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.