Travel stories

My Great Experience

I woke up on Sunday, April 29 at 7 a.m., got dressed, and nervously grabbed my suitcases to head to the car. That day marked the beginning of a very big experience for me! I was accompanied to the airport by my girlfriend, my sisters, and my parents. The stay at the airport was very short, barely two hours, since we arrived, said our goodbyes, passed through security, and boarded the plane to start a new stage, a new stay, a new experience. Once we checked in our tickets, we headed to the security checkpoint, said goodbye to everyone… passed through without any issues, and went to the boarding gate. We waited there for about half an hour, the doors opened, we got on, and took our seats on the plane. The plane took off and… so did our experience. The flight went very smoothly and quickly.

Vienna

Once we arrived at Vienna airport, we were immediately impressed by the place. The first impressions of Vienna were amazing. A very clean city with very friendly people. They picked us up from the airport and we drove in a van to the Leonardo Hotel, where we would spend our first night. We dropped our backpacks and went down because Mike, a teacher from the local Austrian school, was waiting for us. I ordered a typical Viennese dish to start: a Wiener Schnitzel!

Internship at the Company

By the second week, I began to understand exactly what my job there was. They gave me a computer and an iPhone SE. I was thrilled. I installed everything I needed and then got to work. My task was to develop a script that searched for a word inside a repository and returned all the paths (file URLs). I ran tests using PowerShell, watched videos, but didn’t know how to do it. I had no clue… eventually, I asked Pol Miñana for help and he helped me develop a script in JavaScript. Once it was finished, I kept improving it nonstop. I finally completed it and tested it. Everything worked perfectly. That same week, we also had to turn in school assignments. So after work, I’d come home and spend my evenings on those tasks. I spent the entire weekend working and focused on the synthesis project.

Activities

Week 5 This was when we started to have our afternoons free after working at Frequentis in Vienna, so we had time to enjoy everything. That week, I mostly went shopping. I wanted to buy some souvenirs from Vienna for my family. I also needed to buy more food since I had run out. At work, my boss was on vacation, and during that time, I tried to improve the project we were working on together. The overall project was called Azimut, which was a Russian program. I loved the idea of being able to participate in it.

Week 6 That week we went to a military museum a bit outside Vienna, near Donauinsel. It was an incredible museum where mostly the First and Second World Wars were explained—especially the First. There were exhibits like tanks, planes, ships, and many other interesting things. There were also combat uniforms and gear from Austrians and other participants in the war. That was on Saturday, and on Sunday, we went to Donauinsel, an island that separates the Danube. On the right side, people could swim and rent small boats. It was a place where people spent the day. On the left side was the Grand Canal of the Danube, where the big ships passed. We took line U1 and got off at a station called Donauinsel. We put on our swimsuits, but suddenly it started to rain. Still, we held on to hope, and 10 minutes later, we could swim. Later, I felt like swimming across the Danube—about 400 meters—and yes, I did it… and wow, I could really tell how out of shape I was, I got tired like never before!

Week 7 Friday came, and my last weekend in Vienna as a minor was approaching. The following Monday, I would turn 18!

Birthday in Vienna

Monday, June 18. It was my birthday—I turned 18! A very special day for me. My coworkers congratulated me. I also got surprises from my family, like a small gift sent from afar, and in the afternoon, a video call with the whole family. [...] It really has been an unforgettable experience for me, and I’d love to repeat it as soon as I get the chance. And if I don’t get the chance to go to Vienna again as a student, I’d love to go there to work. I said goodbye to everyone, which made me very sad because I had spent two months learning from them, eating with them, and sharing an experience that helped me in many ways. I spent many hours in a company where everything was new and in a completely different language, but the colleagues at Frequentis passed on to me their enthusiasm for their work. Besides learning a lot, they helped me discover what I want to do in the future, and personally, I think they’ve opened many doors for me—at least, they gave me the key to open them. Now I can truly say, and with a bit of sadness, that my great Erasmus experience has come to an end.