Kunst und Kultur

On Monday night a few of the guys got together and watched Top Gun, which made me miss America. At the same time, I was pretty pumped about America, so it was all good.

On Tuesday we did something far less American. We visited Schloss Ambras, which is a castle of sorts on a hill to the south of the city. It was a very nice day and there was some really awesome stuff inside. Some highlights:

Schloss Ambras

A peacock getting rejected

This poor guy was actually rather famous and well-liked for having SO MUCH HAIR EVERYWHERE

On Wednesday afternoon we took a little tour of the city. Again, a few highlights:

I have absolutely no idea

One of my favorite places in the city. In the background is the famous Golden Roof, and in the foreground, about 50 meters away from the roof, are the Golden Arches. The march of American cultural / culinary imperialism continues.

That night we all got together for dinner. I drank a bottle of wine, and I don't remember anything else. Just kidding, I do remember! I went to sleep, because that's what your body makes you do when you're a little bit sick and decide to drink a bottle of wine.

[^ Don't worry, Mom, I didn't CHUG it, it was over a couple of hours at least.]

Today we took a class trip to the local art museum. The main thing that I took away from the experience is that Austrian artists tend to have their minds in the gutter. Think Freud and his obsession with the psycho-sexual, only on canvas. I really want to share my favorite example of such art, but as there might be children reading this, I will refrain. It was pretty explicit.

In other news, I do miss NBC's Olympic coverage, mainly because of the John Williams fanfare, which I haven't heard once here. The one superior thing about Austrian Olympic coverage is the Pain Reel, which shows all of the wipeouts since the last broadcast set to absurd music (Yakety Sax, etc). It's pretty merciless. Also, for all of you who were unaware: Lindsey Vonn speaks incredible German.

Now it's time for me to get ready for my trip to Ireland and the UK. I'll be gone all next week, so I likely won't be posting again before next Sunday. Until then, cheerio!

Small town living

On Friday afternoon we took a class trip to a cemetery. Why? We don't really know, but it was very interesting nonetheless. I mean, it was just a cemetery, I guess, but it was cool to see how old some of the graves were and what some of the people buried there did for a living while they were alive. I didn't take any pictures there because I thought it would be weird. I guess it was weird enough already, so I don't know why I was concerned, and now I wish I had some pictures.

Later that night we went to a bar that somehow had NO beer on tap (we won't be going back), and so I tried a bottled Croatian beer, which wasn't bad, but didn't hold a candle to the Weihenstaphan Hefe Weizen that I had after skiing today.

On Saturday we took a day trip to Hall in Tirol, which is a little town about 10 km east of Innsbruck. It seemed like a pretty nice place, but we had no way of telling for sure because it was cloudy and because literally everything was closed. So we just walked around for a bit and then got back on the bus and went home.

Hall in Tirol...try to contain your excitement.

As I implied earlier, today I went skiing for the second time, this time at Kühtai, which is another beautiful resort. I used my all my own equipment this time, which was pretty exciting. I'm happy to report that my total wipe out count dropped to zero, although I did have a few minor falls thanks in part to sudden narrowing of the runs and surprise moguls, but I was able to handle the red runs without incident. We ate lunch at a little rest hut in the middle of one of the runs. The food was delicious and we were seated with a couple of German dudes, one of whom had lived in Canada for three years and consequently spoke excellent English.

No caption necessary.

I also had a fairly embarrassing experience with a T-bar lift, which I had never used before. The first time Jonathan and I got on one we screwed it up and had to hang on to it with our arms for a bit before we finally rotated it and positioned it extremely uncomfortably around our backs (not under our butts, as is proper and encouraged). It was painful and awkward. Then I fell down. I really need to figure out how to use one of those things.

Mr. Ryan Jenks, looking classy. The backdrop doesn't hurt.

So, after a fairly eventful weekend, I'm pretty tired, and this post is long enough already, so I'll bring it to an end without further ado.

