Krystina Lindsey is a junior from Horse Branch, Kentucky, majoring in English with an emphasis in Literature. She is spending the Spring 2012 Semester in Austria and is sending updates to KWConnect about her adventures. If you missed previous entries, you can catch up here.

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Well, I’m officially 21, but before you freak out, People At School, I had a test at 8:30 the morning after my birthday, so not a lot actually happened. I finally figured out what I’m doing for Spring Break, so be prepared for some EPIC pictures!

Now, as of my last blog post, I said I was going to discuss my travel plans, but I don’t want you all getting too jealous, okay? (This means you, Joey.)

First off, we have a two-week Spring Break (or Easter Break as it’s called here) and it officially starts on April 2, but a lot of us are actually leaving on March 30, when four friends and I will travel to Budapest, Hungary. From there, we have a flight to Brussels (Belgium), and we’ll take a train from there to Paris. PARIS!! I’m so excited about going to the Moulin Rouge!!

On April 3, we’ll go back to Brussels to hang there for a day or so until we head by train to Amsterdam, where we’ll wait until our flight to Rome on April 8. As of right now, details are still iffy, but we’re kind of crazy for flying into Rome on Easter Sunday. Okay, I believe crazy may be an understatement.

We’ll  be in Rome for a few days, then go to Florence before we finishing our week in Italy in Verona, on our way back to Salzburg. (Just FYI, I’m planning on going to Venice this weekend – March 24.)

I’m starting to really miss home, but I’m also becoming more comfortable using the train system. This happens when you have to travel to Munich by yourself. (But really, it’s no big deal. Two hours on a train is do-able). My birthday was really hard because I got a package from my mom that included a card that sang “In My Daughter’s Eyes” by Martina McBride, and I won’t lie when I say that I started crying hardcore. At least I was in my room, right?

But regardless, I’m SUPER excited about my break, and I can’t wait to have gelato in Italy!! (Really, I mean, YoLo, you’re good and everything, but you aren’t Italy.)

If I’ve managed to walk off quite a few pounds, I feel like I’ll put them all back on in Italy.

Here are a couple photos from recent adventures:

Krystina and friends at the opera in Vienna.

Krystina in front of the Schoenbrunn Palace.

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Krystina Lindsey is a junior from Horse Branch, Kentucky, majoring in English with an emphasis in Literature. She is spending the Spring 2012 Semester in Austria and is sending updates to KWConnect about her adventures. If you missed previous entries, you can catch up here.

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As Chelsea said in her blog, when people talk about study abroad, they never tell you just how hard it is. Granted, I never had extremely long layovers or anything, but I’m pretty sure I pulled a muscle dragging luggage around.

I arrived in London Heathrow at 6:45 in the morning on February 4. I spent two wonderful days in London where I got to go to Platform 9 ¾ AND I found the TARDIS. Sadly, I couldn’t find the Doctor anywhere, but never fear, I shouted for him. (I hope you get these references. If you don’t, you should definitely look them up.)

Platform 9 3/4.

Now, as I type this, I’m sitting in my dorm room (or as they prefer for us to call them, residence halls) in Salzburg. It’s very, very, very cold and has not stopped snowing since we came from Munich.  Of course, despite the cold, it makes for very pretty pictures.

Salzburg in the snow.

We moved into our dorms yesterday, and I live in a building connected to and run by the Catholic church. It’s called Institut St. Sebastian, and is pretty close to a lot of the shops. There’s a really good Italian restaurant just down the street. I pretty much have failed at trying Austrian food. I know I’ve only been here for two days, but I’ve eaten Italian one day and a Butter Schinken and Gouda sandwich, which was pretty good.

Shopping in Austria is way different. You have to buy your own bags to carry groceries home, so next time I’m taking my backpack.

Today, I had orientation, and afterwards, we went on a city tour. Apparently, a tour of Salzburg includes the mountain next to it L. My legs hurt so bad, and I was so not prepared for that hike. I totally broke down in tears on my way up (but I honestly don’t know if that was from the pain or from homesickness, or maybe a bit of both). HOWEVER, I totally made it up there. And I will go back again and again until I can walk up that mountain without my legs hurting. That’s one of my many goals for this semester.

My other goal is to learn as much German as possible. We’ll see how that one goes too.

Tschüss!

Krystina

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Krystina Lindsey is a junior from Horse Branch, Kentucky, majoring in English with an emphasis in Literature. She is spending the Spring 2012 Semester in Austria and is sending updates to KWConnect about her adventures. This is her first post.

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It’s kind of odd the different things that can happen in our lives that inspire us to do other things. When I was in elementary school, I picked up a rather famous book series (though it wasn’t nearly as popular or even complete, at that point) called Harry Potter. I have wanted to go to Europe since then, and I got my chance in January 2011, when I went on a Winter Term trip to London, studying The Tudors (one of the best decisions of my life). The trip really only made me want to see more.

I decided when I got back that I was going to study abroad for a longer period of time. My friend from high school went to Greece and said it was one of the best experiences she’d ever had. She told me that she was applying for the Harlaxton program in the Spring of 2011; I wanted to go so badly, but thanks to procrastination, I missed the school’s deadline for study abroad grants and such. I still wanted to go, so I began looking around for other programs.

I had heard of the American Institute for Foreign Study before (they came to KWC once or twice), and I went to see what kind of programs they offered. I knew that because of my major I needed 12 hours of a foreign language and I was already taking German, so that was a big factor – only one program offered German.

So, here we are. I’m going to Austria for an entire semester through AIFS. I’m leaving in February and all I know at this point is that I’m terrified, excited and worried. But who wouldn’t be? I’m going to be in another country where they don’t speak English all the time. Oh … let’s hope nothing bad happens.

Herzliche Grüße,

Krystina

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