One year ago today I stepped off a plane in Vienna with my family and absurd amounts of luggage ready to begin this new adventure. A year always seems like a weird measure to me, making this span seem both long and short at the same time. Without trying to get Seasons of Love stuck in everyone's head...how do you measure a year? One of my challenges for myself when I knew I was moving to Austria was to be better about documenting things, through pictures and words, in order to help better capture these events as they happen and not rely solely on a fuzzy memory later. As I was anticipating this anniversary, I went back through my year of pictures and blog entries, and I am so so glad that I have these records of not only the fantastic trips and special places, but also of more normal life.
spring and summer in Vienna
Seasons do help to mark the time, some of my first photos of Vienna are of the Easter Markets and the flowers, and while we're still pretty steeped in winter around here at the moment, the Easter Markets are rapidly approaching on the calendar. I'm so thankful that I wasn't only here for one year, so that while I look back on the wonderful activities warm weather brings, I now have those to look forward to in the coming months.
fall and winter in Vienna
I realize I say this a lot, but Vienna is really a magnificent city. It has such a quiet elegance about it, so rich in culture and traditions, that still catches me off guard on a regular basis. As with New York in some ways, I am thankful to be even the smallest part of the history of this grand city. I'm not sure when or where it happened exactly, but somewhere along the way Vienna really does feel like home now. I realize that's a gradual process, so probably I'll look back on this later and laugh at myself, but it really does. I'm not sure I thought I would really get to that point, where this no longer feels like an extended vacation, but somehow despite the different language and food and culture, there is also a sense of belonging (not to say I feel Austrian...that would still be a long way to go...).
Obviously I came here for school, and school is fantastic. I have really enjoyed all of my classes, even all the readings and frustrating papers and projects. I have learned so much, not only about sustainability but also about how people from all different nationalities can discuss and work together and really benefit from these differing backgrounds and worldviews.
This year has also brought the opportunity to travel to some really awesome places: England, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic, and much of Austria. It is different than if I were just studying abroad here, I don't go out of town every weekend, I don't feel a huge need to rush around and check places off my to-see list. While I love to travel and am looking forward to doing much more of it, I also enjoy how normal life in Vienna is, brunching with friends, running errands on a Saturday, and I try to keep some balance of those two.
This past summer was also awesome. Being back home was great and relaxing, spending lots of time with friends and family, traveling around the northeast a bit. Plus then a bit of Austria came to me and I got to show them around NYC which was fantastic. It was a bit weird being home though, even after just a few months I already felt like I had a real life in Vienna, and being back home it was easy to step back into "real life" there too. It's weird having two places separated by an ocean that can feel this way at the exact same time.
Really though, this year wouldn't have been the same without the people here. Vienna is somewhat of a transitory city, people come to study, or to work at an international organization, and this is just their home for a year or two. Some friends have already gone, that I had the pleasure of overlapping with for a few months, and now we're keeping in touch by email from all corners of the world. Some friends are just arriving, only having begun their time here, asking me for tips and suggestions about things now that I'm a more seasoned resident. And thankfully there are also some who were here long before me and have no immediate plans to leave. All the trips, dinners, walks, coffees, glasses of wine, and lots and lots of laughter are made so much richer by these wonderful friends.
I think two of my most commonly asked questions are "How did you end up here?" and "Are you planning to stay after graduation?" and I never have very clear answers to either of those. "Graduate school" is not really a valid answer for the first question either, since people are quick to point out that there is also education in the US. Truthfully I don't know how I ended up here. I mean, I can run through a list of things I did in order to physically come here, but as horribly cheesy and weird as it sounds, I just feel like this is where I'm supposed to be. In this season, for this time, I get to live in Austria, and it feels exactly right. The answer to the second question is equally as difficult to answer. As much as I would like to weigh out my pros and cons to leaving after graduation vs. staying (and trust me I've tried), currently it just comes down to a "we'll see".
Thankfully I have another year to figure that out :)
