ProgPower USA

I've been to the famous ProgPower Festival, right here in Atlanta... how cool is that?!

The festival weekend started on thursday evening. Manticora, Gamma Ray and Helloween (together Hellish Rock or something like that) would be the pre-show. I didn't know how to get there and I didn't know any person going. so a bit before the festival started off, I had posted on the progpower forum to see if there were other tech students going to the festival. And there were, and they've been taking me along the whole weekend which was really great!
So on thursday, I arrived at the venue. And I was kinda shocked: it was so small! Like 1/3 of the size of the AB in Brussels!
Manticora didn't really impress me, nothing special.
Gamma Ray was my favourite band of the evening. Good show, catchy songs, great frontman! I didn't know them, but their show got me into them.
Helloween was too loud. I couldn't distinguish the instruments anymore, and I mostly like their old songs. Pitty they didn't play "Heavy metal is the law"... The end was really cool though, the Gamma Ray guys came on stage to play two songs with Helloween. One of which was the classic "I want out". That was awesome!

So the next day, the real festival started. I had class until 4, so I missed the first band. We were just in time to see Elvenking. I expected more from them, actually. The singer didn't sound good to me, the overall sound was pretty bad. But the violin was very good.
I've seen a bit of andromeda, they didn't really impress me.
Riverside has very good music, I think, but their stage performance is really boring. I would rather hear them on CD, I think.
And afterwards, the best band of the weekend hit the stage: Amorphis. They were amazing! Very energetic, very passionate about the music they were playing. I was impressed. The frontman with his kneelong dreads was really impressive when he was headbanging.

Then on Saturday, we spent some time warming up before heading to the venue. The first band we watched was Rob Rock. Embarrassing lyrics, bad stage performance, horrible band.
Afterwards, Mustach came on stage. They were great. Funny Swedes that were so glad to play in America and have American whiskey on stage. Their enthusiasm gave their whole set an extra vibe. Then we went out of the venue for dinner, and I had the best food I've had ever since I came to the US. Bonehead's or something it was called and it was delicious! Then I've seen some of JOP's set. I like his music, but it's CD material. Their stage presence is nothing... JOP himself combines keys and singing, so he is seated all the time. That doens't really give you the impression of watching a metal show... Afterwards I lined up for watching Iced Earth. They started their set more than 30 minutes too late, while their fans had been standing closely packed, waiting for them, for more than an hour... They weren't bad at all, although the interaction with the crowd could have been better. And there was this annoying guy with the white t-shirt that started a moshpit every now and then. He was way too drunk and just annoying me (and jumped on my toe, and then right afterwards a 150kg fatso jumped on my other toe, it looks reddish-blue now...). I was hoping for some cool songs for the encores, but the guitar player's amp had blown up so they had to stop their show. Pretty cool performance, all in all.

It's been a great weekend, I was only a bit dissapointed because it turned out to be so small. I thought it was much bigger, but the atmosphere was really good.

And now I have to restart making homework and the like... I calculated it out, and I spend the double of hours on working here, than I spent at VUB... I now study about 100 hours a week... I need an easier semester coming spring...

Just a random list

Today, I don't feel like continuing about what I've done and seen already but I do feel like making a list.

What I like here:
- it's new, it's challenging, therefore it's great!!!
- great international atmosphere
- very kind classmates
- celestial seasonings' raspberry zinger tea for sale in the supermarket, and it's the raspberry zinger alone, not some lousy fruit sampler thing
- sunshine!
- so much sporting facilities
- my concrete and my math class
- phonecalls to europe are really cheap
- wireless internet nearly everywhere
- they sell Destrooper cookies (but only the butter crisps are the same as in Belgium. The waffles got some additional artificial vanilla flavor and the "amandelbrood" is here "ginger thins" and adapted to american taste).
- Cosmopolitan (the real one, not some crappy translated version)
- this is such a beautiful country to explore, there's so much open space


What I dislike here:
- making homework... I've never worked so hard.
- english units
- the amount of conservatives, additives and other yucky things in the food (ham is not supposed to conserve until christmas, is it?)
- this university doesn't have cantus and TD
- beer is way too expensive and the alcohol policy is weird
- I seem to be the only person writing with a real pen and ink, and I really had to do my best to find refills for my pen, they've cost me a whole lot of money and I found out that they were actually made in France....
- throw-away-everythings (I don't want to know how much more trash I'm producing here... sorry Earth!) ... and recycled paper is more expensive than normal paper... ?!
- commercial phonecalls, mostly about "the best possible healthcare plan for you".
- fire withdrawals... they should make those damn sensors less sensitive! If someone now screws up his cooking, the whole building here has to evacuate... even if it's at 5 am like last night. That was horrible!!

That's all for now, I'll be off to get my share of sleep (as my sleep was heavily interrupted by that stupid fire withdrawal yesterday).

The arrival

On the 10th of August, I arrived in Atlanta. That's on my birthday, indeed, and I had a great party on the airplane, listening to the screaming kids that where going to Orlando...

The evening before I left, my parents had a surprise for me:


And that's indeed one of the things I really miss by now...

But well, back to the 10th of August:
So I arrived after a long flight on which I couldn't sleep, and then I really got lost at the airport. I just couldn't find the bagage claim and I was in panic and thinking to myself that I just should have stayed home. But then I just opened my eyes, saw the bagage claim sign and survived my first "what the hell am I doing here" attack.
The second problem was finding a cab. In the end, I found one, and arrived at my hotel safe and sound. I was starving, so I needed to search food. When I'm hungry, I easily can stomach two sandwiches, but the 2 sandwiches I bought on my arrival day, where almost too much for me. So the first lesson I learned was that a small sandwich here equals two belgian "smoskes". (I'd kill for a mom-made smos met kaas en hesp en mamayonaise right now, by the way).
The next mistake I made was calling home. The freaking call cost me as much as one night in a hotel...
So, around 8pm, I had a brilliant idea: sleeping!

The next morning, I had this lovely view:

And after breakfast, I headed toward the campus, but I'll write about another time.

Een goed voornemen

Ik ga mijn best doen om hier af en toe iets van mij te laten horen. Oorspronkelijk zou ik dit zo snel mogelijk doen, maar mijn computer heeft 3 weken niet gewerkt, dus ik loop wat achter.
Ondertussen heb ik al heel wat van Atlanta zelf gezien, en ik ben net terug van een 4 dagen Las Vegas en de omgeving daarvan.