First round of job applications away

At the mere cost of 18.75 euros, my first round of job application letters - and their many supporting materials - is in the post. Now a waiting game begins (and the next applications need to be sent).

This weekend was my first in Graz in six weeks, and I had several fun (and other interesting) experiences:

- After class on Thursday, I enjoyed chatting with several of my students over a warm cup of gluwine and some cookies. Mmmm.

- Later Thursday I went back into town with Flo, Kathrin (Flo's sister), and Babsi. We didn't really interact much, which was sad, but then again I don't speak deutsch, and 95% of the conversations were in deutsch. In the other 5% of conversation, I learned just how hard cross-cultural sarcasm can be. I still don't know if Flo's sister's friend was genuinely angry with me for not seeing as much of Austria as she thought I should have. Seriously, Austria is a great country, but her tone and content could have easily been less nasty (at least towards someone who you only met an hour earlier and had till then spoken only three sentences with.) (Forgive the poor English ... not sure how that sentence can be properly resolved to prevent ending in a preposition).

- Friday was a national holiday (to celebrate the miraculous conception of Mary), so Flo and I went jogging in the afternoon and I joined Trygve, Lucy, Suzha, and Morgan after the Fri. night service for more gluwine. The Austrians know how to celebrate advent!

- I did some shopping Saturday morning and then watched a few Cosby show (season 1) episodes with Trygve later in the afternoon. Afterwards, he and I went into town to fetch his Mac computer from the repairman, and then we set out to find this Indian restaurant he wanted to try. After a few minutes (okay, maybe 30!) of wandering Graz, we found it, but it was closed! But the night was saved when we found a cafe offering a rather nice selection of food.

- Sunday was very enjoyable, the highlight of the past few days. I was invited by my student and colleague, Tina, to share breakfast with her and her roommate, Rudy. I arrived at 9, and Rudy's colleague Daniel joined us about 9.10. The 4 of us proceeded to have one of the longest breakfasts ever: 9 hours. I left their apartment at 18.15 (6.15 pm), having sat in the same place, in front of our breakfast dishes, the entire time. We had some great conversation to go with the great food (a typically Austrian mixture of breads, sliced ham, butters, coffee, and juices), and I really enjoyed their hospitality. (Now if I can only remember: whenever you go over to someone's home, TAKE A GIFT or something! Ugh, cross-cultural forgetfulness is frustrating!)

- Sunday night and Monday were spent working on netCDF and tracking cyclones. Fun, fun, fun!

Hope you had a great weekend! Leave a comment if you will.