A Lot Has Happened: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday

On Sunday night We all went out for Mexican, which was good, not very Mexican, but still good. Then some of us went to the Irish pub to toast Sunny finishing her Graduate dissertation. On Monday we had class again and after, some of us went back to the public beach, however we did not encounter anything untoward. On Tuesday Ellie, Sunny, and I went to the private beach and enjoyed the chilly water. Then we went and had dinner at Ellie's where we ate a bean salad as well as a fruit salad and some gnocchi with a red veggie sauce. It was very yummy. After that we went and hung out with some of the exchange students living in Concordiaheim. We have discovered a beautiful Austrian version of Baileys. It can be bought as white, milk, or dark chocolate and it is so incredibly delicious. Today after course Gemma, Darren, Sunny, and I went into the city center to go shopping. On the way to the shopping center we passed a kiosk by the road where a man had chestnuts roasting on an open fire. It got me singing Christmas songs the rest of the day.   

A Lot Has Happened: Saturday

One of the many mountains we could see from the dock.

 On Saturday we went to the public beach and were quite scandalized. Not all of us had brought money, so we decided to try to find a public bock in which to hang out, and we did. However there were some problems. None of us but Sunny, from London, were confident enough to actually people watch and see exactly what kind of trouble we were floating on. Originally, it was just us sitting on the grass by the dock, talking and eating chips/crisps/tatos, depending on which native speaker you ask. An older man passed us and went onto the dock where he proceeded to strip into his birthday suit and get into the water. For a couple seconds we were frozen in place. Some of us stopped in mid sentence, some mid bite, but all of us were staring at each other with our eyes and mouths wide. Then we had a major suppressed giggle attack then tried to act natural. When he was done with his swim, he got out, put on his boxers, and layed on the bock, in the sun, reading his periodical. Then an older woman came along and swam in her swim suit, however she changed on the grass by where we had been sitting eating out chips before we vacated to the edge of the dock. when she was done swimming, she dried off naked. Sometimes turning to the bush to be modest, but also turning towards the man on the dock who was enjoying the view. Then another older man came along on his bike with a bushel of grapes and a tree branch in one hand and a lunch box with a uncooked, unhusked, ear of corn in the space where a water bottle was supposed to go. He sat down on the park bench overlooking the public dock and stripped down to his tighty whiteys and began to jerk off. After this, he gave his tree branch to the couple sitting on the bench next to him and the grapes to the man laying in the sun on the dock. It was all very obscure. When we returned on Monday we did not encounter the same problem though, so maybe it was just the day and the time in which we decided to visit the dock. 

This is the Lindwurm at night. We went down to the pub Saturday night to watch and listen to a cover band. They played well, the cider was wonderful, and the company was amazing, so I had a good time.

A Lot Has Happened: Friday

Nothing much happened on Friday besides a party on one of the Hostel roofs that wasn't much of a party, more like three tables spread 50 feet apart littered with all kinds of alcohol. No one really mingled or moved away from their table besides Ellie, Gemma, Darren, and I. After a while everyone decided to move the party to the city center and caught the last bus into town. Our first stop was Havana, a bar with interesting people, great rock-n-roll, and overpriced drinks. At one point Darren ordered Vodka, thinking that he would get a mixer with it, but instead they charged him 5 Euro for a glass of straight up vodka. He turned to me and said, "What am I supposed to do with this?" He ended up buying a coke to mix it with. The Turkish girls and Italian girl did not enjoy the music and talked with worried faces about how they did not like the music or the place or the crowd. Everywhere our group went they complained about the crowd, however what do they expect when twenty international students go into a bar. It gets crowded. After Havana, I took a taxi home. Somehow I ended up in a very nice taxi... hmm I wonder how that happened. It was a Mercedes town car and exceedingly comfy. One thing that surprised me was that the taxi driver waited to make sure I got into the building before driving off, not something I am used to from Chicago or New York.   

