Kalamity Kat hits Austria

So thursday afternoon we had an orientation session at the university...we were sat there for about 3 hours getting more and more bored. Jaakko, a Finnish guy, asked us what we were doing at the weekend (not a lot as it happened) and he said he was going to Ljubljana with some others which got me thinking. As soon as we got out of the lecture theatre I told Scott we should be spontaneous and go away for the weekend....and he agreed after a bit of persuasion sooooo we got a few others together and "spontaneously" booked a hostel in Budapest for two nights (I say spontaneously....it actually took like 3 hours to find one which was near where we wanted to be and at a good price!).
So friday afternoon, after a short orientation session in the morning, we went down to the station and got on a train. The journey took 6 hours ish with 3 changes but as we had all packed (pretty) lightly we didn't have many problems.
We arrived in Budapest - Keleti station at 10.30pm ish and set about trying to find out hostel which was supposed to be in Baross Ter which is the square right outside the station. We eventually found it.....an old run-down Avon shop basically but the actual hostel itself was really nice. As we had only booked a room for 4 (myself, Scott, Richard and James)but Pierre had decided to join us, the guy running it gave us a 6 bed ensuite room for no extra charge and Pierre only had to pay €12 so not bad. We were all pretty hungry but there wasn't that much open at just before midnight in that area so in the end we went to McDonalds as it was really close by.
Saturday we spent exploring the "Pest" side of Budapest, grabbing cheap breakfast in Tesco (yes tesco exists there!!!) seeing the Basilika, Parliament buildings, chain bridge, Danube etc. and even going over to the zoo (which unfortunately for Richard was about to close), castle and millenium monument. For lunch we found a little pub/restuarant type place which was great.....until they added a service charge on.....which wouldn't have mattered had the service been any good!!! In the evening we went back to the tesco as it was a superstore, and bought some stuff to make our own cold meal back at the hostel (- breadrolls for the equivalent of 2p were one of the bargain purchases!!).
Sunday we spent exploring the "Buda" side of Budapest. This included climbing the mountain to Buda castle (think Schlossberg but WORSE and HIGHER) and walking down the river a bit. We also went to the "tourist trap" area for lunch - where we spent an hour looking at all the identical meal deals being advertised at diff prices, trying to find the cheapest and best! In the end we settled for one which gave us Goulash soup, ham and cheese pizza and pancakes with apricot for 1780 hungarian forint (yeah they don't have the euro yet)....which is equivalent to 6 pounds which is like nothing for a full meal! We got a direct train back in Graz at 5pm getting in at around 10.30ish which was ok although there were a few hairy moments when the train split and we thought we were on the wrong part and when the train stopped for a long while at a station and all the lights went out as if it was stopping for good!! but we all got back ok
so yeah all in all a great weekend - definitely a place worth seeing, it really is a beautiful place

Montag - also vormittag hatte ich der Deutschkurs - morgen ist die Prufung also heute war die letzte Klasse fuer uns. Wir haben ziemlich viel gemacht - viel ueber der Passiv und auch ein oesterreichisches Lied, der in Dialekt war. Es war ganz schoen aber ziemlich schwierig zu verstehen. In Oesterreich sagen sie Dinge wie "Gemma", die auf hohe Deutsch ist "Gehen wir" (ma = wir). Aber es ist sehr nutzlich fuer uns, der Dialekt zu lernen, weil so viele der Leute hier es sprechen. zum Beispiel - gestern in der Kirche, ein Mann hat der "Sermon" gemacht und er hat ein sehr starkes oesterreichisch Akzent und es war wirlich schwierig fuer mich ihn zu verstehen, weil erst muss ich in Deutsch uebersetzen! Nachmittag heute ging ich mit Anne-Sophie in Graz, um ein bisschen einzukaufen. Sie hat ein paar Geschenke gekauft und wir haben ein Nusskroene gekauft und geteilt, weil es nur 1,40 war. Es war sehr schoen - Mehlspeisen (ein oesterreichisches Wort) (Feingebaeck) mit Nusse und Zimt darin und Glasur darueber. Ich glaube, dass ich mit Scott und Anne-Sophie spaeter nach Lidl fahre, um ein bisschen Essen zu kaufen aber ich habe noch nicht etwas fuer heute Abend geplannt. Ich glaube, da die Prufung morgen ist, muss ich die Grammatik wiederholen und ein bisschen Vokabeln lernen auch

