It's four days before I fly off to Vienna, Austria and I couldn't be more excited to be going! (Or terrified, either one.) I feel like I've done so much to prepare for departure already, and yet there's still an endless list of things that need to be taken care of - including getting this blogging business figured out!
Let me start right out by saying that I am not much of a blog reader, nor have I been a blog writer, and this process is all new to me. (It took me about two hours to figure out how to change all the fancy blog settings... Sheesh!) But, I am learning, and I really hope to stick with it so that I can share all my "blog-worthy" experiences with those of you who have expressed an interest in keeping up with me while I'm studying abroad.
For those of you who have taken the plunge and spent either a summer, semester, or school year in a foreign city, you likely know the feeling, but for those of you who haven't - in the weeks, and even months leading up to your departure, there are few days when at least one conversation does not center around your plans to go abroad. This conversational tendency increases exponentially the closer you get to your departure date until eventually you feel like it's the only thing you talk about. Ever. And the interesting thing is, the more I talk about it, the less I feel I know what exactly I'll be doing over there for a semester! There was even one horrifying conversation I had a few weeks ago where I realized I didn't even know the name of the school I would be attending - "Umm... Some Music School in Vienna...? It's run through IES Abroad..." Whoops.
But the truth is, and I think this goes with any experience, you don't really know what you're getting into until you get there. The one tangible Viennese thing I have to look at right now is a list of my roommate's names (with mine misspelled - as usual) and a housing address. Of course, the first thing I did was to type my address into Google Earth and take a peek at the street I'd be living on, a little over 2 miles from the school campus. It looks beautiful, even in that strange pixelated form. I could make out fuzzy shutters and window boxes along a shady, narrow street, and I can't wait to see it in person! *sigh*
Before I get there, though, I need to finish packing. And maybe getting some sleep would be good too...
Great blog and I really liked seeing your apartment and some of your roommates!
ReplyDelete