Who am I?

Hey guys! Some of you might already know me from my individual blog called ‘the life of Selin’ but for all of you who don’t know me by now: continue reading this blogpost if you’re interested!
Well first of all, my name is Selin Canli. As my surname indicates, I’m not 100% Austrian. My mother had a colleague who wanted to travel to Turkey to meet her penfriend and my mum joined her. There she met the brother of her colleague’s penfriend and he became my father later. The colleague of my mum married her penfriend and is now my aunt. Quite funny isn’t it?

But now I’ll tell you more about myself. Today I turned 19 and I live near Wr. Neustadt in Lower Austria. I have an elder brother and an elder sister. People who don’t know me would probably describe me as shy but when they get to know me better they soon find out that I’m a very humorous person and that I’m obsessed with singing. I took singing lessons for some years and had some gigs but due to university I had to quit. Down below there is a video of me performing Wings by Birdy. This was the first time I accompanied myself on the piano.

Beside making music I also love listening to music and so I often go to concerts and festivals. For instance I’ve been to Nova Rock and Frequency and saw bands like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, A day to Remember, Kiss, Iron Maiden and many more. If you want to find out even more about me feel free to walk over and have a chat with me at the Wall. 

Who am I?

Me as a baby

My tomboy phase

horseback riding

driving a boat in Zell am See
used to live nearby as a kid

 Hey Everyone! I am Jasmin :) . Well where do I begin?I am 23 years old. My father is Egyptian and my mother is Austrian so I went back and forth a lot between the two countries. I was born here. When I was a toddler we went to Egypt and I visited pre-school there.

After pre-school I came back and went to elementary school here in Gratwein (nearby Graz) and in Saalfelden (Salzburg). Then I went back to Egypt with my father and lived there until I was almost 19.
In Egypt we lived in Cairo. There I went to a school with the Egyptian system but with everything taught in English. In my last 3 years in high school I went to an American school. I even did the SAT's and all that. After graduation I went to the German University in Cairo (GUC) and studied engineering for two years. When I was 18 I decided to come back to Austria.

trying my first beer (non-alcoholic)

visiting family in upper Egypt
farm land

When i lived in Egypt I would go to the pyramids, museums, the opera, play the flute, hang out with friends, go to Alexandria and eat traditional Egyptian food like fool, falafel, shawerma, cactus fruit, sugar cane juice, guava, Egyptian flat bread ( you can see one of my family members baking it).

far extended family member baking
traditional Egyptian bread

When I was a kid and still in Austria, I was a tomboy, super crazy, and active. I did a lot of sports like ballet, horseback riding, gymnastics, skateboarding, mountain biking, hiking etc. I even looked like a boy as you can see from my third picture :). I wanted to be a super hero, an astronaut, detective, and witch.

dad, cousin and uncle 2nd degree in
upper Egypt

When I was a kid, moving back and forth wasn't a problem, but when I came back to Austria in 2010 it was a cultural shock for me. Everything was completely different than I expected. I thought that since Austria is a first world country there wouldn't be racism and life would be easier, but unfortunately that wasn't what I experienced.

at the conservatoire in Cairo
with my dad great aunt and uncle
who are famous there

First when I came back my high school diploma wasn't accredited so I had to take exams to be able to go to university. I initially wanted to continue engineering in Leoben, Montan University, but I hated the university. That is why I decided to come to Graz and study translation English, German, and Arabic. Life started getting better.

Sunset at the Mediterranean sea where
we would go often

So what do I do now? Well of course go to university, and study. I also have to work a lot. I take part in the ESN Buddy Program, I work in the student union (ÖH), so if anyone is having troubles you can come to me ;) ; I work with refugees helping them have a normal life again, interpret for a human rights organization, and I am a radio show host.

showing friends from Aswan, Egypt
the pyramids before they immigrated
to Canada

Other than that I try to keep my social life alive. I also have a small dog Leia (like star wars princess leia), watch a lot of series and movies, read a lot, like to travel, do some art, got o concerts, sing, write poetry, cook, and bake (if you want to try one of my delicious cupcakes or other baked goodies come to our STV Brunch on the 25th of March).

my dad, aunt and I at high school graduation

at my old university in Egypt

my mom and I on my 19th birthday

my dog Leia bigger and fluffier now

my copper art that I made

a cake I made

Who am I?

Hi everyone, I am Julia.

For me, always the most difficult questions are “Who are you?” “What makes you special?” “What are your hobbies?” I seriously have no idea what makes me special or what my hobbies are. I am an ordinary girl from a small town in Upper Austria. However, I might have a wild guess what brought me to where I am today.

