Barnesjc’s Weblog

So the past five days were my “first week of classes.” Let me point out here that, of the 8 classes I was signed up for at the time, only four of them met. Of that four, the first (Understanding Literature) lacked a present teacher so we eventually all left and the middle two (Speaking and Language, the Historical Dimension of the German Language) were way over my head as they both turned out to be hardcore linguistics classes. So for all intents and purposes I’ve been to one class so far, with the rest starting next week. Some first week, eh? So now I’m in seven classes:

Culture of Wine
Foundational Issues of Austrian History (Middle Ages to 1700)
Understanding Literature
Austrian History and Culture in a European Context (through SUNY Binghamton)
German-language Literature (through SUNY Binghamton)
Slovenian History, Culture, and Language
The Laws of the European Union

and apparently with seven I have a fair bit of breathing space if I want to drop one, or if I have trouble next semester. With the exception of the first SUNY course, they all meet only once a week for 1.5-2 hours. Teachers here apparently don’t talk so much with the students during classes, though they seem very available afterwards. Plus, almost all of my classes are (1) in German, so I’ll be getting better but also (2) Vorlesungen (lectures) so if I can’t keep up there’s no hw, just a test at the end that I have the semester to prepare for. Sweet nectar.

My health insurance is finalized and I’m only really waiting to for the first bill so I can set up an automatic payment system through my Austrian bank to take care of it every month. We’ve all got our stipends now (300 Euro a month, or somewhere I guess in the area of 400+ dollars) so I’m eating just fine. All the supermarkets near us are pretty well stocked, but sometimes I’ve gotta make excursions to the Turkish grocery stores or the Thai market for special goodies (pronounced Singha, Kirin Lager, and peanut butter). Plus I now have my Österreichische Ausenthaltsbewilligung, so I am officially a resident of Austria now! How very fortunate that for a meager 110 Euro I get to stay here. I wonder how much they charge for citizenship. . .

So it looks like I’ll be heading up to Nijmagen in the Netherlands to visit Case in the first weekend of November (we’ve got a nice four-day weekend then). Turns out it’s the birthplace of Eddie van Halen. Goody. Maybe his home is on their version of the National Register of Historic Places. Or a list of things to be demolished, either/or. I’m also considering a trip in the near future to Florence to visit Noah and Ansley, but that sorta depends on how long they’ll be there and when I get a good opportunity to go (and hopefully a good deal on a ticket).

I’ve come down with a bit of a head cold here, but it’s no big deal, just drinking lots of tea and taking things easy with the walking and the cold and rain. Seems like today’s gonna be pretty light, just gonna clean up the room a bit, head to the supermarket to get some beers and snacks, then Leslie, Paul, and I are gonna check out the Cubs game (should start around midnight here, local time, so not too bad. . . ).

So as it stands, everything except my insurance is paid for and set in stone, my classes are getting started (in German, which is OH so fun), my appartment is nice, the weather sucks, the city is great, and I’m having a wonderful time. HA.

So we all got in yesterday, home safe and sound.

On Wednesday I left for Munich with Leslie and Paul; we went from Graz to Salzburg, then Salzburg to the Munich Hauptbahnhof. When we arrived, we had to scramble a little bit from U-Bahn to S-Bahn, S-Bahn to bus, and then finally from the bus to our lovely campsite (Campingplatz Obermenzing, very cheap, relatively nice, and they handled the Oktoberfest rush like champions). As nighttime had already fallen, we discovered (to our dismay) that setting up the tent was not so easy, especially considering that at the time it was raining. At some point, the security guard showed up and helped us put everything together. Karl-Joseph Ohring, or Sepp for short, was a great guy; when our tent didn’t come together so well, he invited us to stay in his camper/tent-annex for the evening and worry about paying and whatnot the next day. When we woke up, he even prepared a nice breakfast of rolls, scrambled eggs, butter and jam for us. He gets around to telling us that some massive group of Australian tourists had left a week prior, with some two to three dozen tents just left. Big tents. Spacious tents, with rain covers and a nice little covered area in front of the door where you could take off your shoes and leave your bags. He assures us that we can grab one, so we do, place it in our tent, pay for the nights we’ll be there, and head in to Munich.

In Munich, the first thing the three of us decide to do (after, of course, visiting the Viktualienmarkt) is have a little lunch at the Hofbräuhaus, along with some really swell beer. Afterwards we wandered around Munich a bit, checking out Marienplatz and a couple of the churches in the Innenstadt, then headed off to Oktoberfest to scope things out. As it turns out, “scoping things out” means getting a seat with some nice young Australians and having a bit more beer (this time, Spaten!). After a Ferris Wheel ride and some snacks, we head back to the campingplatz for some well-earned rest.

To find that the big green tent had been removed from our camping spot, and all of our stuff dumped out onto the ground and left under our tarp. Apparently, even though Sepp said “Ja” and his boss said “Ja,” his boss’s boss said, in no uncertain terms, “nein.” No free tent for us. So we had to set it up again, once more in the dark and the rain. Eventually we finish, go to bed, and wake up to a very special day: the Friday when Case gets into town. So we run around all day, hang out in an Irish pub for a while and meet some swell folks (a guy from Dublin who loved Band of Brothers as much as I do, which really says something) dip into some really good cider to ward off the cold, rainy day outside, and eventually meander over to the Hauptbahnhof to pick up Case. We meet him after some initial trouble, and decide to scope out D’Wiesn with Case so he can get a feel for Oktoberfest. Same kind of “scoping out,” we get a beer, see some madness, check out some rides, and eventually make it home.

On Saturday, the last day of our trip, we wake up, hit the Hofbräuhaus again (this time it’s complete madness, with Italian men going crazy all over the place) and have some lunch. At this point, we decide to split off from Case and Paul, as Leslie and I are going to Sauerlach (about 25 minutes south of Munich by S-Bahn). Fortunately, we leave right as our friends Jessica and Jane, plus their French friend whose name I misremember, show up, so no trouble making sure they have folks to hang out with. I meet Leslie’s aunt Helga and her great-aunt Resie, they make some good food for us and a bit of coffee to go with. Right before we leave, we call Case to figure out where to meet up. Case proceeded to tell Leslie that he had lost Paul, the Italians had gotten arrested, and (as it had been an hour and a half since they had seen Paul) Paul must have been mistaken for an Italian and duly arrested for carrousing with busy Hofbräuhaus waitresses.

So we leave Sauerlach in a funk, concerned for our dear friend. We go back to the Campingplatz to see if he drank too much and went home to sleep it off, but he’s not there. We wait for a few hours and eventually Jessica returns with good news: Case found Paul, they’re with Jane at Oktoberfest and all is well. Jessica and Frenchie McFrencherson (with all apologies to M. McFrencherson) go to bed and we start to doze off, when Case returns. Bad news: Paul got lost. Again. We begin to fret more and more, since the last train to the campingplatz runs at one, and it was 12:30 when Case came back. After a good bit of fretting, Paul makes it back (apparently by the very last bus), and we all breathe a deep sigh of relief and pass the hell out. In the morning, we bought our train tickets, had a nice last lunch with Security Guard Sepp, took some final pictures and hopped on a train back home. The picture at the bottom here is where our second train-switch (transfer? my English sucks now. . . ) took place, a tiny town called Bischofshofen somewhere between Salzburg and Graz. As you might notice, this is indubitably one of the most beautiful train stations in the ENTIRE HOT-DAMN WORLD. Check it and enjoy!