Grüß Gott!

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Servus alle!

I'm writing again from another internet place, but hopefully will have the internet in my room by Monday. It's been a lot of running around, taking care of banking, and getting signatures and things, all useless, just to get the stupid internet. My roommate, though, finally got his this morning, so hopefully I can go on his computer now and again until I get it set up.

Things are good here, finally getting a feel for the place, don't walk around with my map in my pocket anymore, which is a great feeling. We've been learning a lot more Austrian in my class, too, so we can start to talk more like locals and not have people immediately switch into English with us. We spend about 2 hours everyday conducting class in Hochdeutsch, which is High German, the standard kind spoken throughout all the German speaking world, and then the rest in Österreichisch/Stererisch, Austrian/Styrian, which is a funky kind of accent that's actually pretty fun. Getting two for the price of one!

I've got a nice little group of friends now, can't complain about that at all. There's:

Orla, straight out of Dublin, Ireland (a girl...not the most common name in the world, eh?)
Elizabeth, from Brisbane, Australia
George, also from Dublin
Meghan, from Wisconsin
Heino, from Finland (a boy, also not exactly a common name)

It's fun 'cause we all speak English but go back and forth depending on the situation between speaking in German and speaking in English, and we all like to try our hands talking to the locals in Austrian, which is always an adventure. It's frustrating, though, because now Meghan and I are both starting to talk more with Irish/Australian phrases since the Irish and Australian slangs are nearly the same, and ours is totally our own, so now we use things that they say in the other English speaking countries instead of in America. Who knew we'd be relearning English, as well??

We all are in the same class together and we were all friendly in class, but then Thursday night there was a gathering for all the internationals at der Bier Baron, with the first drink paid for by the Treffpunkt Sprachen (the section of the university we're enrolled in). Not a bad deal and we all ended up hanging out there which sort of solidified our group. It's funny, though, 'cause everywhere I go, I see someone I know...I think I know more people here than at UVM! haha

Yesterday was a really good time. There was a carnival going on in the Hauptplatz as a little last day of summer celebration thing for the kids of the city. School starts here again for them on Monday. We had class in the morning, of course, which was a good time. Eva, my teacher, brought us in a variety of Austrian chocolates to try--Hillary would have been in heaven haha After that I was going to go down to the housing office to hand in my last paper to try to get my internet yesterday, but of course, it closed at 1, like everything else of importance in this city. Instead, I went out with Elizabeth and her Austrian "buddy," which was a lot of fun. There were also two other Americans, a Mexican, and an Austrian, so we had a good time chatting in Denglisch (Deutsch + Englisch), and went out to a neat little pizza place. After that, we went to die Murinsel, which is an artificial island in the middle of the Mur, the river that runs through Graz, and got an ice cream and hung out for a little while. We were actually taped sitting there talking and laughing (totally fake for the camera) for some promotional thing about Graz. Already making my debut on Austrian television, not even a week in the country! Not too shabby.

After that I had some free time so just relaxed, and then at 7 met up with Orla, George, and Elizabeth in the Hauptplatz. We wandered around the city for a bit, and then met Miriam, my buddy who picked me up at the airport and showed me around the first day, for a drink at a pub. We hung out there all night which was awesome, just doesn't seem possible to sit in Europe, drinkin' ein österreichisches Bier (hope you can figure that one out), and relax with friends. Didn't get back to my place until 3 in the morning! Yowza.

Today we met again in the Hauptplatz at noon, me, Orla, George, Elizabeth, and Meghan. We went up to the Schloßberg, the city fortress which overlooks everything from the highest point in the city, erected I believe in 1265. The clocktower (Uhrturm) is the symbol of Graz, and is special because the hour hand is longer than the minute hand, as in the Middle Ages the hour was more important than the precise minute. We had to walk up about 265 steps to get there, which were rebuilt in 1928 after being destroyed by the French I believe in the 1st World War. It was gorgeous, you could see SO far over the entire city, it was amazing. I can't really describe it, you'll just have to wait until I can put my pictures online to believe what I'm talking about. It really gives you perspective for how big Graz is (second biggest city in all of Austria and the capital of Steiermark, which is called Styria in English). So amazing, though.

After that, just wandered around for a bit, bought a Mountain Dew in the Hauptplatz which wasn't as good as in the US, but refreshing none the less. Everything is Coke here, no Pepsi :-( David's paradise.

That's about it, though. Might do something tonight but might just take a night to relax and catch up with Isabella Swann and Edward Cullen (the book, Twilight).

Hope everyone is doing well and nobody misses me too much (but not too little either)!

Pfiat each! (Another Austrian way of saying bye!)

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