From Goodbyes to Guten Tags

Ready to leave the US way of life and explore the European lifestyle in Vienna.

Hallo und wilkommen zu meinem Blog!

This is my first blog of my spring semester abroad in Vienna! I leave in two days, and I can barely believe it! Though I’m nervous about my ability to speak German, I couldn’t be more excited! I’ll be posting a new entry of my experiences abroad every week. But first, here’s a quick bio of myself.  

My name is Morgan. I’m a junior at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally I’m from a small town near Harrisburg, PA, but I absolutely love Philadelphia and attending a school right in the middle of a city. Temple is a fairly large school, with over 30,000 students. I like attending such a large school because there are so many different types of people on campus.

Since I’m used to city life I don’t think I’ll have much of a problem adjusting to life in the city of Vienna, even though I know European cities are much different than Philadelphia. I’m expecting safer (according to USA Today Philadelphia is the fifth largest city in the US, yet has the worst murder rate of the ten largest US cities) and much cleaner.

At Temple, my major is journalism with a minor in African American Studies, and I also hope to receive a certificate in German language, depending on how my credits abroad will transfer back to Temple. No matter what credits I earn, at the end of my semester abroad, my one wish is that I return from Vienna more fluent in German than when I left. I think it can be done.

The main reason that I have been taking German since high school is that my maternal side of my family is very German. My grandmother grew up in Transylvania, present day Romania. But she was forced out of the country by the Russians during World War II when she was only sixteen. Her family fled to Gmunden, a small town in western Austria, where my grandfather had grown up. My grandfather was drafted into the German army, but the war ended shortly after, and my grandparents immigrated to eastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia.

Now back to me and Vienna. In my blog I’ll definitely be including experiences such as, the differences between Vienna and Philadelphia, the differences between Viennese and Americans, my difficulties speaking German with the locals and of course any funny or embarrassing stories of my actions, miscommunications or confusion, which is bound to happen given my not-so-perfect German speaking skills.

As for my expectations, I’m trying to go with as few as possible. I expect that my German will improve greatly, but I also know that it will probably be a frustrating process. I hope to join several extracurricular activities so that I can interact with other Austrian students. Also, I plan on going out in Vienna as much as I can. Not only will I be able to practice my German but I’ll be having fun while doing it. Plus as a 20 year-old American the ability to legally go to pubs is, of course, very appealing.

For those of you who will be or are considering studying abroad anywhere, I hope this is a helpful blog. Or at the very least (and for non-students reading this) an entertaining one. So continue to check out my blog to see if my expectations of Vienna and Viennese are in any way accurate.