Quote

Abroad Quote of the Semester

"You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see. You hang around cafés."

- Chapter 12, The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

A Bentley Student's Guide to Vienna

Alright, so your meeting with Barb, students who studied abroad, and Austrian students, all of that will only prepare you to a certain extent. By the time I go home I am going to forget the best advice. Therefore I hope I can direct people to this blog post to help aid the transition and provide a run down of Vienna.

Housing Abroad
Live in Haus Erasmus.

Haus Erasmus is the bee’s knees. It’s clean. It gets cleaned on a weekly basis by these silly/funny/cute/aggravating Austrian cleaning ladies. Only one of them speaks English. These women have an attitude, but they are also very motherly. Here in Vienna, you have to separate the garbage: plastics, paper, cans, glass, and everything else.

Lord help you if you put your tissue in the plastics or your paper in the garbage! They will wake you up and ream you out. I, however, have a different relationship with the cleaning ladies and maintenance men than most Erasmus residents. I live on the first floor. There are NO positives to living on the first floor. I live above the party room, so my floor will shake to “Das Geht Ab” until 5 am several times a week. We also have a TINY kitchen that often gets invaded by Asians. We also have the music room. Normally, I would like listening to people practicing the cello and the band that practices, but there is these flute players. These flute players are insufferable. They like to practice at 9 am and do nothing but scales. It is so bad. The only thing that is worse than the flute music is the cigarette smoke that flows underneath my door from the cleaning lady break room. Directly across from my door is the break room and 2 supply rooms for the staff. From what I’ve seen, 60% of their work day is spent smoking cigarettes, gossiping, and eating cookies.

The main piece I can offer to you about living in Erasmus is that you should try to have Bentley kids live on different floors. I am also going to ask Bentley to request that students live on different floors. That will give you exposure to new groups of people. Sharing a wall makes it far too convenient to hang out with your Bentley neighbors, but living on different floors introduces you to new social groups. Of course Bentley kids will always find each other to hang out, but from what I’ve heard and it’s the people that get put on a separate floor that really diversify their friend groups.

DO NOT LIVE IN HOUSE PANORAMA
It feels like a prison. Homeless people sleep in the lobby. It is close to the university, but far away from anything else. There is nothing cool around it, just office buildings. You have to walk or take a bus to the nearest Ubahn station. It is gigantic. People jump off the top floor and commit suicide. The only positive thing I can think of is that you get a single bedroom. I would definitely suggest a roommate. I have had two roommates. My first Austrian roommate and I only lived together for about a month before she moved in with her boyfriend. She still paid for October and November, so I lived alone in a double for 2 months. That was pretty sweet. Now, in December, I have a really clutch Armenian girl. Before I met her, I had never met anyone who lived in Armenia. One of the best parts of studying abroad is meeting new people. If you have a roommate, you are exposed to them and their group of friends too. I don’t care how much you value your privacy, having a roommate when studying abroad is one of the easiest ways to enhance your experience.

Classes
Go to more classes than you plan on taking. The academics here are not stellar. There are good classes, but there are also a lot of bad classes. I went to a class the first two sessions, and by the end over ¾ of the class had dropped it. My Bentley classmates are going to end up only transferring back 4 classes because they have had to drop some.

I over-registered and will end up transferring back 5 or 6. If you don’t get into the class when you register online, you can always show up to the first day of class and ask to be added to the roster. I have not met any exchange students who were denied entry into a class when they showed up the first day. Also, if you show up to the first day and you don’t like the professor, the grading rubric, or anything; you can easily take a different course. Dropping a course here is as easy as sending an email. The main complication is what courses Bentley will accept. The best class I have taken here is still pending as to whether I will receive credit or not. Check with Bentley right away so you don’t get stuck at the end of the semester taking classes that won’t help you graduate.

