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Published: November 3rd 2008
Halloween
A Hawaiian Lady, Maya the Bee, and Quailman make their appearances in Graz.Sorry all for not writing for a few days. Since getting my job, it was pretty lowkey here, although from Friday until now has been a whirlwind where I haven't had a second to sit down and actually just relax and update on here. So, let's go!
I'm not sure if you guys are aware, but on Friday, there was a holiday in America. You might know it, it's called Halloween? Well, they don't have it in Austria. They know what it is, and there were some decorations here and there for it, but nobody trick-or-treats, etc. The Americans, however, decided it was vital that we usher the celebration into Europe, and so there were various parties, etc. My Europeans had spent many arduous days choosing a costume, tracking down things for it, making it, etc. They were all pretty excited to celebrate their first Halloween. My roommate and some of his friends had decided to have a party in my building in our party room, so a bunch of people were supposed to be coming over to hang out in the basement of my building. Wouldn't you know it, though, that my roommate did absolutely nothing for it and
Halloween
I'm proud to have officially left my mark on Europeans. didn't reserve the room? Thus, the party was cancelled and he and his friends were just going to go out to a bar . Libor, Thomas, and Martyna had come over for the party, and we decided to just go back to Libor and Thomas', since their other flatmates were in Poland. The 4 of us just hung out and played this game called Jungle. It's a French game where you play with cards and have to grab a baton type thing. It was fun, though, and then we ended up watching a movie. Libor pulled out his movie case, and started listing what he had: all the American Pies, Old School, etc. etc. We decided on Super Troopers! It was in English but with Czech subtitles, as Martyna and I both speak English and so Libor could also follow. It was a great time overall, and then I had to walk back to my building at about 3am, where the party, which my roommate decided to have in our apartment, was still going. Luckily, he had relatively kicked everyone out of room, but there was still a bit of garbage, etc. Lovely.
Saturday I
slept in late since I got back so late the night before, but when I woke up, Libor and I started to organize the day's plans. We had decided that we wanted to play soccer and get a game going, since we'd bought a ball a few weeks ago and had still yet to play. We got Austin from Mississippi , and two Finns from our DeutschIntensiv course, Mikko and Heino. Since we only had 5 , we played 2 vs. 3, with Libor switching between the two teams. I also brought the football that Dad sent me, and so we then started to play that, as well. It was absolutely hysterical to see the Europeans try to throw a football. It was the first time most of them had seen one, and so when they tried to show it, the best way to describe it is if they were holding a bag of flour and trying to heave it forward. The nice part, though, was that Austin and I both looked like superstars. After that, we all went on our merry way, and then I
hit the biggest roadblock of the day: all the grocery stores were closed! I couldn't figure it out, but then realized that it was, as Thomas said, Tous Saints, All Saints Day . Without fail, though, the Spar in the Hauptbahnhof was open, as it always is, and Libor and I met there, as we wanted to cook hamburgers for dinner. Of course, the grocery store had no ground meat, so instead we bought Frankfurters and went back to his place, where he cooked this thing with chopped up Frankfurters and onions. Quite good. After that, we just hung out for a bit, then met Martyna, Lucy, Rona , and Nico at the pool hall, which is rapidly becoming our latest hang-out. We played pool for a bit, and then all just headed home, as we were all exhausted still from being up so late the night before.
