Introduction
I am excited to say that I have survived my first week in Austria! It may not be as eventful as some other people’s first week of travel, but I still wanted to share it with you. A lot of times, I only show you the most exciting parts of my life. The reality is that not every day is full of life-changing adventures. The reality of my life is just trying to make it through day by day.
Also, I should clarify that I left on the 12th and arrived on the 13th. I just landed in the evening and went to sleep almost immediately so it’s not super interesting.
January 14:
I spent the 14th trying to recover from 20 hours of travel. I got settled into my new room as best as I could. I knew that using packing cubes would be helpful for saving space and keeping my suitcase organized but I didn’t think they would be helpful for anything else…especially after two of them broke. However, it made the process of emptying my luggage and sorting my clothes into the dresser and wardrobe much more tolerable. This whole entire day is honestly a blur. I don’t think I was able to do much else.
January 15:
After doing nothing the day before, I decided I would venture out and explore. I went to the biggest international mall in Vienna by myself. There is a store called, “Søstrene Grene,” that I discovered in Belfast, Northern Ireland almost four years ago. It’s basically an Ikea version of a craft supplies/stationery store. What’s not to love? The one thing that’s not to love is that there aren’t any store locations in the US and they don’t sell their products online (at least as of the last time I checked). This store happened to be at the mall along with another cool store, “Flying Tiger.” This one’s a little more difficult to describe. It’s kind of like a nicer version of 5&Below. They’re both two stores I have been dying to return to for years and I’m so happy I was able to go on just my second day here. From Søstrene Grene, I bought a refillable water color pen for 3€, two different washi tapes, a small notebook, and these metal buttons for craft projects (I don’t know what these are actually called. I see them everywhere online but never where to buy or what they’re called.). From Flying Tiger, I bought a Five-Year Diary. I’ve been looking for an inexpensive one of these for a while as my memory is so fuzzy. This one was only 4€ and reading over this last week’s entries are the only way I’m able to make this post.
January 16:
I visited a school that I’m helping with their musical (and maybe some other stuff). I filled out some papers so I could actually be at the school. Don’t worry visa peeps, it’s not a job, internship, or official part of my education.
I got to see my cousin for the first time in two or three years as well as meet his girlfriend for the first time. It was really chill as everything was very last minute which I rather enjoyed. English is not his or his girlfriend’s first language even though they’re both brilliant it speaking it. It definitely made me want to learn a bit more German and Farsi than I planned on originally doing. Throughout this week, I really learned how important it would actually be to become conversational. My comprehension, vocabulary, and reading of German have improved exponentially. I’m still working on pronunciation and actually being able to speak it. I can make each sound individually but when I try to put it all together it starts sounding less and less correct. My pronunciation of Farsi has improved tons and I can read with romanization okay, but it will be much more difficult to learn more since it follows a different alphabet and is read from right to left.
January 17:
I went to a thing where I met five Dutch university students and a bunch of other friends of my Aunt and Uncle. It was really cool because most people there didn’t actually speak English very well. Everything was translated back and forth so we could all understand each other. I have such an appreciation for translators. If you haven’t ever translated before, let me tell you it is so much harder than you think it would be. When I was at Finnish camp this summer, I seemed to comprehend the language the fastest out of everyone else who was just starting. This meant I was constantly translating for all of the other new campers. I didn’t dislike translating. It’s just that I wasn’t prepared for it at all. When you translate, you have to translate concepts or phrases rather than exact words in sentence form. One word may not exist in one language and vice versa. Direct translations could also have completely different meaning based on word usage, dialect, and grammatical structure. As I have met more translators recently, I am just continually astounded by their ability to focus, understand, and explain all at once. Processing audio without closed captions in my native language is hard enough for me (thanks, ADD).
