Another new phase of life: Cincinnati, Ohio!!

Another fresh beginning.. A new year has started.. This time in Cincinnati!

It's been a year since I didn't write anything. I had been busy with lot of stuff in the past year. But I somehow managed to find time to write about this new place and new experiences.

Lot of people I met, didn't know about Cincinnati. It's in Ohio and is bigger and more populated city than Lawrence, Kansas! The facilities and the services are definitely better.

The New York Times has called the university "one of the most architecturally dynamic campuses in America today." It's not surprising, perhaps, given its renowned College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). The university is in the uptown area in the rolling hills above Downtown, adjacent to the neighborhoods of Corryville, Clifton Heights, Clifton, and Avondale. (Click to view more!)

Here are some snapshots of the University..

McMicken Hall

Baldwin Hall - The Engineering building

Inside Tangeman University Center (TUC)

Panoramic view of TUC and Recreation center

Panoramic view of McMicken Hall, TUC and University Pavilion

Langsam library and ERC.

Rhodes Hall - The Engineering building

Nippert Stadium

I also got few days before classes began, to roam around downtown Cincinnati. Tall buildings and all, which I didn't find in Lawrence! I was delighted to see the administrative building of Kroger, which has the headquarters here. Kroger is the favorite for all the people, specially students whose first choice in groceries is the Kroger product! ;) :D

Downtown Cincinnati

Graeter's at Ludlow Avenue..
When in Cincinnati, never miss Graeter's Ice-cream !!

Calhoun Street

Also went for shopping to malls. Kenwood mall is certainly a good place to eat and shop and roam and have fun! :)

Labor Day Fireworks at the Newport on the Levee!

The best fireworks I have seen in my life till now, were here in Kentucky! The place is approx. 20 minutes drive from UCincy. They lasted for more than half an hour! I heard that they are the best in the mid-West!

Beautiful views during sunset

This is just the beginning.. Have a lot to explore! I'll keep updating the blog as and when I do! :)

Pack your bags and get ready for Cincinnati vacation! ;)

Beautiful views during sunset

Free State Festival 2015, Lawrence

Free State Festival of 2015 was held in June (22nd - 28th). It is a celebration of film, music, art and ideas. There were innumerable activities going on in this whole week. Lawrence Arts Center's Director of Film and New Media, Marlo Angell started this as an independent film festival in 2011. Now, it has become an interdisciplinary festival featuring outdoor concerts, documentaries, art exhibitions, cycle race (Tour of Lawrence) etc.

Lawrence Arts Center hosts many film screenings, performances etc. in it's beautiful theater! 

Lawrence Arts Center

There were many outdoor performances like George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic with the Phantastics, Black Joe Lewis, Split Lip Rayfield etc! More than hundreds attended the concert.

Playing of the band 'Split Lip Rayfield'

The African drum ensemble at KU (ADEKU) is a performing ensemble made of University of Kansas (KU) students and community members. They perform throughout the region in each semester. They were performing in Abe & Jake's Landing in the Free State Festival.

African drum ensemble at KU (ADEKU)

Thanks to my friend who volunteered for the festival, I got free tickets to few movies! :D One of them was screened in Liberty Hall. I got to see it for the first time. 

Liberty Hall

Also, the Downtown Lawrence, Inc. has organized the event "Dinner and a movie free", in which there is a screening of the old movies and people can have dinner and drinks served at stalls. We could also bring our own chair or blanket to sit and watch the movie with family and friends! There was free popcorn and door prizes too! It is an outdoor event. Due to the probability of thunderstorm, the first movie screening was arranged in Abe & Jake's Landing in Lawrence. It is located by the riverside and gave a amazing view of the Kansas river! We had great time watching 'Back to the future 1'!

Abe & Jake's Landing

The gushing Kansas river!

There are art exhibitions in the Downtown, known as "Final Fridays". As the name indicates, exhibitions are scheduled on final Fridays of each month! There are beautiful artifacts, paintings, and lot more, made by different artists around the world, at display!

Free State festival provides excellent platform for the artists to perform and entertain the masses. The summer season is best for such festivals! 

Tour of Churches of Lawrence, Kansas

The International Student Organization of our University organizes many trips throughout the year. One such trip was tour of churches in Lawrence, Kansas. There is a huge list of churches that includes Methodist, Presbyterian, Evangelical, Baptist, Lutheran and many more. There are around 5107 churches in Kansas. But we were visiting only these three due to time limitations.

The organizers had asked for volunteers to take the interested students in their vehicles. We were around 20-30 students. Divided into groups of 4-5 each, we went in separate vehicles. I was with a lovely and young married couple. They were very helpful and kind. They loved traveling themselves. They wish to explore most of the world, before starting a family. They didn't earn much from their jobs, yet they were very happy with their lives. They volunteer for the University's organized events most of the times. We visited all the churches and had lunch together in the end.

Following were the churches we visited:

Corpus Christi Catholic School:

The new building of Corpus Christi Church and School opened in Fall of 2000. Since then, artists and business people took the sacred art and architecture into account when building this worship space and educational center.  The architectural details and symbols remind us of the edifices built in the Early Church all throughout Europe. It is located on a hill from where we can get an overview of the city of Lawrence. The campus includes the worship space, a parish hall and it's amenities, administrative office and an elementary school. Here, the lowest grade taught is Prekindergarten and the highest is 7th grade.

Trinity Lutheran Church:

Trinity Lutheran Church opened in 1867. It has undergone many changes in it's name and finally settled on the present name in 1910. The distinctive features of this church are the carvings from Oberammergau, Germany. These carvings include "Flight into Egypt" and two depictions of the Lord's Supper. There are five stained glass windows including the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Crucifixion. There are choirs held in the church, specially during Christmas and New Year Eve.

The Greenhouse Culture:

This Church is located in Downtown. It's appearance is more modern compared to other traditional Churches. It has a stage on which there are performances during Christmas and New Year Eve.

Into the wild..!!

After coming to U.S. , this was my first trip. International Students Association organizes a trip to local areas every year for international students. We had gone to Kansas City Zoo, which is an hour drive away from the University. There were around 40 students and we all went in same bus.

It was a wonderful sunny day! It had started to get cooler as the Fall was approaching. It was like that particular day specially reserved for our trip! :D

The idea of zoo was born, anchoring Kansas City as the kid "edu-tainment" capital of the Midwest. The zoo is one of the top 60 zoos of the United States.

The main attraction are the arctic polar bears! We saw two bears Nikita and Berlin dive into the pool, amuse themselves with the enrichment items or laze around on the rocky terrain. The pool is maintained at 65 degrees to make them feel more at home. The zoo gives the conservation message of the polar bears to the masses.

The Helzberg Penguin Plaza features both cool pool for cold water penguins and a warm wet area for warm water penguins! The Southern Oceans gallery provides views of five exhibits. These exhibits connect all the oceans through a colorful coral reef aquarium, floating moon jellies and a mesmerizing schooling fish aquarium. 

There is the sea lion show for a fixed hour each day. It is awesome!

The zoo also features Keeper Chats, elephant painting demonstrations and many other opportunities for animal encounters. There is a Safari boat ride across the lake in the zoo's African plains, where visitors can see hoofstock, including zebra, giraffe and more. There were various entertainment activities for kids. 

Breathtaking panorama view on the rope way across Africa!

Dancing monkey!

Remember Baby's Day Out? ;)

The visit to Kansas City zoo is like a journey around the world! You roam around in Asia, then you exit and step into Australia! I have never seen so many animals even in zoos in India, as I had seen that day in the zoo!

The Zoo gives a beautiful message to all the visitors: