Update from Linz

2009-11-30
It is the last day of November 2009, this year is slowly coming to an end. I have soon spent three months in Austria and I am feeling slightly homesick. The last weeks before the Christmas break usually means a lot of stress, exams, deadlines etc. Hopefully it will blow over soon.

Ever since I arrived here, I have had the opportunity to confront new cultures that I have interacted with. I have been forced to deal with my own prejudice and stereotyping, and I have been forced to lead others into dealing with theirs. I have been exposed to xenophobia in its purest form, to justify my right to exist and to live in "their" country - and I have had to prove to people that I am not a terrorist, nor in possession of highly enriched Uranium (or kryptonite as one moron believed). However, I have had positive experiences as well. I have had the chance to attend a prom in southern Austria, and I have seen locals fanatically enjoying the polka music while dancing to it. It was an interesting experience, far from anything I have ever seen before. To me it looked like as if dressed up people were wrestling to the tunes of circus music, but it was of course more than that ;).

After having seen Assyrian weddings (and danced their traditional dances), I feel that there are many similarities between these experiences. I remember that I felt the same (as an outsider, far away from home) when I attended my first (and until now only) Assyrian wedding.

In other words, I had a nice time while learning something new.

Anyway, despite my enhanced cultural sensitivity and anticipation, I still miss things from home (as well as despising things in my presence here). I am pretty disgusted by the absence of AC. I hate that the water temperature shifts when I am taking shower. I hate the cleaning lady. Today she (and her self righteous colleagues) managed to collectively cause more mess than usual. To make a long story short, they like moving stuff around (I fucking hate that!!!), and they have a strange predilection for putting dirty furniture/objects on my bed. This is called sadism. May they burn in hell!

I spent a couple of hours at the local IKEA store a few days ago. I took the chance to have some Swedish food while being there. It's nothing fancy, rather simple - but still brilliant.

I promised to post a "review" of my room soon, and I will, I promise. I just need to get a few tasks out of the way and then I can dedicate myself more into posting updates of my life in Austria.

Thank you for reading!

Short walk to the streets of home

After 2 weeks and 6 days I finally found home. IKEA is home. I finally got the chance to go there in order to buy important things for our apartment. Afterwards we had a typical Swedish lunch. I was surprised to see that the Christmas decorations are out already.



I received and e-mail from a close friend from back home today and it meant much. He had good news to tell and it made me very glad to read them.

My American friends left Austria tonight for a weekend in Switzerland. They asked me if I wanted to join them a few weeks ago, but I declined. Now I regret it. I can't be sorry about it though. Other things have needed my attention (the deposit).

It's Friday tomorrow and I am going to the gym at noon. I have my last German lesson and it feels good to finally move on. I haven't made any plans for the weekend yet, except for a trip to a concentration camp on Saturday. I will post updates and pictures later.

It's almost midnight and I'm tired. Good night.