It's hard to believe that I've been in Austria for more than a week now. So much has happened I don't even know where to begin. So I guess I might as well take it from the top!

After a full year of mentally preparing and a day of packing and unpacking, Tuesday, August 16th finally came and ready or not it was time to fly from San Francisco -> Düsseldorf -> Vienna. I had spent more than a year thinking about my year abroad, but once the day actually swung around I couldn't help but feel so nervous and excited at the same time. Luckily my trip to India prepared me for going abroad, but there's still something so nerve-wracking about flying across the world alone. I ended up sitting next to a really sweet German girl, and despite the difficulty falling asleep, the flight to Germany went well. It ain't no business class though. I landed in Germany really tired, only to find out that I'd be killing the next seven hours there. I walked around and then eventually got lunch (my first time speaking German in real life, woohoo!) and then passed out on the airport benches. By the time I made it to Vienna I was beyond tired and I must say it was a bit of a struggle hauling all my luggage around. And I thought I had packed lightly! I made it to my hotel room at around 11pm and met my roommate for the night, Emily. I had posted on the IES Vienna facebook page to see if anyone was interested in sharing a room (it was pretty costly at €95) and Emily was the first one to respond. We hit it off really well right off the bat, so I was relieved to share a room with someone I actually liked!

The next morning we woke up and went to meet the rest of the IES group in the baggage area of the airport. We then took a bus to Mariazell (a small town in the Austrian Alps) to spend the next three nights for orientation. I was so grateful I had gotten to spend the night in the hotel, I would've been dying otherwise. I was struck immediately by how beautiful the Austrian landscape was. The first day felt surreal--I kept having to remind myself that, yes, I was actually in Austria--and I couldn't help but keep thinking that Austria looked just like the fairy tale I had imagined it would. Beautiful green landscape, full of trees and mountains, and the most picturesque houses and cottages spread throughout. It took about two hours to get to our youth & family hostel, where we would be staying. Everyone in the program was really friendly, although I must admit I find large groups to be quite intimidating. I feel much more comfortable approaching one as long as I have a friend by my side, so it actually worked out really well that I had met Emily because I'm pretty sure she felt the same way too!

I don't want to spend too much time talking about orientation since it seems quite distant now, but overall it went really well. It was filled with lots of info sessions but luckily they gave us plenty of free time as well. The first day we took the bus into downtown Mariazell, which was just adorable. I couldn't help but be shocked by how clean all the streets were--the exact opposite of India. We were quite the spectacle to the local Austrians; an older man approached me and asked where we were from (auf Deutsch natürlich), so I was happy I wasn't one of the others who had zero experience speaking German. I was actually shocked by the number of students who were beginners, having taken German for two years put me in the minority of students. But back to Mariazell--we went to a museum filled with information about how they used to live in the older days in log cabins and all. It was interesting but also slightly boring. One thing I noticed though was that two of the videos we watched about Mariazell completely skipped over any mention of WWII.