Beccy on Tour - My Semester Abroad in Raleigh, NC, USA

Rebecca Schaden 0:10
Hello guys and welcome to my podcast Beccy On Tour about my semester abroad in Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States. My name is Beccy and I am your reliable source into the exciting world of American college life. So if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, stay tuned.

Today, we have a guest Eric Rodriguez who studied abroad at my home university, Vienna University of Business and Economics last spring semester. He's going to tell you guys a little bit about what it's like to study abroad in Austria, how it's different from studying in the United States, in terms of classes, people, professors, and so on and any other observations he has made. Eric is also going to give you some info on the do's and don'ts at my home university that I might never have thought of, because I'm so used to them. So to all of you who are considering studying abroad in Austria, or Europe in general, listen up, because you might gain some valuable insights.

Hi, Eric, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. I really appreciate it. And to start off this interview, I would ask you to please introduce yourself stating your name, your pronouns, your major, both your universities and the best dish, you try their course.

Erik Rodriguez 1:59
Thank you for having me on the podcast. My name is Eric Rodriguez. I am a student here, senior year at NC State University. And I studied abroad at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. I'd have to say, my favorite dish from Vienna was probably vino schnitzel.Everywhere you went, it was always an option. So that was nice.

Rebecca Schaden 2:24
Yeah, that makes sense. I love that one as well.

Unknown Speaker 2:27
And I use the he him pronouns. That's a bit about me.

Rebecca Schaden 2:31
Thank you so much. So start off, I would ask you to please tell me how did you find the campus at Vienna University of Business and Economics? How is it different than NC State campus?

Erik Rodriguez 2:44
Well, the campus surprised me with how modern it was. Every building, you know, looked like had some kind of modern take to it with how the architecture looked, you know what materials they used. So that was really cool. I was surprised by that. But you know, the campus was a lot smaller. I remember telling my parents it was more like a call of what a college would be. You know, here in Raleigh, we've got a Wake Tech, which is a community college. And, you know, it's a lot smaller, it doesn't offer as many, you know, associate degrees in different fields. And I thought, you know, Vienna University was a bit like that, in that it only offered, you know, degrees in economics and business, the campus was a lot smaller. And so that, I think, would be the biggest difference between the two. And you know, because of that, it affects other things as well. You know, like, you know, how much there is to do on campus throughout the year, things like that. I remember the bigger sort of attractions that the campus had was its library, because I'm sure you remember how that building looks, you know, very modern, very, almost futuristic looking I remember people saying it all it looks like a spaceship from a movie. But I don't remember the library is the biggest attraction, sort of. And I remember I was told that they do have gym classes as an option, but they're pretty small. And certainly, you know, it doesn't compare to the Carmichael gym that we have here at NC State that's massive, three or four floors. You know, two different parts and entire swimming pool available. Yeah, it's nice. All the amenities that we have here.

Rebecca Schaden 4:34
Yeah, it's definitely a whole different dimension. And did you live on campus or did you live off campus?

Erik Rodriguez 4:40
When I was in Vienna?

Rebecca Schaden 4:41
Yes,.

I lived off campus. But even then, I was only I was less than a 10 minute walk away from the school. And what was nice so as I've lived on campus in NC State before, and you know the cost for that, at Wolf Village where I lived the first semester it was 1000 bucks per semester, which makes sense, you know, they're going to charge a bit more for you to be on campus. But over in Vienna, I the apartment I stayed at it was similar to wolf village in that you had three roommates. But each of you had your own room and then you just shared a kitchen, bathroom shower, stuff like that. But over there, it was only around 560 euros, which translate to a little less than $600 here. So that price difference was a nice surprise to me.

Rebecca Schaden 5:33
Yeah, it makes sense. And honestly, people in Vienna would think that is expensive.

Erik Rodriguez 5:38
Really?

Rebecca Schaden 5:38
Yes. So it kind of shows how the differences really are. Also, like in terms of price, and how expensive things are here. Also with school tuition, because I'm sure you know that we don't pay school tuition.

