So this last week of the orientation program I was plunged into Austrian culture head first.
On Monday I participated in a schintzeljagd or scavenger hunt. In my group of 6 people we had to find out information about typical Austrian things and also complete challenges. It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to meet even more exchange students (I have 60 more Facebook friends from people I have met here). Firstly, we had to dress up in typical old fashioned Austrian clothes and learn to waltz. Then we left the safety of the university and ventured out into the city to complete different tasks. Our journey meant we had to use numerous trains and trams to make our way from place to place so I also learnt about the public transport system. I am now saving up to try a famous Viennese cake because the smallest size costs 20 euro! We even found the only supermarket that is open on Sundays. After we had completed all of the tasks we had to race back to the university where Marie and I represented our team to try and eat as many Viennese wafers as we could in 60 seconds. I ate 9 and Marie 7. It was a lot like trying to eat weetbix quickly without milk or water. The best part of this experience is that the organisers made a collage of videos and pictures of this day and put it on youtube. So if you would like to look at the challenges we did you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smHIaPfbKM4 and watch it.
On Monday I participated in a schintzeljagd or scavenger hunt. In my group of 6 people we had to find out information about typical Austrian things and also complete challenges. It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to meet even more exchange students (I have 60 more Facebook friends from people I have met here). Firstly, we had to dress up in typical old fashioned Austrian clothes and learn to waltz. Then we left the safety of the university and ventured out into the city to complete different tasks. Our journey meant we had to use numerous trains and trams to make our way from place to place so I also learnt about the public transport system. I am now saving up to try a famous Viennese cake because the smallest size costs 20 euro! We even found the only supermarket that is open on Sundays. After we had completed all of the tasks we had to race back to the university where Marie and I represented our team to try and eat as many Viennese wafers as we could in 60 seconds. I ate 9 and Marie 7. It was a lot like trying to eat weetbix quickly without milk or water. The best part of this experience is that the organisers made a collage of videos and pictures of this day and put it on youtube. So if you would like to look at the challenges we did you can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smHIaPfbKM4 and watch it.
Tuesday was Austrian politics, boring to some but I was most interested because I study politics at uni. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. Firstly, we were given a political lecture. The speaker was quite interesting but unfortunately he droned on for 2 hours without a break, while one look around the room revealed students with heads on desks and lots of fidgeting. Our gruelling schedule was really starting to take a toll on everyone and if we had been given a 5 minute break to stretch our legs and get some coffee I think we would have gotten a lot more out of it. Instead we did not have enough time to get coffee before we were whisked off for our tour of the United Nations (UN) complex in Vienna. This also did not live up to my expectations because the university here is only for business so no one else here studies politics, which meant the tour was a basic overview of how the UN functions. I already know this so I was quite bored. However, I was excited to see all of the flags of all the member nations and to see a conference room complete with rooms for translators.
On Wednesday I was faced with a dilemma. We were supposed to attend a fancy dress party but being exchange students with limited luggage allowance we did not have costumes lying around and we did not want to spend a lot of money on something we would use once. One group of students found the solution in bed sheets and came dressed as prehistoric men. Sarah came up with the idea of going as the U Bahn, the underground train system here in Vienna, and we used cardboard and string to dress ourselves up as the U Bahn. I did it with three others and we each had represented a different train line. The lines here have different numbers and colours which we represented, while on the back we each chose a different station and decorated it accordingly. I chose Karlsplatz, a really dodgy area in which the drug addicts hang out so I have a picture of a syringe. I’m glad we were able to come up with a costume because without one I was considering not going to the party and I had such a great time. We had free traditional Austrian food, got to see the youtube video of our scavenger hunt and we won the prize for best costume! We won a huge box of those Viennese wafers that we had to eat in the scavenger hunt. After the presentations there was karaoke in this club, so it was a great night out.
Then finally on Friday the inevitable happened: I got sick. I already know 8 exchange students who have been sick since then got here and we all have identified the causes as not having time to overcome jet lag or settle into our new surroundings, our gruelling schedule of early starts, long hours and high energy activities every day and lack of sleep. So I got a cold, which started as a cough, escalated into a runny nose, temperature and headache and has now dissipated into a cough. Consequently, I spent the whole day of Friday in bed. I was absolutely wrecked and I went through 12 pocket size packets of tissues!
Saturday we had a scheduled trip to Graz, the second largest city in Austria so I got up at 6.30am feeling terrible but I got ready and I went. I am so glad I did because despite my cold I had a great time, but when I returned home at 11pm, I fell asleep instantly. The highlight of this outing was surprisingly the bus ride there and back. It was a 6 hour round trip but it went relatively quickly because I had great conversations with 4 other girls, 3 of which I have not spoken to that extensively previously. For the first time I actually felt like I was hanging out with a bunch of friends, rather than a bunch of exchange students. We made plans to go travelling around Austria and Europe together and we are even planning a road trip! Our conversation was interesting and amusing including my rendition of the vegemite song, reciting the worst song lyric mistakes and discussing shell bras for mermaids.
