Being stuck in a country that - I don't quite know how to put this, but, ... hmmm ... - does strange things to food in general, I had almost given up trying to find espresso that actually deserves the name. I mean, regular coffee is mostly okay over here, even though you have to take care not to get a decaffeinated or oddly flavored kind by mistake.

However, when it comes to espresso, the americans seem to mess up totally.

Usually you can choose between one shot and two shot espresso (often hurtingly misspelled as expresso). One shot meaning like 6 ounces, two shots 12 or so. Basically, this is somehow three or four times as much as a usual Italian espresso, while being half as strong as it is supposed to be. Even Starbucks - though being supposed to know the coffee business better than most people in the world - contributes to this collective espresso-raping over here. What a pity.

But then, yesterday, I really found a gelateria (yes, it is honestly called like that) downtown that really has a genuine italian espresso machine, unbelievably making genuine italian caffè (= espresso). Woohoo! Now that was a surprise. (It's sort of excusable therefore, that the staff understands no single italian word, thus having to pronounce things like lampone (= raspberry) in a very american manner... ;) )

Anyways, I think I'm going to step by Francesco's more often now. It gives kind of a European feeling to me on diaspora ;)

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That's kind of nice. Two very nice pieces of software hit "magical mile stones" these days.

My favorite web browser Firefox finally got unbelievable 100 million downloads. Celebrations! It's one of the most wonderful open source software products I've ever seen. Go spread the word! :)

Another nice one - closed source though - is the voice over IP service Skype (not a google or yahoo toy, by the way, but soon an eBay one) that will finally break the four million users mark this week. In my opinion, it is still the best possibility to call home so far. It works unbelievably smooth even though the people I'm usually calling are roughly 5000 miles away.

So, it seems to be totally the right moment for me to get employed at the OSU Open Source Lab soon. It's a good week, really :) w00t!

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(Endlich! Der Müllschluckerartikel! Mit Video! In Farbe - und buuunt!)

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Wie komme ich eigentlich zur Uni? Jaaa, das fragt ihr euch. Oder auch nicht. Aber ich hab euch trotzdem Fotos gemacht. Also: Willkommen zur Fotostrecke, von daheim zum Schreibtisch im Büro. (Erwähnte ich, dass ich einen eigenen Schreibtisch habe? :) )

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Unsere funktionale, chaotische, halbaufgeräumte Wohnung ist nun nicht gerade ein Hort ausgefallener Wohnideen. Studentenwohnungen sind das ganz allgemein eher nicht, es sei denn natürlich man lässt ein iBook o.ä. als Dekorationsobjekt durchgehen.

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Okay, das war also mein erstes Football Game. (Foootos hier!)

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Ihr habt es ja nicht anders gewollt:

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Üüüübrigens: Ich habe mir heute eine amerikanische Prepaid-Handykarte besorgt. Von T-Mobile ;)

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Juhu, vorbei sind meine drei Tage Camping Trip an die Oregon Coast. Das Wetter war echt super und die Leute echt nett. Es hat einfach Riesenspaß gemacht.

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Gestern war Rafting auf dem Deschutes River angesagt. Zwei Stunden Fahrt im Bus, quer durch den Mount Hood Nationalpark. Die Sicht war wirklich einmalig - riesige Bäume, tiefe Täler und so weiter. Wow. Leider habe ich keine Fotos gemacht, weil ich die Kamera vorsichtshalber daheim gelassen habe.

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