Building A New Home in Austria

By Nela Navida - September 23, 2016

It has been two weeks since I arrived Austria for the first time. I come here for an exchange program in one of university in Austria, specifically in Upper Austria (Linz), called Johannes Kepler University. The story why I am coming here is quite long but in short, I would like to say that's because I am interested in Europe and I want to experience living in it. I was also accepted to have an exchange program in Japan. Such a gambling to choose which one is better, but then I dared myself to choose Austria with several reasons which I would like to tell you in the next paragraph.

The gate of Johannes Kepler University

I decided to have an exchange semester rather than accomplishing my study as soon as possible is because I want to gain skills, knowledge, and experiences that I don't have yet. I want to have myself a personal growth. I know that Japan is a very decent or even excellent for it. The university where I had been accepted is acknowledged better than JKU but the thing is I already feel that Japan is my home. I want to spend my 6 months to build a really new home. I never know about Austria deeper, I just know that the capital city is Vienna and many famous composers living in Austria. A place where the life is quite-significantly different to my home country, Indonesia. I want to know how I deal with myself in this situation, how I pace myself to adapt in the new environment and I want to build a new home for myself.

So far, it was all fine. Homesick? A little bit. I am still spending most of the time dealing with myself rather than dealing with my new environment. What does it mean, dude? Yes! I am still not confident with myself mingling with the others. I am still overthinking what should I talk about, how others think about me who wearing hijab, and so on and so forth. I wouldn't blame it to my new environment. I prefer to blame myself because I promise myself to build a new home in Austria for this 4-5 months ahead.