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Published: March 15th 2009
Judendorf
The pilgrimage church Libor and I rode our bikes to.Greetings all,
It's been a bit since I've updated this thing because I've been all over the place this past week with none other than Rachel Greene and Michael Banks on their maiden voyage to Europe. Since it's been a while, I'll catch you up on some things.
On March 2nd, we started school here, our summer semester. So far, my classes all seem pretty interesting, and, if you're wondering, these are what they are:
Monday: Sprachen der Welt ; a general overview of the major language families, linguistics, etc., basically all stuff I already know but interesting nonetheless; the professor speaks in really really thick Austria, so it's kind of a challenge to understand everything he says, but so it goes.
Tuesday: Skandinavien und der Kontinent im 20. Jahrhundert ; this class should be really good, I've never really learnt anything about Scandinavia so it should be interesting, though unfortunately it's basically just going to be students giving presentations since it's a proseminar so it's like one of my Italian classes from last semester, I have to write a 20-page paper and on the 31st of
Judendorf
The pilgrimage church Libor and I rode our bikes to. March give a presentation about Finland and Finlandization in contrast to Russification in Soviet times and whatnot, but it shouldn't be too bad, the professor is also really funny, his specialty is Norway, and he was telling us that when he was in college, it was before the Erasmus Program was created, so there were only two students from each COUNTRY allowed to study in another country, and thus it was very difficult to go to the major European countries like France, Spain, England, etc., so instead, he chose Norway, and when he arrived in Oslo, he had the President of Foreign Relations show up at the airport in a limo to pick him up and bring him to his apartment, where he figured he'd be living with two Norwegian guys. Instead, he told us that he knocked on the door and "a blonde beauty opened the door and said, 'Hi, Martin,' and I looked at her and said, 'I sure do love Scandinavia.'" I also have this class with Thomas, as well as an other girl from France, and so the professor insists on taking attendance as "der Herr Müller, die Frau Borhauer, Mr. Greene, der Herr Kepler, Monsieur Gathier," which is a bit funny, though at the same time a little frustrating as it clearly designates us as the outsiders. I was also a little offended in the last class when we were discussing the difference between "Scandinavia" and "Northern Europe," and I was told that I wasn't allowed to give my input since I wasn't a continental European so wouldn't really know what I was talking about...meanwhile, I'm pretty certain I was the one that could actually name the countries of Northern Europe, and when the professor asked about a group of islands in Scandinavia and nobody had any idea what he was talking about, he looked at me
, and looked at me as though he wanted to ask me something, and I just said, "the Faroe Islands," which I think threw him off a bit. Who knew that the American could know something about Europe that the Europeans don't?
After my Scandinavia class, I'll have a German class for international students. It doesn't start until this week, but it should be fun. It's the highest level of German offered at my school, and it's with the same professor that I had last semester. Libor's in the class with me, as well as a girl we know from the Czech Republic, so that should be fun, as well as some other friends of mine.
Tuesday afternoons I have my most boring class, Die Geschichte Österreichs: Vom Spätfeudalismus zur konstitutionellen Monarchie ; the professor speaks very monotonously, and it's overall very boring and hard to understand him. I have this class with Thomas and Claire, and they also understand just about nothing, but we know an Austrian in the class, so he's going to let us copy his notes which will help a lot.
Tuesday evenings I'll then have Swedish with my friend Agata. It's technically the second level, so this week and next week I have to learn everything from the first level to catch up , but it should be fun. The professor is actually from Minnesota and doesn't speak German, so that could maybe make it a little easier, but we'll see.
Wednesday: Nothing yet, but Czech starts this week and I can't wait!!!! I'm getting nervous because I go to the Czech Republic again in 3 weeks and don't think I've learnt enough , so I'm pretty antsy to get going with that again.
Thursday: My favorite class of the classes I've had so far. It's called Norwegische Sprach- und Literaturkunde . It's kind of an overview of Norwegian history, literature, and language, all rolled into one, so it's fun. Unfortunately, there's one kid in it from Ireland that I was friends with at the start of the year who I'm still friends with but he's terribly annoying, and then there's also the English Muffin from my first day that I can't stand in that class, but oh well, I'm not letting it deter me.
