Oh my god. Two post in two days. I must have way too much time on my hands.. (:D)

Crashed early yesterday, just after I wrote some news here, while watching some Dexter Season 3. It is a great series, so if you haven't watched it, doit, doit now!

Anyway, did not sleep very well. I woke up in the middle of the night, coughing like a british coal miner. Fell asleep again and woke up at 9 am feeling like a plastic bag full of razorblades. Since I forgot some English papers in school, I had to go there before our Alias class and do the homework then instead. After having breakfest, the first one in like 3 weeks, I took some painkillers and other medicine and headed out.

It kind of sucks to have a really bad ache in your throat but not feel sick in any other way, so I couldn't really justify staying at home.

After school me and Erik went shopping, which we were supposed to do yesterday. I finally found a pair of shoes that were adequat. I also went to the applestore to get a new external hard-drive. After beeing in another store and asking for a hard-drive and then beeing directed to the hair-dryers, I didn't really feel like going scouting for another place with cheap computer accessories.

I have been a bit nervous about my small external drive crashing, so when we discussed it earlier this week, I decided to get another drive as backup to the backup. I would cry for days if I lost all files of my schoolwork through the years.

Found a pair of Brown nike airs for 80euros.. (I like brown...alot) And a 500gb lacie disk for 90 euros.

The loot!

I have started to contact some companys for my internship. First out is POC in Stockholm, but I really need to get crackin on that forsaken portfolio. Im just so useless at doing graphical designs, combined with the fact that I haven't taken enough pictures through the years of my "accomplishments" which makes it pretty hard to do something adequate.

Anyway, I found another picture in my phone from last sunday. Me and Erik went to a grillhouse and got some food before going to school to work on the project. We got a grillplatter for two.

I think it is suffice to say that we both got a bit sick afterwards. Something in that dish wasn't properly cooked. Hopefully I do not have salmonella now... yuck. Not going there again. (it was called ChiChis grillhouse or something. Beware!)

Now I am going to install the disk and make the backups my subconcious is bitching about.

Wiedersehen!

Small update this time.

School has continued to slaughter my time. Since friday we have continued working on the Exhibition project, and today we had the final presentation to the Museum intendent.

Last couple of days we have been in school approximately 15-16 hours a day. Going there at 9-10 am and going home at 5 pm. No complaining, just facts. We did relly try hard to improve all the things that the teachers think we lacked in the last presentation.

So Erik has been doing alot of rendering, whilst I and Thomas worked on the presentation and the layout of the first concept. We actually thought we would be done with the presentation early evening on tuesday night, but guess again. 3 hours of sleep was not nearly enough, but we managed to get up and go to school for the presentations.

This time around we also got to present as the last group.

The perfomance went better than the last time, but still not good enough. However, the teacher was very impressed by the illustrations, the concepts, the idea etc etc. The only thing he thought that we could have done better was to be more enthusiastic and confident about our concepts. I totally understand this comment, and know that it is something I have to work on. However, this was the first time a teacher actually told me, which reveals a bit about the teacher (Bernd Stelzer) and the ones we have at home in Lund...

I want to show you some images we had in todays presentation, so that you can compare them to the ones from the last update.

This was the project where we had to change the most. Mainly the layout of the stairs and podium of the wagon.

This is a rendering where we photoshoped in a couple of images and made them look like projections. This was crucial to explain the mood and function of the concept.

Just a close up to explain further how the visitor is integrated in to the exhibition.

The Museum intendent did not give any specific feedback, so either she really liked it or really disliked it. Because our presentation was the only one where she did not have alot of questions.

We were all really satisfied afterwards, obviously..

Today we also had the german test that was postponed from last Thursday until Monday, where I scored 26 out of 28 points. This was a nice bonus on a day like this.. Afterwards me and Erik grabbed a Durüm Kebab, since we realized that we hadn't had food for 25 hours. Almost a bit embarresing, but since we had a big lunch yesterday, we never felt hungry in the evening and continued to work instead. So it is not as bad as it sounds.