Monday - class in the morning - the last one actually as we have our examn/test thing tomorrow. We did quite a lot today - some on passive sentences and we also listened to an austrian song which was in the local dialect. It was quite hard to understand at first but really useful as most people here speak in the dialect and some don't even know "high" german. for example - yesterday at church the guy preaching had a really strong accent which made it really hard to understand as I had to translate everything he said into german This afternoon I've been shopping in Graz with Anne-Sophie. She bought a few presents as she's going back to Normandie for a few days later this week and we also bought and shared a "Nusskroene" which was really cheap and really nice It was pastry with a sort of nut and cinnamon paste inside and icing on top (it was a lot nicer than my description!). Later I'm off to Lidl with Scott and Anne-Sophie to buy a few bits and pieces but apart from that I haven't got anything planned for the evening. As the exam is tomorrow morning I need to go over some of the grammar we've learnt and maybe learn a bit more vocab as well - so looks like I've jsut planned my evening away

Because there isn't a lot going on at the moment I'm gonna start writing an entry per week and just adding to it everyday

Mittwoch - Klasse vormittag und nachmittag haben unsere Klasse ein Film (nur im Klassenzimmer) gesehen, den Barfuss heisst. Es war auf Deutsch und wir hatten deutsche Unterschriften auch aber es war ziemlich einfach zu verstehen und ganz toll Der Lehrer hat fuer uns Schokolade, Popcorn und Keks gekauft und ja es war wirklich schoen.

Wednesday - Class in the morning and in the afternoon our class watched a film (in the classroom) called Barfuss - (barefoot). It's a german film so was in german and we had the german subtitles on but it was pretty easy to understand and pretty good. Our tutor bought us bags of popcorn, chocolate and biscuits which was really cool

Donnerstag - Heute hatte ich die Klasse vormittag und nachmittag ging ich mit Scott zur Bahnhof, um ein Vorteilskarte zu kaufen. Wir spazierten da und kamen wieder nach Hause mit dem S-Bahn, weil es ziemlich weit ist - ungefaehr eine Stunde, da zu spazieren.

Thursday - Class in the morning and in the afternoon I went to the train station with scott to buy the austria equivalent of Railcards. We walked there and then got the tram back as it's quite far and is about a 1 hour walk each way.

Friday - Another typical day - class in the morning and work in the afternoon. Our last housemate has now moved in so I showed her around Graz in the evening for a bit which was nice

Saturday - OK so friday evening a few people decided to do a day trip to Slovenia - it was me, emilie, linda, sini, scott, noemie, richard, james, kirsten and pierre (in case anyone actually cares). The general plan was to go to Ljubljana but it was a bit far for a day so instead we went to Maribor which was just over an hour by train and only 10 euros return! We left pretty early and got to Maribor at aobut 9.30 ish. We spent the morning having a bit of a look round and finding a Europark big shopping centre thing with a huge Spar where Scott bought some roller blades for 15 euros and I bought a maxibon - as I hadn't seen them in the UK for years! In the afternoon we split up and Linda, Sini, Scott and I went off to do some cultural things. We went in the cathedral, which although looks pretty small on the outside, is pretty big inside and was really beautiful. We weren't sure if we could take photos or not so we didn't which was a bit of a shame. Then we went and found somewhere for lunch - most people had bought it in Spar or brought it with them but some hadn't. We found a really nice italian restaurant which was really cheap - a small pizza was actually 12 inch and only cost 4 euros. I had some red orangina which was actually really nice and then we went round the corner to an Eiscafe (although it clearly wasn't up to the standards of the ones near Trier ) and had a clown icecream - pics on facebook! We then went for a walk in the town park - well I say walk.....Scott put his blades on and we killed ourselves laughing at him trying to get up hills - I've seen worse though!
We all got the train home at 4.30 getting back to our halls at 6.30 ish. It was a really good day and I've seen another country I never would have seen before!!

