Something New Every Week, Parts 6 and 7

Phew! Sorry for the delay in posting. Just this morning I returned home from a ten-day vacation in the US with my friend whom I will call Anthony here. He had invited me to meet him at his rental condo in Panama City in Florida, so I took some time off and went.

The past two weeks have been so full of new things that they make almost everything look like manure. Both of them brought a lot of fresh air into my life, which is why I will try to keep the chronological order but refrain from separating the weeks from each other. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter whether a certain experience came this week or that.

Let's go.

1. Business Class Flight as Non-Rev on Delta
My flights to and from the US were actually business class flights, and let me tell you, Delta certainly takes good care of their business class passengers. The seats are so spacious that I could actually sleep on my flight back to Germany! What was probably even more exciting, however, was the fact that Anthony had me fly over on a buddy pass, as a non-revenue passenger ("non-rev"). The procedures you follow as a non-rev, always flying stand-by (which means that you may not get onto the plane you wanted as there is simply no seat available after all the paying passengers got on), are exciting and almost have something of a secret code you adhere to.

2. City: Panama City, Florida
And as I was meeting Anthony to spend about a week in his rental condo in Panama City Beach, Florida, I of course got to see the area. As it is neither a capital nor has at least 500,000 inhabitants, it didn't count in Amalia's and my city race contest, but it's new alright.


3. Playing Frisbee on the Beach
What I just said. Actually, for not having played for quite a while, I pretty much sandbagged Anthony. Oh, and the word "sandbagging" I learned from him, just like plenty of others as well.



4. Restaurant: Hooters
Young girls in tight pants showing as much breasts as legally possible, fried and unhealthy but not so bad food, rednecks, rock music. That's Hooters. Unless you have a specific reason to go, like I do with my crazy "something new every week" stuff, don't.

5. Food: Edamame
Photo courtesy of Zesmerelda
For most of you it probably sounds a lot more interesting than it is, but it was something new anyway. Behind this possibly mysterious name is nothing more and less than green beans.


6. Store: Publix
Not the big deal, I know, but since Anthony and I were constantly running back and forth, or, how I used to call it, "forth and back", between stores, Publix was a welcome change. And actually, I like Publix a lot because of the way they present and order things, and their fresh-produce section is yummie even to look at.

7. Food: Sweet Potato Fries
Roy's Original in Panama City Beach has sweet potato fries. They guys there are actually very nice, too. Their smoothies hadn't sold so well so they had decided to give them up just before Anthony and I came there to have lunch. When we asked for a smoothie they gave us a whole half-gallon bottle of pineapple-coconut smoothie mix, for free.
Yum yum, smoothies at home!




8. Food: Gator Jerky
Jerky made of alligator meat. It's kinda unspectacular, actually, and tastes pretty much like regular jerky, Anthony told me. In Germany, by the way, there is a very similar snack out there, called "Landjäger".



9. Drink: Root Beer Float
Photo courtesy of faeryboots
Beware, this one is totally American! Root beer mixed with vanilla ice cream, quite a treat! I've seen it's out there with all sorts of ice cream. Naturally, why not. We had it at a cute little store on our way from Panama City to Tallahassee, along with the gator jerky.




10. SCORE: Tallahassee
Yes, this is my first real point in our city race contest this year (Frankfurt was an extremely weak one)! Anthony and I went to see Tallahassee, and even though the city itself is about as interesting as the legendary bag of rice, it was fun going, also because I finally found the toothpaste squeezers that we had searched one store after another for.

11. Food: Chocolate blueberries
I am not listing this to show off but as a warning. Chocolate blueberries are not delicious, you must know. For all I know, they're not even real blueberries but rather some sugar fat mix artificially altered so that you get the idea of blueberry taste. If you want to treat yourself to blueberries, go for the natural ones. They're great in cereal!


12. Drink: Arnold Palmer
Photo courtesy of elena's pantry
This drink is named after the famous American golfer and is a mixture of ice tea and lemonade. For your general education, my German friends.





13. Restaurant: fresh2order
A fast-food type place with an incredibly good variety of food and drinks.





14. SCORE: Atlanta, Georgia
Hah! Amalia didn't see this one coming! Anthony and I decided to spend two more days in Atlanta! Score number three for me this year!




15. Sight: Georgia Aquarium
They say it's the world's largest aquarium so we had to see it. And actually, some of the views you get there are stunning. So good that you can even bear the kids' yelling and, whining.



16. Sight: Coca-Cola Tourist Trap (Atlanta)
It's tacky, we knew, but we decided to see it anyway. Expecting that you could see the actual process of Coca-Cola manufacturing, we were disappointed by the artificial small model of the machines but the entertainment was kinda nice. And at the end, you get to taste all the different Coca-Cola products in existance worldwide. That was neat.

17. Restaurant: California Pizza Kitchen (Lenox Square Mall, Atlanta)
Anthony had told me about this chain, and when we had decided to see Atlanta it was clear that we'd have to go. He eats at CPK every now and then so he knew what to recommend. And actually, their Thai Crunch Salad is marvellous.

18. Exhibition: First Emperor at High Museum (Atlanta)
We can't spend a week only on hanging out, talking nonsense and shopping, right? So we decided to go see this exhibition on the day of our return flights. Actually, to be frank, this exhibition was nice but hardly anything more. The few warriors and pieces you see there are in very good shape, and the craft of shaping and modelling of clay at the time was very elaborate. But I cannot say I was very impressed.




19. Spent Valentine's Day with somebody I care for very much
Valentine's day is not big in Germany, and I had just never spent it with anybody whom I cared for, at least not consciously.




All in all, the last two weeks have been a lot of fun and excitement. The next ones will very probably not be half as interesting but I'll do my best anyway.

Thank you, Anthony, for this unbelievable vacation!