To Ann Arbor by Greyhound bus
For me, Irmtraud, the US were really a culture shock! I was stunned by the contrast between poor and wealthy areas and the daily gunning incidents reported on TV. In the most powerful country of the world they had hardly any social programmes. The major purpose of live of the people seems to be making money. I could not imagine that this trend would also be taken over in Europe in the late nineties.
By Greyhound through the USA
After our stay in Seattle we travelled for four weeks across the country with the Greyhound bus. In those days this bus was the cheapest way of transport. A good thing was that at every Greyhound station they had a hotel booking service with affordable prices. They picked us up and brought us to the destination. Before we agreed to be picked up Willem always inquired whether there was a TV in the room with the Public channel because he didn´t want to miss the Watergate hearings. I made it clear to him not to speak about Watergate, but only of the Public TV Channel in order to not offend the national pride. Sometimes the hotels were very luxurious with swimming pools and palm tree gardens like at our stop in Los Angeles. There I decided to put away my negative experiences and concentrate on the bright side of the country.
By Greyhound through the USA
After our stay in Seattle we travelled for four weeks across the country with the Greyhound bus. In those days this bus was the cheapest way of transport. A good thing was that at every Greyhound station they had a hotel booking service with affordable prices. They picked us up and brought us to the destination. Before we agreed to be picked up Willem always inquired whether there was a TV in the room with the Public channel because he didn´t want to miss the Watergate hearings. I made it clear to him not to speak about Watergate, but only of the Public TV Channel in order to not offend the national pride. Sometimes the hotels were very luxurious with swimming pools and palm tree gardens like at our stop in Los Angeles. There I decided to put away my negative experiences and concentrate on the bright side of the country.
Up to Las Vegas
One day Willem saw an advertisement of a four day trip to Las Vegas for very little money (37 dollars per person). “What do you think” he said to me “shouldn´t we go to the most famous casino town in the world?” I immediately agreed, because a trip through the desert seemed to me very attractive. Las Vegas was indeed a unique experience. We lived in an elegant hotel with a garden and a swimming pool. The gambling halls were huge, though of a peculiar style. One could dine there for low prices and they even served Californian champagne for free to incite you to gamble. We did not lose any money because we only played with the chips we got for free. In this way our life in Las Vegas was very cheap.
One day we went with a lot of other people on a free tour in the desert. It turned out that the purpose was to sell pieces of land. While the Americans quite quickly said, that they did not like the plan, Willem tried to be polite and continued saying that he liked the idea but that he was not interested. When the agents of the company started forcing Willem to buy, I got very angry and made a big scene, shouting that the plan was nothing. Then, finally they led us go.
One day Willem saw an advertisement of a four day trip to Las Vegas for very little money (37 dollars per person). “What do you think” he said to me “shouldn´t we go to the most famous casino town in the world?” I immediately agreed, because a trip through the desert seemed to me very attractive. Las Vegas was indeed a unique experience. We lived in an elegant hotel with a garden and a swimming pool. The gambling halls were huge, though of a peculiar style. One could dine there for low prices and they even served Californian champagne for free to incite you to gamble. We did not lose any money because we only played with the chips we got for free. In this way our life in Las Vegas was very cheap.
One day we went with a lot of other people on a free tour in the desert. It turned out that the purpose was to sell pieces of land. While the Americans quite quickly said, that they did not like the plan, Willem tried to be polite and continued saying that he liked the idea but that he was not interested. When the agents of the company started forcing Willem to buy, I got very angry and made a big scene, shouting that the plan was nothing. Then, finally they led us go.
Two months in Ann Arbor
The Summer school in Ann Arbor turned out to be very important for my future scientific career. I discovered “content analysis”. I never had heard before that you could study texts in a systematic way to obtain concepts for your investigation. Assiduously I attended the course and collected literature about it. There I got for example acquainted with the Stanford Political Dictionary for coding of political texts. Text analysis was the subject I wanted to specialize in. It could be useful for decision research but also for other social science investigations based on texts like questionnaires and mass media.
The Summer school in Ann Arbor turned out to be very important for my future scientific career. I discovered “content analysis”. I never had heard before that you could study texts in a systematic way to obtain concepts for your investigation. Assiduously I attended the course and collected literature about it. There I got for example acquainted with the Stanford Political Dictionary for coding of political texts. Text analysis was the subject I wanted to specialize in. It could be useful for decision research but also for other social science investigations based on texts like questionnaires and mass media.
Back home but how?
After the stay in Ann Arbor it was time to get back to Europe. Although we had return tickets for the trip by plane, I still was at that time so afraid of flying that I looked for a boat to go back. It turned out that the SS France went one of these day from New York to Le Havre in France. I booked this trip for us. It was a very big boat with all facilities and very good French food. But the weather on the Ocean was not very good so that we could not eat much. Willem enjoyed the boat trip because he learned that one can play table tennis on a heavily moving boat. I thought he was playing like a devil. For me this was the last boat trip and later I have flown all over the world.
After the stay in Ann Arbor it was time to get back to Europe. Although we had return tickets for the trip by plane, I still was at that time so afraid of flying that I looked for a boat to go back. It turned out that the SS France went one of these day from New York to Le Havre in France. I booked this trip for us. It was a very big boat with all facilities and very good French food. But the weather on the Ocean was not very good so that we could not eat much. Willem enjoyed the boat trip because he learned that one can play table tennis on a heavily moving boat. I thought he was playing like a devil. For me this was the last boat trip and later I have flown all over the world.