Tuesday, June 13

 Today, we continued with classes and had a visit to the town hall (Rathaus) of Graz. 

Students warmed up for the day with charades and role plays.

Here you see students acting out painting, sleeping, and a chicken.

The role plays asked students to practice the following situations: asking for directions if you couldn't your way, asking your host family for permission to do something, and ordering coffee at a coffee shop.

After these activities, students were ready for their three classes.  Today in culture class, they learned how to play a card game.

This afternoon, we visited the Rathaus (town hall) and had hoped to meet the mayor. Unfortunately, she had an important meeting, but we still had a wonderful tour of the building with our tour guide, Lena, and we were given some refreshments and presents from the city.  

A professional photographer even took our picture at the front of the city council's meeting room. We'll be sure to share those pictures with you when we receive them. In the meantime, you can see the less professional version here. :)

We also got to go out onto the balcony of the Rathaus (town hall):

The city also gifted each student with a voucher for free ice cream, so many of them headed to the ice cream shop right after the tour. 

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. 

Our first days

The students have been enjoying time with their host families this weekend due to the holiday (Feast of Corpus Christi) on Thursday and the "Fenstertag" (window day or vacation day to connect to the weekend) on Friday.  We're excited to hear about all that they did when we have our first day of classes on Monday. 

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you a little about the building that will be our school.  Our classrooms are in the Palais Attems (Palace Attems) in downtown Graz.   Built from 1702 to 1716,  Professor Dr. Hans Riehl considers the Palais Attems the "most significant aristocratic palace in Styria." Syria or Steiermark is the state in which Graz is located. (In the picture below, Palais Attems is the yellow and white building to the right. You can see our classroom windows on either corner of the third floor.) 

Because our classrooms are on the third floor, we get a workout every day climbing the stairs in the impressive imperial staircase. (Here we are on the bottom floor of the palace.)

The students will be learning in rooms with unique decorations. Especially amusing is the unicorn on the ceiling of what is aptly named "the unicorn room." :)

During our breaks, students can rest their brains while enjoying the magnificent view of the Mur river from our classroom windows.

  We're eagerly waiting our first day of classes on Monday in Palais Attems.

Our first full day in Graz

Today we had our first full day in Graz.  The host families brought our students into the historic part of town, where we met up with our Onsite Coordinator, Peter, and our tour guide, one of the host fathers. We started with an overview of the history of Graz. These pictures were taken in the Graz museum, which is housed in the building where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was born. 

After this, we headed to the top of the Schlossberg (a large with hill, which used to have a fortress at the top). Here are the stairs that take you to the top:

The students were quite pleased to find out that we were riding the funicular to the top of the Schlossberg instead of taking the stairs.  We'll save the stairs for another day. :)

At the top of the Schlossberg, we saw the Glockenturm (bell tower).

The Schlossberg offers a beautiful view of Graz. In addition to enjoying the view, we learned more about the history of Graz from our tour guide. One of the host mother's even showed each of the students where their host family lives so that they could orient themselves in the city.

Next, we headed down the Schlossberg and back into the Altstadt.  There we visited the Landhaus, the first Renaissance building in Graz. 

After that, we relaxed a bit in a traditional Kaffeehaus before heading to lunch, where most students tried Wiener Schnitzel.  Our delicious lunch also gave them strength for the placement exam that we took afterwards. :)

Now, we begin a long weekend with Fronleichnahm tomorrow and a Fenstertag on Friday. This Sunday is also Vatertag (Father's Day) in Austria.  This weekend gives students a wonderful opportunity to spend more time with their host families. 

Arrival

We arrived safely in Austria yesterday.

We first stopped in Baden bei Wien to swim and relax.  The students had a wonderful time in the various pools (two outdoor thermal pools and another indoor pool). Here we are waiting for our bus to take us to Graz.

Most of us slept on the bus, tired from swimming and jet lag and wanting to make sure we were rested before meeting our host families. 

We arrived in Graz in the evening and were warmly welcomed by the host families. The parents (often with their children and even one with their dog) were eager to meet the students and start their adventure together.  It was truly touching to see how excited the host families were.