Ihr habt Fragen.

I wanted to do something other than a daily log for a few posts, so I asked on Facebook and Twitter for anyone to ask me questions and now I’ll go ahead and answer them. Clearly, some were thinking on a more intellectual level than others, but non-intellectual questions are perfect too.

Questions (in the order asked)

1. How are the toilets and toilet paper and how do they vary from place to place?

• Toilets are not super different than those in the US. Although my toilet in my apartment has a giant button to flush and the tank is hidden in the wall. Most toilets in Europe have two flush buttons, a big one and a small one… for… well… different sized flushes. The strangest toilet I encountered was in Italy. The seat had weights in it, towards the back and near the wall, so when it was not in use it would flip up. You can imagine the difficulties with trying to put toilet paper on the seat so I could actually use it. Another crazy toilet was at a McDonalds in Italy. After you used it, the entire seat rotated and was sprayed with a cleaner. It was quite high tech. Thankfully, I’ve never encountered a truly disgusting toilet.
• As for toilet paper… its not much different, just less soft.

2. What are your 3 highs and your 3 lows about being away from the US?

Highs:

1. Traveling and seeing the World.

2. Getting better at German.

3. The drinking age. (hate to say it, but it is awesome.)

Lows:

1. Missing my family/friends.

2. The expensiveness of things here.

3. Not having an oven or tv. (Again, not that important, but you try living with out both of those.)

3. How does the US compare to the other countries you have seen in regards to: perceived happiness/cheerfulness of the people, individual wealth, views on promiscuity/sexuality, etc. – Are they more conservative or liberal than americans?

• To answer this, I’m only going to compare Austria and the US, because if I did every country I’ve been to it would take forever.

Happiness: To an outsider, Austrians seem pissed off or cold all the time, but generally I would say that they are just as happy as Americans. They put up a front because of their history; in WW2 times Austrians did not want to socialize in public, when they went out they just wanted to do whatever it was they had to get done and get home because they never knew who was listening or watching. I promise I’m not making this up, I’m taking an Austrian culture class.

Individual Wealth: Compared to America as a whole, Austrians are less wealthy. Individually compared, they are about the same or just slightly less wealthy as Americans. Austrians work only 35 hours a week, but their minimum wage is much higher than in America and Austrians are savers, not spenders. Also, the poorest of the poor compared to the richest of the rich is a much smaller gap in Austria than in America.

Sexuality: Austrians are much more open on taboo topics in general than Americans. Sex is included in this.

Politics: Austrian politics are insane. There are both liberal and conservative parties along with two others. Austrian government and pretty much everything else is completely split between the Conservative and Socialist party. So, there are Conservative schools and Socialist schools… Conservative jobs and Socialist jobs… Conservative football clubs and Socialist football clubs. Austrians don’t have to declare as being part of a specific party, but doing so opens a lot of doors and closes a lot of others. Compared to America, this is crazy different. So I wouldn’t say that Austria is more liberal or conservative than America, but once an Austrian chooses a side, they stay there.

4. How are the men over there? Hella fine I assume?

• I’ve seen some pretty attractive men… and some very unattractive men, so… the same as everywhere else?

5. Ratio of stinky to normal people?

• I was worried about this at first before I actually got here. I’ve never really gotten close to people to know a good ratio… but there was one really smelly guy in Italy on a train. Although, next weekend I’m going to Prague and I hear the farther east you get, the worse this becomes.

6. Are there rude comments to you/about Americans?

• No one has ever been rude to me in Austria or Germany. Once in Italy, I think… but I try and blend in as much as possible, many people in Salzburg automatically assume I’m Austrian. As for Americans, I’d say people here are less… affectionate. They think most Americans are… of a lesser class.

7. With regard only to language barriers, how have you – a native English speaker, and an American – been treated by locals of the countries you’ve visited?