A Lot Has Happend: Thursday

Thursday was quiz night at the local Irish pub and ten of us went. Two from Ireland, two from America, two from Spain, one from Austria, one from the Czech Republic, one from France, and one from Latvia. We were sooo sure that we would have some sort of an advantage given our diversity and numbers, however we still lost. I had my first Guinness and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, given, generally, I do not like beer. The cider, of course, was amazing. Some of the quiz question answers were wrong, but whenever someone would try to correct the mc, he would accuse them of cheating. It was fun. We all met up at the Lindwurm before we headed off to the bar because not everyone knew where the pub was. I was the only one to take the bus and was waiting around for them to show up. There were some people setting up tents for a organic festival and I sat down on a bench to watch them work. After a couple minutes on my park bench a guy came up and asked if he could sit down on my bench as well, unable to think of a good reason why not a said, "yeah, of course" and proceeded to fiddle with my phone. He asked me something in German and, unable to understand him, informed him that I spoke only a little bit of German. To which he informed me that he spoke only a bit of English. Nodding politely, I went back to perusing my new, crappy, phone. After a couple long moments he asked me where I was from, to which I replied, "die USA." Looking impressed, he nodded his head slowly and said, "Wow!" I asked if he was from Kärnten, the region  of Austria in which Klagenfurt is the capitol, and he informed me that he was. Then lagged a silence, with him on his phone translator and me fiddling with the conversion app on my phone figuring out gallons to liters. "Do you have a boyfriend?" he said slowly, phonetically reading the words on his translation app. "No." "Why?" "Ich brauche ein nicht." "Nicht?" "Nicht." I had informed him that I did not have one because I did not need one. Furiously, he began to type words into his touch screen and I looked about for my friends that where growing increasingly late by the millisecond. Then he said confidently, having preread his translation, "Do you want a boyfriend?" with his eye brow cocked suggestively. Right as he said this to me I saw Jed, the guy from Wyoming ride up on his bike across the square. Turning to my bench partner, I looked him in the eye and gave him a very definitive "No." After which I stood up, said "Caio", and walked towards the growing gang of international students on their bikes making their way to the Lindwurm and Hercules' claw cock.     

Carinthia/Kärnten

Today we took went on a long tour of Carinthia, the region in which Klagenfurt is. The German word for Carinthia is Kärnten. It all was so incredibly gorgeous. The castle that we visited we really cool and had a great view, however it had never housed an actual family and was created to ward off the Turks trying to invade the region. It housed a multitude of soldiers, so I had trouble romanticizing a giant castle from the middle ages full of secluded soldiers at the top of an unusually tall hill. I did have fun looking at all the portraits that lined the museum walls and figuring out what time period they were painted by scrutinizing the subjects' clothing. The picture above is a of a small city that we visited that still has it's mote as well as wall that surrounds the city. We climbed to the top of the hill that overlooks the city. It was a long day with a lot of hiking. When we got back to our rooms, the guy from Kansas stopped by to see if we would have liked to join him in the city center for a drink, however I declined, citing tiredness.

Es ist Frietag! Oi, Oi, Oi!

