MEIN LEBEN IN GRAZ - AUSTRIA (Gabriel Valancy Tanura)

Mein Name ist Gabriel Valancy Tanura. Ich komme aus Indonesien. Ich spreche Indonesisch, Englisch, Chinesisch, und ein bisschen Deutsch. Those are the words I learnt from Austria. My experience as an exchange student in Austria gave me a lot of happiness and best experience. I currently study Management in Universitas Sumatera Utara till I found one of the prestigious scholarship called Erasmus+. I was sponsored by Erasmus+ to study in FH Joanneum, Graz, Austria.

Throughout my months as an Indonesian exchange student in Austria, I have been smiling and crying, yearning to go home and hoping I could continue staying longer. Being an exchange student, I was appealing at the start, striking, comical with my strange accents, and regular speech errors, but after one month, the exchange student is no longer that new and popular anymore. You will have to make yourself appealing, never wait for other people to invite you; you will have to begin it. I thought it was effortless, but it’s once you’re in that place, you will realize. As an exchange student, it is all about fighting to make your dream come true. I always wanted to be an exchange student ever since I was thirteen. I faced many difficulties prior to leaving, such as I did not want to be separated from my family and friends. In my mind I was thinking of how to deal with a new house to live in, a new family, an unfamiliar language, a laptop screen amid me and my family back at home, when all you want is just to hug and touch them. Not only that, I faced difficulties when I got back to Indonesia after the program.

I found out that many of my friends had a great time even if I was not there; I recognized that I have matured and people around me are not. Each one of these conditions requires strength and that is what being an exchange student is all about. I packed up and left the country on February of 2018. Seventeen hours later I was in Graz, one of the oldest cities in Austria which was to be my home for the next five months. I saw a lot of snow covering everything. That was my first time of looking and touching the snow! Then I went to Greenbox West and stayed there. It’s really close to FH Joanneum. I started my day by going to IKEA to buy some utilities. I love the snow that cover the city.

A few days later, I went to FH Joanneum and met some new people. I met Julia at the first time and Julia introduced me to Flora and the others. They are so friendly, I love all of them. For a few days before I begin to study Global Business Program, I went to some place like Zotter Chocolate Factory with my classmates. We had so much fun! I also travelled to some places and other countries in the next 5 months with some friends. At my first day of Global Business class, I learnt about Project Management. I like the way of learning in the class. We had some discussion and we made a new project for each team. Overall, I like all of the lessons. All of the Teachers and Professors are so professional.

There’s nothing gonna change my best feelings of Graz. I love Graz so much! I want to stay longer if I could. I would like to say thank you very much to FH Joanneum, especially to the International Relation Office for being kind to me. I will not forget all of you. Thank you so much!