15 Aug 2016

Home.

Brace yourself this is going to be a long one.


I haven't been posting in like forever and I apologize for that. A lot of things happend and it was all so overwhelming I had my mind everywhere but here. And with a lot of things I actually mean that one thing: I'm back in Austria for quiet a while now. 





But lets start at the from the beginning: On the 12th of June 2016 I got on a coach that would bring us down south to Winchester with a few other exchange students for our last night in the United Kingdom. I feel like it all happend so quick and then again it felt like the world stoped moving for a moment when I waved out the window of the coach to my crying hostsister while they moved further and further away. On the other hand I was so insanely excited for our farewell party and about the fact that the night after this one I will sleep in my own room, my own bed. Leaving at this point didn't feel like leaving. I didn't realise departure was just right ahead of me and that I will leave this life for good. I knew I want to come back at some point in the future but it will never be the same. I will never have the same everyday life with my hostfamily, never will hang out with my friends knowing I will meet them the next day in school. No, that will all be gone. At this point I understood the meaning of the (very stereotypical) saying 'it's not a year in a life it's a life in a year'. The year was over and so was the life.

The farewell prom wasn't as emotional for me as it was for a lot of the other students. I didn't spend my year with the wast maturity of these people, I already had my big goodbye. Yet it still was lovely to have that one last night to be a special one. Going to sleep this night was strange though, I was in bed all ready to sleep and tired to death after a day like this one. And yet I still refused to fall asleep. I don't know why it felt like if I close my eyes now, in the last night of my exchange year, I would end it forever. Waking up the next morning didn't feel any less weird but I was so excited to get on that plane, to arrive at home, to shout 'I DID IT' on top of my voice (which I didn't really do but I should have) and to see all the familiar streets and faces.

Carrying my way too heavy luggage across London Heathrow airport was like dragging my whole life from one point to another. When I was packing my suitcase I wasn't 'packing to leave' no I was putting my whole exchange year in three bags (I still don't know how I managed to bring everything back). It's not like you pick your four favourite tops and put them in a bag. You clean out everything, you pack it all until it looks like no one ever lived in this room. When I finally was able to check in my luggage and got on the plane and sat down I was sitting on needles. I wanted to take off, I wanted to land and see my mom and my dad and my sister and my grandparents and I wanted to hug them all. And the moment I walk out the door of the airport with my tons of luggage I was so reliefed and happy and proud of myself. It all felt good.

Earlier in like May or something I talked to my hostmom and she asked me if I'm excited to go home. I wasn't sure what to answer since I had the feeling that if I say no it's weird because well it's home and I will have to go back no matter what. And if I would say yes I was scared people would think I don't like it in the UK. My hostmom then told me that it's ok to look forward to home because you did what you wanted to do, you achieved your goal and you can be proud of yourself. And you know what she was so right. Throughout my exchange she has always been there for me and helped me with all the struggles I had especially at the beginning. Thank you for all of that I couldn't have done it without you!
The weird thing now is that when I look back on the whole year I tend to just see the good things. I remember all the bad days but the good ones just seem bigger. Yet the bad experperiences are just as much a part of it all as the good ones because without them it wouldn't have been an experience. It would have been just a good time. I only realised that now after I left. The uncomfortable things made me learn my lesson, made me grown (unfortunatelly not in bodysize) and helped me become a different person. It's so hard to describe all of the different feelings and experiences because everyone sees it different and therefore everyone would experience and describe it different.

When I got back home I was scared that everything would just continue as if I was never gone. And it was exactly like that. Nothing has changed a single bit, not the people, not the town nothing. And although people told me I didn't change a lot either I felt like a completely new person that has seen the world and everyone else was still stuck in the tiny life of normality. It took me a week, maybe two to reach the floor again and to be able to admit that I am part of this world as well and to accept that life continues.

Being able to say I did what I did makes me proud. It makes me believe in myself more than ever (oh what a klischee) and I am what I am and that year was a an unforgettable experience that certainly challenged and in consequence changed me. But you know what, I would do it all over again.



Lots of love,
LeaLila
x

(sorry for the bad quality of the pictures but ya no phone photos..)