In aproximately 5 minutes, I will perform a double saltkov without a splash straight in to my pillow. No plans for neither tomorrow or the rest of the week. But you know me, Ill probobly spend it in school or in bed. Might be the latter because it feels like im going to get some kind of flu. My throat aches alot so im just waiting for it to hit me in the back of the head and knock me out cold.

Sad thing is that the latest couple of years, I have dreaded to get sick during the schooldays, and always hoped that I would get it during vacational periods or in the weekend. This is just pathetic, I do not want to become a work-o-holic. Which I never will be because Im way to lazy. Wish me luck fighting the bacterias!

Auf wiedersehen.

(no spellcheck or proofreading tonight. Takes to long, sorry)

This last week has been crazy. I do not think I have been in school this much, ever! Approximately 3-4 hours of sleep each night, and the rest of the 24 in school. Saturday evening I thought that this week would suck and that I would probably die in the process.

Let me start from the beginning, or atleast where we left off the last time, which is almost two weeks ago.

Last Wednesday our project course took a different direction. We went to the Landesmuseum Joanneum (I think) where we meet the intendent of the place. The only thing we knew prior to this was that it the "workshop/mini project" would consist of atleast some historical artefact and a exhibition surface. She started talking in German of course, sooo 1.5 hours later I was none the wiser. She showed us the wagon, which turned out to be just about 50% of a wagon. No wheels, no undercarriage, nothing except the upper part where you sit.

Well, after a while, it turned out that we were supposed to design an exhibition room and undercarriage for this thing..

We found a box with some dead guys. :D

The rooms measurements were already set, so the important thing was to show the wagon, and give a hint of what it is missing without stealing focus from the wagon. It was a group assignment, so me and Erik decided to team up, and later another guy (Thomas) from the class joined ranks. First presentation of our two concepts for the room was set one week forward. We had some small discussions and then me and Thomas started doing some mood-boards at home, whilst Erik was modelling the wagon in 3D. No biggie.

Thursday, I went practising some paintball, did not go well at all. My gun did not work so I had to borrow another that almost cut my fingers open. Oh well, it's always fun to hang out with those guys at least!

Friday was set up for some major partying. David who had his birthday the same week invited me to join them in some celebrations and I was up for it. We went to a Irish pub where I met some of his old teammates, friends and siblings. When I arrived I got something that I have never tried before, Jell-o Shots! I came, I tried, I failed. Everyone was shooting these like the Mexican Staring-frog of southern Srilanka, so Im starting to think that my tongue has a major defect, or that Austrians just crossbred with amphibians some time during evolution. (probably the last)

Then we went on to a Drum'n'base club called Postgarage. Not my kind of music, but it was pretty nice being in a place that wasn't packed with people. Michael (Stoney) persuaded me to try the Caprinhia, which consists of ice, lime, and sugar basically. I haven't had hard liquor for quite a while and was chugging them down in the same rate as I drink a beer... Minor strategic flaw. Still had fun, did not spend to much money during the evening, however I lost my Closet-card. So when we were supposed to go home I couldn't get my jacket or sweater.

Disclaimer; I think we can all agree that making decisions whilst drunk is never a good idea, and with that being said I will continue.

I walked home 04.00 in the morning in just my t-shirt. This place was in a part of Graz I have never been in before, so after walking for a while, I stopped and realised that I did not know where the heck I was. Fortunately I had been walking with the river Mur on my right side the entire way, so after some relocating I finally realised where I was... 50 meters from my bus-stop. I refer to my previous disclaimer.

I came home, fell asleep and woke up 12 hours later, with the headache from hell. This of course meant that I should sleep some more, which is approximately 4 more hours, then I had to get up and make 'Varma mackor'. It is like a hybrid between pizza and a normal toast. Then I talked a bit to my family and friends and went back to bed for another couple of hours. Between eleven and twelve in the evening, I had to get up and start doing some schoolwork, because David had called me earlier and asked if I could play a tournament on Sunday. It was the first winter leg of the Austrian paintball league, 5-man format.

After a couple of hours of trying to find images for our moodboards, I decided to get some sleep, because David would pick me up at eight in the morning.

