Cross-Cultural Tension

At the beginning of this blog, I promised you all that I would write a few thematic posts along with my journal entry style posts.  So many events happen here each week that I find it hard to record  more than the raw details of daily life!  As my life continued to develop throughout February, I realized I wanted to use this blog to process my reactions toward my experiences more deeply.

I often find myself in the middle of a cross-cultural tension here in Austria, which requires a constant dance of grace in the give and take between cultures.  As a foreigner here in Austria, I need and thankfully am offered much grace by the Austrian people around me.  On the giving side, I need to pass this grace on to the people around me.  I have loved and studied German for a long time, but honestly my study abroad program is geared more toward students who speak primarily English.  Through a series of fortunate accidents, I found a living situation and community connections which help me become more immersed in local Viennese life.  This often creates a internal tension for me, since I live more independently than the other students in my program.

On the one hand, I sometimes feel proud that I networked to my current situation.  On the other hand, I need to remember that I am only here due to God´s guidance in my situation and the kindness of people whom I met.  I find the examples endless.  Dr. Chaouli connected me to Amina, my landlady, whose family he has known since his childhood in Iran.  Amina took time out of her day to rescue me when I got lost in Vienna during my first days here and helped me when I forgot my passport on the way to the airport.  Georg, my roommate, showed me how everything worked in the apartment, even when I had to ask multiple times about our persnickety door or the wi-fi password.  Georg and his sister, Lisa, both introduced me to their friends and often ask me to hang out with them, despite silly things I've said and miscommunications in German.  People at church have warmly invited me into their homes and lives, even though I am only here for 4 1/2 months.  The Austrian staff at IES constantly answer students' questions about culture and language, as we develop in our understanding.

I sometimes can turn around and get frustrated at my fellow American students, when they struggle to use the language or act and speak loudly in ways that make it obvious they are foreigners.  This particularly happened before a local soccer game, which I attended with fellow students.  Struggling to know the best way to speak and act in response, I suddenly found the tables turned on myself.  See, we were standing in line at a Käsekrainer (cheese-filled sausage) stand and I made a very "unique" realization about Käsekrainer.  So, the sausages are very long, probably around 10 inches or so.  They are then stuck in baguettes with a hole in the middle, as this picture demonstrates:

Käsekrainer - Austria´s delicious version of hot dogs

I had always wondered how they made a hole in the baguette for the sausage, since American hot dog buns are sliced open down the middle.  Well, lo and behold, each Austrian sausage stand has a tool to make that hole!  The tool is a long, warm metal rod with which they puncture each bun and create the hole (scoured the Internet for pictures but couldn´t find one, sorry!).  Totally baffled and amazed by this realization, I blurted out rather loudly "So THAT´s how they do it!"  My friends and a few locals gave me some weird looks..."Uhhh, you´ve never seen that before?  Have you been hiding under a rock for the past 6 weeks?"

Moments like these remind me of the constant grace I need in this daily cross-cultural experience.  All the more, they remind me to pass on the grace I receive to the people in my life, regardless of their background.