Now that's Football!

On September 11th, a date with historical dimension, the team of Georgia Tech was guest in KU's Memorial Stadium. Ranked as #15 College team in the country, Georgia Tech's Yellow Jackets were actually expected to have a walk-over that day, especially after the first Kansas game...

Honestly I expected to be defeaten by at least 40 points that day... And now that was one of the only reasons to even go to the stadium (except for maybe the season ticket I bought...), as I wanted to at least see some points compared to that awful game the week before. After the first five minutes, the first GT touchdown and a fairly quiet Memorial Stadium, it seemed like there would be only one direction in that game: Towards our goal posts!

I'll make it brief, that was not the way it went! In a whole it was the best day one could imagine in our stadium... Awesome weather, a stunning half-time show (in memory of the happenings of nine year before) and a close and exciting win against a ranked team!

 

University of Kansas   28 : 25   Georgia Tech           

Well, see yourself!

Aside from that special game itsself I documented two of my favorite Jayhawk traditions during a Football game:
Ringing the keys just before a kick-off and 'Waving the wheat' after the Jayhawks scoring!

By the way: In the bottom left corner of this picture you can see one of my favorite T-Shirts... Yes, Kansas hates Missouri!
 
Today's lesson:
Down you go, Georgia Tech!

Some random stuff...

Now here's a random compilation of pictures I took since I came here! I think there's no category to sort them, so I'll maybe update a random section every now and then!

Have fun with it. Cheers!

Today's lesson:

Life's easier with a smile on your face...

Season Opener - First Football Game!

Now this was one of the days during my exchange year I was the most looking forward to:

Game Day!

               University of Kansas vs. North Dakota State University

Jayhawks vs. Bisons  

As expected, this was everything but business as usual. Parties everywhere, students pregaming since early morning hours, thousands of people coming to the city for the game... Some say the population of Lawrence almost doubles on a game day, which may be not so far from the truth as the capacity of the stadium is above 50,000 seats in a little college town, where lots of spectators from outside the city come to Lawrence's bars to watch the game. Another american tradtition for such big events (usually sporting events or rock concerts) is tailgating, which pretty much means such as having a barbecue beside the game either on the parking lot or on the lawn next to the stadium! Wiki says: 'Tailgating often involves consuming beverages and grilling food.' Yes it does...

Now after visiting one, I would recommend anybody who ever has the chance to see an american football game (at KU...) to do it! What you see on TV is nothing compared to what you get inside the Stadium... Great atmosphere, awesome show of marching band and cheerleaders and KU's traditional fan songs with 50,000 voices! 

So American: One of the University's two mascotts, 'Baby Jay' shooting T-Shirts into the crowd with a shirt-gun...

What an event! Roughly guessed I would say there's about 500 persons busy with entertaining you if you add all those athletes, coaches and artists in that bowl together... And now if the game would be interesting then, it would probably even be fun to watch the game itsself!

Well, it was not... The final score was 3:6... Compared to a soccer result this could maybe be a -2:-1 (in words: minus two to minus one)... North Dakota won... We lost... It wasn't because they were the better team, it was because they were the less bad team! Perfect for the first game ever... Some of the other results of that weekend (no kidding):

     Northern Illinois   10 : 27   Iowa State

              Illinois   13 : 23   Missouri

Western Kentucky   10 : 49   Nebraska

          Washington State   17 : 65   Oklahoma State

Today's lesson:

God doesn't like Kansas Football... 

An apartment evolves to a home!

Moving into a completely unfurnished apartment may be a little strange at the beginning for somebody who has not got any furniture. BUT: You should not forget things as great as craigslist or even 'Housewarming Parties'...


For those who do not know about those (I didn't either before coming here...):
Ccraigslist is a website that you could compare to ebay only without auctions. So you can offer everything online, from jobs to cars and paintings to furniture, and this can be pretty helpful for students looking for every different kind of stuff. Like us...
The Housewarming Party was offered to all international students during the orientation. Basically it was a run on different household items and pieces of furniture that were donated by families living in Lawrence. This means there was a little fight for the better items among the probably 80 present students. I'm actually a little proud to say that I won the fight with 20-40 chinese men for the best vacuum cleaner they had!

