So its been more than a week since i updated the page, and more than a month since I got to Austria! Time is actually moving pretty fast down here. I suppose it is because I have loads of stuff to do. Actually I cant find enough time to work as much as I should on the project. I feel like I am already a bit behind the rest, however, this weekend I'll put extra much effort in to this! Promise!

This last weekend I went to Vienna with the PBA guys to play the last leg of a season series. We only had two games that decided the final ranking, and we managed to win them both. Felt really good, everyone played well, and since a couple of guys was sick or just couldn't make it, Brian Ravanel was playing with us. Fun times, great weather and great company. Thanks to everybody David, Martin, Vienna United, Wolfgang, Brian, Minu, Philip, Flo and Klix!

Courtesy of Roman Schlosser

Later in the evening, Me , Florian, Klix and Philipp went out to get something to eat before we were supposed to go party. Ofcourse I had a wienerschnitzel, at a restaurant called Centimeter. Also we got a '1 meter' of beer, and some schnaps.

This ofcourse means - Wienerschnitzels since arrival: 9!

I am saving my 10th for a place called, 3 golden kuglen (3 golden spheres) which is rumoured to serve huge schnitzel at sweet prices.. hell yeah!

After the restaurant, we went home, and the to a friend of Philipp who had a pre-party. We got some beer, and were there for about 30 minutes. Everybody was going to a place where there was a quadruple-celebration. It was in a nightclub rented for the evening due to, one graduation, one moving away, one birthday and the fourth I forgot. The music was hideous, but the company was really fun. So we ofcourse, stayed in the bar. :D

Came home to the apartment at 4 in the morning. Crashed on a matress, on which I woke up on 8 hours later. Not too hungover actually. Breakfest at McD, no news there I guess. Got a ride to the trainstation by my new german friends. I have been recomended to buy a rebate-card (vorteilkarte) because you get half price off on all traintickets. Sadly, I messed up..

The card costs 20 euros, if you are under 26.. I asked at first, but couldn't really understand what he said, so I just went and got some photos from the photobooth and started filling out the forms for the card. I bought a ticket to graz and the card, and he asked for 117 Euros!!! It was to late to change my mind, so my budget for the weekend was ruined. I guess I am going to Vienna atleast 3 more times so I get my moneys worth. Right..

The trainride was awful, crowded, warm and tedious. After 2.5 hours on that train I was finally "home". Decided to take a walk home insted of waiting for the tram. So I tried a local delicacy called 'Maroni'. It is roasted chestnuts. Usually It's enjoyed together with Sturm, some kind of unfinished carbonated wine.

Not the best thing I've ever eaten, but I'll pass my final judgement after I've tried it with Sturm (or glühwein).

This thursday, my parents and ISABELLE!! are coming to visit for the weekend. I have just booked a spot for them on the local camping. God, I hope its nice. I have also put together a slightly too long list of stuff I want them to bring. Think I will have to be eeextra nice to them this week :) I also need to work twice as hard on the project and all the other schoolstuff this week. Really want to spend as much time as I possibly can with them. Can't even explain how much I'm looking forward towards this, mein Got!

This weekend my classmate Niklas, who was here last year, and his girlfriend Martina will be visiting Graz. Hopefully I will be able to meet them, and have a beer. Speaking of which, I have totally found my favorite beer, It's called Edelweiss Weissbier. Try it sometime!

It seems as spambots have found their way to this page, so I will probobly turn of the comment function, because this news-script doesn't seem to have any spamfilter, but that's a later problem. Right now I have to get to bed, because tomorrow we are have groupwork about some guy called Lucas de Groth. It's for a presentation in the Graphic Design course, which I'm participating in. Pretty difficult course, since they only speak german, and it's a pretty theoretical/philosophical subject. I'm trying but it won't be easy. My secret plan is to harass the tutor to make him help me with the Portfolio I have to do to be able to apply for internships this spring semester. Lets see if it works.

Until next time, buh bye!

PS. I hate Austrian mosquitos, I'll tell you more next time. DS

Finally, things are starting to get into place, and I have found some routines. Small things like when to go to the grocery store, breakfest etc. I have almost completed my school schedule, which means that it will get a lot easier to plan my days.

Yesterday I had a meeting with one of the faculty members and finalized my study plan, which means I'm pretty much settled with which courses I want to study. It also means that I will be able to get the scholarship money for the exchange studies! As of now I'm also starting to get a hint of how much i spend, when and why.. Last couple of weeks I've felt like a piggy bank vs an army of hammers. VISA must be happy I suppose.

On the downside, I think I have some kind of inflammation in the muscles on the backside of my thighs. First noticed it a couple of weeks ago when I played paintball. I thought it was some kind of cramp, but now It hurts almost all the time, which is kind of wearing me down. Especially after a long nights sleep or when I have been working alot at a desk. Theres no pain at all when the muscle have been working and get warm, just a mere stroll for a couple of minutes does the trick. Anyhow it is very tiresome..

The project is progressing, and at this minute I am sitting in the studio, waiting for a one-on-one meeting with the teacher. We are supposed to discuss which ideas and themes that are the most interesting. The direction of my project is leaning towards a quick and slightly aggressve way to open canned food. Alot more work to do before anything is determined.

I will probobly be going to Vienna this weekend for a small X-ball tournament with PBA-Factory. Hopefully my legs won't be a problem if I warm up thoroughly before every game. Time will tell. Atleast looking forward to see a part of vienna!

I'll try to update soon, and with some pics of supermegainteresting stuff.

Small update. I got a package today!

And guess what it was!

