Blogs from Graz, Styria, Austria, Europe - page 9

Jess Cook just turned 24. Yay for Jess Cook! She got a Nintendo DS from her parents for the long, lonely trip between Salzburg and Graz. She already has 3 games!! what a nerd!! Sims 2, Fish Tycoon, and Elite Beat Agents (in German). Happy Birthday Jess Cook :) ... read more

Gruess Gott! I have decided that it is absolutely vital that every single person visits Austrian in their lifetime. It is hands-down one of the most amazing places ever, and now I shall reccount to you my adventure to Wien, die Hauptstadt Oesterreichs; Vienna, the capital of Austria. On the trip there was me, Elizabeth , Meghan , Libor , Dietlinde , Thomas , and George . Friday I had class and we were shooting to make the 1:36 train. Naturally, Eva decided to keep us a little bit late, so we all literally had to fly home to grab our bags and meet at the train station. Of course, my bus to the train station picks up every single high school student in Graz, so I was literally so squished in, I was leaning against ... read more

Due to technical difficulties with the website, I couldn't upload this yesterday, but hopefully it works now. Also, Regina and Nanny & Grampi have been having problems seeing my pictures. Hopefully, it was just the website and the problem's resolved, but if anybody else is, let me know! Today I woke up and it was raining, so I caught the bus to Roseggerhaus and then walked up to school. From Roseggerhaus it's still about a half-hour walk, but I didn't mind. Class was class. We had our first test today, which wasn't too too bad. Hopefully I did alright. I was the first one done, so I'm still holding my reputation up from UVM, I guess I used to finish our German exams in about 15 minutes, so got to leave class early...I loved exam days. ... read more

Today is the festival Aufsteirern in Graz. It's a celebration of Styrian & Austrian culture, which thus loosely translates to Lederhosen as far as the eye can see. My friends and I met this morning at 10am in the Hauptplatz to begin our official induction into Austrian culture. When we got there, the mayor of the city was addressing everyone in the Hauptplatz, and so we listened a bit then began exploring. It was so cool to see just average people dressed in the traditional clothes: men in Lederhosen, women in Dirndl , and then the more formal Trachten, which were sort of a cross between suits and kilts. There were bands EVERYWHERE, playing folk music and traditional Austrian music. It was really cool. A lot of the little boothes all over the place had different ... read more

Today was the best day I've had yet!! I got to sleep in a little bit later, because instead of having class at school, we instead met in the Hauptplatz at 9. Eva split us into groups and gave us each a different set of questions, then set us loose in the Innere Stadt , to talk with the locals and learn some of Graz's history. I got paired with my friend Elizabeth, from Brisbane, Australia, and another guy in my class, Libor, from the Czech Republic. Libor doesn't speak English, so it was good 'cause we had to communicate entirely auf Deutsch. We were assigned questions about das Rathaus, which is the biggest building in the Hauptplatz, the city hall. It was fun 'cause we chatted with a guy in the Rathaus, then had to ... read more