11 Things Not To Say To An Austrian

As an Austrian who has lived in the UK for over two years now I have encountered several reactions and opinions, so I thought I would share a list of things you should (probably) not say to an Austrian.

Obviously this is not entirely serious and I in no way claim to represent all Austrians when writing this. Some of the best people I know have said several of those things to me (you know who you are), so as long as you are not entirely serious you can get away with it, us Austrians sometimes do understand a joke after all.

1. "So, you speak German then?"
Yes, technically we do. But we take a lot of pride in speaking Austrian rather than German. Austrian is very different to German in many ways and we consider it to be superior. We are also quite proud of the fact that in many occasions we understand the Germans whereas they don't understand us. If you speak a bit of German be prepared for us to teach you new words, we love doing that.


2. "Are there any famous Austrians?"
This is a question people usually ask before actually thinking about it. We have Hitler of course! But there are several Austrians that did less evil things, such as Schrödinger (the guy with the cat), Mozart (he likes chocolate right?) and many more. Most importantly with have David Alaba (who basically makes up the whole of our football team). Just try not to mention Arnold Schwarzenegger, we have a love hate relationship with the guy.

3. "Do all Austrians talk like Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
What did I just say?! Also, are you talking to me? Can you hear my voice? I clearly do not talk like Arnie and neither do most Austrians unless it's some sort of party trick. I don't know what sort of concoction of Austrian and American Arnie's accent is, but it is nothing that makes scientific sense.

4. "Everything in Austria is like the Sound of Music right?"
Umm...NO! Sorry to break it to you, but although I've never seen the film myself (and neither have my Austrian friends) I can tell you that we did not grow up dancing on mountain tops with bad CGI. Certainly, we do have a tendency to wear traditional dresses every now and then, but even on those occasions we are more likely to sing songs like this rather than something about hills or goats (anyone ever notice that all of these songs are in english?!).

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5. "What is Schnitzel?"
Honestly, do your research. It's only the most amazing food in the whole world (no I'm not bias or anything). If you really don't know then just ask us and we'll be happy to provide a detailed explanation of the dish, including what sides to serve it with and where you can get the best schnitzel in our hometown.

6. "I went on a skiing holiday in Austria once."
Oh how wonderful. Honestly this is probably a good conversation starter with most Austrians as (and yes that is a cliché that is more or less true) a lot of us love skiing. I don't ski, I'm not even a big fan of snow, so chances are wherever you went on your skiing holiday is a place I want to hear nothing about.

7. "is Austria any good at football then?"
Are you English? Then we are actually only one FIFA ranking below you, so don't sound so condescending. Chances are come the Euros we will do better than you. Also, we have Alaba.

8. "So, was Hitler actually Austrian?"
Yes, but don't blame us for that bastard. We dislike him just as much as you do, in fact, probably even more, you know since he either killed our ancestors or left us to deal with having nazis as grandparents. You're ok to joke about Hitler though, most of us are fine with that.

9. "But, you don't look Austrian"
What does that even mean? Not only is it slightly racist, but it also just points out that there is no one way to look Austrian. We are in the middle of Europe, we are a small country, think! Most of us don't have typical Austrian sounding last names either. We are a very diverse country which is something we should be proud of.

10a. "So, are there really that many mountains in Austria?"
No, not really.

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10b. "I walked up this mountain the other day..." (when referring to somewhere in the UK)
Nope, not a mountain mate. Chances are it was more of a hill. We also won't accept you complaining about snow. Although we find it entertaining when you get seriously excited about some 100 snowflakes that are barely visible.

11. "Merry christmas" on the 25th of December. Or referring to Santa Claus/Father Christmas as the one who brings the presents
In Austria, christmas is on the 24th of December (christmas eve for you),  that's when we have christmas dinner, that's when we get our presents, and we have a real christmas tree, not those plastic ones. And the Christkindl brings the presents. Sorry to break it to you, but Santa isn't real!


Seriously, the hills are not alive.

healthy lullaby & my favourite shake recipe

hi guys,

after my last post I believe you should be updated as to what is happening in my life at the moment. well, to be honest there's really not a lot happening since all I am doing is preparing for my exams which start in 6 days. however there is one thing that I didn't write about in my previous post just because I thought it would deserve it's own little post; I have decided to live somewhat of a healthier life.

all of the updates.

Well hello guys,

Over the last few weeks it just hit me, I needed to get back on this blog and write stuff. I have had this little piece of the internet for quite a while now but in the last 1 1/2 years I just haven't appreciated it as much even though the blogging community has remained a big part of my life. However, lately I realised how much I want to blog again even if it won't be all that often and probably not regularly since my life is still crazy busy (which I absolutely love by the way).

I thought I would start my new found love for this blog with a bit of an update as to what I've been up to, since after all this blog is mainly about what I get up to (and what I eat, duh).

The year (which for me starts in September) started off pretty well, I had some more friends at uni including the lovely people I met through the blogging society (especially Nisha) and was generally feeling pretty motivated. I was happy with my flat and absolutely loving my modules at uni. However apprently it wasn't meant to go as well as it should have gone and only a few weeks into the semester I started to get really bad headaches, looking back now I am not sure how I managed to do all the things I did but I just really wanted to keep going. Turns out my headaches were caused by stress which is pretty unfortunate when you're a science student and can't really ever stop being stressed in a way. Luckily the headaches disappeared over christmas (although I still get them every now and then, but now I panic way less).
Despite the headaches I still had a great time, I volunteered at the Manchester Science Festival where I met some great people and got to love science even more.

I managed to do reasonably well in my exams and the second semester started pretty well. I absolutely loved my labs and was feeling myself again and managed to spend a lot more time with my friends and go on little adventures with the boyfriend. One of the best things that happened to me this semester was that I joined the university iGEM Team which means I will get to work in the lab over summer where we will be working on our very own synthetic biology project.

At the moment I am starting to prepare for my exams that are coming up sooner than I would like, but the end of exams means the start of a science filled summer which I honestly cannot wait for. I shall be keeping you updated and I also have some food related posts lined up.

It's good to be back.

Magdalena.