Here I go again… (on my own).

Right now, I’m guessing it’s about 3 hours til I have to leave this house to get to Dublin Airport, check in all my bags and board that plane. And yet, it still doesn’t feel real. The true question on the forefront of my mind is actually… to sleep or not to sleep?

I’m sure I could find some small part of me tired enough to succumb to a power nap, but then again, I want to get ready my plane playlist (yes, that’s a thing, for me anyway). So while this is fresh in my mind, here’s my top 10 songs that you should listen to when you’re setting off on your year abroad or leaving home, at the travelling stage. They’re actually in no particular order, but literally just some of the ones which are featuring on my playlist for the morning. Also, this may just reflect my own taste in music, sorry I’m not sorry.

1. Rascal Flatts – I’m Movin’ On
   
   – This song has always meant so much to me and if you listen to some of the lyrics in it, perhaps it could be mistakenly taken offensively by the people you’re leaving – but, like I said, mistakenly. It’s a song about leaving home, and going to a new place, basically because it’s time to. A beautiful song like all those written by this country band.
2. Will Smith – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
   
   – This song doesn’t even need an excuse to be on a playlist, but think of the story that goes with it – surely you can apply that to your situation and be the prince/princess of wherever you wish. Think positively and not too seriously.
3. Loreen – Euphoria
   
   – This one is especially for those European travellers. What better way to go to the continent than with your ears full of a Eurovision-winning anthem?! Maybe not necessarily applicable lyric-wise, but again, it’s best to not take the journey too seriously when you’ve just come through a wave of goodbyes (tear-filled or otherwise) and are ready to just generally enjoy yourself.
4. Frank Sinatra – Come Fly With Me
   
   – This song I’ve chosen in full keeping with the travelling theme of it all. I love Frank Sinatra, honestly, and his voice just makes me melt. This also reminds me of some advert at home, someone jog my memory as to which? Another honorable mention of this specific style of music would have to be “Beyond the Sea” (The Bobby Darin version), especially if there are some people you’re finding a particularly difficult time of missing!
5. Selena Gomez & The Scene – Hit the Lights
   
   – Gomez’ “Hit the Lights” to me, is really about taking chances and risks. What bigger chance is there than making the big life of change of moving it all over to a country you may or may not be familiar with, to meet new people and have a whole wealth of new experiences! Be brave and jump in.
6. Walk Off the Earth – Rule the World
   
   – Okay, so I may be a bit biased in choosing this song – I literally am listening to it non-stop these days. But hey, use this against all the nay-saying voices in your mind. No matter what anyone tells you you can’t do, you can do it. So inspirational there. Travel the globe? Sure. Live in a place where you know absolutely nobody? No sweat. Rule the world? You know the answer to that.
7. Carrie Underwood – Don’t Forget to Remember Me
   
   – This one should really come with a ‘heartstring-tugging’ disclaimer. A classic Carrie number about leaving home for a fresh start (perhaps to college even?) and the journey of goodbyes, keeping in touch and getting on in your new life. I know I already said #1 was beautiful, but this one is equally so.
8. Billy Joel – Vienna
   
   – So I’m not exactly going to Vienna, and maybe whoever is reading this isn’t either. But I could not travel that way without throwing in any song featuring its name in the title. I still love this song. Seriously though, Vienna does wait for you. You don’t know what you’re missing!
9. Onerepublic – Good Life
   
   – Ahhhh this song!! Keeping it simple here and probably repeating myself, but have fun. This is going to be an amazing year.
10. John Denver – Leaving On A Jet Plane
    
    – I’m sure you knew this one was coming. Fairly, fairly obviously so. Bit bittersweet and maybe not completely always applicable. All those people you’re missing right now – you’re most likely going to see them again. And if you’re not coming home, just keep on going on at them to come out and visit you. Just like I do with my friends :)BONUS!

