My American Dream

Most Americans dream about raising a family or having a successful career. Since I am not an American citizen, but fond of the U.S. and the American culture, I am now referring to the famous term "American Dream".

My American Dream is to explore the following destinations:

1. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Got the idea from.. friends who showed me pictures of their visit in Arizona

What I find impressive.. are the beautiful colors of the Grand Canyon. It seems unbelievable to me that a river has formed the Grand Canyon - a river called the Colorado River (and it's tributaries of course). What I find absolutely remarkable is the landscape of the Colorado River flowing through the colorful layers of the Grand Canyon.

A must do.. is a flyover in the Grand Canyon National Park - provided I can afford it one day. I would take thousands of photos of the fascinating landscape and show off to my friends ;-)


Image Source (1): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/USA_09847_Grand_Canyon_Luca_Galuzzi_2007.jpg

Image Source (2): http://ecology110fra.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/river_of_life_colorado_river_page_arizona.jpg




 

2. San Francisco, California

Got the idea from.. a computer game called "Midtown Madness 2" that I used to play when I was a child. You basically drive through a city and scare people to death due to the excessive speed you're driving at. One city you can "explore" is San Francisco. In addition to that, I used to watch the TV series "Charmed" when I was younger. The "Charmed Ones" live in a Victorian house in San Francisco, which is also a reason for my curiosity about this city. 

What I find impressive.. is the Golden Gate Bridge, the famous Lombard Street (you could drive along this street in "Midtown Madness 2"), the so-called Painted Ladies (see on the first picture) and Alcatraz Island.

A must do.. is to go by the famous cable cars that are still manually operated and visit the Alcatraz Museum.

Image Source (1): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Painted_Ladies.jpg

Image Source (2): http://www.meinemarie.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/lombard-street-picture.jpg

3. Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Got the idea from.. surfing the Net! I was reading through articles about the country of Alaska and thereby stumbled upon the Katmai National Park. It is widely known for it's great number of volcanoes and brown bears. Though, it's only the fourth biggest National Park of Alaska. For me, it's the most appealing one.

What I find impressive.. are, as mentioned before, the volcanoes and especially the summit crater lake of Mount Katmai (which you can see in the first picture on the right handside). The brown bears, especially the Grizzly Bears, are something I would love to see in this National Park.

A must do.. is to take a picture of a bear catching a fish, exactly like in the second picture on the right handside. I'd also like to explore more of Alaska and the way of living of Alaska's citizens.

Image Source (1): http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2013/03/Katmai-National-Park-and-Preserve.jpg 

Image Source (2): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Brown_bear_Brooks_Falls_Katmai.jpg

4. Holmes County, Ohio

Got the idea from.. the website www.discoveramerica.com. I was browsing this site so as to get to know some places in America to visit one day.

What I find impressive.. is the fact that Holmes County has the highest percentage of Amish people living in the United States.

A must do.. is to talk to as many Amish people as possible to get to know their way of living (regardless of the fact that they might be annoyed).

Image Source: http://www.rlrouse.com/pic-of-the-day/berlin-oh-amish.jpg

5. Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Florida

Got the idea from.. my aunt, Barbara. Over the christmas holidays, she spent a few days in Florida. When we were talking via Skype, she told me how astonishing everything was. She didn't visit the Sanibel and Captiva Islands, but when she told me about Florida in general, I had a look at some photos of this state on the Internet. So acutally, I came across these islands on "Google Images"! ;-)

What I find impressive.. are the white-sand beaches that remind me a bit of Hawaii.

A must do.. is to just stay there for a few days, enjoy the beach, the sun and the ambience!

Image Sourge: http://www.bellavistaluxuryrentals.com/Portals/86275/images/captiva-island.jpg

Out of Love

Howdy again!

I have been thinking a lot lately what I could write about in my blog. Finally, I decided to tell you something about what I do within the Austrian Red Cross.

More than five years ago, I started as a Youth Red Cross member at my former school to organize small events in order to collect donations. After some time, I attended a national Youth Red Cross camp to learn more about how to organize projects and the Red Cross itself. Today, I am a supervisor at this camp, which means that I am training youngsters to become an as good organizer as I was back then.

The Austrian Youth Red Cross also organizes the International Friendship camp which takes place in Langenlois (located in Lower Austria) every year. More than 50 Red Cross/Red Crescent members, coming from all over the world, gather for two weeks in Langenlois to exchange their experiences and learn something about the other participant's cultures. Since three years, I am a supervisor at this camp as well.

Although I am still working voluntarily as a supervisor at these two camps, I have become a little too old for the "Youth" Red Cross. That's why I started the training program in October 2012 to become a paramedic. Recently, I finished all the courses and passed the final exams. Now I can proudly announce that I am a paramedic of the ambulance service of the (Upper) Austrian Red Cross.

Back in Linz, where I live, I do (night) shifts regularly. After a shift, I am always exhausted and tired, but I am glad that people placed their trust in me and that I was able to help them.

Loads of people keep asking me why I am working as a paramedic voluntarily. Here is a very nice TV spot "Out of Love", done by the Austrian Red Cross. It basically tells one very good reason for being a volunteer of the Red Cross Society.