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