Also, you can ask for a 1. Some teachers don’t like giving 1s. On the Austrian grading scale, a 2 is a 3.3, so you definitely want a 1. I am 50/50 with this, but if you explain to your professor that by American standards you need a 1, and that you are willing to work to get a 1, they will oblige. I had an American teacher here (not even a real professor, just a business man) who gave everyone in the class 2s (as far as I have asked). It was a 3 day class about leadership…total bullocks. I still have 3 grades to come in, so we’ll see how my strategy works in the other courses.

Travel
By Bus
To Prague: Student Agency Bus http://www.studentagencybus.com/
To Budapest: Orange Ways Bus http://www.orangeways.com/en

By Train
Get the vorteils discount card for 20 euro (gives you 50% off tickets) from the Austrian rail system and take the train across europe (http://www.oebb.at/en/index.jsp)

By Plane
To Rome: Wizz Air http://wizzair.com/
Ryan Air flies out of Bratislava and is super cheap for destinations across Europe http://www.ryanair.com/en

By Rental Car
Find someone who drives stick, take a bus to Bratislava, and drive across Europe. Driving in Europe is very similar to the US. Some roads have no speed limits. Plus, it’s a rental car, so you can pretty much drive it likes its stolen because in Bratislava they don’t really give a darn in what condition you return the vehicle.

Groceries
Always keep a cache of food in your room. In Vienna, almost nothing is open on Sundays. If you don’t keep food in your room, you are going to end up living off of kabobs, which shorten your life span with every garlicy bite. Around Haus Erasmus there are several grocery stores. BIlla is the most convenient, but has the least selection. When you first get there, take a Billa card form and fill it out so you can get discounts on sale items. They have the cheapest beer and often have sales on wine and liquor.

The alternative grocery stores are Hofer, Zielpunkt, Merkour, and Spar. Hofer is the Aldi in the US. It is by far the cheapest, but is also the cheapest. Zielpunkt has good selection, but not necessarily stellar sales. Billa has good sales fairly often, but their fruits and vegetables are not very good looking. Merkour is located in the basement of Lugner City (a mall right next to the Ubahn stop Burgasse Stadhalle). It is just like an American grocery store. They have an amazing selection of everything. If you have money to burn or desire gourmet cheese or Johnny Walker, this is the grocery store for you. If I am feeling extravagant I will go to Merkour and pick out some pre-marinated meat or fish and some exotic fruit or fancy cheese.

Vegetables (specifically potatoes) are super cheap here. Organic food is also subsidized by the government to the point where organic food is sometimes cheaper than normal food. Yogurt, chocolate, and rice pudding are way better here than in the states. Everyone in Haus Erasmus starts out cooking pasta…and by the end of the semester greatly expand their repertoire. The best way to expand your pallet is to cook with people from other countries. It works out great if you cook for them one night and they cook for you the next. This semester I have eaten tons of new foods from across the globe, not just Austria. I have learned to use a rice cooker, made sushi, eaten poutine, etc.

One few small things about grocery stores here: they charge you for plastic bags. It’s only like 20 cents, but if you bring your own bags then the whole grocery shopping process is easier (and more environmentally friendly). Also, if you want to use a cart you need to insert a 1 or 2 euro coin that you get back when you put the cart back. Also, if you don’t eat pork, be very, very careful in Austria. I bought Puten (turkey) once and it ended up being ham slices. One Muslim girl here ate ham for the first time in her life because it was labeled as puten, but was actually schinken (ham). Most dished here revolve around some sort of pig product. If you are worried about eating ham it is best not to eat meat here unless you yourself are cooking chicken breasts or something similar.

Friends
Don’t just hang out with Americans. I know it is tempting, but if you wanted to hang out with Americans you could’ve stayed at Bentley. Plus, when else are you going to meat Armenians, Serbians, Hungarians, Danes, Fins? After your semester abroad you will have such a better grasp on understanding other cultures because you will know a Slovenian and how they act or a Korean or even a Canadian. (Canadians are the most similar to Americans…but you can normally tell the difference if you hang out with them long enough.)

