Submitted by Dillon Otto on the 2020 winter session program in Vienna, Austria sponsored by the School of Education…
After being in Vienna for the last month, I feel as though I’ve experienced and learned a lot. Austria is so different from the United States and I was really able to immerse myself in the culture of the country. Some of the things that shocked me the most during my time in Austria were how many people knew English, how different the school system is, and how much time people spend in restaurants. Everywhere I went, there was someone who knew English and could help me find things in the store or figure out things on the menus in restaurants. This was extremely helpful and definitely made my time in Austria a lot easier. Elementary school in Austria is also so different from the United States. One of the biggest differences is that students only go to school from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm, which was amazing to me. It was also really surprising how long many people stay in restaurants. Usually your waiter or waitress only checks on the table a few times, so you really end up staying in a restaurant for at least two hours, but usually even longer than that.
Going from Austria and back to the United States was really strange for me as well. I went from hearing German all the time and having to figure out public transportation, to being able to understand everything that’s going on and being able to drive wherever I need to go. I’m happy to be back in the United States, but I already miss Vienna and the schools that I was so lucky to work in. I think that this experience has opened my eyes to how big the world is and how different people and life are in another country. I’m happy about everything that I’ve learned and experienced and I hope that I get to do more traveling in my life and embark on more journeys that result in positive cultural exchange.