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Published: November 17th 2008
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How many cards does an American need?
The answer is 10. These are the 10 cards that I always have on me, now including my residency permit that makes me an official Austrian! Ladies and Gents, it's official. I'm an Austrian.
This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to meet my friend Sophia. Together, we went to the Staatsbürgerschaftsbüro to pick up our residency permits. I am officially a resident of the Republic of Austria, and a "member" of the European Union. Jawohl!
They spelt my name wrong, but oh well. I have to go back next week and pick up a new card with my name spelt right , but such is life. I also reregistered my address with the government today, so all officialities are finalized. So this is life as a European....oh là là.
My flatmates were all pretty excited that I'm now officially "European," which was pretty entertaining. Today is also the Czech Independence Day when Czechoslovakia broke free from the USSR, so Libor was doubly happy. It was a Tiny Tim moment .
That's about it, though, nothing really new to update on. Had a good weekend. Spent Friday night at Neubaugassekino with the Czech and the Frenchie, just relaxing in pajamas from about 5pm onwards. Did homework on Saturday and Saturday night I, Matthew Greene, made dinner for my flatmates. Libor and Thomas have been very excited to try a true American hamburger, so we decided to make 'em Saturday night. They all wanted something to do, so I found little jobs for them. Olga also joined us, and the 4 of us had a dinner of burgers and fries. Borja came a little late for burgers , but he hung out with us, too. Amanda had been taking a nap but she came out and was sitting at the dinner table with us. It was a bonding moment. The 6 of us just hung out for a while and chatted and reveled in living in Austria.
Saturday night, as every Saturday night, about 40 Spanish people were at my place. Borja said he was told by one of the Erasmus officers that the Spanish population here is the largest nationality, something like 120....out of about 300 international kids. Not too shabby. Anyways, they all seem to convene at my place, which is pretty entertaining 'cause they're crazy. They all speak English pretty well, but I talk to them in Spanish which always throws them off. I've only met one so far, David, who is Castillian Spanish, direct from Madrid. The rest come from the minority regions of Spain, which is pretty cool. There are a lot from Cataluña and Valencia, so they all have Catalan as their first language and Spanish as their second. Borja is the only one I've met who's natively Basque, so they all tease him about that, since the Basques don't consider themselves Spanish and want an independent country . It's entertaining to watch them yelling at each other, but all in good fun, in a mixture of Spanish, Catalan, and Basque. They have about a million songs about their cities and about Spain, and they're all very proud of where they come from. The best, though, is when they all turn on David, and start singing this song which has the major line of, "Que se quema, que que se quema, que se quema, ¡que se quema Madrid!" Let it burn, let let it burn, let it burn, let Madrid burn down! It's really awesome to see them all doing it simultaneously, and they taught Libor and me some songs, as we're now honorary Spanish.
Saturday night at about midnight, the Spanish decided it was a good time to go out. So we went out. We went to a club and hung out for a while, and at about 3am, Libor, Martyna, and I decided to call it a night. It's hysterical to see the Austrians' reactions to the Spanish. The Austrians on the whole are rather reserved, quieter, and just all around hold back. They do enjoy a good time, but you have to get them to open up, which can take a while. With the Spanish, all bets are off. They are loud, they run screaming through the streets, they shout in Spanish, they shout in their dialects and in their languages other than Spanish, and I can't even describe to you the faces of Austrians when they see them. It's great. In fact, in German, to say that you totally do not understand something, such as in English saying it's all Greek to me, you say, "Das ist mir Spanisch." That's Spanish for me.
Sunday was low-key, just lounged around and did homework. Thomas went to a town down in the south, half of which is in Austria, half of which is in Slovenia, which is really cool. Would very much like to go there.
Tschüss!
p.s. My correct address:
Matthew Greene
Neubaugasse 10-14, TOP7, Z2
A-8020 GRAZ
Austria (Österreich)
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kristy
non-member comment
OK, you keep reminding us of your correct address - I guess I should send you something! Is there anything that you would like to have sent? xok