30 Apr 2016

EF Leadership Summit 2016


EF and Hult International Business School London offered us, the EF High School Exchange Year Class of '16 UK and Ireland, to take part in a Leadership summit at the Hult Undergraduate campus in Central London. I filmed a video (which you can watch here) about Global Citizenship which I was asked to submit as application and I gladly got o join the weekend in London.

We had the opportunity to learn about our leadership skills in a university environment by having the chance to listen to John Neal and Peter Hill in two coaching sessions about Leadership Encounters and Dependable Strengths. Both sessions were truly enjoyable, I loved listening to the coaches as well as working and thinking with them and the other students. Now a week later after it all sunk in a little bit I can think back and know this weekend was one of the best ones since I came the UK. Not only because it was informative and instructive but also because I had the chance to meet so many great people and friends. 

On friday and saturday evening there was enough time to spend some hours in London outside the campus, to walk around and to discover a little bit more of the british capital.

I'm honestly so glad I took the chance and applied for the weekend because it was truly great and it definitely assured me of one thing and so did this year, that I know what I want a little bit more than before and I walked a little bit further on my way towards being independent (I don't want to say grown up because I still feel like a little girl haha). 

And as you can see on the picture above, we were really busy spending our break taking pictures on the campus roof garden which by the way was so cool.

One last thing: Never turn down an opportunity it'll be worth it.

Lots of love,
LeaLila
x

24 Apr 2016

Love and Travel 2.0



I have a few more pictures from the road trip with my family during my spring break. I am not going to put loads and loads of text here because I'm pretty sure you don't to hear (or read) me babbling anyway so just let the images speak for themself.

Just for the understanding we visited Oxford, saw a friend of mine who is also an exchange student in the UK in Birmingham and last but not least we went to Liverpool which was one of my personal highlights. Although Liverpool might not be one of the prettiest place on earth I still liked it a lot because I thought that city has character and charm - and it's a very down-to-earth place. If you ever plan on going there I can highly recommend "The Beatles Story" which is a museum that (you guessed it) tells the story of The Beatles and I really enjoyed it although I'm one of these The Beatles fans that is just a fan because in a way everyone is a fan of The Beatles due to you know most famous band in the world and they're legends and you have to be a fan because somehow it's expected that you like them. Anyway they made great music and someone made a great museum out of it.

Nevertheless it makes me want to go back on our little trip when I look at the pictures now. Or in another way it just makes me want to travel more and further and even more and even further and one day I will hopefully have the chance to leave whenever I want to wherever it takes me.

Lots of Love,
LeaLila
x










31 Mar 2016

Love and Travel.


It's easter break and guess who came to the United Kingdom to see me? My lovely austrian family.
I got on a train in Doncaster and went all the way down to Brighton to meet my parents and my sister there who have arrived with the ship since they drove to the UK with the car. I was so happy to see them again and it felt so good so get a proper family hug again. Although I was excited I was really nervous to meet them. Why wouldn't I be I haven't seen them in over seven months. Would it be the same as before? Would it be strange between us? All that went through my head while i was on the train and I got my answer as soon as I saw them. Nothing has changed a bit. 

The weird thing for me was that in these seven months I have grown so much and I got so independent and all I didn't even realise how much. But as soon as I was with my parents again I kind of fell back into that 'little girl' thing. That is how I noticed how much I have changed because the difference between these two feelings, the big girl that is almost grown up now and the little girl that still likes to have her mum around, was so unbelievably big it almost scared me in the first place. But I guess wherever you are and no matter how old you are that will never change will it? Anyway it was wonderful to have them around me again, to have people around me that understand me without words because they know me all my life.

Because my parents came with the car we were able to drive around the country from town to town. I loved our little road trip that, surprise surprise, ended with a lovely visit in Doncaster with meeting my british family. Our first stop was Brighton and all the pictures in this post were taken there. This was my second time in Brighton as you might remember I spent summer 2014 in this lovely town. I think it is doubtlessly one of my favourite places and pretty like not many other towns.

I will show you all the other places I saw in the next weeks so stay tuned.

Hope you all had a nice spring break,
Lots of Love
LeaLila
x