When it rains, it pours (and gets really cold)

I should have brought a coat with me. Right now it is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside and raining. Viel Spaß.

This morning, it looked as though it would be a nice day. After another cold shower, I put on my khaki shorts and a t-shirt. This won’t be the last cold shower that I take here since the hot water heater is apparently broken.

Like an idiot I did not think that I would need to bring a coat or even a jacket along … bad decision. Apparently Austrian weather is just as unpredictable as Indiana weather. Yesterday it was 90 degrees without a cloud in the sky here; today it is 50 degrees and raining.

All was well until after school when we took a city tour with Volker, the program resident coordinator. As soon as we stepped outside, it started pouring.

In the end, the grand Spaziergang around the city did not last very long.

After the tour of the city, I went with a few friends from the group to the Eckstein restaurant around the corner from the city hall.

We did not notice it immediately, but we were grossly under dressed for the place. Nonetheless, we ended up having a good meal although we got a few stares from the well-dressed Austrians inside the restaurant.

I ended up having some meat meal. (I thought I ordered pork, but I ended up with something that looked like veal.) Naturally, I had a Weizenbier to drink. The veal, pork or whatever I ended up with was excellent. The beer kind of sucked though; it was really bitter.

The forecast for tomorrow is more rain … schön!

Fangen wir an

Gemaltes Haus
The Gemaltes Haus (Painted House) in Graz. The building features the Baroque painter Johann Mayer, who applied the ‘divine’ frescos in 1742. Since then, it has been known as the “painted house.” This is where our classes are.

Today was the first day of school.

School does not start until 8 a.m., but I got up at 4:47 a.m. because I could not sleep.

Hoping that my day would get better, I went into the shower and was greated by ice cold water. Beautiful. Nothing says “Guten Morgen” like a “Eiskalt” (ice cold) shower.

After a rather large breakfast, I caught the bus at 7:20 a.m. thinking that I would make it to school early … I walked into the class at 7:55 a.m.

School was rather boring since, like most first college classes, we went over the syllabus.

Class is supposed to end at 12:15 p.m., but the group was dismissed around 11:30 a.m. Almost the entire group took a walk down the block to the “Rathaus” (City Hall). In the square in front of the city hall, the group found a few vendors selling food so we stopped a while. After that we basically walked around the town a bit to see where things are. (We found the McDonalds.)

Austria is starting to feel more and more like Japan. Today it is probably 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and no one has air conditioning turned on. The bus from the city center was so hot that I got off and walked the last few blocks home.

I ended up coming home to an empty house around 1 p.m. I have homework to do, but like a typical college student, I do not feel like doing it right away … ah procrastination.

Le Tour de Graz

Today I went with Heide, Nouri (Heide’s son) and Heide’s mother on a bicycle ride to celebrate Mother’s Day. The ride consisted of us riding about 10 miles out of the city and having a small picnic along the bicycle trail.

Throughout the entire ride, Heide’s mother keep breaking away from us and we were constantly trying to catch her. Despite her age, she was a real speed demon on the bicycle.

But she was not the only one. There was a good amount of people on the trail who were trying to set new land speed records. Unlike in America where for the most part people seem to take their time on bicycle trails and enjoy the ride, Austrians want to get there as soon as possible.

Although I have not worked out in ages and I have not been on a bicycle in over a year, I was able to keep up with 10-year-old Nouri and even pass him a few times. But when we returned home, I was exhausted and went to bed shortly after 6 p.m.

Today I got my first taste of Austrian German. I had almost written it off as a myth because I had been able to understand everyone up to this point. However, today I listened for about 10 minutes to two older people conversing and literally had no idea what they were talking about.

In high school I learned Bavarian German, a dialect that this very similar to Austrian German because of the proximity of Bavaria to Austria. The accent I heard today was so thick that it could be cut with a butter knife.

The “Handy” Bum

Graz Protesters

Today my hosts took me into the city to show me where my classes will be held. I will have to take the bus to school everyday, but it isn’t a big problem because they seem to be very simple to use.

My route will take about 15 minutes to the city center with bus No. 31. Then I can walk or take “die Straßenbahn” (street car) a few blocks to the building. My classes are actually held right around the corner from the “Rathaus” (city hall).

