Week 8: Misery in Vienna (with a few bright spots)

What?  A week studying abroad can actually be depressing?  Yes, after getting back from Köln last week, I had a mountain of work to catch up on and began to feel sick.  Completely honestly, the stress of the weekend made me wonder if I want to travel a lot more while abroad.  Travel can drain me and make me feel rather tired during the next week.  At the same time, I recognize that I only will live in Europe for one semester and need to make the most of the time I here.  I decided to make a "check list" of things to do before and during each trip to ensure my travel goes as smoothly as possible.  I remembered my mother's statement regarding sewing when I was little, when she said "Measure twice, cut once."  In reflection on this statement, I realized that my time traveling might not prove so stressful if I plan for it better beforehand.  I'll gladly take that as my new philosophy going forward.

3 March

Woke up feeling sick-ish and tired.  Not the flu, but a sore throat and weakness that made me not want to move around the city.  I had several papers of German homework to turn in today, but fortunately completed them on my numerous bus and train rides during the weekend.  Interesting discussion and reflection on modern influences in the last play we saw in Viennese theater.  I went out with my roommate, Georg, and several of his friends in the evening.  We hung out at the apartment for awhile and then headed out to a local club.  Unfortunately, the club was closed and so we found another place to hang out for awhile.  We were all pretty tired and decided not to stay out for too long.

4 March

Still feeling sick-ish and dragging around, only wanting to sleep between classes and activities.  On the bright side, I experienced the most lovely day tutoring Laurenz.  I finally began to find techniques to help connect his imagination with his reading.  I used things like a map and acting out or exaggerating different scenes to make the book come alive.  What a difference in his reaction!  I really loved being able to practice his reading with him and hopefully having him enjoy it more! After tutoring Laurenz, I went to a bar in the evening with Lisa.  The bar was called Kolar, a delicious hole-in-the-wall place with incredible flat bread and yummy beer.  A person I met back at the Consulting Workshop's visit to West Monroe Partners in Chicago actually recommended it to me and it ended up being a lovely night with Lisa.  It's so fun to see the point to where my German is developing!  So much easier to have conversations now than at first.

5 March

Still feeling sick this morning with a weird headache developing during my classes. I felt tired and had to sleep between classes instead of chatting with my cousin, Anna, about travel plans to visit her family in Germany.  I planned to go on a night hike through the Wienersald with my program in the evening, but backed out due to not feeling up to the intense hike.  Katie, my awesome new English friend, then texted me and asked if I was going to the ÖSM kickoff that night.  Well, I didn't want to miss that, so I trekked my way across the city and met Katie at the kickoff.  It's fun to now understand spiritual topics better in German!  And to express myself on them too...even if it's a little rough haha.

6-8 March

This weekend offered the perfect time to catch up on the work left from last weekend's traveling disaster.  This included writing a veritable mountain of blog posts (5 to be exact) for your reading pleasure and my need to spill my guts through processing everything that happened during February. I recently downloaded the Google Blogger app onto my phone, which means I can far more effectively use my time traveling on the Straßenbahn and U-Bahn (metro) in Vienna, by writing posts and uploading them when I have access to wifi.  iPhones are sheer genius.

Beyond the blog posts, I completed reading and paper writing for my classes.  I struggled to get into a rhythm with my work and felt frustrated by a distraction on Saturday.  I can't complain about my distraction, because Vienna distractions are truly lovely.  In the middle of the day, I "had to" take a tour of Schloß Schönbrunn for a class and see the beauty of the decadent place where the Hapsburg family lived.  Afterwards, I visited a modern art museum called Die Sezession with my language buddy, Franziska.  Truly wonderful break!

After church on Sunday, I kept hacking away at schoolwork and arrived at a much better point to start the week.  My planner certainly looked better and my body was starting to feel better, but such cooped up weekends while studying abroad make me feel rather depressed.  I looked forward to the week ahead and getting back to normal.