Leonie Braks - Exchange BOKU, Vienna - BSc Molecular Lifesciences

Leonie went to Austria to study at BOKU.

Reasons to study in Austria

Austria, and especially Vienna, is a city that has everything to offer. It has a high level of education, it’s a big city in central Europa with lots of opportunities to visit neighbouring countries and of course it has a rich cultural history. All of this resulted in it being recognized as the most liveable city in the world, which I definitely can acknowledge after spending 5 months there! 

The best moments

The best moments were actually the very relaxed things, like often we would meet up in Stadtpark in the evening with a group of friends and everyone would bring something to drink. As we were allowed to sit and chill on the grass long into the night and weather remained nice until late this was our favourite way of meeting up. The most fun were the conversations about stuff in your home country, as a lot of stuff that we believe is so normal is still different in other parts of Europe. One of the most astounding things in the Netherlands is apparently that we have orange/yellow number plates (so ugly)!

Challenge

I found out eating habits are completely different in different parts of Europe, which made having dinner together with friends way more difficult than it is in Wageningen. For example, some of my Greek friends took a big ‘lunch’ around 16:00 and got something small around 22:00. This was difficult for me to combine with dinner around 19:00. I finally accepted this and just prepared something for myself more often than I did at home, because this gave me a lot less stress.

Tips

It can be quite difficult to get into contact with local students or people. At my university a buddy program was offered, which gave me the opportunity to meet more native Viennese people, so I would advise you to always join this if possible. Also I would encourage you to live with native students and not only with other internationals as this really changes the way you experience the city.