Grüß Gott readers! The Linfield gang and I (we have affectionately and comedically titled ourselves Mozart’s children, after, well, Mozart) have been in Austria for a little while now, it’s been a heck of a time. Although there has been a fair amount of laughter, happiness and amazement, and even though I have traveled before, nothing prepared me for the toll traveling took on me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. However, over the past month, I have had such a great time learning about Vienna.
I want to sincerely apologize for not publishing any blog posts recently. Something I have learned about myself is that writing is not the first thing to come to mind when I need to vent; it is usually listening to music or watching comedies on Netflix. However, now that I am settled in, I want to sit down, go back in time, and tell you readers about what I find as the most important characteristics during traveling.
Flexibility and adaptability. Nothing, in my opinion, is more important while traveling. Sage and I traveled from Portland to Vienna together and overall, it was a 30+ hours travel day. We were absolutely exhausted, hungry, dehydrated, and annoyed by the time we arrived at the Vienna airport. Then, after all that, I found out my checked luggage did not make it with me to Vienna. Although I was very frustrated by this, I was basically just done with the whole day, so I tried to not let it get to me. Everyone was so surprised that I wasn’t freaking out more, but I reminded myself that this often happens during travel and focused on figuring out my next steps.
This situation spanned the course of 6 days until my luggage was delivered to me. I had to adjust my expectations . Everyone (maybe naively) thinks that traveling is super easy and people are able to do it with so much grace. In reality, traveling is hard. Being so exhausted and losing my luggage, then having to navigate a big dinner the night of arrival with professors from our school and our host families was very overwhelming. Trying to listen to conversations around the dinner table and trying to enjoy my first Wiener Schnitzel was marred by the fact that I just wanted a shower to wash off the endless hours of travel and frustration.
Although the first week being in Austria could be personally characterized as pretty rough, I really tried my best to adapt to each day I was given. I realized how lucky I was to even be in Austria, even though I was so frustrated and tired. To get away from our travel troubles and lots of jetlag, we spent a week relaxing at the spa, going on hikes, eating delicious Austrian food, and generally just getting to know each other better in the small alpine town of Dorfgastein. Two of our professors from the Institute and a young man who worked at the Institute came along with us and they helped introduce us to this new culture.
It was such an exciting time! Every day, we did something fun and ate the most delicious food. I realized how scrumptious Wiener Schnitzel and traditional soups are. We were also constantly outside or surrounded by nature, which infinitely boosted my mood. As a group, we did many walks and learned about the environment around us. Even though I was upset by my luggage situation, I could count on both nature and the group to cheer me up. After a while, I was less stressed about what was going on and I could enjoy the beauty and newly-found friends around me.
Austria has been great so far, even with all the twists and turns. I can’t wait to write to you next time about the cultural differences I have noticed between the U.S. and Austria.
Auf Wiedersehen for now!
Lizzie
Wait! Wait!!! Before we part, let’s look at some fun photos from this time!
