worse, I have to buy a seconde insurance from B.G.S.U. If that's the case, I swear to god I will go mad and jump from every roof I found, since I can afford it then! :)
There was also a very boring presentation on tax income, which I propably have to do when I intend to work on campus for the TV station. Anyways, I will worry about it when it's going to be serious. Concerning working, since I just have a F-1 visa, I'm only allowed to work on campus and not more than 20 hours a week, otherwise I could get in big trouble.

Today, we had to get up early, 'cause we hade to do our english exams, written and orally. Since, they had problems getting into Hays Hall, we had to move to another building with no computers - meaning we had to do the written exam by hand. It was not that difficult, I wrote an essay on the topic "Can the character of a society be meassured by the heros, men and women chose". It was pretty fun. We had exactly 60 minutes to write the essay. The second part was the oral exam, it was a conversation of 10 minutes with someone of the ESL (english as a second language) department. The person with whome I had the conversation reminded me so badly on Lorelai Gilmour. It was pretty funny. I also told her that she looks like this very actor and she took it as a compliment. I guess it can't hurt my "grade". Based on this test we are going to be placed in classes to improve our english skills, both orally and written-vise. I'm so curious how I did on the tests. We are going to get to know on tuesday how we did on the test and where we are going to be placed.

That was pretty much it for today. We also had a picnic lunch sponsored by the Enclave, the appartments we are going to live in. We are going to move in on Wensday, sooooo looking forward to it. Finally, we also got cellphones, so we are reachable and can make phonecalls whenever we want. It gives us a bit of the freedom back we were used to in Austria. I got actually a pretty fancy phone from Verizon. I also had some credit card problem today which I got fixed instantly, so that there could be nothing in the way to get my brand new Apple tomworrow. I'm soooooooooooo badly looking forward to it, 'cause I haven't had a notebook since more than a week now. I just need it. I promise, I will document every step of the trip to Michigan to the Apple Store! Hehe

Writing-Mode of the Cellphone

Speaking-Mode of the Cellphone

Cinema ...

This evening we've been to the cinema. Actually it was the first time to watch a movie in theater since I'm in the states. We decided to watch "The Bourne Ultimatum" with Matt Damon. It's actually the third part of the Bourne-films. It's were everything resolves and we get to know what's behinde the whole Bourne conspiracy. The resolution was not that bad, I have to admit.

The only thing I really have to criticize is this new trend in Hollywood when it comes to camera work. Some directors and their DoPs (Director of Photography) have the urge to add realism to their movie by using a documentary-like camera work. We know this from films like "Miami Vice", where Michael Man used it quite good. At the Bourne Ultimatum, it was used to much as I think with all the handheld camera and the zoom-ins and zoom-outs. It's getting really exhausting and distracting after some time.

There was one thing which surprised me a bit. I was sitting in an american movie theater, expecting to watch an american action movie and after 10 minutes or so german actor Daniel Bruehl appears on the screen. It was quite strange, because I didn't expect someone like him to be in such a movie, but why not. He just played a quite short part in the movie, but he did his job good, even with the english! Hehe

So all in all, it was quite a action-loaded movie, with a bit of hidden american heroism. Anyhows, it was entertaining with some nice staged scenes.

By the way - at the beginning, they screened some trailers. One struck me pretty much. It's the new movie from "Saw" director James Wan (Saw 1). It's name is "Death Sentence". If you are interessted in the trailer, just click the play button an enjoy it! ;)

Waiting and Exploring ...

Now we have been two days and 14 hours in Boring Green. No, it's not a typo, it's aword play. We are bored out of our minds. Really! We are still currently living on campus, meaning little bedrooms with nothing included. :) We have been at the mainstreet three times so far an tried to find something interessting, but that's quite impossible here. It's a big area actually, but nothing to do. I hope but I'm confident that this is going to change when the actual courses starts.

