Assalamualaikum, I am Fitria Adine Yasmine Belinda majoring in Information Technology Universitas Sumatera Utara. During this semester, I got a chance to join Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility and study in Austria for about 6 months. First of all, I would like to say thank you very much to Universitas Sumatera Utara especially the International Affairs Office and Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology for offering and facilitating me to join the program until I got chosen as one of the Erasmus+ awardee this year. It is an amazing opportunity for me to feel the cultures even there was quarantine happened because of the pandemic but I think I still be able to make my exchange year become so memorable. So, how does it feel living in Austria? Now, I am going to tell you this incredible experience.

Orientation in Graz, Austria

In Austria, I studied in FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences majoring Internet Technology. They have 3 campus located in Graz, Bad Gleichenberg, and Kapfenberg. My campus is located in Kapfenberg therefore I lived there.  I lived in Wist Flat. It is not far away from my campus, only 5-7 minutes walking from my flat to the campus. In the beginning of the semester, I attended the orientation program both in campus Graz and Kapfenberg. I met with so many friends from different countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Finland, Thailand, and many more. For my courses, I took IT Project Work, 3D Programming, German Course, Business Management, IT Industry, and so on.  I took courses that I have never had before since the credit will be transferred at the end of the semester. The education system is different from what we have in Indonesia. For bachelor degree in FH Joanneum, they only need 3 years to finish it instead of 4 years. The grading system is also different. They score you from 1 - 5 where 1 is the excellent one. 1 is equal to 90% or above. The lecturers are very helpful. They are open for discussion outside of the class if we are still having questions or having problem with some software installations. For the schedule, they have a calendar called Almaty so it is basically schedule that you could import into your calendar and it’s very dynamic to all changes. I have to check my calendar a day before a class if there is some changing for the class that I took otherwise I would missed it. Most of the classes that I took are project-based examination. So, I have to make a report or project in the end of the semester as an Exam and I like it very much.

FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences at Kapfenberg, Austria	Internet Technology Building

Austria is such a beautiful country. It captured my heart especially the beautiful small city Kapfenberg. The city surrounded by beautiful mountains. It is very nice to have a walk in the afternoon by the river near my flat. Kapfenberg is 40 minutes far away by train from Graz and 2 hours from Vienna which is the capital city. The people were very nice. The only culture shock that I have is only because they are so calm unlike us in Medan where people could speak really loud, they don’t. I asked my friend about it and he said that it is the way they taught to behave since they were kids. Austrian speaks German or Deutsch. Since, I didn’t know about the language before, I take the German as one of my courses. But, there are a lot of people that could speak English so it is easier to communicate. All of my courses also teach in English. So, I don’t really have any problem regarding the language. For the food, in Austria they have so many types of cheese and meat but I couldn’t really try their traditional dishes since most of them are not halal but I have tried Puten Schnitzel which is a turkey cutlet, Sachertorte which is an Austiran chocolate cake with apricot jam and Palatschinken. At least, I could feel the taste of Austrian food before I left.  I usually cooked by myself at home and do the grocery shopping once or twice a week and for your information it is common to bring your own paper bag or shopping bag when you do groceries since there will be no plastic bag given to you. They are so protective about their environment that’s why they are keeping the plastic use away.

In the beginning of the semester, we still have no Covid-19 cases in Austria. Everything goes normal. I was still able to attend my classes, orientations, welcoming party, playing games and so on. But, since in the middle of March, everything was different because there is a Covid-19 case was found in Innsbruck. Innsbruck is one of the tourist places in Austria, they have a lot of Ski Resorts and usually it is very crowded in winter since everyone wants to go skiing. After that a lot more Covid-19 cases were found and the government starts to react to the situation and they close the schools, universities, restaurants, and public attractions. Everyone was asked to stay at home and do the quarantines. But, the government also told the people that we don’t need to be panic because the vital objects were still open such as pharmacies, groceries, and gas stations. We are also still being able to go for a walk near our home for about 30 minutes. But, I and my friends are very concern about the situation and we just stayed at home until the situation got better and only go out if we need to do groceries shopping. Our international coordinator also suggest us to go back home because of the uncertainty that could happen in the future but after I talked with my parents about this, they thought that it’s way better for me to stay in Austria until the end of the semester because it’s also very risky to go travel back home during that time. The classes were hold online. My university prepared everything so quickly because after that they give us an online platform to do the classes online such as Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams. In the beginning, I would say that it was pretty hard to be honest. Being far from home, quarantined, and you face only uncertainty and can only pray and aim that the Covid-19 cases could be reduced and the situation could be better. At the end of March, the government closed the borders so it’s really hard to find the airlines to go back home. I tried not to get distracted and panic and focus only for my study since we can’t really go anywhere and do groups activities.
Until the end of May, things started to get as usual again. The public attractions start to open again like museums. I can go travel a bit more inside of Austria and see the beauty of this Country. I went to Salzburg, Mariazell, Green Lake, and many more places. On June 15th, the borders were opened. So, I decided to go travel to the neighbor countries with my friends from Mexico and Costa Rica. It was really nice to be able to travel a bit more since I was already in Europe. For the rest of the weeks, I finished my study in Austria. I did the presentations for my project and submitted all of the left assignments. I prepared for my departure because I need to get health certificate from the health center and letter from the embassy of Indonesia in Vienna.

Me and My friends from Mexico and Costa Rica in front of Mirabel Palace in Salzburg	on my way to Green Lake	Graz, Austria.

I went back to Indonesia on July 1st. It was a really great experience to spent one semester as an international student in Austria even though things didn’t really went as I planned before but I am still grateful for this amazing opportunity. This journey somehow gave me another perspective on how a good education should be. One thing that I also amazed about Austria is that they have a really good transportation system, one thing that we don’t really have in Indonesia. Everything is so punctual and you could just use an app to see the schedule anytime you want. It is so reliable. Now, I am in my last year of study and trying to finish my study in Indonesia. Hopefully, this story could give you more perspective about Austria. I am sorry that I have to summarize everything in only limited pages because I think it is not going to be enough actually but if you have any questions please do and feel free to contact me via email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or instagram (adinebelindaa) since I am active in both of those platforms. Thank you very much for reading my story. I hope it is interesting enough for all of you.