Erik Rodriguez 5:53
I've heard that you just have to take the admissions test. And once you get admitted, you will have to pay like a student fee of like 20 euros or something. And then that's it.

Rebecca Schaden 6:03
Yeah, it's called 'ÖH-Beitrag'. And it cannot be compared to the kind of school tuition you are paying.

Erik Rodriguez 6:11
We are paying a couple $1,000 per semester yet. I remember when we had our pre departure conference, they told us about that option. If you don't want to do an exchange, you can just directly apply to WU. And you know, you'd save a lot of money. But at that point, it was too late. But it's nice to know that it's an option for students.

Rebecca Schaden 6:32
Yeah. It definitely is like we have a lot of international students. And I'm gonna get to that and what you experienced in that regard?

Rebecca Schaden 6:41
But first of all, I'd be interested in the class schedule, how is that different?

Erik Rodriguez 6:45
Oh, wow. Yeah. So here at NC State, our classes are always either, or, for the most part anyway, either 50 minutes, and there's three of them a week, or they're an hour and 15 minutes, and there's two of them a week. So you know, for students who are more in STEM, they'll have labs, which those do tend to run a bit longer. But over in Vienna, the majority of classes I was in were I believe around three hours. And within those three hours, you'd have breaks, luckily, like you do about an hour of learning, usually lectures or something, then take a break, do another hour, take a break, and then do that last hour. So that was a bit of a shock. But also, because it's three hour classes, they were only ever really once, maybe twice a week. And then of course, the professors had their times where they let us out early. And then another big difference was with the semesters here, classes will go on for all four months. There's the eight week classes, but you know, those are usually gym classes or whatever. Over in Vienna, it's such a wide range of one year classes could be I remember, one of my classes started in March, which is, you know, typically when the semester starts over there for the spring semester, what they call the summer semester. And they'll usually go to June. But I had one class that started in March. And in April, the class was only you know, it only lasted for one month. And granted, it was a four and a half hour class. Luckily, we never really stayed for more than two hours. And it was only once a week for you know, that period of like, I think it was a bit over a month. But in just one month, the class was over. And then some of my friends said their classes started in April, and then ended in May as well. So you know, there's a lot more options, in terms of like how you want your schedule to look, it was a bit harder to understand, like coming from NC State system to WU system. But there is a big differences in the scheduling of things.

Rebecca Schaden 9:06
And also, we can choose our classes. And it's different at NC State.

Erik Rodriguez 9:10
A little bit. Yeah, I could take any class there, which was nice. But I think it also has to do with you know, I was an international student, not a degree seeking student from that university. But I don't know how that would change if I was a degree seeking student. And here we do have that system sort of with our what we call free electives. But you know, you only get a limited amount of those within your time here.

Rebecca Schaden 9:38
Make sense. And if it's not in your major, you kind of have to have it approved.

Erik Rodriguez 9:42
Yeah, yeah. It's, you have to wait more time, you know, to sign up for those classes, because usually classes, they'll have reservations for students only within that major. And so, if you want to take the class, you know, might not really be possible because it just always gets filled up with, you know, major students, which makes sense. You know, you want their in that major you want them to say that class, they should have that opportunity.

Rebecca Schaden 10:10
Yeah, yeah, totally agree it would be unfair to do it differently. So my next question would actually be, how would you describe the school spirit at view?

