Study Abroad 2018

Today I went to Hallstatt which is a tiny town of about 750 people in Western Austria. I went with the Erasbus which provides cheap travel opportunities to Erasmus students. I went with my friend Justin from Canada, Pantelitsa from Cyprus, Pamela from Brazil, and Jan and Maciej from Poland. I was not expecting to have so many friends on this trip but I was super excited to know so many people. The bus ride was about four hours. We stopped at a rest stop about two hours in. We stayed at the rest stop for about thirty minutes. I thought that this was a bit excessive. As we got closer to Hallstatt, the scenery changed and was incredibly beautiful. Huge mountains surrounded our bus. I was amazed. The scenery is stunning. I’ve never seen anything like it. . We arrived in Hallstatt and I was in awe. This tiny town is incredible. The houses are built on the steep mountain and sit just before a huge lake. On the other side of the lake are huge mountains. We took an hour tour of this small t...

I have now visited my third country, Romania! I left on a Thursday night and came back... well I’ll get to that later. Thursday night: all participating students met in front of the main University building. I got there a bit early and I didn’t know anyone. I knew that my friend from Norway would be coming on the trip, but I could not find her anywhere. I began talking to a guy standing near me from Poland. We both wanted to practice our German so this was great for me. He was very nice. He was 26 years old and is working on his Masters. More students arrived. Everyone had suitcases with them. I thought that was ridiculous. For a three day trip, you do not need a suitcase. I ,am aged to fit everything in my backpack and so did the guy from Poland. I spotted my friend from Poland and she introduced me to some of her friends. Finally I met another American! And it turns out that she lives in my building and on my floor. What a small world! We all boarded the bus and I sat with the guy fr...

To today, I went to Bratislava, Slovakia with some friends. Justin from Canada, two girls from Luxembourg, one from Germany, one from Norway, another from the Netherlands, and then a guy from Australia. The bus tickets were only 10 Euro round trip which is really cheap. Justin and I met up at the university and headed to the bus station together. We were the first to arrive. The bus ride was only an hour long and this bus was much more comfortable than the bus I took to Prague. After getting out of the bus, we all went to a restaurant and everyone ate breakfast. I didn’t eat anything since I already had breakfast. After breakfast, we tried to figure out what to do. No one had any plans of what they wanted to see so I pulled up Bratislava attractions on my phone and showed everyone this blue church. Everyone was fine with going there and it was only about a 15 minute walk from the restaurant. The church is quite pretty, although I do not know why it is blue. I then w...

This week was my first week of classes and I am pretty satisfied with how everything went. On Monday, my first class was my German intensive course. Of course, I show up to class an hour early. The building is only a ten minute walk from my apartment. I am a bit scared but this is the class that I am most looking forward to. I really hope that I can improve my German. I have the class every day (Monday-Friday) for two and a half hours until June so I better see some improvement. My class has about 16 people in it. Student in age rage from me (age 20) to probably 60s. I sit next to a girl from Japan and another girl from the Philippines. Both are married. This just gives you an idea that I am not with college students. Most people have been living in Vienna for some period and want to learn the German language. I am the youngest in my class as well as the newest person to be in Vienna. However, I believe that I am at the same level as everyone else in the class. The professor is reall...

This week has had its ups and downs. The disaster of scheduling for classes really had me down this week. I have been de-registered from every class that I had registered for. The main issue is this: to have a class at the University of Vienna count as one class at W&J, the course must be at least 6 ECTS. SE or Seminar classes are usually 6 ECTS or more so seminar classes are my only option. Now these Seminar classes are usually only for master’s students. As I am only a second year bachelor’s student, I cannot get into these seminar courses. This past week, I have emailed probably 10 different professors/faculty asking if they could help me find a course that I could take or if it would be possible for me to take their class. All responded and were very nice and willing to help, they just could not do much. I need to have a BA degree to get into these courses. While I was going through email tag, the date of registration for classes had closed so this also made it quite diffic...

