Hellooooo June!!
Y’all,
it’s June and beautiful in my little home of Graz all nestled away in Austria.
I’ve
become very thankful for where I live because I can walk and bike everywhere J Which makes springtime even
better! It takes me about 5 minutes to walk to class and I find myself smiling
a lot while I take the daily stroll. I don’t know what it is, but I love it
here so much. The little things that are so amazing and wonderful to me have
been the best parts of my day. Whether it be from smelling the honeysuckle tree
growing on the corner of my block to the breeze in my hair as I ride my bike
through the park - I’m trying to make the most of every sensation (as every
exchange student and life liver should!) Sadly, I’ll be leaving in around 2
months and with finals gear
Since
we last spoke nothing too crazy has happened – but I’ll still share some of the
fun things! Gave a presentation in my German class, thought I was failing a
class, went to an Arkansas themed party, experienced a spring festival in town,
and went hiking/ladder climbing through a gorge – fasten up my faithful
followers!
May
21st I had a huge presentation to give in my Austrian Culture class.
For those unaware of how I feel about public speaking, I hate it! I get very nervous
when speaking in public for some reason so doing it in another language gets my
nerves going even more. I kept having flashbacks to when I gave a presentation
in German at my Belgian high school and the teacher had no idea what I was
saying in between me laughing at myself. German words are beyond difficult for
me to pronounce, which is one of the reasons I think I’m so attracted to the
language. Unfortunately or fortunately, this time my presentation actually
mattered and I couldn’t just laugh while I butchered words horrifically. We had
to choose a famous Austrian and then prepare a short power point and tell the
importance of this person. I chose the only person on the list I recognized –
Franz Schubert! Which is just comical that he was the only one I recognized
since I am not musically inclined nor do I know anything about classical
composers haha Classic Mallory. I wrote it all out before and had my teacher
correct it so the only thing I had to worry about was my pronunciation J I even printed off the lyrics of
one of his songs (since Schubert is known for putting German poetry to music)
and found a crazy intense opera singer on YouTube who sang it all to the
orchestra rooting her on from behind. My teacher was so impressed by me! I was
so happy once it was over! I think I did well – and I only laughed a few times
at my pronunciation errors J Making progress
from 3 years ago! While I do find myself more lazy learning German than I was
with learning French, I’m still really proud of myself with how far I have
come. I get a lot more than I did when I first arrived here and I am proud of
pushing my limits with the level I was placed at. I have a tandem partner that
I meet with once a week to practice my German and his English – and I think I
have been learning the most from him. Yesterday I spoke German for an hour and
half and I was so happy with myself with all the stories I told and all the
things I was able to express J It’s moments
like these that make all the difficulties seem irrelevant. The smile I get from
switching between three different languages while having a conversation will
never get old for me J Can’t get
enough!
The
24th, Saturday, I went to a Hoedown Throwdown that a fellow exchange
student threw at her dorm! My ripped jean shorts and plaid shirt were all
welcomed and I was actually upset I didn’t bring my cowboy boots. Theme parties
aren’t really a thing here, so it was nice to have a theme party that is
actually not a theme at all where I go to school. Speaking of Arkansas, I miss
Arkansas so much more than I thought I would. I think I miss my campus more
than anything and it surprises me. I might make a lot of jokes about Arkansas,
but I really do value the university and cannot wait to get back to my Old Main
and to walk on the Senior Walk with my friends in between class. The Hoedown
was a success and reminded me of what I get to go back to very soon J
The
rest of the weekend was spent studying and doing small things here and there. Since
Universities in the US are over and it’s summer time a lot of my friends here
have friends in town! Which gets me so excited to have my mommy and Jill over!
I can’t wait to show them where I have been living for the past 6 months, my
favorite European city, and my second home of Belgium! The thought just makes
me so excited. I’m trying to not plan too much because I know once I get really
invested I won’t be able to concentrate on other things – like term papers and
finals! Eek! They come in less than a month now J #JulayAndJillyTakeEurope
Last
week we didn’t have school on Thursday or Friday for some holiday…. I have it
in my planner at “Rector’s Day” but I couldn’t tell you if this was what it’s
actually called or what it even was. All I know was that I had 3 days of school
and a 4 day weekend and it was much needed! Tuesday I had a mini heart attack
in my Sociology class that is transferring as my European Studies Colloquium
for my major. It’s a 3 hour class that I have every other Friday and it’s super
intense and long! The teacher is pretty young and well-educated on the subject.
