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!
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