Today was our first full day with the exchange students, and with no school, we could do whatever we wanted. With a trip planned for tomorrow, we decided to just stay in town and hang with friends. After a casual breakfast of bread and butter we went to tour the city, specifically the old part of it. Valerie, her parents, and I saw the Graz government building, her school, a few churches, and I also learned about some of its history. In general, everything here in Graz is much older than anything in Cary. Then, we got lunch at a place right off of the main road. The food lived up to the rest of the Austrian cuisine and was delicious. Soon after we met up with Alex, Luke, and Chris and their exchange students. We bought some snacks at a shop and went back to our house to hang out. We swam in the pool and played ping pong while enjoying food and each other’s company. We had lots of catching up to do after not seeing each other for 8 months. After a few hours, Alex and Luke left and Chris and I went to dinner with Valerie, Anto, and Anto’s parents. We tasted actual, authentic Italian pizza and attempted to understand their conversation in Italian with the restaurant’s owner. We stayed at the table for quite some time as I got to know Anto’s parents. Around 10 we left and went back home to get a good night’s sleep in preparation for an early start tomorrow morning. What surprised me the most was the freedom the students have here, because I know personally I do not have that much at home. I think it is just a different culture with different expectations and it is cool to see how theirs differs from ours. ~Leo