He came, and we drove to a gas station to get some breakfast and batteries.

Since my gun wasn't working the last time I practised, I just sat down directly and switched batteries in it, and it just started right up and shoot like a freaking dream again, Halleluja! So that was the last time I put a Varta battery in anything.

The team today was; Me, David, Sebastian, Martina and Reinhardt

There were only 5 teams, so we would pay triple round-robin, which is a little bit..meh. But I guess it was the best solution. Anyway, I played really well, from the very first game! I think I shot 4 out of 5 in that game. Good times gooood times! The games during the day passed by in the same style, and I was on fire! We lost 3, drawed 1 and won 8 games and had a bodycount of 23-24 in half-time. The second team under us had won as many games, but had something like 11 in bodycount. This was the team we would have to play against in the last game, which turned out to be the deciding one if we would win or place second.

This is where the fire died, and transformed in to a giant pile of elephant dung. A minute in to this game, one of their players (Mario from vienna united) got in to the 50 snake, and we had to get rid of him to win. Since no one of the other did it, I made a run for it, from the centre temple on the 25 line. I went for the stab where I had seen him last, and thought he still would be. Jumped over the snake, shooting at his last spot. Remember, Fire morphing to Poo? To my surprise he wasn't there anymore. He had moved back 1-2 metres, curled up into a small small object which I couldn't see until mid air over the snake-beam. He was directly under me. After some manoeuvres I managed not to stomp his head, which in return meant that I would crashland and not manage to move my gun over and shoot him. He looked surprised seeing me rolling around on the turf next to him as I was to see him there... and then he shot me. The rest of the team did not really manage to pull anything off and we lost the game, resulting in a 2nd place overall.

What really pissed me off afterwards is that if I had decided to just run on the inside of the snake and shoot him he wouldn't have had a chance. But while running I decided to try to jump the snake, shoot him and then take their snake and survive.

Oh yeah, and the obvious humiliation of rolling around the floor and not accomplish anything did not taste to sweet either. Walking around listening to people talking about the incident in German and having a good laugh sucked. So this pretty much totally killed a good day for me.

On top of this, I now had to go to school directly after the tournament to start doing some work on the exhibition project. Hooray.

Erik came home from Salzburg where he had visited some of his classmates during the weekend. Working there until 3-4 in the morning, and then have to walk home knowing that you have to get up 4 hours later to go to class. (The trams (spårvagnarna) stop at 23.57)

Up at 9 am to go to Solidworks class, which was pretty fun, except for some minor interruptions. I'm getting better and better, but well see how much effort I will put into learning this program on my own.

Then we had German and a Graphic Design class, and at 6 p.m. when all the classes were done, we had to get to work with the exhibition project again now that the presentation was only 2 days away. Staying to 4-5 in this morning again.

We realised that we would have our graphic design workshop this week with the 7th semester students. Fortunately for them, this was the only thing they had in terms of classes this week. This was not the case for us, so we would have to run around all week just trying to get everything to run as smoothly as possible, and to miss as little as possible from all the classes.

Tuesday morning at 9 am, we met the workshop teacher, and she started informing us about the project that would last until Friday. She had found a company that needed a packaging for their new self-cooling beer keg. Then she told us that it would be a Competition. Three of the concepts of the 12 students would receive 1000 euros, and then one would have the chance to get their package produced, of course meaning mo moneyz!

Me and Erik decided to collaborate on this project too, since we had shitloads of stuff to do anyway, it was the logical solution, even though it would mean that we would have to split the prize if we won. The big problem was that we had to leave this class after the information and some random talking about packages and such with the teacher and go work on the exhibition presentation.

In the meantime the 3rd semesters had a double-class of Professional English which I also attend, but the teacher Eva Dringel-Tech, who is really understanding told me that it wouldn't be a problem at all. (This English class is really nice, because it's a lot about expanding your vocabulary with words that are useful in the field of Industrial Design. Plus that it's always playful and very light-hearted, so it doesn't really feel like a class at all)

After a lot of hard work with the presentation, we all went home at 6 in the morning. The presentation was set to 10 am, but me and Erik had to go to packaging design class at 9 because a representative from the company was showing up to answers questions and tell us about their product. It was super interesting, because of the technique they use, which is really clever. Im sorry to say that I can't reveal any details about it. the only thing i can say is that it is a beer keg that chills the beer with a 100% natural process, without a fridge or any chemicals at all.

