Hello World!!
It has been about three months since my last post.
I have everything written down but it is more like a list of things and not my feelings. I need to get back to actually blogging. Blogging. Hmm, okay.
The last three months have been completely life-changing. Coming back from India to the United States was a dramatic change. I had missed all of my family and friends, obviously since I had not seen them in two months, but those girls have touched my heart; the girls at the hostel back in the school, I mean. I also miss my fellow interns: Suzana, Vittoria, Emily and Michael. We were the five unforgettable interns. When Emily left on July 31st, the dynamics in the school changed. From that point on, it was a goodbye period and no one wanted to say what was really on their minds. There was this one weekend were it was just Vittoria, Suzana and I and everyone from the school had left, except for this one girl, Rina. I actually have my post from my last few days:
August 15th:
I want to cry. Sob more like it. Let me explain. Yesterday, Rina was by herself so Vittoria stayed with her while Susana and I went to visit Hector. We had breakfast with him and had a conversation about the US as well as Canada. There are problems with the visa issue that I never knew about. Did you know that non-citizens need a visa to travel through the USA? They need a transit visa. It is an interesting fact that I didn’t know about, yet it is so hard to get a visa so I am so confused. Canada has problems as well. Someone who could possibly be the head of a medical department in India works as a taxi driver because they need to prove to the government that their education and skill level is up to their standards, yet it is easier to migrate to Canada than it is to go to the US. They need to take a test to prove or redo their education again. It’s a crazy thought! We went to Dangeedums to have amazing chocolate. We later went to the school and saw Suzana pack. Suzana thought it was a good idea to eat dinner one last time at the school and later go to ATM, a restaurant called After the Meal. She invited the boys because Rina is not allowed to go outside and they came along with us. We had a great conversation and Suzana thought it would be a good idea to ride a scooter one last time. We thought everyone was from the school but that’s not true. We found out that one deaf boy, who was 24, went to another school. This boy took advantage of us of Suzana and me and we walked to the hostel, in the pouring rain. I will not go into details of what exactly happened but if you know me personally, you are free to ask me what happened. Thankfully, AIESEC came to our rescue and calmed us down. Suzana later went to the airport. Great send off huh??
Vittoria and I woke up a couple of hours later. Independence Day is today here in India. There was a flag ceremony which I have pictures of. We had tea with Sir and he asked about what happened the night before. I felt like I betrayed his trust as well as everyone as the school’s. Next year’s interns will have a hard time with going outside. I wrote a letter to the boy’s apologizing if they got into trouble. They are avoiding me and I totally understand. On the other hand, I just dropped off Vittoria and feel completely alone. Two girls came back to the hostel and they are so happy to be with Rina. I feel like I should leave them alone to catch up and this is why I want to cry, so much.
It’s time to say goodbye and I don’t want to. I feel like I messed up. There’s a lot I want to say but can’t. There is a lack of communication on my end and I just wish to say goodbye to the girls. I also want to ask the boys for forgiveness because it was their “friend.” I feel incomplete. I know that I made an impact but that everything I just did turned everything back time. I love these girls so much and I am so appreciative of this opportunity. This internship helped me to understand a lot about cultural differences and that I need to grow up a lot. It’s also a really big world out there and I need to trust in myself and my instincts. I’m going to take a shower and allow the girls to be on my computer to use the program “Paint.”
August 16th
It was a normal day. The girls started coming and Nimrata, Neha’s best friend came in the morning, which made me so happy! It was hard not starting to just cry because Rina started to cry. She cried twice. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. I had to stay strong. I could cry later when I would leave the airport. I started to say bye to Nayiana and Suzana’s teacher. It was just a countdown to when I would leave to go to the airport. I would leave at 1am and start saying goodbye to the girls at 12:00am if they started to cry then I would calm them down. It was hard. The last day without anyone was lonely because as soon as school started, most of the kids signed, “One.” Yes, just one intern left. Emily left, Michael left, Suzana and Vittoria left. I never thought that I would miss them as much as I did that day. I had tea with Sir at 3:45. My last tea with him.
Lonely Breakfast
When I came home, I was utterly heartbroken. Three weeks in New York. It was so hard saying goodbye to my friends and family yet again. Within those three weeks, I saw all of my close friends, even had some arguments with them! Good loving times! There was even an hurricane that passed by New York. I went for vacation with my parents and on my last day, we get a text saying that my cousin’s wife, Allison, is in labor. This was not supposed to happen for another two weeks!!! She had the baby on August 31st and I am so happy for Jorge and Allison and the newest addition to the family, James Joran!