It's hard to believe that I've been here for 2 weeks now! We've done so much stuff that it seems like loads longer but it's gone so fast it feels like we've just got here!!! Sometime this week our 4th and final flatmate should be arriving (hopefully) so that will be quite exciting!
Today has been quite a strange day. German class in the morning as usual. We've started doing Konjunctiv II (and for those of you who don't know what that is...stuff like If I won the lottery, I WOULD...... etc.) It was really cold again today - I really don't know how we're going to manage when it really gets cold because we can't even cope now! The good thing is that our flat is really nice and warm and if we need it (which we don't yet) we have central heating with individual thermostats for our rooms
Today was also Jeannine's birthday so Anne-Sophie (with the encouragement and a few ingredients of Scott's and mine) made a huge pile of crepes for her and we stuck candles in the top! We did the cooking down in Scott's flat so that she wouldn't see or hear what was going on...although I'm surprised she couldn't smell them! So then we all had a bit of a crepe party round in her kitchen
Then Scott went back dow nto his flat to pick Anne-Sophie's phone up, grabbed his keys and came back up......only they WEREN'T his keys...they were Anne-Sophie's as she'd accidently left them down in his flat too. And the flat door locks behind you. His flatmate Noemie is in Vienna for a few days and his other two housemates are yet to arrive and so Scott got himself locked out. The stupidist thing was that a few minutes before it happened we were all talking about what would happen if someone did manage to lock themselves out! A few people had a go at trying to get back in but no such luck so Scott's apparently sleeping in Jeannine's kitchen tonight and will have to wait for the cleaner to arrive at 9am tomorrow to be let back into his flat!

So today was really REALLY cold - it's about 11 degrees and considering friday was 25 ish then yeah it really does feel stupidly cold
I went to a church here this morning - I'd tried emailing to find out a bit more about the church but didn't get a reply so I walked there this morning for the service which began at 9.30. I was kinda worried I wouldn't be able to find it (as it isn't your average "church" (no tower, buttresses etc.) but it was pretty easy even though it is a 30 minute walk to get there. The service was familiar but weird. There was the opportunity to have headphones in case you wanted to follow the service with an english translation but I decided to just listen to the german and I did understand quite a lot of it What really were weird were the songs - there were some german ones which I didn't know, one in english (which is always good ) and a couple in german which we have sung in English at Christ church or whatever which had just been translated - it was crazy! So yeah it was all pretty good. Afterwards there was coffee and cake so I hung around for a bit in the hope that someone would maybe say hi (like maybe the people who I had sat next to) but no, no one said anything and I'm not the sort of person who will just go up to a complete stranger and start talking anyway nevermind in a foreign language! So I was a bit disappointed with that - I mean at Christ church someone always comes to say hi whether they know you or not which is really nice but at the moment this church seems like you have to be "in the club" sort of thing for people to talk to you. With any luck though it'll get better when more students turn up in a few weeks.

After church I went back to my flat and then set off for the centre of Graz and the Aufsteirern festival - which was a one day traditional Styrian festival with stalls all over town - traditional food, clothes, music, dancing, drink - you can probably imagine the sort of thing. What I HADN'T banked on however, was that the entire Graz population went to it in their Lederhosen and Dirndl dresses - that was pretty amusing
It was really interesting to see some traditional stuff although we spent a lot of the time in an irish pub with the tutor of Scott's class (which seemed pretty pointless to me when we can do that anytime and there was a festival going on outside). The only issue was that because it was a festival, everything there was ridiculously expensive as you would imagine.
Everywhere was completely packed and it was pretty hard to move at times AND because it was so cold there apparently weren't that many people there and when it's really warm you can get round about 80,000 people visiting!!!!

