Grüß Graz

Protesters of "Pelzverkauf" or the selling of fur stand on the street today in front of a Kleider Bauer


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.

Labels: 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.

Labels: Graz

Okay, I'm not literally stuck in Washington D.C. My flight has not been cancelled or delayed, but it sure feels like I have been here for eternity.

Right now I am waiting for my 4:20 p.m. flight to Frankfurt, Germany. I have been here (Dulles International Airport) since 11 a.m.

My first flight this morning was at 10:11 a.m. from Dayton, Ohio (a.k.a. Middle of Nowhere International). The flight was only 50 minutes, and now I am basically looking for something to do for another couple hours.

I am very tempted to light up the iPod right now, but I am afraid that if I start too early, I won't have battery life for the seven-hour flight to Frankfurt.

So far I have hit up a coffee shop, Fuddruckers and a newspaper stand to pick up a copy of today's New York Times. I am currently squeezed into a very uncomfortable "internet kiosk" thing that is draining my bank account by the second.

Crap, looks as though I have been on this kiosk thing for over 13 minutes now ... got to go. The next time I post, I should be in either Germany or Austria.

Labels: Travel

Wir haben Musik!

Today I finalized my iPod playlist for the trip to Graz. This will be the list for seven and a half weeks since I will not have my computer with me to change it.

Quite frankly, this is kind of scary because I am the type of person who often changes musical tastes. One day I will be jamming non-stop to The Doors, and the next day I will be rocking out to Rammstein.

Since this playlist will have to endure such a long period without changes, I took a longer than usual time to weed out songs that I am constantly skipping over, and add a few that I always manually find by looking up the album or the artist.

Here is my finalized playlist:

“The Road I'm On” – 3 Doors Down
“Loser” - 3 Doors Down
“Hells Bells” - AC/DC
“For Those About To Rock” - AC/DC
“Thunderstruck” - AC/DC
“Sweet Emotion” - Aerosmith
“Walk This Way” - Aerosmith
“Ventura Highway” - America
“Something” - The Beatles
“Octopus's Garden” - The Beatles
“Here Comes the Sun” - The Beatles
“I Am The Walrus” - The Beatles
“Glass Onion” - The Beatles
“The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill” - The Beatles
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” - The Beatles
“I'm Only Sleeping” - The Beatles
“Drive My Car” - The Beatles
“Girl” - The Beatles
“I'm Looking Through You” - The Beatles
“If I Needed Someone” - The Beatles
“Lovely Rita” - The Beatles
“A Day In The Life” - The Beatles
“Godzilla” - Blue Öyster Cult
“Glycerine” - Bush
“Crossroads” - Cream
“Tales of Brave Ulysses” - Cream
“Swlabr” - Cream
“Strange Brew” - Cream
“I Feel Free” - Cream
“White Room” - Cream
“Ziggy Stardust” - David Bowie
“Misirlou” - Dick Dale
“Yer Blues” - The Dirty Mac
“Light My Fire” - The Doors
“People Are Strange” - The Doors
“Riders On The Storm” - The Doors
“Hello, I Love You” - The Doors
“Layla” - Eric Clapton
“Cocaine” - Eric Clapton
“Wonderful Tonight” - Eric Clapton
“Blues Before Sunrise” - Eric Clapton
“Tears In Heaven” - Eric Clapton
“Times Like These” - Foo Fighters
“Learn To Fly” - Foo Fighters
“The Best I've Ever Had” - Gary Allan
“Mad World” - Gary Jules
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” - George Harrison
“When I Come Around” - Green Day
“Good Riddance” - Green Day
“Sweet Child O' Mine” - Guns N' Roses
“November Rain” - Guns N' Roses
“Don't Cry” - Guns N' Roses
“Knockin' on Heavens Doors” - Guns N' Roses
“Let Her Cry” - Hootie & The Blowfish
“Summertime” - Janis Joplin
“Look What You've Done” - Jet
“Spanish Castle Magic” - Jimi Hendrix
“Purple Haze” - Jimi Hendrix
“Hey Joe” - Jimi Hendrix
“All Along The Watchtower” - Jimi Hendrix
“Little Wing” - Jimi Hendrix
“Angel” - Jimi Hendrix
“Cocaine Blues” - Johnny Cash
“Wheel in the Sky” - Journey
“Carry On My Wayward Son” - Kansas
“You Really Got Me” - The Kinks
“All Day And All Of The Night” - The Kinks
“Lola” - The Kinks
“Where Have All The Good Times Gone” - The Kinks
“Dazed and Confused” - Led Zeppelin
“Whole Lotta Love” - Led Zeppelin
“When The Levee Breaks” - Led Zeppelin
“Stairway To Heaven” - Led Zeppelin
“The Ocean” - Led Zeppelin
“Kashmir” - Led Zeppelin
“In The Evening” - Led Zeppelin
“Ramble On” - Led Zeppelin
“Lonely World” - Limp Bizkit
“No Sex” - Limp Bizkit
“One Step Closer” - Linkin Park
“In The End” - Linkin Park
“A Place For My Head” - Linkin Park
“Papercut [Live] ” - Linkin Park
“Runaway [Live] ” - Linkin Park
“From The Inside [Live] ” - Linkin Park
“Don't Stay” - Linkin Park
“Krwlng” - Linkin Park
“Free Bird” - Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Sex and Candy” - Marcy Playground
“3 AM” - Matchbox Twenty
“Push” - Matchbox Twenty
“Back 2 Good” - Matchbox Twenty
“Nothing Else Matters” - Metallica
“Wherever I May Roam” - Metallica
“The Unforgiven” - Metallica
“Shout At The Devil” - Mötley Crüe
“Home Sweet Home” - Mötley Crüe
“Afraid”- Mötley Crüe
“99 Luftballons” - Nena
“Savin' Me” - Nickelback
“Heart Shaped Box” - Nirvana
“Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam” - Nirvana
“Dumb” - Nirvana
“Plateau” - Nirvana
“Lake Of Fire” - Nirvana
“All Apologies” - Nirvana
“Come As You Are” - Nirvana
“Lithium” - Nirvana
“Rape Me” - Nirvana
“Another Brick In The Wall” - Pink Floyd
“Wish You Were Here” - Pink Floyd
“Message In A Bottle” - The Police
“Level” - The Raconteurs
“Ohne Dich” - Rammstein
“Amerika” - Rammstein
“The Zephyr Song” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Scar Tissue” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Otherside” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Stadium Arcadium” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Torture Me” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Especially In Michigan” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Jumpin' Jack Flash” - The Rolling Stones
“Fine Again” - Seether
“Broken” - Seether
“Closing Time” - Semisonic
“Outside” - Staind
“Texas Flood” - Stevie Ray Vaughan
“Interstate Love Song” - Stone Temple Pilots
“Come Sail Away” - Styx
“Jumper” - Third Eye Blind
“How's It Going To Be” - Third Eye Blind
“Fragments” - The Who
“My Generation” - The Who
“Behind Blue Eyes” - The Who
“Who Are You” - The Who

