Video Update #2!

Number Two! It's 8 minutes long, sorry!

Thanks for watching!

Kyle

Budapest!

Hey guys!

On the weekend, I travelled up to Budapest, Hungary with 4 girls just to check out the city. Both days were beautiful, sunny days ranging from 8-12 celsius.

After talking to people about my blog, it became obvious that no one really checks out what I'm writing - they just scroll through the pictures. So instead of writing a lengthy message, I just posted more pictures!

We took 500 over the course of the two days, so this is only a small, small sample!

Our train left graz at 6:08 am, so this is on the way there. Please note frost on the ground...

The hostel we stayed at was only a couple hundred steps from the beautiful St Stephen's Cathedral.

On the top of Castle Hill; Matthias Church.

Hungarian Academy of Science Building

Rawr

The Fisherman's Bastion, served as an excellent defense location and lookout along the Danube river.

In Hungarian war lore, this bird (which is comprised of many different parts of many different birds) was supposed to have been the reason the Hungarians won a very major battle in their history.

The Parliament Buildings - taken from the Chain Bridge.

Me on the Chain Bridge at Sunset.

The Vajdahunyad Cathedral.

Gresham Palace

Heroes Square - soaking up some sun.

Cristel and I on the Chain Bridge at sunset.

Heroes Square

The interior side of the Vajdahunyad Castle

So that's just a very quick snippet of the trip in pictures! The hostel that we stayed at was very cheap, but it was on the 3rd floor of a building whose 1st floor was a club - so it was a tiring night for all of us!

Anyways, stay tuned - I think Vienna's on the menu for this weekend which will be a lot of fun!
If you have any questions, remember to post them in the comments box or send them to me!

Thanks!
Kyle

Update - Knee deep into School

Hey guys!

Just thought I'd give you a VERY QUICK photo update of what I've been up to this week. Yes - actual pictures of me this time!

Sunset a couple of nights ago at 6:01pm

The same sunset half an hour later. Like I said, sunsets last here for an hour!

John and I, about to hit up the town last night! A club here hosts free salsa dancing every Tuesday night, where they bring an instructor in. He teaches until around 9:30 - 10pm, and then the bar is open as a "Latin Dance Party" every Tuesday until close (4-5am). Salsa dancing here is very popular; I can go to various Salsa nights up to 4 times a week around Graz!

Getting dinner ready last night - featuring strip marinated steaks in warm soft shell fajitas, with tomato, lettuce, 10 year old cheddar, hot salsa and baked bread! And in case you're wondering - altogether it cost under 3 euro per person, and it fed 4!

On Sunday Cristel and I went sightseeing on the first real Autumn day here; we are on top of the castle situated on the Graz mountain overlooking the city.

Me! Reppin' the Roots, so people know I am truly a Canadian!

The pathway up the mountain to the castle!

For you architecture nerds out there (cough Rachele) this is one of my favourites - a double helix stairwell. The craftsmanship to forge such a stairwell is unbelievable, and this is one of the really cool things in Graz you would never find unless you were looking for it! Someone posted a video of them walking it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMXMDwMcN6k - if you're interested!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, I hope it was a good one. I had the privelege of skyping my family on Sunday and got to see everyone at home; I even got to talk to my grandparents for a few moments, which was great! Truthfully, I didn't even know it was Thanksgiving weekend until they mentioned it. Time flies here!

My courses are going fantastic - they are ALL in English and I couldn't be happier! Because I was unsure about which arranging course to take, the prof (an American) decided I should take both - why not? It's a lot of work, but I'm up for the challenge!

Another course I didn't plan on taking that I'm currently enrolled in is Systematic Musicology, taught by an Australian professor here. Although the topic may seem rather dull, he is a fascinating teacher with an immense breadth of knowledge, and who is interested only in opening the minds of his students to the amazing areas of music study available; the course is quite exciting. As he also has background in the Sciences, he is constantly referring to the mathematical study of music through physics, which I find very interesting.

So yeah! This weekend it looks like I'll be travelling to Budapest - which I'm very excited about!

And tomorrow there is a party to officially kickstart the year and introduce the ESN (ERASMUS Student Network), which I think will be a lot of fun!

As always, thank you for reading - the positive feedback makes blogging a lot of fun!

Kyle

When Words are Few...

Instead of writing a big long message, here's a video!

Sorry about all the mumbling, and all the "um"'s. My public speaking clearly needs a little work!

I also have two new flatmates, two really nice guys from Slovakia!

Thanks for reading guys!

Sunday Update!

Hey guys!

This week has been amazing, and I just want to give a quick update on what's going on.

On Wednesday, I travelled with 18'ish students to Munich, Germany, to enjoy two days of sightseeing and enjoying the massively popular Oktoberfest! We left early in the morning, driving one 9-seater rental van and another 3 rental cars, passing through Salzburg on our way. The drive took roughly 4 1/2 hours, and nothing quite beats the scenery as you travel through the mountain ranges.

We arrived mid/late afternoon, and went to the nearest grocery store to purchase sliced bread, ham, and cheese to make sandwiches. it was our dinner, snack, breakfast, and lunch down there - very very cheap!

Then we headed into the Thereseinweise, which is where the main Oktoberfest event was being held. It was amazing! People with traditional Bavarian clothing, running around, laughing, chatting frivolously with whoever, drinking beer and eating all sorts of hearty German foods. it was like something out of a movie!

That night we slept in the vehicles, and the next morning we headed into the city center to visit some sights of Munich. In the early afternoon, we left back for Graz.

Altogether, it was very enjoyable, and the people were great! Some pictures are below :)

Welcome to Oktoberfest!

Yeah. This happens in the streets of Munich... just saying

The driver and the navigator of the 9-seater van! (Apparently, Canadian driving licenses work in Europe :))
After that turnaround, we were going to get lost for half an hour! but we were smiling because we didn't know that yet!

This was the beer tent that my friends and I went to. It was by far the biggest. and the busiest!

The crew! Exhausted, but somehow still smiling.

The famed "rolling hills of Salzburg". Absolutely beautiful

I just got back from a Catholic mass in a beautiful cathedral right in the city center. I didn't understand a single word of it, but the choir was amazing and the whole experience was very good!

Tomorrow is my first day in formal classes - I have jazz Arrangement at 11:30am, and my first formal performance lesson at 2pm.

Thanks as always for reading, and more to come!