Monday, June 12-- The first day of classes

On Monday, we had our first day of classes.  The students are divided into two groups, the green hedgehogs and the white hedgehogs, because green and white are the colors of the Styria or Steiermark (state in which Graz is located). Each morning starts with various warm-up activities before classes start.  On Monday, we did some stretches to wake ourselves up.

Students have three classes a day:  linguistics/phonetics, literature/culture, and grammar/communication, so on Monday, we just right into our content.

After our classes, we have lunch and then our support and success groups.  After that, we have various afternoon activities.  On Monday, Katharina took us up to the Uhrturm (clock tower) which is the symbol of Graz. Our group of students is very active and quickly climbed the Schlossberg (castle hill) to reach our destination. While looking at the clock, we realized the hour and minute hands are switched (the hour hand is the bigger hand, and the minute hand is the smaller hand).  Students got to use their imaginations to think up why that might be.  Then, we learned that the hour hand is larger because the town felt the hour was the most important information, so it was supposed to be visible from far way. 

Next, we relaxed in the rose garden just below the Uhrturm (clock tower) before heading back into town for students to enjoy free time in town or to head home for the day. 

Look closely at the next photo.  Sofiya took this one of our group in the rose garden.

Monday was a great start, and we're excited to see how the students grow during their time in Graz.