Submitted by Dana Osborn on the 2017 winter session program in Austria and Hungary sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development…
On the first day of my stay in Vienna, my roommate and I ventured off to explore this beautiful city. I was a little nervous since I speak absolutely no German and had no idea what the social cues were here. My first day was full of lots of culture shock. Everything is so different, but in a good way. The people here aren’t afraid of eye contact, first of all, which is something I am definitely not used to. Seriously, they will stare you down and have no problem with it. Also, if you are standing in someone’s way, they will put their hands on you and physically move you over. I haven’t had it happen to me yet, thankfully, but I have seen it happen to people and it was completely normal to them.
My roommate and I decided to go into a café and try out the German phrases that we learned in our room 5 minutes prior. We walked in and noticed that there were no chairs, but everyone was standing by their respective tables… and smoking… everyone was smoking. Smoking indoors was a big surprise, but I noticed it at almost every place I went. Some had specific rooms designated for smoking, but they all definitely allowed smoking. Okay, back to the café. We were confused when no one greeted us at the door and awkwardly stood there waiting. Finally, we decided to take a risk and stood at a table. I find it interesting how at restaurants and cafes here, people seat themselves. That’s definitely something I am not used to. Imagine doing that in America?? It’s unheard of!
After the waitress greeted us with “Guten tag!” (Good afternoon), a few more sentences in German, and noticed some very confused looks from me and my roommate, she quickly switched and said, “Oh! English? Hello!” It was scary at first since all I could remember was “danke” which means thank you, but it probably would’ve been very weird for my first word to her to be thanks. We ended up ordering some very delicious cappuccinos and having an awesome time. It felt good to step out of my comfort zone and immerse myself into this new culture. I can’t wait to see what else Vienna has in store for me!