Friends & acquaintances ~ Europe & USA

Still thinking about my (former) life in New York City a lot…

Which means thinking about the school a lot as it was an important part of my life there.

Thinking about my former students still makes me happy   I love my job – most days  But one thing I don’t like about teaching in the US is to start all over again every year with new classes. It prevents you from building relationships and that’s another thing I don’t miss about NYC – that a friend there is more what you would call an acquaintance in Europe. And real good friends were hard to find in NYC (harder than any other place I lived before), partly because people often don’t stay in the city. They come and then leave after a while, especially a lot of the nice ones. Americans moved back to other places in the US, Canadians back to Canada, Ozzies back to Australia, a dear friend from South Africa back to - well – South Africa, and Europeans back to Europe! Actually, I think most of my NYC friends live in Vienna, Austria, at this point   And that’s where I’ll be  living, too, a year from now

Missing NYC a little bit these days…

Although I’m still happy and content with my decision to leave NYC after having lived there for the last 6 years, I must admit that ever since school started two weeks ago I think about NYC a lot! And I actually miss it! The students, my colleagues, other staff at MCSM H.S., and also some very dear friends who still live in the city. The more I think about the school, the more I think about the city and the more I miss it. It’s kind of weird not to teach, not to live in NYC anymore, not to speak English on a daily basis, not to be surrounded by my African-American, Hispanic and Asian students in East Harlem, not to stop by Veronika once a week, not to walk the streets of East Harlem and the Upper East Side, not to watch movies in English, not to go for a walk in Central Park, not to take each and every visitor up the Rockefeller Center (Top of the Rock) to enjoy my favorite view of NYC, not go to Brooklyn and walk over the Brooklyn Bridge towards Manhattan, not to take the M15 bus to school and back home, not to go to the little French cafe on 86th Street once in while, not to spend hours at Barnes and Noble on 86th Street, not to …  - Well, almost everything I got used to and was familiar with for the last 6 years isn’t part of my life now anymore; I guess that’s what you call a culture shock – even if it’s in your own country It’s interesting to see how much we are creatures of habit.

There is no credit history in Europe…

…and therefore it is not necessary to use your credit card (instead of your debit card) as often as possible It doesn’t matter, if you don’t use your credit card. There is no credit history in Austria. So the question is: how do you get a credit card without a credit history? Well, you apply for a credit card at your bank. And then based on various factors including your income you receive a credit card and the BANK determines your spending limit. I totally forgot that things work differently here… So, when I called VISA Austria directly and asked them to please raise my spending limit, the lady laughed and I was asked why I called THEM! I didn’t understand the question and told the lady that that’s what I used to do in the US where I lived the last couple of years. She laughed again and told me that things are different in Europe than in the US! She is not allowed to raise the spending limit of my Austrian credit card – only if the bank tells her to do so. Well, so I called my bank and asked them to please raise my spending limit and they did In case you wonder, why I needed to raise my spending limit: to buy my RTW-Ticket (ROUND-THE-WORLD-TICKET)!

So many little things are different here

This is my fourth day back in Austria and I am constantly surprised by little things that are different here. For example, 4.9 (four POINT nine) in Am. English is 4,9 (vier KOMMA neun) in German. When I bump into someone by accident, I still say “I’m sorry”, then the person gives me an irritated look and I realize I must have used the wrong language and then say “Entschuldigung”. When typing I constantly get some of the keys mixed up, especially ”y” and “z”, and the “@” gives me a hard time as it is more complicated to type on the German keyboard. When I enter a store it takes me by surprise that it is warmer inside than outside – NO A/C in the stores in Austria. When I’m riding my bike around town (which I very much enjoy) I’m surprised how fast I get to all the places – well, I now live in a small town in Austria And I used to live in a big city in the US…

Well, some of the above mentioned things were to be expected, but something I didn’t expect at all was that there would be misunderstandings when I speak German! For example, yesterday we were at my cousin’s house for brunch and at one point one of my cousins asked me whether the classes in the school where I taught were “gemischt” (“mixed”). I replied, “Nein, meine Klassen waren nicht sehr gemischt; in meinen Klassen waren kaum Weisse, hauptsaechlich Schwarze und Hispanics.” (“No, my classes were not really mixed; I had few white, but mainly African-American and Hispanic students.) At that point everyone looked at me as if I had not answered the question, or as if I had answered it wrong. It was weird. Then my cousin said one more time: ”Nein, ich meinte gemischt,” (“No, I meant mixed.”) and my other cousin added: “gemischt – weisst du: Buben und Maedchen zusammen, in der gleichen Klasse.” (“Mixed – you know: boys and girls together, in the same class.”) AHHHH! Finally, I understood what they wanted to know. And relieved I replied that public schools in NYC in general are “gemischt” (“co-ed”). And then I also realized that in my mind I had simply translated the word “gemischt” into “mixed” (which is the correct translation – but not in this context!) and if you talk about mixed with respect to NYC classroom it means in general ‘racially mixed’. And within this context I answered the question which to my Austrian relatives did not make sense. It was a little awkward. At first I felt out of place again, but now I think it’s funny – and I am starting to treasure these rather interesting and unexpected experiences of returning to my homecountry.

I know realize that the people I spoke German with in the last 6 years where mostly my German speaking friends in NYC; so we were all familiar with the NYC/US context. Whereas here – obviously – German is within the Austrian context. I am starting to understand more and more the meaning and importance of CONTEXT. - ”That’s great/awesome,” as my friends in the US might say. “Aha, interessant,” as my friends in Austria would probably say