Welcome to Here

 

What is this blog about?

 

Here I am living in interesting times, in an interesting part of the world.

 

After years of not blogging, my life has become more interesting and thus worth blogging about. However, as the fake Chinese saying has it, "May you live in interesting times" is a curse.

 

I’ll leave the curse parts of the interesting times to quiet chats with friends in tea shops and on the phone, but you, dear reader - you get the interesting times.

 

In the second year of the pandemic, I moved from Canada to Austria.

 

I traded in mountains, moss and ocean for palaces, schnitzel and bitter winds.

 

Moving from yoga-pants Vancouver was the right move for me. I am still making up my mind on Vienna. 

 

 

 

Yeah, I wanted to move to a place 

with floating hearts.

 

Before moving, the things I liked here were the architecture, museums, good public transportation and coffee house aesthetics.

 

I was excited at one point to learn German.

 

Now that I am here, I admire the social services and the subsidized housing. 

 

 

I have no idea what it says either.

 

 

Vienna vs. Vancouver

 

Both Vienna and Vancouver are among the top five most livable cities in the world. Both cities start with a “V.” Both cities are stereotyped as being leftier on the political spectrum (I guess compared to more conservative cities). Both cities are in countries with red and white flags.

 

Yet both are famous for being unfriendable. Vancouver has the “West Coast Freeze” and its own version of the “Seattle No”. Vienna places top among the most unfriendly cities in the world. Every time Vienna wins this title, news channels go on the street and interview Austrians about this honour.

 

 

 

One of the many reports on how unfriendly 

the Viennese are.

 

My Vienna Projects

 

My main project in Austria is survival.

 

My other projects are about walking around, taking endless photos, getting suckered into buying the latest flavour of Austrian yoghurt, ranking the Apfelstrudel in different coffee shops, not getting poisoned by stuff I forage, analyzing my Austrian hosts, and, above all, failing at learning German. 

 

 

As a matter of fact, 

I did eat Apfelstrudel today.

 

This is actually my second time living in Austria. I came as a child refugee the last time and I lived in one of the most notorious refugee centres in the country. This time I started off as a student. Now I am a whatever here.

 

I have as many opinions about Austria as Austria has about me. In the interest of not getting deported, I may not write all the opinions, but I will definitely share a lot about Austria.