Recently, I once again ran over the song “For Good” from the musical Wicked. I’d like to share this few but meaningful words from the beginning of that song. I watched the performance in San Francisco a couple of days before I returned back to Austria after studying for two semesters in the US. For me, this is true in so many cases. I’m thankful I knew you all.

I’ve heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true
But I know I’m who I am today
Because I knew you…

For Good, from Wicked, by Stephen Schwartz

My American host family over Christmas always spoiled me with delicious food; breakfast usually included two poached eggs. Now, I tried several times to cook poached eggs. This morning I did a pretty good job!

And here is what I just had for lunch (soft bread with pickles, and, of course, Coke):

One of my classes this semester was Ideation. In this class we tried to build the “Master Idea” for a specific company based on Joey Reiman’s method, who also taught the class. He is the founder and CEO of BrightHouse. This company is applying this method very successfully. Here is our result from this class – our company was Teavana. Enjoy!

The Emory University Chorus and the Emory Concert Choir were giving a wonderful Christmas Carol Concert this weekend at the Glenn Memorial Auditorium. I attended the Saturday 5pm performance. At least after this performance I do not accept any longer people saying that America is a culture-free zone! It was awesome and very Christmasy The program is available here.

I just came back from another wonderful concert of the Emory Symphony. Today’s program was

• Finlandia (Jean Sibelius)
• A Lark Ascending (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
• Symphony No. 1 in C Major (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Thanksgiving is a very important holiday for Americans. I recognized this a little bit late but I was lucky that ISSP (an organization at emory which supports international students) helped me to get a family contact. It was a wonderful experience for me to experience this holiday and I thank the family for their hospitality.

This is how many Americans enjoy vegetables – just ready to dip in and eat. I started to like that as well!

This afternoon I did a Atlanta Midtown tour with my camera. I startet at trainstation North Avenue, walked W Peachtree St NW – Ponce de Leon Ave NE to Fox Theater. Then I continued walking down all Peachtree St NE, took a break at Starbucks, passed Margaret Mitchell House, till 14th. Finally I walked through Piedmont Park and took 36 back to Emory (Clifton Road). Enjoy my pics!

Yesterday I’ve watched the opera La Cenerentola at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Atlanta has no opera building, but there is an Atlanta Opera Organisation. It was a great performance, as I expected it from a Rossini opera. Sure, Vienna is superior

Last Sunday I’ve been to Lullwater Park to do my readings. It was still warm outside. Needless to say, my camera was with me! Here are the pics.

Today, it was much colder outside. But it was so sunny that I took a walk. I took some amazing pictures. Here is one. All the other pictures are comeing soon!