Yesterday, we have been at a shopping mal. It was pretty big, with an H&M, Pottery Barn, ... and a lot more. I just got some nice magazins dealing with filmmaking. That's pretty cool here, 'cause you won't find such magazines in austria or germany. Afterwards we went to Fred's house watching television and I was as happy as a child on christmas, because I watched a epsiode of House M.D. (Dr. House) of the third season which is not coming to europe untill this fall - but the best thing is that at the end of august Fox is going to show the fourth season of House, so I will donwload the third season via iTunes, watch it and catch up with the fourth season in fall. Live is good! I'm also looking forward to Nip/Tuck. That's going to be a blast. ;)

After having lunch at Subway, Martin and I were wandering around campus. We haven't been there, I don't know why because it's sooo awesome. It's like you would imagine it ... it's like you are on location of the Gilmour Girls or one of a romantic teenie comdy movie - Haha. You need a lot of time to go around the whole campus once. Never try to compare it with the area of the Salzburg Univertsity of Applied Sciences. We even found a large building in the middle of the campus which has a bookstore with all the books you need for your courses as well as a Starbucks, a Wendy's (a huge fast food company like Mc Donalds or Burger King) a supermarket, an arcade, ... it's so awesome. I'm pretty looking forward being here every day. I think it's going to be cool.

By the way. I knew it, the whole pregnancy stuff is all a big hoax. Yeah right, stork and female human being - this is were babies really come from:

Tomorrow starts our orientation week, it's for all new undergraduate exchange students. They prepared a whole lot of thing for us such as information events, an english test, a TB test but also some fun things like ice skating, movie night and a barn dance (pretty curious about that). So there are a lot of things ahead of me I'm going to write about the next days. Check back to see how "Boring Green" turns into "Bowling Green". ;)

The 1st day ...

The first day started with the humming noise of a ventilator. Yeah, we better get used to it since we are really going to need them for the next months. Ohio is in the north of the states but since they haven't any gulf stream the weather is more extreme. Currently it's pretty hot here. High temperatures and a high humidity, but I'm sure we get used to it. If not, next week we are going to move in, in our actual appartment which has a pool. Yeah!

After we got up today, we moved from Fred's house to campus. Precisely - Founders Hall! We got our rooms for the next week which are okay for a week I guess. Martin and I have seperate bedromms with a desk and a closet and we share one bathroom together. After putting our stuff in the bedrooms, we checked out the surrounding and found a nice pizza-pub opposite of the campus where we decided to get a pizza. The pizza was just 9" but neither of us could eat it entirely, so we had to take the rest with us. We looked a bit around and found a nice advertising in a shop-window which proves some of the views we had of america.

Anyhow, after we checked out the surrounding, Fred left work at about 3 o'clock pm and we drove to Enterprise which is a car rental company. You really need a car here because without a car you can't do nothing here. Unfortunately, to rent a car you need an international driving licence which neither of us posseses. So, since we wanted to know how to get such a driving licence we drove to the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicle. They told us that we could get an international driving licence (idl) via AAA which is something like OEAMTC in Austria. Unfortunately, it's just the oher way round, so that american citizen get the idl from them. So, the only possibility of driving a car here in Ohio is to get an american driving licence for which we have to do a computer-based test and a practical test, this means driving on a parcour as well as driving on the actual street. Since, we are not permanent residence of Ohio untill the 20th of August, we can't take the tests. This means, we will be carless untill that and propably rent a bike. Well, at least we do something for our fitness. Hehe :)

After that, we went to the Enclave II Appartments. The one we are going to move in next week. We just wanted to see, if everything is okay with ouer leases and took a tour since we were there. Honestly, I only can say - Jackpot Baby! Hehe ... it's going to be soooooo cool! But more on that when we move in next week.

Yeah, that was pretty much the first day in BG. Not to bad. Let's see what the next couple of days, weeks and months are going to bring. :)

A Red-Eye ...

