Author: mkoep

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The Value of a Semester Abroad: My Journey from Vienna

In my first year of university, someone said ‘semester abroad’ and I said ‘I NEED to do one’.

The journey from Edmonton, Alberta to Vienna, Austria was a long one, but the six months I spent abroad changed me forever.

My Journey: Vienna

My semester abroad, where I spent four months of my time, was pretty smooth sailing.

As with many things, you go through the process months before you step foot in the country, so my classes, accommodations and everything was completed before I even got there.

The only thing was I needed to take a bus to Bratislava, Slovakia and apply for my student visa.

This was where I first connected with my travel group. A bunch of Canadians, some Dutch and a Scottish man, what could go wrong (other than too much partying).

During this time I went to Budapest, London, Krakow, Hallstatt, Salzburg and more! 

I also met my father in Ireland for a three-week tour around the beautiful island.

Vienna is an amazing place to see in it’s own right… beautiful old City, wine region and sloping hills in or around the City, what more could you ask for?

By the time I left Vienna, I had made friends from across the world and connected with more people than I ever thought possible.

My Journey: The Balkans

I decided to extend my stay and spend two months travelling the Balkans from Slovenia to Albania and back again!

If you’ve never been, I highly recommend.

Buses in this region are as low as a few bucks per ride and accommodations were affordable, easy to find and the owners were SO KIND.

I was fortunate enough to meet with my best friend during my time in the Balkans.

Looking back, the most glaring thing was the time she got us so lost on the way to the airport that I was driving on a dirt (generous) road littered with massive holes in BEHIND THE TARMACK.

At one point I ask her when the road is going to end and she says “I don’t know…. google maps just stopped.”

To say the least, we needed to circle all the way around the airport (and apparently a government facility) in order to make it back and return the car.

Why Consider a Semester Abroad?

I’ve narrowed it down to five main reasons why you should consider a semester abroad, and I’m doing to include snippets from my own journey to convince ya.

  • One: you meet the most amazing people. From Korea to Brazil the people I have met and connected with on the journey have been the reason for some of my most amazing memories.
  • Two: learn about a new culture, language and history. I have gotten to learn about so many empires I never heard of in Canada. I also now speak four languages at an elementary level, primarily due to living in countries abroad.
  • Three: FOOOOOD. Need I say more? (check out my Instagram Story Highlights for some awesome food shots).
  • Four: landscapes and architecture. While Canada is beautiful, there is nothing like exploring a beautiful building that is older than your country (on paper at least).
  • Five: experience things you never could back home. Some highlights I will never forget include:
    • A free concert from the Vienna Orchestra in front of the Schloss Schoenbrunn.
    • Pouring my own Guinness beer in the factory.
    • Taking a hot balloon ride in Cappadocia.
    • And so much more!

So why take the leap and do a semester abroad? Because the experience you have will change you forever.

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Five Tips to Suspenseful Writing

I think we can all agree, we’ve gotten to the last TV episode of the night of our favourite show, it’s getting late and boom, cliffhanger! You couldn’t possibly watch one more episode…. right?

While we all KNOW there are cliffhangers and suspenseful writing keeps us on our feet, I’ve never thought about the important aspects of what goes into properly creating suspense in stories.

While the included tips help suspenseful storytelling, it is also important to include relatability, build up of tension and suspense, emotion, authenticity and urgency.

My infographic is based on the information provided in the Ted-Ed video ‘How to Make Your Writing Suspenseful‘ by Victoria Smith.

Infographic Overview:

Point of View

Limit the point of view by telling the story from the perspective of the characters. As they learn more, so does the audience

Setting & Imagery

Choose the right setting and imagery. Suggest that disturbing things will be revealed soon.

Style & Form

Play with style and form. Pay attention not only to what happens but how it is conveyed and paced. Use short, declarative sentences.

Dramatic Irony

Reveal key parts of the story to the audience, but not the characters. The mystery becomes not what will happen but when and how the characters will learn.

