I miss my dog Sammie!

Okay, it's official... I miss my girl! It's just not the same to come home and not have my girl jumping off the couch and looking at me like 'where you been?' Ma, will you give Sammie a pat on the head and a trip to the beach for me? If you're wondering what caused this Sammie love fest, check out Nathan's blog: www.beingwheelwright.blogspot.com

But back to Austria... things here are going well. It's always a little hit or miss... every day is a completely different day and I never know how it's going to end. It's kinda like the weather in Chicago, if you don't like the mood you're in wait 20 minutes (I guarantee it will be different!). I've been trying to hold my own, but as always, I'm super glad to have great friends out here that make it all a little better. Here are some pic's of new (and old) friends out here in Graz...

Theresa, Christoph and Nishi at an U-Bahn station in Vienna

Theresa, Mandy, Carmen, Danya, Lisa and Joanna at the Imbiss Restaurant accross the street
from the dorm showing their best "Heisse Liebe" (Hot Love) faces

Chinwe, Mary, Marisan, Theresa, Allison and Christoph again at another U-Bahn station in Vienna on Marisan's birthday eve party

Joanna, Nishi and Theresa getting a little freaky... imagine that.

Allison, Nishi and Marisan lookin' sassy at Marisan's b-day party!

I'm trying to think if there is any other pressing news, but I can't come up with any. Oh yeah, by the way it's f*ckin' hot out here. Oh my God. Almost every day it's 85 or 90 degrees and humid! Ahhhhhhh! Nishi doesn't do well with humidity and I've been literally sweatin' my ass off. Also, Austrians aren't big fans of AC and I think they mostly don't need it, so there is no such thing. There isn't ever that immediate relief when you walk into a building... no frequently it's just as hot if not hotter than outside... that way you can continue to sweat (just in case you were afraid you might stop). It's ALL an adventure, the singing, the heat, the language, the funny gridless streets, being an auslander (foreigner), being surrounded by over a hundred singers and instrumentalists............... again all I can come up with is, oh wow. Or, aw dude.

Love you all and promise more pics/info as time permits! XOXOXO Nishi

I've got some smashing to do...

Just in case you all were wondering what I was up to, I thought I would let you in on my very busy schedule..........

As promised... more pics.

These are random pictures from my adventures thus far...curry wurst and our tenor friend from Graz Alexander... Theresa and I got our hair did by our fellow U of Aer Amanda, who does great hair (just in case you were looking for an up-do)... our first 'real' dinner made at the 'heim... the excitement of an Xavier Naidoo concert poster... and finally Zisou (oh Zisou, what a way to go out!) and the World Cup!

Love ya'll much,

Nishi

Holler back, young one.

Okay, so I decided it's time for me to post some pictures... wish me luck, I hope they upload successfully. This first picture is of dawn from the 'heim (where we're all living) my first full day in Graz. Thanks to jet lag I was up at the crack of dawn to catch the sunrise and explore while people stumbled out of the bars and went home! Here also are some pic's of Graz in general (including the graffitti, which amazingly enough there's a lot of and is quite entertaining... frequently it's in English, what up with dat?).

More to come!

Nishi

Sadly no pictures...

So, my friend Emily and I decided to go down town to watch the semi final game of the world cup. We couldn't decide where to go so we decided on being in a central place like down town and we would inevitably find something... at one of the stops we saw this dude get on wearing a German flag, at which point I turned to Emily and said "we're gonna follow him and he'll lead us to the right place to watch the game!" That ended up being partially true, until we got sidetracked by this American guy who ask US for directions, at which point we confessed that we we're American and not much use when it comes to directions. Then it turns out that this guy is from a small town in Pennsylvania not far from where Emily is from, so we chop it up a bit with him. He had just married an Austrian woman and moved to Graz and clearly didn't know his way around very well and in classic American form was just asking at random IN ENGLISH anybody for directions to some place. Of course by the time we got stuck with him we lost the dude with the German flag and wandered some more with the Pennsylvanian. Finally we realized that there was a big outdoor public space to watch the game (with a jumbo-tron, bleachers, picnic tables and beer stands!). That ended up being the place HE was looking for and also probably the place the dude in the German flag went to... upon arrival it took some effort (and an exchange of email address') to ditch the old Pennsylvanian and find a place to sit and watch.

Our initial search for a place to sit was not fruitful and consisted mostly of stairs from Austrians, checking out the Americans in their *cute* Adidas soccer, or excuse me, futbol, outfits (yes, we had cute little Adidas outfits!). At that point we decided that we needed some beer in a mean way and that we would try again with beers to find a place to sit (beer always makes things better, right? or at least that's what I keep telling myself). Our second attempt to find a seat landed us at a table of men that turned out to be Afghani and um, rooting for Portugal... not Germany. So there we are in our Adidas outfits in a sea of Austrians rooting for Germany at a table with Afghani's rooting for Portugal. Life doesn't get much more entertaining. Despite our initial concerns of intoxication and possible shit talking/trouble with Austrians, the Afghani's turned out to be very nice (although there was one who after a couple beers became a little lecherous... someone's always gotta go and spoil things, eh?). They had all been in Austria for varying amounts of time, 5 years, 11 years and none had plans on returning to Afghanistan because they are Christian. Of course I can't tell you how long it took us to figure this all out considering that they speak German and Farsi and um pretty sure Emily and I don't. The lecherous one spoke pretty good English and the others spoke a little bit (sadly in this sittuation my Spanish did not come in handy). Of course much to our amusement one of them was named Jabib... and the others I don't remember, for obvious reasons however, "Jabib" stands out.

The entertainment doesn't end there though, no, that would be too easy. When we sat down of course we all had to toast before we drank and Emily in her infinite wisdom (and I do really mean that, that girl is smart as a whip... however we all have our moments!) says "Chuss" (not actually spelled like that but you get the idea) which means goodbye in German. So we go on saying that for while everytime we would toast until after a while (and I'm sure their sides hurt from laughing so hard), the Afghani's fess up that we're making complete fools of ourselves and that we should stick to the old standby "Prost" or there's always "Salute", "Salud" all of the above... except "Chuss". Oh yeah, we're geniuses.

That's pretty much our adventure, one of them was hella cut and good looking. I of course thought he was gay until he kept hugging me goodbye and tried to slip me some tongue (sadly, I think he was the one named Jabib, although I can't remember). But whatever, we're planning on watching the final with them tomorrow at the same place so there should be some updates. Gotta love Austria, I mean Afghanis, I mean... where the hell am I????!!! I love this kind of shit, maybe it comes from being raised in the oh-so-international Rancho Urbano that I keep finding myself in these sittuations.

That's all for now. I'm tired.

Love, love, love,

Nishi