Anyway I'm back in my flat now (hence why I'm writing this), warming up with a hot chocolate

Gestern abend sind wir nach Propeller gegangen. Es war ganz toll und ich habe ziemlich viel Deutsch gesprochen. Ich glaube, dass ich immer deutsch sprechen muss, wenn ich besser sein will. Aber noch die anderen wollen nur englisch sprechen. Ich habe gesagt, dass wenn ich etwas in Deutsch nicht sehen kann, muss ich es in Franzoesisch sagen oder uebersetzen - ein ganz tolles Idee, aber ich kann mich kaum ein Wort Franzoesisch erinnen!

Also heute ist es Samstag und ich habe nicht so viel am Donnerstag und Freitag gemacht. Morgen gehe ich zu einer Kirche, die in der Naehe ist. Ich habe ein Email geschicken aber kein Antwort bekommen. Ich weiss nicht, wie ich die Kirche finden werde. Mein Sprachkenntis kennt nichts ueber Christlichkeit.

OK so I'm going to translate the above and then continue in english. So tuesday night we went to a pub called Propeller which was pretty good and I spoke quite a lot of german. I need to speak more otherwise I'm not going to get any better but so many people only want to speak english.
Today it's saturday...not much happened on thursday and friday and I can't be bothered to write about it anyway. Tomorrow I'm going to a church which is pretty nearby. I emailed them to try and find out a bit more about the church and the services but I haven't had a response. I really haven't got a clue as to how I'm going to find it - it'll be in german for sure and my german knowledge doesn't stretch to christian words (as in the sort you'd find in a church and not anywhere else) at the moment - that'll change soon I'm sure.
I'm yet to meet any christians or christian union type thing here but I'm guessing that when the term starts at the beginning of October a lot more will start happening - within the next few weeks supposedly 16,000 students are meant to come to Graz!
Everyone's going out tonight for Jeannine's birthday. I'm in two minds whether to go or not as I know that everyone is just going to get really drunk and to me that is just pointless and if that's going to happen I'd prefer not to be there. But on the other hand I've been in my room pretty much all day. I've been trying to do my german homework which I'm finding considerably harder than I first thought (typically).
The weather here has changed quite dramatically - yesterday was very hot and humid with thunderstorms in the afternoon - and now it is freezing here - like the temperature has pretty much dropped by about 15 degrees (OK that might not quite be the case but it's fallen a lot).
But I still really love it here - it's an amazing place (I think it helps that Lebkuchen are out in the supermarkets ) I can't wait for the Christmas markets - they're going to be awesome
So I guess that's it for now - no doubt I'll write some more later
If anyone wants to see photos they're on my facebook and at present I'm not planning on putting any up on here!

Gestern habe ich nicht so viel gemacht. Vormittag hatte ich die deutsche Klasse, die ziemlich gut war und nachmittag hatte ich ein Orientierungsprogramm bei der Technische Universitaet. Ich habe meine Studentenkarte bekommen und auch viel Papier, das wir lesen muessen. Abends waren viele Erasmus-studenten bei der Murinsel und das war wirklich schoen. Wenn man die Insel in dem Tag sieht, sieht es ein bisschen langweilig aus aber wenn es dunkel ist, sieht es sehr anders aus. Es gibt viele Lichte und es ist sehr toll Wir haben auch das Kunsthaus gesehen und die Lichte haben Muster an der Facade gemacht. Also das macht viel Spass
Heute hatte ich die deutsche Klasse wie immer! Wir haben ziemlich viel ueber Deklination gemacht. Aber ich habe so viel in einem Jahr vergessen!! Ich habe ziemlich viel Deutsch heute mit meiner Freunden gesprochen. Aber so viele wollen nur Englisch sprechen, weil sie nicht genug deutsch kennt oder so und dann ist es sehr schwer ein andere Sprache zu ueben.
Morgen werde ich ueber was wir machen abends schreiben, weil ich nicht sicher bin.
Aber es ist Lindas Geburtstag also wir eine kleine Torte und ein Paar Pflanzen gekauft haben

