Es Regnet, Es Schuettet, Der Alte Schnarcht

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In case you couldn't tell from the title, it's raining and pouring and the old man is snoring in Austria.

I woke up this morning at 7:30 to get ready for a last-minute planned day-trip to Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, the state right next to Graz. It's only about 2 hours away by bus & train, so Elizabeth, Meghan, and I had decided to go since we had nothing to do today. It was, however, torrentially downpouring, and, after consulting the weather online, we decided to take a literal rain check on the trip. It's a bit of a bummer, since it would've been great to see Klagenfurt, but nice at the same time since I was exhausted and thus slept until 11.

When I finally dragged myself away from my bed, I made plans with Elizabeth and Meghan and we met in Jakominiplatz for lunch. We wanted to try to find this really good little Austrian restaurant that Elizabeth's "Buddy" had taken us to the first week we were here, but after walking around for about 15 minutes with no luck in the downpour, we decided to call it quits and returned to Chi-Chi's, sitting at the same table we sat at last time.

After waiting about a year and a half for the check , we headed back out into the downpour to meet Dietlinde in the Hauptplatz. We had gone into Chi-Chi's at 1:30, and left at about 4 o'clock, so that tells you something. After meeting Dietlinde, we went to a cafe on Sporgasse and killed some time until 5 o'clock. We hopped on the Strassenbahn in Hautplatz and headed for Annenstrasse to see a movie. We were seeing Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, which we had thought was something to do with Nazis. Not so much.

It starts in West Germany in 1967, and basically follows the story of a radical group that was formed during student protests against America's involvement in Vietnam. When the peaceful students started being attacked by the police, etc., for their protests against the West German Government's support of the American Government, the students decided to retaliate. Basically, they became a terrorist group of sorts that for about 10 years ripped the country apart, until they were all either dead or caught. It was wicked long , but actually really good. It was of course alles auf Deutsch, but it was the German spoken in Germany so not too hard to understand . It was really interesting, though, to see the other side of the coin, not just the American perspective on world history . It dealt with more countries than just America, too, which was also fascinating, as I now know people from those places. For instance, part of the movie dealt with Czecoslovakia and how it was on its way to splitting. Libor had said the other day that he was 2 years old when the country split, some Germans I know were alive when the wall fell, etc. It's just really awing to meet people who were a part of the history that to us in far away isolated America doesn't even seem real or influential to us. Before the movie, as well, there was a preview about a movie about the Nazis, which was also startling, seeing as I'm currently living in the country that produced Hitler. It's just baffling, the amount of history and the connection the people have with it, as opposed to the obvious disconnect and disdain in America.

It was only about 8 o'clock when we got out of the theatre, but we were all pretty tired, so just called it a day. We need to be well rested, since of course Graz is currently celebration Steirischer Herbst, or Styrian Autumn, which is an international festival held in Graz celebrating the culture of Styria . It kicked off yesterday, and tomorrow is the first major event: Die Schokoladefest. Yes, the Chocolate Festival. Tomorrow night is also Die Lange Nacht der Museen, the Long Night of the Museums, where every single museum in Austria is open from 6pm-1am, and in the castles you can go on candle-lit tours, etc. I'm going to try to get to Schloss Eggenberg for a candle-lit tour, but as of now, I'm scheduled to appear at the former Arnold Schwarzeneggar Stadion to cheer on Graz's soccer team.

Good story about the stadium. It was named the Arnold Schwarzeneggar Stadion, since Arnold grew up in one of the villages just outside of Graz, but, after becoming governator of California and issuing the death sentence, something that is absolutely positively forbidden in Austria. When he issued the death sentence, there were great protest in Austria, and the government of Graz didn't know what to do. They didn't want to keep the name on the stadium, because they saw it as a way of endorsing Arnold and thereby endorsing the death sentence, but they didn't want to remove the name, as he was afterall their Arnold. In the end, the name was changed, and now it's the UPC-Arena, but I'm not sure what that stands for. I think the P is for Puntigamer, the beer brewed in Graz. The name of the team is the SK Sturm Graz, which is pretty entertaining, in my opinion. Sturm is one of the specialties of Styria, and basically, you have apple juice and then you have wine. Sturm is that thing in the middle. More or less apple juice with a kick. It's not bad, but not my personal favorite.

That's about it, though. Last night Libor watched "The Replacements," and thus was asking me a million questions about American football. I think Sunday we're going to go on the hunt to see if we can find one in Graz, as well as find a ball for Fussbodenball. Should be quite a challenge. All of my European friends are baffled by the concept of football, and they keep asking us Americans to teach them to play, so if I can find a ball on Sunday, looks like Meghan and I will be teaching everyone. New England Patriots meets Green Bay Packers.

I'm sure I'll be updating tomorrow, if I'm not puking from all the chocolate or screamed horse from cheering on "fussball."

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