{"id":1048,"date":"2017-10-16T10:32:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T14:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/german-russian\/?page_id=1048"},"modified":"2025-06-05T10:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:59:13","slug":"matthew-johnson-18-on-being-the-only-bates-student-in-austria","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/german-russian-studies\/alumni\/matthew-johnson-18-on-being-the-only-bates-student-in-austria\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Johnson (’18) on being the only Bates student in Austria"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Matthew Johnson ’18 and Catherine Merton ’18 in front of Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna. Photo: Matthew Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

Vienna was the leiwandsten <\/em>five and a half months of my life (leiwand<\/em> = Austrian German for cool). While all of my classmates at Bates were discussing where to study in Germany, I decided to do something drastically different and study abroad in Austria with IES Vienna. To be honest, at first I had no idea what to expect, but I quickly became captivated with Austria, and I never regret the decision I made to study there.<\/p>\n

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I was the only Bates student in the entire country of Austria, thus studying in Vienna gave me an entirely unique experience that my classmates at Bates, both in and outside the German department, did not experience.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is no way I could properly explain all of these meaningful experiences, so here is a short list of a few of my favorite memories:<\/p>\n