Week 7: Aromatics and Chromatics

Hello everyone!

Remember that time I bragged about being super on time? Yeah that ship sailed approximately two weeks ago, but luckily has returned. Or at least we hope so.

So I'm gonna be filling you in on my week from two weeks ago, the 10th to the 17th.

As I said last time, I had a visitor!! I'm going to keep it a secret for a little, but we'll get there.


But! He didn't show up until Friday, so for the rest of the week.. I honestly just took it easy! Watched a lot of TV and slept. The watching Netflix part was a mistake, but we'll get there next week.



Remember when I was registering for classes and felt really proud of myself because "hey at least I have a marketing class which will be helpful for completing my Business minor?" yeah. well. Didn't quite pan out that way.

How it did pan out was I got wait listed for that class and was told to go to said class. It was at 8:15 am (which is at least a few hours too early to be awake) and was ready to show this wait list who is going to do the waiting. But what ended up happening was I lost track of time, missed my bus, got very lost on the way there and was around half an hour late to the class. Praying that everyone else thought it would be too early, I decided to walk in anyway, sweaty and incredibly nervous (not that that's new).

The professor was mid-lecture. Oh god. He stopped mid-sentence and said, "Hi there. Name please?" I felt 30 pairs of eyes on me and my eyes must have bulged out of my head.

"Uh. Kim... Toich. T-o-i-c-h." Nailed it. It was better than I could have expected out of panicky, sleepy Kim.

The professor looked at a piece of paper I assumed was the roster, then looked confused and something seemed to dawn on him. He looked up with a half-smile and said "You're on the wait list, aren't you."

I managed to get out a "yeah" but mostly just coughed a lot.

"Sorry, but there are no more spaces left, if you stay on the wait list, you'll be more likely to get this class next semester." I thanked him and left. No class and being up early means you get to go back to bed.

and WELL. There goes that academic plan. But the good news is I might maybe get that class next semester...hooray?


On a significantly less sad note, more food adventures!

On Thursday I got some udon noodles. I opted for veggie udon noodles because I like to pretend I'm healthy and in really good shape. You would have probably believed that too, had I not said anything.




ALSO got some amazing Tiramisu while I was waiting for my special super secret mystery guest.



This bakery has been across the street from my apartment building and I never thought that I should go and get some cake. I am not perfect.





BUT I got to pick up Mike after!!!!!!!! He has been travelling through Europe since early October and wanted to visit me! I'm sure the free housing didn't hurt.


The most obvious thing I had to do was to get him some wiener schnitzel. Like what else were we supposed to do?



And he totally loved it! Who am I kidding, OF COURSE he did.

The next day we went to the farmer's market! (and I did too for the first time)



From my tram stop and here's it up close and personal:



There are so many stands! It's really cute. My main problem was that it was hard to understand some of their accents. I would say my German at this point is getting pretty good, however some of the Austrians there had really thick accents and stuck to them. But I made it through and that's what counts!

We spent the rest of the day napping and watching Modern Family because sometimes it's a good idea to take a break from life! But then we broke that by going to my friend's birthday party later that night. Here's us and my aforementioned fellow American, Hailey.



When in doubt, mirror selfie it out.

The next day, we went to the Opera House! I hadn't been yet, but we went to Tristan and Isolde, which was incredibly long.... but also incredibly cheap! So we decided to go. A smart thing to do would have been to look up a summary before hand because it was in German and I was pretty lost.

but the Opera House itself was incredible! It made me feel like an idiot for wearing jeans. But in my defense, it was laundry day.



the interior was even better somehow, as if that's not enough of a postcard.



Later that night, we climbed to the top of Schloßberg, which I mentioned in my first blog post I believe. I do not have any good pictures because it was about 9pm when we climbed it.

And afterwords, like real American citizens, we went to McDonald's.




And no I have not tried the waffle fries yet. but I do want to. I also found out you can buy beer there! Which again, so weird to me.

The next day we decided, why not go to Hallstatt? So we did just that. And we climbed to the top of the mountain behind the cute little village. And this place is SO CUTE. It honestly looks so cute I think it's fake.

In this set of three pictures, I want to make it clear how great of a photographer I am by placing my finger slightly over the camera EVERY. TIME. Hire me for your weddings.