Yesterday I didn't really do very much. I had the german course in the morning and orienation at TU Graz (the university of technology) in the afternoon where we got our student cards and lots of sheets to read In the evening lots of the erasmus students went to to the Mur Insel. In the day it's pretty boring but at night it's lit up with white and blue lights and it looks really cool. We also saw the Kunsthaus which had patterns being displayed in the lights on its facade.
Today I had the german course in the morning - we were doing adjectival endings and the like....I've forgotten so much in a year though. I also spoke quite a lot of german to my friends. But there are so many who will only speak english because they don't know enough german or whatever so it makes it pretty difficult to practise.
I'll write about what we do this evening as I'm not sure what we're up to yet.
But it is Linda's birthday so we've bought her a little cake and some plants

Gestern habe ich nicht so viel getun. Vormittag ging ich mit Jeannine nach Lidl um Essen zu kaufen aber wir konnte nicht alle was wir mochten kaufen also sind wir auch nach Billa gegangen. In Oesterrich sind einige Dinge billiger als anderen. zB. ich habe gehacktes Fleisch fuer nur 2.60 euros gekauft aber Milch und Kaese sind teuerer als in England.
Nachmittag haben wir mit die anderen in Graz getroffen. Wir wollten die See besuchen aber wir mussten fuer ein Bus warten. Wir haben ein Eiskafe gefunden und haben mit ein ander gesprochen. Ich habe mich nicht so gut gefuelt und ging nach mein Zimmer. Ich glaube, dass ich zu viel Sonne hatte.
Am abend sollten alle Getraenke in meinem Top haben und Sini ist bei uns gekommen. Aber die anderen kamen sehr spaet zurueck und sie wollten Getraenke bei Jeannine haben. Also viele Leute sind bei Jeannine und um zwoelf Uhr gingen sie alle in die Stadt, um ein Club zu finden. Ich wollte nicht mit ihnen gehen, weil es so spaet war und auch, weil ich mag Clubs und alkoholische Getraenke nicht. Hier trinken alle ziemlich viel and viele rauchen auch und das ist nicht so schoen.

Also heute bin ich zur Schlossberg mit viele anderen gegangen. Es war wirklich schoen, weil es heiss aber nicht zu sonnig war. Man kann alle von Graz sehen von der Spitze und auch nach Slovenien und die Alpen. Wir waren fuer vier Stunden da und dann mussten wir nach Hause kommen, um Hauaufgaben zu machen. Aber es war nicht so schwer und ich hatte viel Zeit andere Dinge zu machen
Ich will sehr gern eine Kirche hier finden aber Moment habe ich kein gefunden. Es ist scher, weil ich keine christliche Leute kenne. Naechstes Sonntag werde ich in eine Kirche gehen aber ich weiss nicht wo....

Yesterday I didn't really do much. In the morning I went to Lidl with Jeannine to do some shopping but we couldn't find everything we needed there so we went to another supermarket Billa as well which was on the way back. In Austria some things seem to be cheaper than in England - I bought some mince for 2 euros 60 here but then other stuff seems to be loads more expensive like cheese.
In the afternoon we met some of the others in Graz. We were going to go to the lake but we had just missed a bus so while we waited we got some icecreams. By the time the bus turned up I decided to go back to the flat as I wasn't feeling too good - too much sun I think. But I'm fine now
In the evening everyone was meant to come round to my flat for drinks but only Sini came along. When the others eventually got back they wanted drinks at Jeannine's so we all went round there. We all left Jeannine's at midnight - I went to bed, everyone else went out into Graz. I didn't particularly want to go because it was so late and also because I really don't like clubs, drinking and smoking and that's what people seem to be doing a lot of here!

So today we went up the Schlossberg. It was really nice because it was hot but it wasn't too sunny so it was more bearable. The views from the top are amazing - across all of Graz and even into Slovenia in the distance and to the Alps. We spent four hours there walking around and having a picnic and then we came back as we all had homework to be getting on with Luckily it wasn't too bad and I had plenty of time to do other things.
I really want to find a church here but it's quite difficult as I don't know any Christians so I can't ask them where they go or where lots of students go. Next week though I will definitely go to church, the question is where....

