My last full month in Europe has come and gone!! Reality is hitting hard right now as I am slowly realizing that this journey is about to come to an end. It?s bitter sweet as I am excited to return to the States and see my friends and family however, I am going to miss the life I am leaving behind here. The friendships and memories made are unlike any other. It’s strange seeing close friends start to leave and I’m just trying to take in each moment.
So May! The month started off slowly which was much needed after my last week in April where I had tests/projects and a trip to Italy. Me and friends found a nice ?beach? spot down the U6 line and had a few lazy days hanging around, swimming etc etc. Then one day I got a text from a friend back home who is involved in the International Business Association there and in charge of the students studying abroad at May?s. It?s bizarre to me that someone would chose Texas as a place to study abroad ?but all the Europeans here are pretty intrigued by it. So he asked if I wanted to be a mentor to an incoming student from Vienna. Having just gone through this whole process I knew how helpful these buddies are so of course I said yes and turns out this girl goes to WU! So we were able to grab lunch and talk about A&M and Vienna and everything under the moon. She?s super excited to experience football games and buy cowboy boots. She?s also been able to show me more local things around Vienna and I think it?s going to be really neat when I can do the same for her.
The next week I took a day trip to Hallstat, Austria. If you come to Vienna, don?t leave without seeing this place!! It?s breathtakingly gorgeous and I can?t imagine a more beautiful city. It?s unreal, no picture does it justice but this one tries.
We spent the day here hiking around, having lunch and just enjoying each others company before we headed back on an evening train. School was relatively steady for the next couple of weeks so I decided to go out on a limb and take a solo trip to Prague. Never in a million years could I have seen myself doing this (because I?m not good with directions and hate being by myself) but something inspired me to give it a try. And it was one of the best decisions I?ve made thus far. I gained so much confidence in myself and felt so independent. I could do anything I wanted to (so naturally I got a fish pedicure) and I made so many new friends at my hostel. I had such rich conversations with new friends that I met traveling around the world. Each new person I talked to had a story and it was all so interesting to listen to what brought each one of them here. I completely recommend giving it a try.
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When I came back that week I had finished one of my courses. This one was structured more like a seminar, with hands on projects all throughout class and hardly any lecturing. We basically taught the class after researching and preparing about topics. By far, my favorite class because it was so interactive. A good end to that week was a hiking trip that I took with the school followed by a trip to Krakow, Poland to celebrate my friends 21st birthday. I loved Poland. Great city and insane history with WWII. We took a day to see Auschwitz and that was indescribable. Seeing in real life what I had only previously seen in history book pictures was crazy?proof that this horrible time actually happened was hard to wrap my head around. As we walked inside of the blocks in the concentration camps to see the dirt floors that the prisoners slept on or the museum which contained thousands of their shoes and hair that was scraped from their scalp was madness. But definitely worth learning about and honoring the people that suffered through this time. The next day we caught a train bright and early back to Vienna and I actually just finished my German final! Definitely my hardest class here but rewarding when I can use what I?ve learned to order in restaurants and speak to cashiers in shops. I?m still in denial about leaving soon. There is a different mood heading into June knowing that it will be my last couple of weeks here but I?m excited to see how this journey finishes up!
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