Money
A lot of kids got bank accounts here. If you are a student, your banking account has no fees and is very easy to set up. However, with the exchange rate for USD to Euros being the worst in history, I decided to not wire my money over in hopes the dollar would rally. The dollar did not rally, and I paid a lot of ATM fees. However, it was convenient to use ATMs so I wouldn’t have done it differently.

Your budget here is entirely up to you. If you want to live the Viennese lifestyle you can live pretty cheaply cooking, taking night buses home, pregaming before going out, getting student discount admission to club and museums and movies, and other local thrills. You can also go all out and spend like no tomorrow: going out to eat, taking taxis, clubbing on weekends, flying to Amsterdam, Cairo, Paris, etc. If the dollar was stronger I would’ve traveled more, but I am still content.

Electronics
Bring an adapter, preferably a voltage adapter. If you can, you should also bring an external hard drive. 2/3 Bentley students here got a Russian malware virus that totally screwed our hard drives. We were both lucky enough to save our files, but an external hard drive helps buffer your chances. Another advantage to bringing an external hard drive is that you can put movies and music from other students onto it. There are people here with tons of ripped movies (because other countries don’t honor copyright laws) you can take. The internet here is so slow that you can’t stream hardly anything and the TV is all in German except International CNN and MTV Reality shows (if you even have access to a TV).

Bring a cheap cell phone that has a SIM card, preferably already unlocked. That way you can buy a SIM Card here and put money on it. If you buy certain SIM cards, you can call the US for 2 cents/minute. It is all pay as you go, so you don’t have to worry about cancelling contracts or hidden fees.

Your camera is the second most important electronic you will bring. Make sure that you remember to bring your charger and cable. If your camera is not very nice, it is worth the $150-$300 to buy a new camera. The pictures you take here will be far more valuable to you in the future than any souvenirs you will buy.

Clubs
Despite Vienna’s small size, there are tons of clubs and bars. After living here for 4 months, I have my favorites.
Praterdome – on weekends it is expensive and full of D-bags. Thursday night is Lady’s night and student night. It costs 6 euros for boys and 3 euros for girls and you get 10 euros of free drinks on this club credit card. Bottles of Heineken and Becks are 2 euros and tequila shots are 1.50. On Thursdays they only open up 4 of the rooms, but it is still a good time. I have gone the last 7 or 8 Thursdays straight. The music in the hip hop room is always good and you always see exchange friends there. I normally end up getting schnockered and staying until the Ubahn starts running at 5 AM, paying a total of 4 euros (3 for entry, 1 for coat check) and having a time.

Fluc – a super sketchy bar with live music right next to the Praterstern stop. It has no coat check, no entry fee, but some awesome fussball players and live music.

Ride Club – ride club has no cover for WU students and has free drinks from 7-8. It is also really easy to get home on the night bus. Ride is located one stop away from the University under the U6. Other than that, Ride Club is hot, crowded, and plays lame music. But, someone will drag you out almost every Monday and you’ll go because you won’t have anything better to do.

Restaurants
7 Star Brewery – 4.80 lunch specials and microbrewery beer http://www.7stern.at/

The Turkish Bakery – open 23 hours a day. Delicious Turkish food. Right next to urban loritz platz.

Cardinale Pizza – from 11 PM to 2 AM they have a 5,5,5 pizza, calzone and pasta deal

Bamboo – Super good asian buffet. From 3-5 PM they have happy hour where the buffet is only 6.90, as opposed to 13 euros at dinner

Happy Noodle – An asian food stand in Schwedenplatz that never disappoints

Must Do Culture
Go Running at Schonbrunn Palace
Visit the Tiergarten Zoo
Walk around the 1st district (take pictures)
Get student tickets (10 euro) or standing tickets (3 or 4 euros) at the State Opera House http://www.staatsoper.at/Content.Node2/intro.php

Hope this is helpful. Enjoy your time abroad!

Blog Now. Paper Later.