The pictures show some of the other items we could get! As you can see on there most of the things are pretty wrecked up, but as they say: 'Beggars can't be choosers!'... After all I even got myself a desk with a pretty nice chair, which I had to buy though.

Anyway, one of the funniest things so far was (and it still is) going shopping without having a car. This can be okay if you only wanna buy smaller stuff, but if not (and we are pretty good in overloading ourselves) it may sometimes look a little funny... But this is at least some entertainment for the people around us, especially on the street.

One last thing to make sure that nobody at home must be afraid I'm gonna starve to death:
Our fridge!

Impressions of the orientation week

• Being an exchange student is pretty cool...
•  There are a lot of nice people at KU. Students or stuff, this is one big family!
• Americans are awesome!
• There are a lot of asian people at KU.
• There are a lot of nice and cool asian people at KU!
•  Most of the asian people give thereselves enlgish/american names because they know that nobody will be able to remember there asian names... (Btw.: In dependance on that I now have a chinese name, which is 'ZhūZhū' (pronounced like the german 'tschutschu') and means somethink like piggy or a cute little pig, respectively. I think I should stop talkin so much bullshit....)
•  KU has many traditions, and most of them are really fun! This is obvious especially when it comes to athletes events!
•  There's always something happening on or around the Campus.

THIS IS GONNA BE A GREAT YEAR!

Mission accomplished - Apartment contract signed!

Our search for a place to live was succesfull! We had to drive around with our bikes for a long time, but in the end we found the best apartment on the menu!

Me and my two roommates will be living in a pretty nice appartment complex with pool, fitness room and free DVD rental. It's pretty awesome here, that's what I can tell you... Just have a look at the pictures. It's still fairly empty in it, but this is to be changed within the next while.

P.S.: As I left out new posts for a while I'll try to catch that up now... My life's seems to be just too busy here :)

The Jayhawk - KU's mascot

Now for all those who want to know about the mystical Jayhawk, there you are:

Mascots are believed to bring good luck, especially to athletic teams. KU is home of the Jayhawk, a mythical bird with a fascinating history. Its origin is rooted in the historic struggles of Kansas settlers. The term "Jayhawk" was probably coined about 1848. Accounts of its use appeared from Illinois to Texas. The name combines two birds-the blue jay, a noisy, quarrelsome thing known to rob nests, and the sparrow hawk, a stealthy hunter. The message here: Do not turn your back on this bird.

During the 1850's, the Kansas Territory was filled with such Jayhawks. The area was a battleground between those wanting a state where slavery would be legal and those committed to a Free State. The factions looted, sacked, rustled cattle, and otherwise attacked each other's settlements. For a time, ruffians on both sides were called Jayhawkers. But the name stuck to the free staters. Lawrence, where KU would be founded, was a Free State stronghold.

During the Civil War, the Jayhawk's ruffian image gave way to patriotic symbol. Kansas Governor Charles Robinson raised a regiment called the Independent Mounted Kansas Jayhawkers. By war's end, Jayhawks were synonymous with the impassioned people who made Kansas a Free State. In 1886, the bird appeared in a cheer-the Rock Chalk Chant. When KU football players first took the field in 1890, it seemed natural to call them Jayhawkers. 

How do you draw a Jayhawk? For years, that question stumped fans. Henry Maloy, a cartoonist for the student newspaper, drew a memorable version of the Jayhawk in 1912. He gave it shoes. Why? For kicking opponents, of course.

In 1920, a more somber bird, perched on a KU monogram, came into use. In 1923, Jimmy O'Bryon and George Hollingbery designed a duck-like Jayhawk. About 1929, Forrest O. Calvin drew a grim-faced bird sporting talons that could maim. In 1941, Gene "Yogi" Williams opened the Jayhawk's eyes and beak, giving it a contentious look. 

It is student Harold D. Sandy's 1946 design of a smiling Jayhawk that survives. The design purchased from Sandy and was copyrighted in 1947 by the KU Bookstores. The University of Kansas later registered the design as its official service-mark and it is still one of the most recognizable and unique collegiate mascots in the country.

Today's lesson:

Jayhawks rock!