Hailey’s Guide to a Busy Day of Classes

I want to start this off by saying, do what’s best for you!!! What works for me may not work for you, but I wanted to share with you how I work through my busiest day of the week while living and studying abroad!

For me this is always Thursdays, I have 1.5 hours of German at 10:30am, an hour for lunch, The Culture of Immigration for three hours, 45 minute break, then another 1.5 hour class but this time it’s my Austrian Women’s Lit class and we get done around 6:15. Now that you have an idea of what a “busy” day is in terms of classes for me, I’m going to give you a rundown of my full daily schedule and why each action I take is important for me.

I usually wake up at 9:00 a.m. on Thursdays. Other days of the week I tend to take up a bit earlier to try and get a workout in (though I stay very flexible with my timing, and if waking up early isn’t in the cards I remind myself that it’s ok to miss a day or just push my workout into the afternoon/night). But I wake up later on Thursdays because I know by the end of the day I’m always tired and want to give myself the best chance at having a good day which for me includes sleeping in late!

Next I usually go grab breakfast, but I keep it pretty light. Usually just a piece of toast or yogurt because I know I’ll be eating in about 3 hours anyway! I also make myself a cup of coffee every morning to take back to my room to sip on while I get ready (my kitchen has a Nespresso and I LOVE making myself a latte in the mornings).

After that I go get ready, some days it takes a little longer, some days I keep it simple and it takes less than 20 minutes so I get a little time to relax before I meet up with my friend to go to our IES Abroad building.

Our commute is about 20 minutes but can be up to 30 if the U-Bahn’s aren't running on time, and with German starting at 10:30 a.m., leaving at 10:00 a.m. works perfectly.

The issue is, with a light breakfast I am always ready for lunch and while I try to pack myself a sandwich and other snacks it doesn’t always happen so my only option is to buy lunch. Unfortunately, there aren’t a ton of places that are cheap and fast so more often than not I’ll grab a chicken caesar salad and likely some fries from Mcdonald’s because it’s right next to our building.

Then we have that three hour long class, and sometimes I try and grab a snack to have during our 15 minute break (though usually if I eat enough for lunch I don't need it). And after that I head to English, then get to go home around 6:15 p.m. I can sometimes make it back by 6:30 p.m., but other times I need some groceries (and if you’ve ever lived in Austria you KNOW that Billa is a madhouse during the weekend and you want to avoid it at all costs!!) so I won’t get back until about 7:00 p.m.

When I get home I try to give myself a few minutes to decompress before I go make myself some dinner. I usually like to have leftovers for Thursdays because the last thing I want to do is cook after a full day of classes.

After dinner and doing my dishes it’s time for me to do a little homework, this usually includes readings to prepare for the next week and a little bit of German homework because it’s my only class on Fridays. But after I do that, I try to do something for myself. Sometimes it’s reading, sometimes it’s picking out a tv show or movie to watch, other nights like last Thursday I had a miniature painting night with some of my friends where we all painted some of our favorite scenes from Vienna. Whatever it is that relaxes you, I cannot emphasize enough that it’s important to prioritize doing that thing at the end of the day! Sometimes I double up and do a facemask while doing another one of those activities!

Like I said at the beginning, this is just a busy day in MY life, your life may include incredibly different activities or needs during the day. Like maybe you’re not a lunch person but you just need that extra hour for a nap? Go for it! One thing I have discovered is that we all change during study abroad. Your preferences change, your daily needs change, and you just change in general. And that’s not a bad thing!! It just means that something that was fulfilling to you previously may not be exactly what you need anymore and it’s important to recognize that it happens and that most people if not everyone goes through it in some form or another.