I believe that the reason the first two are almost identical is because I realized my finger was slightly in the picture and then tried to redo it.

Anyway we had to cross that lake to get into the little town and the lake was amazing.



And then we got there. and again, SO CUTE.

 

So anyway, we decided to climb to the top of the mountain that you see in the background of the first picture. Mike is in significantly better shape than I am, but I did my best. Also turns out that the reason I was so bad at hiking was because I was starting to get sick. The next day I had a fever. Again, more on that next post. (it gets worse)

So we climbed and it took us around three, maybe four hours. This was mostly because I had to take a lot of breaks. But wow. the view every time it wasn't obstructed with trees!


Here's a waterfall that I eventually got to the top of



This was the view from above the waterfall



Sometimes I can't stress enough that these pictures I'm taking really look fake. I promise I was there. Here's my feet on the bridge above that waterfall.



I could also just be a liar and really good at photoshop. You'll never know for sure.

We also stumbled upon a little wooden gazebo that seemingly everyone signed their name on. I decided to go with that trend.



This was also the wrong date, as it was the 17th at the time. I changed it after taking the picture don't worry. But here's halfway up if that helps.



So I didn't take any more pictures until we got to the top because I was grumpy and tired. But let's all take a second and take in this view. The view from the top of the mountain.



This was the overlook I couldn't really get a good picture of because EVERYONE WAS THERE. Tourists, am I right? (this is funny because I am the definition of a tourist). That being said, MORE PICTURES.



If you look at the white path in the third picture, that's what we walked up. The second one might only be halfway up. My pictures got out of order!


So after that, we had to climb back down and catch a train. But of course I took more lake pictures.




That's all for this time! My next blog post from last week should be going up in the next few days. Thanks for going on this adventure with me!

Week 6: "Do you even have classes?" and The Adjustment

Welcome back to my blog! This week was...

Honestly not very eventful. I will give a brief overview and want to talk a little bit about how I've been doing!

This week seemed mostly food centered, sleep, and class centered. Minus the class that sounds like a perfect week to me!

More travels and adventures next week when I have my first visitor!!!!!!!! (Mystery guest if you're reading this I can't wait for you to get here!!!)



This is spinach ravioli and a turkey breast that I put a bunch of seasoning on.
I probably use too much garlic but will always complain about not having enough garlic.

A couple of fun food things I did not make include

This plate of bruschetta and




These gigantic pizzas. These are the small size.
(and also Hailey. She requested to be in this one so I can make her famous)

Also this week in food: I tried a döner kebap. Which if you've never had one I feel bad for you. But it's basically the gyro's middle eastern cousin. And I love him.



It's HUGE. I paid three euro for this, and here it is compared to my face.



They are about the same size. I barely even finished it!


I also started class this week!! So that means shopping for school supplies...
and I discovered that we have different folders here. They honestly still confuse me.



See the flaps on the right side? you put the paper behind those flaps. All of them.

It's still hard for me and I probably look hilarious putting paper in it. I imagine that the Austrians who bear witness to my gracefulness probably say something along the lines of "There goes that American girl trying to put a piece of paper in her folder again! How long do you think it'll take her this time? Five minutes? Nah, that's a bit quick."


Aaaaaand after redoing my schedule about 7 times, I finally have a full class schedule!

Which is 8 classes. Isn't that insane? The credits system here works a bit differently so most of my classes here are only worth 1.5-3 credits, depending on the class and frequency of the class. I also only have them once a week which I love. But I also did manage to get Fridays off. Which is my favorite thing to have free!




I've only had three classes so far because for some reason most of them didn't start this week!
I also am taking a religion class that's fully in German. and it was interesting! I surprisingly got most of what my professor was saying so I am very thankful.

My favorite thing was probably that my professor for that class was originally from France but spoke fluent German. She made a joke about having an accent, but I didn't mind because she was so focused on speaking correctly that she was speaking very clearly and well. Whereas when someone asked a question, it would be very fast and slang was sometimes used so while I understood the lecture, I often got lost when someone was asking a question.

I absolutely took a nap after that class. (although I tend to take a nap after every class... I like naps.)



On Thursday I went to an ABC party which means Anything But Clothes and before you get scared that this was something scandalous, don't worry! The goal is to make an outfit out of things that are not clothes.

