A picture of the mountains in Corinthia. It was absolutely beautiful!
The view from Michi's house. That mountain is the highest in Corinthia. You can't see it in this picture, but the mountain that is just behind that one that you can see on a clear day, is actually Slovenia.
Once again it has been a while since I have blogged. But lucky for you, in the last 18 hours or so, I have read through 100 pages of European/Austrian history and taken notes on it. Blogging seemed like a nice 20 minute break or so. It was either that or start trudging through the 119 pages I have left. Needless to say, I'm blogging.
Shortly after my last post, I gave a presentation to my Business German course about the state of Wisconsin. I don't know how much German I actually spoke because some things just don't translate or Germans use the English word, but they were absolutely flabbergasted at the idea of how cold it could get in Wisconsin and all the different type of weather we have to deal with. My teacher could not understand how we could be an agriculture state when it only stays really warm for three or so months. I tried to explain to her that we are not able to grow absolutely all crops, but she just didn't get it since Austria is able to grow pretty much everything.
Since my last post I have had a chance to visit Corinthia, which is in Southern Austria. A friend of mine, Michi is from there and I was able to spend a long weekend with her family. Her family, i felt, was more "Americanized" than Astrid's family in upper Austria. Michi's family had 3 cars and a large house that was recently built. She lives on the top of a mountain in an 800 person village. In order to get to any sort of civilization outside the village, one has to drive down these small narrow mountain roads. The people are so used to driving them, they just fly up and down them. It is quite scary. You can look over the edge of the road and it is straight down. I don't know how these people could do that in the winter. I think I'd just live at the top of the mountain for six months!!! While there, I was able to go to a festival called a "Feuerwehr Fest" and it was bascially like being in the beer tent at the local fair. All the fire stations in these small towns and villages are volunteer, so it is through these small festivals that they are able to raise all their money. I was also able to go to a place called Minimundus. It has tiny replicas of important places from all over the world. It was really cool. I also was able to go to a castle and I picked up a cookbook full of typical Austrian foods!
The following couple weeks mostly just were about school. On the 31st of May, I took my Cross-Cultural Management exam and am happy to report that I received an A in the course! Woohoo!
The first week of June, Kirsten and I had a couple days off so we went up to Salzburg for a night. We went up on a Tuesday afternoon and stayed in a hostel. It rained the entire time we were there. Although, we did expect the rain because it rains so much in Salzburg, there is an actual name for the rain there in German. The hostel we stayed at was really nice. We were having a beer in the bar there and I turned around saw that a guy was wearing a Badger football t-shirt there! I asked him if he really was a Badger and it turned out HE WAS! He had been working in Jordan the past two years with refugees and was going through Europe before he was heading home for a year. What a small world! And being proud Badger fans, we did sing "Varsity" in the bar. People looked at a funny, but we didn't care! So, the next day in Salzburg, Kirsten and I went on the Sound of Music tour and were able to see most of the places the movie were filmed. Because it was raining so hard, that is really all we did in Salzburg and then headed home.
The following Friday, Kirsten and I finally made it out to the castle in Graz -- Schloss Eggenberg. It was a really cool castle and everything architecturally was depicted about the calendar. For example, there were in total 365 windows, 12 rooms on the 2nd floor -- the first 6 were the day rooms, the 2nd 6 were the night rooms, etc. The grounds were absolutely beautiful. There were roses everywhere, of every different color! Kirsten was able to feed a peacock too! (I also saw an albino peacock for the first time in my life!) Also that first weekend of June I was able to see my first boxing match ever. Kirsten and my friend, Andy, does Kickboxing and he had a match in Graz. Kirsten and I watched 4 hours of boxing, kickboxing, and thaiboxing. It was crazy to see women do these sports too!!!
Last Wednesday I was able to go and tour a magazine producation factory. It is named "Die Kleine Zeitung" (The little magazine) and found out it is the most efficient production of magainzes in Europe with the number of pages it prints off in an hour. Last weekend then, the World Cup started and we have been watching most of the games since. World Cup madness, is what I like to call it, has taken over Europe. For the last World Cup, I was in Germany, so it is interesting to be in Austria because Austria doesn't have a team in the Championship. They are crazy about it anyway! Last Saturday after England and the U.S. tied their game 1-1, Kirsten and I went to a "Best of the 80's" Party. It was so awesome. It is definately the best party to go to in Graz! It is too bad that is our last one, since the next one is on the 19th of July and we'll be home by then!
Now, for the next 10 days, I am going through Austrian history notes in preperation for my final on the 25th, writing a 15 page paper comparing Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech" to the 1960's for my U.S. Cultural Myths course, and preparing for my Business German final on the 24th. Whew! It's going to be a busy 9 days! But I know I'll get through them and they will go fast! The other day Kirsten and I were walking out of the grocery store by our dorm and an Austrian guy turns to us and says in English, "Listening to you is like watching a reality TV show on MTV! It is so awesome!" Oh, the it's the little things in life that make you laugh!
Exactly 20 days until I come home and it is definately a very bittersweet feeling. I'm anxious to get home and see all of you and tell you all my crazy Europe stories, but I'm hoping the time goes slow because it is impossible to wrap my head around the idea that I have to say goodbye to my friends that I have made here. I had a dream the other night that I was driving my car again back in the States and because it had been so long since I drove, I didn't remember how and I ended up hitting a tree! I hope that isn't what's going to happen in reality!
There is my life in the last month. It's still been quite the adventure!
I want to finish this blog by wishing my mother a very very very Happy Birthday today! Alles gute zum Geburtstag! (Which, means happy birthday in German) I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day because you completely deserve it! I love you so much and I'm coming home soon!
