Vitasková: Czech for hospitality!

I apologize in advance for the length of this post! There is just too much to say about the past four days. For highlights, skip to the bottom! The pictures link to the full gallary from the trip- check it out!

    We left for Ostrava on the 3:25 train, swapped trains 

at Wien Neustadt (Vienna) and then Brno. The second that the conductor announced (in Czech) that we had crossed the border, Petra's face lit up- couldn't stop smiling! When we finally pulled into Ostrava at 11.30, Petra's dad (Papa V)and brother (Tomás) were waiting on the platform. 

A short ride and we were home! Petra's mom had hot tea and home-made Koláče ("Kolasch") pastries waiting for us, and we spent the next few hours swapping introductions and stories. Papa V works for a company which specializes in deap-sea drilling, Mama V draws technical maps (GIS), and Tomás will graduate this spring from Ostrava's tech university with a degree in Mechanical engineering. Petra acted as our interpreter, but it is fantastic what you can get across with sign language and a bit of context! Tomás is a little shy when he's speaking English, but very articulate. Papa V has taken two English courses to help with his business travel- when he does know is spot on with grammar and pronunciation!

    Friday morning was very cold, but not cold enough to 

deter the four of us who did not have to go to work from taking a long walk out through a park, over the river, and out to a hill overlooking Ostrava. It was lovely, but so cold! We arrived at home just a bit before Mama and Papa V, and sat down to a wonderful dinner- followed, of course, by more of the Koláče! The four of us rode the tram into town and were shown around by Tomás and Petra before going to a hole in the wall "Cafeteria" (café), where we met their closest group of friends. It was originally a flat, and now it is a cozy place where they make the best Café au Lait I have ever seen. Rich coffee covered by an inch of froth, dusted with cinnamon and sugar! Wonderful friends, drinks, so much fun listening to the mix of Czech and english moving back and forth across the table! We finally left as Daniel closed and took the tram home. 

    Saturday: Cold and clear again. After another amazing breakfast spread, everyone (less Tomás, who was in a theatre performance) headed out to a coal mining museum. It had been in operation from the middle of the 18th century until 1991, with the majority of the buildings dating from 1918. We took a two part tour: first, on mining rescue teams and training. When Soomie posts the video of the training room, I'll post the link! Second, we went into the mine. That was the coldest my feet have ever been. The technology was fascinating, minor's stories were gut wrenching, and my understanding of what made Ostrava the way it is was filled out. So amazing! I felt a little bad that Petra was put in the position of trying to translate technical information, but she did so well! We stopped by the minor's pub on the way out to take in a little local flavor, and then went to Restaurace Na Skok for lunch. Once again, Petra translated all of Soomie's and my questions and comments. It was so much fun to talk with Petra's parents about the Czech, national identity, history... opportunities like that are few and far between! Fantastic tea and pasta, 

then another Czech specialty called Medovnik- layered honey cake! Then a trip to Bepa's house to visit Petra's grandma. Aaand more food! Bepa served us home-made cake (crust, layer of fruit, layer of crumbly curd) with a Czech cola called Kolfola- no, it doesn't taste like a coke wannabe! Ready for a nap after our gastronomic marathon, the three of us girls took to the local mall for a look around and the Tourist, which was in English with Czech subtitles. 

    Sunday: yet another breakfast spread provided by Mama V and then we took off to the local museum (big tan building in 3rd picture). The feature display was on Johann of Lux., and I found myself surrounded by medieval art,

 books, crowns, iron/woodwork... The permanent display on the natural and anthropological history of Ostrava was just as interesting! We were again treated to lunch out, this time in the rather nice restaurant Pod Museum (under the museum). I had the Ostrava goulash (ham, sausage,

onion garnish in rich dark sauce) with six Czech-stylesliced potato dumplings, washed down with a Kozel dark beer- The vegetarian rule goes out the window when it comes to tasting a new culture! Papa V laughed and said that after six beers and six dumplings I would be Czech. A few hours later Soomie and I were saying our last goodbyes to the Vitásek/Vitáskova family on the Ostrava platform. It was a relatively uneventful trip home- read a lot of der Herr der Ringe, changed trains once in Vienna, took a tram from the Hauptbahnhof home.