Presentation time!

After 2 hours me and Erik joined the class and dropped in when another group was showing really nice rendering of their concept.

A really astonishing detail about this project, is that the Teachers have requested 3D renderings from all groups. The thing is, that these students have not had ANY classes in 3D rendering, and still they manage to produce really really beautiful renderings. It says a lot about the school in general and the dedication that these students posses.

This is where it gets good.

Our group have been working a lot on this project. However, about 70-80% of this work has been ideation and discussion about our two concepts. We have really discussed all ideas to death.. In return, we have have gone through a lot of ideas and dismissed them after a while, but we also tried to save the fragments of each idea that we like and want to keep working with. In the end that meant that most of the other students projects were ideas we had already discussed, kept the good stuff, and moved on from.

In the end we had 2 concepts that are pretty similar, but still differs meant. Contradictive right?

Let me try to explain.

Our first idea is to create a room, where the first thing you see is exactly what you can see on the picture above. Just the wagon, Nothing else. A big golden shiny piece of history, almost a religious experience/alter and everything else around it is dark. However, we want to plant some subtle clues around the room, that your eyes will catch up on when they get a bit tired of the just watching the wagon. When they do, we want the to start exploring the room, and put the pieces together which are supposed to explain the backstory of the wagon. The clues get stronger as further you get in to the room and when you are on the other side you see 2 wheels and a small representation of the undercarriage. The room would be sculpted so that the "terrain" would give you the opportunity to look at the wagon from different angles, which in return would enhance the perception of exploring things.

The essence of the project is that you are presented with a room that will transform into another room with the help of your curiosity.

We have had some problems with the constructional plan and will most likely have to change most of it before next Wednesday, along with the difficulty of getting the mood across in our renderings. This is the project that we have to put the most effort in to prior to presentation.

The second concept is also a room that changes when you are in it. The difference is that you do not control this yourself at all. When you come in to this room, you are presented with the wagon, and nothing else (again). A almost sterile room that makes the wagon resemble a piece of art. Suddenly, the room drastically changes, and all focus from the wagon is removed. There will appear projections of images, that are supposed to almost pull you back in time, to when the wagon was used and highly respected for other reasons than being old.

Off

On

We got a lot of good reactions to our concepts and both the teachers expressed the positivity! This was so important, because it just gave us a lot more energy to pull up our sleeves and dig in to the packaging design project.

(OK, I just wrote a lot more which disappeared because of this crappy blog-interface so here's the shorter version)

Me and Erik went home, with out minds set to start working later the same evening, but first we wanted to get some rest. I slept for 2-3 hours + some random internet browsing. Then at 10-11 p.m. we started brainstorming.

It seems like we have found a really nice ideation process the latest couple of weeks, which is working very well.

It is hard to explain, but when one of us tell the other one a thought or an idea, it ignites and inspires the other one. This just keeps going back and forth, and suddenly we sit there with a couple of really cool or solid ideas.

So we decided to get some sleep and discuss our ideas with the teacher the following morning. This was also a very important, because both of us got about 8 hours of sleep, and we didn't stress to school, which made a lot of difference the night to come.

After some discussions with her, we went back and restarted our own process. Since we still did not know what to present the day to come, we went to eat, hoping to get some more energy and being able to make some final decisions. After we had eaten, we began discussing the project at the dinnertable, just restarting our minds.

Erik started sketching on some napkins in a true Design-Cliché manner, and I pulled out my pen and papers. After 3 hours, leaving just us and the staff in the restaurant, we went back to school to get cracking and start doing our final decisions. We began to build one paper-sketchmodel each, which ended of in the scrapping of both those concepts. The third one we tried just got more interesting the further we got with it, proving to be a really cool concept in the end. So after more than six hours of cutting, gluing pasting and a lot of goofing around, we had a nice concept and began to assemble the presentation material. At 6 am we decided that we were done and went hope, filled with anticipation and a astonishing amount of energy.