On our way to Graz we stopped for a tour of a chocolate factory. It was cute, had a lot of character and we were allowed to sample as much chocolate as we wanted. I soon discovered that nothing beats Cadbury milk chocolate because here they have a lot of dark chocolates and I even tried one made of horses’ milk! However, my experience was limited due to my blocked sinuses and cough. Once in Graz we were taken on 1.5 hour tour of the city which was interesting and informative. Unfortunately I could not take everything in because my brain was starting to fade and my sinuses were exacting revenge for dragging them out of a warm bed. Imagine my agony when the final part of the tour was the stairs up the mountain (see attached picture). I actually paid to take the lift!
Finally, my week ended on a high because today (after a much deserved sleep in) Kahlun and I travelled outside of Vienna to a village to find deep snow where we made a snowman and snow angels. It is something that I have always wanted to do but have never had the opportunity before so it was a very rewarding experience. It was actually extremely hard work which made my muscles sore. It took a long time and without the proper technique or experience, Kahlun did most of the work. Our snowman was extremely deformed but I was proud of the achievement and we got some great photos and had fun.
In addition, to all of the great Austrian experiences I had 3 incidents which I would describe as culture shock this week. They all resulted because I was cold, tired and hungry and I got frustrated and angry that I could not easily rectify those three issues. On Thursday I became frustrated because I wanted a normal meal. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been eating pretty well but I just wanted something that felt filling, healthy and homey, but I could not find schnitzels in the supermarket, in the home of the Wiener schnitzel, what on earth?! I could not find gravey. The potatoes are yellow. There is no vegemite. The meal I ended up eating was actually very nice and I got over it. Then on Saturday when I was sick, tired and cold we could not find a place to eat tea in Graz. I just wanted somewhere I could sit inside and warm up and some food to fill me up. Instead we wandered the streets for an hour before finding the place. Finally, today (Sunday) I again returned home cold, tired and hungry and of course all the shops are closed, all places that offer take away food are closed, so I had to cook even though I was exhausted. The only food I had was a frozen wiener schnitzel and of course I had no oil to cook it in. In every instance I became increasingly frustrated and even angry because I could not understand how Austrians meet such basic needs of nutrition and warmth.
Then finally on Friday the inevitable happened: I got sick. I already know 8 exchange students who have been sick since then got here and we all have identified the causes as not having time to overcome jet lag or settle into our new surroundings, our gruelling schedule of early starts, long hours and high energy activities every day and lack of sleep. So I got a cold, which started as a cough, escalated into a runny nose, temperature and headache and has now dissipated into a cough. Consequently, I spent the whole day of Friday in bed. I was absolutely wrecked and I went through 12 pocket size packets of tissues!
Saturday we had a scheduled trip to Graz, the second largest city in Austria so I got up at 6.30am feeling terrible but I got ready and I went. I am so glad I did because despite my cold I had a great time, but when I returned home at 11pm, I fell asleep instantly. The highlight of this outing was surprisingly the bus ride there and back. It was a 6 hour round trip but it went relatively quickly because I had great conversations with 4 other girls, 3 of which I have not spoken to that extensively previously. For the first time I actually felt like I was hanging out with a bunch of friends, rather than a bunch of exchange students. We made plans to go travelling around Austria and Europe together and we are even planning a road trip! Our conversation was interesting and amusing including my rendition of the vegemite song, reciting the worst song lyric mistakes and discussing shell bras for mermaids.
On our way to Graz we stopped for a tour of a chocolate factory. It was cute, had a lot of character and we were allowed to sample as much chocolate as we wanted. I soon discovered that nothing beats Cadbury milk chocolate because here they have a lot of dark chocolates and I even tried one made of horses’ milk! However, my experience was limited due to my blocked sinuses and cough. Once in Graz we were taken on 1.5 hour tour of the city which was interesting and informative. Unfortunately I could not take everything in because my brain was starting to fade and my sinuses were exacting revenge for dragging them out of a warm bed. Imagine my agony when the final part of the tour was the stairs up the mountain (see attached picture). I actually paid to take the lift!
Finally, my week ended on a high because today (after a much deserved sleep in) Kahlun and I travelled outside of Vienna to a village to find deep snow where we made a snowman and snow angels. It is something that I have always wanted to do but have never had the opportunity before so it was a very rewarding experience. It was actually extremely hard work which made my muscles sore. It took a long time and without the proper technique or experience, Kahlun did most of the work. Our snowman was extremely deformed but I was proud of the achievement and we got some great photos and had fun.
In addition, to all of the great Austrian experiences I had 3 incidents which I would describe as culture shock this week. They all resulted because I was cold, tired and hungry and I got frustrated and angry that I could not easily rectify those three issues. On Thursday I became frustrated because I wanted a normal meal. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been eating pretty well but I just wanted something that felt filling, healthy and homey, but I could not find schnitzels in the supermarket, in the home of the Wiener schnitzel, what on earth?! I could not find gravey. The potatoes are yellow. There is no vegemite. The meal I ended up eating was actually very nice and I got over it. Then on Saturday when I was sick, tired and cold we could not find a place to eat tea in Graz. I just wanted somewhere I could sit inside and warm up and some food to fill me up. Instead we wandered the streets for an hour before finding the place. Finally, today (Sunday) I again returned home cold, tired and hungry and of course all the shops are closed, all places that offer take away food are closed, so I had to cook even though I was exhausted. The only food I had was a frozen wiener schnitzel and of course I had no oil to cook it in. In every instance I became increasingly frustrated and even angry because I could not understand how Austrians meet such basic needs of nutrition and warmth.
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