The moose

Hebi loved the moose so much that she ripped off its ear.

Toys for Hebi

Alicia took me to the thrift store to get giant stuffed animals for Hebi to kill. I carried a big moose, and Alicia had a dog. People kept talking to us in the subway–they thought it was hilarious that we had stuffed animals. Normally people on subways are silent and look irritated, so it was a funny change.

Hebi and Tamo want a treat

I met Tamo, Evi’s dog, who is very talented at getting fur on black clothes.

Chocolate lava cake

Evi and Alicia took me out for an absurdly chocolatey cake to welcome me to Vienna.

Hebi

Hebi (Alicia’s dog) is adorable. Just look at those eyes.

Alicia getting my mattress

I’m a total wimp and can’t sleep on anything non-squishy, so Alicia helped me find a foam mattress. When I get jetlag, I tend to get insomnia too, so I didn’t sleep much my first week.

Schonbrunn Palace

When I landed in Vienna (all jetlagged and weird), Alicia took me to Schonbrunn Palace. My main goal was to stay awake and get my brain in the right time zone. I don’t sleep on planes, so it was a long day. But my trip went well.

Three weeks in review

The first blog post after arriving in a new culture is quite daunting.  So, to make it easier, I’m going to break down my first three weeks into convenient Q&A categories. (I’m just jotting this post down quickly before I head out for the night.)

 

What’s been unexpected?

A lot of things are weirdly familiar. Mostly everyone speaks extremely good English, which makes sense now that I realize they watch a lot of American movies and TV shows. Anything popular in the United States is here. Department stores play exactly the same songs as stores in the US (Katy Perry, Imagine Dragons, etc.). The same YouTube videos that are viral in the US are viral here. The same posters advertise the same products in the same stores (Forever 21, Miss Sixty, Lush, H&M).

Veganism is an established thing here. I figured I’d be quite lonely, but actually there are quite a few restaurants and grocery stores that cater to vegans.

 

What’s been difficult?

The grocery stores. As a vegan, my diet is both easy and hard to shop for. Veggies are veggies—they look exactly the same, so I don’t have to learn their German names in order to locate them. I just had to figure out how to weigh them on a scale and print a label. Other items are trickier—I spent almost ten minutes looking for flaxseed before giving up. I tend to buy things like quinoa, carob, and hemp protein, all of which I can find here…eventually. It just takes some translating and a lot of patience. Still, I get very agitated in grocery stores because I feel like something as basic as buying ingredients shouldn’t be hard.

What’s been fun?

The people. Alicia (who has the dog and apartment) and I had a really fun week running around Vienna getting me settled in. She introduced me to all her friends, gave me lots of useful advice, and made me laugh more than I have in a long time. She’s now in Thailand training (she’s a boxer) and is sending me lots of fun pictures of fresh fruit and jungle scenery. Evi and Anna (Alicia’s friends) have taken incredibly good care of me now that Alicia’s gone. They treated me to vegan cupcake and spoil me with caramel rooibos tea whenever I visit their apartment.  

Have you gotten lost?

Yes, of course I’ve gotten lost. It’s in my DNA. Having never negotiated a metro system before, I found nothing intuitive. I’m fine with it now (mostly).

What’s been good?

The dog. Hebi knows more commands than any dog I’ve met before. She’s also multi-lingual. Her first language is treats, her second is tone and body language, her third is German, and her fourth is the English she is picking up from me. She will do absolutely anything I say, is always happy to take me on walks, and loves cuddles and games. She can also get me around if I forget where to go. I wasn’t sure how to get to Anna and Evi’s flat from the tram stop, so I just followed Hebi. She led me straight to the door, smarty.

The chocolate. Perhaps that was my real reason for moving to Europe? Oh, how I indulged that first week. I’m back to being pious now, though.

What’s been funny?

I have my very own boxing dummy. His name is “Robert” or “Bob.” He stands in the corner and looks mean. I tried punching him the other day and was surprised at how much fun that can be. I gave him a hat to wear, and I thought it’d be fun to buy him a mustache.

Hebi and I got scolded by the duck lady. She scatters bread around the duck pond early in the morning, much to the happiness of the plump, complacent ducks. Hebi loves duck bread. She was caught in the act of snitching it, and I’m fairly sure the lady would have had no problem spending the next hour or so telling me how awful it is that my dog nibbled the duck bread. We just walked away…

What have you been doing?

Mostly I’ve been taking care of the practical things. Since this is a long-term move and not a short visit, I felt I didn’t need to rush around seeing it all. I spend my first week alone staying in the apartment with Hebi so that she could get used to life without her mummy. I also wanted to catch up with work and do the sorts of things that would make me feel settled (cook, clean, do laundry). The weather has also been bad. I’m used to cold weather, but it’s different when you have to commit to being outside for 20-40 minutes in order to get anywhere (and when you’re not convinced you won’t get lost). We’ve had snow, freezing rain, and temperatures around 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit. Taking all these things into consideration, I decided to go just one place a day to avoid being overwhelmed. I do walk the dog a lot too, which is nice. I like walking and am glad to be away from -40 weather. There are endless trails nearby.

What have you tried?

I started with the things I know the best: swing dancing and Iyengar yoga. Swing dancing is swing dancing, no matter what language you speak, and the same is mostly true of Iyengar (for which you need to know the Sanskrit names of the poses). I met some fun people at the social dances, includng a pair of dancers from Missouri who arrived in Vienna at the same time I did. It was nice to meet other folks who are just starting to figure out the city.

 

What’s next?

It will warm up to the 40s tomorrow, so I’ll start thinking about sightseeing. I want to start by learning about Austrian history. I’ll see what the museums can offer and maybe buy a documentary or two. I want to find cultural things to do. I knew everything that was happening in the dance and theater scenes in Minneapolis/St. Paul, so I’m sure I’ll get this city figured out soon. I also want to branch out to things I haven’t done before. I don’t know what those are because I haven’t done them. I’m also popping over to the Czech Republic next week to visit a friend.

 

General impressions?

I’m doing okay. I had to process a lot of new things all at once, but I’m over the shock of it all. I don’t really know where I am yet, though. I haven’t done enough exploring to get a sense of the city and its people. So far so good!