March 4, 2018

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 difficult. I even went to talk to the director at the International Office and she told me that it would be very difficult to schedule for classes now that registration is closed. I emailed all my advisors at W&J and asked for advice and help in finding classes. My German Professor found me two classes that I could take, however one was during the time of my German class and the other was about Beach Body Advertising. At this point, this class is just a desperate reach. This would not count for any of my majors and is not something I was interested in. I was so “done” with this schedule drama. I did not even care anymore. After a few emails with my German professor, she recommended that I could take another language course at the Sprachenzentrum. I was thrilled to hear this and immediately signed up for beginning Arabic. I had always wanted to take Arabic and this would save me from taking a class that I wouldn’t be interested in. Additionally, if I had tried getting into more Seminar classes, that would just mean more papers, exams, and presentations for me. No thanks! I find learning a new language to be much more valuable. I want to enjoy my time here, not be swamped with work. Now this would be my third foreign language course here: German, Russian, and Arabic. I am super excited for these languages, but I know that it will be a challenge. I did end up getting into a history course as well. So, I now have a full schedule and I am satisfied.

Now a culture update: I am shocked at the unwillingness to help here. I was obviously having a hard time scheduling for classes. Besides a few emails of course suggestions from professors, no one went above and beyond to help me. And as I am an international student, I expected to have a bunch of people willing to help me. I guess this was a bit of a culture shock. I know that at W&J, I can email any professor and they would be willing to help me. I could even knock on a professor’s door that I didn’t even know, and they would sit down with me to figure out my schedule problems. This just was not the case here. There was no one willing to look through classes with me, ask about my interests, look at my other classes. Nope. I am disappointed. Adding onto the unwillingness to help, Justin and I have been going around the city to find our classes. We have an address of where the class is but often have difficulty finding the classroom. We have our phones out, are looking all around, looking at maps, and no one even stops to ask if we need help. People obviously see us but run right by and carry on with their lives. I realize it’s a culture thing here: everyone keeps to themselves. I just find it to be incredibly rude. How hard would it be to ask “hey, do you guys need help finding anything.” At my school, upperclassmen have helped me when I looked lost during the first week of classes and I have helped the freshman this year. It’s just a common gesture to do. So in summary, Americans are much kinder and much more helpful than Europeans.

The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) puts on events every day leading up to the beginning of classes for the international students to meet one another while getting to know the city. I went to my first ESN event on Wednesday with Justin. The event was a tour of the gardens of Schönbrunn palace. There were probably 40 or so international students that showed up. Everyone met in front of the palace and it was quite awkward. Most people came with people they already knew so they only talked to those people. Eventually, two older girls came and started the “tour”. I must say, this was the worst tour I have ever been on. These girls had no idea what they were talking about. They did not speak up and were just very unprofessional. I felt like they were forced to do the tour. For example, we would walk past a fountain and they would say, “and here is a fountain.” We would all stop and there would just be a few minutes of silence. We all looked around at each other thinking, “Is that it?” To add to this disaster of a tour, it was absolutely freezing, and the pathways were frozen with ice. I slipped many of times. Towards the end of the “tour,” I began talking to two students. One was from Australia and the other was from Norway. They were both very nice. Students started to leave and eventually there were just nine of us left. We all decided to go to a restaurant together. All of us were from different countries which was cool. If I remember correctly there was: America, Canada, Australia, Norway, England, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Croatia. I had good conversations with all of them and we even made a group chat. I just don’t think I found that good friend yet. I was very sad after that day.

The next day, I went to another ESN event which was Schnitzel Eating. How could I pass up Schnitzel? I was the first person to arrive at the restaurant. I got the times mixed up. Eventually, another boy came in, saw me, and sat by himself at another table. How rude can you be? More people started coming in and no one was sitting with me. So, I grabbed my glass and sat at the long table with everyone else. Seats around me started to fill in and I began talking with people. My first conversation was with a girl from France. She only spoke German or French, so this was a great opportunity for me to use my German. A girl sitting across from me is from Ireland and she spoke German as well. Us three spoke in German throughout the whole dinner. Another girls across from me was from England. To my left was a girl from Cyprus and across from her was a girl from Brazil. Both girls were very nice. Next to these two girls were two guys from Poland. These four were in a friend group. At the end of the dinner, they all got my number and even added me in a group chat with them. This was very nice of them. Again though, I don’t think I have met that good group of friends yet. Schnitzel eating was better than the palace.

