The End.

It has been so long since I have written (sorry!), but my last entry may be the most important, especially for anyone thinking about going abroad.

The Vienna gang.

It’s hard to believe that my time here is over. With only two days left in Vienna, the almost indescribable mix of emotions has settled over me. First, of course, are the sad feelings of the end of a fun and special time in my life. I definitely feel that my life has changed since I began this program; the main change regarding my career plans. It is hard to walk away from a life changing experience without feeling a sense of loss.

Perhaps more unsettling are the friends I am leaving behind. I never expected to become such good friends with everyone on a program, but many of us have become very close. We have spent so much time together, practically every day for three months, that going home and being without the other eleven will probably leave me uneasy at first. I don’t think the full force of all of these feelings will hit me until I am sitting on the plane by myself and the idea of leaving everything behind will be tangible. At the very least my loneliness will be more real.

There are other things that I will miss about Vienna and Europe. Lots of food: mainly bread, cheese, wine and gelato. By reading my other blogs you may be able to tell that I have fallen in love with the history and cultural traditions of Europe, and that I have definite expectations to return for a significant period of time. Going back home means the end of my adventure, an adventure I experienced every day in one form or another. Whether it was trying to figure out how to get to our hostel in a country that none of us spoke the language in or if it was just waking up every day knowing that there would be something in Vienna that I would experience that I couldn’t fully understand, this semester never contained a dull moment. I really can not predict how I will feel on my return to the States, but I can guarantee that my ability to understand every conversation that goes on around me will be overwhelming.

The idea of returning back to the US, back to normal life with a regular schedule and no travel is a bit bittersweet. Of course I will miss the friends and adventure that comes with being abroad, but I also welcome the ability to get back into my life. It is strange how this semester seemed like a pause from my life. It has been so easy to forget other responsibilities that I have waiting at home.

In the end, this return home will be extremely bittersweet.

But I also do want to leave Vienna. The city was a great place to study abroad; it was easy to figure out, safe and clean and was centrally located within Europe which made travel very easy and relatively inexpensive. Yet, Vienna really isn’t the city for me (though please don’t let that deter you from coming, to each his own and I wouldn’t take back studying abroad in Vienna for anything). Additionally, it will be fun to reunite with my friends and family back home, share stories and get back to doing what we have always enjoyed doing together. And most importantly, I need to get back to work to erase all of the well-worth-it debt I have accrued while here.

Now, just a few notes about the program that I hope will come in handy to future AHA’ers.

-The professors here are all extremely qualified, something that I did not know until I starting researching in the last week of classes. Too bad I hadn’t known before so that I could make some references for the future.

-Classes here are not hard. It seems that everyone knows that experiencing Vienna life and traveling is more important, which I wholeheartedly think it is as well.

-Do not come here if you are a student looking to become fluent in German, and you have already had several years of German experience already. Austrian accents are extremely hard to understand; they have so many different words than high German. Austrians in general aren’t very friendly to strangers so it is hard to meet local students. And the Advanced German language class is not at all intensive. I was fairly disappointed in the fact that my German barely improved.

-For all that the program provides, such as classes and credits, home stays with breakfast, transportation passes, excursion to Prague and staff that are knowledgeable and willing to help at every turn, the program is well worth the money. I don’t know much about IES programs, but I do know that they are at least double the price.

-Consider studying abroad, no matter what your major, where it is, whether it’s with AHA or if it fits in exactly with your plans. None of the twelve of us expressed regret about coming abroad. Though the Vienna program (or any of AHA’s programs) may not be the right one for everyone, there is certainly one out there that fits you. Every student should have the experience of living in another culture, which not only teaches us about the world you but also about ourselves.