Cultural differences

Since most everyone who reads this will be receiving an update by email in the next couple days, I wanted to share a little something different. Obviously we have moved to a very different culture than our own. It has been very interesting to see some differences, here are some little things, some are silly, that we have noticed.

- A lot of people here eat cough drops like they are candy. A lot of the time they will share with others, who also are not sick J As a kid I really liked the taste of our cough drops and I would enjoy it when I was sick because it was like I got candy, so I can kind of understand.

- It is common that for a married couple you have a queen size bed but then you have two twin size blankets…

- It is normal to have your toilet in a separate room from your shower or bath tub. That makes sense to me, very practical but the funny thing is they put the sink with the shower. So in an apartment like ours you use the bathroom and then walk to the other side of the apartment to wash your hands.

- Austria is very spiritually dark but they still have many catholic roots that come through. For example, all stores are closed on Sunday. Students get a week off school for Easter and then some adults do as well from work. School is also closed for Catholic holidays like Jesus’ ascension.

- Very few places have air conditioners which isn’t as big of an issue as it would be in Nebraska or Kansas sense it tends not to get as warm here. It is important to open your windows at night to cool your home down. The funny thing to me is that there are no screens for the windows…

- As a whole people here tend to be more health conscious with the foods that they eat. But majority of the bread available to buy is white. The rest is mostly Rye bread. Whole wheat bread has been very difficult to come by, in fact most of the time we make our own.

- If you are invited over to someone’s home for lunch at noon, you should expect to stay until about 3 so you can have coffee and dessert.

- We use peanut butter for a lot of things in the states but here it is not as easy to come by. They also don't put peanuts in food, instead they use hazelnuts. 

- I’m not exactly sure what it is with the washing machines, but their cycle lasts for about 2 hours…and it doesn’t seem to get your clothes very clean unless you put prewash liquid on every little spot. It is not common to own a dryer.

- I have yet to see flour (or much of anything) sold in a large quantity. In fact the biggest bag of flour probably only has 8 cups in it.

- In the states when you buy ground beef you buy based on the percent of meat to fat…however here you buy it based on the percent of beef to pork. The all beef is really expensive so normally some kind of mix is sold.

- When you are either coming or leaving, you should shake everyone’s hands, including the children. And then if you are good friends, you give hugs. (This isn’t for when you go to the grocery store, but at youth group, spending time with friends, or at the after school tutoring)

- I have yet to see a home that has carpet. Everything is wood floors, which is beautiful, and then depending on the family they have rugs in the rooms as well.

- High school students here are more like college students in the states. Their school schedule is based on what classes they want to take, most are finished with school around noon but then have one or two later days in the week. They are allowed to drink alcohol at the age of 16.

- In the majority of pastries there is apricot jam in the middle. 

- All of the high schools are different (they are specialty schools) but there are some that you can choose that are like an apprenticeship school. So from what I understand you have school half the time and then work half the time.

- Their stores for the most part are separate. You have grocery stores which will have a small selection of non-grocery items but not much. Then you have stores that carry your toiletry items, shampoo, lotion, vitamins, etc. Then you have your Apotheke which carries your medicines both over the counter and prescription.

- The government building here in Innsbruck is in the same building with a shopping mall. J

I thought you might enjoy reading some of the differences that we are noticing and experiencing on a small everyday scale. There are many more.