Kirsten Kraus is excited to trace her roots.

Kraus, junior physical education major, will be studying abroad in Austria next semester through the University of Oregon.

Although Kraus is an Eastern student, the University of Oregon had the program she wanted to study through and the two universities worked together to help Kraus fulfill her travel dreams.

While Kraus has never been out of the country, her father was born in Austria. Inspired to learn more about her family history, Kraus has decided to travel.

While overseas, Kraus will be staying with a host family, whom she has never met before. She will not find out with whom she will stay until a few weeks before she departs.

Kraus will also spend part of her time overseas visiting with her Austrian family members.

“I’m not too nervous about the trip yet,” Kraus said. “I’m really just concentrating on finals right now and don’t have much time to think about it.”

In order to prepare for her trip, Kraus has been trying to learn German.

She said she does not have a strong knowledge of the language, but hopes the few phrases she knows will help smooth her transition to living in a different country. Kraus also said since most Europeans are taught English in school, she does not think there will be too much of a language barrier.

Kraus has also researched Austria in an attempt to better understand the country, its people and Austrian traditions.

She believes the biggest adjustment she will have to make while overseas is learning the social norms of a different culture and adjusting her own behaviors accordingly.

“I’m basically going to have to learn a different way of life,” Kraus said. “It will help me gain a better understanding of the world, which is something you can’t learn at Eastern.”

Justin Lopez, senior recreation administration major and peer adviser for the office of study abroad, will also be spending his spring semester in another country.

This will be Lopez’s second time studying abroad.

He first became interested in the program when a friend told him about her experience in Australia, three days before the program applications were due.

Lopez attended an informational meeting and decided he wanted to apply.

He was accepted for the Rock Hampton, Australia trip for the 2006 spring semester.

Lopez said he did not realize he was nervous about going overseas until he stepped onto the plane.

Beforehand, he said he was just anxious about departing for Australia.

“I just had a roller coaster of emotions,” he said. “It was a culmination of excitement, nervousness and feeling really unprepared. Just not knowing a lot of things.”

Lopez said while his father thought studying abroad would be a good experience for his son, his mother was a little nervous.

Lopez tried to call his mother once a week while he was in Australia, but he said he became so busy that he did not always get the chance. Lopez said his mother did become less nervous as the semester went on.

While overseas, Lopez’s biggest fear was that something bad would happen at home.

“I wasn’t really scared of anything that was going to happen to me,” he said. “But I was just afraid something was going to happen and I wasn’t going to be able to do anything about it.”

The first day he arrived in Australia, Lopez said he felt like he had taken hallucinogens. Including layovers, Lopez’s flight to Australia was a little over 96 hours long. For fear of missing one of his flights, Lopez stayed up almost nonstop during those 96 hours.

“It was a really intense experience,” Lopez said. “I knew if I survived that, the rest of the semester was going to be really easy!”

Lopez received 16 credit hours while studying abroad in Rock Hampton and his experiences led him to apply to study abroad again this spring.

In January Lopez will travel to Costa Rica for eight weeks and then go to Ecuador for another eight weeks.

Having been abroad before, Lopez said preparing for the trip will be less of a hassle.

But he said his mother is much more nervous about him traveling than she was the first time.

“She knows that I’m not really that good at speaking Spanish,” Lopez said. “And I’m going to two countries where that’s the primary language.”

Lopez will complete his first semester of Spanish next week but said he hopes to become fluent by 2008.

He hopes that completely immersing himself in cultures where Spanish is prevalent will help him to better understand the language.

While Lopez said he enjoyed his study abroad experience and is looking forward to a new one, he said the program is not necessarily for all students.

“To go abroad is a privilege,” Lopez said. “You’re representing our country and in a way it’s like you’re an ambassador. I would only want people to go abroad if they really want to. I wish everyone could have these same feelings about traveling that I have, but it’s just not right for everyone.”