    Highlights: 

• Hospitality on a new level! Petra and her family gave Soomie and myself a home away from our home away from home. To the point that Petra took advantage of our lack of language skills and Czech Krona, and would not let us pay for ANYTHING. Dinners (regardless of my pleading), entrance fees, drinks, movie tickets... Soomie and I are scheming on how to get back at Petra and Co. for that! GRRRR! 
• Hanging out with second generation friends at the Café- and learning some new nicknames for Petra! 
• Understanding the history and identity of the Czech people from their point of view. Soomie asked Papa V if there was something that he wishes Americans understood better about the Czech. We tended to see "Czechoslovakia," a country still coming out from behind the iron curtain and catching up. They see themselves as leaders on the international stage in technology, politics, and athletics. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Czech was the 6th most developed nation in the world. Even without its coal mining, Ostrava is a center for heavy industry manufacturing and technology. Madeleine Albright was born near Praha. Do you know how many Czechs are in the NHL?
• Please, Thank You, Good morning: Prosim, Dékuij, Dobré ráno

Hm well it's late and I need a shower before I hit the rack. Love you all, would love to hear from you!

End of Sprachkurs

I can't believe that these past three weeks have gone by so quickly! The intensive language course ends tomorrow with written and spoken exams. I am not overly concerned, except that my professor has discovered that I absolutely cannot differentiate between the "u" sound and the "ü" sound. I think I need a speech therapist! In any case, I will miss our class. I am hoping to enroll in another class that Albert (far right, back row) teaches during the semester, either a language and culture course or speaking competence. My semester schedule is still a mess, but on Monday there will be an academic advising session for Civil Engineering students. Hopefully I can get some of this mess sorted out! 

Highlights since the weekend post include:

• Finding Zimtsterne (Cinnamon stars) at a little Konditori next to the Hauptplatz. They are not exactly like Nana's, but close!

• Baking a pseudo-Osterzopf loaf. I didn't have an almond flour, but we still liked it enough to eat a third of it right after it came out of the oven! 
• Going to the exchange student Stammtisch last night. It was definitely more of a "club" feel than the Gemütlichkeit at der Hertzl- which I will miss this week because I ...
• ... Bought a ticket to the Czech Republic! Leaving tomorrow after the exams and taking a train to Ostrava, where my friend Petra is from. Woohoo!

Click on any picture to go to the web album, which has all of the pictures (more than just these!) in their full-size. 

Hope all is well on your side of the Atlantic!  -b

Landeszeughaus Graz

This Saturday's adventure was a trip to the Landeszeughaus for a tour of one of the largest arms and armour collections anywhere. Over 3,500 pieces from the late middle ages and renaissance fill three floors of one wing of the regional administration building, ready to defend the southeastern border of Styria against Turks, Hungarians, and forgetfulness. We took the German tour, which was really fun! I understood about 60%, not word-for-word but ideas-wise. The armour was mostly from a period 200+ years later than what really interests me, but it 

was impressive nonetheless! After about 1500 forged steel or iron plate replaced the chainmaille of earlier generations. The result was the fairytail image of a 'knight in shining armour.' The craftsmanship in the fluting, cording, and etching of the pieces was fantastic. On the cheaper armour for the footsoldiers, I could see the finishing strokes left by the armourer's hammer. Notable weapon pieces included a variety of wheel-, match-, and flint-lock pistols and muskets, bayonettes, sabres, flamberge swords (2 m tall!), jousting equipment ("it's called a lance, hello")... yeah. Impressive stuff! 

    Aaaand of course, I forgot to bring my camera into the museum :( Included photos here and in the gallary are from the courtyard when Ruth and I were hanging around waiting for the tour. 

Snowy Graz

The snow started to stick by the time I left "Goodbye Lenin" on Wednesday night, and this is what Ruth and I woke up to on Thursday morning:

A lovely frosted Graz! I actually got to use the snow boots that I packed!



 Yesterday was full of wonderful conversations. I caught lunch with some classmates (Yannik (Northern Belgian), Marte (Norwegian), Lara (Swedish), and Michel (Slovenian)) at the Propeller. We swapped stories and compared universities for a while and then went our separate ways. I was in need of some postcards and a fun place to write them, so I pulled up a seat at the Sogars on Jakomini Plaz. I am learning that often my best bet is to order the "Menü" (daily special) and enjoy whatever comes out. Yesterday it was an Au
strian-style espresso (with small

glass of water on an oval dish) and
a
Krapfen, an ultra-fluffy donut with a marmalade

core and liberal dusting of powdered sugar. The lady who sat down across from me and kindly entertained my poor german conversation skills explained that they are a Faschings treat. According to her, the Kaffeehäus that we were at, Sorger, has the best- and she would know, she has lived in Graz her entire life!

