Blogs from Styria, Austria, Europe - page 8

Grüß Gott. It is officially Christmastime in Austria. As you all know, Thanksgiving is American, therefore, it is not celebrated, observed, recognized, understood, known, etc. etc. in Austria. So, while you all are stuffing yourselves silly on Thursday, I'll be sitting in class. Cheers. However, since there is no Thanksgiving, that means that Christmas comes earlier here. No no, that doesn't mean listening to Christmas carols on the radio and blah blah blah, that means real, true Christmas. In pretty much every Germanic city/town, the Hauptplatz (and subsequently all smaller yet major squares) have Christkindlmärkte. Christkind = Christ the Child. Europeans on the whole, it is my understanding, don't have Santa bringing them gifts, but St. Nicholas and Jesus (as a baby...which makes it all the more impressive). Anywho, these markets are full of little trinkets ... read more

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, ... read more

Servus. I have had a ridiculously busy week, and this is my first time to update this ol' thing, so I thought I'd let you all know what I've been doing. To start with, I'll answer Kristy's question from my last blog, which was something I'd thought about after I'd written it but was too lazy to go back and change it. Erasmus is the European Exchange Network. All the European kids here are here with Erasmus. Though I'm not Erasmus, as I am not European, I'm still a member of the network, as is every change student at my university , which basically just means I get invited to trips, get discounts on stuff, and a few other things. Instead of saying, "Ich bin Ausländstudent," we just say, "Bin Erasmus" and everyone understands that we're ... read more

Alright, nobody said that while we were abroad, we'd all have to actually do homework and go to school and do that stuff. Isn't going abroad about traveling and enjoying yourself and really just having a year off? Not in Austria. This has been a very academic weekend indeed. It all started....Friday.... Friday morning I had to wake up nice and early to go with Elisabeth (my advisor) and Sophia (my friend from Mexico) to go and drop off the paperwork for our residency permit. Sophia also decided to stay for the year. Thus, I was up at 6:45, and we met at 7:45 and took care of it, which took a grand total of 5 seconds. I have to go back in 10 days now and pick it up. I came back to my apartment ... read more

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. ... read more