Grüß Graz

Fuel prices as of Tuesday:

Gasoline – $5.80 per gallon
Diesel – $5.14 per gallon

Not surprisingly the station where I got these prices was not very busy unlike most stations in America. Since I have been here, I have not seen more than one car at a fuel station at one time.

On our way to Riegersberg on Saturday, we spotted a Hooters out by the UPC Stadion. So naturally we had to go eat there to see if there were any cultural differences.

I had heard that the Hooters in Austria is a totally different experience because the waitresses wear more clothes.

Totally untrue.

It was in fact the opposite. In addition, the food was good, which immediately separates it from the American restaurant. I was not disappointed when I noticed that they did not have buffalo wings on the menu.

But the thing that surprised me the most about the place was how fast we got our food. We walked it, took a seat, ordered and had our meals in five minutes. (Our beers were there in two minutes.) It was simply amazing.

After our regular classes today, the group took a trip across Graz to visit VinziDorf, a home for the homeless.

VinziDorf is a church-ran program that takes in homeless no matter their situation. Unlike some programs where the homeless have to find jobs or get kicked out, VinziDorf allows the residents to stay as long as they wish and do as little as they wish.

It is called VinziDorf (Dorf is German for village) because the community is comprised of several “containers” where the residents are housed. They even elect someone from the community to be the Burgermeister (mayor).

Many of the residents at VinziDorf are alcoholics who do not wish to give up alcohol. The program allows them to bring their beer and wine with them, and has a very hands-off attitude.

The only time the alcohol is taken away from them is when they are drunk and causing trouble. It is normally returned to them after they have sobered up the next morning.

The reason that alcohol is allowed is that many times the homeless will refuse shelter if it requires them to give up their alcohol.

VinziDorf was by far one of the most practical things that I have seen since I landed here. It is really great what this church and its volunteers do for the less-fortunate in Graz.

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!

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.

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.