Mauthausen

Today, I had the opportunity to visit Mauthausen, a concentration camp that is about 30 minutes outside of Linz. Although the trip only lasted about 3 hours, I came home more exhausted than my all day trip I took last weekend. Having learned about the Holocaust and concentration camps in school I somewhat knew what to expect. Although, I do not think anything can prepare you for actually visiting a concentration camp. The actual setting of where the camp was placed was very beautiful with rolling hills, and glimpses of the far off mountains. The history of the place was not so beautiful. The group was given a two hour tour of the camp, my guide was very informative and knew the camps history. The camp was primarily a male labor camp that housed not only jews but Soviet prisoners of war as well as any one else the Nazi party deemed unfit in their "perfect" society. 

 











The day may of wiped me emotionally but, I walked away with more knowledge and understanding for the awful events that occurred. 

The Five Stages

Almost every major event in your life has stages, whether it be moving, grief, going to a new school, or in my case studying abroad. Over the past week as I continued to become more comfortable with my new surroundings, I couldn't help feeling just a little homesick... okay maybe a lot homesick. This led me to read several articles on dealing with homesickness while abroad. I stumbled across one that was entitled "The Five Stages of Studying Abroad." Homesickness was number four on the list. This actually made me feel better because I had gone through the first four stages in just the first three weeks of my travels! The question is what are these five stages...
Stage 1: Excitement and Optimism
      I have known I wanted to study abroad since my freshman year of high school, and have dreaming about it since then. My freshman year of college on my first visit with my academic advisor I questioned him about when the best time for me to go abroad would be. To my surprise and excitement, he said second semester of my Sophomore year. That was way sooner than I expected! I don't think I left the excitement and optimism stage until I actually arrived in Linz and moved into the next stage.
Stage 2: Disorientation
     This is obviously a natural stage to go through. I was entering into a new culture, a relatively strange language, and a bigger city than I am used to. Everything around me was different and strange, at first I was nervous and honestly I was too nervous to go to the supermarket by myself for the first time. It's pretty easy to pass this stage because it did not take long for me to become familiar with my surroundings and comfortable going to the super market. Having guided tours through the city and through the campus of JKU did help with this. I probably moved through this stage the quickest. As of today, I have visited 4 different supermarkets and have picked out my favorite. I have also gotten pretty good at the public transportation.
Stage 3: Loneliness
        This stage was on full force just after I arrived. After my mentor had showed me the campus and showed me where I could buy food I was left at my dorm. As I mentioned previously, my room did not have wifi so for the first 48 hours of my stay in Linz I had no way to contact my family at home and I had no way to contact my mentor. I was truly alone. I don't think I have ever felt that way before. I do not know how people handled traveling before cell phones and Skype. I barely lasted 48 hours. I do hope over the next few months I will learn how to not feel a need to be connected at all times. I have made some progress due to the fact not everywhere has wifi for me to connect with my phone.
Stage 4: Homesickness
         Here we are homesickness, the stage I struggled with over the past week. Let me give you some advice face timing your sister is one thing begging her to give you a tour of the house is another. This does not help fight off homesickness in anyway, trust me. Talking with my family helped some, but looking at my sorority sisters pictures from the recent date party did not. Although they all had very creative outfits! After reading many helpful articles I stopped getting on Facebook and searching out all the pictures of home and started to look forward to all that was coming my way this semester. This really helped. The thing that helped the most though was the event I participated in last Tuesday which was the Linz City Challenge. The school planned a city wide scavenger hunt where the exchange students were broken up into teams. This helped me get to know the city of Linz better as well as become closer to other exchange students. I think I can say that I am moving onto stage 5.
Stage 5: Acceptance and Serenity
              I am beyond excited for the remaining four months I have in Linz. I also accept the fact that I will be feeling a little bit of all the previous four stages in the upcoming four months. I think I can better handle all these feelings now. This past week I registered for the classes I will be taking this semester (8 total) I am actually really looking forward to starting these classes. Considering I haven't been in class since the beginning of December, I'm a little nervous to start. I am also looking forward to my easter break travels where I think I will be going to London! My Harry Potter, One Direction loving heart can barely contain its excitement! I also hope to make stops in Paris, somewhere in Ireland, and hopefully Amsterdam! My next trip is this Friday where I will be traveling to Prague!
City Challenge:
The City challenge was a really fun way for us exchange students to become more comfortable in the city of Linz and become closer to our fellow exchange students. Each team was made up of 6 team members. My team was named The Macarenas and represented 6 different countries. Evelina (Lithuania), Louis (France), Ashlihan (Turkey), Me (USA), Eva (Greece), and Johanna (South Korea). We were given a 3 page list of tasks with 4 hours to complete as many as possible! Challenge accepted!

Challenge: All 6 members sit on 2 seats in the tram.                   

Challenge: Ask a cute Austrian boy or girl for there number  I boldly asked this Austrian boy for his number and I was successful. Now if only I can transfer this boldness to get boys numbers in the US. 