On Monday and Tuesday, I went to Prague with Justin. We left around 9:00 in the morning to get to the bus station. We took Flixbus and it was only a four hour ride. I got the window seat and felt a bit cramped the whole ride. It wasn’t too bad. There was a mom and son that went to the bathroom like twenty times and would not be quiet the whole ride so I found that annoying. We stopped at a rest stop for 15 minutes so I was able to stretch my legs.             We arrived in Prague and it took us about 15 minutes to find our Airbnb. We did not know which bell to ring but a lady came outside and asked if we were the Airbnb people. She was the daughter’s mother that was renting us the home and she took us up to the apartment. The apartment is gorgeous, big, and clean. We got settled in and then headed out to explore. We first exchanged money. The Czech Republic does not use the Euro. I only exchanged 30 Euro. All the streets are ...

     I slept horribly last night. I did not fall asleep until after midnight. I was woken up by someone being very loud in the kitchen. I woke up around 8:30 feeling very tired. I had bought a “half” non-stick pan yesterday and was really hoping that it would work when I cooked eggs. It didn’t Don’t get me wrong, it was much better than the other pan that I was using but still I was not satisfied. Why don’t they use or have cooking spray here? I finished breakfast and I headed out to go meet people for lunch that were interested in going to Malta and Italy with me.             I arrived a few minutes early and no one was there. I texted in the group message that I was there and asked if anyone else was there but no one responded. Probably around 12:10 a girl showed up. She said her other friend would be arriving shortly so we went inside the café. Her name is Isabel and she is from Portugal. Her friend Joana ar...

I did not sleep well last night. It took me a very long time to fall asleep. I am a bit tired. I woke up and did some research for some upcoming trips that I would like to take. As an Erasmus student, I get 15% off on Ryan Air flights. I was testing flights to different locations to see how much they would be and I was surprised to see that a flight from Bratislava to Malta was only 35 Euros. As I had already wanted to go to Italy during spring break, I thought I could easily add Malta into this trip. I made a plan to go to Malta, Rome, and then Milan. This is a very ambitious trip. I would really like to travel with someone.      I finally was able to purchase my semester transportation ticket. My friend Michaela who went to Vienna last year on the same program told me that it usually takes 24 hours for you new address to change in the system. She was right. I am glad that I no longer need to worry about this. After planning trips and buying that pass, I studied a b...

Today I woke up and had breakfast: two rolls and a banana. I then headed out to go to orientation. I had no trouble finding the building, but I was about thirty minutes early. Some other students began to show up and we all tried to figure out where we needed to go. We read a sign on the International Office Door that said to go to another classroom. So we left, and headed towards that classroom. There were five of us. I started talking to a boy from Canada and a girl from California. Both are very nice. Eventually, three Uni Wien workers come in and start talking to us in German. Everyone just stared blankly at them. They then asked if we were here for the Orientation and we said yes. But apparently, this was an orientation for EU students only and would be held in German. The lady told us to go back to the international office and said that Siina, the lady in charge of International stuff, started ten minutes ago. So the five of us went back down to the International Office and g...

Today is my first day in Vienna for my study abroad. I am a bit tired from my flights. Let me talk about my airport adventures first. I arrive in Pittsburgh airport and go to the United Airline check in counter to check in my bags and I find out that I needed to pay an extra $100 for my second suitcase. I had thought that this fee was already paid for as we discussed the two-bag policy with our travel agent. My mother was not happy but there was nothing we could do about it. My flight to Newark was a bit delayed. The plane started to move and then the captain came on and said that the air traffic controllers did not give him the ok to go. So we sat on the runway for 50 minutes, waiting. Eventually, we took off. The flight was only 44 minutes, the shortest flight I have ever been on. I exited the plane and headed to my next connecting flight.             In Newark, one must take a terminal bus to get from terminal C (Where I l...