    John Murphy – Adagio in D Minor
    
    – This final bonus song is one of my absolute favourite instrumental tracks, and if you just fancy a relaxing break away from the lyrics, this is perfect. Originally used in the movie Sunshine, it’s since been heard elsewhere such as in The Walking Dead’s first season.

Prelude to a Krems.

I’m going away again. In 12 days.

Wait, hold on a second, did I mention? I’M GOING AWAY AGAIN IN TWELVE DAYS. Second year abroad. Year abroad: take two. Year abroad: the sequel… but it’s going to be completely different this time.

It all started back in December, or maybe earlier, when I decided I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and after going a whole 21 years with no desire to dabble in anything to do with teaching or education, I went and considered that I might actually want to at least give it a shot. So I applied to the British Council’s Language Assistant Program, actually with the initial determination to make it to Canada and help teach English in that part of the world because it all just sounded so amazing. But then I remembered the place I fell in love (with) – Austria – and I knew that I was going to have to switch up the whole application because that’s where I had felt most at peace with myself home.

So let’s skip forward a few months of university stress, life stress and formal organising to the day of our final year languages formal (a.k.a. the best night I’ve ever had ie. Thursday 30th April 2015) where myself and a few other friends got emails confirming that we had been provisionally been accepted onto the program. It wasn’t 100% but it was definitely something to dance the night away about. In complete style.
Here’s a wee picture of us all scrubbed up and in our Disney princess formal attire, just because, and keep in mind we were celebrating this, the end of classes and the end of university… except that we still had exams on the way.

L-R: Perry, me, Jenna & Grace

And before we move back just yet to the finer details of the incoming year, can I just say… I graduated! On July 7th 2015, I graduated with Second Class Upper Honours in BA (Hons) Applied Languages and Translation in French and German. Can’t help but feel like I have to give this full drawn-out description. You may address me with BA from now on…

(some of) the class of 2015!

Classic ‘with-parents’ graduation photo, folks.

Anyway, let’s move on from that and touch on the next couple of months, when I finally got allocated my Austrian region (Niederösterreich) and not a bit too soon, my exact location and institutions. Its name? Krems an der Donau. At last, some clarity! Except I had only ever heard of this town (or is it a city? hmm…) and knew next to nothing about it. That was nothing a bit of google couldn’t solve, however… but you can only learn so much while not being there, right? Aside from the lack of connaissance, was I excited? But of course. And am I still super excited to go there and live and work and learn?

DOES THAT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION?!?!?!

Yet I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing or what’s going to happen when I get there. I’m still super excited though. And nervous. And a bundle of emotions which, if I wasn’t used to feeling so many things at once, could otherwise make me ill. I can sum up my pre-expectations of the town as: “well, in my head, Krems looks like a much greener and much bigger Ballyclare (my hometown). I don’t really want to inject any negativity into this at all, I’m trying to be open minded and all. But google maps-ing it tells me that everything I need is pretty much within walking distance.”

So, what was the actual point of this post, you ask? Mainly to update everybody on my current situation and recent events!
I really can’t wait to go back and I’m looking forward to having visitors! 😉

Let’s catch up soon, eh?

OYA & OYL: Glasgow Pt. 2

Let’s recap a little from my last post then shall we?

I had just finished working two shifts at the Ibrox Stadium in my role as a member of the Spectator Services team in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, dealing with the public who had come to see the Rugby Sevens’ matches. It’s safe to say things in that so-called part one of my experience had wrapped up rather nicely and on a high.

It was time to move on to a whole different ballgame. Well not wholely different, just slightly. :p My second and last venue to work at was Hampden Park, which had already hosted the CG2014 opening ceremony, and was ready to host the Athletics’ Events in the second week of the Games.

