Steiermark is a very nice part of Austria and it is known here as the “Green Heart of Austria” because of its many forests, farms, orchards, and vineyard. It’s lovely here in the summer and I am sure that autumn here will be quite as lovely. I’ll have my camera ready and I’ll take photos of the country side.

Austria is incredibly beautiful and sometimes I wish that I could contain some of its beauty in a bottle and bring it home to the Philippines to show it to my love ones (then bring it back of course). I love its rolling hills and well kept meadows. I love its looming mountains along with its countless lakes and streams. I love its century old cities and the old architectures therein. I am glad that I am able to see and appreciate such place.

And if I’d have to say something I don’t like about Austria… it would just be then the fact that Austria is not blessed with an ocean and all that comes with it like fresh salt-water fishes and lovely beaches. But that’s ok because my country has those. For me it’s like Philippines and Austria complement each other and I am glad to have found home in both countries.

All the times that I was put in such situation, I felt under the pressure of being expected to be able to talk in their language simply because I was living there.

It is really too bad that I didn’t learn how to speak Chinese in my three years of living in China because I could have learn a lot from people who stopped by to have a chit chat with me. I always felt that these are the people who are genuinely friendly. In China if somebody approaches me and start to talk to me in English, I usually get suspicious because I know from experience that these people more likely want to sell me something.

In Austria it is pretty much the same except that people here don’t come to you and speak to you in English just to sell you something. I am glad they don’t do that. But I say it is the same because I still have this feeling—the irritating feeling that I am expected to speak in German just for the simple reason that I am here.

I can say that I can understand German fairly well (and when I say “German”, I mean “high German”) but I still have the trouble of speaking in German. After taking two German language courses, my confidence in speaking the language goes as far as greeting people. So if I enter a store or any kind of establishment, that’s what I do because that’s what they do (hell, Austrian people greet so much!). I greet them in their language just to be polite but my greetings always come with a prayer—a prayer that I only receive a greeting back…NOTHING MORE. But Austria seems to be a place of very polite and friendly people so after exchanging civil greetings, you can expect a small chit chat—it’s completely normal here to exchange a few kind words to strangers. If you greet them, you can expect a greeting back, an offer to help you, then probably question about your well being or a slight remark about the weather. If you don’t greet them, it doesn’t matter… they will still greet you. I actually think it is lovely that they are like that but the problem is that I can’t understand them because although I can understand German, they don’t speak German. They speak an Austrian dialect that sounds so funny to me.

So what happens is, I get stunned or I appear to get stunned. I just sort of stop there and try to process as fast as I can what was said. In most cases, I get nervous and so I just reply to them in English. It’s really difficult for me. You see, I need time to process what was said then I also need time to think of what to reply in German. Imagine the stress! Then there’s the pressure of wanting to reply quickly because you don’t want the other person to wait hours for what you’ll have to say.

If I am lucky, I am able to reply in German and in time but if my nervousness gets ahead of me, I am sure to awkwardly reply in English. If I am luckier, the person will simply smile and start to talk to me in English. If is not my day, I can only expect an awkward silence.

The party was OHHH—-KAYYYY. Food was great but I would have enjoyed it better if we were sitting down while eating. There were no chairs! There were these high and small rounded tables for people to gather around and drink but that was all. When dinner was served, people have to wait for their turns so they can have a part of the table where they can put their plates down. That was really disappointing for me more so because I was wearing a pair of high-heeled shoes.

I was not very comfortable in the party but I thought it was okay because I am sure that most of the people there were also uncomfortable. Sure, they tried to mingle with each other but they leave the conversation as soon as one comes and butt in. haha. It was all too shallow for me. I am glad that the group (me, my husband, and his colleagues) stayed together the whole evening. There were people coming to the group to have a chit chat but none of them stayed long.

It was actually kind of nice at the beginning because there was a free flow of wine (haha) and people were really nicely dressed. It was not my kind of party….it was actually a little bit phony for my taste but it was altogether kind of fun because I get to observe people in their phony moments (wink).

I remember he can draw well at a very young age but there was something about his drawing that made the other pupils including me think that he is stupid. He was the only non-Filipino pupil in the class so when he drew a landscape with orange and yellow colored trees, all the Filipino kids laughed at his work. Why would he draw a yellow tree when everybody knows it’s supposed to be green?

Autumn was not a reality for me (and for most of the Filipino kids in that age) until I’ve seen it in the movies and learn about it in our Science subject. Winter is another story. I think every kid in my country has an idea of what winter is because of the “snow” in Christmas stories. We were all “would be nice to have snow here” because the idea of playing in the snow appeals so much.

Had I known that there’s autumn, I would have wished to have autumn instead of winter because of the colors and what it does to the landscape. I would have wished to play in the heaps of dried fallen leaves instead of snow. Autumn is beautiful!

I was amazed by how the people showed their support to their national teams –they painted their faces, hang their national flags (anywhere), wore patriotic shirts and funny national costumes, invented cheering songs and rhymes, paraded on the street, etc. I also remember seeing several mobile homes in the autobahn obviously being driven by sport enthusiasts from all around Europe driving to Austria (and Switzerland) to witness their teams play… not to mention the reported number of private jets landing in Vienna Airport causing major air traffic and several flight delays. And I don’t know how true this is but a friend of mine was in a train with some Italian football fans and they told her that they have quit their job (because their boss didn’t give them a longer leave of absence) just so they can follow the tournament. How crazy and extravagant!?! So really, Europeans are all out when it comes to giving support to their team.

I chose to root for Austria and my husband who is not a sports enthusiast himself was also influenced to root for his national team but when Austria was eliminated, he lost interest right away.

So anyway, after watching Austria’s first game (where they lost), I was (still) convinced that they’ve got a chance (to go up all the way to the semi final at least) and they’re not as bad as the Austrians themselves claim. The Austrian national team has the reputation of being one of the worst national teams in Europe and they only qualified to play in tournament because they were the host nation but they’re really not that bad. Their defense is excellent! If only they were also trained to score a goal (haha) and not just to stop the other team from making a goal… they would’ve made it. (I could go on and on about my opinions on the games but I am sure that you wouldn’t like to hear football analysis from someone who knows too little about football so… :-l

It was cool to be in Austria during the EM but it would have been cooler if the Austrian team won or if Austria won their match against Germany at least.