(the title of this is a cheer that my high school German teacher had us cheer before we left class many fridays) Today, I went to the lake with Ellie after class and we swam for two or three hours. We have a lot of the same musical preferences and were swapping band names. At one point Ellie though she saw Sunny on another pier, however I did not have my glasses on, so I could not see. Later that night I found out that it was Sunny. We went back to Ellie's room and had veggie patties and steamed vegetables for dinner before we went to have a drink with Gemma and Darren upstairs. Sol A was supposed to join us, however she had fallen asleep at seven. A guy from Belgium recently moved in across from Darren, so he joined us as well. Around 10 we all walked down to the end of the canal and joined some other students for more drinks. At one point me and Gemma had to go to the bathroom so we went to the one on the street that costs 50 cents to use. When we got out, Ellie was outside and needed to use the bathroom. Because the doors where still open from Gemma and I coming out, Ellie decided no to pay the 50 cents and hop in while the doors were still open. I warned her against this, stating that the bathroom cleans and sprays itself down in between uses. To which Ellie replyed, "I'll be fine". I reiterated the fact that she would be soaked while at the same time encouraging her to see what would happen. Me and Gemma released the door to close, yelling at Ellie to go fast, just in case and that we would wait for her outside. However, we saw Ellie a bit earlier than we expected. A few seconds after the door closed the bathroom dinged and stated that it was still occupied, then the door slid open revealing Ellie on the pot with a very surprised look on her face. Thinking quickly, I jumped in front of the door, trying to block as much of it as possible while keeping watch for passers by. The door slid shut again, and me and Gemma erupted into giggles over Ellie's fate, however the doors dinged, stated that the bathroom was still occupied, and slid open. Again I jumped in front of the door. This happened multiple times until, finally Ellie was done. Amongst our giggling and as the doors slid shut behind her, we heard the self cleaning mechanism start up and Ellie turned to us and stated that we would not have thought it was all that funny if she had come out soaking wet and wanting to go home. We all should be going down to the Irish pub ob Thursday for a cider and a pub quiz. It should be fun.

Bikes

Today was a long day for classes and everyone was tired by the end. The joint study students, the students not from the EU, got to go get their id's today, so we got to skip some of our class. Ellie was excited by this prospect but regretted it later when she came back and she had no idea what was going on. I was also very relieved to have an extra break, however when I returned to class we were talking about clothing, a subject that I have already studied. When the teacher passed out our books today I realized that I have taken this particular German course level twice already, but I am okay with that. Maybe if I pay attention during this one, I can go up a level later. Ellie and Sol A went to go get bikes this afternoon and I joined them. I have decided not to get a bike because it is just a 10 minute walk to the University, however it takes a good thirty minutes to get to the school from Ellie and Sol A's dorm. Diego, a rugby playing, Chilean, exchange student in my intensive course, sent out a post on Facebook about a small bike shop near Concordiaheim (Ellie and Sol A's dorm). While there, we encountered the two Irish students who go to school in Cork, Ireland, Gemma and Daren. They also live in Concordiaheim and were buying bikes. The couple who owned the bike shop where extremely nice and the wife kept offering us free chocolate that we kept turning down after our first. I had my first Mars Bar today and was woefully disappointed.  

Die Wörtersee

Today, a group of us went to the Wörtersee. We had been warned that the weather would not stay this nice for long by Ellie's buddy ( I had stated in a earlier post that Ellie is from Austria, this is wrong, she is from Australia). In the afternoon we had, had an exchange student meeting where we learned some useful things from the international office staff. At this meeting we also received a "discount card" from Marco. I used quotations, because that is all he said, so none of us know where to use these discount cards or how to use them, but they were quite the ordeal. Marco had to hand them out and explain how to fill them out in multiple languages, then he had to take all of our pictures, then he had to put them on his computer, then he had to print them, then he had to go find the printer, then he had to cut the pictures, and then he had to put the pictures on everyone's card that he had already handed out. All of this while we sat in a stuffy lecture hall, waiting, with no air conditioning (nothing had air conditioning here besides the buses) . And we still do not really know what these "discount cards" are for. 
Sunny (from London), Ellie (from Australia), Gizem (from Turkey), Büsra (from Turkey), and Pedro (from Portugal), and I went to the lake. It was gorgeous, of course, and fun because I got to know Sunny, Gizem, Büsra, and Pedro better. Mostly, just Ellie and I swam. The others laid out in the sun and we all talked. It will be a shame when we can no longer swim.

