Atlanta

Buzz, the mascot of GeorgiaTech; bloated, but unshaken

Hu, "just a weekend", but time evaporated and simultaneously so many things happened! It's been a great, unforgettable weekend, thanks to Benni! :-) (Despite my repeating head ache you cured!)

 

Georgia Tech

First of all I have to apologize - sometimes I'm not too sure about my identity and therefore, sometimes, it might occur that I've already graduated and of course I study at GeorgiaTech and yes, indeed, I attend the graduate student picnic as every graduate from GeorgiaTech does ;-)

"Some" graduate students in the
 line for a free shirt - no ending you can
see without a telescope

You might wonder, why I fly from one picnic to another, but it just the "typical US" picnic season. Before lining up for my deserved shirt I attended some graduate Physics lectures - thirty young men sitting in a lecture room listening closely for about 55 min., and no girl around... except me ;)

After the lectures we visited the food court and enjoyed some "non-spicy" (??) Indian food. Benni went to another seminar and I explored the huge campus (there are at least two bus lines, an own supermarket, several giant stadiums etc. and in total 30 000 students).

The actual picnic ... but what's a picnic
without burgers? - A vacuum.

 

Six Flags Over Georgia

Bugs Bunny joining us

With some magic Benni started his great amount of homework early, so we planned a classical family trip to Six Flags over Georgia, the leisure park we visited on Saturday.

The entry fee you pay (astronomic amounts, 60$!) is proportional to the "neck massage" you get in the roller coaster. Hell, I felt like they had got a contract with the orthopedists...
Usually I don't get the point why people start screaming in such an engine, since it's the latest technology and many other visitors must have survived the trip, too. But this time... Any glass next to me would have broken.

Anyway, now I know how it feels to be an old jeans in a modern high-speed dryer.

And I also survived the washing machine! They call it "Water Rafting" and I'd prefer the rather exact term "free surprise shower". We got two water rides and afterwards you could have hung up on the clothes line.

I really don't want to complain, it's been unbelievable fun and the cooling was necessary - Atlanta can be proud of roughly the same altitude as the Northern Sahara.

To mix up our program of washing and spin cycle we'd got a lunch break with Bugs Bunny and some other crazy characters from Looney Tunes Pictures. That's probably just possible in the US...

At the CNN headquarters center

Atlanta Downtown

And on Sunday? Bam, welcome to the CNN headquarters :-) It's unbelievable if you just see the studio which appears everyday in the news directly in front of view - and the women behind the desk, the newscaster, is just sipping her coffee and appreciates your stunned look with a "Oh, hi guys, how're you doing?!".

In the CNN headquarters - one
of the news rooms

We received a lot of information about directors, correspondents and "many small people" and it's been fascinating to see how the news travel from the actual event to the screen - in less than five minutes if it's "urgent". About 8000 people (including correspondents) and 2000 of them in Atlanta keep the Cable News Network up. In fact, you need a proper education to join them: For example one of the newscasters (the one mentioned above) was going to become a dentist, but became Ms Washington instead and you can see her in CNN.

Obviously, a world map is implanted
on the floor of the CNN building
(here you can see the continent Africa)

If you might not want to see yourself presenting tsunamis there's also the director's important task to manage the different camera positions so the audience is faced with the speaker during an interview - unfortunately  a break after two hours is obligatory ;-)

By the way, a fun fact: Yesterday I intended to go running to legitimate the chocolate, but I had to turn round after 10 min. since a storm. I even got an emergency text message on my phone (there is an extra inbox!):
Sever TStorm Warning in this area until 9:00 pm GMT Take Shelter Now NWS Chicago
 Ergo, I switched the TV on to skip through the news (CNN!!) during my stretching - and the satellite signal couldn't be detected...
 We seem to have left an impression in Atlanta ;-)