I also added a few YouTube videos to my iPod including:

"Tales of Brave Ulysses" - Cream
"Misirlou" - Dick Dale
"The Star Spangled Banner" - Jimi Hendrix
"Little Wing" - Stevie Ray Vaughan

Finally, I added a few movies to watch during the plane ride in case the in-flight movies suck:

"Das Leben der Anderen" (known as "The Lives of Others" in America)
"Lola Rennt" (known as "Run Lola Run" in America)
"Cars"
"The Good Shepherd"

Labels: Travel

Speaking of Austria, I almost forgot about this scene from "Dumb and Dumber:"

Labels: Austria

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:

Labels: Austria, Graz

On Thursday I leave for Graz, and so far I am not ready.

Luggage
I still have boxes of stuff from college that have not yet been unpacked, and I still need to start packing for my trip. Luggage has been my biggest worry thus far. I still have not decided how many pieces of luggage I will be taking. Ideally I want to take only two bags: a backpack and my camera bag. However, it looks as though it will end up being three with an additional suitcase on rollers.

I would much rather not take the suitcase because I will be traveling after the trip, and the additional bag will be a pain to lug around everywhere.

Reservations
I really need to start making reservations for hotels and youth hostiles after the program ... but I still have not done that. I am a little uneasy about chiseling my post-program itinerary into stone although I already know I have to make it to Berlin by a certain date to catch a plane home.

Gifts
The most worrying pre-exchange program activity is choosing gifts for the host family. During my last two exchange programs to Japan (Summer 2005) and Germany (Spring 2006) I spent countless hours looking for the perfect gift for the host family.

I always stress out on this because I feel like it should the perfect gift since the host family is putting up with me for an extended period usually at their own expense. I have a few gifts in mind for the family I will be staying with, but now I just need find them before Thursday.

Labels: Home, Travel