After finding my classes, we walked around town for a few hours. In front of the city hall building there was a street festival with tents and food vendors.

We took a small side trip to a small supermarket located not far from the city square. When we entered the building my host, Heide, pointed out a bum who was begging for change next to the entrance of the building.

When we left the building I started to feel sorry for the guy because he got up from his spot next to the supermarket entrance and appeared to be moving to another location. Then he pulled out his “Handy” (cell phone) and answered a call. Nonetheless I did not feel as sorry for him as we headed back to the city square.

We also saw a group protesting in front of an expensive clothing store. The group was upset with the store because they sell clothing that is made of animal fur. They weren’t dumping paint on people wearing fur coats, but rather wearing gas masks and holding a large sign that read, “Stop the sell of fur.”

We also visited the “Murinsel.” It is a man-made floating structure located in the middle of the Mur river in the heart of the city. It has a small area for people to sit and picknick, a cafe and a small play area for children.

The structure was built in 2003 after Graz was named the European Capital of Culture.

Our last major stop was the Schloßberg. It is a fortress built in the 1700s that sets on a hill overlooking the city. (The banner for this website has a photo of it.) Luckily, we took an evavator to the top. It is about a 30 minute walk to the top.

The top of the Schlossberg has some great views of the city below, but I was unable to get any spectacular photos because it was very overcast and rainy today.

I will definitely return there again, but perhaps on day when the sun is out.

Graz!

I’m here finally!

I arrived around 10 a.m. local time today after around 10 hours of in-air flight time. Right now I am so tired I could fall over and die right now. To avoid the dreaded jet lag (only six hours here) I am trying to stay up as late as possible so I won’t wake up at 4 a.m. fully rested.

My initial take of the city is that it is very busy. In fact, Graz reminds be of Japan because of the intense traffic, billboards everywhere and the foothills geography. In addition, it reminds be of Germany because of the language and culture.

Tomorrow my host is taking me downtown to show me around a bit, so I will hopefully post some photos afterwards.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The other night while doing research for the trip I found out that Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up in the village of Thal, a suburb of Graz.

Gustav, Arnold’s father, was a Stormtrooper during WWII and later served as a police chief in Graz.

On July 9, 1997, the City of Graz named its soccer stadium Arnold Schwarzenegger-Stadion to commemorate its most famous citizen. However, the stadium was renamed in 2005 following street protests in Graz after the Stanley Tookie Williams execution.

Graz citizens were upset that Schwarzenegger denied clemency for Williams on December 12, 2005. (The death penalty is outlawed in Austria, and it is widely unpopular with Austrians.)

In the midst of the street protests, Schwarzenegger issued a statement to Graz officials saying, “to spare the responsible politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenauer Stadium.”

The metal letters spelling out “Arnold Schwarzenegger-Stadion” were removed in late December 2005. The stadium is now named UPC-Arena.

The fallout of this whole mess is that Schwarzenegger no longer associates himself with Graz. On December 19, 2005, Schwarzenegger returned an honorary ring that Graz had presented him in 1999.

Here is a YouTube video I found with footage of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Stadion, and Schwarzenegger talking about growing up in Graz:

Die Polizei!

Another late night means more YouTube videos. This time the only thing I was able to find on Graz that is halfway interesting was a very random video on the Graz Police with techno music playing throughout the video.

Check it out:

Thank you YouTube

As can be seen by the time on this post, it is ridiculously early in the morning. That means only one thing: YouTube time.

Between watching a clip from the Cream Reunion tour in 2005 and a weird “I am the Walrus” video, I found this interesting video on Graz:

It’s a neat video that shows some of the places to see in the city, but wtf on the music. That definitely isn’t the music that comes to mind when thinking of southern Austria.

Willkommen!

Hello and welcome! My name is James Brosher, and I am a sophomore at Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana) majoring in Journalism and Germanic Studies.

This summer I will be studying German in Graz, Austria for six weeks (May 11-June 23). After the program is finished, I will be spending an additional week sightseeing in Europe. I created this blog in order to chronicle my experiences and thoughts from my time in Graz and my journeys in Europe.

I have not yet left for Graz, but I am already starting to get nervous about the trip. What will my host family be like? Will I get lost? Will anyone understand my broken German? Basically, I am freaking out at this point.

What will happen? Stay tuned …