The Bus

Today was my first day of class, class. I really enjoy the teacher and I think the next few weeks should be fun. I met a girl from Ireland today and she grumbled a bit about finally meeting someone who really speaks english. She is in the farthest dorm from the University and it is a bit hard for those students to really integrate. Mayumi and Ayaka, the two Japanese girls that I have finally figured out the names of, are in my class as well as two boys from the states, one from Laramie, Wyoming and the other from Kansas City. We were released from class early today because the teacher had a meeting so I went downtown via the bus because I had to cash a check. I had decided not to loiter on a bench to read because I wanted to get to the bank on campus to deposit some money, however that did not quite work out for me. I did end up getting straight back on the bus, however it was the wrong bus. I have never been so happy that I was wrong. The route was through two villages and it was amazing. The main crop that I saw was corn. The scenery was gorgeous with the german houses, corn, hills, mountains, and sky. On the way back into town I noticed the cutest little cafe and I think that I will stop by with friends some time because the view from the deck would be perfect for pictures. I was unable to share a picture of this little jaunt because I left my camera in my room again. The driver had been giving me weird looks during my bus ride because I took the whole loop without ever getting off. I got on downtown and got off downtown. So, I was glad when I was able to get on another bus, however when I got on to get to my final destination, the drivers switched out and I had the same man as my driver again... I did not try to explain my trip to him. I find that it is more fun for someone to just be confused and create their own story to describe an extraordinary situation. I wonder what his explanation of me was. After leaving for downtown around one o'clock, i finally got back at five. Eli and Sol A are coming over to the MozartClub later tonight and, hopefully, I will be able to get some sleep (I almost wrote, "catch some Zzz's... where did that come from?).

The German Intensive Course

Today was the start of the German intensive course. We have yet to discover how long it will be, I thought it was a week, Sol A thought that it was 2 weeks and Eli believes that it is 3 weeks long, so we will just have to wait and see which is correct. The beginning of the course was wonderful because I was sitting behind some exceedingly lovely men. These guys were extra fine, even the guy from Kansas City whom I met today agrees with me. I did not make it into either of their classes, but I have decided that is a good thing, because otherwise I don’t think i would have learned anything besides the wonderful shapes of their butts these next few 1/2/3 weeks. However, Boris (the blonde, nice biceped of the two) took us around downtown Klagenfurt today, telling us about all the local tails and history. Klagenfurt has been destroyed by a fire, a turkish battle, and an earthquake. Also, the black plague went through Klagenfurt twice, killing most of it’s inhabitants on both go-rounds. There are two major legends of the area and the first goes like this… Before there was a Wörtersee (the lake) there was a village where the lake is today. This village was a lot of fun and the inhabitants partied all the time and were always happy (and mostly drunk). One day a small man/elf/thing came along and said to the village people, “If you do not stop all of this partying I will have open up my barrel and pain and destruction will rain down upon you!” However, no one paid any heed to the little man, and instead kept partying and drinking and having fun. The next time the goblin/man/thing came into town, he opened up his tiny little barrel and out rushed the Wörtersee and the whole village and it’s people were washed away. The second tale is of a hippo/worm/dragon that went about eating all the young beautiful ladies in Klagenfurt. This monster lived in the Wörtersee and there are two endings to this legend, one goes that they got the monster attached to a very large hook and all of Klagenfurt chopped it to pieces and the second is that they rang up hercules and he killed the monster for them. The latter is displayed in the town center of Klagenfurt, however Hercule’s penis is covered up by a large claw, animal foot, thing. So instead of looking like a greek statue, he looks like a greek statue with a very sad physical dilemma. After dispersing some of us went to the shopping center where I spoke German to all of the shop keepers!!!! And then Eli and I went and had a cider with her buddy at the Irish Pub, one of the better pubs in town. We went to the Irish pub that is manned by Irish people not random Turkish people. The day was long and now I am tired, and will write again tomorrow.