He sends us around 40 pages to read before we come to class and then he quizzes
us over it during the first 10 minutes of class. In Austria, they grade from
1-5 where 5 is failing and 1 is an A. As an American, this way of giving grades
makes no sense to me. When my teacher finally posted the grades online, I saw
that mine were 4’s and 5’s and my stomach dropped! I thought I had been doing
so well with the readings and with understanding the concepts. In between
freaking out I emailed my professor asking to meet with him to go over why I’m
doing so horrible. I was so confused! He responds just as confused as me and
explains that these grades are out of 5 points – as in I was getting 5 out of
the 5 points, 100%, instead of failing. He was so nice and admitted that the
grading scale here is so confusing and told me that I was doing the best in the
class! Classic Mallory – thinking I’m failing a class one minute and then being
the best in the class the next! I was very thankful it was in this order
instead of thinking I’m passing but really failing haha!
There
was some festivals in town to welcome spring – I’m always a big fan of anything
that welcomes the changing of seasons. Austria has definitely let everyone know
that it is springtime and given many reasons for celebrations. There is even a
spritzer stand on our campus here – very Austro to have a stand to have a quick
drink in between classes. Not complaining J
Maybe I’ll even try to get one on campus at the UofA!
Saturday,
the 31st of May, was especially fun! Ashley had heard of really cool
place to go hiking here so we had planned to all meet at the train station
around 8:45 to catch the 9:05 train about 35 minutes outside of Graz. I show up
first to the train station and I run into my German and Austrian Culture
professor. I had forgotten that he had invited everyone in our class to go
hiking with him on the same day! He was standing all alone and when he saw me
he got so excited and I told him I was actually going with 2 of my friends. He
explained that nobody he had invited showed up - perhaps they didn’t get the
email or the long weekend made a lot of people go traveling? Long story short,
he ended up coming with Ashely, Lisa and I on our hike! It was so funny because
I didn’t have time to fill Lisa in on what was happening when she got there so
she thought we were just sitting and chatting with a random person. He was so knowledgeable
and taught us German words while we hiked and climbed our way through one of
the coolest things I have ever experienced. Bärenschützklamm gorge is what is
was called or “most epic hike” as it will be remembered in my mind. This is one
of Austria’s most beautiful water-bearing rocky gorges. It was about an hour
hike to the actual gorge itself. The gorge consists of limestone, dolomite and
conglomerates that were formed 400 million years ago by being pushed up against
the Alps. The stream eroded the limestone creating 300 meter deep vertical walls
with wooden ladders and bridges zig-zagging all the way to the top of this
mountain with a 50 meter waterfall stealing all the spotlight. There were so
many people too! We all meandered our way in single file on the wooden path almost
getting held up as people in front of us would stop for a good picture of a
waterfall. It was crazy! My teacher said he had never seen it that busy in his
life. My mouth was open in awe the whole time we were hiking – it was like a
fairytale almost with the sun glistening off the water hitting the rock while
the forest was surrounding us. I had never experienced walking across that many
bridges and climbing that many ladders before – nor had my legs!! Haha I’m
still sore! We went through the gorge for an hour and then my teacher convinced
us to hike another 45 minutes up to the very top of the mountain where there
was a café. It was the best! We were so thankful he was with us because we
would have never known to keep going up. We enjoyed the epic view with a soup
and apple juice in hand. Right when we were in the café – a quick little rain
storm happened! Then right when we were paying, it stopped! It the best timing
we could have asked for. At the top there was also a beautiful church where
supposedly the springs had cured blindness and there was a Madonna found in the
rock a thousand years ago. That’s what my teacher told us! He had so many cool
stories to tell. We didn’t get back until 10 hours later! It was an awesome day
spent with an unexpected guest J
This
week has been stressful so far with a lot of papers and finals getting closer
and closer. It is getting harder to enjoy the good weather but I’m trying my
best to make the most of my time!
All
for now! Off for a quick visit to Slovenia with my 4 day weekend again - we
have Monday and Tuesday off! Looking forward to the visit in between the large of
amount of studying I will be doing!
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