Wells, this is my second week of lectures, which is crazy to me.
And I will say that things are set up VERY differently here than at home. For starters, lectures only happened once a week. And they can last anywhere from 1-4 hours. Some lectures don’t even happen every week!
Take my Austrian Culture and Civilisation class for example. I had class for 3 hours yesterday, and my next class is the 4th of April. That’s strange to me!
1 of my classes is 50% based on a presentation of my country, 30% on a report about my country, and 20% on attendance/participation. There’s no final exam.
Another class is 30% assignments, 70% final exam.
WHAT.

Every single class I have had thus far has a presentation requirement, where I have to present various aspects of my country as it pertains to the lecture topics. So I get to do a lot of research and talking about Canada. Which isn’t bad, but very repetitive. I essentially give the same presentation 5 times! But they can’t be the same because they’re for different classes, so I can’t even make just 1 presentation and use it for everything – I have to make 5 separate ones. Canada is going to get old really quick.

All my professors seem good thus far – I haven’t had all my classes yet. But they all seem pretty cool.

My German teacher is slightly terrifying though.
But not in a bad way! She’s just very sharp. She walked into our first class and started asking us questions in German. She wrote the question and the reply in German on the board, but it’s hard to answer a question when you don’t know what’s being asked! She’s pretty intense! She’s also pretty nice too – I have a lot of Asian kids in my class, so some of the words/pronunciations are tougher for them. And she just laughs and then repeats and repeats until they get it. She remembers names quickly too, and I sat in the front, so I got called on a lot! We learned basic things like “my name is”, ” I am from”, “I live in Steyr”, ” I am a student”, etc.
I’m terrified of her, but I definitely think I will learn a lot from her. If she doesn’t scare me to death…

A main class we have to take is mandatory for all incoming exchange students, and it deals with things like culture shock, diversity, stuff like that. It’s designed to help exchange students better blend and cope with exchange.

Because exchange is actually hard, regardless of what people say/think/assume.
It’s scary to show up in another country that doesn’t speak the same language as you, and be expected to live just like they do as quickly as possible.
One thing they drill into us is the “exchange curve”. You have the ” Honeymoon phase” where everything is shiny and new and exciting. You have a “crisis” phase where real life kinda crashes down around your ears and you have a bit of a freak out. After this, you slowly build up to the “normality” phase where you adjust and are okay.
In this curve there is also phases for “culture shock”, ” depression/anxiety”, and possible “fight/flight”.
They constantly keep us aware of these things so we can be ready for them when they come. If you’re prepared for your ” crisis” phase, you can get through it much quicker.
And these are 100% real, by the way. I definitely remember experiencing these phases on my last exchange in Greece. There’s a whole psychological thing that exchange kids go through, both during exchange and AFTER exchange too. It’s similar, but opposite in nature.
I have way more respect for Return Missionaries after learning about this kind of stuff, and I feel bad for how pushy we can be to get them to “be normal” once they get home. In some ways it can be traumatic psychologically to readjust after exchange.

I also notice things like that in myself…
When I got home from Greece, it was all I talked about. And it makes sense initially, but I would be obsessed with it for months afterwards. And that’s annoying for others. But it was a big part of my life, and people didn’t experience and don’t get it. It’s the same for RMs, but on a bigger scale. That’s part of the struggle of being an exchange kid – the only people who get it have been on exchange, and if they’ve been to the same place, they really get it. Nobody else does, and that kind of sucks.

Living here thus far has been huge for me. It feels like it’s not even real, and too real at the same time. I’ve only been here for 3 weeks, but it feels like I’ve been here forever. My parents house seems so far away and so different in my head than it probably is.

Having a cupboard or pantry with a week worth of food is strange! We buy groceries every 2 or 3 days here! Everybody does! That isn’t that big of a deal, but it feels so different!

It feels different walking around here. Cobblestones are the norm, the red roofs are average, and I don’t get winded climbing stairs or the average sized hills anymore.
That’s something you don’t think about – pavement. But there’s no pavement here.

What about showers? No shower in Europe I have ever dealt with has been fastened to the wall. They are always shower heads attached to the piping that you manually use. That’s something you don’t think about, but makes a difference.

There’s a bakery on every corner at least. People like up in Stadplatz at the bakery every morning for their daily bread. What a foreign concept.

Even driving is foreign. Nobody drives in the city. Everyone walks everywhere. In Linz, in Wien, in Wells, in Steyr, it’s all the same. Everyone takes the trains or buses or subway or walk or bike. If you own a car, it’s a big deal.

Opening hours here are different. Shops close on Sundays all day, and early on Saturdays. The Sunday thing isn’t a big deal for me because I don’t shop on Sundays anyways, but it is slightly unnerving that you have to make sure you get food for the weekend on Saturday, because otherwise you’ll be hungry on Sunday.

We don’t have a microwave. You never realised how dependant you are on a microwave until you don’t have one. Warming up leftovers is just as messy as cooking them in the first place!

I will say that this trip has been wonderfully good for me thus far. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is physical. Once I got over the initial food shock, I find I’m not hungry all the time anymore. I eat more regularly and more balanced. I also don’t eat as much as I once thought I did. And my clothes are starting to feel big for me. I bought pants before I came that were tight when I left, that feel almost a little baggy now. I don’t feel the need to oversleep or have a nap or something. I don’t gravitate towards Netflix whenever I don’t have something to do. I like spending time outside doing things or going places.

I’m also more independent I think, which surprised me to think about because I thought I was pretty independent already. If I want to go somewhere, I have to make the decision to go. I have to commit to myself more than anyone else.

And the crazy thing is that this is normal. Planning a weekend in Switzerland in normal. Walking everywhere is normal. Having scattered lectures is normal.
And it’s been 3 weeks. And that seems crazy.

I feel like a whole other person here. Much… more free, much more open. Much lighter – physically and mentally.

Maybe that has to do in part that my friends and responsibilities and family and things like that are so far away, that I don’t worry about them as much, especially since there’s not much I can do about it anyways. My problems are different here I think.

Sorry – these are just things I’ve been thinking about recently.
And yes, I get it. I’m making a big deal about nothing and what do I know, I’ve barely been here blah blah blah whatever.

But these are things that I think about and things that are important to me. And I think in many ways travel is the best and healthiest thing that has happened to me in my life. It certainly keeps me on my toes! And it helps me learn a lot more about me and what I need to be doing in this crazy world I live in.
I think everyone experiences things so differently, and for me, it’s kind of like I go to drink from the spout of a fountain and instead a waterfall comes shooting at my face. I don’t feel like I’m drowning, but I feel like there’s so much to see and feel and experience that I get a little overwhelmed. 5 months is a long time, but also not long enough.

I do think I adjust quicker than some people. I’m grateful I’ve been given the ability to kind of roll with the punches. It certainly makes things like this easier. I feel great!

This turned into a pretty long tangent, and I’m sorry about that. But at the same time, I’m not, because this blog is more for me than anyone else. It doesn’t really matter if you guys remember what I do or see, but it matters that I do. Plus it’s very therapeutic to write about stuff – I quite enjoy it!

have a good week everyone.

emma.k