Spend a year abroad … in Kuchl! (part 2)

In my last post I introduced you to the school for interior design (EBS) in Kuchl.

This part 2 heads into a more personal and “dramatic” direction. I’m not keen on sharing my darkest secrets with the world (and I won’t) but in order to really get to know the school you have to get to know the students. During their short time at Kuchl, students mature in every way: educationally, psychologically and also personally. I’d say 60% of your time at Kuchl is devoted to an exhausting academic program and 40% is a ride on an emotional rollercoaster. 

You probably won't be surprised if I tell you that very often new love affairs develop (yes, Kuchl also has a touch of The Bold and the Beautiful). I guess this has something to do with the fact that you basically spend all of your time together and hardly meet any other people. This puts your “real” life back at home far, far away. And losing touch with the reality back at home (i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend) sets the stage for a lot of drama. 
 But why is that? Here’s my theory:

-                     School

You and your classmates spend at least 8 hours each day in school. That makes about 30 hours every week. Depending on your work load, it’s even more sometimes. And it’s always the same group of 30—this creates a certain us-against-the-rest-of-the-world feeling and binds together.

-                     Home

Since there is no student housing, you live with local families. Depending on the size of their house most families take up 2-4 students each year. These 2—3—4 people are the ones you spend most of your time with: you cook together, you eat together, you learn together, you watch TV together—you get the idea, right?

-                     Free Time

As if life at EBS wasn’t already exciting and exhausting enough, students party all night long, almost every day. After a long school day, you just need to let off some steam and your colleagues understand this perfectly.

Now if you consider these three criteria and come up with a person you usually spend that much time with, who is it? Mom, Dad, brother, sister, child, girlfriend, boyfriend—exactly, Kuchl is family. You play house in a safe setting where you can do anything because it’s not real life. This is part of the process, but it can have (dramatic) consequences for real life. Most of us were in a relationship when they started at Kuchl—9 out of 10 weren’t by the time they graduated.

Those 10 months really bind you together; you don’t mind spending all of your time with classmates because, though you’re all completely different, you’re on the same journey. People from all over Austria, parts of Germany and northern Italy come to Kuchl. Everything new is interesting and you don’t get bored. In fact, after your time together, you don’t want to say goodbye. Once you finally have to leave Kuchl, you’ll wonder where the time has gone and you’ll probably end up crying in the parking lot (our class did), knowing that you’ve just spent the best 10 months of your young lives together.

10 months in Kuchl is like going abroad; it's as if Kuchl is some far-away country where you play and practice in safe and secure surroundings for the real life "out there"; like being in a bubble or behind the mists of Avalon.

So far, every class has had its Kuchl-baby—no joke! Well, except our class, not yet at least. We still have our annual class meetings, so you never know what might happen behind the mists of Kuchl? But what happens in Kuchl, stays in Kuchl. And with all those high mountains surrounding it, secrets have a tough time escaping.


PS: If you feel like you want a taste of Kuchl right here and right now, check out our all-time-favorite Kuchl song: "Hotel California". It still gives me goosebumps and after your time in Kuchl, some song will do the same for you.