Pre Departure Anxiety

Pre Departure Orientation Dec 2019.

In three days I’m going to Hitzendorf, Austria for three months with the STS programme. I’ll be flying with Emirates to Dubai for 17 hours transiting for four hours, and then departing straight to Vienna on a 6 hour flight.  My Host Dad and granddaughter along with the area rep will be waiting for me at Vienna Airport.

STS stands for “Student Travel School” which is a Exchange Programme that started in 1958.  It is a family run business that has grown over the years.  You are given an amazing opportunity to live in a different country and experience variety of different things. The Programme operates in 17 different countries.  France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, UK, USA to name a few.

I chose Austria because I wanted to be different. Austria is a German speaking country. I did not need to learn German before going however I will be learning the language when I go to school. A lot of countries you will need to know the basics of the spoken language in that country for example if you wanted to go to France, you’d have to learn French for 1 year prior to going. 

 Right now as I am writing this in my notes on my iPhone, I am travelling on the motorway in Auckland on my way home from the Pre Departure Orientation Meeting.  Mum and I attended this today that ran from 1pm to 5pm at the Holiday Inn in Mangere.  The Pre Departure is a compulsory last meeting and have to attend. There was heaps of discussion about the programme and I met twenty so students who are also travelling between December and Jan abroad.  I also received my travel pack, bag, shirt and information for Austria as well as a basic welcome and expectations of the programme.

There are 22 students leaving in December and January 2020. This Friday I am leaving with three other students who are all also going to Europe. Most of the students are going for a year.  There is very few of us doing three months and six months.  We all have to wear bright yellow STS shirts and backpacks to be visible in the airports and also so the STS reps can easily identify us. 

After today’s orientation I’m beginning to feel really anxious, I’ve prepared myself for so long but after getting an insight and seeing that it’s all becoming REAL, it’s kinda scaring me. I have no doubts at all for my trip though, I’m super confident and positive I’m just scared because it’s literally three days away! I cannot believe this is actually happening now.  The other students are going to France, Germany and Italy.  Today I also learned that there is another girl going to Austria and she is going north of Austria.  Whilst in Austria we have a STS area rep that helps us settle in and checks in on us with the host family.  I look forward to meeting the area rep and generally excited to be taking this adventure.  Really excited but nervous as well to meet my host family.  I am a tad bit worried that they may think I am weird and may not like me.

My host dad retired in 2018 from the military and my host mum is a school teacher in Graz who teaches English, Chinese and Music. They have 4 adult children who have children of their own and I am super excited to meet all of them. My host family are incredibly musical so I am very lucky.  Their oldest granddaughter  is 12 years old. I’m very fortunate to be going to a musical family and I am very lucky my host mum is a music teacher.  My host family also has an apartment in the mountains that they go too every spring and winter.  They have planned to take me with them to learn how to ski.

I play guitar and banjo and unfortunately won’t be taking my instruments with me. I am hoping to try new things and develop new skills over the period of time I am in Austria. I am also a self taught yodeller and I’ve been singing country music for most of my life, so I am hoping that I learn to yodel properly and learn new styles of singing . My host mum has already offered to take me to the opera house in Vienna which I am SO excited about.  Austria is well known for Classical Music and the home of Sound of Music.  I’ve never really looked into the classical, broque and romantic period in music other than knowing Handel was a famous classical composer, Mozart was a famous broque composer and Beethoven was a first time romantic composer, but I am absolutely excited and open to learning about it. 

For school, every morning my host mum (or dad) will be driving me to the bus stop, and then from the bus I will catch a tram to school. I’m attending a Catholic school in Graz where I will be part of the school choir. My schooling hours are completely different to what I'm used to here. On Mondays I finish at 2:20pm, Tuesdays I finish at 1:25pm, Wednesdays are my longest days I finish at 4:10pm then Thursdays and Fridays I finish at the same time as Tuesdays. So school starts at 7:45 every morning but finishes at different times. I am hoping to get involved in some sports, more specifically sports I’ve never tried before. It will be winter time when I get to Austria so the main sports will be skiing.  I have never skiied in my life so I want to give it a go.  My host mum has also organised for me to do a language paper, and I’ve chosen Latin out of Italian and French. 

When I get to Austria the very first thing I want to do is touch the snow make a snowman, snowball and an angel. I’ve never ever been to the snow before and it’s just the little things I want to enjoy and make the most of. A goal of mine is to be open to trying new things and not being negative about anything. 

So for now, I’m enjoying the few days of summer in New Zealand I have becos I am totally going to miss the beach.

The next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Austria.  I wont know when I will post next but the idea is to do one entry a week that way I can keep you all updated on my Dora the Explorer kind of adventure. 


Till then, ai mavehe 

Mutolu kia,

Anna