Back in Austria

I have been back home for 1 week now and slowly but surely I’m getting used to Austrian life again. Flight The flight back to Vienna was almost as terrible as the flight to NJ. First of all, Polish Airlines had canceled my seat, so I was on stand by and didn’t know if I could get on the plane until 15 minutes before the plane left Newark. I have to say that I was extremely proud of myself, since I made it really on time to the airport (usually I’m almost too late) and so I had thought that nothing could go wrong. But I was completely wrong. Although I told them at the airport that I had a seat assignment, they told me that didn’t matter, since I would have needed to call 3 days before to confirm my flight. However, since nobody had told me before to do that, I came to the airport without a clue and just wanted to check in. I had a bit of a shock when that LOT lady told me that I was on stand by, as were also 15 other people who were as uninformed as I was. Additionally, they told us that there were just about 5 seats left in the plane. Isn’t that crazy?? I don’t understand why they overbook the plane. Well, however, in the end, all of us miraculously had a seat and nobody had to stay at the airport. Arrived in Warsaw and ready to get on my connection flight to Vienna, I wanted to get my boarding pass. But do you know what they told me?? Believe it or not, they told me that I was canceled again! However, the good thing was that I was booked on an earlier flight with Austrian Airlines. So I only had to wait for 1 hour instead of 4 hours. And it was great to fly with Austrian Airlines. I even got Milka chocolate on the plane!! I never got used to America’s Hershey’s anyway – Milka is the best chocolate ever : ) Back in Austria My dad picked me up at the airport in Vienna, and it was a bit strange to hear all the people speaking German again. My first reverse culture shock was that all the cars were so small again. It felt so weird to open the trunk of our VW Golf and put my luggage in. Arrived in Kirchschlag, I had to discover that our kitchen was so small compared to the ones in NJ. I have to say that I was already prepared for that, since I had to experience the same thing last year. So, in fact, it wasn’t such a shock this year, since I was already a bit prepared for all the differences that awaited me in Austria. In my opinion, the most extreme difference are the refrigerators – compared to Amercian refrigerators, the ones we have in Austria are tiny. Driving in Austria What is more, on Thursday I went from Kirchschlag to Graz, because I still had to do a couple of things there for my Erasmus semester in Lyon. I have to say that the stick shift in our car gave me some trouble at first, since I was not used to it anymore. Once you get used to driving automatic cars, it feels a bit weird driving stick shift again. Another great difference from the States are the narrow, curvy roads. In New Jersey most of the roads are just straight and very wide, probably because of all the huge cars they have there ; ) But here, you really have to be careful that you don’t drive on the opposite road. When a big truck approached on the other side of the narrow road, I almost felt a bit frightened and just hoped that it would have enough space. Lyon

The week has gone by so fast, but tomorrow I’ll already go to France. The plane leaves at 10:30 am from Graz. By the way, Elisabeth will also go to Lyon and that is really great. Although I’m a bit nervous, I’m also very excited and looking forward to my time in France.