Also Donnerstag abend musste ich meine Hausaufgaben in Graz machen. Meine Gruppe hatte ein Bild von einem Gebaeude und wir musste diese Gebaeude finden. Heute mussten wir das Bild und die Gebaeude erklaeren. Gestern nach der Hausaufgaben sind wir alle zu Bier Baron gegangen. Fast alle der Leute, die das Intensivkurs machen, waren da und es war ganz schoen mit so viele Leute zu sprechen.

Freitag nach der Klasse bin ich mit Scott gegangen, um ihn ein Handy in Graz zu finden. Er hat ein neues Handy fuer nur dreizig euro gekauft. Spaeter sind wir im Stadtpark gegangen, um Ultimate Frisbee zu spielen. Das war echt toll, weil Ultimate so Spass macht aber die anderen kannten nicht alle der regeln
Abend waren einige Leute bei Heini und Jouni, um ein bisschen zu trinken und viel zu plaudern. Das war auch ganz toll aber die meisten Leute haben auf Englisch gesprochen

Morgen glaube ich, dass einige moechten einen See besuchen. Es ist in der Naehe von der Flughafen und wenn es heiss ist, koennte es gut sein.

Ich habe auch zwei ,Flatmates', die Linda (aus Finland) und Emilie (aus Frankreich) heissen und beide sind sehr nett.

OK so Thursday evening I had to go into Graz to do my homework (for the german course). We were given a photo of a building and we had to go and find where it was (or still is) now, what the area is like etc. And then today we had to explain about it to the rest of the class. After the homework yesterday we went to Bier Baron - a pub where all the german course people were meeting for a get together. It was ok because there were so many people to talk too but it was really smoky as you can smoke pertty much anywhere in Austria!

Friday I went to a phone shop after the german class with Scott so he could buy a phone. He got a new old Nokia (3200?) for 30 euros - only as his phone isn't working out here! Then later we went to the Stadtpark to meet some of the other exchange students and to play Ultimate Frisbee which was awesome because it is amazing. Unfortunately the others didn't really know or understand the rules so it was pretty random
In the evening a few of us went round on Heini and Jouni's flat which is next door to mine, to have some drinks and chat a bit although most people were talking in english which wasn't so good!

I think tomorrow some people might be going down to a lake by the airport - a little way out of town so if it's sunny it should be pretty nice down there.

Also seeing as I haven't said it yet, I have 2 flatmates, Linda (from Finland) and Emilie (from France). They're both really nice and we seem to get on well together. We still have one spare room which suggests that we should have another person coming some time but they probably won't arrive until after the language course now.

Heute war der 2. Tage der Sprachkurs. Wir haben ziemlich viel ueber das Perfekt mit Modalverben gemacht und auch ein Paar Lieder gehoert. Das erste Lied war in der grazer Dialekt und es war koemisch! z.B. "Er tut ihr Leid" in die grazer Dialekt ist "Er tuat ia Leed."

Ich finde es ziemlich einfach Deutsch in meiner Klasse zu sprechen und es ist gut, weil alle ihre Sprachverkenntniss verbessern wollen. Aber alle sprechen Deutsch mit verschiedene Akzente also es kann manchmal ein bisschen schwierig sein.
Gestern Abend waren wir bei Jeannine, Ann-Sophie und Sini. Ann-Sophie hat viele Pfannkuchen fuer uns gemacht und sie waren sehr Lecker. Jetzt wissen wir auch die richtige Weise Pfannkuchen zu essen!

Jeannine, Scott und ich haben ein bisschen Einkaufen heute gemacht, weil wir nur Winterkleidungen mitgebracht haben! Es gibt zwei H&Ms Es ist immer noch heiss hier in Graz und weil man ein Eis fuer nur 1 Euro kaufen kann, habe ich heute ein Zitroneeis gekauft

Also ich weiss, dass es in Deutsch ist und dass es nicht perfekt ist aber ich wollte ein bisschen in Deutsche schreiben. Ich werde es auch in Englisch uebersetzen.

