Class: '10

Major: Economics

Hometown: Norwalk, CT

Writing From: Dornbirn, Austria

Study Abroad Program:

Fachhochschule Vorarlberg (LC's Exchange Program in Dornbirn, Austria)

International Experience:

United Kingdom (December 2007)

LC Activities:

Westover Honors Program, Investment Club, Sigma Nu Fraternity, Intramural Soccer

Other Posts:

Recent traveling (12/08/2008)
Classes at FHV (11/13/2008)
Life at FHV (10/17/2008)
Being an American abroad (11/13/2008)
Rommate/Food Situation (11/13/2008)
Regional Dialect (11/13/2008)
U.S. Elections as seen from abroad (10/09/2008)
Oktoberfest! (10/02/2008)
International fun and food (10/01/2008)
Accommodation (10/01/2008)
Differences between Austria and the US (10/01/2008)
Getting accustomed (10/01/2008)
I made it! (08/27/2008)

Before departing in the summer, I didn't view getting amazing grades in Austria as being much of an accomplishment. Yea, it would be nice, but I decided that I wanted to accomplish something of much more substance than a subjective letter or number. I'm glad to say that I have earned decent grades yet still had so many other personal accomplishments. I have successfully lived and survived in a foreign culture for 4 months. I have also taken advantage of the opportunity to see things from so many other different perspectives. My outlook on the world will never be the same. Another thing I see as being a rather nice accomplishment is successfully planning and executing my travels around Europe. We all know that traveling can be very stressful but planning your travels can be just as unnerving. I was very glad that all of my plans worked and that I got to see all of the places I wanted to see with minimal stress.

As for my initial impressions, they have changed greatly over the course of the semester. My impressions of Austria haven't changed that drastically since I first arrived, but my impressions of my fellow exchange students have changed greatly. Until relatively recently, I didn't get to know a great deal of my fellow exchangees, and I thought a lot of them were just really weird. However, starting a couple of weeks ago, I started hanging out with many more of them. We would go out and have great convo and come to realize that we aren't as different as we thought. After talking and hanging out for a few weeks, we all acknowledged that even though we have many personal differences, we all seem to have some core personality traits that are very similar. All of us seemed to have overcome pretty stressful personal situations and have a craving to travel, have new experiences/perspectives, and meet new people.

Althought it may seem very minor, I have done something here in Austria that I usually don't do. When my girlfriend was visiting, we visited Paris the first weekend and were going to visit Salzburg the next weekend. My girlfriend suggested that we should go skiing while she was here too. Usually once I have my plans set, especially with traveling and things like that, I don't like to change them. At first I was hesitant to change around all of our plans to fit in the skiing, but I thought that this may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us, so I decided to be "spontaneous." We did a little research and worked on the plans together, and we ended up going skiing on the way back from our trip to Salzburg. It worked out perfectly and I was so glad we went.

It's funny because when I first came to LC I had kind of a culture shock from meeting people from all over the country (or at least a lot from VA and MD). I thought that going to college and meeting all of these "different" people was such a great experience. Going abroad to study is like my first LC experience only multiplied by a thousand. Meeting so many people from all around the world makes everyone back at LC (and even the U.S.) seem so homogeneous. Studying abroad not only introduced me to completely different people but also put my first college "culture shock" experience into perspective. I would definitely recommend studying abroad to other LC students or to any students (across the world) for that matter. It may make you uncomfortable at first but you will learn some valuable life lessons during your experience. I think if you are able to leave your comfort zone to go to a college far away from home, you can withstand a semester abroad. It is totally worth it!