Hallo?

My husband says he's going to stop saying hello (hallo in German) to the people he passes on the street since no one will return the welcome. (laugh) Well, the bus driver says hello when you greet him (actually, when you say 'gross gott' he will respond with 'gross gott') and many times middle-aged black people will also say hello when you pass, but by and large, it's just a European thing. People don't just randomly greet people.

(Before I go further, the photo to the right is of Nick and fellow journalist Tim Spence, who is on his way to Ghana and who showed us around when we first arrived.)

My new hairdresser -- her name is Baby (yes, b-a-b-y) -- says people just don't speak in Austria. She says she remembers when she first arrived in Vienna some 13 years or so ago and every time black people would see each other they would run to meet each other. When they were on the train (called the U-bahn here), other passengers would look at them like they were crazy. "We would be asking, 'Where are you from?' " That was then. Now, she says, the problem is that there has been a lot of talk about black men selling drugs in the streets and other blacks want to distance themselves from that stereotype, so they are not as friendly.

I say, "Rubbish."

Anyway, I took Nicholai to Prosi, the ethnic grocery store in the 7th district today and we headed straight for the shelf with the Guinness because I knew he'd be most impressed by that, and he was. Do I know my husband or what?

"Did you think the store was impressive," I later asked him.
"Uh huh."
"So, what was most impressive?"
"Well, hum, just seeing all the stuff from the different islands and stuff," he said, adding, "The Guinness was good."

On another note, we went to the Immigration office, or whatever it's called here, with my Canadian colleague who speaks German and Spanish (I HAVE GOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE). When our number was finally called and we entered a small room with two women whose desks were piled high with faded red folders, the elder of the two told Nicholai that they rarely get Bahamians coming to Austria. Usually, she said in German, Austrians are trying to get to The Bahamas!

So, today the temperature was 58-degrees and by evening it felt closer to about 45. Nicholai was excited. I say give him a month. He ain't seen NOTHIN' yet. But at least he has a couple of coats, a hat and a couple of very nice long-sleeved shirts, courtesy of my mom and brother-in-law. One thing he seems to be coming around on, though, is that he is going to need to use lotion or he'll be white as a ghost, and if you've seen my husband, that's no small feat.

Alison
7:38 p.m., Saturday, 29 August

Wow

I'm sitting in my office just before 6 p.m. with my two new colleagues when suddenly a wave of classical music enters the room. On the pedestrian promenade down below, two musicians - one on violin and the other on cello - are serenading us (and, of course, all of the people walking below). How blessed we are and wonderful it is to have a live concert happening somewhere every day. If you are not a classical music fan, you surely will become one by the time your leave Vienna! Oh, that I could let you hear it!

Alison
27 August 2009
6:10 p.m.

Damn that smells good!

Let me tell you. Vienna is no place to diet. At every turn there are sausages (cheese wieners, spicy wieners, big and small wieners) and all types of pastries. It's maddening. People walk around with bread in their hands, no napkin, no bag -- just eating. My husband has taken a liking to the sausages and I think he's probably tried every kind already! He just goes up to the stall and points. Two minutes later his lips are wrapped around a foot-and-a-half long sausage stuffed in a bun that looks like a half a loaf of French bread. I'm going to have to keep him from the strudel or before you know it, he'll be addicted!

Austrians also have some strange eating habits. Like ... they are generally not fond of spicy food, so to get something hot, you need to say, "I want it spicy, like Turkish" because apparently the Turks like to eat really spicy things. Also, most Austrians are not fond of mixing their meat with their seafood. For example, if you order combination stir fry there would be no shrimp or anything in it because Austrians don't seem to like that. But they do like pork - and LOTS of it. I have never seen so much pork in my life. They seem to have ever kind of pork dish. Oh, but they don't have pork rinds as far as I can see. I did find them at the ethnic food store, though. You know I can find pork rinds anywhere! (laugh)

Alison
27 August 2009
10:54 a.m.

p.s. Check out the photos below

In the Game

Sometimes sports is a whole lot of politics. And sometimes politics is a lot of sport. Such was the case on Sunday when Nicholai, my husband, joined the Knights softball team, many of whom work at Vienna International School, to play in the end-of-season tournament at Prater, a huge park slash amusement area once reserved for the royal court and aristocrats.