After graduating from High School, I decided to live abroad for a while. I’d always known that I definitely don’t want to immediately continue to go to school or to start going to university. I needed a break and that’s what led me to Cultural Care Au Pair, an agency which supports you and finds a fitting family for you in which you will live and take care of kids. My perfect match was living in Concord, Massachusetts, which is very close to Boston. In September 2013 I flew over to Boston to start my adventure and meet my new family. I knew from the first moment on that this will work. I immediately fell in love with Felix and Lily, the two-year-old twins I had to take care of. The first month was a challenge, though, since the kids needed to get used to me and I needed to get used to them. I had to get to know them and find out what they like and what they hate and most importantly I needed to gain their trust.

After some complications at first, I managed to get used to my new life in the USA and also got the kids to be happy about that they could spend time with me. But most importantly I finally knew my way around and managed to drive somewhere without getting lost. (Probably the biggest challenge throughout the whole year!)

I met amazing people from all over the world. I travelled across the USA. From Maine to Florida, over to Chicago and San Diego to Seattle. I enjoyed the sun in Key West on the beach and went skiing in the Rocky Mountains in Utah. 

I went to concerts which I'd never seen before, because those artists have never come to Austria. I had to manage everything by myself, I was forced to grow up and stand on my own two feet, which made me who I am today. For example, now I am no longer impatient – two-year-olds know how to convert you to a patient person – and I definitely got more open-minded, I am no longer the shy girl from next door, I got more self-confident and more extrovert.

To finish up, I am now back in Austria, studying “Transcultural Communication” at the University of Graz. Because of my gap year I chose English as my first foreign language and there’s also a reason why I chose Russian as a second language. My host-mom’s brother is a translator and he knows over 15 different languages. However, not common languages like Italian or Spanish, he knows Mandarin, Japanese and other small languages like these, but most importantly he never managed to learn Russian and I accepted the challenge. I wanted to know what’s so hard about it and I definitely know now, but I’ll manage ;-)

I guess, after reading my text, you can figure that I love to travel and even if I don’t have that much time and money anymore like during my gap year, I definitely want to continue to travel the world. Next on the bucket list: Australia ;-)

I hope you enjoyed my little story. Take care :-)

Who am I?

Hello everyone, my name's Evi. 

Some of you may know me already, but some of you don't. So who am I? 

Born and raised in Italy, I decided to come to Graz for my studies, which I did a year and a half ago. My real name is Evi. Yes, really it's no abbreviation. Not the most typical Italian name, actually not the most typical name at all. Despite being Italian, my mother tongue is German. This is due to living in the north of Italy, in South Tyrol. It used to be a part of Austria not even 100 years ago. But as I am here to tell you something about me and not about the history of my country, let's go on. My father was born in Germany and my mother in Italy. I haven't got any siblings, but two cats called Trixi and Indie. I've got Austrian, German, Italian and Hungarian roots. Even my surname is Hungarian, but unfortunately no one was ever willing to teach me the language.

The view from the old flat in Tyrol

Trixi loves to sleep on my shoulders

Alex and I in Maribor

When I was 17, I was a year abroad, as an Exchange student and it was probably one of my best times so far. I stayed in Bournemouth (UK) with the most awesome host family one could wish for. After that year, I had to come back to Italy to finish school. I spent a year in Innsbruck with my best friend  Alex and in September 2013 I finally moved to Graz.  When I came here, I joined the Red Cross and I'm doing night shifts almost every Saturday night. Since a few months, before the night shifts I am also working in a shop during the day. It's quite a busy weekend, but it's really fun.

Yes, I do love languages, but I think or hope every one of you does so; otherwise we would be quite wrong at the ITAT. Most of my leisure time I spend with my friends doing all kinds of activities. I like painting a lot, but since I am in Graz I almost never find the time to do so. Normally I'm a rather extrovert person, still I can be really calm and thoughtful at times. I enjoy the little things in life. A gobsmacking sunset, the mountains, a good laugh, that's pure heart-balm. Also I'll probably never say no to a glass of wine,

especially not if I can enjoy it with friends or family while admiring the landscape. I always try to involve some dolcevita in my life, as I truly believe that otherwise you get depressed. Cooking with friends, having delicious, mouth-watering food and a drink, feeling sunbeams on your face, just enjoying these little things, embracing the moments, laughing a lot, these things will make you a happier person. At least that's what makes my friends and me happy, balanced people. 

Hiking

I also do love to travel, but who doesn't? So at the moment I'm saving my money to go to Japan within the next few years. I will go with a friend and we would like to stay there about at least a month. We still don't know when we will go, but our goal is to have the money together before we are both 26. 

Now you know a little more about me, I hope you enjoyed it.