Fasching & Aftermath

Hello again from beautiful Innsbruck! The weather today was "föhnig", which in English means "warmer and windier than usual due to a warm breeze from the south that cuts through the southern valleys but gets blocked by the Nordkette, thus creating a pocket of warmer air around the city." Good thing there's a word for it.

Yesterday was Faschingsdienstag, which is a lot like Mardi Gras, except that its purpose is to celebrate the coming of spring. There was an Umzug (parade) in the afternoon with a bunch of witches doing crazy dances and some excellent floats. All of the floats were actually just miniature bars on wheels. They all had different (usually traditional) themes on the outside, and on the inside people were just drinking and dancing as they went by. I think all floats should be like that.

At night we all got together for dinner and threw on funny costumes, as is customary. Think of Fasching as a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras, with slightly less emphasis on gluttony and a bit more on being absolutely ridiculous.

Jonathan and I dressed up as Americans.

And on second thought, I'm not going to talk about the aftermath.

TTFN!

Die Skier gehören auf den Füße

I have a lot to talk about, but per the promise that I made in my first post, I'm going to keep it all as concise as possible!

At Hofer, which is the Austrian name for the Aldi chain, one can purchase a liter of white wine for EUR1.20. It goes down really easily because it kind of just tastes like apple juice. There might (probably will) be some pictures on Facebook that illustrate the effects of the availability of said wine for said price.

Yesterday I went skiing in the Alps for the first time. It was incredible. The first time I went down the "easy" hill I wiped out three times. And I mean wipe out, not fall down. Think flying through the air, skidding across snow and ice for at least 100 feet, and then having to backtrack to pick up both skis and poles. The "easy" hill that I skied twice yesterday was significantly harder (and much, much longer) than any hill I've ever skied before at home. On my second wipe out, I lost both poles and one ski, and as I went back to retrieve them, a man who was passing one of my poles stopped to pick it up and bring it to me. When he handed it to me he said "Die Skier gehören auf den Füße", which for you non-German speakers means "The skis belong on the feet." I responded by thanking him and telling him that I knew that, and then he went on his way. Even though I was rather sore about the whole incident, that smart ass joke kind of made my day. The second time I went down, I didn't fall once. Nice.

On top of the world - the text on the cross reads "Für Gott u. Heimat" which roughly translates "For God and Country."

We met a couple of Brazilian guys on the lift (well, it's really a tram car type of thing) and also a couple of U.S. Army guys who are stationed in Germany. None of them spoke a lick of German. It's cool to meet other foreigners here, especially when they find it as refreshing as you do that English is the preferred language of communication.

Tonight, Jonathan and I got dinner at McDonald's. Like moths to a flame. The restaurant itself was MUCH nicer than any McDonald's I've ever been in. The food costs a little bit more, but not all that much more, and I thought that it tasted a lot better. I got a Hamburger Royale TS, which made me really happy for the following reason:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLtwFugudZE&feature=related

Since I got a meal, I got a free Coke glass, which also made me really happy because I felt like I got a happy meal with extra food. I would have to say that it was probably the most satisfying meal I've had here thus far.

Regarding Diversity: the woman who was cleaning the floor while we were eating was rather obviously a Chinese (or similar) immigrant, and I found myself thinking "You decided to leave your country, but you came here instead of America?", and so I was somewhat shocked by the whole situation, but then when we tried to get up and dispose of our own garbage she told us (in English!) to just go ahead and leave it there and that she would take care of it, and so that made everything all better, because I really think it should be that way in America too.

Here's a great example of some bad graffiti. "Ausländer" means "foreigners" and "rein" means "pure", so we're not sure what they're going for, but it probably has something to do with purifying the country of dirty foreigners. Like me!

I would like to conclude this post by quoting my roommate, Mr. Jonathan Asbury:

"The great thing about being a guy is that the world is your bathroom."

Word.

There are some towels

This post has nothing to do with my towel situation, which still makes my brain hurt and so I'm just going to leave it alone. On a much more positive note, I just bought boots, skis, and poles for EUR160.00. The skis are kind of broken in the back, but I was assured (in both German and English) that it doesn't matter and that a little glue will fix it right up. Time to rip up the Alps tomorrow!

