USA: Ready or not, here I come. What should I pack

[Kellanved]

Poll question: USA: Ready or not, here I come. What should I pack

Well, the time is almost there; I'll visit the USA for the first time as an adult. Now the question is, what should I bring along for family and friends stateside, who made it possible for me to obtain a cheap (and most interesting) place to sleep.
Thanks for your help :bounce: .

[SmileyBoy]

1. Bring your bumper sticker, and...

...a Berlin Thunder jersey.;)

[Kellanved]

2. well

Berlin Thunder and the whole NFL Europe are a pretty sorry affair. In effect a training camp for NFL players, with no connection to the actual "home" of the team. People watch the games to see cheerleaders and eat American food, nobody cares about the sport. Besides: in sports I'm a Frankfurter.

As for the sticker: I'll probably bring a few anyway, but they'll end up on fridges, not on cars. (they are very cool, the Green party has the best posters and stickers - just not the politics to match it).


Thanks!

[ScrewyRabbit]

3. A nice halb-trocken riesling from the Mosel Valley

In fact, bring me one, too!

[Kellanved]

4. I considered it. In fact I still do

But Mosel wines are extremely hard to judge, I'm not enough of a wine expert to find a really good Mosel wine on my own. If you have an idea, I'd be happy to bring it along. However I'll only be able to bring it as far as NY. :-(

My favorite German wine is Hessian and the Logo is somewhat "difficult" to explain... (not to mention the name: Assmannshäuser - Matcom, is that your's ?)

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Assmanshauser Rotwein...

is still one of my favorite German wines, although I haven't seen it over here in years. I think the importer went out of business, and there's too much good wine flooding the market anyway.

I wish I could get some, since no one believes Germany can make a decent red. The ones who've tasted this stuff have been converted.

Belgian butter wafflecakes and gen-yoo-wine Nutella with the palm and coconut oils and are tough to find around here, too, but I remember them in damn near every store in Germany.

(Actually, now that I think about it,it's probably a good thing they're both tough to find around here.)

So, you're coming over here but keeping it a secret where you'll be?

[Kellanved]

10. Assmanshäuser is a really great wine

But it is not even easy to find in Germany, I guess not much of it is exported. And of course, the name and the Prussian eagle make it an awkward affair on tables.

As for my destination, that is not really a secret: 9 days, two of which in NYC. One week in Connecticut, at an University, where I'll have a few lectures, a workshop and interviews concerning postgraduate studies.
That is where the secret starts, there won't be that many Krauts visiting the Uni at the time, and I'd rather not say the name and location of the U in public. Especially as the postgrad part is really still wishful thinking on my part, at least at the moment.

[Kellanved]

5. D'oh forgot one

One in fact that seems to be in high demand : Feigenheini, the vilest alcoholic beverage ever.

To explain it, imagine me, a west German Freshman, enrolled at a west-Berlin University, but living in east Berlin. So, my first invitation to a party in the area came along, and I had to bring something alcoholic. Despite the .com boom I was pretty broke at the time and the mysterious eastern supermarket seemed to offer a solution: Feigenheini.
A happy fig smiled from the old-style cover, praising the product to be a clean 40-proof liquor. A quick check on the ingredients did seem to offer everything: alcohol, sugar, flavor - no way to go wrong with this, especially considering the three Deutschmarks price tag, or so I thought.
However the host was less interested: despite being known to drink anything he greeted my Feigenheini bottle with the words "Yuck, Feigenheini, nope, please not, let it be".
Well, later that night I did indeed try the drink. It proved to be sickly sweet, displayed a flavor beyond awful and left a splitting headache. :puke:

[GOPisEvil]

6. Where are you visiting?

[Kellanved]

12. Connecticut

And NYC. Maybe Boston, but I fear that I won't have the time to make it that far. Texas, California and the million of other cool places will have to wait for another time :-(, but maybe I'll be able to understand southern drawl until then :hi: .

[carols]

7. It doesn't matter what you pack....

...the airport Nazis state-side will take it all away from you anyway. (Sad but true)....

[Kellanved]

15. well,

from what I've been told the US customs are only slightly worse than the old GDR checks. As long as all products are sealed, I should be fine. Animal products (meat, cheese) are probably a bad idea :-( .

[Mobius]

8. decent condoms,

I hear USA outsources too many brands, :P

[NNadir]

11. Could you bring us a President if you have one lying around?

We don't have one and the spare part inserted in the President's place is not working at all.

[Kellanved]

13. you don't want one of those

Really.
Our current one, Rau, is pretty decent, but too old. His predecessor, Herzog, is a total catastrophe - you really don't want to have that one.
Weizäcker, who is the last decent German conservative, is too old as well. Besides, the man has earned his current position as elder statesman.
The only one left is Scheel, a old notorious party-goer - no Berlin party is safe when he is in town.

As for the candidates currently running, Schwan is a really great lady, I'd rather have her in the office here - sorry. Her opponent, Köhler, is a complete waste: constantly puts his foot into his mouth, ruined the German economy, back in his days as deputy minister. Not to mention the IMF/Argentina fuck up and him leading the major banks' lawsuit against Germany on EU level.

[holeinboatoutatsea]

16. Sorry, but we don't need any more

"lying" presidents. Give me Jack Black or give me death!




Oh, and good luck on your trip! We're not all ugly americans, you know!

[Kellanved]

18. I do

Would I bother with the US otherwise?
No, the US are the single most fascinating nation on earth. This is not so easy to destroy - Bush doesn't even come close in this regard. I never had one bad experience with an American - granted the GIs were scary sometimes, but they always turned out to be cool. Some things seem strange, others scary, some outright wacky. But Hey: isn't it the same as Europe seem from the American perspective?

How sad that a number of very "ugly Americans" were allowed to damage the extremely good European/American relationship. It was escalated by the European side as well, no denying it.
However, if Powell would have been anything like Madeleine Albright (who is a star over here), even acting like he did this year with frequent and conciliatory appearances on national TV, the whole mood would have turned out very differently.

Instead we got "Old Europe" (a phrase proudly adopted by now), "Axis of Evil", Condi (before they forbid her to talk to the German Media (?)), and, as a special, an Ambassador not speaking one word German - his ravings against the Chancellor omitting "so help me god" and political Sunday labor didn't help either.

[brainshrub]

14. If you are coming to North Carolina you can stay at my place in Asheville

Just drop me a PM.

[bubblesby2002]

17. Next time you get to make the trip across the Atlantic

come on over to the Pacific Northwest to Washington BC and Vancouver Island. If you add in Alaska, Oregon and California we call the whole thing Cascadia. It's different here - we're west coasters. And I could find you a cheap place in Victoria to stay - my house. Good luck on your trip, and have fun.:-)