The only german newspaper with a headline of September 11th. They hang their newspapers on the street poles on sunday because nothing is open. There is a little box above the newspapers asking for money, but it works on the honor system.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

I did little to nothing today besides finishing unpacking and the likes. Nothing happened around the dorm (besides a party in the street last night that got a little crazy, and there might have been some fireworks, but I did not want to mix with the crazy austrians in the street to try to find out). While talking to my friend Becca, the one who goes to PRATT art institute in Brooklyn, my roommate arrived! I had just finished taking a shower and was in my pajamas and braless when a family of Austrians came into my room with a very confused looking Turkish girl, my roommate. After throwing on a jacket, I talked to the family and said that I would be able to take her to the university tomorrow morning for the beginning of the intensive german course and, looking relieved, they left. She (…. she keeps telling me her name but I have yet to figure it out) then told me that she spoke little to no English or German. So now we are at a stand still with her unpacking and me trying to stay out of her way, hoping she will go take a shower so that I can put on a bra. She seems very nice and has a friend going to Klagenfurt as well. I think I will now go sit on my bed and read, as well as try to sleep so that I can bring her to the international office tomorrow morning. We will be quite the pair. The American who knows little to no German with on idea as to why we are going to the international office and the girl who speaks neither language who knows why she needs to be there. :D I am excited for the adventure!!!

On Saturday

On saturday I went to Ikea with Sol A, Eli, and Marco and we also went to a shopping center where I bought unidentified chocolate that I ave yet to taste. On the way back to the dorm Marco brought us to the top of a hill near a vineyard and night club. It was amazing because we got to see the lake from up high and we also had a clear view of the mountains that create the border between Slovenia and Austria as well as Italy and Slovenia.

Splorin'

Today I went down to the campus in order to get my student ID. Marco (my sub-buddy) had just picked up a girl from Korea, Sol A the night before so we all went down together. Sol A had to stop by the international office where we ran into two japanese exchange students who spoke little english and no german. After standing about for a bit outside the office, a girl Hannah’s age came out. Eli is from Austria and was quite a relief to talk to without any issues of the over-extention of vocabulary. There was also another exchange student that I met, I believe her name was Sofia and she is a Turkish student who goes to a university in Milan and is in Austria for the semester. (I would congratulate myself on my memory of names, however I do not remember the names of the two Japanese girls). All of us went to get our student ids together and I was first (unfortunately both me and the secretary might have snapped at Marco for being a bit slow and dull witted… I will try not to do so again… try). While the secretary put my information into her computer she made a multitude of crazy faces at her computer (most of which included bulging eyes). This, of course, made me a bit nervous, especially when she gave a strangled cry and jumped up from her chair and disappeared into the back room. Apparently the computers were a bit wacky this morning and were refusing to take any of our information, so we will just have to go back next week to get our ids. After that I went on another campus tour with Marco and the girls and then we split up. Eli, Sol A and I went down to the lake to see what it was like. It is gorgeous. The buildings by campus are a bit… hmmm… how do I put this… communist in their architecture (everything the same and square and, well, unimpressive) but the nature here is amazing! We went through a wonderful park that led to the Bath (swimming area) and then found a path that goes around the lake. We did not get all the way around (I heard from a friend back in the states that it takes about 12 hours to go around the whole thing). However we did find some beautiful houses, trees, and porsches. Before we turned back we sat on a bench that overlooked the most amazing view. I am planning on going back tomorrow to get a picture of it to share. We sat on a public bench that had a trellis woven with leaves that looked out over the lake. Near the shore there were reeds poking out from the water as well as lily pads with pink flowers floating atop. The lake is almost crystal clear, so we could see the fish swimming around under the lily pads. The view across the lake was of the hills that surround klagenfurt and then a silhouette of the Alps just beyond. It was amazing. On the way home, Eli decided that she was going to go into the town center to try to find a Ethernet chord. None of us knew how long it would take her, but we all agreed we were on the bike path that went into town, so she went. I do not know yet whether it is an easy jaunt, I will have to ask her later. Sol A commented after we had parted ways that she would not be as brave at Eli, but I had come to the conclusion that Eli could handle herself. She had given a thorough set down to some creepy old men who where publicly and verbally leering at us and then grumbled about how men in Istanbul were worse. Once back at my dorm, while chatting with my mom I met my neighbor (…forgot her name already) and she is from Topeka, Kansas. Her and her friend (insert male name here) have been here the past month and are leaving next week. She seemed like she had enjoyed herself, but her companion was a bit grumbly about being bored and how the people in Klagenfurt do not speak “real” german. She blew him off, but I have noticed the same thing as well. It is a mixture of something, but it is a lot easier to understand. The bored comment did not phase me though, because what could be more boring than UNI’s campus? Overall it was a great day that ended in me watching “Ever After” and eating nutella and some peanut butter. I also found out that I cannot watch netflix or hulu here, but I can rent movies on iTunes! And the hulu thing is not really and problem because I can watch the shows on the network’s sites. Tomorrow I am going into town to get an ethernet cable and get bedding for Sol A with her and Marco, maybe Eli will join us. Good Night!