    Last night I went to the Stammtisch at der Herzl again (see post from two weeks ago), but this time Ruth went with me! We spent what was supposed to be just an hour or so talking with some fellow exchange students and a Polish expat, but by 10:30 we realized that we should probably go finish our homework :)

    It is so hard to believe that the Deutsch intensive course is almost finished. I spent several hours this afternoon trying to sort out schedules and classes for the next semester, which is hugely complicated by the fact that I am duel-enrolled in Karl Franzens University and the Technical University. Oh well, it will all work out!

Two weeks in

Just a quick update before I walk over to the Alte Technik to get on the waiting list for the March ski trip and then to Uni Graz for the ESN (Erasmus student network) screening of Goodbye Lenin.

The weather is still kinda cold and crappy- it's trying to snow outside and right around freezing. brrrr!

In other news, my knees are starting to hurt pretty significantly again. I think it's the result of biking on a seat that was a couple inches short. aaand now I'm paying for not having just grabbed my leatherman and taking care of it! baaaah! History tells me that it will be roughly two weeks of consistent exercises before I am somewhere close to normal. Yikes! As a bonus, I don't get to wear anything but my running shoes, which means tagging myself as an American- seriously, the people around here don't wear their exercise shoes in social situations. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Thinking of Mom today, Ruth and I stopped by the store and picked up some dark chocolate to go with an afternoon espresso... love you, Mom!

---

    Sunday afternoon Ruth, Petra,

Soomie, and I hit up the bouldering gym. It was pretty busy in the afternoon, but we had some good hangout time (followed, of course, by a Kebap stop!).

    In other news, Petra invited me to join herself and Soomie for a trip home in the break between classes. Petra apologized that we wouldn't be going to Prague, but I told her that I would rather see her home town (somewhere in the northeast). You can see capital cities and sights any time, but an opportunity to experience everyday life across cultures is a treat! Czech Republic, here I come!

Wochenende

Well, it has been a little slow, but fun nevertheless! Friday evening Ruth and I walked downtown and played some Tischkicker (fooseball) at "the Office," a bar owned and run by some guys from the UK. The bartender was wearing an Oregon sweatshirt, turns out he is from Portland. The other fellow who was pouring biers picked up the phone at one point and

picked up the phone at one point and was speaking in rapid Steirisch through a thick Irish accent. It was hilarious!

    It spat/drizzled/sprinkled all day yesterday, but that did not deter us from biking the three and a half miles to Ikea in the morning! Ruth had never been before, and I was looking for some muslix containers. After finding our stuff and having a lovely wander through the store, we stopped by the cafe for some lunch and an ice cream cone before heading back home.

    It's still gray and overcast outside, but I am hoping that the weather will clear up as we get back into the week. It has cooled off again, so we may even see snow. Right now the hills are gray or evergreen. I was hoping to go on an ESN (Erasmus Student Network) ski trip in a few weekends, but Friday was the last day to sign up and I totally missed it! I guess there's a waiting list now, but the only time that their office is open is during my class period. Super-bummer! Maybe a weekend trip to Slovenia is in order instead...

    Other than that, not much new- In a few minutes it's off to the Kletterhalle (climbing gym) and then maybe a Kebap stand stop before home. First German test on Tuesday, Yikes!!!

Would love to hear from you, drop me a line!

PS (new wheels)

    I just realized that I forgot to include a note about our new transportation in my last post! Ruth and I bought bikes- red and violet blue, respectively. Here they are parked outside of the kitchen shop in the Altestadt, where we stopped for Ruth to buy an espresso maker. More adventures to come...

One week in

Things have almost settled into a routine here, as we slowly check a thousand things off our to-do lists. Meldezettle (city registration), student cards, groceries, intensive German language course registration, Austrian bank accounts, bikes, getting to one place from another without a map, figuring out the trash bins, dishwasher, schedules... It really is a blur!