Sunday morning I woke up at 7am and was at the train station by 8. I caught the 8:21 train to Vienna . My friend Meg from UVM is in Vienna for a few days during her vacation from going
Bett
Bed. to a university in Paris. I went up to meet her and her friend Jamie and hang out for the day. I got into Wien at about 11, and from there ran to to the Innere Stadt, as we had planned to meet at 11:30 at Stephansdom. We finally found each other, and it was great to see. Crazy that we haven't seen each other since May! Anyways, we headed out to have lunch, and I actually took them to the same restaurant my friends and I went to on the Ringstrasse when we went to Vienna in September. It was good food again, and I got to show off my German, which was a plus. From there we just hang out, wandered around a little bit, etc. We tried to find the Hofburg palace but got seriously lost, so ended up just going to Stadtpark. From there, I brought them to Karlskirche and the Naschmarkt , and then we walked back towards the Innere Stadt. They showed me the Spanish Riding School, which was pretty cool, since I'd never been there. However, it was getting late and my train time was approaching, so
Sessel
Chair. I caught the U-Bahn back to the Südbahnhof and got on the 4:57 train back to Graz, again with a stop in Bruck an der Mur. After a minor delay in Bruck an der Mur, I finally made it back here at almost 8pm. Needless to say I was in a bit of a foul mood, as I've discovered I'm very sensitive to altitude changes, and the change from here to Vienna and back again was enough to send my head spinning and make me feel sick. Pile on top of that my recent frustration with my living situation, and it overall did not equal a nice evening. I'm still coughing heavily again , and don't feel quite 100%! (MISSING)Hopefully it'll pass quickly, though.
Today, I woke up to an email waiting in my UniGraz email account, which was a bit of a surprise, since I usually don't get things there. It was from a lady at the ÖAD housing office, with whom I've exchanged many an email about living with my friends next semester in Neubaugasse. She was writing to tell me that the girl from Germany who was supposed to take the free room
Der Flur
The hallway. On the right is the mirror, then Olga's door, then Borja's door, then the window to the kitchen and the kitchen door. At the very end is the shower room. On the left,which you can't see, is the pantry, and then the two toilet rooms. in my friends' apartment was no longer coming , so they were giving the room to me if I wanted it. After scrambling up to school to the International Office there to discuss if that was possible, as well as waking Dad up at 5:15, I emailed her back with confirmation that I would indeed like to take the room. As I started to gather my stuff , I headed to Neubaugasse to pick up the key. I made another quick trip back to Fröbelgasse to get more things, and then headed again back to Neubaugasse. I had lunch at Martyna's, as she wanted to celebrate the fact that I would be living in civilization. She made rice, steamed vegetables, and....fish. Yes, today, for the first time in 20 years, I ate fish. It wasn't bad, though it wasn't good. It didn't really have a taste, and I wasn't too crazy about it. All the same, though, I ate it. Not too shabby, huh?
After that, I made one final trip back to Fröbelgasse,
Der Flur
Libor and Thomas' room with the door open, my room is right to the left of that. where I got the last of my stuff, cleaned my side, and then I said AUF WIEDERSEHEN. I had a lot of luck with the buses today, as every time I needed one to come, it would magically appear, so I literally got to the busstop and hopped on. It was great! I then spent the remainder of the afternoon unpacking and getting settled. I absolutely love my new place! It's a single room, and I'm living in an apartment with Libor, Thomas, and Borja, and also Olga from Spain and Amanda from France. I also know a lot of people in the building, as it's entirely for international students. My room came with a tv, two lamps, a sitting chair, and a door instead of a window! It's really cool, 'cause half the door is guarded by glass, but I can open it all up and use that for my window, so it's great. My building is literally 3 minutes from the Hauptplatz, and about a 10 minute walk from school. It's awesome! It also came with all the bedding and a 2nd set, so now I have 3 sets including the stuff I brought with
Die Kueche
The kitchen [and Thomas making dinner]. me from my last place.
Now I'm just waiting on a free washing machine so I can start to wash my clothes , and I've been told the laundry here is SO much easier 'cause we just use our student IDs. Hopefully it will be.
That's about it, though. Enjoy my pictures of my new krib!
p.s. Hillary just emailed me and told me that National Geographic made a list of the 100 top places in the world to visit, and Graz is number FIVE! How 'bout them Äpfel?
p.p.s. New address!!
Matthew Greene
Neubaugasse 10-14 TOP7, Z2
A-8010 GRAZ
Austria (Österreich)
TOP = the apartment, I'm #7, and Z stands for Zimmer, which means "room."
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Hillary
non-member comment
Real World: Graz
Wow, weird shower set up. It's like Real World: Graz.