Getting to know the American culture. Celebrating Thanksgiving.

What are you thankful for?

Yesterday has been Thanksgiving Day in the American tradition and, for the first time, I also celebrated it. Webster University, the American university where I study, organized an awesome Thanksgiving dinner for all students, professors, faculty staff and alumni.

You may find below some pictures, for which I have to give credit to Webster and to its official Facebook page.

The first thing you can notice was the large amount of tasty food, starting from the symbol of this celebration, the turkey. What I also appreciated was the fact that the turkey has been actually served by the director of the university and one of the leading professors in the International Relations department. I guess this is a very good indicator of an American type of organizational culture, where the hierarchical distance is somehow closer than in the classically in Europe. And coming back to the food, there were not only American dishes, but also international ones, including the Romanian or East-European “Sarma”, giving thus a clue about the international environment of Webster. Desserts did not miss and for me the highlight was the chocolate fountain in which you could dip strawberries, bananas or cookies.  Eventually, cheering with a glass of wine together with colleagues made things even more enjoyable.

If we go to the essence of the story, I am asking myself, what am I thankful for?

… for living in Viena, Austria.

… for coming from a country free of persecution and secure.

… for having an amazing family.

… for the newly obtained internship.

… for having access to education.

… for living in a very cute flat which has been recently Christmas decorated.

… for keeping long-lasting friendships.

… for all the new good people that God put in my way and that became my friends.

… for all the opportunities I had and all the chances I took.

… for having trust in my future.

… for the life-long memorable experiences I gathered through my internship in Brazil.

… for the wisdom or at least the degree of maturity that I gained in my undergraduate years.

… for the energy, enthusiasm and optimism that I still keep with me.

… for loving and being loved.

… for having had the chance to impact people’s lives through AIESEC and not only.

… for all the help that people gave me at one point or another, without asking for anything in return.

… for all the family Christmas holidays around the Christmas tree.

… for me, my family and close friends being healthy.

And the list can go on more…and more…and more…

THANK YOU for reading this article!

Two months of living in Vienna! What's the news?

Today, 6^th of October, there are exactly two months since I moved to Austria… When did they pass? I don’t even know! But this makes it a perfect time for reflection, for doing a check if everything is on the right track.

Unfortunately, I did not write here for a month, even though I had lots of topic in my head. Many things happened, which left me little time to write. Also now, it does not mean I have time but, on the contrary, I feel the urge of writing, I miss the feeling of doing so.

Stadtpark in Vienna

What should I start with? Well, I began university! And now, my first term is almost ending. It is the right time to tell a few things about Webster, which I plan to develop in a future article. It is an American university and therefore it is structured in a particular way: the university year is split in terms, each having 8 weeks and one week holiday in between them; you can also take a summer break for one term. For this term, I chose to take only one course (the maximum is two), which is Introduction to International Relations. And apart from the class, I got involved in many university-related activities, such as being a Tour Guide for the campus, getting into the board of the International Relations Students Union, participating in campus events or applying for a work-study scholarship. Therefore, my conclusion is that if you want to do something with your student life, there are indeed many options. It just depends on you to approach them and to strive for excellence. However, my standing goal remains to find a full-time job in the IR domain and many of my actions have this driver.

Webster University at the official opening, 1st of October

My social life has also been quite interesting. It makes me happy that I did succeed to see new places in Vienna, such as Karls Kirche, the Zoo, and also travel outside Vienna, to Hallstatt, in Upper Austria. Amazing place this one, it is also on my list of future articles! One of the highlights has been as well the Vienna Night Run! Webster University organized a group to go together and it also supported 2/3 of the tickets costs. The evening was great! Beautiful weather, impressive architecture to run by, a nice new friend to go along and support me. The feeling you get after running 5 km in 32 min. is unbelievable!

The Zoo

Vienna Night Run, 30th of September

 Above and below in Hallstatt

And how could I forget to mention that I had already completed a new level of German, A2.1, at Deutsch Akademie? My experience here has been very good: an excellent teacher (Verena) and a multicultural and joyful group.

Champagne for the last day of our German course! Cheers! 

