Chapter 2 at 42 degrees

A lot has happened since the last entry. Impossible to list everything important now. Too many beautiful, sunny, salty, sandy, windy, hot, greasy, and alcoholic moments. The orientation days at California State University San Marcos started off with a bang. At the pool party filled with small talk and bags of American cheap candy, some agency raffled off a trip to Las Vegas with some VIP parties, and all exchange students from various countries somehow participated in the raffle, and somehow the 1.55m tall promoter called out my name. Somehow, I was lucky to have found the kind of friends with whom you feel like you've known them for years, in just a few hours or sometimes days. Fast forward a few days and about 14 people were on the list, who were able to enter the biggest glitter and party world in the world on Labor Day Weekend, a major holiday in the USA.

To be continued.

University life came faster and more time-consuming than expected. While in Germany, the professor at the beginning of the first lecture more or less boredly outlines the content and makes it clear that he doesn't care if you attend the lecture as long as you choose the right answer from A, B, C, or D in the end, things are a bit different here. The classes or courses consist of around 30 to 50 people, rarely 150. The ratio of professor to student is more immediate, tangible, and less anonymous. They actually try to remember names, the eye contact is longer, and the conversations are more intense and fun. They have charisma here, you have to give them that. Assignments or homework are due every week, forcing you to park your ass in the library and really engage with the material. It may be annoying at 40 degrees and with a different activity on the calendar every day, but it's bearable.

When you think about the first few weeks of 'everyday life' in the land of unlimited possibilities, you realize that the clocks here tick naturally different from the other end of the great pond. Everything is somewhat or much bigger, louder, dirtier, more pastel-colored, and more expensive than in Germany. But also warmer, friendlier, and freer.

Driving on the freeways and interstates through California feels awesome. Even though there are sometimes up to 12 (!) lanes per direction and every few hundred meters there are tires and small debris from rear-end collisions lying around (at least on the Escondido - San Diego section), you just feel free when the wind blows through your hair and the sun first turns your skin red (sorry Carla, I promise I put on sunscreen :P) and then brown. No one can bother you and you realize that the moment is more important than the digital clock display next to the frequency indication on the radio. It's normal for the exhaust of the truck-sized pickups with the diameter of 2 men's fists at chest level of a standing man to blow out its exhaust gases from the combustion chambers of its V8 engine with 120 decibels on the adjacent lane.

After the first week of university, during which the temperature reached over 40 degrees during the day, the bus was ready on Friday morning to take us to Vegas.

We stayed at the Luxor Hotel and Casino, the huge black glass pyramid on the strip that you know from movies like Hangover and Oceans. For those who don't know these movies: catch up!

After the obligatory alcohol purchase on the strip, the guys put on their shirts and the girls put on their dresses and we stumbled into the bus, which took us a few hotels further to the party. In Las Vegas, the lobby of each casino on the strip consists of a huge, confusing area of slot machines, bars, and gaming tables, where the air is pleasantly cool and enriched with extra oxygen so that the customers don't fall asleep in bed at 4 a.m., but keep inserting dollars into the machines and giving them to the dealers. It worked for us too.

The parties by Major Lazer, David Guetta, Marshmellow, Alesso, and Co. were on fire. In the middle, there was a huge pool, people in it more or less dressed, and around it, there was light, alcohol, and noise.

We only slept once, halfway through the three nights.

After hours of incredible fun, beer, funny conversations, beer, schnapps, beer, casinos, dollar bills, music, beer, and schnapps, we arrived back at the Luxor already in daylight. The air in the casinos made us awake again within 20 minutes, and we inserted a few more dollars into the slot machines. It was very pleasant to get free drinks while doing that.

At this point, a big thank you to the outstanding crew, I had one of the best weekends of all time!

The return journey, this time by car through 10 hours of desert landscape after 4 days of full throttle, was exhausting but incredibly beautiful and impressive. However, if something dies on your car (which luckily didn't happen), you should quickly come up with a plan at 45 degrees with no cell reception, before you consider who you will leave your iPhone and TV to, in the absolute emptiness.

Things are going well here. Stay tuned.