I should be writing a final paper. I took an epic four hour nap today after going to Naschmarkt (a gigantic flea market). I am listening to the song “We Used to Vacation” by the Cold War Kids. Paper later, blog now.

I have less than 4 days left in Europe…Back to Bentley for the Spring…Who knows where for a summer internship…last semester at Bentley…graduate in December…then a job and the rest of my life. Taking all that into account, I don’t know when I will be back in Europe. I had grand plans to visit Spain, Paris, London, Dublin, Berlin, and Amsterdam. However, Vienna was fresh to death, and I didn’t want to peace out every weekend. I did manage to hit up lots of Central and Eastern Europe:
Bratislava, Slovakia
Graz, Linz, Mauthesen, Salzburg,Innsbruck, Vienna, Austria.
Zurich, Switzerland
Verona, Venice, Milan, Italy
Budapest, Hungary
Brno, Prague, Czech Republic
Munich, Germany

Most of these hotspots I visited on the ultimate European road trip. I still need to write about this, seeing as that it was the highlight of my abroad experience. Now that I am packing (aka shoving copious amounts of chocolate into my suitcases) I stumbled upon Bentley’s “Education Abroad Handbook.” This handbook covers all topics: AIDS, homosexuals, women’s equality, and provides groundbreaking insights such as “Walking alone at night should be avoided.” Thank you Bentley.

The section I am reading now is the “Returning Home” section.
“Your international study and travel experiences can help you become more mature, independent and worldly than your peers who remained at home…You may be disappointed when friends and family do not share your interests”
I don’t know how your interpret this, but to me it sounds like because you lived somewhere else you will be granted with some paradigm shift in the way you view life and those peons who stayed in America won’t even understand you anymore.

However, the hand book goes on to explain that, “You may find that people are not interested in hearing your travel stories as you had hoped and would much rather talk about their own affairs.”
AKA Nobody gives a sneeze how much you miss pints were in your favorite pub or how much you miss eating a kabob when you take the first ubahn of the morning home from Praterdome. I have noticed this in my friends/acquaintances that come home from abroad. They are homesick for their abroad host country and talk about it 70%-98% of the time. It gets old fast. Therefore, right now, I give permission to anyone who reads this to slap me if I constantly slip into nostalgia for Austria. I can see it now, “Christina, if you mention the Turkish bakery/public transportation/proximity to other countries/people from abroad one more time, I will slap you.”
Ok, so I really should be writing my Ecological Economics final paper. What I really want to write about I can’t project all over cyberspace. I want to talk about people, things, places, here. Regrettably, since the link to this blog is on facebook, I don’t want said people, places and things to read about themselves by mistake. This last week I have watched all of season 1 and 5 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It makes me wonder if Larry David’s family and friends get mad at him for how they are depicted on his show. Same things with novelists. I know Truman Capote’s friends got pissed for how he wrote about them. In order to avoid social castigation, I won’t write about those nouns until a later date. Or better yet, ask me about the characters here. (Please take note that if YOU ask ME about abroad, you are not allowed to slap me for talking about it :D).

A Series of Tubes

I've been reading some other blogs in order to improve this one. Some people update their blogs several times a day. In the spirit of twitter, facebook, and all other internet portals that allow people to overshare, I will do the same by clogging the information superhighway with totally useless content. Here I go.

Current Location: WU, computer lab, Computational Corporate Finance II, computer #SR328

Last Movie Watched: I'm Not There

Last Song Listened To: "London's Calling" The Clash

What am I doing?: Sitting in class, supposed to be creating financial models on Visual Basic

What am I actually doing?: Reading about Amanda Knox (best abroad experience ever?)

Plans for the rest of the day: Business German, European Law & Economics, Case Race

Current Annoyance: A toss up between all the errors on Facebook and the flaws of a German keyboard.

What's getting me through my classes today?: The promise of at least 2 Liters of beer during the Case Race.

