Grüß Graz

Today was the last day of the program. We did not really have class today, but instead we went to a cafe across the street and had coffee and cake.

Overall, it was a very sad day. After a few hours people began to leave, and I suddenly realized that I may never again see some of them.

Last night was our Abschiedsfest, a nice dinner with all the host families followed by a few performances by the students. I contributed by singing a song with a couple other students to Volker Horn who is the Resident Coordinator for the program.

Volker is in charge of all the housing arrangements and trip arrangements for the program. He is also a really great guy who seems a little shy at times. So one can easily picture the look on his face when we pulled in front of everybody and started singing a song to him.

It was great. Although he was very embarrassed, he told me later that he really liked and appreciated the song. (I'll try to get a copy of the lyrics posted here soon.)

In all, the Abschiedsfest was a big success, and a great way to cap off the program. But it was ultimately sad because it was basically the end of the program.

Tomorrow morning around 5 a.m. I am heading to Venice, Italy. I am not sure how much internet access I will have after I leave Graz so I must apologize in advance if this blog gets a bit boring in the next week. Hopefully I can find an internet cafe in Venice where I can write a quick blog post or two.

When I return to America in a couple weeks, I will be posting an in-depth analysis of the program and my time in Graz. I did not want to hastily post something today, but rather have some time to reflect a bit on the experience first.

Labels: Graz, IU Graz Program

I have my train reservations made for Venice and back ... finally. I have been putting it off for weeks, which is really sad considering I have been through the train station five times in the past two weeks.

Since I am traveling with a Eurail Pass, I also got it verified at the ticket counter today.

Just my luck, I happened to pick the lady at the ticket counter who was having a case of the "Mondays." She was not rude, but I could tell that she was not happy about something. Also, she seemed as though she was mad at me for asking for something.

The whole experience rattled my cage a bit since the well-known stereotype for Austrians is friendliness. I definitely did not see that today.

As far as the friendliness stereotype goes, I have not seen it. It's not that everyone is mean here, but rather that Austrians don't sing merry songs while skipping to work everyday like the stereotype implies.

Labels: Graz, Travel

Labels: Graz

In one week, I will be in Venice.

Right now I am a little scared, a little anxious and a little sad to be leaving Graz.

That said, this next week will be one helluva week. Monday we will be visiting the synagogue in Graz. Apparently the synagogue was built by the city and given to the local Jewish community as “an act against forgetting” the Holocaust.

The building, built partially with bricks from the original synagogue destroyed in 1938, was dedicated on the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 2000. (Here is an interesting story about the building.)

After Monday, the "fun" begins. Wednesday I have a language essay test followed by culture essay test on Thursday.

On Wednesday I am hoping to do a Church Crawl in Graz. As of yet no one in the group is interested, but I am hoping more people will want to come. My plan is to see all the churches in Graz in one evening after school.

Thursday evening is our "Abschiedsfest" or going away party. We are supposed to be coming up with something to perform there for our families. I am kind of excited about it. It sounds very interesting.

Friday is our last official school day although we are not having regular class. The only thing on the schedule is a visit to a Cafe Sacher located across the street from the building where we have school.

Finally Saturday morning is when I leave for Venice. I had to change some things around on my itinerary again so I would have enough time to change trains. Now I am set to leave the house at 5:30 a.m. in order to make it to the train station by 6:54 a.m.

It should be a very interesting week.

Labels: Graz, IU Graz Program

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.

Labels: Graz

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.

Labels: Graz

It is really cool to be in Austria, but right now I am really hating the homework.

Since I am studying through the university, I am in fact taking six credit hours worth of classes here. Each morning at 8 a.m., I have Sprachunterricht (language) followed by a contemporary Austrian culture class.

For the language class, we are reading "Das ewige Leben" by Wolf Haas. It is a detective novel set in Graz. That makes it interesting since I go by some of the places mentioned in the book during my morning ride to class.

But other than the setting, this book stinks. It is incredibly hard to understand and the author has a bad habit of rambling about nothing for pages. On average, it takes me between four and five hours a night to read a single 10-page chapter in the book.

My instructor told me it should not take that long to read and to "quit taking it so seriously." But I do not want to read through it quickly then fail the final over the book. Come on, it's homework. You have to take it seriously.

On top of the nightly reading assignment we also have exercises out of our grammar book to do. These are not as bad as the book, but they do take a fair amount of time nonetheless.

Anymore it just feels like all I get done anymore is homework. When I get it done. I feel as though I am spending too much time inside at my desk doing homework and too little time out experiencing the culture.

In short, I am really frustrated with my classes right now.

Labels: Graz, IU Graz Program

The castle overlooks the village of Riegersburg.

Today the group took an all-day trip to Riegersburg to visit a castle.

The bus left around 2 p.m., and it was literally an all-day trip since we did not return until late in the evening.

Our only stop on the way there was a chocolate factory. The factory manufactures hundreds of different flavors including a chicken-favored chocolate. Ick.

After a tour of the castle, we made a stop at a local winery and sampled some local wine.

When we finally got back to Graz, I went with a few students from the group to a local cafe where we sat outside the cafe and drank. The cafe is apparently a popular hangout for local journalists and the inside of the cafe is decked out with typewriters and newspapers on the wall.

Labels: Graz, IU Graz Program, Riegersburg

I'm having a beer at McDonalds!

I finally did it. I finally crossed something off my to-do list for this trip. I had a beer at McDonald's.

Ever since I got here a week ago, several people have asked me whether I am experiencing culture shock. Honestly I had not until I went into McDonald's today and order a beer.

For the most part the McDonald's here are not very different from American McDonald's. Both are full of noisy kids, parents who probably need a beer and nasty food. The Jakominiplatz McDonald's where we went was full of noisy kids pushing and shoving their way to the counter. I now understand why they have beer at McDonald's here.

I was a little disappointed because my original goal was to have a Happy Meal with a beer, but the lady at the counter refused to fill that order. I ended up with a Cheeseburger, French Fries and a beer.

Although the food McSucked just like in America, the beer was surprisingly not bad. In fact, I think it was much better than the one I had earlier in the week at the Eckstein restaurant. The beer was light and went down pretty smooth.

Da-Da-Da-Da-Da! I'm tipsy!

Labels: Graz

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.

Labels: 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!

Labels: Graz

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.

The place in the photo is where I go to school. It's called the Gemalteshaus or painted house.

Labels: 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.

Labels: 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

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

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:

Labels: Graz

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.

Labels: Graz

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 ...

Labels: Announcements, Graz, IU Graz Program