Cliffhanger

Build extra suspense by cutting off the story right before something crucial happens or in the middle of a dangerous situation with a slim chance of hope.

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The Travel Horror Story

My live-tweet storytelling takes readers on a journey through the worst travel day I ever had – and don’t just take it from me, the lady next to me who had been travelling for 30 years agreed.

I lived in Turkey at the time and was just trying to visit my dad in Helsinki for a nice trip and the airline said ‘lol, bet’.

In all seriousness, it took me over 26 hours to get from my apartment in Ankara to a hotel room in Istanbul (a mere one-hour flight) with roller coaster turns along the way. Interested? Check it out here:

Storytelling Principles Used

I used various different writing techniques to help keep my writing suspenseful for this story.
1. This story was told entirely from my point of view. I had no clue when the number of lines would end or when I would get out there. Readers also experienced this as I did
2. I used different style and form, some portions where I make exclamations like ‘I was DONE’ helps get across the frustration and strain of the whole incident without getting to descriptive. The formatting and capitalization did that work for me
3. I left a number of my tweets on a mini ‘cliff hanger’ that encouraged readers to go to the next part to figure out just how the story could have gotten worse.

I also used some common themes of my experience to help tell the story better, including relatability (I’m sure we all have a horrible travel story in some capacity), emotion and authenticity. This is how I would have told the story verbally to someone sitting next to me.

I also tried to include paragraph breaks at the end of sentences to keep the content uncluttered and more appealing to read.

Overall this experience was horrible, especially considering I was a pretty new traveler at the time. But, I got through it and I hope you will too! Thanks 🙂

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Film: Mulan (1998)

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all”

Mulan is an animated Disney movie from 1998 based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan. In the story Mulan leaves home to take her father’s place in the army during the Hun invasion. The movie follows her path from being an outcast to becoming a strong warrior who eventually saves the Emperor and China.

Why I love Mulan as a Story

I’ve loved this story since I was a child, it had the perfect combination of action, drama, romance and suspense especially for an animated film. Additionally, Mulan was one of the first female-lead Disney movies that wasn’t a princess and made the lead character a regular person that didn’t include a traditional Disney version of ‘femininity’ and happily ever after.

Mulan & the Four Principles of Good Storytelling: Universal

As a story, Mulan hits every single point of Pixar’s four principles of good storytelling and incorporate a number of its 22 rules of storytelling. The first point, “great stories are universal” applies because many of us have struggled with being an outcast, trying to fit in or facing adversity to better yourself. We can also all relate to the reasoning why Mulan chose to risk her life and potentially bring dishonour to her family: the love of her father and being worried for his wellbeing and wanting to make her family proud. These themes are universal among many people in society and helps the audience connect to this story.

Mulan & the Four Principles of Good Storytelling: Clear Structure and Purpose

Mulan also has a very clear structure and purpose as the audience can easily follow along the different steps of her journey to get to the final. The structure, based on Helping Writers Become Authors website would (generally) be:

  • Mulan fails at the matchmaker
  • Mulan takes her father’s place in the army
  • The Huns challenge the Chinese army
  • Mulan retrieves the arrow at the camp
  • The Chinese army is attacked
  • Mulan is discovered as a woman and let go of the army
  • The Huns kidnap the emperor
  • Mulan kills the Hun leader
  • Mulan returns to her family with honour as a hero.

Mulan & the Four Principles of Good Storytelling: Simple & Focused

Mulan as a story is also very simple and focused, while many elements are going on the primary focus is Mulan finding herself and growing into a warrior who honours their family. By keeping this focus, we feel even more connected to the character and root for them even more because we know what they are working towards.

Mulan & the Four Principles of Good Storytelling: Give a Character to Root for

Finally, the last principle of good storytelling, Mulan is absolutely a character to root for. Through her rejection at the matchmaker to her going through base camp and getting stronger and initially being rejected by the other soldiers we all want to see her succeed and bring honour to her family. They showed not only her highs and lows but also how she got from her lowest to her highest.

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