The Good Kind of Overwhelmed

Probably the most accurate summary of the past few weeks of my life. A Manner wafer + the gorgeous Austrian Alps.

You know when you do so much living & then all of the sudden it's March & midterms & you have a pile of laundry & a whole lot of awesome & beautiful experiences that you've collected but you also feel like you could sleep for approximately 4 years? That's where I'm at.

Before I left, there were some mandatory pre-study abroad sessions that Loyola hosted. They told us some practical stuff like how to get our classes to transfer, and also warned us about the study abroad graph. It looks a little something like this:

From talking to other people abroad, a lot if other schools showed this graph as well. Everyone is afraid of "the plunge". We all know it's coming in one way or another, so sometimes we end a bad day with: "Well, maybe I'm heading into that drop they warned us about".

I think I've definitely been through my fair share of days where I dipped lower on the graph - experiencing things like getting overwhelmed at my internship, getting sick, or missing people back home. But luckily, I think I've got a pretty good balance of "OH MY GOD THIS PLACE IS AMAZING LIFE IS PERFECT I'M GONNA EAT SOME CHOCOLATE" and the reality checks of "this is still real life and there are real issues that I need to take care of". I think the reason I have this balance is because of 2 very important things:

1 Self Care

• I CANNOT stress this enough. I think it's really important while abroad to take time to be alone, relax, and reflect. It's easy to get caught up in wanting to do and see everything and making sure you don't miss out on a fun night with friends or traveling to a new place, but honestly I think taking time for yourself is the key to a great overall experience. Allowing myself the time to journal or go to a cafe by myself and knit and read has helped me recharge and take care of my mental state.

2 Explore Every Day

• Do I spend entire afternoons watching Austrian Netflix in my bed? Yes. Do I do that every day? Absolutely not. Staying in and hermiting can be nice and is definitely necessary at times, but keeping a constant mindset of curiosity and discovery allows each day to be an adventure. Something even as small as going for a walk in a new neighborhood can yield to the discovery of a new favorite cafe or the best chocolate croissant in all of Vienna (I'm still on a quest for that - although I haven't had a bad one yet). This is important everywhere - not just abroad. Everyday life is an adventure if you make it one.

That being said, here are 5 of my favorite adventures I've been on in the past few weeks. I'm falling more and more in love with this city, country, and continent with each new sight or bite of sachertorte, and I'm excited to share it all!

Mom & Erin's Visit (+ Hallstatt & Bratislava)

Is the Lynch family really together if we don't take a ridiculous selfie?

LOOK! FAMILIAR FACES! I really like these people and I'm glad I got to show them around my favorite country even though I got so stressed out about wanting them to like it that I cried one night at dinner (sorry). We spent a weekend in Hallstatt, then came back to Vienna for the week and took a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia.

Hallstatt, Austria

Hallstatt is a magical little town nestled on a lake that backs up to a mountain and it's probably Heaven. The Chinese actually love Hallstatt so much that they recreated it (brick by brick - it's pretty amazing) in their own country. I completely understand the obsession because it's GORGEOUS.

It was the off season so not a lot of things were closed and it was sometimes even hard to find a place for dinner, but we had a great time exploring neature and hiking up the mountain.

Awesome selfie courtesy of the GoPro.

On our way down from hiking the mountain. WE DID IT.

There were also random cats everywhere which was amazing & I even saw some alpacas and yaks and it was just magical. And I got yak yarn for 14 euro?!!? It was a beautiful experience. Erin spotted some yarn in a window of a garage and there was an arrow pointing up some steps to a little building full of yarn & we rang a doorbell & at first no one was there so we left & came back later & then a woman appeared from her house and opened the shop for us and it was AMAZING.

VERY excited about the Hallstatt cats. I miss Melman.

We then spent a few days in Vienna eating delicious food, shopping, wandering around, climbing Stephansdom, going to the Manner store, hitting some museums, and buying a plant for my apartment - all necessary Vienna experiences.

The Albertina's famous rabbit. Erin loves art!!!

We also took a day trip to Bratislava, which is only about an hour train ride from Vienna. I loved it there! It's a cool peak into Eastern Europe and it kind of felt like a mix of Vienna and Berlin to me. It's small - definitely walkable - and quite cheap.

We climbed up to the Bratislava castle, tried some beer from a local brewery, got AMAZING Italian food, had an adventure taking a cab to a yarn store, and got some delicious cookies at a really cute bakery/cafe.

The Bratislava castle that overlooks the entire city.

This is quintessential Bratislava - wall ruins that have probably been around for 1000 years + old traditional houses + a church steeple + a highway + steely buildings in the back.

I just liked these doors.

Tea at the lovely little cafe where Mom & I got delicious cookies. I love these colors!

I really really loved having Mom & Erin here, & I'm glad Erin was able to cram in a visit during her Spring Break! I wasn't really experiencing homesickness, but having them both visit made me miss my Dad - so I'm very excited for my Mom & Dad to come at the end of this month!

Ski Trip to Radstadt

Every single view in the Alps is unbelievably gorgeous.

