Then, the practical side of me stepped in. "So, they don't provide us with housing? Like, not even a list of places to stay? How are we supposed to find an apartment there when we're here? Don't the authorities need to have an address for us? How are we going to do our paperwork? etc. etc."
Moving to another continent was a scary proposition in itself, but not knowing where we were moving into was scarier still. We searched for apartments on a few different websites, but no one was listing apartments for September in April. I tried my best to help Ben search, but Google Translate and other add-ons on my web browser didn't make the search much easier.
Then, we found that Salzburg has a network of dorms. To my knowledge, there's three universities in the city: Universität Salzburg, the general university; Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, specializing in music; and FachhochschuleSalzburg, specializing in applied sciences. That means that dorms are abundant!
Many people study abroad here, and I'm not just talking about for one semester. We've learned that many Germans come to Austria to study because they don't have to pay tuition, and hey, they (generally) speak the same language! But, it's not just Germans. Some of our neighbors are from different Eastern European countries, and the Erasmus study abroad program helps citizens of the EU pursue their degrees in EU-member countries like Austria.
So, back to my story - we decided to go for a dorm because dorm managers have experience dealing with international residents, and they are set up in a way that caters to booking in advance. To calm my nerves, I wanted an address and a plan, and the dorm provided that.
After making our decision, we wired over an exorbitant sum of money to reserve our spots in a one bedroom with private bathroom and kitchenette. I was willing to make some compromises, but sharing a bathroom and kitchen space were out of the question. Safety is a huge priority, and I would not have agreed to a dorm if we couldn't have some privacy. And, the pictures on the website looked very modern, clean, sleek - we were excited to have a place and a nice one at that!
[Ben walking down our neon stairs on our third day here. As a side note (don't I just love those): that backpack has been worth its weight in gold. It comes with us when we go shopping and traveling.]
So, pictures lie. We do indeed have our own kitchette and bathroom, but it's not as advertised in the photos. Our kitchenette is not in our room; rather, it's on our floor, down a hallway with locked compartments, and one of those compartments is ours. So, maybe it's good that our little kitchen isn't connected to our room because it cuts down on snacking, and who wants their bedroom to smell like food anyway? Next, our bathroom - the photos showed renovated bathrooms with sleek fixtures and a stand-up shower stall. The first time I stepped foot into our bathroom, I felt like the room was moving. Ben told me I was imagining it because I was tired after not sleeping on the plane. But no, the bathroom is kind of like a floating room encased in plastic. No new fixtures were to be found, but on the upside, we have a bathtub instead of a shower stall. I would have sincerely missed taking baths if we didn't have a tub for eight months. All in all, after dealing with the initial shock, I was okay with living here. Plus, we arrived in mid-September, and the semester didn't begin for a few weeks. Tranquility. Peace. Quiet. That helped me imagine that we were all alone inside this big building.
But then students started to arrive, and that's where we'll pick up in Part II!
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