Falling Into Place

First, allow me to introduce myself to those of you who don’t know me:

Name: Hannah

School: Bryn Mawr College, Class of  2015

Majors: Music and Psychology

IES Program I’ll be blogging about: Music history and (vocal) Performance

Hobbies: Aside from music, I love photography, creative writing, baking, and exploring nature (hiking etc.)

Fun Fact: I also play the harp, piano, and violin

Slightly more interesting fun fact: I’ve sung with a choir 600 feet underground, in a salt mine– casual, right?

My a cappella group, the Night Owls  

Some of the Chamber Singers on our recent tour to Mexico

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So now, let’s backup…Whoa. Can this be real? It seems like yesterday that I was nervously sitting in a study abroad info session, struck with all sorts deadlines and qualifications. The woman flipped through the slides as I sat there panicking—there was no way I was going to be able to fit in study abroad with my double major. As the year progressed, I heard more and more buzz about the exotic and interesting places to which people would be traveling for their “once in a lifetime” experience, and I knew I had to do something. It was around then that I heard about summer study abroad from one of my friends—the perfect compromise she explained. So at that moment, I became determined. This was the loophole for us “overbooked” types.

I had already lined up an amazing internship for that upcoming summer, so I put this coming summer on reserve for this adventure—always a bit of doubt in the back of my mind as to whether it would actually happen. However, from that point on things started following unbelievably smoothly into place. On a whim, I asked my friend who had done the Spring semester version of this music program if there was a summer version, expecting a no—to my surprise, the link showed up in my email the next day. Next was the hurdle of convincing my parents that it was worth the money— I applied for an extremely competitive scholarship thinking I had no chance against the other strong and interesting Bryn Mawr students who would be applying. And yet, I got it. Then, there was the audition for the performance workshop. Oh great, an audition—my favorite (not). I prepared the 3 vocal pieces painstakingly, recorded, posted to youtube, and closed the tabs with a wince. I don’t exactly have the best confidence when it comes to my singing yet, so I was sure this would be the end to my luck. At this point though, it was out of my hands. When I received the email a few weeks later that I had in fact been admitted into the workshop, it felt like bliss—how had everything worked out so perfectly?

I’m taking it as a sign. Things fell into place because this adventure in Vienna is going to be one heck of a life-changer, an experience I won’t be quick to forget. On top of being a thriving city overflowing with culture, it’s also the birthplace of many of “the greats” in both my fields of study—music and psychology. Living, breathing, history– how cool is that?

I will admit, I’m a bit nervous. It will be my first extended stay in another country, and I won’t know a single other soul when I arrive. But sometimes, those experiences are the best ones. So I’m going to take a deep breath and dive in with a smile— I know it’ll pay off.

Stay tuned for vibrant photos (albeit probably a lot of food pics) and fascinating ramblings as I go forth on this amazing journey!