Hi! My name is Samihah I am a second year Law student at The University of Southampton and I completed a year abroad at The University of Vienna in Austria! I wanted to share my experience living abroad in the post and hopefully convince you to pursue one too!
Moving to another country.
Honestly, I feel like I did not process the fact I was moving to another country after my second year. I literally packed my suitcases the day before because I just forgot haha. But honestly, I was not nervous at all! I was so excited to experience something new in my life and to finally live my dream of living abroad. I think once I had packed my room up it hit me and I realized I’m leaving all of the people I love and care about and it was quite an emotional night for me, but the excitement got me through it. I knew my friends and family would always be a call or message away and that really helped me feel better about leaving them all. I moved to Vienna quite early so I did not make many friends until my second week. But in that one week I was alone I really learned to enjoy my own company! I would walk around the city and just take it all in that I was living in tis gorgeous, charming city and it all felt so surreal. It was like a big pinch me moment! The city immediately felt like home to me and I knew I would have the best year there. One of my favourite memories was sitting in the sun in Volksgarten park and just reading my book for hours and then taking myself out for dinner whilst walking around the city. Honestly, my biggest recommendation is to just walk around the city and get a feel for it. Once I was in the city centre I switched my maps off and just walked around, discovering all these cute churches, coffee spots and gorgeous buildings.
Studying in Vienna
Okay so this was the part I struggled with the most. In Southampton, studying is quite independent, which is my preferred style of learning. I like the style of lectures and then having intimate seminars. However, in Vienna the teaching style was quite different. All of my classes were seminars where you were required to participate, and participation counted towards your grade. I struggled with this quite a bit, although I am fine with public speaking it felt quite daunting to put your hand up in front of 30 people to answer a question. And if someone else already said your answer you can’t really participate, which was something that frustrated me a lot. Furthermore, the workload was insane. Where in Southampton you do 4-5 modules a semester which are worth a lot of credits, in Vienna courses are worth 4 credits max, some courses were even 2 credits. This meant on average I was doing around 7-8 courses per semester to make up the same credits. This was quite difficult to manage for me as there was a lot of work to do at the same time. However, the plus side was that the courses were so interesting! I got to learn about Japanese Law, US Law, The Law of Armed Conflict and of course Austrian Law which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also loved how many courses they had in English for exchange students! Furthermore, I felt like all of the students were so welcoming and friendly. I made a of friends just from my classes and because the classes were smaller it was a lot easier to talk to people and become friends with them. Also, it helped that my campus was absolutely gorgeous!
Making Friends
Okay, this part I will try not to cry about whilst writing haha. But I truly believe I made the most amazing friends in Vienna. Meeting people from around the world and such different places was so interesting and I even got to learn phrases in their home languages which I use on a daily basis now haha. My university was so amazing with their socials for erasmus students. From wine hikes to pub crawls, barbecues, welcome parties, erasmus dinners. I met some of my closest friends at these events and even the erasmus group chat was full of students always making plans. I will never forget saying yes to these random girls about going to an open air rave at a church and showing up alone. That was the day I met some of my best friends! Honestly, making friends felt so easy because of this. Everyone is on the same boat as you, they all moved to a new country alone too and because of that people were so open to making friends. I would always ask for their instagram and then invite them out to any plans I had with other people (which is my biggest tip for making and keeping friends). I never felt like I had to try and fit in with my friends and on erasmus your friends truly become your family. We would have dinners together, go to parties, go swimming in the Donau and so many other random things! Although leaving them was the hardest part, they truly made Vienna feel like home for me and I never once felt isolated or alone because everyone was so friendly and fun. I will never forget the memories I have made with them. Honestly, making friends was one of the easiest parts and I truly believe if you put yourself out there you will find your people and have the best time with them.
Travelling
One of the reason I chose Vienna for my erasmus was because it was in such a good location in Europe. I got to travel so much whilst in Vienna. Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, Brno, Hallstatt etc. But my top three have to be Budapest, Prague and Hallstatt. Anytime me and my friends had a weekend free we would try to travel as much as we could even if it was just for the day or for a weekend and it wasn’t too expensive either!! No matter where you go for you exchange I really recommend travelling as much as you can, and I really wish I had travelled more whilst I was in Vienna. It was so affordable to get the train to everywhere which really helped. I could get to Bratislava within an hour and Prague was only a 4 hour train and we all decided to do a 3 hour drive to Budapest which was so fun!
Reflection
Since returning back to England there is not a day where I don’t want to go back to Vienna. I am so so grateful I got this opportunity. I’m still dealing with the grief of leaving a city I now call home and leaving friends I call family but I know it will get easier. Leaving Vienna was one of the hardest things and I remember being sat at the airport crying and hoping my flight would get cancelled haha. Although my last night with my friends was spent crying about leaving, I would not take anything back. It was the best year of my life and I feel like I truly grew as a person. Moving to a different country shapes you into someone that moving to University does not. I am so incredibly proud of the person I have become, I feel so much more confident, self-assured and this experience has helped me realize what I want for my future. I would do anything to go back to Vienna with my friends and just have one more day there. Leaving a life that I had built for myself there was so tough and the pain is indescribable but I have to keep reminding myself that ‘be happy it happened, not sad that it’s over’. This is why if you are considering doing a year abroad I could not recommend it enough. It was the best thing I ever did and I have made memories and friends for life that I will never forget about. So if you’re scared or worried about moving abroad to study, don’t be! You will be the happiest version of yourself and make memories that you will hold so closely to yourself. Make everyday count and never waste any opportunities whilst you are there.