Friday: Vom Altkirchenslawischen zur Gegenwartsprache ; basically a class about the history and development of the Slavic languages from Old Church Slavonic. It's pretty interesting. So far, we've discussed the history of Bulgaria and of the Old Church Slavonic language, and it's basically just going from country to country and seeing how it all developed. Most of the kids in the class take Russian , one girl takes Slovene, and I'm the lone person with Czech, but so it goes.
That's it with school, though. I also have volleyball Monday nights, but that's pretty awful. Nobody really knows how to play. I have it with Libor, and we're the two best ones in the class. Our first class was spent just peppering with one another which was stupid, and then last week we actually got to play games, but it was pretty awful since nobody could play . The coach apparently thinks I'm a moron, too, as when he read my name he pulled me aside and said , "Um...can you speak German?" to which I said, "Ja, ich spreche Deutsch, und es ist mir besser, wenn Sie mit mir auf Deutsch sprechen." . We had 3 extra people on Monday so we had to rotate with people sitting out, and I got pulled out with two guys who have absolutely no athletic talent WHATSOEVER, and the coach proceeded to explain to me the 6 positions and the concept of "rotating" on a volleyball court. I didn't pay one ounce of attention, and when he asked me if I had any questions, I just smiled and said, "Absolutely not."
Before Rachel came, it was pretty lowkey here. Libor and I one day took a bikeride to a village outside of Graz, Judendorf, where there's a pilgrimage church, so I'll put those pictures on here, but otherwise, there hasn't been anything very interesting. Now, for what you've probably been waiting for, the most recent adventure:
Friday morning Rachel and Banks rolled into Graz at about 10am, and I met them at the airport. They were both wide-eyed and excited to be in Europe and whatnot, and amazed at how different it all already was. We caught the train back into Graz, and I showed them my apartment. Since I had class , I brought them to the Hauptplatz and left them to their own devices while I went to class. I met them again about an hour later, and found them in radically different moods. That wide-eyed excitement had suddenly turned into crabby exhaustion and shock that "everything is in German," which I got a laugh from, but it was funny to watch them both in a bit of culture shock. Libor met us and we brought them to our kebap place, where they got to see our friend the Turk who was very confused when we ordered 4 kebaps instead of our typical two. Anyways, they both liked kebaps, and then we left since Libor had to go to school and Rachel was cold . We went back to my apartment so she could change, then I took them back into the city and gave them a little tour so that they could see everything once again and actually know what they were looking at. Finally, after dragging them around for long enough, we came back to my apartment and I made some dinner. By this time, I'm pretty sure they both wanted me dead, and I finally let them sleep at about 7:30 at night.
Saturday we woke up to a gorgeous day, and we set out for the Schlossberg. Both confident of being able to walk easily up the 260 stairs to the Clock Tower, they were singing a radically different tune about halfway up, which once again, I got a kick out of. We wandered around the Schlossberg complex, and then headed down into the city and did a quick little tour again with some other stops included, grabbed lunch at Sägewerk, a pizza place here, where I taught them about the European style of eating, and then we came back to my apartment. Here, we picked up Libor and Martyna, and headed out to Gösting, to the castle ruins there. After that, we came back to my apartment and hung out for a little, and then the 3 of us, Libor, and Martyna, went out for dinner for Austrian food, where Rachel and Banks had their first Wiener Schnitzel and tried Puntigamer, one of the local beers. We hung out at the restaurant for a bit, and then just came back to my apartment since everyone was tired from the day's excursions, and I had something planned for the next day that would require lots of energy.
Since Sunday is the day to do nothing in Europe, there wasn't much that we could do in Graz. However, being as clever and awesome as I am, I thought of something to do, and Libor and I led Rachel and Banks up the side of an Alp to Plabustch Fürstenstand, where we'd been hiking with ESN and then rode our bikes up to a few weeks ago. We hiked up the side of that, from which they got to see the ruins we'd been at the day before, as well as Thal, home of Ahhnold Schwarzeneggar, and the snow-covered Alps. We ate lunch at the restaurant up there, where Rachel had Hühnerschnitzel, which she painfully pronounced which had Libor laughing the entire week, and then hiked back down to have a low-key afternoon and evening, since there wasn't much to do.