One may wonder also if I felt any culture shock. Actually, not so much, almost not at all. However, I believe that some important factors have been the facts that I received regular packages with food from home (some things that one cannot get from here :X), my parents visited me recently and I also keep in touch with people from Romania. Of course, not every day is a paradise and not everything is 100% wonderful, but this is how life goes no matter what corner of the world you live in. It depends on what side of the glass you consider: the empty or the full one?

Briefly, my life goes on the right track. Keep in mind: take care what you wish for because it will come true! Your thoughts have the power to attract those particular feelings, actions and events… (as the outcome of a conversation with a good friend was…).

Life at crossroads: from Romania to Austria!

What it takes to change your life? Courage and trust. In this way, I embarked on my journey to Austria. I arrived here on August the 6^th, knowing only where I am going to study and where I am going to live for the first 10 days until I find a place of my own to rent. However, it is not my first time in this country, but I dare to say the 5^th time. Somehow, different reasons kept bringing me back here once in a while, from the 9^th high school grade.

I felt in love with Vienna right from the beginning. Who would have guessed that I was going to move here, for an indefinite number of years? I find it useless to set a specific number of years, when only the opportunities and the turning points of life will determine this. In high school, I started thinking about doing my Master abroad. As my mind was trying to figure out in what city I would like to study, Vienna always popped out. You see, for me, the lifestyle of a city is very important. I just can’t move to a country just because it has an extraordinary good university if I don’t feel myself at least a bit attracted to that culture, people, weather and so on. Later on, when I conducted a solid research concerning my studies abroad, Vienna turned out also this time to be the solution. Here, I had a good faculty with the profile I was looking for, taught in English - Webster University, International Relations -, I loved the atmosphere of the city and the architecture, I was willing to learn German, which would use me very well in the future, I had the possibility to find a job since it was an international city, it was not as expensive as other European capitals and it was relatively close to Romania.

So, here I am: a new resident of Vienna! Now, 10 days from my stay have passed, 10 days in which I learned once again to deal with uncertainty, to have faith and to enjoy a new beginning. Luckily, a friend of mine, to whom I thank very much, allowed me to stay in his studio from Vienna while he was in Romania, in order to search a studio for myself. Therefore, in the first 4 days I had appointments for visiting flats and eventually, on Sunday evening, I found a great one to rent! But finding a flat here is another story, which I will develop in a future article, including also practical suggestions for those interested in finding accommodation. On Tuesday, I moved to my new place and from there on, I settled. However, I did not waste the days and, taking advantage of the first sunny days, I got familiar once again with the city, with its spirit. Museum Quartier is a great place to go in the evening, it has a lot of cafes, but also benches and shapes to sit on and enjoy the conversations, movie projections and so on; Stephansplatz is always vibrant of tourists, but walking on its small side streets, one can discover dozens of antiquities shops and galleries; Nestroyplatz is a chic place, leading you to the Danube, to many cafes and displaying an architectural combination of old style and large multinational futurist buildings. One of the highlights of my stay here remains the visit at the United Nations Headquarter, at the Vienna International Center. Celebrating 35 years since they have been working in this building, they had a free visiting day on the 15^th of August. Having in mind that UN is one of the organizations where I would like to work, this opportunity was more than welcomed. Despite the fact that, of course, there was a relatively long waiting line, and that the tour was limited due to time constraints, I enjoyed being there and getting in contact with the UN.  After three Model United Nations, I got to actually enter a conference room and take the seat of the Director – General. Life has its own mysterious ways.

Let’s not forget to mention the people of Vienna! It is an incredible mix of cultures! I encountered incredibly helpful people, right from the beginning, when a young women just passing by showed us how to buy the right tickets and after a few minutes came back in the train station searching for us because she forgot to say something important regarding the validity of the tickets. But I have also seen all kinds of weird of people; especially the area Praterstern which, even though an important transportation hub, can turn out to be dangerous and thus it is worth avoiding it as much as possible (however, maybe due to the high number of police men, I never witnessed any incident).

After all, why take this step and make such a big change? Well, there are many reasons, but, behind them all, there is an irresistible attraction in living for a while in another country. And what better moment to do that other than now? For me, it really seems like the normal course of action, I feel like I should have been here and I should have done things this way; I don’t feel strange and I don’t feel a lack of adaption; I just feel like HOME. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Romania and it will remain my first home, I will always pride with my home country but now, I am ready to have for some time… two homes.

The secret of adaption lies in the feeling of being at home… wherever your head lies…