Losing Myself as an Expat

When you are born and raised in one place, and then move to live in another, your inner balance tips. A lot of what you were raised to believe no longer applies in the new place that you are.

Eventually you come to ask yourself, how do I fit in here? What part of myself do I give up? What part do I keep? These are scary questions to ask when looking in the mirror as an expat.

In Los Angeles, where I was born and raised, being friendly to everyone, fast-moving, fast-talking, aggressive in the business world, fashionably dressed, and ignoring hierarchy is the way of L.A.

There you carelessly make a promise and break it without a blink. There you are worried about the competition taking your job. There you climb the corporate ladder as fast as you are capable of, be damned of age or experience. 

L.A. is not an easy town, but that’s exactly what makes it great. Everyone knows it requires an aggressive attitude that allows one to take risk. And if you take risk, at some point you will fall on your ass. Los Angelians don’t participate in schadenfreude. Instead, they grab you by the hand, haul you up, and tell you to try again.

So I brought these principles of life from LA to Vienna with me. They worked very well for me in LA, so why wouldn’t I? Umm, because they don’t work in Vienna?

Vienna is quiet, slower, loyal, modest, and more patient than LA will ever be. LA isn’t interested in any of these traits. Neither was I when I first came here.

Now that I have been in Vienna almost three years, I get that I have to change my ways to fit in. But I find that I ask myself, how badly do I want to fit in?

For example. I’m a very fashionable dresser and take pride in that. The Viennese see this as a silly vanity and I am looked down upon because of it. I ask myself if I should tone down my way of dressing. I would fit in better if I did.

Then I think, why the hell should I dress down to make those around me feel better? It’s the choice of those around me to look frumpy. They can change it with a quick visit to H&M and a good eye at the make-up counter. But they choose not to. Therefore, why should their personal choice affect me?

The Austrians are also very modest. They keep quiet about their success. I would find this admirable if it didn’t drive me absolutely crazy! I love to hear about a person’s success because I think, oh, I can learn from you!

So I still don’t know what I intend to keep about myself and what I intend to change for the sake of fitting in. Even in LA I marched to my own drum, so maybe I’m just incapable of blending in, taking the quieter, conservative route.

I am after all an expat, and let’s face it people, that is not the route of the cautious and conservative.

Tell me, have you struggled with this topic? What conclusion have you come to?

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Tanz der Vampir in Vienna

The musical theater show “Tanz der Vampir” in Vienna is fantastic! Go see it go see it go see it. A few hours before the show they sell seats at the box office for 25% off. These are just the remaining seats that didn’t sell. We did it yesterday and we got great seats!

Note that the show is in German.

http://www.musicalvienna.at/index.php/de/spielplan/production/17458

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Finished Filming in Vienna

This weekend, all weekend, Paul and I were busy filming for an American TV show. It was fun, but tiring. Still can’t mention what show it is, but once it airs in September, I’ll be sure to add a link. For now, here is Paul and me looking professional in front of the camera.

Filming in Vienna

Filming in Vienna

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Spring Fatigue

I have been so tired lately. I mean really unusually tired without any real reason for it.

Thank goodness for my fashion magazine reading obsession! I was flipping through flair magazine and read about Spring Fatigue syndrome, or at least that’s what I’m calling it. It’s due to… ah forget it. I’m to tired to explain what it is due to.

You can check out an article about it here
http://www.london-weatherstation.co.uk/spring_tiredness

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The Power of a Vienna Blog

I really try to post something every Sunday, but this weekend is a no go, because I AM GOING TO BE ON TV. Yes that’s right. It is official. Any idiot can make it on TV. I am proof.

It started about six weeks ago when a popular American TV show found my blog and contacted me through it. They asked if the hubby and I wanted to partake in their program. Sure, I said. We had to go through a lot of hoops (send a photo, fill out a form that took me 2 hours, do two home videos). We scheduled, and rescheduled the filming of “our episode” as they call it because of this and that (oh and a volcano blowing) but now finally, we are going to start filming the first part this weekend in Los Angeles.

Hopefully I can ask my mom to take a few photos of us being filmed and being D level celebrities so I can post them here. 

The point of this blog post though is that I just wanted you to know the power of a blog. If you don’t have your own, get started.

