Goodbye Tanzania... HELLOOOOO AUSTRIIIAAAAA!!

Greetings from Austria and welcome to my very first post!

So... where to begin? Some people wanted me to begin blogging out in Africa, but the limited access to the internet wouldn't have been much use for that. So for those of you I haven't yet been able to speak to properly about Africa, I'll give a quick Tanz runthrough, then move swiftly onwards. Apologies but I think this blog is going to end up rather long due to the amount of stuff i'm going to try and fit in it.
Faaaantastic!

Okay, so on July 6th I ventured out to Moshi, Tanzania, East Africa, for 5 weeks with the organisation FirstAidAfrica to teach First Aid to pupils in secondary schools. In short, my trip to Tanzania was amazing! Of course it had its bad moments, and it wasn't always easy, but I can guarantee that despite any difficulties I experienced going out there, it was a 100% worthwhile trip. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching, especially seeing as it was a subject which could potentially save so many lives. I made some real good friends in the First Aid Africa volunteers and my students were absolutely wonderful. Tanzania as a country is beautiful and I only wish that I had more time to spend out there seeing what the place had to offer me. Yes, it's true that after such a trip you do come back feeling that no matter how many people you helped, and no matter how much you did to try and make a difference, you could have done more. But in the end you realise that at least you did something. No matter whether it turned out the way you planned, at least you went out there and gave it your all... and by doing that alone, you'll have certainly made a difference to someone somewhere. Feeling that I really have made a difference there is one of the best feelings ever... and for me this only the beginning. I hope that in years to come, I can carry on doing all I can to make a difference where it really matters.

Anywayyyyyy, I could talk for hours and hours about my trip to Tanzania, but that's not going to be most beneficial on this blog site really is it. If anyone wants to know anything else about it, then fire away you know how to get hold of me :)

Soooo... After a week long rest at home, a quick visit to Bonnybridge and Edinburgh, and a painful endurance of Harpers' Sunday karaoke night, here I am in Austria! Never thought i'd ever actually get here, and it's all still really surreal. I arrived a week ago today, and everything has just been an absolute whirlwind since.

So I arrived, strutted about for a bit, and went back to unpack and fall asleep for ages. So not much to write home about there.
My first full day? Well, I left at around half 10 to search for Ikea. After 2 useless bus journeys, getting on the number 5 tram going the wrong way then having to ride back on myself the right way, I arrived in Ikea at around 3pm... The trip in IKEA consisted of much stumbling about with arms FULL of things and then having a dispute with the checkout staff when I didn't know my postcode.

Hahahahaha despite my dry humour and sarcasm that my post is drowning in... I LOVE Graz!! The place is absolutely amazing. My accomodation however, is momentarily... let's say... EMPTY. Well, near enough. Hopefully this will be solved as it gets nearer term time, i'm sure it will pick up when people move in.

But yeah, Graz is fantastic. There are a lot of things to do and see so i'm thinking my 5 months here aren't going to be particularly boring let's say. I've almost gotten hit by a bus about 10 times, climbed up "Schlossberg" and missed the "Scloss" and everything else on the way up, been shopping, and met quite a few people already. So here's hoping some real friendships come from that.

I'm currently doing a pre-uni german intensive course, to refresh my german skills (however non-existent they currently appear to be) and madly improve (fingers crossed). It's been really good and really helpful so far, and the people in it seem to be really nice so it's all smiles about that. I'm putting in a lot of effort to work on my german so far, it's all very well messing about at uni in the UK, but here I don't want to waste the one chance I have to really move forward in languages, because an erasmus year isn't even a fraction as simple to resit. So i'm pulling out all of the stoppers and just going for it, I'll never forgive myself if I don't make the most of it.

I'm missing all of my friends, family, and not to mention the wonderful bf like you wouldn't believe. It's really an amazing place here, but the one thing it really lacks is all of the people I love the most in the world. I suppose being away from everything and everyone I know will get easier with time and the more I get to know my surroundings and the people here. Sometimes I do feel really lonely, and despite Graz as a place being great, at times I do just want to go home and back to the comfort of my friends and family, to a place that I know I definitely fit in, and not have to make such a massive effort in everything I do. It's early days yet, the first few weeks were always going to be the hardest with trying to build some sort of life from near nothing, but fingers crossed things are going to keep getting better!

Bis spaeter!

Lauren  x