an introduction

Well, here we are.

I look forward to using this blog as a way to keep in touch with you all this year as I head back to Vienna, Austria for nine months (August 18, 2008 - May 9, 2009). I will probably write more than you care to read, so know that I won't be offended if you just look at the pictures.

Some context:

As a student in Wake Forest's Masters of Counseling program, I studied in Vienna last summer with a ten of my classmates and two of our professors. Because Viktor Frankl (Man's Search for Meaning), Alfred Adler (individual psychology), Jacob Moreno (psychodrama), and, of course, Sigmund Freud (Oedipus complex, other sorts of rants) all studied and/or lived in Vienna at some point, there's a lot of context to see and people to meet there. Wake owns a house in one of the nicer parts of town, and several undergrad and graduate programs use it for study and conferences.

I quickly became fond of Vienna. After class, afternoons were spent exploring art museums, the classical music scene, markets, coffee houses, and neighborhoods. I also visited Salzburg, Mauthausen, and Melk. I returned home with a broadened view of the world, a bunch of pashmina scarves, and a hope that I might return to Europe someday soon (blatant foreshadowing).

In the year since then, I completed my second year of coursework as well as an internship at Summit School, a wonderful independent school in Winston-Salem. Experiences at Summit, Wake Forest, and the American Counseling Association's national conference helped solidify my interest in school counseling, and I began to apply for jobs in North Carolina in April.

I then learned from one of my professors that the Director of the Flow House (Wake's house in Vienna) was looking for someone to serve as an assistant in the house for the upcoming academic year. My professor had recommended me for the position, and we shared a laugh over what would surely be an absurd way to spend some time.

Then, I started thinking about all the books I've been wanting to read.

And all the places to which I've been wanting to travel.

Maybe a year in the Flow House might actually be the perfect thing for me right now.

I applied, interviewed, interviewed, interviewed, and waited. A whirlwind month after I learned of the position, I accepted an offer two days before I graduated from Wake.

My responsibilities are simple and sporadic. I will serve as a resource for the 10-15 undergrads living and studying in the house each semester, keep track of the linens and towels that come and go from a cleaning service each week, help the visiting professor with anything she/he might need, and be available to show service men the latest plumbing or washing machine problem. I'll get to do some coordinating and hosting over the holidays, but I think that's about it.

Given that I'll have some free time on my hands, I began looking into opportunities that would incorporate my counseling degree. This led to a connection with the Vienna Christian School, an English-speaking international school that conveniently has use for a part-time volunteer counselor (my visa does not permit me to have a paying job). The school knows that my responsibilities to Wake Forest may take me away at any moment to let an electrician in the house or pull a student out of the Danube, so I think it should work pretty well.

So that's that. I am thrilled to have an opportunity to serve a variety of folks in simple ways this year. I am also pretty nervous about the whole moving-to-Europe part of what's before me. I don't know German. I've been learning a little at a time (thank you, Amanda), but it's been rough. Aside from the language, I don't know that I've ever entered a situation knowing less about what it will look like and how I will react. But that's good for me, I think.