January 18:
We got groceries. In Austria, this is a very different process. Not only are all food labeled in every foreign language you could think of, they are also all different. Even things that you recognize, won’t taste exactly how you’re used to. People also have different shopping expectations here, too. In America, employees will bag your groceries and, maybe, offer to help take them to your car. In Austria, employees scan food and push it away from themselves as fast as they can. You’re left to scurry about paying and moving your food back into the cart all at once. Then, you go to the front of the store and organize everything into your own bags and a personal, rolling shopping bag that you brought with you and lugged around the store with the additional shopping cart. Austria, it doesn’t have to be like this. There are other options. Just kidding, don’t come after me. I don’t mind it that much.
It also decided to snow this day. This was the first time I’ve seen powdery snow since I don’t know when. Florida isn’t exactly known for being the blizzard state. Now, is it? It was beautiful. The trees looked exactly like the trees in Christmas models of towns. It didn’t feel real to me. If you don’t live in the cold, this tip’s for you. To keep your face warm, wear your scarf so that it covers your neck and the lower half of your face. Just don’t let it fall because then there will be snow in it that will make you freeze to death. Well, you probably won’t die, but it’ll feel like it.
January 19:
I went to a Farsi-German church service. It was really cool to hear music in three different languages in one sitting. That being said, there were two auditory translations happening at once for most of the time. That’s a headache waiting to happen.
I also said bye to all of the Dutch students I had met a couple days before.
I left a prized water bottle at the church. One panic attack later (read in the Spongebob voice). They found my water bottle. In case you were interested, you actually can’t buy this water bottle anymore. It was from an event in 2018 that I attended with my best friend. They made a custom design and stopped selling it. I looked into stealing the design and buying another one but I would have to buy 18 water bottles to do so, which would be nearly 300 dollars. Panicked me thankfully decided that this wasn’t an option. I could buy a sample water bottle instead. The only problem is that this one doesn’t come with a design. So I would still have to steal the design, create it as a clear sticker, and purchase it to get something similar. I went back to the 18 water bottles another time before knowing whether or not they had found it. I will soon be purchasing another water bottle so I don’t have to worry about losing that one. Talk about over dramatic. But that’s what anxiety can do to you. In my head, this all seemed very reasonable at the time. If you’re ever traveling by yourself and begin to experience a panic attack, I suggest sitting down at a Starbucks or McDonald’s (with wifi) if you can’t make it back to wherever you’re staying. This way you’re surrounded by something vaguely familiar and you have wifi so you can call a friend or entertain yourself in some other way. That way you don’t make a mistake worse than considering spending 300 dollars on water bottles.
January 20:
I rode a kick scooter that turned out to be partially broken. I didn’t know this until halfway through the first part of my journey. I had decided to go to an attraction called, “The Republic of Kugelmugel.” It’s free and interesting. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by a fence and scaffolding. Fortunately, it later inspired a poem I wrote. I can’t wait to try riding an electric scooter. Kick scooters are so over-rated (add a dramatic hair flip for extra impact).
I also listened to about three hours of podcasts. I have recently become obsessed with women in history. I learned about Audrey Hepburn today. I may or may not have cried for ten+ minutes when I was listening to the part about her death. I knew nothing about her before listening but I could tell you everything there is to know, now. I still need to watch at least one movie she’s been in. She’s so interesting though. She helped supply people in hiding with food as a middle schooler. She also survived a famine that left her and so many others making flour out of tulip bulbs. She continued to work as hard as she could to survive for many years after the war before succeeding in acting. She originally wanted to be a ballet dancer. Later on in life, she became a UNICEF Ambassador. In general, many occasions in her life seem to be mere coincidences but I believe there are too many coincidences for one to ignore the twinkling light of destiny surrounding her life’s story.
Remember, that school I went to earlier this week? I went back to see my first rehearsal. They will be performing a show I have already done before. I think that will be really helpful for me in being able to understand multiple aspects of one show. I watched the students complete the choreography to one song. As I get more familiar with the school and the students, I will be able to help out in more specific ways. For now, all I have to do is show up. Honestly, just showing up is the key to everything.
Conclusion
On that note, peace out. I love Austria. Yada yada (can you tell I’m still a little tired?). If you want to learn more about traveling and get some more advice, check out this post about Amsterdam!