    There was another Stammtisch for exchange

students on Tuesday night, but when Ruth and I got there it was packed- loud and nowhere to sit, so we headed out for a night walk around the city and to find Ruth something to eat. The Wurst stand was still open at Hauptplatz, so Ruth had her first Currywurst. We also stumbled into the old city palace/fortifications in the Altstadt. They were absolutely beautiful at night! We ended up our excursion sipping some regional brew and watching African soccer in a café. Not a bad evening!

   Yesterday Ruth, Ainhoa (said like ayn-oah), and I skipped the Mensa for lunch and hit up Uni Kebab instead. After packing down some Falafel and Döner kebap, Ainhoa and I headed over to the family and youth hostel Kletterhalle (climbing walls) for some bouldering action. €4,50 gets you a two hour pass to the entire climbing facility, but we were totally baked after about an hour! Neither of us had climbed in a few months, so our hands were soft and our cores and upper bodies out of shape. The walls were fantastic, though! So much area to explore, we hardly touched it!

    When I finally got home it was time to do the Hausaufgaben (homework) and make dinner. Spätzle, from the recipe in Aunt Alice's family history (Thanks Nana!!!)



Spaetzle for four

2 eggs, 3/4 c water, 1 t. salt, 2 c + 2 T. four

Beat
eggs and water, add dry ingredients. Beat to a smooth, stiff dough.
Perhaps a bit more flour? Cut from spaetzle board or machine into
rapidly boiling water. When it boils again ladle noodles into cold water
then into a warm bowl or pan. Season with brown butter and salt to
taste.



  

Batter mixed            Cutting the Spätzle noodels off a board

The finished product! Ruth at hers with tomatoes, pesto,  orange juice!

Pre-Orientation

    After class yesterday and a lunch (representing the Czech, New Jersey, Finnland,  and WA State) at the Mensa we headed over to Pre-orientation at the main university building at TU Graz. We were given an overview of the university in German and English- but it turned out that all but one of us understood English better, so Karin (our program coordinator) ended up giving us our tour in English. We walked all through the old and new technik, and then got our free SIM cards and ESN (Erasmus Student Network) cards. Most of the European exchange students are here through Erasmus, which is organized by the EU.

    We were also given our TU student ids, which don't give us a discount on bus/tram fares, but do give us discounts at the Mensa. Today's special: a heaping plate of cream sauce covered spätzle, cabbage salad, soup, and a ,25L pop for €4,80 or €4,65 with a student card. It's dinner time now, and I'm not hungry yet!

Schönes Wochenende

    Again, another blur of days and my feet feel like they are going to fall off!

    Saturday morning I drug myself out of bed and went to walk a roundabout rout to where I thought that I would meet Petra and Soomie for an afternoon exploring the Schloßberg. Through an unfortunate misscommunication, they ended up at the Hauptplatz while I was at the Murinsel- a swirly shaped bridge/cafe in the middle of the river next to the Schloßberg. It was too

gorgeous
a day to waste, so I headed up the 260 steps to the Uhrturm (clocktower). The top of the hill is covered in gardens, walls, and the remains of the old castle fortifications. Parts had been started in the 13th century and subsequently built over during the later middle ages and renaissance. In the late 18th century, a garrison of less then 900 men held the fortress against 3000 French invaders.

    Today involved even more walking. I went and checked out the climbing wall on the west side of town- it's fantastic! And at only €5.5, I think that I'll have to start going once a week! We were out of TP so I made a run to the only grocery store in the city which is open on Sunday (and is subsequently rather chaotic) and then met Soomie and Petra at the Hauptplatz (made it this time!). We explored north along the river and back. There was a lovely little church which had a crucifixion scene built on a stone outcropping in the rear. It lent us a great view of the north end of the valley and south towards the city.

    I just finished making pita bread and am completely beat. I'm thinking a shower, finish homework, and then hit the rack! Bummer since the super bowl starts at midnight, but right now I'm not sure that I'd make it to halftime!

Stammtisch und Cremeschnitte

I can't believe that it has only been two days since I last updated- so much has happened!

The fellow who was supposed to pick me up at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station)didn't show up at 5:00, or 5:30... perhaps it was a good thing that I was too tired to panic! I gave him a ring on a borrowed cell phone and he dropped what he was doing and finally met me at about 7 pm. thought that I was coming in on Thursday, not Tuesday, but by chance the extra key in his pocket (he had picked up another student earlier) was for my room! He hauled my bags and we jumped on a tram and headed into Graz.

