Grüßdi öos Öoosterreich

Greetings from Austria! I know I’ve been a bit awol with blogging, so I’m hoping to get back into a routine. It’s been such an eventful couple of weeks — where to even start?! My last couple of weeks have been spent driving 26 hrs to go to a friend’s wedding in Indy, fighting a cold, packing last minute, getting a new computer and dealing with photo issues, flying overseas, almost not being let into the country, catching up from severe jet leg, suffering from altitude sickness, meeting around 120 lovely teaching assistants from the US and the UK, running around to a bunch of different appointments and bringing like a 5lbs of paperwork with me, getting to meet up with my cousin and spend time in Imst, and finally settling into a new city and starting work. Phew! I’m really grateful to finally have some time to sit down and catch up

I suppose the first thing you notice about Austria is that people talk differently (a lot differently!) than those in the North. So here’s me trying to perfect my Austrian accent:

The second thing you notice is that it’s unbelievably beautiful everywhere. Still pinching myself that I get to live here.

I definitely feel like I stand out a little bit since I can’t speak dialect. I only understand about 50-60% of the Vorarlberg dialect, when they really start going at it. However, if you can speak dialect, it seems like you get an “in” with people, which would be useful. 😉 My mentor has been unbelievably helpful by going along with me to a lot of bureaucratic appointments, and things always seem to go much more smoothly (e.g. exceptions are made) as soon as she starts speaking in dialect. Hmm… 😉

Right before leaving for Austria I went on a fun 13 hr road trip to Indianapolis for a dear friend’s wedding. I conquered a lot of driving anxiety (I did the road trip by myself!) and had a great time catching up with old friends. And I finished book five of Harry Potter during the drive, so now I’m on book six 🙂 Some photos from the trip:

 

 

 

Last ‘Bux before heading to Europe!

 

I have to interrupt this lovely slideshow to share my very eventful experience flying through Zurich. Moral of the story: maybe fly through Germany next time. Why? I almost didn’t get let into the country!

Let me set the stage. I was fighting a cold, feeling really sick to my stomach, and had gotten maybe an hour or two of sleep on the plane. (I was already sleep deprived because I had saved all my packing for last minute!) So I arrived in Zurich pretty exhausted and was ready to find a quiet place to sleep / rest / recharge before heading on to Vorarlberg.

AHA.

There was a super long line for passport control and I guess I picked the wrong line because several people in front of me were stuck talking to the officer for a really long time. Every time I thought about switching though, I decided it wouldn’t be worth it. I figured I’d just hand him my passport and then be good to go — I was ready to breeze through — as usually happens. Sometimes they don’t even ask me anything.

Anyways. The officer was feeling particularly inquisitive and of course I had to tell him my reason for coming was to be a teaching assistant, and you know, that I’ll be staying longer than two weeks etc.

“Oh!” he said, raising his eyebrows. “So you’re not a tourist, then. Do you have any paperwork then?”

“Well, yes,” I answered, reaching into my backpack to pull out my gigantic folder of paperwork. I hadn’t really bothered to organize it since I didn’t think I’d need it, and I was starting to feel a little anxious that I wouldn’t find the papers I needed. I started leafing through it, wondering what to hand him.

Part of my sleep-deprived brain then decided it would be a good idea to continue our conversation in German (not thinking about Swiss German being a whole other beast). I rationalized this by thinking something like: He’ll probably like me more if he sees I speak good German. He’ll know I’m not some dumb American trying to get into the country. You know that great Nelson Mandala quote about speaking a person’s native language is like “speaking their heart’s language”? Yeah, maybe not so much. We did not have a heart to heart conversation and talk about the little villages we were from. 😥

So then I tried to name drop “Fulbright” and the “Austrian Ministry of Education,” and he just shook his head and muttered “komisch, komisch, komisch” which means “strange” as he had never heard of these things.

I handed him my official offer letter from the Austrian government and some other paperwork that I had that was in German, which he looked at, but he didn’t really know what to make of the situation and kept telling me I needed a visa.

“Ja, das weiss ich. Ich muss nach Osterreich gehen, um den Aufenthaltstitel abzuholen. Ich hab mich schon darum beworben!”

I handed him more papers. He continued to shake his head.

“You need a visa!”

“I’ve applied for a visa! I have to go to Austria to pick it up!”

“Where’s your proof?”

“The Austrian embassy didn’t send me any proof!”

I then remembered that the police office / immigration office in the town I’m living in had sent me an email, but I hadn’t thought to print it off. I pulled up the email on my phone. He shook his head and wouldn’t look at it. “This doesn’t count,” he said. (UGH! Nothing without an official stamp counts 😛 )

At this point I was really at a loss for what to do, as I was exhausting the stack of paperwork in my hand and had nothing more to give him. The offices would be closed on Sunday so there wasn’t anyone I could call on the Austrian side of things to have them confirm what I was saying.

At this point it felt like at least 20 minutes had passed, and while I was starting to feel anxious about what was going to happen if he decided not to let me in, I was too exhausted to feel extremely panicked.

“Hmm, this is a verry interesting situation”

https://youtu.be/c5J8Eg_Ru9Q?t=4m31s

He continued to flip through my passport, and I was at a loss for what to tell him. I didn’t have any more paperwork to hand him, and my attempts to explain that, as an American citizen, I could legally enter the Schengen zone without a visa, were futile. He noticed that I had stamps from Germany and asked me if I had been living in Germany. “Why yes!” I brightly responded, “I did the same teaching assistant program in Germany.”

“Do you have a visa from Germany?”
“Yes,” I answered. So I handed him my expired visa, he glanced at it, stamped my passport, and voila….I entered Switzerland.

I was so surprised I didn’t know what to say but took my passport back and walked through — afraid that at any moment they were going to come running after me and say “We changed our mind!” By the time I made it to the luggage carrousel, mine was the only luggage going around — so I’d been stuck at passport control for quite a while. So who knows what that was about, because everyone else I’ve talked to who flew in through Zurich didn’t have a problem. I guess it was just a memorable experience just for me! ;D I have my official Aufenthaltstitel now, so I’ll be able to get through no problem next time.

In the meantime, Austria is beautiful and Austrians are so friendly. Don’t get me wrong — Meck-Pomm will always have a very special place in my ❤ but I didn’t realize how cold and reserved the northerners are until I came here and people say HELLO on the street! And so many people have been helpful and kind on train rides and other various encounters. (And big shoutout to my new flatmate who has honestly been the best and has gone out of her way to make me feel right at home!). So besides the airport experience (which, let’s be fair, wasn’t even in Austria so doesn’t really count), my time here has been amazing!

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I had a great time in Hinterglemm at the orientation for this year’s TAs. It was full of great conversations, lots of laughter, and even some Austrian folk dancing.

xo,

sarah