Euro Spar (the grocery store)

In need of toilet paper, soap and other common household goods, I walked down to the grocery store. After walking around for a bit, I realized that everyone but me had a grocery cart. This was because I came into the store from the parking garage downstairs and not outside. I went to go grab cart and realized something else, one has to pay to use a cart. Unable to figure out how it worked, I stood around awkwardly until an old man came up and I asked for help. After a bit of misunderstanding and fumbling on both of our parts, I gave him a euro and took his cart. I found almost everything I needed except for milk. I had to buy calcium enriched rice milk… which I can honestly say I do not enjoy, but will drink anyway. I ended up not having to buy almost any utensils because the people who had my room last left all of their kitchen stuff. I started to check out when I realized that the cashier did not have any bags. I did not have any bags either. After trying to ask her if she had any bags we both realized that we were not going to be able to understand each other. I put everything back in my cart left it at the front of the store to go buy giant trash bags. As I was going through her line the second time the lady behind me reached down and grabbed a paper bag from the front of the conveyor belt. I had already gone through and bought my giant trash bags, so I tried to stuff as much stuff I could into a large trash bag before going through her line again to by a paper bag for the more delicate merchandise. It was quite an ordeal. So was walking back to my dorm with a large trash bag that kept slipping through my fingers and a much too heavy paper sack. But it worked! And I will never have to go back to buy things in bulk again… or I will know someone with a car.

My Internet

I had been having issues with getting my internet to work. The IT guy had some things to do last night so he was going to register my computer “later”. It still was not working this afternoon so I went up to see if he could help me. Outside his room there were shoes, shirts, towels, and a jacket air drying in the hall on racks, haphazardly shrewn about the hallway and white noise was drifting out of his open door. I knocked on his door and waited. He let out a low groan and gave a drowsy hello. I had awoken him from his afternoon nap :). When he saw me he gave a groggy “oh” and told me that my internet would be up in a half an hour and that he had forgotten to register my computer. After my own afternoon nap and trip to the grocery store my internet still was not working. My computer had decided that every ethernet outlet was an University of Northern Iowa outlet so we spent a good half hour trying to dissuade my computer of the assumption. I quite enjoyed it. He was pretty and his indian sitcom playing in his room was fun and now i have internet! So that’s fun too.

The Logistics

My flights were uneventful and my room was ready for me when I got here. Mom, there are overhead lights, however there was no toilet paper so I was glad to have grabbed my foundry waters wipies right before I left. I woke up at 9 this morning so that Marco (my sub-buddy) and I could go down to the international students office. I will not be able to start my registration until later because the office opened in the afternoon and Marco had to go to work. I opened a bank account on campus and it was free, since I am under the age of 26 (do accounts cost money in the states?). I am going to be heading into the city with Marco and a girl from Korea who is coming in tonight, on saturday so that I can pick up more supplies.