The Uranitsche family are absolutely fantastic. I couldn't have asked for a better family, with the exception of getting my own family. They are really interested in Australia, as they know little about it, and are constantly chatting to me, which is great becuase it really makes me feel at home, as much as that is possible, and i think also helps me to be a little less homesick. The other thing that is great is that Rotary isn't too keen on people travelling, but Konrad my host father, but also my counseller in Austria thought that it was silly that i wouldn't want to travel around Europe whilst i was over here. But they are so helpful, and i think i will have a great time here. They have also said that they know the other families, and they said that they are ok, and if this family says that the other families are ok, then they must be pretty good. So all is good.
This morning we had quite a late breakfast after such a late return last night (i think we got in at about 4!, haha, reminds me of Sydney!). And then Konrad took me walking around the city. Graz has only 245,000 people, and although it is the second largest city in Austria, it still remains small enough to manage almost entirely on foot. In the middle of the city rises a massive hill, called the Schlo�berg (or Schlossberg) which translates litterally into castle (schlo�) and hill (berg). It was a medieval fortress, but was torn down, with the only reminders of the city's feudal past being a clocktower, and old ruins, including a miltary building, and prison-like building. The hour and minute hands on the clockface are swapped so that the villagers could see the hour from anywhere in the city. During the war, it was hollowed out and used as a bomb shelter, these tunnels still exist.
The street i live on is called Rosenberggasse, which means rose hill st. The language at the moment is, shall we say, under development. It is difficult, but i am working very hard, and the language course in a week and a half should really give it a hand!!!
The day in Graz, however, was awesome. We saw everything, even though Konrad kept on saying that there was really nothing to see. But all the same it was awesome. He was a really great person to talk to as well. As we were walking we spoke about everything from politics to my future plans and his work habits, but it was excellent to just chat and get to know eachother. We stopped for lunch and ate typical Styrian food, consisting of a soup mainly of beef stock, shallots and bits of thinly sliced pancake. After speaking about various food habits, he couldn't believe that i didn't eat soup at least twice a day!!!! As you do...
But Graz is beautiful, it is like a classy melting pot of several eras in architechtural design, with a very strong influence on Renaissence design, which is why there are so many tiny cobblestone laneways that open out into inner courtyards, its awesome, i'm going to have to get lost in some of these pretty soon! We ate in an area nicknamed the Bermuda triangle, mainly becuase there are a LOT of pubs and apparantly once you go in, you don't come out in a hurry! Haha, sounds like fun! The weather is awesome as well, cold, about -2 C but really fresh and easy to handle, its a little sleety in the morning, but there is no real heavy snow, we are going skating on a pond near our house later this week. Should be heaps of fun!
But ill have to leave it there, all i can say is that im having a great time and ive got 363 days of this left!
Paz
