God Is an Astronaut In early 2008, the band embarked on their first tour of the United States. On the day they were set to return home, $20,000 worth of equipment was stolen from their van in New Jersey. Their equipment was not insured and a tour that had reportedly already cost the band $20,000 to organize had suddenly doubled in cost. However, they have since returned to the United States selling out shows in both New York and Los Angeles. God Is an Astronaut God Is An Astronaut is an Irish post-rock band from County Wicklow, formed in 2002 by Niels and Torsten
Chinese as a foreign language were studying the language in US colleges and universities. While far behind the more than 800,000 students who study Spanish, the number is more than three times higher than in 1986. The Institute's report includes graphs and details on the popularity of other languages. As of 2008, China had helped 60,000 teachers promote its language internationally, and an estimated 40 million people were studying Chinese as a second language around the world. Other than Standard Mandarin, Cantonese is the only other variant of Chinese that is widely taught as a foreign language. It is the official language of Hong Kong