( Erik working on the sketches for the presentation, and me working with model, whilst we both watch family guy. Actually a really pleasant evening. )

We got about 4 hours of sleep and went back to school to print our presentation. I HATE NETWORK PRINTERS. May they burn forever in hell. We ran around campus for 1.5 hours to get our presentation printed, but we only managed to get 3 out of 9 papers printed. This is so freaking ridiculous..

Anyway, it turned out that we would only present our product to the teacher and the company representative so there was no problem to show it directly on my laptop.

The reactions of them were really hard to interpret, and we did not get any real feedback, just questions about how it works. This is not at all the way we are used to being treated in a presentation, but it is a valuable lesson.

However I have a couple of opinions about the workshop. We did not get any real information until Wednesday morning, and suddenly on Thursday morning, we get a paper with the brief, filled with information that is really crucial to get in the very first moments of the project.. This pissed me off a bit, but I guess it is the same for everybody. It just feels like the project could be a lot better if you get clear directions from the very beginning.

Also, on Friday just when we came to the presentation, they let everybody know that we have until the 13th of December to finish it instead, so today will just be a little check up for them. They suddenly thought that 4 days was way to few days, and decided to change it. In my book, that is not okay for some that is actually a competition. But, they make the rules so all we can do is oblige.

It is really straining, because when you set your mind to do something in a decided amount of time and you go all in with the energy and resources you have. It is like if you run a marathon, and at the finishline the officials tell you that they moved the real finishline 10 kilometres down the road.

There is something really special about presenting a project. When you're done, you get closure. You know that you are done with this and that you do not need to sit until 4 in the morning staring at the same thing until your eyes bleed.

Their decision took this feeling of closure away for me, and that is such an important feeling for me. Thanks..

Afterwards we went to 3 golden kuglen to get some food and celebrate that this week was almost over. I had a steirer salat with pumpkin seeds, pumpkin oil, chicken and salad. Then we went to the Apple store to look at and finger the new Macbook pros, since Erik is thinking about getting one instead of his Dell Laptop. We passed by the Art-store and I also found a Postbox where I could post a card to my sometime-to-be Mother-in-Law who has a birthday next week. We picked up a couple of beers and went home, and suddenly, the skies opened up. It was totally poooouring down but we didn't mind that much, except that we both confirmed that our shoes aren't waterproof..

We got home, I slept for 4 hours, Erik fiddled with a rendering program and went for a Jog.

Woke up, got some food, beer and chips.

I also got a call by a guy who wanted to buy my paintball gun. So I am now officially without one now. We’ll see how I can solve this. Hopefully it wont pose as big problem. Anyway, tomorrow at 8, David will pick me up and we will go have a team practice against some local team. That will be a nice distraction, to bad all my gear is drenched with rain out on the balcony. Oh well, nothing a little bit of tea can’t cure.

Sorry that I couldn’t update more frequently and instead drop this bomb-post on who ever is reading. But I guess it doesn’t affect too many atleast.

It has come to my attention that some of you guys can't see all the pictures I put up in here.

It seems to be a problem with Internet Explorer only, but if that is not true, please speak up! I will try to figure out what to do with the help of my internet-savvy friends.

On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!

Over and out.

First up, Me against my Bed.

Since I got to Austria, I have been waking up a couple of times per night, due to beeing overheated and sweating like a pig. I never really figured out why. First I thought it might have been that the air down here is just alot more humid than at home. My second guess was that it could be the blanket, and that it in some way had higher density. I really had no real clue until last week when I was sitting on my bed, It made a weird sound. I flicked it with my finger a couple of times and to my surprise, there was something under the bed linnen.

A bed-wetter protection sheet!

It was as thick as something you cover a boat during the winter to keep it from beeing ruined by moist. - Björn 1 vs Things 0 - ! I removed it and since friday I have been sleeping alot heavier than before. Now if I could only get rid of the italian Formula one pitcrew outside my window, that persists to waking me up with their pneumatic tools.

