football game

At Friday night we were at a highschool football game in San Antonio.
It was 30 minutes away from the Trinity University.
When we arrived the game already began. It was so amazing! The atmosphere was great.
The people were so proud and happy. It was like in a movie. I felt I was in a movie.
I have never seen before that event and it was great.
In the second half time there was an accident. A boy was injured and could not stand up.
So the ambulance came and picked him up. The weile stadium was quiet.
We were there with a  American friend there because her Sister performed. We met her family, they were so nice.

From Neo / Nazi to Jihadists

Yesterday we had a very interesting and informative lecture about extremist groups all over the world in general. First, Dr. Saltman explained the differences between countering, preventing and intervening violent extremism.
There are alternative programs to create natural reselliencies is a form of preventing. If you try to challenge extremism this means countering violent extremism. The third and sometimes most powerful way is the intervention.
In the 21st century, internet and social media are the most important media sending and receiving messages all over the world. So, it is definitely easier for extremist groups spreading information all over the world. But do not forget - internet is not a causer for radicalization, it is just a catalyst.

In the time period October till December 2014 there were about 46,000 ISIS supportive. Dr. Saltman told that we are targeting a symptom, not the cause and this fact should be changed.

Dr. Saltman also explained that there are push and pull facts. So, isolation, family problems are push affects. Pull facts are brotherhood, spiritual fulfillment and heroism
The media and the government often concentrate only on pushing facts, but pull facts play a important part, too.

To put it all into a nutshell, this lecture was helpful to understand what problems we have with extremist groups and how we can handle with.

punishment in the US

Today we had a lecture about punishment in the US. It was interesting to hear the American view thinking about it.
 First, we got a survey about the crime you commit and we should fill out it.
In the end they presented the result: 90 people in the room commited about 6000 crimes, this means the median is about 76 crimes per person. It is a large number and I could not imagine it. It would be interesting to figure out which result we would have in Germany under the same conditions. During the lesson we got some interesting information about the deliquency in the USA. The incarcerate rate is much higher in the US than in Russia and the most countries in Europe. This fact did not surprise me. Considering the issues for example of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, this characteristic number do not surprise me at all. I think it is a kind of bias.
Another interesting fact was that drugs play an important part in the US, because it is the common reason why people get arrested in prison. About 36 percent of them are black people. Comparing this fact with the percentage of the entirity of black people in the US it is three times higher (it is 12 percent black people in the USA).

How To Uber

Uber is one of the famous possibilities to drive from A to B in the United States.
We wanted to drive to the North Star Shopping Mall and we decided to use Uber.
It is very easy! You have to download and to install the App. Then you have to give your mobile number and must decide if you want to use your credit card or PayPal. In my opinion, PayPal is the better choice, because you do not need to give your credit card number. If you have PayPal, it is very easy to use it. You just have to write your email address. In case of problems you can get your money back and PayPal will help you, too. After verifying your Uber account you can immediately start using Uber.
You choose a location where Uber should pick up. In this step I can recommend just using GPS for finding your location. Then you give the address where you want to go. The app shows you how long it lasts till the car arrives. We had the experience that it was no longer than 8 minutes.
Finally, you get in the car and that is it!

Today we were in the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio. It was very interesting but the different tribes and impacts of various impressed me. 

Just 12,000 years ago there lived humans. This people moved to America following mammoth and mastodons. 10,000 years before the climate and the conditions changed so the humans had to alter too. This is the reason for creating a new culture, the Folsom people. After some hundred years there was another tribe, the Archaic Indians. Some thousands years later people changed their living patterns. So the did not hunt anymore but farm. This is the reason why people organized some towns into confederacies. This tribe was named the Neo - Indians. Another tribe was the Indian Texans, they were different from English and Spanish.

In the  more modern time  a migration wave swept over Texas. 

Between 1840 and 1915 nearly 1,25 millions Swedes left their homeland to resettle America. 

But also Danes and Germans settled Texas, so it was very mixed. But the migration did not end with these countries. It was very surprising for me that a Japanese Experience influenced Texas, too. Another surprise was the Lebanese.

This Institute was well organized so you could explore the different impacts one by one. 

In addition you could try some historic clothes. This is not possible in Germany! 

So I was very surprised. 

After the exhibition we walked on the River Walk and explored the Mall. We were hungry so we tried Which Wich, this restaurant do not exist in Germany, so we did not understand how does it works. 

Today we had our classes again. In the mass media class some students presented some interesting article in order to discuss with us, for instance whether facebook is a media company or a technology company. An other topic was the impact of the Academy Award.
After beeing in classes we took the dicision to go to the Mall - the North Star Mall.

There we went to shopping and enjoyed very well. We all found something to purchase so we we went back happy. During the shopping tour we saw a lot of People from the Highschool but we did not why they were there.
The Shopping Mall was very big. A such big centre do not exist so much time in Germany. In addition to that, there are shops we do not have in Germany for instance American Eagle.
 In the evening we went to a Mission  in San Jose. There atmosphere was very nice and the music was great. Some of us just walked around and suddenly we noticed that there were fireflies. We did not see these entities before so it was anderes very nice experience. We tried to take a picture of them but it was more difficult than we imagined.
After this great experience we went to Whataburger, it was very delicious.

Today we were in the afternoon at the Briscoe Western Art Museum at San Antonio.
It was very interesting, because the guide was very friendly and told us many interesting facts about Texas and San Antonio. There were things I did not see in my life yet.
In addition to that, I saw very typical things of Texas, like guns and peintures of landscapes of Texas.

After having a Tour through the Museum we had a boat Tour on the river of San Antonio. It was so amazing!!  We all enjoyed that time.
The guide told us a lot of interesting facts and he was pretty cool.

In the end we went to a Mexican restaurant where we ate real Mexican food. Besides, some interns came too, so we could talk to each other and get to know to each other