Paramount Pictures

My first shift (of three) in that venue started dreadfully early, sometime between the hours of 6 and 7am. And since Hampden Park, if you know your Glaswegian geography, isn’t exactly on the city centre, we had to catch a bus from the centre to get there. Luckily with the Accreditation Passes (how have I not mentioned these until now?! They were cool, made you feel pretty important!), transport within the city during the Games’ period was free. So there were us volunteers at the wee hours arriving at the stadium, bustling through security and finally getting assigned to our posts. This was done by small cards, which were randomly assigned as you checked in, where you also would receive your meal vouchers and a bottle of water. If you were early enough to the pre-tent gathering, you also had the option of nabbing some free tea or coffee… that is, if the hot water worked, which on one particular morning, where caffeine could have really stirred the senses, was exactly what wasn’t happening. All old news now.

One year on and one year late: My Glasgow 2014 experience in a large nutshell – Part One.

So I’m sure anyone who still reads this blog will have seen me mention a number of times that I was going, at, and went to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. But not to watch. No, I was one of those “Clyde-Siders”. One of the 20,000 or so people who got through all the stages of the application process to end up with one of the, let’s face it, coolest most unique experiences of my life so far.

It all started with an online application, then an interview and then the wait, the forgetting, and ultimately, the shock.

Honestly, I’ve went to write about this countless times, so I’m going to start with one of those failed starts…

So, in the summer of 2013, while I was rushing around trying to prepare for my departure to Strasbourg, I was also trying to work out how I was going to attend an volunteer interview in Scotland while I was in France. I had applied online probably around the start of that year to take part in the CWG after seeing how much fun the London Olympic Gamesmakers had been having. I got an email through in August, two weeks before I left the UK, but the interview slots were all for late September and October, which would not be easy to make. Thankfully, the good folks at the Commonwealth House in Glasgow, who were already working tirelessly to put on a Games to remember helped me out there and managed to bring my interview forward to be the next week. So, cue a hasty bus and ferry booking process, and I was ready to go. I headed off to Glasgow, not knowing what to expect but in my memory the interview itself wasn’t too nerve-wracking! And it must have gone well, because in January 2014, I received this short, but very significant email which would shape my return to the UK for good after my year abroad. (the clue is in the email subject)

Yes, I had been selected to be a part of the Spectator Services’ Team and although it wasn’t clear yet exactly what I’d be doing, I was excited. Now, to be honest, I’m not gonna bore you all with the details and the stress of all the back & forth trips to Glasgow, postponing of training sessions (due to my residence abroad), finding accommodation, travelling, and training sessions – I’m merely going to attempt to highlight my personal best bits and the role I undertook as a Clyde-Sider.

A few months after the above email, I found out which venues I was going to be based in – the Ibrox Stadium (home to Glasgow Rangers FC) and Hampden Park. This meant that I would be working at the Rugby Sevens’ and Athletics’ events.
And I’d be doing this all in my special event’s uniform. I do have to say right now, the free uniform which you got to take home afterwards was a massive perk of the whole experience. Walking around the streets of Glasgow, you really stood out in the red/white/grey and despite the way I’ve described that, it wasn’t a bad thing. It was actually pretty cool.

Filling in those ever important gaps that are September and University…

There’s something about going back to university after your year abroad and being in final year – to say it’s quite stressful would be an understatement. If you’re yet to get to that stage, all I can say to you is…

Hence, the many many months of not writing, posting or doing anything of the sort of this site. I’m only going to say sorry once, however, at the risk of being overly apologetic (which I totally am). So… what is there to talk about right now? I guess I’m going to have to fill all these past months in or give some sort of update as to where I am right now and what I am doing with my life. Currently, I’m in my term-time residence in Portstewart and it is already WEEK 8 of semester 2. Out of twelve! I’m left wondering, like, seriously, where is the time going?!? All I know is it’s going far too fast, especially for the amount of work that’s due in at the end of it. On top of two dissertations for the first week of January (but really to be finished way before then so that we can proof read them and all that), I have presentations in French and German, an essay in French, an essay in German (we had two more earlier in the semester) and other stuff I can’t really recall right now. All through this semester, we’ve had translations in both languages as well. Nobody said final year was going to be easy, but this is something else. I’ve never been as tired or stressed in my life! But things are otherwise going well 🙂

Celebrating Your (My) Birthday Abroad.

