Nades
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I'm an American who's lived in Austria for a good 20 years now. In some ways, life is like anywhere else. We go to work, do housework, buy groceries, do laundry, cook meals, get together with friends, etc. The kids go to school, do homework, have tests, do activities (sports), etc.
In other ways, life is very different to the US in that I find I have to be much more organized because stores here close in the evenings and *everything* is closed on Sundays. "Convenience" for customers in the area of shopping is not a concept here. One has to be very organized to make sure you have food and everything you need if you have guests coming over, etc.
We spend a lot more time in the outdoors than I used to the in the US. When it's not too cold, rainy or gross outside, we go for long walks in the mountains, hiking, along the various rivers, etc. The area is beautiful for that kind of thing and the possibilities and places to go are endless in Austria. There are outdoor beer gardens, farmers who have food & drink places ("Mostbauer"; with authentic Austrian food, alcoholic apple cider, etc.) and those places are really cool, too. But we don't go to those places all of the time; the daily routine of life has us busy as well and sometimes it's just good to stay home and catch up on things in and around the house.
The area is rather safe and it's a good place to raise kids. They can play outdoors, take public transportation here - no problem - and I feel like they're safe. In the US, it's a different story.
On the whole, life here is ok. My favorite seasons here are spring and summer - I personally don't like winter because it's too cold for me and I'm not crazy about snow and winter sports. But if you like that sort of thing, then it's really great here.
Austria's location in the "heart" of Europe makes it rather convenient to travel to other European countries as well. However, we don't travel as much as people outside of Europe would think. Hankered down with "daily life", it's nice to just hang out at home when the weekends roll around. Also, traveling can be quite expensive; either for gas, plane fare within Europe is rather pricey and the cost per night at a hotel in a major European capital city is not cheap. We definitely travel less than I thought I would if were living in Europe. I thought we'd travel more but we don't.
Austrians are rather reserved at first with people they don't know (it could be interpreted as "rude" or "arrogant" by people from other cultures) but one thing is for sure; once you make friends with Austrians, you have friends for life who would stick their hand in fire for you.
For non-Austrians who move here life is not easy. It's difficult to get a good job if you are not Austrian, education completed abroad is often not recognized here, and even if you learn to speak German well, good job opportunities are still few and far between. Almost every English speaking person I know here mostly works teaching English (either at adult education centers, university level or at pvt. language schools). Your best bet is in a large international city like Vienna but outside of Vienna, it's much harder (even in Vienna it's not easy). |
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