Everyone warned me about cultural differences, but so far it hasn't been to difficult to acclimate. Check back with me in two months though, after I've gone that long without Taco Bell and Walmart.

Speaking of Taco Bell, the dogs here are probably the most obedient in the world. There's a dog that hangs out in the second floor of our class building. It's rather unnerving sometimes to see dogs just sitting there, staring at you, not doing anything, no owner in sight. I've yet to hear one bark.

I am doing my best to not force my American ways upon the people here, but it can be tough in some instances. Every time I need to cross a street (read: anytime I go anywhere), I feel like I am the guy who invented jaywalking. The Austrians, as a general rule, DON'T do it. Yesterday, just outside the dorm, there was a guy standing there at the crosswalk, staring at the don't walk symbol, just waiting for it to change, while there were no moving vehicles anywhere in sight. So we proceeded to just go ahead and cross, and a few seconds later he did the same, as if he just realized for the first time in his life "Oh wow, that was rather clever, wasn't it, what have I been doing just standing there all this time?"

Diversity Totals:

Black - 3

Asian - 1

Turkish - at least 4, and one of them makes a mean kebap.

In all seriousness, the Diversity counter is meant to illustrate the relative lack of diversity here in Innsbruck, at least compared to what I'm used to in the U.S. Although I guess I don't know what I mean by that, since I grew up in the 'burbs and went to Catholic school my whole life. I guess I'm just talking about what I see on TV. Still though, you get the picture.

And finally, a couple pictures:

This picture was taken on our first hiking trip on Monday

and this is everyone hanging out in the girls' apartment in Tirolerheim after the AWESOME dinner that they made for all of us!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Diversity

We saw a black person last night on the way to the bar. That brings the total count up to 1. Updates will be posted regarding this topic as developments occur.

First Impressions

Total travel time: 26 hours

Total sleep during travel: ~3 hours

Total sleep on Saturday night / Sunday morning: 13 hours. New personal best.

I tried to think of a list of adjectives to describe what this place is like, but the English language doesn't quite do it justice, and I would also hate to bore you by describing every single place I went and what I thought of it, so I'll post up some pictures and let you fill in your own descriptors. My dorm is called "Rössl in der Au", which apparently translates as "Pony in the meadow" in colloquial Tyrolean. I live on 3. Stock, which is actually the fourth floor, because the German system starts numbering above the ground floor. Here is a picture of the view from my room:

Yes, those are the Alps in the background, and yes, the air is as fresh as it looks. Here's a picture of me just outside one of the buildings of the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck in which I'll be taking my intensive German course for the next 3 weeks:

Last night at our welcome dinner I tried to eat french fries (Pommes Frites) with my fingers....I know, right?! How rude. Eating them with a fork (as is good and proper in Austria) isn't as difficult or awkward as you might think, and neither is using a fork with your left hand. The main course was, of course, Wiener Schnitzel, which was just fantastisch. For dessert, we were served an Austrian classic called Heiße Liebe ("Hot Love" - vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce) which was both delicious and an excellent topic of conversation, thanks to its rather suggestive name and texture.

I went to a Super Bowl party at a local bar on Sunday night. Kickoff was around midnight here, and I didn't quite stay that late even since I was still a bit jet lagged. I met a cool Austrian dude there who said that he likes American accents and that he hoped the Colts would win because everyone in Europe wanted the Saints to win. But no one was really there to watch football, and I think everyone sort of recognized that fact.

That's all for now - the pictures that I post on Facebook will hopefully tell the rest of the story much more efficiently. Mach's gut, everyone!

Pre-post

Hey everyone!

It's 1:00 AM EST and I am finally done packing. Innsbruck ETA: 3:30 PM (15:30) local time. My next post will be from Europe.

For all of you who will be following this blog, I promise that it will be both interesting and appropriately concise. Kind of like how we all wish Wysocki would be. I'll post update notices on Facebook.

Tomorrow the adventure begins!