Erik Rodriguez 10:21
Yeah. So it's, they have a very different version of it here. You know, our school spirit is mostly about just wearing NC State apparel. Everywhere you go on campus, you're going to see someone with an NC State shirt, sweater, backpack, anything of the sort. Over there, you'll never really see anyone wearing any WU apparel. There is some but it's, you know, here we have the bookstore, that also sells a bunch of different NC State clothing. And, you know, we were partnered with a few different brands such as Adidas champion. So you know, there's a lot of options in terms of what to wear. Over at WU, there was in their library, they had a small little section, it was more of a gift shop, honestly, where you can buy like, it's one single view sweater, that is also a t shirt, but it looks the same. So I definitely understand why there it's not worn as much. But also, you know, the difference in dressing in Europe, as opposed to here, here, it's a lot more casual. Obviously a bit lazy, sometimes, you know, you'll sometimes see students pull up to classes in their pajamas still. But yeah, over in Vienna, it's, it was a lot more, a bit more formal, you know, not to the point where everyone's wearing like suits and stuff, but everyone's you know, dressed well, they've got, you know, more likely than not jeans, jeans and a nice t shirt. And to another reason that you know, you don't see the kind of dressing for school spirit that you see here. And then as well, we've got our football team, you know, our football games, which bring out a lot of school spirit from the students with the tailgates and then the games themselves. The our Athletics Division. It's nice how big it is. And it does get a lot of support from our students, whereas that they do well, I do know they have a football team, they have WU tigers, it's certainly nowhere near as known as within the school as our Wolfpack football team is to our students.

Rebecca Schaden 12:32
Yeah. And I have to say I neither knew of the shop that they have nor the like the football team.

Erik Rodriguez 12:40
Yeah, American football just to clear it up. But yeah, I didn't know about it for a while either. The shop I knew about it just because they told us hey, if you want to buy some stuff to remember view from you, there's a few things there. So that was nice. I bought a little crewneck sweater from there. But the the Vega Tigers I didn't find out about in total, like more than halfway through the semester. And that was only because they were serving drinks at an event in the school. So that was something. r

Rebecca Schaden 13:10
I think it's definitely different even when you go somewhere as an international student because you want to, you know, get that experience. You probably even know more of the school and the university than as a degree seeking student.

Erik Rodriguez 13:23
Exactly. And I'm sure have you been to a football game yet here?

Rebecca Schaden 13:27
Yes, yeah, I love them. It's a whole different dimension.

Erik Rodriguez 13:34
It's, it's, it's good energy. And if you did, also the, what they call tailgates, if you did the tailgating as well, you also get just a good experience of how students act, in that sense.

Rebecca Schaden 13:50
True. And that's actually my next question, what difference is with regard to how students act and how they interact with international students? In particular, What difference do you see?

Erik Rodriguez 14:00
So here, you know, with the sort of Southern American culture that Raleigh in North Carolina, and then the rest of the South has, it's a bit more open, a bit more friendly, you know, you'll see someone walking down the street and maybe say, hey, that would be a lot more normal. As opposed to in Vienna, where people are typically a lot more reserved, especially the locals, they don't really want to talk to you, which is understandable. You know, for them it's a bit strange to just see a random person and want to strike up a conversation. But also, as an international student in Vienna, you know, there's also the language barrier, while many students honestly I'd venture to say most, if not all, students, have you speak English fluently, or, you know, mostly fluently, I could definitely tell that they they prefer German still. Even in some of my group projects, I noticed that, you know, the class would be in English. But while we're working on the project, even with me, they're like at a table with them, they'll still speak German to each other. And it's understandable, you know, it's their primary language. And so they're a bit more comfortable with it. But, yeah, it's definitely a culture of just being more private. Which also goes into how they handle customer service as well. So going to grocery stores, the attendant, you know, won't really interact with you at all, they'll just say, they'll scan the items tell you how much it is. And then, you know, you can say bye if you want, but they won't really care. They just, they are just there to scan the items and send you on your way. As opposed to here where, you know, you'll typically strike up a conversation, you know, at least say, Hey, how you doing? You know, is that everything, things like that. So just little things, of just how people react to strangers.

Rebecca Schaden 16:06
Yeah. And now that you said it, I think that was really weird for me at first when I went to like the coffee shop. And the first question that person asked me was like, how do you do? Yeah, I didn't, I didn't expect it. So it was like, what?

