On the 1st there was a great april fools joke. The front page of the main newspaper (Kleine Zeitung - yes that translates to 'Little Newspaper!'), was really messed up. There were letters backwards, pictures skewed, and half the text was stretched as though it had been pulled out of the printer early. In the middle was a caption that said: 'Our computers have been attacked by a new supervirus, today the papers will not come out', i was really dissapointed, before i realised it was a joke. Yes i didnt get that one! I guess the boys at Kleine Zeitung pulled my April fools leg.
However, the day did look up from there. After i read the newspaper, haha, as the rest of it was fine, we left for Ostermontag mass. It is quite similar to what we do at home, except here they use the branch of a tree that has little fluffy budds on it. These are blessed by the priest and kept in the house during the Easter season. It was a really enjoyable service, and we were lucky enough to be sitting up the front so i could see everything that was going on. Even though a lay man who attended the church said the homily which lasted for 48 minutes (yes i timed it! - My host mum said she thought he would be talking for quite a while as she knew him, and he made a habit of doing that!), it was a really good thing to attend and experience.
Konrad and Max had gone sailing, and so it was really only me and Ulrike for a few days, until Ulrike's aunts arrived from K�rten in neighbouring Corinthia, a Bundesland right next to Styria (or Steiermark in German) of which Graz is the capital city. They were really nice ladies, and good to practice the german on. They spoke quite slowly, im not sure if that was generally or just to me! However, it was a little easier to talk to them, so it was great practice.
Im skipping ahead here a bit, but the next one is about rome, so ill through this all in together. On the 7th two friends of mine, Whitney and Mary, both exchange students, had given me a call and said theyd be in town. The suggested we go to the wine district about 45 minutes south of Graz. We went in the morning, and drove through some of the coolest scenery ive ever seen. All the wineries are set on top rolling hills, and because of the small size of the region able to grow grapes, they are quite close together, which makes for some beautiful scenery. We cruised around the wineries in the morning, and then had some lunch in a closeby town. We even drove down to the Slovenien border (only about 5 minutes), and crossed it.....several times. While we were having lunch, we heard a band playing outside, i rushed out to see what was going on, camera pointed and ready. I flew out the door, set my camera, ready to go, all before i realised it was a funeral procession. I felt a little bad to say the least. Please not, the photos of the band i posted is NOT the same band! haha, but i slyly slithered back inside. We had a great day though, good to see whit and mary, hang out and see some great scenery.
Paz