{"id":310,"date":"2017-02-19T18:39:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T18:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/?p=310"},"modified":"2017-08-10T23:58:06","modified_gmt":"2017-08-10T23:58:06","slug":"the-first-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/2017\/02\/19\/the-first-trials\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Trials"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Reader,<\/p>\n

So the first two weeks have passed, but many things have happened so far. \u00a0First\u00a0when we landed in Vienna, we immediately had to navigate through a system of trams to get to the part of the city where we would hop on a bus. \u00a0The tram tickets were inexpensive and easy to obtain. \u00a0Once we got to the bus stop, we met some other people that were also traveling to Graz, so we struck up conversations. \u00a0Mostly in English, but we would switch to and from English and German. \u00a0I personally fell asleep on the bus ride so I cannot speak for all of the scenery that is Austria, BUT as we traveled closer to Graz, I saw some of the most beautiful ca\"\"stles, snowy hills, and fields I’ve seen before. \u00a0Once within Graz city-limits we made our way to the Hostel. \u00a0The Hostel was not what I expected… in a good way. \u00a0The room was very very nice and the front service was extremely helpful. \u00a0Luckily the Hostel was right next to the Hauptbanhof (main train station), so it was not hard for us to get around since the trams and buses mostly stopped there. \u00a0Next, we met my Austrian buddy and went to go eat.<\/p>\n

The following days all run together in my mind, because we were always on the go. \u00a0We had to get our keys, unpack, fill out paperwork for the room, go get registered, buy groceries, etc. \u00a0But to do all of this, you must first master the art of the Graz Buses. \u00a0I’m not going to say that the buses are hard to understand, I’m going to say that if you have a hard time with street names you’re gonna have a hard time. \u00a0I could not remember all of the different names, in the beginning they all sounded similar. \u00a0So what I did was count the stops. \u00a0I would look at the bus schedule that is posted at every bus stop, see if the bus that was coming to this stop was on route to where I needed to go, and then count how many stops were between me and that place. \u00a0It’s not a perfect method, but it works. \u00a0Now, I can read the names of the streets and know roughly where I am.<\/p>\n

Once you have the buses down, your next task is shopping in the local grocery stores. \u00a0There are two that I have seen so far: Spar and Bill\"\"a. \u00a0Apparently there are a few others, but they’re not close to me, so I’ll probably never go to them. \u00a0Inside the stores, you will not be able to find many American brands, so you might get confused and frustrated, but don’t fret, they have what you need. \u00a0I recommend buying the following to start off with: bread, snacks, and water. \u00a0Later you can buy more specific things. \u00a0Also, you have to buy the bags to carry your stuff in, so buy one, keep it, and shop lightly. \u00a0You can use the bag over and over again, so don’t sweat spending 0.35 euros on it.<\/p>\n

Next, you will probably want to go out to eat at one of the many restaurants that you’ve seen on your journey all over the city. \u00a0You can always find a Backeri (bakery) or a Kebaphaus. \u00a0Or if you’re feeling adventurous on the first few days, you could go into a bigger restaurant. \u00a0When you go in to one, you sit yourself at an open table big enough for your party. \u00a0Then the waiter will ask what you would like to drink, only it’ll be in German and it’ll be extremely fast, so you might not catch it at first… I didn’t. \u00a0To order, it’s either from a menu or a piece of paper that is on your table. \u00a0The me\"\"nu is self explanatory. \u00a0The papers are a little bit more tricky, but not bad. \u00a0There are many different colors of paper that you can choose from, and all of them are titled differently. \u00a0One will say “Hamburger,” another “Pizza,” and some even “Waffle.” \u00a0Once you choose which paper to use, you have to fill it out; penciling in which ingredients you want in or on it. \u00a0And be warned now, an Austrian “Kleine (Small) Pizza” is not what an American would consider a “Kleine (Small) Pizza.” \u00a0It’s enough to feed two people. \u00a0Once you get your food, don’t inhale it. \u00a0Eat slower and talk to the people that your with. \u00a0It is not uncommon for people to sit and eat for two hours before leaving one another. \u00a0This is the hardest thing for me to do. \u00a0Once your finished eating and you are ready to leave, it’s time to ask for the Rechnung (bill). \u00a0If you don’t understand them when they tell you how much your meal was, just hand them 20 euro and wait for the change. \u00a0If your meal is over 20 euro, don’t eat there for a long while. \u00a0Once they hand you your change, give them one euro as tip. \u00a0You can tip more if you would like but it is not necessary. \u00a0Tipping is not as grandiose as it is in America.<\/p>\n

These are all of the\"\" things that have happened these two weeks, from my personal experience. \u00a0I will continue to post as the days go by, and especially when my schooling starts at the University. \u00a0I have actually started my German Intensive Course class, which I highly recommend to everyone. \u00a0Over the past few days, my German language skills have increased so much, and I’ve learned a few things about Austrian dialect. \u00a0For example, if you say “Guten Tag” in Austria, the locals will immediately know that you are not from Austria. \u00a0Instead they say “Gr\u00fc\u00df Gott,” as they pass people in the streets or stores. \u00a0I think that’s a nice little fact.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Caleb Mott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dear Reader, So the first two weeks have passed, but many things have happened so far. \u00a0First\u00a0when we landed in Vienna, we immediately had to navigate through a system of trams to get to the part of the city where we would hop on a bus. \u00a0The tram tickets were inexpensive and easy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-atuglobal","category-graz-austria","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}