Wow, so this week has passed by in a complete blur, but definitely a very happy one!

Last sunday's erasmus night at Nelson's bar saw the start of a week of erasmus parties and discovering our local - Charie P's, an irish pub across the road from halls which plays fantastic music (the entire pub was staring at us as we gave a very loud and bouncy rendition of 500 miles on thursday night), has a great, studenty atmosphere and real irish barmen who we made friends with and consequently ended up with free drinks! Other nights out included Erasmus Karaoke and an outing to a tiny wine cellar in Stammersdorf (half an hour from the centre of vienna by tram, or 'bim' as the locals call it) both of which were good nights.

Other than that this week has been fairly quiet in comparison to the weeks before it. Or perhaps not quieter, just a bit calmer. I have finally managed to sign up for classes after a 5 hour wait in a queue on monday although I still don't have a student id card, a semester ticket for public transport (something I have discovered would be handy) or a bank card; without these things I cannot: take books out of the library, print anything off, wash my clothes (luckily I have borrowed my friend's card to do some washing) or collect my really awesome free gift from the University (an official uni wien bag!) So hopefully after tomorrow I will have all of these things, although I seem to have said that a lot recently.

Last wednesday was supposed to be my first class but the tutor didn't show up and so the class (Einfuehrung in die Lyrikanalyse) was cancelled. I atleast now know that the class is small (only 10-12 people) and that there are two other erasmus students in it. Tomorrow is my first lecture and I'm looking forward to finally getting started on some classes after an amazingly long summer holiday (exactly 5 months!)

Saturday night was the annual 'Lange Nacht der Museen' where every museum in Vienna (and I think nationwide) is open until 1 am, you buy a ticket for 11 Euros and it lets you in to all of them. I went along with a big group of friends and so it was really banterful. We started off in the interactive Haus der Muzik where you can conduct an orchestra and experience what it's like to be inside the womb (strange, that's all I'll say!). We then moved on to the slightly more grown-up Naturhistorisches Museen and Kunsthistorischesmuseen; the buildings themselves were an attraction and there was so much to see in both of them! We spent most of our time in the Naturhistorischesmuseen but still didn't manage to see everything and then went to the Egyptian, Roman and Greek exhibitions in the Kunsthistorischesmuseen after a well deserved coffee break! It was an amazing atmosphere with so many people there and it was good to do it all with friends - I definitely think I'll be back to all three museums at some point this year.

This week I have also booked flights to visit my best friend in France at the end of the month and I really can't wait! Even though I've really settled in here and met some really awesome friends, I still really miss my Edinburgh friends and my family - so it'll be so cool to catch up with Hannah. A group of us have also decided to take a trip to Prague in November since it's only 6 hours on the train and we can spend a long weekend there. There's so much to experience this year and I want to do it all, I just hope my funds will stretch far enough!

So this week I've really started to feel at home here - I no longer need to take my map with me every time I step out the door; it's so much easier to just laugh about the crazy admin system when you know that everyone is going through the same thing, and even though I've been struck by the dreaded freshers' flu there are movie nights, hot chocolate and mutual sympathy with new friends to cheer you up!

So until next week...
Ciao!