Austria, this one's for you :)

Once again, I'm back home with little to do. So, let's reflect:

Apparently I'm going to learn how to say 'hiccup' wherever I go. It's Schluckauf in German. This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I hiccup on a regular basis, honestly it doesn't! Unlike at Sherbrooke, I can't quite think of any useless vocab that I've picked up. Well perhaps I won't use Einwurf on a regular basis. How disappointing. I like useless vocabulary.

Austria and I most certainly had our differences at the start. All my hopes of Austria clinging to that mythical German efficiency were well and truly dashed. I've complained about the lack of organisation far too often, even for my own liking. I can now add my bank's failure to transfer money to this list. However, I did enjoy my time in Vorarlberg. (Spell check wants to 'correct' this to Marlborough. Where is the link??)

It made me appreciate the smell of rain and just how picturesque rolling fog and wispy mist actually is. i realise just how random that sounds. As small as Bregenz is and as much of a city girl as I am, even I had to appreciate that it was beautiful place to live. I'm going to miss sitting by the lake enjoying the sunshine, not that Bregenz is perpetually sunshine, mind you. Already my tan is fading. After all the time I spent defending the British weather, it's now clear that I was simply deluding myself and it really does rain as much as everyone thinks.

There are not as many quotations which sum up this semester, although there have been plenty of humorous things said. It seems to work on the basis of songs instead. Haddaway's what is love? and Culcha Candela's Monsta to name but a few. I love songs that make you think of a particular person or place. Musical memories - simply the best. (I apologise already for that :S )

I'm not going to waffle about meeting rather wonderful people. Mostly because of the statistics regarding views in Austria. I'm not one for inflating anyone's egos. Therefore, everyone I met in Austria is distinctly average. :)

This semester I confirmed that I definitely don't want to be a teacher. I learnt that I'm ever so slightly dependant on my laptop and that I would make a rubbish interpreter since I forget English vocabulary on a regular basis.

Yet again I wasn't quite ready to leave. This is the thing with only doing 4 months somewhere. Just when you've finally settled in, it's practically time to leave again. On a slightly related topic, this month is the first full month I'll be spending in the UK since last July, so maybe I'll have the same attitude in September when I have to go back to uni. Who knows. However, this is the end of my year abroad. Bring on 4th year (and hopefully more travels :D )

Calypso didn't ruin my life then

Opting not to spend my last full day actually in Austria, I made a quick trip to Liechtenstein, purely for the novelty value.
What is there to say about that tiny little state? It seems that the nation comprised of avid stamp collectors. At least, there were stamp collections everywhere, on postcards, even on the floor of the main street. Quite the sign that there's not much going on there. They also seem to have a slight identity crisis, selling far too many souvenirs and things that are for Switzerland.
I thought Vorarlberg had a range of architecture, but Liechtenstein wins hands down for the pure craziness of some of the buildings.
The odd thing was the groups of athletes and East Asian tourists wandering around. Turns out that every 2 years the small states of Europe (less than 1,000,000 inhabitants) have their own Games and these just so happened to be taking place in Liechtenstein last week.  Well that explains the athletes at least.
Wednesday, being my last night, was not to be a dull one. The evening started by going for dinner with Maral and then for a few drinks. As well as Thursday/Friday being a national holiday, there seemed to be some big event going on across town so it was very, very busy! Later, Raffi joined us. Maral went home at a fairly reasonable time and Raffi and I continued the partying. We had our last Long Island Ice Tea für Erwachsene before heading to Calypso. I happily danced the night away, although it was very weird seeing the sun come up and then walking home in daylight.
The late night meant I was rather tired on Thursday so lugging my belongings on and off various modes of transport was not so much fun, especially with my hand luggage weighing in at over 20kg :S I was extremely grateful for the various people who helped me with them.
And so that was it, the end of my time in Austria. Auf Wiedersehen Oesterreich, cheers for the lovely send off. Heellllllooooo bonnie England.