I guess it was the last weekend in October that I did something since my last post. On the 29th we went to the Steiermark, the southern region in Austria known for its many vinyards and something called kernöl, which is basically pumpkin oil. It's quite tasty on salads and bread and whathaveyou. The first place we went to was a chocolate making plant, not unlike Wonka industries. We were able to see the entire process of making chocolate and could also taste the chocolate at all points of the production. It was pretty nasty until they added the sugar. They made all types of different chocolate, from 100% dark chocolate (bleh, no sugar or creme), to chili chocolate (also bleh). Pretty much all types in between were very tasty. At the end of the tour you could taste every kind that they made at the plant, which was upwards of 100. I didn't go very long before i started to feel sick...
After the House of Upset Stomachs..er, chocolate plant, we visited the vacation house of a colonel at the academy. He has a ton of land and makes his own wine, which may be the best I've had so far. We stood around in his cellar drinking wine and eating bread for a while. Not a bad life... After much drinking and merrymaking (which seems to be a common practice in Austria) we made our way to a local restaurant, where we had fried chicken and french fries, not quite a local dish, but good nonetheless. It was however, accompanied by salad with kernöl, which was again quite good. I'm bringing home a bottle to share the wonders with those interested. After all of this we went back to the MilAk.
The next day (Saturday now), all of the cadets minus one went to Budapest (pronounced Buda-pesht, who knew?), the capital city of hungary. Dan's fiance Michelle (hope I spelled it right) came along as well, as she was staying in Austria for a few weeks to visit Dan. We took a free walking tour of the city, which ended up being a great experience. I'd recommend free tours to anyone, not obviously just because it's free, but the tour guides really have to know what they're talking about because they work for tips. So really it only ends up costing about $10, and you still get to see everything you would normally, plus the guides advice on local eateries and whatnot. Because Monday was a national holiday, we got to stay longer than we would on a normal weekend. Sadly, there weren't to many halloween parties to be found in the city. After the good long weekend we went back to the adademy to start another week of rigorous academics (or something like that...).
Not much really happened the following week. A few history classes and riding, and then some meeting, but that was about it. During the weekend Seth and I went to Graz, the capital of the Steiermark, with an Austrian cadet named Bernd. We met him during our first week in Austria when he was showing us around Vienna. We went to his house for the weekend. I can't begin to describe how good the food was. I ate enough over the weekend to satisfy an impoverished nation for a month (sorry to those from impoverished nations reading this). He also had a sauna in his basement, which is definitely something I want when I buy a house. We did quite a few sessions in the sauna in the evening after dinner. You may be asking: "But Matt, don't you usually go out drinking in the evening on the weekends? And wouldn't the sauna make you dehydrated, thereby lowering your tolerance to alcohol?" Well, the answer would be yes on both accounts... Fortunately, we were able to prepare ourselves for the evening by having a couple beers in the sauna, a great idea, no? Am I proud of what I did? Well, yes.. you only live once right?
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After a while we went out to the town for a while and met some of Bernd's friends, including a dance instructor at one of the nearby dance schools. I got to see him in action at one of the clubs we went to, and it was kind of funny to compare him dancing to the feeble attempts of myself and everyone else in the room. The next morning we slept in a bit and then had a very large brunch. After this we ended the weekend a bit early and came back to the academy. I was able to finally get a bit of work done.
This past week was pretty much the exact same as the last, Graz included, except this time we went with people from our year group, and more was paid for because we did cultural things as well (yes very surprising I know). One of the places we went to was an armory from the 16th-19th century. There were hundreds of thousands of pieces of armor and weapons encompassing 4 floors of a building. The tour was in German, but I found myself understand the majority of what he said, which is a testament to how much I've learned since I've been here. After doing the obligatory, but always fun, night of merrymaking, we woke up and had a very good breakfast in the city with one of the Austrian cadets. After a while we again went back to the academy.
It's good to note here that over the past few weeks I earned the Austrian Sportabzeichen, which, for those familiar with the German proficiency badge, is quite tough to get. To get this, one must do a series of track and field events, along with swimming and running a 5k. The list to get the best one is: shotput 8 meters (which was hard for me), swim 300 meters in 8 minutes (too easy, did it in 4:40), run a 5k in 24 minutes (again, too easy, 20:55), sprint a 100 in 13.2 seconds or 400 in 65 (tough, did the 400 in 62 seconds), and high jump 1,4 meters (I knicked the bar as I jumped over, but it somehow stayed up). The paperwork has to go to Vienna to get approved, but I should have the award soon.
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