EDIT: This is my 50th post, already?!

My 21st birthday, of all birthdays was the one which I had known since I started university that I would be spending abroad and not necessarily with my nearest and dearest. I didn’t really see a point in going home as I could easily wait a month to celebrate with my home friends but there was also some kind of magic at living in a foreign country at the time.

So, on Wednesday 4th June, regardless of having to go to two classes, I had an amazing birthday. What’s the recipe, pray tell?

All you need to have a birthday like mine that day is sneaky friends, some police-threatening anti-right protesters and of course, positivity.

The night before, for the first time in so so long I even managed to get to sleep before 12am, for no reason other than that I wanted to wake up a different age than the one I had fallen asleep with. For once. And so I woke up 21, went to class and then met Fiona for a quick cheeky McDonald’s burger (as I had already planned a substantial dinner for the evening) and then back to another class. Afterwards, I gathered all my unopened birthday envelopes, which had been coming in a steady stream for about a week already, and headed to the park to meet ‘the Scots’ who aren’t all Scottish, but the name sticks with me. And although Hannah let slip something about a cake over Facebook on my way there, I wasn’t prepared for a homemade-in-secret-the-night-before-amazing-delicious cake. It was just perfect.

Apologies, Entschuldigung & Pardon…

So it’s been, what, two months since I last posted?
Allow me to formally apologise to any of you that have still been following this blog and to those of you who have read any of my posts in the (almost) year that this blog has been up!
I can’t make promises on when, but I will be updating when I can soon with some stories of my time in Vienna and what I’ve been up to since (clue: being on Clyde’s side and colouring it up!)

In the meantime, I ask that you bear with this girl whose mind functions in the middle of nowhere, lost between all these countries that she’s fallen in love with, treated like home and has yet to visit. It’s a sort of permanent state, but I promise that this hiatus of sorts is not permanent and by the end of the month you will see at least one significant post of my usual length!

Thank you and goodnight from Northern Ireland!
x

PS. It goes without saying, but I’m assuming that most of you visiting these past months are about to start your semesters/years abroad, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

email: alouaiii@googlemail.com

[euro]Visions of Krakow (9th-11th May)

The mission: Vienna to Krakow in 10 hours. Status: Completed.

May I just firstly mention that the distance between Vienna and Krakow is actually only 5 hours’ worth, so we have quite an achievement on our hands here. The way we went was the cheapest however, just over 20€ to get there. To clarify, ‘we’ represents myself, Fiona and Tonje, the three of us who chose to go for a weekend break in Krakow together, just because. But anyway, we went with polskibus.com, and took first of all one bus from Vienna to Katowice, and then another from Katowice to Krakow, leaving at 8:50am and arriving at our final destination at 19:05. And since we had a little bit of time at our pitstop, we took the liberty of eating dinner there as well – my pizza was delicious but too much! On another plus side, the waiter wasn’t bad looking either… 😉

But back to Krakow, then, yes, Krakow. We got to our hostel around 8pm, and after getting settled and acquainted with everything (we had a pretty nice room at Hostel Aleje), we set off to explore the city by night. All we knew was that there was a centre, a market hall and a church by the time we got there, and we knew we were in the right place. But there was something else going on despite all that was normal, as it was the 750th anniversary of the Jagellonian University, and a stage had been set up for a concert the following night. Though we knew we wouldn’t see it at the right time, we did get to watch their rehearsal, which was pretty cool, and the singers were of course very talented. Not that we could understand any of the words anyway. After seeing that, we just walked about a bit taking photos (Tonje was proper professional at it with her tripod and all!) before heading back to the hostel to get enough sleep to prepare us for the morning.

 

The next day then, after being well rested and ready for whatever came at us, we went back to the city centre to embark on a free walking tour with these guys. We started at the church, picture above and watched as the trumpeteer played the trumpet through the windows of one of the top tours. All while this was happening though, a building opposite seemed to have generated quite some interest, with proper heavy-looking bodyguards posted outside its doors. Turns out, the Prince of Liechtenstein had come to Krakow that same weekend, but being so distracted by the heralding, as he left and walked away, I only managed to catch a glimpse of the top of his head! But pretty cool all the same, at least for me.

