Let's start from the beginning

First of all I left Canada on July 21st at 21h30. I bought a first class ticket from Montreal to Vienna through Air Transat without connections. I arrived at the airport at around 18h30. At the Air Transat check-in line there are about 500 people in line. Since I bought a first class ticket I have the privilege to go to the vip line which has nobody waiting. It’s so cool to see this long line of people waiting for ever and me bypassing all of them with that magic first class ticket. Then at the counter I am a little bit nervous because I am allow to bringed 40 kg. I did some tests at home and I feel like I am close to 40kg. It’s not easy to fit a life in 40 kg. I put the luggage and the scale shows 40.4 kg! Yes I am good!!!! Then the lady at the counter put some priority tag on my luggages! Wow I will receive my luggage the first at the caroussel in Vienna!  Few minutes later I am at the security. It’s now 19h00 and everything is register! I still have 2 hours and half to wait. If I knew that first class is so quick I would have come later. 

Finally the boarding time has arrived. In the plane I don’t turn right like most of the people. Noooooooo, I turn left to the… first class! I am not sit that a woman ask me if I want something to drink like, rhum and coke, gin and tonic, beer, wine, etc. Mmmm I would take a gin and tonic. The plane is finally flying to Vienna and I am relaxing with a gin and tonic. Then some appetizer, then wine, then more appetizers, then the main meal, then more alcool. I told her that I am done for the night and that I will sleep until we arrived. Wow the chair is really comfortable. I closed my eyes and when I openned them we are 50 minutes away from Vienna. As soon as I wake up the lady come to me and said : « you didn’t have your breakfast! I can give you something quick now. I told her that’s ok and I am fine. » We finally landed in Austria. I have to go through the security. I hope the German I learned will help me. Everybody is passing really quick at the security. When it’s my turn, they looked at me for several minutes and check many things in their databases! I start to be nervous. After 10 minutes the guy stamped my passport and he told me bye.  Then I picked up my luggages, which were the first to come in the caroussel. Yes travelling in first class is really something special. I wish that everybody can try it at least once in his/her life.  The feeling is very good especially when you bought yourself the ticket and it’s not a company who paid. I really felt like a king!

Then I went to Linz by train. Iris was waiting for me. I finally see her after several months of waiting. I will skip some details ;)

Then the next days are meeting the boss of the new company where I will work, finish the papers with the immigration and employment agencies, register myself in the national databases of foreigner or something like that, a lot of stuff to buy, etc, etc, etc, etc. The first week was full of not so interesting stuffs. The important things is that Iris and their parents helped me a loooooooooot to install myself and make me feel comfortable. Without them and especially Iris I don’t think I would have survived the first week. I also received a cool mountain bike as a gift from their parents! I am using it a lot. In Austria it’s full of hills and it’s good for the legs to do bike. I will show why soon.

I started to work 1 week after I arrived. I was suppose to start later but, the new boss really insisted that I start this week. I said ok.  I take the bus to go to job and it takes me 15 mins to go and to come back.Then he gave me an iphone4 with 1500 minutes/month, 3Gb of bandwidth/month and it costs them 30^E/month! I am sure that some Canadian fans of iPhone are jealous to hear that! ;) My new tasks at the company are basic compare to what I was doing but I have the right to live and work in Austria with them! So I will not complaint. We are 1 Italian, 2 Germans, 2 Austrians, 4 Romanians, 1 Iranian and 1… Canadian! 

Enough about me! Let’s talk about Austria. I live in Oberosterreich which means Upper Austria. I live in a beautiful city call Gallneukirchen.  This city is surrounded by green hills and fields. It’s really beautiful. Judge by yourself.

I live in a kind of big 2 ½ apartment. The owner of the building is making high quality furnitures. The apartment is fill with these beautiful furnitures.  

The life cost seems to be moderate. The food is completely cheap. I never saw so cheap food. All the things local and not coming from far away countries cost nearly nothing. Here is the list of cheap stuff : cheeses, meat, local fruits and vegetables, bread, noodles, beers. The expansive stuff are banana, pineapple, wild rice and other stuff I don’t know yet. The gas is around 1,40^E the liter which is quite expansive. I don’t know yet for electricity. The Austrian eat very healthy. By default, nearly everything is bio and produced with a great respect of the environment. People here mostly eat a big breakfast made from fruits, yogurt, nuts and sometimes bread. I didn’t see breakfast with bacon and eggs. The lunch is usually a very big hot meals. For supper they eat very light. Usually something like many vegetables, piece of bread, cheese and dry sausages. Here is a picture of the typical supper meal. In the picture we see a typical brown bread. In the bowl it's topfen. A kind of local cheese that look a little bit like cream cheese.

Since I arrived the weather is not really beautiful. They say they didn’t see this since 11 years. It’s raining a lot. When it’s raining here they don’t have earth worms crawling everywhere. They have beautiful snails. They are everywhere and it’s easy to step on them.

The mosquitoes bites are terrible. It’s itchy for at least 3 days. A wasp also spiked me and my legs had a big bump big like a baseball! The flying insects are really strongs here! 

To finish this first blog, it’s really interesting to visit a new country. I must admit it’s not easy to integrate when the language is different and so complicated. All around me I hear words I don’t understand. Even the pigeons do a sound I never heard! They also have weird panels like this one!

I know I will adapt and I am very happy to be with Iris.

I will try to write every 2 weeks or sooner.