• I’ve had no problems in every country I’ve been to, except Italy. Everyone else speaks English fairly well, but not Italians. They are lazy about learning languages, I’ve heard. There is a stereotype that the French are rude to non-french speakers, but I didn’t experience this at all. Again, the only rudeness I encountered was from Italians.

8. What were your perceptions of certain cities/countries before arriving, and how they lived up (or didn’t live to them). (Specifically: Paris, Salzburg, London and Florence)

• Paris: I wasn’t expecting much. I thought it would be a lot smaller than it is. I am slightly indifferent towards Paris, but I think it was because of the weather and the short amount of time I spent there, so I can’t really say about Paris.
• Salzburg: Again, I didn’t know much or expect much. I was just going into the program expecting nothing, so I wouldn’t be disappointed or shocked when things were different (which is how I just usually go about life…) I was expecting freezing temperatures and snow, which was definitely lived up to. But overall, Salzburg is amazing. I love that I live here, and not any other city I’ve been to. It is honestly the most beautiful, charming and vibrant city I’ve seen.
• London: I was super excited for London, mostly because I love the Tudors and the Royal Court life. London did not disappoint at all. It was fun, had great food and a million things to do. I would love to go back.
• Florence: Let me just say that… Florence was the worst. I was expecting this cute Italian town with lots of things to do and great food. All I got was gypsies, rain, and The David. (The David was pretty cool, I will give it that.) I will not go back to Florence, and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

9. Every country does things differently – in what areas are these countries better than America, and vice versa?

• One thing that really sticks out in my mind for Europe as a whole is city planning. I don’t know if this is because Europeans are forced to have better layouts because their countries/towns are so ancient and can’t change much of the city or because they are just more clever, but every European city I’ve been to has been easy for me to navigate (maybe I’m just a human GPS?) and has absolutely no wasted space with out me feeling crammed. In America, I feel like we waste so much space and have poor planning and this perplexes me. (Mom and Gary, you’ve heard my thoughts on this.)
• One thing America has going for it is the service industry. When Americans go out and spend money, they are expecting decent to great service, no matter what they are doing. Europeans could care less it seems and I think going out to dinner is just not worth it at all here. I am missing me some Fridays. Haha.

Oh, and the last three questions were by Gary… so read his blog “The Average Bear.” Click to the right on my “blogroll.”

This post is lacking pictures. So here is one for good measure.

This is Ileana in the BMW Museum in Munich, Germany. This is also a completely unrelated picture!

EDIT: I got two more questions since this was posted, so here they are.

1. I’ve heard many Europeans consider themselves more educated, more aware of other cultures, more politically informed, etc. than Americans. Is the perception true or false? Is the reality true or false?

• I’ve heard this theory as well, and have seen it here. Again, I can only really give my views on Austrians because I’ve spent most of my here. I do think that Austrians think that they are more aware of other cultures and are more politically informed, but I don’t think that they think they are more educated than Americans. Sadly, I have to say that the reality is true. The education systems are very different than in America but I would say that they are on the same level. Not all Austrians study at the university, but if they want to have any job or vocation that requires some basic training, they have to go to a special school to learn these skills. Even to just be a waitress, they have to go to school. Also, in grammar school and even kindergarten, children learn German and English and speak both almost perfectly. Austrians are absolutely more aware of other cultures than Americans, but this is purely because America is just so huge and has limited contact with other countries. Austria, on the other hand, is in central Europe and has constant contact with both the west and the east. As for politics, Austrians are crazy about them. Not only are they informed on their own politics, but America’s as well. For some reason its really interesting to them and they will always ask Americans what they think about certain people or subjects.

2. What’s the altitude of Salzburg and was it hard to move around when you first got there?

• The altitude of Salzburg is 1,391 ft above sea level (Chicago is about 583 ft, for reference). I didn’t even notice a difference, so nope it was just the same as home to me.

Coming up next: My trip to Innsbruck and Swarovski Crystal World!

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