Guten Tag! To start off, I would just like to say Austria is a beautiful country and the rich historical significance made it simply mesmerizing. However, seeing as I had never been out of the country before, let alone to a country that is not English speaking with a bunch of college students, Vienna was a bit of a new experience to say the least.
I consider this to be a milestone in my life, not only because it was my first time being abroad, but also because I felt like an independent adult. In general, I tend to be a reserved person, the safer choice is much easier and stepping out of my comfort zone is a little difficult for me. When I came to college, I made the decision that I was going to try to be brave, do things I would never normally do and try things I would never normally try. I jumped right into the deep end in Vienna, I was in a country where I didn’t speak the language, other than “Danke” and “Guten tag” of course. Looking back, doing this experience was one of the best choices I have ever made. I knew that going to a foreign country I had to have confidence and believe that I would be just fine to make it through the week, and somehow, I did just that. Every place we went in the city was more beautiful than the last, and everyday we had less activities scheduled, which meant more freedom to explore the city. I have some amazing memories that from that trip, but there is one in particular that sticks out in my mind. Now it was nothing extraordinary or life-changing but it was a defining moment for me. One morning, the whole group went to an art and history museum in Vienna. When it was time to leave, three of us stayed behind to explore a little more and check out the gift shop before we went back to our hotel to get ready for the opera. On our way back, we heard people and smelled food, and being who we are, we followed our noses. We discovered a little Turkish street festival, most of the people there were Turkish and selling different foods. We walked by women making tortillas and selling traditional tea and at the end we found a group of people making Kebap(a traditional middle eastern lamb dish). Now, in general I am not a very adventurous person, but for some reason I knew that it was time for me to be brave and just go for it. That was probably my favorite meal we ate on the whole trip. This was only a couple days in and it set the standard for the rest of my time in Austria. Whenever the opportunity arose, I would do the adventurous thing and now I am applying that to my everyday life. I believe that I will get the most out of my life by being adventurous, confident and doing the things that I am scared to do.
Part of the lecture component of this class was a few writing assignments. Below is a review that I wrote on Franz Josef Haydn's The Creation as performed by the Knox Choir and Orchestra