Monday I had class in the morning, and then we caught the train a little after noon down to Maribor, Slovenia. We did a little tour of the city, and then I brought them to Ancora, the restaurant my friends and I discovered in September, where Julie and I ate, and now where they've eaten. We were only in Slovenia for 3 or 4 hours, but for Maribor, that was more than enough, and I think they enjoyed it and got to see the novelty of traveling in Europe, where you only need to travel just a little, but it can all quickly change.
Tuesday I had class in the morning and they slept in, but then I met them in the city and we caught the Strassenbahn out to Mariatrost, one of the pilgrimage churches of Graz, and, this time, it was actually open . We also went into the cementary there, where they got to see how different European cementaries look from ours, and then we headed back into the city. We met Libor and went out to lunch at a Greek restaurant, where Rachel tried Souvlaki and Banks had something that none of us could pronounce . They also tried Gösser beer there, another one of the local beers, and then I had to head up to school. Upon my return, I don't really remember what we did, but I believe we just hung out a bit and then Banks made steak grinders for dinner, which, in the words of Kristy Livingston, were delicioso.
Since I didn't have classes on Wednesday, we caught the train in the morning up to Vienna. We got there a few minutes after noon, and decided to eat first. I brought them to the restaurant Hillary and I had found, and where Julie and I had also eaten, and there we got Wiener Schnitzel in Wien! That ended up taking a bit longer than I had anticipated, as the waitor was ridiculously slow, and so when we paid, I had them high stepping it to the hotel, where they checked in, and then we caught the subway into the center of the city. We got off at Stephansdom, the absolute center of the city, and, upon exiting the station, they were greeting by...Stephansdom. They both seemed to really like that, and were baffled by how big it really is, and so we walked around there and went inside , so that was pretty cool. We power-walked through the city so I could show them all the major points and whatnot, as I had to catch the 5 o'clock train back to Graz. Once I'd shown them Vienna's center in about a 2-hours, I think they were happy to see me off, and so I caught the train back to Graz and they stayed in Vienna for the night, so you have to ask them about their adventures there.
Thursday they were also in Vienna, so you need to ask them about their adventures there, but they were in an around the Schönbrunn Palace. They got back to Graz at about 8 on Thursday night, and then we had an American night and cooked hamburgers and ate and hung out for the evening.
Friday I had class, so I left them at the cathedral and mausoleum for them to explore that, and then they met me once again in Hauptplatz with Libor, and we went to get a kebap, per their request. After that, we went up to school so that I could get my bike . We then caught the Strassenbahn out to the edge of Graz, where I showed them Schloss Eggenberg, one of the city's castles where the prince of Graz lived. Unfortunately, it's still closed this time of year , so we could only see it from the outside, but it was cool nonetheless, and they got to see wild peacocks, as the entire place is crawling with them. We then caught the Strassenbahn back into the city, where I showed them the Landhaus, and then after that they really didn't have anything left to see in Graz, as they'd been up and down it many times and see literally everything you could possible imagine. We came back to my apartment and hung out for a bit, then Libor and I took them out to dinner, where Rachel got Wiener Schnitzel, Banks got...something, and we all had Gösser (though Banks actually had discovered he liked Edelweiss beer the best and had that instead). After dinner, we took them to one of our local haunts, Brot und Spiele, where we hung out for the evening playing pool.
Yesterday we woke up to a gorgeous spring day. Graz had changed overnight, and all the restaurants had their outside seats full of people enjoying the weather, and so we went for a stroll, got lunch at one of the stands in Hauptplatz per their request, grabbed an ice cream, and just wandered around Graz enjoying the weather. In the afternoon, we caught the train to the airport, and, after a minor mix-up with days and times, they were on their way to Frankfurt. Right now they should be somewhere inbetween England and Iceland, speeding back to the other side of the ocean.
This summery of their trip isn't very detailed, but so it goes, as I figure that's more for them to give you. They also have all the pictures from the trip, so you can see them from them. Anyways, I had a great time with them here and am really glad that they came, and I think they enjoyed their first trip to Europe, so it was a lot of fun and a great week overall!
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Mom
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Very nice....if only Kristy knew how to make steak grinders! Hope she brings back lots of pictures of the both of you.