I was giddy with joy (and from exhaustion after a 30-hour trip) when I first stepped onto Austrian soil after two weeks in America for Christmas. I was once again confronted with everything that I had missed during break --- sparkling water (from Vöslauer, with the purple cap), Mülltrennung (garbage separation), the woman in the U-Bahn who announces "Zug fährt ab"--- and yet, it seemed different somehow. Normal. Alltäglich. I no longer added "... in Austria" in my head everytime I did something. I think I annoyed my family whenever I talked about Austria as "home" during the break, but it was only when I came back to Austria that I first realized how home-y it has become. And home is always a little boring -- it's the comfort of the familiar rather than the excitement of the new.
My life in Austria isn't as great as I had made it out to be, and yet it is, if only because (and not despite the fact that) it's ordinary. My Austrian friends aren't THE greatest people in the world (and neither are my friends at home or at school), but it's still wonderful to spend an afternoon laughing with them in the dorm kitchen, like I did once again today.* I don't need to be here to be happy, but I am happy here. And that, I think, is a more mature way of looking at things. I haven't drunk the Austrian Kool-Aid, but I have drunk Austrian wine, and beer, and Gastfreundlichkeit during my semester here, and it certainly tastes good.
* where jokes were flying about the fact that two of us were "junge Hüpfer" (young'ins) and the other had begun their studies later in life, and the fact that two of us were foreigners wasn't even mentioned. I do finally feel like I fit in.
No comments:
Post a Comment