Hello all, my name's Joe and I'm currently doing my EVS project in the town of Klagenfurt, Austria, where I'm working for 12 months in the office of the Landesjugendreferat Kärnten - the youth department of the regional government. I got here at the beginning of September, and was welcomed by Heidi, my boss and mentor, who picked me up from the airport and showed me to my accommodation before taking me out to try some of the local cuisine (which is amazing, I hasten to add!). I'm living in a student hall attached to the university in the town, and my room is basically a small studio flat - bedroom, bathroom and a little cooking area are all included. At the project so far I'm mainly helping out in and around the office, doing odd admin tasks related to the office's work as the EVS sending organisation for this part of Austria. I'm in the fortunate position of having studied German before, so the language isn't posing too many difficulties - although I am having a bit of trouble getting the hang of the local dialect, which is idiosyncratic to say the least. I've also had the opportunity to take a 3 week language course at the university, which was really useful and has also helped me make friends among the Erasmus students studying here. The hall where I live is very international, full of students from across the world, and it's been really interesting to get to know them all. I've also been attending far too many dodgy student parties, but that's neither here nor there...
I've also managed to do a bit of travelling, with visits to Graz, Salzburg and most recently Vienna for my on-arrival training. The latter especially was really rewarding, as I got to meet volunteers from all over Europe working across Austria. Doing an EVS really makes you feel part of an international community, and already I feel like I'm making some great friendships through it.
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