Leaving Syracuse, Arriving in Graz

what a long day. I left Syracuse (after a nice visit with Hilary) in the afternoon, around 3:30 to fly to Philadelphia and then from Philly to Frankfurt. On my way onto the airplane they had a few different "Zeitungen" (newspapers) that were in German to read. I picked up "Die Zeit" and read through the Magazin portion of it on the plane, underlining words that I didn't know. I'm going to look them up at some point. I am suprised at how much German I have actually retained for not speaking it in a formal class for about a year. I spoke to all the flight attendants in German too, just to get comfortable with speaking German again. The flight was alright. The food on Lufthansa was much better than United food and they make nice dark strong coffee too. I didn't sleep more than maybe an hour total on the whole flight. It was hard to fall asleep with people on either side of you, and one woman whose head was like half way into my space. I didn't want to push her away though. Instead I just listened to music and read. There is an important election going on in German right now not just for the Bundeskanzler but also for the major party in the parliament. Looks like CDU is winning, which means that Angela Merkel stays in power. I'm not exactly sure what that means for Germany, I should look that up. The SPD is losing power, which is a dissapointment for that party.

When we landed it was about 8:30 am and my flight to Graz wasn't until 5!!! Dad mentioned that I could go take a train out into Frankfurt and wander around, but I knew that everything was closed (as it is Sunday) and also I didn't really feel like going out of security again and finding a place for my bags. I went to the gate for my Graz flight and there was a Passport dude. He asked for my passport and where I was going. Then he said "Können Sie mir deine Papier zeigen" meaning can you show me your ticket, but I thought he said "Wollen Sie bei mir bleiben?" which means do you want to stay with me and I was like, no i'd rather go to Austria and he just looked at me pretty blankly and asked me for my ticket again. I felt pretty dumb, but that was one of my first close-German contacts in a while so it's not so bad. He told me I was too early and that I'd have to wait until about 2:30. I wandered around looking at stuff and sitting and reading and trying not to fall asleep. I took a few short naps as well.

Finally! The time came for my flight to Graz. I had not seen any people my age at all all day until the flight to Graz. I thought maybe some of them were Teaching Assistants too, since I could tell they were english speakers, but none of them were at the Train Station when we got to Graz, so I don't think any of them were.

Flying into Austria was awesome. We passed over some really pointy craggly mountains that poked through the clouds.

Graz looked green and cute from above too. The river (Mura) that runs through it is bigger than I expected.

When I got off the plane in Graz I talked to my first Austrian. She was at the Information desk and i asked her where the train station was. She told me in german, and I understood her!! But I can definitely tell that Austrians have a different dialect/accent. I think she probably heard that I was speaking High German (the german they teach you in school) and was trying to speak clearly for me though.

As I was walking to the train station with my bags I passed an old couple. They spoke to me in High German and asked me if I needed a ticket. I said yes and they just gave me theirs. It was really nice of them, and it saved me having to figure out how to use the ticket machine, although it didn't look that hard. The next train wasn't coming for another hour and 15 min though! maybe because it was Sunday.

So I waited around and watched the sun set. A group of teenagers came over to buy some food from the vending machine and were playing around with the ticket machine and smoking cigarettes. I was listening to them talk to eachother and it was really interesting. They were speaking heavy dialect with eachother. I understood some things they said but a lot I didn't. I think I heard them say "net" instead of "nicht". I can't really describe how austrian german sounds different from high german, but it reminds me of bavarian german.

I really can't believe I am here. It is so surreal. I wish I had someone to share this new experience with though. It was weird traveling in an area I have never been completely alone.

When the train came I got on and went about 5 or so stations to the main train station "Hauptbahnhof". It was dark at this point, and I couldn't really hear them announcing the station names so I was peeking out the windows at every stop. The train dude came by asking for tickets of those who had just got on. I am very glad that I know German, or else I think it would be so hard to travel around.

As I was getting off the train the door closed on me and it didn't automatically open, I had to grab the handle with my arm that wasnt squished to open it. It was kind of embarassing. But not as embarassing as when I came out of the train station and put my bags in a cab and got in and asked to go to the Hotel Daniel, which the driver chuckled at and told me it was just right across the street. It looked farther on the map!

I wanted to explore the city a bit tonight but I didn't get to the hotel until 8:30 and instead talked to my parents and got some pizza, which I got at the train station right next door. Interestingly, there were people smoking in the train station at the pizza place. I don't remember people being able to smoke indoors in the German train stations. Yeah there were places to smoke on the platforms, but not inside as far as i remember.

I think I'll just chill here, shower, and plan my morning tomorrow. Perhaps get a phone so I can start calling people about finding a room to live in! Orientation is tomorrow at 4:30.