Yesterday I finished the last can that I brought my self, so this was a blessing, but opinions about that may differ.. All im waiting for now is a couple of pencils, and a bigger package (isabelle!!) to arrive!

It has been both harder and easier to be such a long distance from her. It's really weird. I thought it either be really really tough, or just easy/ok. We talk alot via webcam, so I get to see her beautiful face alot, which kinda makes me want to be near her, at the same time it kind of eases the pain. Love is strange, but sweet!

Now im of to run a couple of Km, before my laundry is done.

The last couple of days have been pretty calm.

Major events

- I bought a new pencil Sharpener. Its awesome, ugly and expensive.

- I was yelled at by the cleaning lady, because someone (not me) did'nt do their dishes.

- I was actually able to fill my washing card with some cash, so now it's possible to wash clothes! (only problem left is to get some energy to do it)

- I ate my 6th wienerschnitzel.

On the subject on me VS the cleaning lady, she was yapping about the dishes, oven, trash for about 15-20 minutes in german. I tried to answer in English, didn't work. I tried in German, she didn't listen. So after a while I told her I would gather the inhabitants for a meeting tonight and discuss/scold them. This kinda left me angry for the rest of the day. I hate getting shit because of what others do. So tonight I gathered everyone and told them that this won't happend again, and then asked if we should have some kind of system. Everyone agreed, not entirely sure if everyone actually understood though. However, I now know who is the lazy one, so ill whip him a bit extra I guess.

Mid day today, we had our first meeting about the project thats in effect. It was individual meetings with the teacher, where we had to present three themes of cutting tools (home or garden power tools).

My three choices fell on, Can opener, Plasma cutter and a portable band saw. Until next time we I have some more thorough research to do about the first two choices. Yay! Reasearch!

Since I have pretty little material to work with today.. I have to post some other sightings instead.

The first one is a package I found at the local grocery shop. Well, I guess you have to be swedish to really appreciate this one. (beeing swedish might not be enough..?)

(Bad quality, deal with it!)

As I might not have told you earlier, Graz is'nt an ideal place to drive cars, but instead they have excellent public transportation. The maximum amount of time I have had to wait for the tram is 8 minutes. Im loving it! No stinky cars or buses, just clean and frequent trams.

I found one of them absolutely lovely!

I might have to start going to see some cultural stuff some time soon. I haven't been to Schlossberg yet, which is like the city Icon, nor Kunsthaus or anything else for that matter. Shame on me!

Today I took another big step towards the big 3-0. Times passes quickly when you're busy right?

The latest couple of days have been interesting though, we actually started school for real now, and I've been going to some different classes with the 3rd and 7th semester students. One course I'm really looking forward to is CAID Advanced, an Autodesk Studiotools class (3D rendering program) with a teacher who seems really nice and motivated. This is probobly the only teacher that doesn't have a problem with having the lectures in English.

We also had a the initial meeting with the teacher who is running the 3rd semester project. Also a very inspirational and motivated person, who seems to have a lot to offer. The project brief/assignment was to make a cutting device (pretty standard task I guess), which is supposed to have different appearances when it is on and off. I think the workload will be pretty heavy, but I did not expect anything less..

On the downside, the students here in Graz seem pretty hard to get to know. They aren't very talkative, which probobly is because they don't really like to speak English, and my German is limited to standard phrases, or a severe butchering of their grammar and such. Hopefully they will defrost sometime in the near future.

This friday, me and Erik went to IKEA (again) to get some more necessitys like food containers, towels, MEATBALLS etc. Im starting to appreciate IKEA more and more everytime I go there, feels like hoooome. Afterwards, I got picked up by the David (Teamcaptain of pba factory) and went to the hall for some PB-practice. Apparently the field owner Johannes, is making a some kind of promotional film, so we got to pose for photos and they were filming us while we were playing. Cool but akward. Afterwards, me, david, Brian, and Micheal went to an irish pub, for what I thought would be a couple of beers and then going home for some sleep. Boy was I wrong..

It all ended up with us going to tree-monkeys, after alot of beer at the irish pub. David and Micheal decided to get a bottle of vodka at the club accompanied by some Red Bull, all this followed by yet another bottle of vodka to really finish me and Brian off. The night ended at about 4PM when I was dropped of by the taxi at my studenthome where crawled in to the apartment (not really, but it felt like it). Conclusion: Im getting to old for these things!

Woke up at 9PM because the phone was ringing. My Parents was calling to congratulate me on my birthday, and so did Isabelle!<3 It was really nice to hear their voices again, and ofcourse a bit sad. Always hard to celebrate things like this without your family. I slept for another hour, then I went to the city to get a new pair of jogging shoes. Found a pair of Asics for 40 euors (hoooray). After some breakfest alone at a Cafe, David and Brian picked me up for and we went to practice with Vienna United. All three of us was in terrible condition. Today was also the opening for the MAXS-store, so they had some opening discounts so alot of people showed up.

The filming for the movie continued today, and me and Brian got interviewed. Don't ask me why, because I have no idea why they wanted me in it. Im really not looking forward to seeing it, because I was SO tired during the interview, plus the fact that they wanted us so play videogames (greg hastings pro paintball) whilst answering all the questions, making it even harder..

Training went awful today, but I suppose I kind of deserved it after yesterday. After playing a couple of hours we grabbed some food at the gokart-restaurant (Thanks once again for the schnitzel Brian!). Afterwards we had a couple of more hours of training, and then we packed our stuff and went socializing with the others.

Thank you Johannes!

My plans for sunday includes sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, schoolwork, sleeping and maybe some laundry time (Not likely though). I want to thank everybody for making a pretty unusual birthday really fun. Vielen dank!

Wienerschnitzels since arrival: 4