First up to challenge the Knights was "the Dominican team," as they were described to me. After the game, in which Nicholai did a bang-up job, including hitting four home runs and several RBIs, a member of "the Dominican team" approached him to ask his name and to compliment him on his skill around the field. He then told Nico, as the Knights had taken to calling my husband, that Nicholai (the only black person on his team) is clearly playing for the wrong team. (laugh) Later in the afternoon, during game two, the same player and one of his teammates (they would eventually tell me that they were of Cuban and Venezuelan heritage, respectively (I thought: That doesn't equal Dominican...) ) sat next to be on a bench I had perched behind home plate. Immediately the began to ask me a few questions about my husband. How long had he been playing? Where was he from? How did he come to join that team? Of course, earlier the sister of the Venezuelan, Karla, had already come to talk to me about joining her team. My husband, they all agreed is quite the player.

In the end, the common language, camaraderie and potential networking with the Knights proved far more important to Nicholai. I agreed.

But talk about recruiting! Some players take their game seriously, boy! How funny I thought it all was.

But the scene at the park was even funnier. It was like the United Nations with players from China, America, Canada, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and who knows where else! I didn't know whether to say hola, ni hao, hello, gross gott or what! But what a beautiful setting in which to be confused. The day was glorious - and fun!

At around 4, we headed back to the 22 district where we are living for the moment and from there headed to Ha Kai Chinese restaurant. I must admit that aside from sausages, we have yet to sample a traditional Viennese dish. But soon.

The city of Vienna is divided into 23 districts, or neighborhoods, and tonight we go to check out an apartment in the 6th district, very near the city centre where I work. Speaking of where I work, my office is right outside of the famed Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), a centerpiece of Vienna tourism. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna and is also celebrated for its architecture (it is built of limestone).

Back to the apartment ...

One very discouraging fact about Vienna is that when renting an apartment, one must not only pay first month's rent and a security deposit equivalent to that (known as a 'bond'), but typically you must also pay a realtor's "finders fee,' if you will, of two to three months of the total rent cost! It's highway robbery and a topic of heated discussion among my colleagues and I. Particularly pissed about it is my very British colleague who calls it extortion! He may be right! So we'll see what happens with this apartment tonight.

Alison
25 Aug. 2009
1:38 p.m.

p.s. Nicholai has been harrassing me all week to correct my blog concerning the number of homeruns he hit. So, over the course of two days and playing five games, he hit EIGHT homeruns. Good grief. (Alison, 27 August, 11:24 a.m.)

The Wink

Today I took three trains and walked six blocks to find a woman named Baby, owner of Baby's Beauty Salon. A Ghanaian, she has been in Vienna quite awhile, I think. But, like in Ghana, the bulk of her work is putting fake hair into people's heads, whether it's in the form of braids or flowing weave. One customer just beginning her four-hour journey from naps to waist-length braids warned me several times that the cold will ruin my hair. What? She also informed me over and over that black American women have "different" hair, not like Africans. It's because, chimed in Baby, of all the "mixture." (sigh) Okay. How about it could be because we don't put braids and weave in all of our lives.

After that conversation, it was time to move on. Next stop, Prosi, an "ethic"grocery store in the same neighborhood (District 7) as Baby's salon. (By the way, Baby's is a couple of short blocks from The Hip Hop Store, which houses Slam Dunk, where Nicholai got his hair cut by a Nigerian earlier this week.)

Prosi: AMAZING! There was kimchi and fufu and banku and kenkey and pork rinds; Guinness, Red Stripe and Star beers; Vita Malt ... The store, owned by Lebanese, has put a thorn in the side of some African businessmen who have opened a similar store with products from Africa. And they make it no secret on their web site that they think we should shop at a store owned by Africans. Nonetheless, the 7th district seems to have a lot going on culturally.

