I will now for the rest of the semester be known as “the girl who doesn’t drink”.

but we’ll get to that later.

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The last couple days have been orientation/introduction. Which is actually a nice change. Our routine for the past several days has been: get up, go to the grocery store, walk back home, eat lunch, wander the streets for a few hours, spend the rest of the time in our rooms, and only talk to eachother if we meet in the kitchen.

So yesterday we had our first introduction meeting. Saki and Chloe were in the first group, so they went in the morning, and I went in the afternoon.

In our meeting we set up our school email account, talked about some school activities and events, how to use the school’s wifi and fill out some paperwork and pay our fees. All a little boring, but a nice change to our old routine.

We also had a presentation by the Steyr ESN representatives. ESN is the “Erasmus Student Network”, which is a program made up of students all over Europe (I think) designed to help and educate international students become more”culturalized”.

ESN Steyr has already organized some great events. There’s one tonight (which I will talk about later), and they also have organized tours of Steyr and Linz for really cheap, so we can learn more about the city and its history! I’ve signed up for both, and I think they will both be really awesome! They also organized a ski trip, which almost all Austrian university’s international students are invited to. I’m not going to that one (because I don’t ski, and don’t want to spend that much money). But the ESN reps seem really awesome, and they’re going to organize other trips to Vienna and/or Salzburg, so I’m really looking forward to that!

We also took a picture as a group. We are supposed to be spelling “SS16” for Summer Semester 2016.

Today we were divided into groups again and got a tour of the library and how the catalog and database works. Which is pretty…… not interesting. But necessary.

Then all afternoon we had an orientation presentation given by members of the international office at the university. We also had a special “interruption” by some pretty important people! The Vice Governor of Upper Austria, the Dean of the University, and the International Affairs President in connection to Steyr all came in to welcome us. We were handed flags with our home countries on them and took a picture with the Vice Governor. Iit was also apparently his birthday a few days ago, so the International Councillors had us all write “Happy Birthday” in our home languages on the board for him. He also took a picture with the board as well. A special professor (I don’t remember what his actual role was) also did a short presentation about Internationalism and the mission and goals of the various international programs the university provides and all that stuff.

Everyone seemed really excited about this visit, and it’s pretty cool that so many important people wanted to come and say hello to us! They also gave us some Austrian sweets (that I don’t know the name of) that was like a jelly-filled doughnut covered in powdered sugar. Very good, but very messy.

After stopping by the grocery store, we got ready for our night out.

ESN organized an Austrian dinner for the international students. We rented out a restaurant where they made a special Austrian buffet full of some traditional Austrian foods. They were also pouring All-You-Can-Drink white and red Austrian wines.

Step one to be getting noticed in a big room full of exchange students in their 20s – refuse the waiter handing out glasses of wine (twice).

So I had a few questions about that, and I explained it was a personal and religious choice. And most Europeans and Asians don’t know the word “Mormons”, so I looked a little like a freak. But oh well.

The meal was pretty good!

Some of the food wasn’t my favorite, but there wasn’t anything that I really didn’t like. And the night was long, but nice!

However, here’s the part previously mentioned in my post title. Everyone was invited to go to a student’s apartment for a “pre-drinking” party, and then they were going to head off to the Studentpub by the University. None of that sounded appealing to me. And once again, I had people asking me if I was going and I had to say now, and then they would ask me why, and I would say “I don’t drink, and so these sorts of parties aren’t fun for me.” And they aren’t. I don’t like being around a lot of alcohol in the first place, and so sitting in the restaurant with all the kids being loud and drinking glass after glass of wine was a little uncomfortable.

That’s going to be one of the hardest things I think. Part of the exchange student culture and mindset is that you travel to another country, and party hard. That means going out and meeting people and getting really drunk and then laughing about it with your friends in class the next day. And I’m not into any of that. I frankly don’t want to hang around places with alcohol or drunk people. And so very quickly I’m going to fall behind in the social aspect of things.

And I’m okay with that. I’ll still have my flatmates, the girls in my building, the kids in my classes, my fellow Canadian students, etc. And besides, I would like to spend my money on traveling, not booze. To each his own.

Say hi to the flatmates!

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Tomorrow I have class all day – Professional Performance in a Globalized World. 8 hours of that should be spectacular. And then 8 more on friday will really be the icing on the cake. The courses are mandatory, so they must be useful or interesting. We’ll wait to see I guess!

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This update isn’t as interesting or exciting, but not every day can be filled with magical adventure. Sometimes I just like to write about what I’m doing – this is meant to be a journal of sorts, so I write about everything!

Hope everyone at home or abroad is doing well! Love you all!

emma.k

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ALSO! I have my official mailing address now, so if you want to send me a letter or postcard, email or message me on facebook for it! Thanks!

ALSO! I post on my instagram almost everyday, so if you want to follow me, look me up! @ekpattz_