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Burgruine Aggstein Austria

A blog reader of mine suggested that we visit Burgruine Aggstein, a medieval town about an hour away from Vienna. Great suggestion J, it was so much fun! I highly recommend it as a Sunday outing.

http://www.ruineaggstein.at/

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Helpful Links for Expats in Vienna

Being an expat is hard. We decide to leave all that is familiar and comfortable to move somewhere that is almost totally different from what we know.

To ease this break, modern technology comes to our rescue, thank god. Here are some of my websites to get around being away from my favorite things. Now if someone could just tell me where to buy liquid vanilla, I would be a happy person.

www.drugstore.com
All your beauty needs can be shipped to Austria

www.overstocked.com
This grand website now ships to Austria

www.surfthechannel.com
Figure out on your own the benefit

http://www.wabi.hu/html/eng_kozmetika.html#komplett 
An amazing spa an hour drive away from Vienna with prices so low you’ll fall over

http://da.stinkts.net/ 
Restaurants in Vienna that are smoke-free

http://www.taschenhalter.at/ 
A very cute product that every woman needs for her purse

www.skype.com
If you don’t know the benefit of this, then you really do need my help

If you have other websites/tips, please let us all know!

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Nice vs. Vienna

During Easter I was in Nice, France and that area.  When I travel, I always compare what I saw to Vienna. Here are my thoughts.

Pros Nice
Ocean
Good shopping for clothes
But also good shopping for food. Can get whatever you want
Fresh croissants that tasted like butter

Cons Nice
Expensive!
Traffic was rough, felt like I was back in LA

Pros Vienna
Much cheaper
Much bigger
More to do

Cons Vienna
Bad shopping
No ocean

But the cons of Vienna are always what I complain about whenever I do these posts. What I like about going on vacation, is that I am always happy to come back to Vienna. That’s a good sign.

Nice France

Nice France

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Driving in Vienna Part 2

I’d like to pick this topic up again since the last time I wrote about it here Driving in Vienna 

I miss driving in Los Angeles for the sheer purpose of speed. I like to drive fast. I like to whip my car around corners. I like to stomp on the gas and feel me head snap back just a bit. I like to get in the car just to drive. There are some really great roads where I grew up. Some really curvy roads. Some really dangerous roads where I could float my car around a blind corner and feel the adrenaline rush through my veins as I thought, “Oh, I really hope no one comes around this corner right about now.” I’ve even gotten into a bit of street racing with another car as the driver realized that I was driving for the sheer pleasure of speed. He got in on the game and we raced for some minutes. It was fun!

Here in Vienna you just can’t do that. First off, the streets are tiny! Going 35 mph (50kph) feels like you are going fast because everything is so tight.

That and there is just too much going on out on the streets. Pedestrians, streetcars, bicycles, buses and other cars. You’d kill someone!

I had one last bit of hope when I finally got ready to drive on the freeways around Vienna. I thought surely I can go my usual freeway speed of 80mph (120kph).

A few weekends ago I decided to take the car to my hair salon rather than take the Ubahn like I always do. Just to enjoy the car and driving. I brought my GPS (navi) with me, plugged in the address, and jumped on the freeway. I stomped down on the gas like I usually do and was thrilled to see the needle of the speedometer race upward when I heard a loud “Brrrriinnnggooo!!!” I thought, “What in the world?” I’m driving and don’t want to get distracted so I ignored the noise. Then it happened again “Brrrriinnnggooo!!!”

It was early on a Saturday so I risked a quick look at my GPS (navi) to see that on its screen it had a big red circle with the number 80 on it. I thought, “Hmm… what can that mean? Why is it telling me 80?” I thought about it for a second as I allowed my eyes to wander over to the speedometer and to see that it was as 80mph (120kph) and I thought, “You have to be kidding me.” I let my foot off of the gas pedal and let the car ease down to 45mph (80kph). My GPS was quiet.

For the entire 30 minute drive, my itch to drive fast was at constant war with my GPS. Every time my foot got a little bit heavy, the GPS let out a load “Brrrriinnnggooo!!!” I sighed, eased off the pedal, behaved for a few minutes until I heard again, “Brrrriinnnggooo!!!” That was my entire drive to the hair salon.

It ain’t easy being an expat.

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World’s Best Country for Women – not US or Austria

In addition to my below blog post. The below link brings you to the World Economic Forum. It’s a 23 page document, so let me give you a cheat sheet.

Germany ranks 8
US ranks 17
Austria ranks 28

Honey! We’re moving to Germany!

The World’s Best Country for Women

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