Friday, 13 March 2015

Who am I?

Hello, dear fellow students and teachers :)

The question who am I makes me laugh because I´m still figuring it out. I think the past makes you what you are today. That´s why I want to tell you guys some things about me.

from the left to the right side: my host sister, Walter and me :)
My name is Karoline, I´m 23 years old and I´m born and raised in Vienna. My mom was about my age when she moved from Warsaw, Poland to the capital city of Austria. That´s why I grew up with two different cultures, but sadly not bilingual. My grandmother taught me polish when I was a little older. My family loves to travel, that´s why I feel like having a "traveling gene". One of the most important events in my life was when I had the chance to be an exchange student in North Bend, Oregon. I was 16 years old and I still keep in touch with my host family. Actually my (host) sister had a baby girl five months ago and I´m really happy to be her "aunt".


To fast a little forward...I started studying special pedagogics when I was 19 years old and in my third semester I wanted to do an Erasmus exchange. I took advantage to go back to my roots and I lived, studied and partied (a lot^^) in Warsaw for a few months. It was a great chance to improve my polish, spend time with my grandmother and exploring Poland. I traveled to Wroclaw, Krakow and Auschwitz (really not fun, but it changed my perspective!).

Me in Sounio, the temple of Poseidon
So what else...my last vacation was probably the best I have ever had :) I backpacked thru Europe. I started in Istanbul, then I traveled to Sofia, Thessaloniki, Athens, Kefalonia, Cisternino (a small city near Bari), Napoli, Cinque Terre and Milano. I´m sorry I´m not using the English words for the cities, but they sound so beautiful in Italian. I spend one month by myself in dirty buses, trains and hostels(actually the hostels were always great). A lot of people laughed at me because my backpack was about half my size and really heavy^^ To be honest that month was one of the greatest in my life. I would be curious if you made an interrail trip as well and had a similar experience? A friend of me even told me that it is known that there is an after interrail depression ;D So we could have support group meetings once a week ;)

So after I came back home I still had to finish my bachelor thesis because I´m not really an organized person. (actually I really have to work on that!) So the following two weeks I hardly slept and finished it. And....I got a B on it which is not that bad :) So I´m officially Karoline Huber BEd (Bachelor of Education). I have no idea who had that crazy idea to choose this abbreviation, or what do you think? Once I was done the master program at "Fachhochschule" started and I´m in my second semester to be a clinical social worker one day. I only have class every second week that´s why I got really bored in fall. The consequence was that I wasn´t quite productive, but it had one bright side: I started learning sign language :) Have you ever seen it before or are you able to speak it as well? I got really into it and I researched possibilities to study it and found the University of Graz.

So...now I´m studying English and sign language from Monday till Wednesday and I´m attending the classes at the "FH" Thursday thru Saturday (but luckily only every second week!). I´m hope it will work out with two universities in two different cities, but if you don´t try something you´ll never find out!

When I tell people about my life as I told you they usually ask me: "What´s your age again?" or "So do you still have time for hobbies?" The answers are: I´m 23 years old and yes, I really like to go to the "Gartenbau-" or "Votiv-Kino" in Vienna. I like old cinemas where they show movies in the original languages. My favorite move is Mr. Nobody. Does anybody know this movie??? I would really like to find someone to go on and on about it how inspiring it is. What else? I like music and also dancing that´s why I´m not only going to electronic clubs and listen to Fm4 a lot, but also started a Lindy Hop dance class a few weeks ago. Do you know if there is a swing dance scene in Graz as well???
So if you want a little taste of the modern swing music, here we go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDl9SDd1FJY or if you prefer the old songs: this is a french radio station I like: http://www.swingfm.asso.fr/html/index-en.html?lng=en

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog post as much I liked writing it and if not it was the first one I have ever written and I hope I will get better :D


1 comment:

Michi Kulla said...

Hello Karoline,
your post is easy to read but it would be more attractive if there was a clearer structure. Probably you shouldn't fast it forward too much.
I hope you do well with your sign language studies. For me, it's unimaginable that other students find enough time for every sort of hobbies since my own language studies absorb half of my leisure time. But I think, if people really need your services they'll help you get through everything.