Week .5: Absolute Chaos

Hi Everyone!

Before I start talking about what I've been up to, I want to talk about why I even have this thing in the first place.

As much as I would love to, I can't talk to everyone, all the time, especially considering time zone differences and the fact that I don't have a lot of time. So this is for those people that are at the very least mildly interested in why I'm in Austria and what I'm going to do. 

And since I'm here for an entire year, I want to keep everyone updated, keep a log of all of the things that I've been doing so I can look back on it later and get as much out of this experience as possible!

One more note, this is week .5 because I haven't been here for a full week but I've experienced enough for about three weeks. I am very tired. 

Let's start!


 

So I've never been on a plane before. That means that my first ever plane ride was six hours, a three hour layover and then another three hours on the plane. 

It was a Spanish airline, so everyone on the plane spoke Spanish and kind of English, sometimes. You know when someone is giving directions to a large crowd of people and they're given in English first, and then sometimes also in Spanish? Imagine that but the opposite and you're on an airplane. Sometimes the announcements were not given in English. I would just look at the Spanish speakers around me and they didn't seem nervous, so the plane was definitely not about to crash. Which is good.

The plan was also to sleep on the plane. Yeah, that didn't happen. I slept for a total of an hour and a half partially thanks to a screaming baby. If you were wondering, that is a real thing and people are not lying when they say that there's always one. 

By the time I arrived in Spain, it was 6 am their time and midnight in the USA. Again, only an hour and a half of sleep but the view was amazing.



So we landed and we ran into the airport to find the gate where my next plane would be. I also had to go through Spanish customs, where my friend that flew in with me got pretty much waved in instantly and I was questioned for around 5 minutes. I just want to know what he thought I did...

Next, another plane ride. This time I fell asleep and woke up at least 10 times over the course of 3 hours. I was incredibly dazed and sweaty and hungry but then...



This is Austria from the sky. I actually gasped. I didn't get a good picture because I was too busy staring at it, but we flew over huge mountains that were covered in trees, and beautiful, colorful houses. I actually wondered if I was dreaming, considering that I was constantly falling asleep.

After taking a bus into Graz, I was picked up by one of the members of the Overseas Neighbors (they are an international organization that supports study abroad students, specifically the winners of the Montclair-Graz Sister City Scholarship.) and was taken to my dorm room, which is a single. Meaning I have my own room. Repeat: I have my own room.

This was the first picture I took of my new home, Graz. 


This was the day that I registered with the city and became an official citizen. We celebrated with Austrian food, wiener schnitzel coated in pumpkin seeds and potato salad on the side. It was AMAZING.


There are a couple things that are going to take some getting used to. Like the 24 hour clock. It's currently 20:13. Which in my mind is more of a year and less of a time. Also the dates are different. It's not 9/4/2016, it's 4.9.2016. They put the day first!!! I forgot this when filling out my housing application a few months back, so I had to confirm that my birthday was April 9th and not September 4th. Also if you've ever been jet lagged, I am so sorry. I hate it. 

Another thing I'm not used to is having incredibly beautiful surroundings. Let's take this church for example. It's called Stadtpfarrkirche.



Also on Saturday, I went to one of the city's main attractions, the Schloßberg. We accidentally took the long way and were sweating profusely by the time we got there. My legs shook the rest of the day. "Maybe you need to work out more Kim" Well maybe you need to see how many stairs I climbed, if I went the short way.



That's right. I don't want to hear it. 

I also managed to get an incredibly touristy picture out of getting to the top. I'm sure my parents love it.



Aaaaaand let's just all look at this view together.



(They didn't want to be in the picture, but they still love me. Hopefully.)

The plan for the next day was to go to the Kunsthaus (a modern art museum) and check out everything there. The Kunsthaus did not have the same plan as us. Their plan was to not have any exhibitions open, but we were allowed to go to the top or the Needle and hang out there. The view was great, but I was definitely a little mad about it. 



Notice my sloppy, angry photography.

So instead of that, we decided to go to Schloss Eggenberg. This was where the richest, most fanciest family lived from the 1500s to the 1800s. Man, they were rich. And they LOVED showing it off. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, it was about to rain so they closed the shutters, and it was so dark that I couldn't take pictures in some rooms because it was very dark. Our tour guide had a flashlight. 

This is the front:


This is honestly one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. 


I just want to talk about these rooms. This house was designed as a calendar. Which makes pretty much no sense. But there are four towers on each corner that represent the four elements and the four compass directions, there are 365 windows on the outside for the days of the year and pretty much every choice architecturally had to do with a calendar. I don't remember everything, so if you're curious definitely look it up!



This was one of the brighter rooms that I got to take a picture of. It was a large meeting room for important politicians of the time. All of the pictures on the wall were a way to show off how much money the family had. I also learned that the chairs then did not have arms because the ridiculous clothing of the time didn't allow anyone to sit well. Women's dresses weighed around 40 pounds, which is also about the weight of the suitcase that I checked and let me tell you something, I would not want to wear that. 

That's all for now, see you next Sunday!!