My second fight today was against my jogging shoes.

This was a pretty easy fight, which me and my blade took care of with some precision cutting skills. The goal was to fit my Nike+ transmitter into one of the shoes.

Success!

The third struggle I had was when I was supposed to make dinner.

Satan, thy offspring is called Rice!

This is just an ongoing battle since many-a-years, and Rice is way ahead on the scoreboard.

Every time I try to cook it, I always end up with some kind of porridge-ish mess. This evening was no exception, but I will not surrender. One day I will win, and it will be most delicious rice ever cooked! Although, it is a bit embarresing, because we have two Asian guys living in the corridor, so I try to sneak around and not show my culinary genocide.

Otherwise, the weekend has been great. Actually, the days since thursday has been awesome. Last thursday I went practicing at the indoor hall. The practice went great, and I think it is because of my peace of mind. Afterwards, I had one of the best meals Austria has offered me so far. It was fried chicken with loads of green salad. It had loads of kürbis-öl (pumpkin oil), garlic, and pumpkin seeds, and it was just 110% delicious. I slept like a baby that evening. Which could have been because of the termination of that freaking bedwetter sheet. Friday was no different. I was just sitting around at home, sketching, watching some movies, and then later went for a run in the rain. It wasn't heavy rain, so it was quite ok.

Saturday, same old same old. Sketching and continuing working on the gun-graphics for next years paintball guns. If I get everything flowing nicely, it will be one of the coolest guns in a long while, however it could also be the exact opposite if I mess up.

Today I haven't really done anything different. Just been home, taking it easy, watching dexter, sketching, and then I went for a run with the newly "installed" nike+, finally working again. Something seems a bit weird though, the first 2 kilometers, according to my ipod, I was running at the impressive pace of 0 m/s. This product is in no way perfect, but it kind of gives you a hint of pace and distance, which is nice. Wouldn't mind having a gps timer instead, but they cost about 300 euros, and im just not a good enough (or frequent) runner. However, it would be really interesting to try one, from a product designer-point of view.

(So if anyone from Garmin or Suunto is reading this; Pretty please? I've even spared you the hazzle to read between the lines.)

Yesterday Isabelle uploaded the pictures from our weekend in the Gallery, which was great, because now she can upload anything she wishes with her own account. (Bye Bye bandwidth?)

http://gallery.iddqd.se

Now I will start my fourth big battle this week. Björn Vs internship Portfolio!

Until then, Buh-bye!

Yes, its true! After working almost none-stop since sunday, we finally had our presentations. It's a shame that I didn't really get all the stuff done, but im pretty glad that I had as much to show as I did. Think I got 2 hours of sleep the night before the presentation. I always to get some shut-eye. This is because of a presentation a couple of years ago, in front of the head of design at TetraPak. That specific presentation, was horrible! I had been working day and night, with slim to no sleep at all. After my presentation, he asked me if I had problems with the English language, a language that I've known fluently since I really young. But sadly, today my plan failed. I lost words, and stuttered alot, however, I think they got the essence of my project anyway.

Afterwards, we listened to all the other projects, which is really tiresome to follow for a couple of hours when you only understand 30% of what they are saying.

Anyhow, my project is a portable, retractable band saw. It has an oscillating blade, which is supposed to give a similar effect as the battery driven Gillette Mach5 razor. I have noticed, as I always do when I assemble presentations, that I do not have enough useful sketches. I have mainly just made small sketches to make it easier for me to imagine the solution, and not to explain to others how it works. So until next wednesday I will focus on smart sketching. I will try to sketch the technical details of my project, as well as practicing the distrubution and layout of the paper sheets themselves.

Here are some photoshop renderings of my project. Do mind that it may or may not look like this at all in the end. This is just a representation of form, depth and different parts of the product.