Challenge: Make JKU sign out of your bodies

Challenge: Take a romantic photo at the castle

Challenge: Wear our free new sunglasses

Challenge: Act like Statues in the City Square

My team finished 8th out of 14 teams. Not to shabby. All in all the city challenge was a blast and I had a ton of fun venturing out of my comfort zone and closer to stage five of serenity and acceptance. I am so excited for all the challenges I have yet to overcome and even more excited for all the adventures I have yet to have. As the saying goes... "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."

Love,
Alex

Cheese Improves the Flavor of Life

Guten Tag!
I have only been in Linz for about a week but yet, it seems I have been here so much longer! Since my last post, I received my adaptor so now I can finally use my laptop in my dorm room! This past week I started my intensive german class. Although I have studied german for the past 6 years, I still have so much to improve. Hopefully by the end of my time in Linz I will be able to speak the language fluently. Yesterday, I went on my first excursion to the towns of Schlierbach and Steyr. The first stop was Schleirbach, about a 45 min drive from Linz. The town of Schlierbach is a very small town in upper Austria, here we visited a monastery. The monastery had a beautiful view of the Alps, I finally got my first glimpse of them!, a cheese factory and they manufacture glass paintings. The group got a complete tour of the monastery which included the beautiful church, library, glass painting gallery, and the cheese factory. We also watched some videos on how the cheese was made, I found this all very interesting. The tour ended with a cheese tasting, I do love some good cheese. 

This is an example of some of the glass paintings. The glass manufacture also makes colorful glass bowls and trinkets. The guide talked about the way stained glass production has changed over time. At first they used steel bars to separate the pieces of glass but, today it is done altogether. On the left is the newer way and on the right is the old way.

 Here is the Library in the Monastery. The guide informed us that in his opinion is was the most beautiful room in the building. The pillars are wood designed to look like marble. None of the books in the library were written at the Monastery, but they do have some first editions All the paintings in the library are centered around the books. I don't think I saw a portrait or painting with out a book displayed in it

The inside of the Church, as it was only my second baroque style church and I have little to compare it to, left me speechless. I am excited to continue to visit more old european churches and leave speechless.

On the left is the view from the monastery, and on the right is all the cheese I was able to taste. Not all the cheeses were my cup of tea but, I did enjoy trying new things.

Next, we journeyed to Steyr. Steyr is the third largest town in Upper Austria, about 39,000 people. The town itself has a very medieval feel, they have a building that dates back 900 years! In Steyr we got a guided tour, ate lunch, and enjoyed a step back into medieval times!

Here are some pictures of the town, including the entrance to the castle and the city center of Steyr.

I came home from my first trip exhausted but filled with so much insight into the history of two cities in Upper Austria. I look forward to all the places I have yet to visit and continue to be amazed by the beautiful history and architecture of Austria. "Without history there would be no future"

Auf Wiedersehen,
Alex

The Potholes in the Road

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey"- Babs Hoffman 

     Hallo, from Linz, Austria. I apologize for my lack of blogging. When I arrived in Linz last Friday I found out that the dorm I am living in does not have wifi. I therefore must have an ethernet cord and as I have a mac I must also get an adaptor. No worries though, I ordered these essential items on Amazon and fingers crossed they come by tomorrow. I write to you now from my gracious roommates laptop. My roommates name is Eva and she is from the country of Greece. So far we get along wonderfully and we both are studying business. 

     My journey to Linz was smooth. Both my flights arrived on time and I got on the right train to come to Linz. I also met my mentor without any problems. My parents will be happy to hear that I asked 4 people for help on my journey from Kansas City to Linz.I am already growing as a person! Once I got to Linz is when I began to run over some potholes. As I mentioned before, my dorm does not have wifi and until Monday I did not have the wifi password on campus. Therefore, I was unable to contact my parents all of Friday and inform them that I had safely arrived in Linz. After a rough first day with just my empty dorm room, the three books on my kindle, and solitaire to keep me entertained and distracted from my lack of connections, the road seemed to even out just a little. My roommate arrived Saturday afternoon and she graciously allowed me to use her computer and contact my parents.

     So far, my schedule has been non stop with opening bank accounts, registering in Linz, enrolling at the University and filling out what seems like endless paperwork. On Tuesday, I was able to take a guided city tour of Linz. I was able to visit the one castle in Linz which has a beautiful view of the city and visit the Largest church in Austria known as the Neuer Dom, which translates to the New Cathedral. The church is a Gothic style but it is called the New Cathedral because it was actually built in the early 1900s. Despite the cold the tour was very informative and allowed me to become a little more comfortable in this city which is so far from home.
     I have had little instances of culture shock. The first being how much everyone wants to party and go to bars. Although this does happen in the US, many of you know I very rarely go out, partly because I am under 21. Here going to the parties and get together is the best way to meet all the exchange students and make new friends. On campus there are even sponsored parties, and tomorrow there is a planned pub crawl! Another shock to me is the grocery stores. I have now been to the supermarket twice and I still do not know what to buy! I hope that in the weeks to come I become more comfortable shopping at the supermarket. 
     As I look ahead to my time in Austria, I hope that I stop worrying about the potholes and enjoy the journey. The first couple of days I have thought about all the things that could go wrong and little about all the things that could go right. I look forward to all the friends and trip that are coming my way, and I hope that I can put aside my fears and worries and live in the moment so that I might not miss a single second. In the words of Mark Twain, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do."

Love, Alex