Social Life

A few weeks ago, we had a midterm discussion as part of the Central College required course, in which we re-evaluated the goals we had formulated for the semester at the beginning of our time in Vienna. I was quite pleased to do this: I've participated in a lot of goal-setting sessions at the beginning of projects, but without a structured space for follow-up and adjustment, the goals become little more than words on a piece of paper that's tossed in the trash at the end of the project with a sigh of "I wish I would have done more on that." It can be easy to lose track of how micro-actions are the stuff of major movements, and that goals are achieved or neglected on the basis of day-to-day decisions.


That was certainly the case for me in terms of my goal for the semester of making Austrian friends. I was too shy, always waiting for an invitation to join a conversation in the kitchen or simply hoping to be spoken to instead of making an effort to engage other people. And that's what I've worked on for the past month, with a fair degree of success. I still feel like the awkward American chick sometimes, but I've finally started making jokes that Austrians find funny, and I was asked by someone last week whether it was annoying that people always want to talk to me about America. I was touched that he asked the question, because it shows that he thinks of me as a human being with complex emotions and not just a robot who answers questions about America in broken German. (For the record, I don't mind talking about America, but it does feel weird to be seen as "the American" rather than as Keri. My internalized (white) American individualism probably has a lot to do with that.)

I'm integrating into the social life here, which means I finally feel ready to describe it. Much of dorm life centers around a community kitchen found on every floor. Because we're expected to cook our own food, pretty much everyone on the floor visits the kitchen at least twice a day. And because Austrian meals take longer than American ones, cooking dinner at 6pm can easily turn into talking in the kitchen until 1am with a core group of people and other intermittent visitors who cook, eat, chat, and leave.

Fifth floor kitchen. This is where shit goes down.

Going out to dance clubs (called Discos, a word which still sounds lame to me after three months; I can't help it) also happens relatively frequently but on a pretty informal basis. My first night out with Austrians, for example, began with dinner in the kitchen. Then someone pulled out a bottle of rum (always a good sign), and we started drinking. Then the four guys in the group decided they wanted to smoke hookah, so they left and went to someone's room, leaving the three girls just sitting awkwardly in the kitchen. I almost went to my room, but I knew that Austrians have a higher tolerance for silence / situations that would be awkward to Americans (so much so that I can't find a good translation of awkward into German), so I decided to stick it out. Then one of the guys came back, telling us to come to the room as well, where we talked, drank, and played Mariokart for a few hours. At 11pm, five hours after our configuration of people had coincidentally met in the kitchen, we decided to go to a club, where we stayed until about 5am (fueled by rum-energy drink cocktails, which are super common here). That's almost twelve hours of hanging out without having anything planned beforehand.

I was really impressed with Praterdome, Austria's largest disco, even though the Austrians didn't think I would be. There were of course different dance floors playing different styles of music, and we spent most of our time on the German-speaking music floor and the house/techno floor. I had never realized before that night that it's possible to "know the beats" to wordless songs in the same way you can "know all the words" to a song with lyrics. Because my Austrian friends were familiar with the songs, they could anticipate the rhythm changes in the same way I know what bridge lines are coming up next in a song I like.

Dancing in Austria is much more desexualized than in America, where I sometimes feel like I'm being pounced on by serial-grinders from all sides whenever I venture out on a dance floor. Every time I've gone out, I've been able to simply dance with friends. And Europeans are impressed with my dance skills, which I don't understand, because I just do my "skanking without rhythm in the corner" thing.

Going out dancing is certainly growing on me, but I think I still prefer simply sitting and talking with friends while drinking. As this Austrian anthem to drinking says (video below): "Aber am besten ist immer noch saufen, saufen, saufen" (Drinking is still the best). And there are plenty of opportunities in Haus Salzburg to do just that.