Erik Rodriguez 16:22
Exactly, you just feel like what do you want and you know, honestly, you probably just say what you want in Vienna, as opposed to here. And then also, one of the funniest things is just in grocery shops, just how they scan. They are. It's like they're, it's a race of just who can scan the fastest they scan the items as fast as possible. You know, here typically, a lot of places will bag your items for you over there. You you'll have your own bag most likely, and then just bag it yourself. But it's it almost you feel under pressure over there without quickly they're scanning items and expecting you to pay. It's nice, how slow they take it here. Which, you know, I missed that while I was in Vienna for sure.

Rebecca Schaden 17:05
Yeah, I remember that.

Erik Rodriguez 17:06
Yeah, I will say it was nice to not waiting in a line of like 20 people just to get my item scanned and leave the store as opposed to here. If you've been to Walmart, you'll know, there's the 20 different checkout lines, only two of them are being worked or something. And then they both have like 10 people in line and it takes ages to get through.

But yeah, that's just different. I feel like here people are more concerned with being polite.

Rebecca Schaden 17:34
Definitely. It's yeah.

On that note, did you make any friends, Austrian friends there or not?

Erik Rodriguez 17:42
Yeah, I've made a few, mostly through the projects that we did together. But I was surprised by how you mentioned earlier, but WU has a lot of international students, even ones that are getting their degree from that school. Like not just international exchange like me, but ones who are you know, attending that for multiple years. Even they are coming from other countries within Europe. So I know in one project, there were five of us. I, if I remember correctly, I think two of them were from Vienna. But I was from the US. I was only there for a semester. But then there was a student from Ukraine as well, who was getting his degree there and a Hungarian student who was getting his degree there. So there's a lot of international students, but most of the friends I made, were those other international students who were only there for, you know, either like a semester or maybe a year. Because I think as an international student, you have to have a sort of extroverted personality, if you're going to be doing something like that, you know, it's great to know people to, then you know, you can plan trips outside of the country with them. And so definitely the majority of friends I made were from other countries. Yeah, a lot of Canadians. They're from the US, funnily enough, Chicago had sent quite a lot of students I remember apparently, I talked to one of them. Apparently, WU has a special relationship with a University in Chicago. I forgot the name of it. But I just know 40 students from the school in Chicago went to Vienna. So that was crazy. But also, you know, students even from as far as Australia are showing up to Austria, which was really cool. It was great to just meet people from all corners of the world.

Rebecca Schaden 19:32
That's true. And I feel like Vienna in general is a very international city. What would you say is stuff you can do there?

Erik Rodriguez 19:39
Oh, in Vienna, oh, there's a lot, you know, honestly, just taking a walk through the more historic part of it. The more central part of it where Stefan's Platz is, all the different shops, all the different historic sites you know, there's a lot of old cathedrals and churches and Vienna that You know, with how old their architecture is, they look really awesome. So, you know, you can explore the historic aspects of the city, but then it is still a, I'd say a modern city, you know, there's always something happening. You can go to different clubs, different attractions, museums, things like that. And funny enough, the amusement park, that's right next to the school, you can always take your time there because it's, it was cool. We, when we showed up in February, it there was a few rides, but not much. And there was like a few stands, and other buildings that are just always on in that area. But then as you know, the the months progressed, and they got to more warmer climate, they started putting up more rights throughout those months. So that was cool to see it develop. And you know, at then at its height, you know, with how many people were showing up each day. It's nice, how much there is to do within that city where you can just walk between places like that, as opposed to having to drive half an hour or something.

Rebecca Schaden 21:06
So What recommendations would you give someone who wants to guess?

Erik Rodriguez 21:11
Okay, definitely visit the different palaces. Um, you know, there's Schonbrunn Palace, the one that's a bit more well known, I'd say. I think it's the larger one as well. But you know ...

Alec Sawyer 21:25
It's larger. Yeah, then Belvedere.