So the day actually cam when my flight to the states departed - so my journy beginns. I took an airport-taxi from vienna city to vienna Schwechat (the airport) where my flight to London-Heathrow left. There were actually 2 connection flights ahead of me. So, Ieneterd the flight and since there were no internet access at the airport or the plane and since I was travelling without any technical equipment but a digital camera and my phone, I couldn't blog from there. This is why I invented time-delayed-blogging which means I wrote the blog manually with a pen on paper and I'm going to post it in here. The advantage is, it's not a summary of the situation which I remember it, but it's right from the spot with all the emotions and impressions I had at that very moment. I call this section RFOL (right from on location). They are specially marked so that you can identify them easily. I also provide the place and the time on location. So here comes the first RFOL-Entry:

1:00 pm (+1 CEST) / Vienna
Finally ... the plane took of. We had a one-hour delay because of luggage problems. We had to sit in the plane, not knowing exactly what was going on. that was not the biggest problem we had to face. I really don't want to exeggarate here, but it was way mor hell than any terrorists hijacking the plane, well it's a BABY on board. Dear god, I now officially commit: "I do hate babies from now on and shall never have one of my one" - that's my contribution to a quite and relaxing future. I mean it's unbelievable. They are as small as a football, can't even concentrate on one thing for more than 10 seconds but cry like there is no tomorrow and that for an insanely long time. After 45 minutes, I kind of passed out or dose off, or whatever. Seems to be an evolutionary technique to pass out before crossing the line to insanity. However, we are currently 37.000 feet above the earth, the embodiement of Satan, young Damien, asleep or whatever an I just got a a cheese sandwhich with orange juice - life seems to turn around to the bright side. I really need to use the chance and are going to focus solely on my cheese sandwiche now.

So, that were the first impressions from the plane. The flight turned out to be quite okay the baby slept for the rest of the flight. I read some magazines and chilled and we arrived London Heathrow, where the real and pure horror was waiting for me. But more in the RFOL-Entry I wrote right after surviving it:

4:45 pm (0 CEST) / London
I'm pissed and I'm fucking angry! This can not happen. I don't understand it, I'm not quite a fan of bad expressions but if there is nothing other than that to express it precisely so please allow me to use one: FUCKING ASSHOLES!
Okay, here is the story. Since we had an one-houre delay in Vienna, we arrived one hour late in London, but I still had two hours an 45 minutes to get from terminal 4 to terminal 3. The lady in Vienna explained it quite nice to me:"It's just a short bus ride, another security check and that's it." Well, the bus ride was indeed short but the security check turned out as 700 people (no jocking, it was for real 700 people) in front of me and one-fucking dedector you walk through. Can you imagine that? One-fucking dedector for 700 people?
Someone told me once, staying calm and positive thinking brings you further than any stress - well, it doesn't bring you past 700 people to one dedector. I guess that's lesson number one on my journy to adulthood. I talked several times to the herd-observers, as I called them, that I really need to catch the flight but they assured me that it's going to be okay. As there were only 30 minutes left, I asked them one more time and then, finally they brought me to the front. 30 minutes before my flight departed!!! Then, it took me another 25 minutes to fight for getting through this fucking dedector so that I had only 10 minutes left to get to the gate. I ran as fast as i could and of course the gate closed already. I knocked like crazy against the door because I really needed to get to Chicago on time, since I have abnother connection flight from there to Detroit. Thank god, a flight assistent opened the door and checked for me to get a seat on the plane, since they gave away my original seat already.
Finally, I entered the plane all sweaty and gasping for oxygen 5 mintes before take-off. This is simply not exceptable. I'm going to complain about this for sure and I do want at least an excuse. Assholes! However, while I was searching my seat 36A, there was a man starring at me, saying:"I know exactly how you feel". At least I'm not alone on that. Anyhow, I'm waiting for my meal now, watching a movie on my little private screen in front of me and afterwards, I'm going to sleep to get at least some energy back for the last part of my journy to Bowling Green.

This was the last quater of the 700 people in fron of me.
There were another four hallways full with people around the corner in the front.