OK so today was the 2nd day of the german course. We learnt quite a lot about the perfect tense and how to use it with modal verbs (for anyone who actually cares!) and we also listened to a few songs (german ones). The first song was sung and written in the dialect spoken in Graz and it sounded pretty weird! It's pretty easy to talk in german in the class because everyone really wants to improve their german. Although sometimes it's a bit harder as there are people from so many different countries that they all have different german accents

Yesterday evening we went to Jeannine's flat for a night in with her 2 housemates: Ann-Sophie and Sini. Ann-Sophie made us loads of really really nice crepes (there are still millions left now!) and she showed us the real french way of eating them!

Today I did a bit of shopping with Scott and Jeannine due to the fact that we brought lots of winter clothes and not a lot else! There are 2 H&Ms here which is awesome! and we definitely need some summer clothes as it's still really hot here! Also due to the heat (and because they're only 1 euro) I bought a lemon ice cream today which was pretty nice

Yesterday we (Jeannine, Scott, James (our new english friend) and I) spent the day walking round Graz, sorting various things out like rent etc. eating really cheap and nice icecreams and shopping in overpriced rip-off supermarkets! In the evening we went to a huge park with lots of other erasmus/exchange students and mentors and went to the parkhaus which had loads of outdoor seating so you could sit moreorless in the park with your drinks.

The weather over here is so so so so warm and really humid too! Today has probably been the hottest day so far as there weren't so many clouds so the sun could actually get through. We all went over to Karl-Franzen uni (there are like 6 universities in Graz) this morning for 8.30 (bit too early ) to start our three week german intensive course. We're all split up into groups according to ability and there are only about 15 ish in a group. It really isn't as bad as it sounds....it's only 9-12 each weekday and the tutor I've got is really really nice (and really enthusiastic about everything!). He did the entire lesson in german and understanding it (for me anyway) was ok It's really cool because he'll correct things for you but won't actually give you marks for your work so you never feel like you aren't doing so well. James, Scott, Naomi (Scott's flat mate from France) and I spent the afternoon registering with Austria (you have to if you're there for longer than 3 months), eating ice cream and shopping in Lidl which is really close by, really cheap and really awesome

I think that's basically it for now

So this is only going to be pretty short.
Yesterday the three of us arrived in graz at about 4pm local time - bit gutting seeing as we began at 5am! We flew from Heathrow to Vienna - with a free upgrade to Club Europe thanks to Scott knowing someone who works at BA. So that entitled us to a free all you can eat breakfast buffet in the Club lounge + breakfast on the plane....Scott had like 3 helpings in all After the flight we took a coach across Vienna from the airport to the Sudbahnhof (south train station) and eventually managed to find the train, get all our luggage on (we don't pack lightly) and get given a timetable that told us that we were in fact on the right train as we weren't really sure what we were doing! We had to change trains to take another one to Graz but that all went pretty smoothly. The views from the train were so nice
Unfortunately we all packed for winter (or at least english summer as well ie. not hot) but it's absolutely boiling here in Austria!

Our flats are really cool - they were built last year and are really nice and modern. Each flat has four bedrooms and a communal kitchen/diner (but no oven!!!!) and a toilet and shower. Jeannine had at the last count two Finnish girls in her flat with her.....Scott has none....and I have none too!

We met some other exchange students though in the evening and went out for traditional autrian food....even though I ended up with goulash (which is hungarian!), we went for a walk up the Schlossberg which is really pretty but the climb up is horrendous! saw the Murinsel and the Kunsthaus and later we ended up in an irish bar with english menus which was pretty cool

What I've seen of Graz so far is really nice - it's not a huge town, quite like Chester in terms of size I think but there are so many lovely things there.

Considering I said this was going to be short - it isn't very but never mind!