American Schnitzel

Some basic knowledge about Student Visas: All Students residing in any country that does not hold a passport from that country WILL need a visa! American's do not need to request for a visa prior to departure. American's have the privilege to stay in a foriegn country for 3 months without the need for a visa.  People from other countries might need to apply for a visa before entering foriegn territory. (check with your embassy for more information)  Onto about renewing your Student Visa in Vienna.  When renewing your visa you normally try to have all your ducks in a row so you don't need to be running around getting this paper and that paper. Any thinking person would think the most logical thing would be to take all the papers I had to hand in last time. So you go to your university re-enroll yourself for the next semester, keep the paper showing you have paid. You might even go to the extent of making sure you can prove your grades from the exams from the pa...

The end of this June I will have been in Vienna for officially one year. With almost 1 year under my belt as a Expat I wanted to share the positives about being thousands away from anything familiar. When you become an expat not only are you starting your life all over again but it also makes you find or see who you really are. It pulls away the facades and shows you your true self. I have found that when you grow up in the same area and have the same friends for years those friends and also your family define who you are. They tell you what is normal for you, they know you in a certain way that confines you even if you don't realise it is or even if you like what they see you as. But when you decided that no matter how many friends you have and for whatever reason it might be but leave that comfort zone nobody is giving you those bumpers like in bowling alley. No one is telling you what defines you, who you are. You have two choices when you step off that plane into an unknown ...

Today is my first day of going back to my German Class for semester number two. It certainly was nice to have all of Febuary off for break, but it will nice now to have a little purpose back in my day. Last semster was certainly a bumpy road learning a new language when everything is in the language you are taking. I am taking German courses through the University of Vienna before I can start my regular courses with the University. The courses  not only focused on being able to speak German, but also reading, grammer, listening and writing in a three hour class. It certainly was not easy but so helpful. I think this was the first time I was the only American or only native English speaking person in a room or in a school in my whole life. I had heard that there was or is one or two other people in the school, that the German courses make up, that was either from the States or whose native tongue spoke English. Put it this way, I didn't mind it because it just helped me push thro...

Today was the first time I had gone ice skating at the Rathaus and the first time I ice skated since I have been in Vienna. Wiener Eistraum was so much fun just now my legs and back are slightly in a bit of pain. It was certainly worth it, my boyfriend his mother and I went together and had so much fun. The Florida girl that I am not often ice skating and if so it is normally a hockey rink and you go just in a circle around and around. The Wiener Eistraum has much more to offer! It certainly is not a thing you go and do everyday, if you are a student it can get pricy but if you stay there for more than 2 hours and sit down sometimes and go back it is certainly a trip worth doing. After Ice skating for 3 hours or so, we all went to this cute cup cake bakery just up the road and got ourselves some yummy cup cakes. Which was a perfect ending to the ice skating. Even though during my ice skating adventure I had fallen down and slammed my arm on a post right in the area of your funny bone...