Day 21: June 3rd, My Goodbye to Austria

While I did not go home to the US when everyone else did I still had quite the long travel day. It honestly felt a lot like being on a plane for six hours because I didn't get up at all (I had no idea where food or bathrooms where on the train). This gave me a lot of time to think about different things. I thought a lot about Austria and how I was going to miss it. I thought about what I was going to do in Germany, since I still didn't have a plan for that. Strangely enough I did feel a little homesick, but not really for America per say but for my parents. They are like my best friends so I miss seeing them. Of  all these things though I thought a lot about myself and how I was going to go forward after this adventure. In all honesty I really don't feel like I have changed much, I never do. I just continue with my life and hope I do good things to help improve the world with things I have learned. I've leaned so much on this trip too, not just history and culture, but real world things I can use on campus or just in my life. I am thankful to Austria for al the things it has taught me. I feel like I can't do justice to its beauty, amazement, and spirit in words. I am going to miss it so much. Like other adventure though I will return home, make a scrapbook, stay in touch with people I went with. A walk through each day knowing that theres a special place in my mind and soul for Austria and its people. This blog really isn't long because I am so tired (and still on European time). Just know that I am extremely grateful for the chance to go on this trip, and I don't regret a single moment of it. Thank you for everything, and have a good night! So Long, Farewell! (also my computer is misbehaving again so I will post picture later)

Day 20: June 2nd, Ground Control to Major Tom...

Today was the end, the real last day in Vienna and all day all I could think of was the song Space Oddity by David Bowie. Much like how the chorus goes it felt weird to go through city once more before I left. I seemed to float along melancholy way remembering all the great times I had and reminiscing on all the things I have learned. I may not have learned the same things as the other students but I felt like I was relearning things I knew. In a way this trip retaught me several things. It taught me to be optimistic again, to aim for higher ideals, and dream of the ways I can help others. There were so many things that Vienna does that I could see be implemented in the US or even on campus. It taught me to believe in myself again and to teach myself that my independence isn't a curse but a strong trait to have. It taught me that even though I may not agree with the current state of my country I can still be proud to be from there, and I can make the change I want to see there. I feel like I will always hold the experiences that taught me these things close to my heart. While I did so many fun and exciting things, the most educational things were the places we would go and just listen to other perspectives. Like the Shades Tours where we learned about the homeless situation in Vienna, I never imagine and system like that but seeing it at work just made me think how that could be done in the US. There was also the day we visited Krems and learned about the health care system. I learned so many new things about how the rest of the world works in help and learned good and bad things. One of the most inspiring things for me was hearing the presentation in the US Embassy, because here was a professional women who was married and still had a family, but was able to travel and help change the world in her own way. I never really thought I could be able to do that as a career but it is possible you just have to look for the opportunities. It was inspiring to see and I enjoyed learning about the whole process of forge in service. Really just being abroad was in a way refreshing for me. After being surrounded by pretty like minded people in college (they do have different ways of thinking I just talk to the same people quite often) it was exciting to hear from people from a culture I didn't have much experience with. It's really hard to say what I am going to miss the most about Austria (especially since I am not going to far for the time being). I have to say I definitely will be the leisure time, relaxation, and their tap water. I will also miss the small things though like riding the U, seeing all the interesting people there, the sheer number of bakeries, and I think strangle enough I will miss the Vienna State Opera House. It was my first real impression of Vienna and I really fell in love with the building and what it does on the first day. Being able to go inside and see a stunning ballet performance there too just made the Opera House one of my favorite places to go. I am going to miss walking by it on my way to AAIE. It's really hard to say in total though what I miss and what I learned here, because you don't really realize it until it happens to you. Perhaps one day I will run into a situation where something from Vienna will help me be a better person, or I will go to fill up my water bottle months later and still remember the good taste of the tap water. I look forward to seeing how I grow from here on out, after all Austria is a part of my heart now. Until next time Austria.

Day 19: June 1st, To Reminisce Is A Beautiful Thing

I know I said that today was the beginning of the end, well today was the part right before the climax. Today we deregistered from the country so we could leave on Sunday, and while the process was quite painless I was quite sad doing it. It was one of the first solid steps to leaving Vienna and after the last few weeks I am really sad to have to leave. Even though I did quite a bit of adventuring in my time here I felt like there were still so many adventures to be had. I may have just been a visitor to the city I was really starting to feel comfortable with how things work. Deregistering felt like I was losing part of my identity in Vienna, I was just a regular tourist now. In way though I am not regular in the slightest after this trip. I have learned so much about Vienna's history, culture, and inner workings that if I ever returned I could handle myself well and see things that I have already seen. This experience has been a joyous one, and I may be sad to lave but I know I will always have my memories of my time here. Strange enough the most uncomfortable I felt really during our trip (besides the obvious language barrier) was when visiting the U.S. Embassy. While I loved visiting ad thought the presentation was very interesting and inspiring, considering how I am looking for careers I could travel with, I just felt like I had come back to the U.S. too suddenly in a way. A bit like being thrown into cold water very suddenly, you know you will adjust to it but the shock is still here. I guess it was early on set reverse culture shock.