My roommate was already home when I walked in my room, and introduced herself as Ruth- originally from the Seattle area but lives in Moscow ID, studies Mech Engineering at U of I, and attends E-Free. I had just flown halfway around the world and discovered that my roommate was from the Palouse.

We were up early the next morning to walk to the KFU campus for our first German meeting. Everyone was broken into groups for oral exams, and then back to the ÖAD housing office in my apartment building to have our Meldezettel (city registration forms) and housing agreements signed. Then back to KFU to pay our course registration fee and find where we were placed. So much walking and waiting in queues! On the plus side, I know the route between home and class pretty well, and made some new friends.





Petra invited us to meet her and her Austrian mentor in the Hauptplatz (city centre) for drinks and conversation at 7, so after a short respite at home I laced up my shoes once again and headed out. We ended up at a Stammtisch (lit. regular's table)at a traditional Steirischer restaurant (der Herzl), surrounded by a group representing Austria, the UK, USA, Poland, Canada, France, Spain, Czech, and more. The conversation began in German, but after 8:30 the restrictions were lifted and a mix of German and English filled the room as more and more people came, tables were added, and food and drinks flowed into the room. I learned from one of the long-time attendees that the Stammtisch had been started in 1945 by a few members of the post-war British administration in Graz to encourage inter-cultural understanding. They're now online at the Anglo-Austrian Society. I headed home around 10:30, but it was still going strong when I left!

Today started with a trip to drop off my Meldezettle at the Hauptplatz. I was a few minutes late to class and was squeezed in between a girl from St. Paul, MN and a chap from just outside of Manchester, UK. Our prof is great and keeps the class moving and all of his students engaged. We represent most of the northern hemisphere- from Korea to the Basque country (no, she's not related to Jone) to the four corners of the US.

Today's highlight was the mission that Ruth and I undertook in the afternoon to find an ethernet cable (for my internet), eggs (pita time!), and coffee. We wandered through the Altstadt (old part of town), found our supplies, stopped by a bookstore, and randomly chose a cafe to stop at as we walked home. The lady there spoke very rapid Steirisch (the local dialect), and we were not sure what exactly happened- we ordered a Klein Braun and Cappuccino, and somehow ended up with this incredible pastery in front of us called Cremeschnitte (we had to look it up online later). Imagine a thin

layer of flaky pastry with two inches of creamy custard and two inches of fluffy heavy whipped cream, and then top the entire thing off with another thin pastry and frost the top. Oh goodness. I definitely made popcorn on the stove for dinner tonight and am still feeling full!



My apologies for another long post- Tomorrow is "tour Graz" day!

Would love to hear from you, check out the new contact page!

Short days and even shorter nights

Greetings from Graz! Three flights, two S-Bahns, and two trains later... my body is a little confused as to what time it ought to be. It's nearly 5:00 pm here, but all of Tuesday lasted a matter of hours since I lost three hours on the flight from Seattle to Toronto and another six between Toronto and Frankfurt. Dinner (woohoo, airplane food- see pics) and breakfast (more airplane food!) were on each side of an hour or so of pseudo-sleep.

The flights themselves were relatively uneventful. The movies in the seat kept me from going stir-crazy on the first two flights. On the last flight, Frankfurt-Vienna, I worked on grammar and talked to the man next to me. BTW, Lufthanse has great breakfasts- Muslix with a kinda ultra-runny yogurt, and that for just an hour long flight!

The real adventure began when I got to Vienna. Two rather large duffel bags + backpack + small duffel- and they were doing construction around the "mitte" transit station. I made it through the first half of ticket buying in German, and then it broke down and I started apologizing in English (generally they forgive you when they realize just how bad you are at German). Turns out I had to grab the underground light rail to the main train station. Got on the correct train with help from a nice lady who grabbed a bag for me, confirmed that I was on the right train, and then told me not to worry about my ticket because I was four stops away from the train station. I thought I saw a ticket checker get on at one of the stops, so I bailed and waited for the next train. I was still thinking of ways to explain that I hadn't realized that I needed to buy a ticket before getting on the train when I arrived at the Bahnhof.

Trains relax me. An older gent insisted on helping me load my bags ('giv mir die große') and I was shortly glued to the scenery passing my window. I realized that it might have been cheaper with the cost of the two train tickets to just fly directly to Graz, but the scenery on the train was totally worth it!

Anyhoo, here I am waiting for pick-up. sorry for the long post!