Now for my apartment. My bed is kind of small, but it is tolerable. The kitchen is tiny and is a disappointment. We don’t even have an oven. There is just a hot plate and a microwave. So, when I moved in, I had flatmates from Finland, Belgium, and Paris. Apparently, Paris moved out and a guy from Switzerland moved in. I met Switzerland. I think his name is Sandro but for now I will call everyone by their country. So, Switzerland is from Zurich and is very nice. We have good conversations and he just seems like a cool and nice guy. But then Finland. Finland is getting on my nerves. So, my room is right next to the kitchen and his room is across from mine. When he needs to go to the bathroom, he leaves his room and literally stomps down the hallway and slams the bathroom door. When he is in the kitchen, he bashes all his pots and pans together. He is just very noisy and the noise he makes is unnecessary and can be avoided. What annoys me even more is his nosiness. Anytime he hears my door open or that I am in the kitchen, he will come out of his room and walk to the bathroom, throw something in the trash, wash a dish, or “get something from the refrigerator.” I don’t know if he wants to see what I am cooking or… I don’t even know. I just find it to be annoying. Like please let me have my privacy and my space. So fast forward to Friday night. Switzerland is in the kitchen and I am also in the kitchen washing dishes. We start having a conversation and then Finland comes out of his room and butts into our conversation and starts talking to Switzerland. They start talking about food and alcohol, so I just went and sat in my room. They have similar interests, so they bonded over that. I just thought it was rude of Finland to interrupt. The next morning, I finally got to talk to Switzerland alone. I asked if we could speak only in German and he said of course because it would be easier for him. Belgium doesn’t give me any issues. He is never here. I think I overheard him talking to Switzerland that he is moving to another apartment soon, so we will see what happens.

Laundry is on the very bottom floor of my apartment. I bought some detergent and did my laundry on Saturday morning. There are only two washers and two dryers. You must pay 2,50 for a wash and dryers are free. I put my clothes in the washer, put the soap in the wrong place, paid and everything seemed to work out. I transferred my clothes to the dryer and hit “auto normal dry.” It did not give me a time, so I just thought I would wait an hour and come back down. I came back down, and my clothes were still wet. I went back upstairs, showered, came back down and my clothes were then dry. They were very wrinkly and stiff. I might try adding fabric softener next time. I did not have a hamper, so I used two shopping bags to carry my laundry. I felt stupid, but hey, it worked.

I may have mentioned this before, but I was planning a trip to Malta and Italy. I had some people interested in going. To make this short, people started pulling out because of conflicting events, cost, and just that there were not enough people to go. I was very upset. I really wanted to go on this trip. Now I have nothing to do the first week of Spring Break. Justin is going to visit his friend in Copenhagen, so I will see if I can come with him. I have spent the past few days planning trips for my parents when they come. So far, I have trips booked to Bratislava, Budapest, and Salzburg. I booked a Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg and I hope that my mom will enjoy this. I am trying to book busses to Graz, Austria but yesterday there was a report of fraud on my credit card. I called Dollar Bank and got it straightened out but still cannot purchase the tickets. I really want to go to 10 new countries but I do not know if that will happen now that the Malta and Italy trip is cancelled and I do not really have a group of friends to travel with. There is an ESN trip to Romania on March 15 but they have not opened registration yet. Justin talked to a lady from ESN and she said that they are having problems arranging the hotels. I don’t think this trip will happen. They should reschedule it for later in the semester. I really want to go on this trip though. After my first week of classes, I will start to plan my trips for my Magellan. I hope to plan more trips in the future.