Wawel Cathedral

Anyway, our tour guide, what can I say? She was brilliant at her job. Though I can’t remember what her name was now, she told us about the city and country’s history, and also some myths and legends, before quickly debunking them in humorous ways. So… she took us around and showed us the church, the market hall, the Great Barbican and city walls, to the Jagellonian University itself and then it was breaktime. From there we went on to see the former house of the recently canonised Pope Jean Paul II, to the Wawel Royal Castle and then finally, we finished off seeing the famous fire-breathing dragon of Krakow. A lot to pack in to such a short time, but once again I will say she did it well!

Budapest 17-19th April 2014

It’s now just over a month since I had my first proper out of Austria holiday, not counting Slovak day-trips. But I’d finally got around to arranging something to break up my two-week long lonely Easter holidays, and that was to go to Budapest, Hungary. After posting on Facebook, I ended up with two reliable responses and after a couple of hours of planning in a Starbucks Coffee House, all that was left for my travel buddies and I  to do was to book our bus seats and turn up to claim them. It’s a funny, because before the Budapest planning, I’d met the Mexican girl, Ruth, once in March, and the Finnish girl, Juulia, just twice in that same month. But there’s nothing like exploring a new city together to get to know each other!

We booked our bus with OrangeWays, a return costing the equivalent of 25€ in Hungarian Forints (not bad, eh?). And the two nights in our hostel (Rastel Hostel) were going to cost just 22€ each. After a pre-travel dinner of burritos (where I had my first EVER and loved it) on the eve of our departure, we met the next morning at Olympiaplatz, and our bus took off. With us on it, of course. And after just over three hours, we arrived safe and well in Budapest.

After taking a moment to get our bearings we headed on foot for our hostel, accustoming ourselves to being in not only a new city, but a new country. We made it to our hostel without a glitch, where our host, extremely helpful, explained to us all the different places we should visit, how to get there and even suggesting plans for each day. Then she gave us a map with each idea outlined on it, and after dumping our bags in our bedroom, we went with the first one.

Walking through the city, the first main sight we went to was the Central Market Hall, which was enormous, and beautiful on the outside. Inside was a bazaar of gifts, food, clothing and jewellery stalls, spanning two levels and my two companions even tried one of the local specialties, Lángos, pictured with them below! It could be messy at times, so it was just as well I wasn’t hungry enough to try it!

Mödling: Burg Liechtenstein and Seegrotte Hinterbrühl – 5th April 2014

And it’s day trip time once again, this time to the main sights of the small town of Mödling, just south of Vienna. Marilyn had organised this one, and we went in a group of about 10 to see the Liechtenstein Castle and the ‘largest underground lake’ at Seegrotte Hinterbrühl.

It was still morning when we got on the train at Bahnhof Meidling in Vienna, and after a short journey of, say, 20 minutes tops, we arrived in the quaint little town of Mödling. Some confusion followed this, however, as to the exact when’s and where’s to get a bus that would take us to the Burg (castle), or at least nearby to it, as it was outside the town and not within walking range. We finally managed to get there, of course, as things tend to work out in the end 🙂

So, when we came upon the castle, we were met with essentially a green park and a small path towards it. It also seemed to be medieval demonstration day so within the castle courtyards we found a few women and men dressed appropriately and living life like it was the Middle Ages… though I’m not sure that at that time they would have had a camera slung around their necks for taking photos of each other… hmm, perhaps not. Anyway, one of the men and one of the women also attempted to stage a sort of brawl, the way I saw it at least, but all in good humour of course. Unfortunately, this was the only part of the castle we were able to see freely, as we had just missed the tour and would have had to wait quite a while for the next one, and as we had to be at the underground lake at a certain time before their tours stopped, we decided to sacrifice the first to enjoy a picnic outside it.