Posting for hvwIt's been a couple of weeks since our last update, for two major reasons. The first is that we thought we'd be getting home internet this past week, so we didn't worry about going into my office on the weekend to send the weekly email... and then we didn't get internet at home. (More about that in a minute.) The other is that we've been ( Read more... )

Week 5 Report ( Read more... )

As hvw mentioned, we have moved to our permanent apartment and are currently without teh interwebs. Luckily, someone came to our door last night and sold us DSL service which should begin in a couple of weeks ( Read more... )

Well, we were just watching "Das A-Team" on TV and that's what Hannibal says near the end of every episode.

As hvw mentioned in her LJ, we went back to IKEA for a second pass today. Since we're moving into a barren apartment in two days, it seemed wise to arrange for some furnishings. It seems that we have got all the essentials to get us started ( Read more... )

We finally got around to looking at a few more apartments today, as hvw mentioned. This is good since we only have a week left at our current place, so we need to quickly set up a new place and see about some urgent furnishings... unless we want to eat, sleep, and bathe literally in our suitcases.

The first place we looked at gave me The Fear™. Not ( Read more... )

There are a lot of things that are done differently here. How many? Well, easily enough to blog about for a couple of years, if not the rest of my life. One of the things is how you get payed for the year. As a post-doc, I already expect to be payed in pencil shavings. I was initially concerned because the taxes are high that I might be ending up ( Read more... )

So today we managed to get the ball rolling on a bank account, which is good as it subsequently appeared to be a prerequisite for getting a phone, which we did not get for the reason mentioned in the first part of this sentence. Also, I bought a nifty watch. It was on sale for a mere 75 Euros. hvw points out that it is ironic to buy an American watch ( Read more... )

1. Catch the bus to the Hauptplatz ( Read more... )

One of the several new things I tried today was some sort of carbonated drink made out of Johannesbeeren which I think either are currants or are something similar to currents. The drink was pretty good and not too sweet, although it was merely picked up as a capricious try-something-new item while I was in the gas station ( Read more... )

Here we are at the end of our first full day in Graz. I had been somewhat nervous about the difficulty of passing through immigration and customs on account of traveling with a cat and intending to stay much longer than someone without special permissions. Frankly, I had anticipated an awkward conversation with a dour official about how I should be ( Read more... )