They're Not All Bad

 I've been pretty harsh on Austria. Sure, a lot of things that Austrians do drive me crazy (to keep this from becoming a rant I won't list anything here), but I've met some great people and had some very gemütlich experiences lately.

I give business English lessons once a week to a man named Helmut who is really, really nice. I knew he and his girlfriend, Elisabeth, liked me when they designated a pair of houseshoes just for me at their apartment (where I meet with Helmut). They cranked up the niceness an extra notch by inviting me, with a group of their friends, to the white wine country in the south of Styria. 

I learned a lot that weekend: when an Austrian "invites" you to do something it means they're going to pay for everything (hotel, food, wine... even cake), a "Buschenschank" is a Styrian restaurant that produces all of their own food and only serves cold dishes, "Grauburgunder" is Pinot Grigio, and the word for this windmill-type contraption, which I've since forgotten but is supposed to make a loud noise to scare off birds. 

I also learned that I'll be incredibly tired the next day if I start with a wine tasting at 4 PM and drink with a bunch of middle aged Austrians until 2 AM.

There are lots of little family-owned wineries throughout this area, and we stayed in the guestrooms of a smaller one (named Jaunegg) and toured a bigger one. This is where we took what Elisabeth called our "Familie Foto." This reminded me of "Mr. Sunday,", my boss from the steel factory, and how when he wasn't googling pictures of the world's largest cat to show me at work or eagerly posing to have his picture taken as below, he and his wife were having me over for dinner and referring to their parents as my Oma and Opa.

Fulbright offered to match us Americans up with Austrians who had had Fulbrights in the past, so a few weekends later I spent the day with Lisbeth, who went to the US in the 70s (on a BOAT), and her husband Luis. We ate lunch at a really nice restaurant outside and celebrated "Spargelzeit" ("asparagus time"... no joke) by all ordering dishes with asparagus- my favorite!

 

Afterwards we drove to Luis' brother's farm, which was full of chickens, pigs, and this sweet calf, but they very sweetly made a detour into Slovenia (we were near the border) because I mentioned that one of my great-grandparents was Slovenian. 

Then we went to eat cake at their country house and enjoyed this view.

See, Austrians are nice! It takes a much longer time to get to know them than it does with Americans, but Austrians seem to form a few close friendships and keep the for life. A lot of kids in the 8th form (seniors) have had the same friends since kindergarten. This means it's not always the easiest place to integrate into, but I've been lucky enough to find some really kind people.