Amega Newton 21:28
Yes. And, you know, visiting, you know, depending on when you visit, if you visit in the winter, if things are going to be the plant life isn't going to be there. So it's not going to be as colorful, but you still get amazing views of the cities. And also just, you're visiting a palace, when is that not cool. And then there's Belvedere as well, which also has, you know, really nice gardens. And that one is a bit a bit more of an art museum as well, with the I know it has a famous artwork in there, I think it's the kiss or something. So there's that. And then there's visiting the historic other historic aspects, you know, the churches, like I mentioned earlier, but as students, the school will always be putting on some kind of event that involves alcohol, you know, there for a while, we had Spitzer stance. So you know, a lot of students will always show up to that. There is also EBN, which is an organization within the school at WU, also likes to have trips with students. So I know, I still follow them on Instagram. And recently I saw they had their or they started the selling tickets for its LMC, which is like a ski trip at the top of the Alps. So they'll do things like that take students out of the country, but then outside of school as well. There's so much to do with just in Vienna, you know, Ferry rides, going taking a ride in the horse drawn carriages, just visiting all the different local shops, all the cafe shops, the local brewery, you can tour that there's just so much to do. If you I definitely recommend taking a semester there, just to have all the time to you know, fully explore the city.

Rebecca Schaden 23:18
And what was your favorite thing?

Erik Rodriguez 23:22
Oh, within Vienna? Yeah, I, I definitely say, visiting all the churches, just because, you know, here in North Carolina, sure, we have maybe a few old buildings, but it's nothing like what you see just walking down the streets in Vienna. You know, it's, it's always just mind blowing for me. When I see like when I saw Stefan's Platz and just how large of a structure it is, knowing like it was built centuries ago. And then going inside of it, and looking at all the artwork, everything that was created by hand. And then even in other cities, I always tried to go to you know, some kind of cathedral because they'll usually always have one. And then just seeing all the all the different artwork, just how everything looks. And then you know, obviously the city around it as well.

Rebecca Schaden 24:20
And in terms of classwork, professors, students, What recommendations would you give someone in terms of interacting with?

Erik Rodriguez 24:28
Yeah, so definitely get ready to do a lot of group projects. That's something I noticed over there. The classes are mostly a group project that they'll either last for the majority of the class period, or you know, the less the for a few weeks at least. But Gary, did you those group projects, you know, you're gonna be getting close to those other students because you know, you're going to be meeting a lot since it is they are usually pretty heavy projects, I'd say in the amount of work each of you do. But you know, it's not too bad, where it'll take away from you having free time, but definitely get ready for those group projects. The professors, I didn't really interact with too much just because, you know, I spend more time outside of the school. But all of the professor's seem very friendly and very open to, you know, having relationships with the students. And you know, they all the classes are a lot smaller. So, you know, they have that opportunity to have more one on ones and just have better relationships with students, as opposed to here. Well, you know, some classes are sizes of like, 253 inch students. So it's harder to, you know, first of all talk with the other students, and also with the professor.

Yeah, that makes sense. That was actually my last question. Thank you so much for being here. And it's so interesting for me as well to hear about international students going to my home university. Because I did not know about most of the things. Because as a like, as an Austrian student, you're living there not traveling. Yeah. And it's the same here. You know, I'm always surprised that student international students choose to come to Raleigh, North Carolina, of all places. So it's always interesting to see, you know, what kind of led to that. And then also see what their experience like is here, as opposed to an American studying abroad in Vienna.

Rebecca Schaden 26:32
Yeah, that's definitely true. And you know, I always say the grass is always greener on the other side.

Erik Rodriguez 26:40
Yeah, fair enough. I would like to go back to Vienna.

Rebecca Schaden 26:44
I would like to stay here. Yeah.

Erik Rodriguez 26:47
But, yeah, great experiences all around. It's just great to have that insight into the changing in cultures. Yeah.

Rebecca Schaden 26:57
That is very true. Well, thank you so much for being here with me today. Eric. I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your experience at Vienna University of Business and Economics with me and with my audience. And to all of you guys who are listening right now. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me on Instagram on beccy_schdn or beccyontour_ and I hope you have a great rest of the week readings from the other side of the ocean and I'll talk to you next week. Bye bye.