After about two hours of mild frustration, I made a dress.



I made this out of a bed sheet and some garbage bags. I didn't even use safety pins! (Mostly because I couldn't find them but found them immediately after I finished...)



I did not cut it, I did not sew it. Just knotted it and tied it with a garbage bag. Project Runway, here I come. For my Project Runway fans, this dress is NOT blood orange. It's red.


Also, today I got to Skype with my parents for the first time! Except my video camera broke two minutes into the call... thanks laptop.

They did not want to be included in my blog but Minnie certainly did. She was born a star.




This week has given me a lot of time to reflect. I've been asked a few times what it's like to be studying abroad and there are tons of articles on "why studying abroad changed my life" or "why you need to study abroad immediately". And I would like to talk about that a little and the biggest question I get about studying abroad. If this catches on, I totally wouldn't mind answering your questions at the end of every blog post!

Q: How was the adjustment?

A: Hard. That's the easiest place to start. I have actually never been outside of the United States before this program. I've said that thousands of times but it's still an important thing that I try to keep in mind. The farthest I've ever been from my hometown is southern Florida and the longest I've been away is 3, maybe 4 months. And now I am about 5000 miles away and will not be home until February. It was incredibly overwhelming. Because I'm away from all of my friends (and my dog) and my family. I knew going into it that this would be the case but I didn't realize how lonely it would feel. It sounds obvious I know. But, for example, when I'm upset sometimes it's hard to just call a friend or family member because they're probably asleep! And while I've absolutely met some excellent, supportive people, I felt weird at first talking to people I didn't know too well about how I was feeling. That stopped quickly too because I realized everyone else is feeling like that too.

But it seems like the biggest breakthrough for me was to rely on myself more. Which I definitely assumed I was more independent. I really thought it was weird that I wasn't being myself for a little. I was thrown off completely by this new environment, along with the new language! Even smaller things like having a room to myself for the first time or having to cook for myself now completely throwing me off and I noticed I wasn't as outgoing as usual and actually felt really shy. I wanted to make friends so bad but at the same time, kind of couldn't.

What helped also was talking to other people who studied abroad last semester in England talked to me about it when I was feeling particularly down. . She said "I spent so much of my trip feeling guilty for being unhappy and it made me feel bad because no one understood. Everyone said "it'll be the best experience of your life!" and no one prepared you for the hard part".

Knowing that someone else actually felt that way too made me realize that I would also be just fine!



I went to Austria and knew I'd make friends, but I didn't realize that I'd make friends with myself. I underestimated how important that relationship is and can see already that I'm more self-reliant, more confident, and more happy over all. Of course I miss my friends back home (they know that for a fact, I'm sure, because I try to annoy them when I can) but I'm excited to make more friends here and to keep working on myself. It's been quite the journey.

Writing this blog also helped so much! It helps me feel more connected with everyone back home and makes me reflect more on my travels.



That being said, I made a survey (click here) where I'd like to know what you'd like to see out of my blog in future posts. It's one question and a comment box AND it's anonymous. I would love to know your opinions so I can improve my blog wherever necessary.

(just in case that didn't work, here's the link again: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/83TW58G)

See you next week!

Week 5: The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Class Registration

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my (punctual) adventures!

This week has been full of travels, museums and scheduling classes. Let's get into it.

So when we last left off, it was my first day in Salzburg. Because we got there a little later, there wasn't anything good open, so we scheduled a Sound of Music Tour for the following morning, because as you may or may not know, the Sound of Music was mostly filmed in Salzburg.

Then, we journeyed into the city to get some dinner. It was surprisingly really hard to find a restaurant because everything was pretty much packed, which was surprising for a Tuesday night!

We finally found a restaurant and I impulsively picked a beef goulash with a dumpling. I have never had that before in my life but I absolutely made the right decision.



This was actually one of the best meals I've ever had. Like, in my entire life. It was absolutely incredible and thinking about it now is making me hungry...it's also almost dinner time anyway so there's my excuse.

So like I said, the Sound of Music Tour!!! This was so much fun. It was a 5 hour long bus tour that took us around to the different filming locations in Salzburg and slightly outside of Salzburg where the movie was filmed. This was SO much fun and I was so excited. I want to share a lot of this because I know a lot of my friends and family absolutely love this movie.



