Skiing, Slippers, And Self-Sufficiency

Sebastian Fassl began the start of his junior year at Highland alongside his usual classmates, at his usual school, with nothing new except for his set of classes. His expectations were for another great year, very similar to the previous two years he had spent at Highland. At the time, Fassl had no idea that he was on the cusp of what would become one of the greatest experiences of his life.
Fast forward three months later to October 28, when Fassl boarded a plane to Europe, with no return ticket. From October 2025 to January 2026, Fassl was living in a suburb 20 minutes outside of the city of Vienna, Austria. He lived with some of his family friends, attended a new school, and became fully integrated into the Austrian lifestyle.
“I really wanted an opportunity to not only expand my knowledge of language, but to get a more open view of the world,” Fassl said. “I think it’s a cool experience to understand other people’s day-to-day lives.”
Prior to heading there for school, Fassl had a connection to Austria. His father was born there, and so he grew up taking month-long trips in the summer with his dad.
“My grandparents used to live out there, and I have some uncles and distant relatives still there,” Fassl said. “So, when we go back there every summer for a month, I get to see them all.”
Fassl also grew up being taught the German language by his father. But when he first arrived in Vienna, he realized he might not have been as prepared as he had hoped.
For him, the best thing to do was to really live there and fully immerse himself in the speech.
“There was a time when I was there where I kind of just had to guess what everyone was saying and just hope I was right,” Fassl said.
Fassl’s mother, Barbara Dahl, decided to pursue the exchange for him because of the life experience he would gain. Fassl could no longer rely on his parents for basic everyday things, forcing him to get his own food, do his own laundry, and make sure he was in the right places at the right times.
Nothing brings out maturity like taking care of oneself.
“They just mature so much in so many ways. Like, they are confident to just be on their own,” Dahl said. “There are just so many particular challenges that they had to deal with.”
For example, Fassl recalls one challenging experience on a train. In Austria, the train tickets are all digital and downloaded to a phone. He was in the train station, trying to navigate his way to his destination when he noticed that his phone had died. That meant his navigation, his translation device, and his train ticket were all gone.
Thankfully, he was able to talk to the train conductor in his broken German about what happened and charmed his way onto the train despite his lack of ticket.
“He just kind of had to be resourceful,” Dahl said. “Walk around and ask questions to figure out where he was supposed to go. But he figured it out.”
The school Fassl attended is called Maria Enzerserdorf. It is a school specifically designed for athletes focusing on sports-centered education.
In most of Europe, but specifically Austria, when a student approaches eighth and ninth grade, they decide whether they’re going to go into a vocation education versus an academic route. For the latter, these schools are called gymnasiums, or college prep schools.
Fassl attended a gymnasium. It had a rigorous curriculum academically but also included an additional sports focus. It was hard work to pass each class already, but it was made even harder for Fassl thanks to the fact that all his teachers spoke pure German.
“The first couple of weeks took a while to get integrated into the school and to make friends. There were lots of times when I was just doing homework at home,” Fassl said. “But once I made friends, I actually wanted to stay there; it was really hard to leave.”
One of the biggest differences in the education experience in Austria were the ins and outs of classroom life. For instance, when students walk through the door each day, they leave their shoes at the door and change into special slippers to wear around the school. With the intention of maintaining a clean and sanitary environment, no outside shoes were allowed in the building. Including gym shoes and any cleats they may want to wear!
Fassl took a similar class schedule to what he did at Highland, including physics, English, religion, and math. However, he also had an added two-hour period dedicated to sports training, and on top of that he would return to the school on Tuesday evenings for another two hours of sports.
While Fassl didn’t attend Maria Endenzsporf for the training of a specific sport, the athlete-geared standard was perfect for him seeing that he is a very athletic teenager.
Fassl’ main sport is skiing, and so he had high hopes of following his passion and sliding down the vast hills of Austria. However, when he arrived, he found that like Utah, there was little to no snow.
“I was bummed because it actually didn’t snow much. Usually, there’s a lot more snow there at this time, but it was all just pretty icy. Like maybe a tenth of what we have here,” Fassl said.
Back home, Fassl is excited to be reunited with his teammates on the Snowbird Sport Education Foundation Alta-Snowbird team. He has quickly returned to his 7-hour practices on the weekends and is happy to not have missed out on ski season in Utah entirely.
In fact, on January 29, Fassl placed third in a skiing competition and gained a ranking of #52 in the nation. He qualified for a national competition and plans to compete in Telluride, Colorado soon.
Although he is happy to be home, a part of Fassl’ heart will always be in Austria. He doesn’t look back on his time there lightly, but rather as an opportunity that he thinks should be provided for everyone.
“I think doing an exchange is really cool and I think that everybody should get a chance to try it,” Fassl said. “It’s so awesome to branch out and try new things and I am excited to go back to Austria next summer.”