Hey everyone!
Well I just wrote a whole blog out and then managed to make it disappear, so since I'm technologically retarded I better do it again (I apologise if it comes up twice!)

Things here have settled down slightly and I am slowly but surely finding my feet. I've met more people in halls who seem nice enough (although they all speak English!) and my neighbour/flat mate is lovely, which is always good! I think though that if someone were to offer me some plane tickets and say 'do you want to just come home now?' I would find it very hard to resist!

I've pretty much finished all of my admin, even managing to open a bank account. I'm also well on my way to registering for classes which has proved much easier since my course organiser said 'e-mail me the classes you want to take and I'll register you for them'. I think because I'm a lot younger than students here and because I arrived with my 'mama' in tow, the course organiser and the woman in charge of my halls have been inclined to mother me 'has your mama left now? If you ever need anything just come and ask!'

Today, my flatmate, a course-friend from Edinburgh and I went to the famous Naschmarkt. It was amazing! There were so many different stalls selling so much fresh food and spices. There was of course the Flohmarkt where junk was mixed in with antiques and some truly random things - real stuffed fox anyone? It was such a good place for people watching and I think on a nice day I could spend hours there picking out cheap fruit and vegetables.

I think the best way to cope at the moment is to make sure I have something to do everyday, here even little things like buying gloves turns into a full day mission because you have to find your way to places and then deal with people in German. The Erasmus parties all seem to start next week though and there are orientation days to go to, so hopefully I will meet more people and will feel more settled and normal!

There seems to be some sort of election on at the moment too, living here I really feel as though I should know what it's about but I haven't quite worked it out. I have noticed that the parties seems to be a lot more active in their public campaigning - handing out freebies (including real sunflowers!) and we even saw an OeVP Brass band in Mariahilfe Strasse complete with Lederhosen! I immediately went into tourist mode; pointing and taking pictures but I have never seen anything more Austrian in my life!

So I think I'll be ok here, although I still feel like I'm trying to convince myself more than anyone else! I think the best way to cope is to not look so far ahead and sometimes that means just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other to get back to halls and other days it means just thinking about tomorrow; but as my best friend said to me 'it will show you what you're made of... steel!'