Our first stop was the back of the Von Trapp house. There isn't one house where it was filmed, there were actually three different ones! For this one, the grounds were used including the lake. If you remember the part where Maria and the kids fall into the lake, that was this lake!

As for the other two places where the house scenes were filmed, I'll get to one but the interior was filmed in a studio unfortunately.

Even the bus ride in between stops was incredibly beautiful. Here is a fortress I ended up going to later from a distance. It's the castle on top of the mountain!



So our next stop was Schloss Hellbrunn. This was not a filming site but is where the gazebo from Sixteen Going on Seventeen was located. It had to be moved multiple times because it was not kept under a watchful eye and was often vandalized. But here it is!


More sad news, they lock it because someone tripped and hurt themselves in the gazebo. You know I would have done the song and dance right?



There were an incredibly large amount of tourists crowding this thing so getting this picture took a lot of waiting and a miracle. I'm still hurt that I couldn't sing inside of it.

Next, we drove past the house where the outside scenes were filmed for the movie. So this house was used just as the outside! Unfortunately, it was owned by someone else and we didn't have time to go see it AND I couldn't get a good picture of it! I was pretty mad.

I did get a good picture of the Abbey. And they did film here too! They just didn't use the interior of the building.



and by "good picture" I really mean "pretty passable". Anyway, the abbey is that building on the right side with the red roof.

Next, we drove out to the beautiful town of Mondsee where the wedding scene was filmed. I'll get to the church in a second but wow this town is incredibly beautiful.



So we went into town, but first: FOOD. This was the fanciest (and probably best) salami sandwich I have ever had.



Next, I wandered around Mondsee and stopped at the church first.



I also bought some post cards because of my wall of post cards that I need to add to.

After that, I bought an ice cream cone and looked out over the lake. I have to go back to that town!!


Our final stop was Schloss Mirabell, where parts of Do Re Mi were filmed.



Recognize these stairs?



After that, the tour was officially over, but we wandered around the gardens. Here's some of the pictures I took!







Next I went into the palace for a little. It's now a concert hall so I didn't go in many rooms, just walked around! Here is what it looks like from the outside.



And then the inside!






I also stumbled upon a room that I was allowed to be in so here's that!





Next, we went to the fortress in Salzburg, which was where the ruling class would sometimes stay. It was a good place for them to have, because they could see all of Salzburg from there and they could see potential attackers coming as well.

The walk there was so nice! I noticed a lot of figures from Greek mythology in their sculptures and monuments. This fountain of what I assume to be Poseidon was my favorite.



So we bought our tickets and took a train up the mountain to get to the fortress.

Inside of the fortress, it was like a tiny town! There were little restaurants there, but we went to the Museum first. It was about the people who used to defend the fortress and their experiences in different wars throughout history. It also had a few rooms dedicated to the Archbishop who expanded the fortress.



Also being up so high allowed me to get some excellent pictures of Salzburg.



And we went to a restaurant on top of the fortress (food pic to follow) and I got probably my favorite picture so far.



At the restaurant I got spinach dumplings. There was a lot of cheese on them. 



So after we left, we took a little walk through Salzburg and I found a door that Batman must have JUST punched.



Salzburg is also the birthplace of Mozart, so there was tons of stuff in his honor.


It's still crazy how that was just one day. Felt eventful enough to be 5.

So we left Salzburg Thursday morning and headed back to Graz.



It was the last few days of class registration. Let me tell you something, that has not been fun.
Classes work so completely different. First of all, my classes haven't started yet! They start this week. Also classes generally just meet once a week and the amount of credits per class varies. Where in America it's 3 credits per class, I have some 6 credit classes, some 3, some 4. It's measured in ECTS which is the European credits system and to convert, 2 ECTS is 1 American credit. I will be taking 31 ECTS which is 15.5 American credits BUT I have 8 classes!

Wish me luck.

I am taking a class in German called Introduction to Glaciology because pretty much everything else was closed and I needed more credits! Should be interesting.

I decompressed from all the travelling and class registration disasters by putting up my postcards



AND by watching a lot of Batman: The Animated Series.



I'm a little addicted.

Have a great week everyone and if you ever have any questions or comments, always feel free to comment or message me directly. I would love to answer any questions you may have!