I guess its only fair...

After reading Amanda's post, and in light of the recent Letterman scandal,(yes I do still know a little of what is happening in the US), I have decided to write Top 10 things I miss from America(excluding family and friends)...
10. BT's Cafe
9. Mike and Ikes
8. Vanilla Chai
7. 7/11
6. Miner 4th
5. Cross Country
4. Being able to raid the fridge whenever I want
3. Random late night excursions to get food
2. watching football in the Dome
1. Cloey (my dog)

(isn't it sad that 50% are about food... oh well)

But the real thing I want to talk about in this post is Austria. I know I have been giving quite a wonderful view of the people, and the place, and I thought it only fair that I shared my biggest pet peeves and problems with this country, and to help shed some light on the whole picture, not just my extremely positive and bias opinion of this wonderful country. haha Lets start with the silly things, first of all, Austria's business are pretty heavily regulated on when they can be open. Things open at 8 or 9 and close at 6.... there are few exceptions. And for people who know me well, you know that I am hungry... all the time... so basically if I get hungry at night there is no BT's, no Hess, No Walmart... you just stay hungry. And there is no way that I would raid my family's fridge... so I have had many hungry nights in which I forget to plan ahead and buy food that day. frustrating. Another frustrating thing for me is that for the most part I like to greet people when I pass them, or say hello. In Austria, this rarely happens. Its not that the people are rude, or unfriendly, its just that their customs don't really have them saying hello to every Jane, Bob, and Jim (or Jasmine, Wolfgang, and Hans) on the street. At first this bothered me a little, as the country seemed very cold and unfriendly. However, once you understand this custom (and I also assume that they get pretty sick of tourists), its not so bad. I also have realized that if you engage an Austrian in conversation in German, nine times out of 10 they will enthusiastically and gladly respond to your inquiry. So, lesson learned, its not that they are being unfriendly, the culture of the area is simply different. There is one thing, however, that bothers me the most, and in my opinion, should not be a problem in any society... especially a society that I praise on a regular basis. This blemish on an almost perfect record really bothers me, and is something that cannot be ignored or simply put aside. That tarnish, is racism. At first I never really realized it, but the more I look, the more I realize that this country is very, very white. There is no way around it. And the people are very happy with this status quo. And this would not be a huge problem, except that the immigrants are coming in by the thousands. Slavs, Hungarians, and especially the turkish, or "dark skinned people" as they are commonly referred to here. What makes the problem worse, is that hundreds or thousands of them move into a city and instead of trying to integrate, they simply set up turkish communities. Turkish stores, housing, casinos, etc... My first walk to the train station made this extremely obvious to me. As you walk toward the station and cross ElizabethstraBe, it becomes clear that you have left the nice little Austrian city of Salzburg, and you are suddenly thrown into a different town. Not once anywhere in Salzburg have I seen a casino, strip club, erotic books store etc... the second you cross ElizabethstraBe, you have one on every corner. It really is a different world. This city is clearly divided into parts. The rich south, the middle class middle, and the poor north. I'm not saying it's easy for the Turkish to integrate, I would assume that the Austrians make it quite difficult, and being in a strange land full of people who don't want you there is never a good situation, so I can understand why they group together into neighborhoods, the problem then becomes, however, that their stereotype becomes more and more prevalent, the bad part of the city becomes mostly Turkish, and the racism simply gets worse. Students tell stories of their host parents telling them to "avoid the dark skinned people" and "all those Turks carry knives" and "those Turks make our nice city look bad" it's simply pitiful. Especially coming from a country with such a strong background of racism. On the other hand, I guess that explains where some of this might be coming from. What I never knew, is that in Austria, the National Socialists of the thirties were extremely popular. Austria was happy to join Hitler's party of intolerance, and hatred for those who were not Aryan. In some parts of Austria, it was even stronger than in many parts of Germany. So it makes sense that history has fueled this hatred for those that are different from the "prized Aryan" race. So there have been elections recently and one of the parties called "The Right" which is campaigning hard against illegal immigrants has gained massive popularity in Austria, and has even won one of the 9 districts. Pretty scary stuff if you ask me. Anyway, that is the most negative part of Austria I have experienced, but besides that, this place really is a paradise, as long as your not Turkish.
-Christoph-