Bittersweet December

Today is December 4, 2009. That means in 19 days I will fly across the Atlantic Ocean and back to reality. It also means that I can eat a chocolate out of my teddy bear advent calendar! Now that reality is settling in I am making winter break plans, applying to internships, and making my Christmas card.

This year Julianne and I are making Christmas cards. I don’t know what age you are supposed to be to do this, but I guess I have gotten there. I think that people send out Christmas cards after they get engaged, or married, or have pictures of rugrats to put on the front. Luckily, my sister and I have avoided all of those things up to this point in our lives and have no pictures of puppies, husbands, or kids to display. So, what could be better to send to all of our friends who have kids, mortgages, first homes, etc, then pictures of us gallivanting through Europe?

I’ve lived here long enough were not every week has been filled with incredible goings-on. One day this week, instead of going out to the hookah lounge for happy hour with my friends I went to the book store. I spent close to 2 hours there. After much debate, I ended up buying “American Pastoral” by Philip Roth and A PUZZLE! I know, it’s sad, but that night my friends went out to two bars, and I stayed in to do a puzzle. I totally made the better choice. Plus, this puzzle is epic. It’s a 1,000 piece puzzle displaying rows of European and American beers.

It’s my last month in Austria and people are disappearing like pieces from my puzzle. People are starting to pack up and go home. It’s pretty bittersweet to think about returning to the land of the free. I’ve decided to buffer my expectations by doing what I do every day for pretty much every situation: make a list.

Things I am excited for in America
1. Customer Service
I miss it so much. When I go home I am probably going to hug the first customer service representative that I see.

2. The majority of the population speaking a language I can understand
English or Spanish
3. My family
Especially since I am coming home at the best time of the year: CHRISTMAS!
4. American Dollars
the size, the smell, the color, the value, woohee it sends chills down my spine
5. Driving a Car
6. Real Schoolwork
I am 100% disappointed in the courses here. I am a nerd who loves learning, but my classes here have been terrible. I have two more left this month. I am hoping they will salvage my opinion of European education.
7. Capitalism/Democracy
The political/governmental situation here is…kind of unsettling. I don’t feel like you have real freedom here. I don’t want to go into detail, but some stuff has gone down here that would NEVER fly in America.

Things I will miss about Austria
1. The food
Specifically the creamy chocolate and the Turkish food. Turkish food here is like Mexican food in America. It's almost as good, if not better than it would be if I was actually in Turkey. However, Mexican food here is bad, as I expect Turkish food would not be as good in the US as it is here. I will not miss traditional Austrian dishes, because they normally consist of breading, pork, and pork.
2. All my friends in Haus Erasmus
People are already starting to go home and it’s very sad. It’s like the end of summer camp: you tell them you’ll be friends forever, but you’ll probably never see them again.
3. Being able to go clubbing several nights a week without affecting my schoolwork AT ALL.
I am not a party girl. I like throwing a few back and hanging out with my friends, but the amount of clubbing I do here is bordering on insanity. The problem is, I never have an excuse not to go clubbing. I don’t have work in the morning, homework to do, or any other semblance of responsibility. Last night at Praterdome, I realized that I had been there 5 Thursday nights in a row, if not more than that. I don’t think I will be able to maintain that kind of record stateside.
4. Being able to take public transit at all hours of the day
So, I do miss driving my car, but always having a designated driver is awesome. Thanks Wiener Linen for always having a night bust, S-bahn, or U-bahn for me to ride home.
5. Cheap and delicious beer and wine
You can buy wine and champagne here for one euro. If I spend 2.50 euro on a bottle of wine, I expect quality. Half a liter of beer from the grocery store is normally just above 50 cents. Even vodka here ranges from 5-10 euros. When I go back to American the cheapest wine I will be able to buy is Carlo Rossi or Franzia, for over $10. Going back to that swill will be very tough to cope with.

I am almost done with my European Adventure and I have not even come close to filling this blog with all of the shenanigans I have been up to. Perhaps people will just have to find out the old-fashioned way and ask me in person.