Post on this Black Friday

Dances, school, celebrity and more

Life in Graz has been pretty routine. I have been, however, extremely busy. On Tuesdays, I attend a philosophy colloquium put on by the university, where we discuss working papers from professors and students in the department. On Wednesday, I have Stammtisch. Stammtisch is basically a “meeting table” where you talk (and drink) with the same people every week, with some additions here and there. The core group is Lena, Onyx, and Elise, with some people coming in and out according to availability. My Thursdays are spent doing trivia with a team called Frog, Toad, and Friends. Our team can range from 6 to 12 people. All huddled around a table, we try to figure out the names of songs and the date that Margaret Thatcher assumed her third term as Prime-minister of the UK.

My weekends are anything but routine. For the last few weekends, I’ve been leaving Graz to see some friends from last year. First, it's Vienna, then it’s Linz,and then it’s all the way back to Graz again. 2 weekends ago, I had the opportunity to go to a birthday party on Thursday night (I have Fridays off every other week). I then woke up, had a coffee, and went to Linz for a twisted night of debauchery and philosophizing. The next morning, I went to brunch with a bunch of people I’d only ever had lunch and dinner with. I said my hellos, and then, after a few moments of conversation (including explaining the idea of poppers to the most innocent person imaginable), I’m rushing to catch the train to Graz. I had a Matura Ball to attend.

Brunch with Linz and Vienna people

You may be asking what a Matura Ball is. Don’t worry, it’s something easily translatable into American terms. It’s essentially the Austrian version of Prom, except parents are there, and they serve alcohol. A lot of alcohol. The “Matura” part of it refers to the final exam that Austrian students must take in order to pass Gymnasium (their version of high school). Students can choose between taking a written form of the exam or an oral form. They can do this for just about every main subject. It is indeed possible to take an oral mathematics final exam, which sounds dreadful. You can also take other subjects outside of the main subjects for the matura, like French or Latin. English, German, and Math count themselves among the main subjects.

Anyways, back to the availability of alcohol. My coworker and friend, Elise, and I went out to dinner before the dance. We were both the “TAs” there. Our predicament was that of the outsider with one foot in the pool and another on the concrete outside. The students were overjoyed when they saw us. Festivities and dancing ensued. Students would tell me “Oh so and so is excited to see you!”. I must confess. I don’t remember the names of any of my students. I have 25 classes altogether with new ones being added every other week. I want to know their names but I don’t spend the time to remember them. As soon as I leave, I won’t have them until another two weeks pass. When the students tell me someone specific I’m like “HUH?!?” and then they have to introduce me. I still don’t remember their names.

Elise and I were there for the festivities and to see our students. My body and soul were tired beyond measure by the twisting and turning of the train rides and late nights. I thought I would only stay til 12. Boy was I wrong. Students would come up to me and ask me the same question “How does this compare to Prom?”. I would always give them the same answer: “It’s exactly like Prom, except for the alcohol and the parents” (as noted above). As the moon waxed above us, the students became more drunk. I met parents who would say stuff like “Aren’t you way too young to be teaching?” or “Sorry, my kids are super drunk, don’t pay attention to anything they say.”. Then midnight rolled into the present moment.

During midnight, the students do something called the Mitternachtseinlage. Essentially, it’s a show that the final years put on at midnight. They dance to songs like the Macarena or Viva La Vida. It was well-choreographed. After a flurry of dance moves, they took to the crowds and formed a conga line. Elise and I joined in, with the faintest bit of reluctance that was probably drowned out by the 3 Aperol spritzers I’d drunk during the evening.

We flooded onto the dance floor, dancing to songs like Sweet Caroline with the students. The week before, I had done a lesson on protest songs. Some of the students in the class immediately thought I was cool because I showed them a Tupac song. I think I still have my foot in the pop culture of the younger generation, but mostly because the artists that I listened to at their age are still popular now.

Anyways, we sang, we danced, and finally, the night was over. As Elise and I were leaving, a student came up to me and said some funny things. “You’re like a celebrity! Everyone knows you! Now you have a beard? Crazy”. I was taken aback, but it basically sums up how I feel about the students. I love them, but there seems to be this weird parasocial relationship between me and them. They know me, they know my name, they know what I studied, how old I am, my opinions on niche topics like High School Musical and American Politics, but I know almost nothing about them. I do feel like a celebrity, but along with it comes this weird loneliness. Where everybody knows you but you don’t know everybody on a level other than kind hellos on campus.

Nevertheless, it’s nice to be loved. I find that I can be extremely humorous in class while still maintaining the topic at hand. A teacher told me on Tuesday that the students think I’m “fresh”, so I suppose some variation of cool :).

The next weekend, I went to Vienna once again, also to attend another birthday party. I love my friends in Vienna, most of whom are french. I never thought I would be around so many french people in Austria. I’m convinced now that my fate is intertwined with the french. So many of my friends are french, and I love them. There’s my friend Perrine, my friend Clement, my friend Quentin, my friend Elise. They are all extraordinary people with extraordinary depth of character, in their own unique ways. They are personalities, something that gives my personality life.

So, in sum, I’ve been busy, but not without reason. I’m thankful for all the people I’ve met here. Even being so far away from home, I still have a circle of friends that makes everything feel like home.

I have a Friendsgiving celebration on Saturday with a myriad of nationalities and another birthday party to attend the very next weekend. Life is good here.

Sincerely, extremely busy Andy, who has not entirely forgotten about his substack =)

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends

Elise and I at the Matura ball complete with serious(ly gorgeous) picture and silly picture.