I know, there are some expressions in it I woulnd't have wrote afterwards. But, since this were my feelings at the very moment I thought I'm not going to cencore it, since it should be honest and authentic. Well, the rest of the journy turned out to be more relaxing than the beginning. After the meal, I had a little chit-chat with my seat/neighbour who was I business man from asia who travells several times a year to the United States. After that, I took a sleeping pill and slept for 4 hours, which was pretty recovering. We landed in Chicago, where I had to go the the immigration service, since this was my port of entry, as well as to the US costume with my luggage. I had also to switch the terminal and stuff, but it was all way more comfortable than in London. I had even a little time to grab a bite at Mc Donalds. The last last part of my journy was then the connection flight from Chicago to Detroit, which lasted approx. 1 hour. I didn't remember a lot because I was sleeping for 50 minutes or so, I even slept away the take-off. :)

In Detroit, Fred ( a formerly exchange student in Salzburg from Bowling Green) picked me up. We also met Martin, at a different terminal and drove then to Bowling Green - which lasted another hour and some minutes. I have to admit I really was relieved to arrive in Bowling Green on time, after the problems I had to face at that day. Anyhow, we drove through Bowling Green to Fred's house. It's a quite and so typical american neighbourhood which everyone knows from shows different Tv-shows. We saw some raccoons, squirrls and rabbits running around on the street - it was kind of strange. hehe We went for sleep early, because Martin and I was pretty exhausted and we anted to prepare for our first day in Bowling Green.

On friday the 3rd of august, I had my fare-well party back home in upper austria. I must admit it was quite a bad time for a fair-well party, since so many people were on vacation or had to work, but some of my closest friends took the time to party with me a last time. The whole thing started at 9 o'clock with a little chit-chat and nice drinking.

A little later, they all surprised me with presents like cakes decorated with fruites like the austrian and the american flag. That was such a nice idea ... and such a tasty one too! :)
They also made a kind of a friendbook, where a lot of them wrote personal stuff in it with photos and letters and little presents. I was very overwhelmed by that, and allready read it severl times so far, and I will open it another dozen times the coming year, that's for sure.

After that the whole party actually started, we drank booz from a bucket through straws or sniffing snuff, the switzerland tradition which keeps Jonas alive. We partied untill 6 o'clock in the morning - and it was such a nice end. It really was. Thanks to all for coming, I really appreciated it.

Here, you can find the pictures of the party:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fincher85/sets/72157601208780212/

The day after, we cleaned the house and Astrid drove Manuel and me to the train station in Linz, since he was going to London this day and I drove to vienna for a last night out. I met Michael there. We watched the Simpsons movie, in english of course, and went out in vienna - unfortunately I was pretty tired from the party last night, that we went home at 2 o'clock am and went to sleep in order to be full of energy for the journy to the United States of America the next day.

Going Abroad is Good

Well, there are several good reasons why to study abroad. To learn another culture, to get independent - but one very good reason why everyone should go abroad is to learn the language of a country. There are some people who I think should go a abroad - yeah well - and some of them should stay there too! ;)

The Treshold

So, now I think the time has come where I really do realize what's going on. Untill today, the whole moving to another country thing was a pretty nice thought and it was somewhat away, but now, 5 days before I enter the airplane, during packing things and cleaning up my room I somehow realised that's for real baby! And it's going to change my whole life. It's not vacation and it's not youth camp. You ... are ... actually ... moving ... thousands ... of ... miles ... away. Something like that echos constanly through my head.

The consequence: I need to grow up. I need to take respoonsibility and I need to care for my self. Of course I thought I did that already during my time in Salzburg - bullshit - it's nothing like that. An one-hour train ride and 20 € and I was home where someone took care for me if I needed it. But it's not going to happen now. I'm not really scared, I guess I'm more - hmm - sad. I need to pack my past into boxes and put it up in the attic. It's truely a strange feeling.