From that week on, it was all a blur. I had a celebration with some close friends for my 21st Birthday.
I also went to Six flags with Rebecca and Rick that first weekend I came back. I went on Kingda Ka and it was awesome!!
I also saw Ashley and it was good times. I saw her whenever I could including going to her sister’s 18th birthday =)
I also saw some of my co-workers/friends since Sophomore year in college. We’ve done a lot of things together such as Freshman Seminar, Peers for Careers and become involved in Golden Key, an International Honour Society and later I went straight to the hospital to see JJ!
Ahh okay. Now onto Vienna!! How can I describe this experience? It’s a truly magnificent experience. The ability to travel is hassle-free! The lack of communication with my family friends back at home is unbearable! I lived through India and it was a totally different experience. It was 9.5 hours ahead and it was summer time! I was able to talk to them whenever I wanted to and I had a set time period, every morning from 9 to 9:30am or something along those lines. Here, it’s 6 hours and I have no schedule. I can talk whenever I want to but they have midterms, projects, while I am just here in my dorm waiting for the time to pass. Currently I only have two classes a week, German and Corporate Finance. In my downtime, I catch up on laundry as well as television. I do hang out with friends that I’ve met here.
Vienna is a small city compared to NY. It has about 1 million people living in it and Austria, in general, has 7 million people. That’s the population in NYC in Austria as a whole. It’s just unbelievable to think like that.
It’s so funny to hear how people are so jealous of where I am, yet I’m trying to just enjoy my time here. I’m trying to go back to my thinking in India
Appreciate what you have and what you are doing instead of living your life in the ‘What If’ stage of your life.
I keep getting e-mails regarding Baruch things such as my club’s events. It’s nice to get them but I also am trying not to force myself to be overly active when I get back. I am completely out of my element. I am used to being so busy that I forget things constantly. Now I am just forgetful, which isn’t a good thing because I have so much time on my hands that I can use it for studying but I waste it on movies or television shows. I have to remind myself I am here to PARTY STUDY. It’s easier said than done.
My first few weeks here at Vienna were exactly that, to get myself acquainted around the city. The program that I enrolled myself in was one of the best decisions I made. It allowed me to not only make friends but see the city that I am living in until December. I have the subway system down (at least i would like to believe so). I also experience the opera and visited some needed museums. I need to go again to the Belvedere and Schonbrunn Castle Palace. Hopefully if Vittoria comes, I’ll show her then!
View of Schonbrunn Castle
We even had day trips to other parts of Austria: Melk and Graz. Melk is a place where there is a beautiful Melk Abbey. We also had an eagle show!! Graz is more of a university town and there was wine tasting.
This was September in a nutshell. I forgot to say that I went to Oktoberfest.
Lovely Oktoberfest. You can see my pictures on Facebook if you are a friend of mine. Oktoberfest. Well, to me, it didn’t live up to my expectations but I think it might be because I’m not the typical beer drinker or there are a lot of factors going into it. For me, if I went with my brother and/or my older cousins, I would probably have a much better time and appreciate the atmosphere more. It was also because it was very tiring since it was a one day trip. We left Vienna around 11 and there was a party compartment. I only got about 4 hours of sleep and we arrived at Munich at 8:30 am. We, Andrew, Jenny and I, hung around until we were allowed to start drinking (and eating) our 2L of beer and 1/2lb of chicken. It took me two hours to drink the first liter and then a couple of us went on the ferris wheel to see the city. After that we had the other liter and just hung around. Oktoberfest is like an amusement park I would like to say. It reminded me of Six Flags, which is horrible because its OKTOBERFEST!!! The tents are even tents. They are buildings. I probably am ruining the experience of Oktoberfest for you but I would go again with more of an open mind and explore Munich a bit more as well.
October:
This month is mostly about figuring out my routine. At this point, I have no routine. It’s mostly doing what I feel like doing and that is going to the gym, class, and hanging out with friends that I met in September, whether it is to go out for coffee or to a club. So far in October, I have been to two different countries: Slovakia and Hungary. Slovakia was a one day trip and there wasn’t that much to do. In Hungary, it was different. I went with the university that had planned mostly everything out. Budapest was amazing. I’ve had the best time there so far. This weekend I am going to Turkey and I’m excited.
I will post more in detail later.
Tschüss.