Thanks for the tag Kerri!
The Hardest Thing To Get Used To....
.....When coming to a New Country.
There are so many things like missing family and friends, feeling left out and extremely far away at Christmas and Birthdays and watching nephews and friends´ children grow up at a distance (my parents, my brother with his wife and 2 sons and my best friend and her family all live in Australia) the climate ( it snowed for the first time this winter on the 20th November and I haven´t seen any green or a temperature rise above -2° celsius since then - almost 4 months and no end in sight!), the products that you are used to getting everywhere back home but just can´t find in a supermarket here (like self-raising flour, cadburys chocolate and instant porridge), the differences in architecture because buildings and cities in Europe are soooooo old with such a long history compared to those in Australia. But I think I am relatively accustomed to all of these things after living here for almost 16 years. The one thing that was difficult for me in the beginning and that I´m still not used to today is the Austrian mentality. The intolerance and negative attitude towards anything new, the lack of flexibility and how hard it is to wake people´s enthusiasm for new ideas.
People are extremely fixed in their ways and feel very threatened when this is questioned, especially by a woman. Women are considered inferior and must fight for their rights - many women think they don´t have a right to have rights though which makes me look like an absolute, over the top feminist because I believe that no limits should be set by gender.
There are so many patterns here becasue the country is so old and has experienced many hardships through war and poverty and I´m sure it´s the climate which has also moulded the Austrians into a rather cold, keep to themselves folk.
The longer I´m away, the more I idealise life back home though. Sometimes it´s not easy bringing up 3 boys with a broken marraige behind me and a house and job to take care of and I often find myself thinking "if I was living in Australia life would be easier". When I´ve calmed down again I have to admit that life isn´t easy anywhere some days.
I miss the happy, enthusiastic, colourful and carefree mentality of Australians, their hospitality and generosity and I will continue in my attempts to bring some of that into everyday life here in my little Austrian village.
I would like to tag MEG! A beautiful canadian living in beautiful England.