A Final Wrap Up
It really is amazing how quickly time passes when there is so much to do. I can't believe it's been a year since I last wrote in this blog. I don't even know if anyone still reads it (personally, I would have given up a long time ago if I were a reader), but I promised my mother that I'd write one last entry as a wrap-up to my year in Austria. Fair enough. So here it is.Well it has been just over a year since I flew in to the Atlanta airport from Edinburgh. In the past year I’ve moved to Boston, completed half of my Master’s program, and gotten interested in the topic of reparations for human rights abuses (which I am writing my thesis on now). It has been a very busy year, and a good one, and I am glad that I decided to go back to school after my year abroad.
Living as an American overseas did have its challenging moments. While it certainly wasn't dangerous to be an American in Vienna, I did face my fair share of prejudices. These prejudices most often came from my students, and while hearing such comments as "all Americans love George Bush and want to kill all Iraqis" was beyond infuriating, I just tried to impress upon people the stupidity of making such broad generalizations about a country as large and diverse as the United States (or even about small and homogenous countries, such as Austria.) I hope that I was able to change my students' negative impressions about the U.S., or at least give them something to think about. It was definitely eye-opening to live outside the U.S., and it impressed upon me even more just how important it is for Americans to have an international perspective. So, I guess in the end, facing prejudice ended up being a good thing :-)
But I have to say, I really do miss living in Vienna. I love the lifestyle there – everything from the public transportation to the fantastic cafés to even having shops and stores closed on Sundays (which, admittedly, took some getting used to at the outset.) And I also admit that my year in Vienna was certainly charmed – my job wasn’t strenuous and neither were my studies, so perhaps I did get to enjoy life a little more than the average Viennese, but I think the average Viennese enjoy life a little more than the average American, so it works out in my favor either way (I once read that in Russia, rather than saying “work like a dog,” the phrase is “work like an American.”)
I also was very lucky to have met some of the most intelligent and interesting people that I’ve ever known while living in Vienna. I guess the other Fulbrighters were almost a built-in group of friends, but these are people that I would have sought out even if they weren’t so convenient. They are all brilliant and fascinating with a wide array of interests, but they also know how to just kick back and have fun. While I loved the city I was living in, it was made so much better by the people I was with while living there. I missed those people this year. I missed being able to hop on a streetcar to go visit Alexis, or being able to make last minute plans with Kim for shopping and coffee.
I even miss my work and my students. It took me a few months to really get comfortable in my role as a teaching assistant, but by January I really enjoyed being at the front of the classroom. I enjoyed preparing lessons for a wide variety of age groups, and I enjoyed hanging out with my colleagues. Actually, I am very grateful for the teaching experience I gained in Vienna, as this past year I have put it to some use as a teaching assistant for an undergrad level Comparative Politics class. It was nice to start that job with the sense that I at least sort of knew what I was doing in a classroom!
In the end, accepting the Fulbright and moving to Vienna for a year is probably the best thing I’ve ever done. I fulfilled one of my lifelong goals of living in Vienna, and I would go back in a heartbeat. First, though, I have much to do stateside. Bis dann und wiederschaun. ☺
Peace y'all,
Carly
posted by Carly Fowler @ 3:11 PM
1 Comments:
Yippee for an update!!! Don't you want to continue though with a blog about the Adventures of Living with Meghan Fowler. :-)
Love you sister!
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