After Mom and Erin left, I hopped on a bus & went back basically to a place a few mountains over from Hallstatt to ski for the weekend with other IES students. It was an amazing experience but also EXHAUSTING!

I've been skiing since I was a kid & although I certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert, I can get down the mountain without falling & I'm never really all that sore - but this was a different kind of skiing. Normally I kind of just go straight down the mountain because I like to go fast, but I couldn't do that here. I had to weave back and forth through fairly thick powder or slush at some points (it was so warm on Saturday! I skied in just my Patagonia!) so my legs got an INTENSE workout! I've never been so sore in my entire life. My body was mad at me. But I love skiing and the trip was full of awesome people so, extreme soreness overlooked, it was a win.

My friend Mary Kate & I celebrating the INCREDIBLE view from the top of the mountain!

Seriously. WOW.

Internship at Radio Afrika

I'm doing an internship while in Vienna, and it's been an incredibly fruitful and challenging experience so far. The organization I'm working with is Radio Afrika, a information and communication platform catering to Africans and people interested in Africa who are living in Austria. Radio Afrika has a radio station, TV program, and magazine. They also coordinate several projects, one of the current ones focusing on the refugee crisis.

I've been helping to design their magazine and some other things like invites for events. Designing the magazine is difficult because it's in German or French and about Africa, and I'm from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and I feel like I'm entirely unqualified to do any of this. However, the people I work with are great and every day I go in to work I feel more and more comfortable and competent. I'm excited to have this indispensable experience!

Screen Printing

So, you may be wondering - am I actually going to school here? YES. AND MY CLASSES ARE THE BOMB.COM (mostly) - especially my screen printing class. I have it every Friday, and I spend about 5 hours in a textile studio with 4 other IES students developing ideas and sketches, creating screens, and (only recently) printing.

I love being creative and working with my hands so this is right up my alley. It's quite the process to create a screen, so I've only been able to develop some ideas and put them on one screen and do a test print. In the next few weeks, I'll start working on actual projects like greeting cards, garments, and more!

Screens are made by covering a screen with light sensitive pigment, arranging black and white designs that have been copied onto transparent paper onto the screen, exposing the screen in a dark room, removing the transparent papers, and then power washing the screen so that the spots where black was drawn onto the paper will lose the pigment. Then to print, you use a squeegee to pull paint back and forth over the screen. It's kind of ridiculous process to try to explain without a bunch pictures, so I'll try to take some more another time.

Here are some of my sketches copied onto transparent paper.

These are some of those same patterned designs that I test printed onto some fabric.

The cool thing about screen printing is that you can layer everything in different colors and metallic paint or paint that puffs up or throw glitter on there or basically do a lot of crazy wonderful things. I'm excited to layer these textures all over everything. I've also been working on some designs to make greeting cards, and I put two of them on the same screen as these textures.

One of my designs I'm intending to use for a greeting card. Aww!

Another little design for cards.

Screen printing is so unique and I'm so excited to get the opportunity to try it out. I'll post more updates once I actually start making things!

Hannah in Vienna!

This beautiful soul standing in front of Schloss Schönbrunn.

It's so wonderful to see people from home and this particular person lights up my life. Hannah Hostetler, one of my good friends from Loyola, is studying abroad in Rome. After going on a Spring Break trip to Eastern Europe (which looked AMAZING) she came to Vienna and we got to hang out for a few days.

We went to an Easter market and did some sight seeing, but mostly just wandered around and ate some good food.

Pretzels from the Easter Market were so good that I got emotional. Mine was basically a raised sugared donut twisted into a pretzel. I REALLY MISS DONUTS!

They're starting to plant flowers! Finally! A floral Treble Clef at the Hofburg Palace.

We went to a cool (but crowded) bar with my friends and hung out in the basement where there was a foosball table, a photo booth, and also bathrooms.

The photobooth was 2 euros worth of fun but we really struggled to get into the frame. Typical!

I love love love showing people Vienna, mainly because I love it and I want everyone else to love it too. Thank you Hannah for coming to visit!!!

What now?

Midterms! I already turned in a paper for my Arts & Nations class (which I wrote about the Icelandic lopapeysa sweater and it's connection to Icelandic nationalism - it was amazing) and took my German midterm, and I have an Intercultural Communication midterm on Thursday. Until then, it's laundry, interning, and preparing for my Spring Break trip!

I'll be hitting London and Edinburgh with my friend Mary Kate, then traveling solo to Dublin, Galway, and the Aran Islands. I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!! I went to the UK when I was 14, and it was honestly magical. It was my first time to Europe and my first big trip without my family (I went with a group called People to People), and I truly felt like I fit in in the UK more than any place I'd ever been before. I wasn't planning on going back, but then I found out there was a yarn festival in Edinburgh the first week of my Spring Break and everything kind of fell into place.

I'm pretty excited about life right now. I'm about halfway through my time here, and I am so grateful for every moment Vienna has given me. I feel so at home and so happy with the person that I am here. I CANNOT WAIT to head to the UK later this week. I'm praying for a Queen sighting.