1st week in Austria survived.

Well, we have come to the conclusion of our first week in Austria, and it has been a week of much absorption to say the least, but there is oh so much more to learn. We have shopped at some local grocery stores and completed a successful trip to IKEA, with Andrew driving a long Volkswagen van with manual transmission, which he handled well...although, we won't comment on the number of people who sped around us. Andrew is good about getting out the German handbook to be prepared with his questions, and most Austrians are forgiving and either speak English or can understand enough combined with our broken German.

 

Some things we have learned about Austrian living thus far...

 

: No right turns on a red light.
: People walk slow but drive fast even around these small towns.

: The local church bells ring continuously for 15 minutes before Mass on Sunday and holy days.

: Shops and businesses are closed on Sundays, and holy days are considered holidays.

: Crosses and saint statue columns (picture below) are a normal sight in the small towns, with almost every town having its own Catholic church. 

: At grocery stores, shopping cart placement is controlled. One inserts a 50 cent Euro to use the cart, and in order to get the money back, must return it to the cart area and lock it back into the line of carts.
: Food is packaged in smaller sizes - use as you go to reduce food waste. And there are only 10 eggs instead of 12 in a carton.

: Absolutely no bags are provided for free for shopping. Either bring your own or purchase as you need.
: Everyday trash must be separated into 4 groups - bio (food waste), plastic, paper, and restmull (meat/diary scraps, diapers, dirty containers) and then disposed into the appropriate trash bins sans the plastic bag. Make-up, cleaners, hair products, etc. are labeled as "problem trash." They sure do take trash seriously here.

: To own/maintain a car here is extremely expensive. For example, a simple oil change costs around $250. 

 

On Sunday, we attended the local parish church in Trumau at the Katholische Pfarrkirche hl. Johannes der Täuferfor (Catholic parish church of St. John the Baptist) along with other people from the ITI; all in German, of course, but very pleasant. We are starting to work on learning the Mass parts in German.