charismaticmicrofauna

I am officially a doctor. I graduated with my PhD in December of 2019. I had a post doctoral research position waiting for me at the University of Vienna, so I moved to Austria on January 1, 2020: new year, new me!

Moving to Austria from the US had some challenges. While completing my thesis and getting ready to defend, I was also arranging flights to Vienna for me, my husband, 2 cats, and a blind dog. I was sorting out where I would stay, where I would store my things while overseas, how to move those items up north near my family, and visiting Washington DC for my VISA D. There was a matter of selling our cars, selling things we didn’t need anymore, and making sure the animals were vetted, vaccinated, and prepared for a long overseas flight.

Preparing the animals was one of my greatest accomplishments last year, besides finishing my PhD. Before we moved, we had 2 outdoor cats who we had trapped, vaccinated, sterilized, and released, 4 indoor cats, 2 dogs, and 2 sugar gliders. I made sure to find the best homes for all of the animals and we are respectably down to 2 cats and 1 blind poodle. The animals that we brought with us needed to be microchipped, vaccinated for 3 years, booked on flights that would accommodate them across the Atlantic (I recommend TAP Portugal Airlines), and certified by a USDA veterinarian in the state capital within 10 days of their arrival in our destination country of Austria.

I arrived in Vienna on January 2, 2020 in the evening with my two cats. The flight was long for them. The first leg of our flight was with American Airlines, and even though I called the day before to confirm my reservation with my cats, when I arrived at Tampa International to check-in they informed me that the airplane taking us to Miami to meet our connecting flight did not accommodate cargo animals, which one of the cats was booked for. This particular cat is 17 lbs which is the limit for in cabin animals, and since I was traveling with 2 cats, I thought it would be better for us all if he went in the cabin, although I was constantly worried about him. I did a lot of reading about the dangers of a sensitive cat like him to travel in cargo, but in the end it worked out and he is perfectly happy with no long term trauma as a result. SO, from Tampa to Miami I had to travel with both cats in one backpack carrier under my seat. Imagine, a cat backpack carrier designed for an 8 lb cat to comfortably travel in stuffed with an 8 lb and a 17 lb cat. The time they spent in that carrier from check in at TPA to arriving in Miami and getting my giant cat back into his proper carrier was about 4 hours. I don’t think any amount of CBD that I could have given them could have made them feel any better about their time being squished into that backpack on an airplane, under a seat. The only saving factor, I think was that they were in such shock that they were basically CATatonic for the whole leg of that trip.

When we arrived in Miami I found my luggage and the cat carrier, we checked into our international flight and the big cat was handled from there to Lisbon, Portugal and to Vienna. So it was just the small cat in cabin and I for most of the flight.

When we arrived at the Vienna airport, we got our luggage, and we were all reunited. Unfortunately, the pee pads that I had put into the cat backpack were not absorbent enough to contain the cat’s pee that happened to be released onto my back and down my jeans just as we were departing the airport terminal, so I had the privilege of checking into our Vienna airbnb that night covered in cat pee. Graciously, the hosts pretended not to notice.

I spent the first month learning about all of the registrations that are required when you move to Austria. There are so many registrations! There is a lot of bureaucracy here and everyone’s social duty is to enforce that bureaucracy which, when I first experienced this came across to me as people being very nosy about my personal business, but I am starting to accept it as hyper vigilance.

Experiencing the Corona virus in Austria has demonstrated to me that social contracts and public obligations here are strong. This has been something that explains the success that Austria has had in keeping the rate of infection and spread of the Corona virus low. Overall, a positive. Culturally, it has been a shock to me because there is a unique interaction between people that can come across as personal policing which I have not experienced before. I am still getting used to this because there is a very strong sense that social obligations can not be ignored no matter how much you perceive of them as your personal matters. You can not have an “I will get it done in a timely manner” attitude because all the time people remind you that “it is required in Austria”.

I have also learned that in Austria there is still an open and established wage disparity between men and women. Women are compensated (for lack of a better word) for this by being allowed to retire 2 years earlier than men. At the University of Vienna, where I conduct my research, only 30% of the professors are women. Additionally, although medical care is provided to all residents, women’s birth control is not covered. Sure, maternity leave is much better than you will be offered in the US, but what if you don’t want to have a baby? That’s not covered.

I observe gender roles here to be conservative as well. Women seem to be more acceptable if modest, polite, and well mannered all of the time. Men can be more outspoken about things and nobody raises an eyebrow, but as I learned, if you are woman who is assertive about a difficult situation than you are a troublemaker. This of course, takes all of the will in my feminist heart to not pack up my things and just leave because, we all know that women who speak up are often portrayed and vilified as troublemakers that are to be shunned by the patriarchy. I thought that as a doctor I would not have to be defensive about taking matters into my own hands. I came to the University of Vienna to become a better scientist after all; not to learn how to be a “Well behaved woman”.

I find some things here to be more progressive when it comes to the environment. There are recycling receptacles all over the city and waste separation is strongly encouraged. There are bicycle lanes in many parts of the city that are respected since many people in Vienna commute primarily by bicycle. Although I am an Army brat, I claim Philadelphia as my hometown and I am happy to once again live in a city that is more accustomed to a bicycle culture, although Philadelphia is still far behind Vienna when it comes to bicycle safety. Tampa, FL where I acquired my PhD is not your city if you want to be a bicyclist. It is one of the worst places in the United States for bicycle safety. https://www.fox13news.com/news/tampa-bay-region-is-one-of-the-most-dangerous-places-to-walk-ride-a-bike-report-says

Organic food is also easily attainable no matter what your income bracket is, which is refreshing considering that in the US organic food is considerably more expensive than standard produce and food deserts are ubiquitous. So, there are more choices for you if you are conscientious about the environment, animal cruelty, and sustainability. I have also observed that there is a tendency for people here to have special diets not just because of the ability to be more selective about what they ingest, but also as it was explained to me, because people here don’t believe in taking medications. So, if you have an achy body, don’t eat wheat or gluten. Depressed? Have a special diet. Although from my observations, neither of these diets appear to have been effective, so I will stick to my Lexapro and ibuprofen for the time being. I also would not turn my nose up at an offer for a cooked meal by a well meaning individual just because she couldn’t find organically raised meat, which happened to me. So, there may be a little privilege at work as a result of this access too, or maybe I’m just not picky enough about what I eat.

So this ends part one of my first impressions of living in Vienna. I am still finding where I belong here personally and professionally. I have been here for 7 months. My husband arrived 30 days after I with our blind poodle, and it is good to have him with me. We are grateful not to be in the US during this Corona virus pandemic as the number of cases and spread of infections grow across the United States because people are politicizing wearing a face mask. Seriously, America?

What has it been like to spend the first 7 months of my post-doctoral research in the midst of a global pandemic? That will be discussed in part 2.