Drei unvergessliche Wochen in den USA

Zwölf Schülerinnen und Schüler der WFO Bozen - begleitet von Prof. Sepp Lechner und Dir. Barbara Pobitzer -  hatten zu Beginn des Schuljahres die einzigartige Gelegenheit zu einem dreiwöchigen US-Aufenthalt. Neben Besuchen der Metropolen New York und Washington stand auch ein fast zweiwöchiger Schulaufenthalt in Amherst-Buffalo auf dem Programm. Für wfo.bz.it berichtet Markus Kirchler (4 A-WI) von seinen Erfahrungen.

  
New York, Buffalo, and Washington D.C. are the three big cities which we had the opportunity to explore. We drove from Bozen to Munich where we took the plane to NYC. After 9 hours we finally arrived in NYC, an amazing city full of surprises. We spent almost five days in Manhattan /NYC also known as, "The Big Apple".

On our first night we went to Times Square. Times Square is incredible, there are lots of colors and billboards! The next day we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the largest art museum in the United States, and one of the ten largest in the world. It has one of the biggest art collections. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among seventeen departments. We also visited Uptown and saw the Guggenheim Museum.

Afterwards we spent some time shopping on 5th Avenue. Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of the borough of Manhattan. Later we went on the night tour, on a double-decker bus. We drove around Manhattan and Brooklyn. NYC at night is really special, everything looks so different; it was really amazing and a great experience.

On our third day in NYC we took a boat past Liberty Island and saw the Statue of Liberty. It is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island. The statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France and it's also an icon of freedom and of the United States. Also, it is a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad. Then we walked to Wall Street, which is the financial district of New York City and is the home of the New York Stock Exchange: the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies.

On the same day we went to the 9/11 memorial, which is the principal memorial and museum commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, and the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, which killed six.The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, on the former location of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the attacks. Afterwards we went to Macy's, their biggest store in the world.

At night we took one of the Empire State Building's elevators, which brought us to the 86th floor. On the top of NYC's second highest building was a great view with thousands of lights and we took a lot of photos of the wonderful illuminated skyscrapers at night. It amazed us all.

Next day we went to the MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, we had the honor to see a few masterpieces by Miró, Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso and of course Renoir. Our next stop was Chinatown, one small but nice neighborhood, which is located in DowntownNew York City. There we had lunch at a typical Chinese restaurant. In the evening we walked halfway down Brooklyn Bridge, famous for its architecture and great views. Then we took the subway to the Grand Central Terminal, which is very huge.

On our last day we took another double-decker bus to get to Uptown. Then we spent the rest of the morning in the Central Park. We walked across Central Park to the Strawberry Fields, which is a landscaped section that is dedicated to the memory of Beatles member John Lennon.
  

 
After these wonderful days in New York City we left for Buffalo; finally we got to meet our host-families. We went with our host-sisters or host-brothers to school and learned a lot about their school system and culture. We saw two games of the school's football team the "Amherst Tigers". One day wewent on a field trip to the court in Downtown Buffalo. It was a unique occasion that we will never forget. We attended a burglary case and had the opportunity to talk to a judge to learn about their judicial system.

On Wednesday evening we saw a hockey game, the stadium was gigantic and full of people. We were lucky and had great seats, we loved the match; the Buffalo Sabers were playing against the Columbus Blue Jackets, in the end the Sabers won three to nothing. On Thursday we went to the Body Worlds, which is an exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts.

On Saturday evening we were invited to a Farewell dinner, where parents, host-sisters, host-brothers, and us exchange students ate together. Everyone was dressed elegantly. We saw a slideshow about our time in Buffalo. The next day we drove about half an hour to the Niagara Falls. The three waterfalls that make up the Niagara Falls straddle the international border between Canada and the United States. We were on the American and Canadian side. We ate lunch at a typical Hard Rock Café on the Canadian side.

The hardest thing on this journey was to say goodbye to our host-families at Tuesday. It just was a day of tears for some of the American host-sisters. Our next destination was Washington DC, a fantastic and unforgettable place. Due to the government shutdown unfortunately all public museums were closed, therefore we went to the National Mall and different war memorials: the World War II., the Vietnam Veterans and Korean War Veterans Memorial.

The next day we went to the United States Capitol and visited the Senate. There we listened to a speech of a senator. In the morning of the third day we walked to the the U.S. Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Jefferson Memorial, which is dedicated to an American Founding Father and the third President of the United States. In the afternoon we took the subway to the Pentagon, which is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense.

One of our last destinations was the Arlington National Cemetery. There are about 400.000 graves. In Arlington cemetery we were impressed by JFK and his wife's tomb. On our last day in Washington DC we walked to Georgetown which is a historic neighborhood, commercial, and entertainment district.

After three awesome weeks we had to leave the United States but for us WFO students it remains an unforgettable and incredible experience.

Markus Kirchler, 4 A-WI