Anyhow, I think this feelings are neccessary in order to say goodbye to all and everything and close a really cool chapter in my life - but you know what, this means I'm also going to open another chapter and I'm fucking curious about what the author is going to write - hehe

Chaos all over ...

So, most of the stress is over now. All exams are done, and done fairly well as I think. All projects are finished including the first season of "The Sign" which I wrote and directed. I moved out from Salzburg, after a nice cleaning session with Manuel, thanks for helping again! I have now my visa, my flight-tickets, insurance and hopefully an appartment - at least we signed the lease. ;) If that works out it's going to be really cool :)

Currently I'm trying to organize my life or in geek term, I defrag and backup my life - haha! It means rearranging and throwing things out I won't use or I won't need anymore, making room for new stuff (dollar sign appearing in my eyes) ... Yesterday I started sorting out my clothes. My god, I found pieces in my closet which I could hardly look at - meaning they were so 90s ;) haha It's been a lot actually which I won't wear anymore, but that's okay so I have more space to buy new things in the USA. ;)

Meanwhile, I try to backup all my videos and photos I created the last 12 years in order to take them with me on an external hard drive, since I sell both my notebooks on eBay. Honestly, I'm kinda addicted to eBay right now. I sell everything which brings a quick buck - I guess better than loosing it's value while getting dusty at home, right?

Oh btw, don't worry if you fear that I won't write anymore without notebook over there, I will but I'm going to be a Mac then! :)

Anyhow, this was a short update on what's going on in my life concerning the moving to the States. Since I have more time now, I'm going to write more often - promised!

The Hero's Journey

I have always wanted to go to the USA. I have been fascinated by this country ever since. Of course I'm not that naive that I woulnd't be aware of negative aspects of the United States or that I believe the USA is like it's portrayed in Hollywood movies and drama serieses. Anyhow, there is something which attracts me ... is it the so called "American Dream" where everything is possible? ... is it the saying "The Land of the Free"? ... or the sparkling and overwhelming fantasy world the dream factory "Hollywood" produces ... Actually, it doesn't matter what attracts me, I just need to know that I'm attracted by it and that I got the chance to live there for a year and study filmmaking.

The Salzburg University of Applied sciences gave me the chance to go to United States, more exactly to Bowling Green, Ohio for studying. It was granted in January 2007 and it was far, far away then ... but now ... it's pretty close, and sometimes closer than I'm aware of.

Two weeks ago, Martin (who is also going to study at Bowling Green), David (who is going to South Utah) and I went to Vienna in order to get our visa, which is not as easy as getting a visa for another country. You need to fill out a thousand forms, there is even one for men between the age of 16 and 32 with questions asking for war and weapon experiences and even if you plan a terroristic action in the United States of America. Well, well ... I really do wanna meet the person who invented that question. However, after a lot of organisational work for two weeks we finally were in vienna at the US-embassy claiming our F1-visa (Non-Immigrant Student Visa). At the entrance, we had to hand in all our electronical gadgets and they scanned us for metallic objects. Aftwerwards, we had to stand in line at a counter where we had to hand in the thousand forms we need to fill out. They took our fingerprints electronically and after 10 minutes, they told us that our visa has been issued and they whished us a pleasant stay at the Unites States of America - Thanks again for that, old lady!

The last four days at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences are ahead of me. I'm going to write my last three exams, and than I'm over and done with it. My room gets emptier and emptier with every object of utility I sell, like my television, my lamp, my microwave, etc. and all those signs tell me that the day, when I fly to the United States of America and are going to stay there for at least a year, is coming closer and closer.

Now, there are only 6 weeks for me in Austria 'till I'm sitting in the plane heading to Ohio, and a lot of things like an apartment, an insurance, a scholarship, ... needs to be organised. Actually, I'm a little scared, but good scared though. It's something new, exciting but uncertain, and to be honest , I like that feeling a lot. It's gonna be stress, but the fact that I know that I'm going to study filmmaking in the United States of America makes it all worth the work. Let the Green American Dream beginn.