In all seriousness though experiencing Austrian culture was very interesting because I didn't feel quite like an other most of the time. After all most of the people here look like me in a way, they speak english, and are still polite in there own way. I know the purpose of this trip was to fee like the "other" in a culture that wasn't yours, but after ll my interactions with my interaction friends a lot of the things that would make me feel like an other I was used to. After all my international friends often didn't always speak english around me, we had different ideas about how things worked, and we had culture differences that we worked through. When I came to Austria I tried to handle myself the same way I would around my friends, and so I didn't feel too much like an other. I did sometimes for example when someone would say joke in german to me, or a culture difference would come up and didn't know how to handle it, or even getting used to simple things like relying heavily on coins. For me though these challenges we face in a different country are part of the adventure of traveling. It is to get our of your comfort zone and learn something new, and I wouldn't trade anything for the the awkward moments I experienced to feel comfortable at home all summer. To explain study abroad in hashtag I would probably use #gobeyondyourbounds. I often feel like we hold ourself back in different ways not just in study abroad, but I feel like in order to experience it fully you must go beyond what you think you can do and just go for it. On the other hand though I would say study abroad is like a sentence from a poem my Mom read to me quite often "Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence." For me this means that when you study abroad don't try and stick to your ways too much, become and chameleon and bend into the culture in order to learn something new about the world and yourself. You ay just find a peace in yourself in all the chaos that you never knew you had. I am so glad I was able to go on this trip, and I wouldn't change any experience in the world. They are all unique to me, and I hold them near and dear to my heart. Tomorrow is my last official day in Vienna and I plan to make the most of it. Until tomorrow then!

Day 18: May 31st, The Beginning of The End

All great things must come to an end, and the end must always begin somewhere. The end of my time of Vienna been when I opened my suitcase and started packing. For me that symbolizes the end of an amazing trip that I will remember for the rest of my life. Even though this day is the beginning of the end for me, I am not going out without a fight. So on this peaceful Thursday  decided to do two things: go to a going away party for some students I had meet, and attend the Summer Concert for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. After all before I left for Vienna I was told by my music majors that it wouldn't be a trip to Vienna without seeing a classical concert (so a free concert in the park seemed like an obvious idea). Before that though I went to the going away party for the girls I share my host house with. They had been really sweet to me while we stayed together so I really wanted to go and support them. It was interesting for me to go and see some cult differences in person with the idea of swimming and different foods that are traditional. With swimming it was seen more as a way to relax and cool off than exercise (which is really the same for many Americans it just seemed different with them). The food was first off incredible and second really kind of interesting. IT was amid of things we had and things I would never expect at a pool party. For instance in Austria some people eat radishes whole, a bit like an apple. They also included many foods I would consider fancy dinner foods like a cheese board, bread, and sausages. I really had a good time talking to the adults about different topics, including making a great game plan for the concert. I enjoyed all the food and learning more about Austrian culture. Sadly I had a concert to catch so I hurried off to catch a train (which ended up being a bus) to get a good spot for the concert.

I really would like to put in words how amazing the concert was, but I don't think I can do it justice. To start there were a large number of people there I honestly felt like I was a t a football game in America with all the excitement and competing for the best spot. The wait for the concert was also really exhausting since i had to stand for two plus hours just to have a good spot. Luckily I made some friends with some girls from Quebec in Canada who had just started working as doctors there. They were very nice and we talked a lot about traveling, cultures, and the excitement for the concert. Once the concert began all the pain of standing and waiting was immediately worth it. I could have stayed for just one song and have been satisfied, the music was that beyond amazing. The lights that lit up Schonbrunn Palace beautifully and expertly set the mood for the different songs. In a way this concert was a lot like how the Super Bowl is to us. I even saw a bar playing the concert on TV (the concert was broadcasted live to city). I could feel the love for music all around, every bit of pain of standing was worth the beauty of that evening. It will definitely be a stand out in my memories of Vienna. Even now as I look back I start to pick out special moments. There are so many great experiences I have had here, and I don't regret a minute of this trip. Some stand outs are really the whole week in the Alps, exploring museums in Vienna, and really just learning Vienna as a city. Learning how to get places fast, where good food it, how to find cheap bathrooms, even the not as glamorous moments of walking through the city to get from one place to the next. With each moment I could just admire and wonder about the city and its stories. I get quite sad with the thought of leaving, I have really fallen in love with the city. I hope someday I can return, still there are a free days left, and I tend to make the most of them. Until next time!