As you see, my name for the project is "elo". I chose this because of the first three letters in the word 'elongation'. I thought that these letters have similar shapes and forms as my product, and I was in a bit of a timecrisis. I also want each letter to have another specific meaning. Like "ELO, Electric Lengthening Operation-device", however, I haven't found suitable words yet, so if YOU have any ideas, don't hesitate to write them in the comments section!

Heres a picture of the schools workstation where I have hooked up my MB pro the last couple of days. It has a 21" wacom tablet screen (which means that you sketch directly on the screen with a "mouse"-pencil). They cost aproximately 3000 euros, and this school have atleast 15! Wouldnt mind one of those babys at home.

I also have to start making my portfolio this week, to be able to apply for internships this spring semester. Right now I am thinking about Husqvarna, Puma, Adidas, Propeller, Ergonomidesign, Peak performance and POC. I'm not to keen to go abroad, but I think I might have to just endure it if I get a good oppurtunity. Problem is that I know it's just as straining for Isabelle as it is for me. All I know right now is that I really want to do my internship at a company that makes sport products. No genre in particular, but I wouldnt mind something more extreme sport oriented.

My mood has become better since Sunday, when my family returned to Sweden. Ofcourse I still miss them alot, but life goes on, and I have a lot of work to do. Both me and Erik mainly just sit in front of our desks and work or just sketch with an occasional movie or paintball.

Found more pics from the weekend on my cellphone.

A picture from one of the dinners we had in the winebago. It's my father, Bengt-Göran, together with my mother, Hanne.

I actually had my 10th schnitzel last weekend at the buschenschank in Riegersburg. Sadly it made me a bit ill. So as of now im just trying to stay away from those. Too much french fries and other oily stuff on the plate.

On another note. Today I got told that I was in one of the local newspapers!

Seems like one of the pictures from the last time we played in Vienna wound up in the news. Hooray!

Gaze upon that that hollywood smile!

Now I will go enjoy another Corona, that I think I deserve after these last days.

Auf wiedersehen!

This thursday, my family arrived. Isabelle, Mom and Dad drove 1180 km to see me. Hard to explain how it felt when they called and mom said "I think we are on your street now". I ran down the stairs, and out to an empty street. I started looking for them, and suddenly I saw their motorhome a little bit further down the street. Isabelle was standing outside it and we just ran to eachother, crashing in to a huge hug and a few tears of joy!

After dropping of some off the stuff my parents brought for me, we headed for the camping area 15 minutes outside of the citycenter. Me and Isa was going to stay at a hotel 200 meters from the camping. Everything went according to plan, and we ended up having dinner in the motorhome (Moms pasta bolognese!)

Friday we went to the Landszeughause, which is a huge armory collection of baroque weapons, and afterwards to Kunsthaus. The latter was ridiculous. A really pale exhibition of "biomorph"-inspired art, however, zeughaus was awesome. They had shitloads of old swords, rifles knights armor.

We decided to go up to Schlossberg to eat lunch, and then see the view. It was absolutely magnificent. It is hard to believe that I live 5 minutes from this incredible site. The tour of graz ended by me and Isa going to a few different stores, looking for shoes, ending up with new pants. In the evening, we again had dinner in the motorhome, and boy did it taste good.

Saturday we went to a town called Riegersburg, 40 minutes from Graz. This was a old famous castle, aproximately 850 years old, built on an old vulcanic mountaine. I do not have any good pictures that I can show you, but Isa will send me some when she has come home.

Afterwards we went to a Buschenschank, had some traditional Austrian food, and then we headed home. As usual, we had dinner in the motorhome, then we went back to the hotel, because they were leaving at 6AM.. We had some breakfest, left the camping and drove to town where I was dropped off at Lendplatz to make our farewells.

Seeing them drive away is definately one of the hardest and saddest things that have happened to me in a very long time. I felt so insanely alone.

These were definately the best 3 days since I got to Austria, and the saddest moment in a couple of years. But it was totally worth it.

Right now I have to slam my head into the schoolwork, which is probobly a good way to get my mind distracted from the sad stuff. We have a small presentation on wednesday and I haven't done anything since Thursday.

I'll get some photos up as soon as possible.

I love you Isabelle.