Hartberg

This weekend my friend Johannes invited my friend Laura and I to his birthday party Friday night and to spend the weekend at his house. He and his family live in Hartberg, about an hour or so northeast of Graz. On the way out of Graz we stopped and ate at a Bushenschank, which is a kind of farm. For the most part, everything they serve you was grown, raised, or made there on the farm. In Austria, lunch is the biggest meal of the day and looks a lot like what I usually eat for supper, where as their dinner looks a lot more like lunch with lots of bread, cheese, and cold meats. From there Johannes's father picked us up and took us to Hartberg.

An arial view of the Bushenschank that was hanging on the wall. It was raining so I couldn't take pictures outside.




So the food was good, but be careful! What looks like shredded cheese is really horseradish and it is HOT!

Johannes's family's house, covered in grape vines :o)

That night was his birthday party, where I met his family and many of his friends. His birthday cake was very different. It was cake topped with some kind of cream or something like yogurt with a top layer of jelly. I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, but the more bites I had, the more I liked it.

Saturday we hiked to the top of a hill. There we climbed a tower and took in some great views of the Austrian countryside. Then we drove a little ways to see some ruins from the Roman Empire. On the way home for lunch we stopped at the Church where his family attends and dad works.

The view from the top!

Ruins from the Roman Empire (in Austria?)

So funny story. On Saturday morning as we were walking toward the car, Laura yelled "Shotgun" and Johannes just stopped, really surprised and gave her the strangest look. We laughed and once in the car tried to explain that its just how you call dibs on sitting in the front seat of a car.

The center of Hartberg

After lunch Johannes showed us where he volunteered at the Red Cross. We even got to see one of the ambulances. Then we visited his mom at the hospital. We then went to another Bushenschank for dinner and had the most amazing fresh apple juice.

The Hospital

Our view from dinner Saturday night :o)

Later that night we went to Hartberg's Oktoberfest. Walking in it looked very similar to our county fair, with many of the same carnival type rides. Also, there was a live band playing music, but most of the songs were in English and American Rock or Pop songs. Laura and I tried Strum, which is wine that is not fully fermented. It is really good and does not really taste like wine. It tastes like juice and is very sweet. It's only available a couple weeks in the fall.

Schlossberg

Today after German class, some of my friends and I stopped by Stadtpark (the city park). Below is my mentor Johannes who has helped me survive my first few days.

We then climbed the 260+ stairs of Schlossberg. It is a hill rising up over the main platz in Graz, with a fort and clock tower from (I think) the 16th century on top. Now there are gardens with gazebos, shops with food and souveniers, and views of the entire city. The climb was worth it because the views were amazing!

The 260+ stairs to the top....

The Amazing Views!

The First Few Days

I made it to Graz! The trip could not have gone more smoothly. The 8 hour flight wasn't much fun and it was hard to sleep on the plane. I sat next to a very nice old man who had moved from Vienna to Cleveland, Ohio in 1939, but comes back to visit his friends in Vienna once a year. We had a nice conversation throughout the flight, during which he told me about Austira, Vienna, his family and all sorts of stories.

After landing in Graz arond 11am local time, my mentor for the semester, Johannes, met me at the airport and we took a 10 minute train ride from the airport to Graz. My apartment was only a couple blocks from the train station. The building I live in is very nice. It's divided into apartments, or flats, and each flat has 5 rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a balcony. My room here is probably the nicest I have had in College. So far I have met four of my five roommates. They all seem nice, but we haven't spoken very much.

After dropping my things off at the apartment, Johannes tried to talk me into buying a bike because it is cheaper than taking the bus everyday. Lots of people here ride bikes. There are really nice bike lanes and plenty of places to lock up your bike. So we went to a local shop and looked at bikes, but I'm leaning toward taking the bus because it will start getting cold here soon.



Next, Johannes taught me how to use the bus system and showed me how to find the campus (a 15 to 20 minute bus ride away). We walked through the main building and stopped by the international students' office. From there we went to the bank to set up a local account. Here instead of writing checks, they do direct money transfers. I am so glad Johannes was with me. I don't know any German yet and the people working at the bank did not know very much English. So he helped translate. After the bank we ran some more errands to get sheets, gorceries, and school supplies.


Buying sheets was so confusing. They don't sell a set of sheets here like they do in the U.S. Everything is sold seperately. You have to buy a matching pillow case and a blanket cover (like a pillow case for your blanket) set. The fitted sheet is sold seperately and does not include the flat sheet. My mentor Johannes told me no one here uses a flat sheet because there is no need for a flat sheet if you have a blanket. But after looking around a little longer I found a white flat sheet. I thought buying sheets would be one of the easier errands. Who knew buying sheets could be so complicated?



However, grocery shopping has been the most challenging task so far for a number of reasons. First, of course, the labels are entirely in German, including the cooking instructions. Second, most of what they sell is ingredients for local dishes. Almost all of the meat is pork. So these first few days I've been resorting to pasta because it's easy, cheap and I can boil pasta without needing to look at the instructions.

So after getting little sleep on the plane and then a full day's worth of errands, needless to say I crashed my first night here. Unfortunately I had to catch the bus to campus the next morning at 7:45am to register for the German intensive course. We spent the rest of that just wandering around the city and learning our way around. It's so easy to get around. The bus will take you anywhere. Graz is a very interesting city with lots of older buildings, some going back to the 15 and 1600s, and then lots of really modern buildings built with a variety of modern material. So the mix of styles is interesting.




The German intensive course started on Thursday and we are flying through the course. I think they are trying to teach us all of German I in three weeks. yikes! But its good because I needed to know German yesterday. I am so impressed with everyone in my class. There are about 16 of us and I am the only American. There are two girls from Canada and one girl from Australia, but that's it for native English speakers. We are being taught German in English, which is most people's second language. I just cannot imagine learning German in Spanish, the language I took in high school and College.

There is so much more to write, but I'll just post this for now and continue later. Pictures will be coming soon!





These two bottom pictures are from Hauptplatz (the central square)