Believe What You've Heard About Eastern Europe

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Servus!

I'm writing right now on Thursday at about 4 o'clock from an internet cafe. WHAT A FREAKIN' TRIP IT'S BEEN!

Eastern Europe is trying to kill me, that's the long and short of it.

The flight went well, took off from Boston about 45 minutes late but that was no biggie. Actually took off from the same terminal that I left from to go to Spain, which was kinda funny. The flight was standard, though, lots of study abroad kids, mostly on their way to Spain, though. Watched Made of Honor which was actually surprisingly entertaining.

Sorrz if there are spelling mistakes, the keyboard is different here.

The Frankfurt airport was exactly as Grampi described it, and we got there at about 6 in the morning. I decided to grab a tea to keep me awake, and of course as I sat there and looked up, I realized I was sitting at a McDonald's in disguise. Clever Germans. Stupid American. Anyways, we took off for Graz (after I became friends with the man working at the customs office), and we were off, Austria-bound!

When we landed in Graz, I'm not gonna lie, it was almost laughable. The airport here was much much much much MUCH smaller than TF Green. MUCH. There were two baggage claim thingies, and jets don't come here, only smaller commuter planes. Miriam was there waiting for me...with her family. Welcome to Europe. The airport is outside of the city as I expected, so her family gave us a ride into the city, which was very nice of them. By that time I was so tired I could barely speak English, let alone German, so I think they thought I was a little crazy.

Miriam and I then went to my apartment, which looks like something straight out of the Soviet Union. It's a pretty big block-shaped building that's all different colors. Walked into my room and woke up my roommate, nice way to kick off the year, eh* (I don't know how to do a question mark on this keyboard, so * is going to stand in for it.) My roommate is pretty nice, though, his name is Mike, he's from Arkansas. Who would've thought there'd be a day with a southern boy and a New England boy living together in Eastern Europe****

Miriam and I then went out into the city to explore it. She was pretty intent on showing me EVERYZTHING, and I was so tired I just dragged along. It was really nice to see it all, though. It's absolutely everything zou can imagine. It's classic Austria. All the buildings are different colors and I don't reallz know the proper word for the architecture, but you know what I'm talking about (I hope). If not, check out my pictures once I get mz internet rigged up and zou can see! It's gorgeous, though, the Hauptplatz (main square) is HUGE, but so nice. The Schloßberg (the mountain/hill the castle sits on top of) overlooks it all. It's breath-taking, I stop and look everyztime I go through it. We saw der Dom der Stadt (the city's cathedral), which is also very very pretty...and huge...and then walked up to the Universität. The buildings are all made out of stone, they all look like frosting on a cake. It sounds stupid, but itäs the only way I can actuallz describe it. The school is reallz small, though, only about a block long. Not bad considering 22,000 kids go there. We also met up with a kid from England that Miriam had picked up, Richard. Didn't particularlz care for him. Definitely looked down his nose at me for not being Europe. I tried to keep interaction with him at a minimum. Overall, though, it was nice to see the city. A very overwhelming day, though. I was in bed by 8:30...after spending some time reading Twilight--Kristy, I'm hooked!!

The next day (yesterday), we started our DeutschIntensiv course. Mike and I woke up early and caught the bus halfway there, and we were supposed to meet Richard on one of the main bridges of the city over the river (die Mur), but he wasn't there, so we just walked up to school on our own. I was pretty torn up about not seeing the English Muffin.

When we got to school, we had to find our names on a few lists for which level of German we had tested in to. Naturally, my name wasn't on any of the lists, and when I asked, I was dragged to a circle of the professors and told, "Sprich uns bitte ein bischen auf Deutsch!" Speak to us a little in German! WERE THEY JOKING**** I just looked at them and said in German, "Uh....what do you want me to say* You've given me nothing to talk about." They ended up asking where I was from and what I do during the summer, and I got cut off and told to go with B1, which is the first class (of two) at the secondary level (of three). Not too shabby. Plus, I got a wicked cool teacher. She's prob. about 27 (and not too hard on the eyes), and is really laid back. She's from the state right next to Steiermark (the state I'm in), and went to my university, Karl Franzens Universität Graz. It's a lot of fun, though, I now have two friends straight from Dublin, a few other Americans, one from Australia (who's nice...more on that later), and some others from Slovenia, Italy, all over Europe! Even Japan. I really like the class, though, so that's good.

I walked all over the city yesterday and today because Eastern Europe is trying to kill me. Of course, UVM told me that when I got to Austria, I would have a cell phone and the internet waiting. Instead, I had to buy a cell phone yesterday, and the agency for my apartment refuses to turn on my internet until the deposit is paid on my room, which I'm having to pay! Thanks, UVM. Mom & Dad are on their case, though, so hopefully we'll get the money back. It's just a joke, though. Graz is pretty big (I have a 55 minute walk to school from my apartment), and of course everything we need is on opposite ends of the city. Yesterdy I had to walk from mz apartment on one end to school in the middle to the housing agencz on the other end back to the middle to look for a building to register myself as a resident of Austria to go back up to school to look for a bank (since, you knw, I have to open a bank accoutn here!) I gave up and just went back to my place (in German, bei mir). Today, I registered myself as a resident and opened a bank account, so hopefully I'll be able to get my internet up and running by tomorrow! If not, at least I know a good place to use it now.

Overall, it's been quite an experience so far. THe woman at the housing yesterday kept snapping at me in Austrian German, which has a funny little accent that I'm starting to get used to (we're learning bits of it in mz class), and then while I was leaving, after pretending she knew no English, smiled at me and said, "Have a nice day!" I just stared at her and some rude comments in German came to mind, but I smiled and just walked out. Good ol' Europe. The kids are pretty nice, though. They mostly want to speak in English, most of the ones from non-English speaking countries included. I'm surprised by how awful so many of them are at German. I really do not care for the Australians, though. So far, I've met one nice one. The rest are all really really pompous, and they're EVERYWHERE! I wouldn't be surprised if the Australians alone were more than half the international kids. They all make snide remarks at me and the 3 other Americans, telling us we're so closed-minded and how ignorant we are, and basically just make themselves sound like fools. Oh, and the nice part is, about 90% of them can barely speak German. At least we Americans are making the effort to go out and talk to the locals.

Well, that's really it for now, I suppose. I've taken a ton of pictures but can't upload them 'til I have the internet in my room, so for now I guess you'll just have to wait. Oh, and one more thing that's pretty cool: when I lie in my bed at night, if I look forward, I'm looking straight out the window...right at the city's castle. I guess it's all worth it, just for the view...

As we say in the Austrian dialect, baba!

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Comments

[Meghan]

sounds very exciting :) good luck with everything. i'll make sure to give my mom this link so she can read everything. miss you, kiddo!!!

[Alissa]

Ahahahahahaha and you used to make fun of ME for having issues with the german keyboard... Also the Question Mark ought to be 2 keys to the left of the Backspace button. Just an FYI. Silly Amerikaner!

[Regina]

I am living vicariously through you! Love the detailed updates...keep 'em coming!