In another part of the city, my husband played softball on the Prater -- an enormous nature park once reserved for the royal court and aristocracy -- with a bunch of teachers from Vienna International School. Seems they became fumbling, bumbling players, especially my husband, when I arrived, so I left them to their ball grabbing, beer drinking, shit talking and headed to Naschmarkt, known for its spices, fresh vegetables, fish and numerous restaurants that line the periphery of the market. After wading through markets in Africa, Naschmarkt (yeah, that's how it's spelled) was organized and lovely. It's similar to Eastern Market in Washington, D.C., but not as gritty or fabulous as Eastern Market in Detroit . I'll post pictures.

A hefty bag of fruit and vegetables later, I headed home to enjoy the fruits of my labour! But before I could get to my door, I had to deal with more stares. Sometimes it's funny. I couldn't resist when one young man got caught staring at me and I gave him a wink. Embarrassed, he turn away.

Alison
23 August 2009
11:15 p.m.

Notes From Austria

I used to always marvel at how foreigners in America could just pick up their lives and arrive at our shores without knowing the system or the culture or even the language. 'What brave souls,' I thought. Well, I still think that. Even more so tonight as I sit in a two-room flat on the fourth floor of a building located near the banks of the Danube river listening to the gentle snoring of my husband and German voices rising above clinking glasses at the outdoor cafe below.

I've been in Austria 10 days and I must confess that despite the language barrier (they speak German; I do not), it's an easy city and a lovely city. It's like a cross between Washington, D.C., with its monuments and outdoor festivals, and Boston, with it's old charm and lots and lots of white people. Yeah. Lots and lots of white people. Viennese are generally cordial, although no where near as polite as Ghanaians and Bahamians, for example. It's rare to hear someone of the tram, bus or subway say excuse me and certainly not hello.

There are some stares, but nothing to really write home about. I mean, there is even a real possibility that they are staring at me because I'm beautiful, regardless of my skin color. (laugh) ... Okay, let's think on that for a minute ... (smile) ... Alright -- enough.

Today was my third day on my new post as Deputy Director of the International Press Institute (http://www.freemedia.at/) and I know that people always love their job when they first start, but really I like this job. And for the first time since my first few and last few months in West Africa, I feel like I really have the opportunity to make a difference for my colleagues. It's invigorating.

Bruce Blake told me yesterday that reaction in Boston has been mixed about my move to Vienna. I told him for those who ask why I would do such a thing, to keep his response simple because they might be simple people. I told him to mention a few phrases to people, like 'jobs, jobs, jobs, free health care, free health care, free health care, jobs, no journalism jobs in the U.S., jobs in Europe, great job at IPI ..." I mean, does one really need to say more than that? Plus there is the added benefit of coming into the Vienna job with 28 days vacation -- and that doesn't count the 15 or so holidays that the country and employers dish out each year. You see, the Europeans don't believe in working themselves to death. We could definitely learn something from that in the U.S.

Well, it's the end of the day and I just finished a wonderful burrito dinner prepared by my husband. I also watched a little CNN and heard the story of a woman track star who looks, talks and walks like a man try to prove that she isn't and the story of a Tonga man living in New Zealand who decided to barbecue his dog for dinner after the dog got fleas. He said that where he's from people always eat their pet; it's a delicacy. Hum. It's a good thing my burritos had already digested when the segment hit the airwaves. Talk about news of the weird.

Anyway, I digress, there is so much to say and so little time. I started this blog to share some of my thoughts on Vienna and my experiences as a black woman here. And also so I won't have to write so many individual emails to tell people how Nicholai and I are doing. There is so much to tell!

I hope you'll stick along for the ride. And I hope you like what you see and read!

Auf Wiederschauen!

Alison
9:50 p.m.. 20 August 2009