On Language, Roommates, and Inertia

I don't hang out with my roommates much. They are four Austrians, three male and one female. We live in this tiny suite where we all have our own individual rooms with a shared kitchen and bathroom. That is all for living space. The only common area is the kitchen table, a rectangular thing that seats 5 people maximum:

The countertops in the right background is all we have for food preparation space. Two electric burners and an electric oven. Apparently my roommates are bigwigs in the Hafnerriegel, because it is unusual to have ovens. They told me when I first moved in about this customization, rather proudly I might add. Food storage is on the shelves at the end of the tables.

When I first moved in I tried to get to know my roommates, and on several nights sat at that table drinking a few beers with them, while they talked to me in English, and after they got tired of that, to each other in German. Roland has the best English, and studied in the U.S. for a while. Christian probably has the next best English, followed by Jörg and Bettina. Bettina, the one woman in our suite, and I have said less than 10 words to each other I think. My German was horrible when I came here and I didn't want to embarrass myself with it. She probably feels the same way about her English. It's intimidating, because in my mind once you don't talk someone much, it becomes the norm, and it's difficult to break that habit.

The kitchen is at the end of a long hallway on which lies each of our rooms and the bathroom:

Bedrooms are on the right side of the hallway, and bathroom on the left side. That fridge in the foreground is the one I share with Roland. Way at the other end of the hall are two more fridges of the same size. Normally each suite only gets one fridge of that size, for 5 or 6 people to share. Again, being the "Kings of Hafnerriegel" as they are, my roommates got two more. I can't imagine sharing one fridge that size with four other people. Behind the first fridge you can also see a tower of yellow beer cases. That is a big part of the major social activity that goes on at the kitchen table. Here's another look at it from my room:

Beer is BIG in Austria. The standard bottle size is a 0.5 liter, not this wussy 12oz (0.35 liter) used in the U.S. And they don't drink light beer either. Roland is about 6 foot 4 inches and probably 280 pounds. He can put those bottles away quickly.

As I'm typing this, my roommates are all having dinner with each other, minus Jörg who is at his parents for semester break. In addition to Roland, Christian, and Bettina are Helmut, who is Bettina's brother, and some guy from several floors below who comes up often for dinner and drinking. I think he is Croatian, but don't know for sure. Helmut lives with Bettina's parents in a town nearby and comes over every week, at least once a week. He sleeps in Bettina's room.

Helmut and I got off on the wrong foot, because the second night I saw him he projectile vomited in the kitchen. We were staying up late drinking beer and sampling the different types of schnapps that Jörg's father makes. One minute he was fine, the next he was covering his mouth and coughing out a mix of food, schnapps, and beer. Yes, it was very disgusting. Roland cleaned up most of it. Admittedly, we had all had a lot to drink. But for all the boasting I heard them say about how they were gonna teach me to drink "like an Austrian" it was a bit disappointing to see one of them puking like an 18-year-old American college kid. Several weeks later Helmut came by for his weekly sleepover after midnight when I was the only one home, and in bed. He kept pushing the doorbell, and I was pretty irked to have to get out of bed to let him in. The sleepover thing bugs me, because I know that when he comes over there will be noise until late at night. In addition, it's like having a 5th roommate. I guess Jörg isn't around much because he usually stays at his girlfriend's place, so that balances out.

So I don't hang out with my roommates much. The language barrier is one big reason. I don't want them to have to switch English just for my sake. I told them early on to not speak English just so I could understand. That backfired a bit because at the few times that I shared dinner with them they just sat around talking German to each other. A slang-filled Austrian dialect of German, no less. I understood about every 50th word. After this Intensive German course, though, I feel a lot more comfortable with it. Yesterday I was eating dinner and understood a lot of what they were saying to each other. Granted it was little stuff like "come up here to eat in half an hour", but I felt good for recognizing it. I want to start talking to them in German more and hanging out with them, but it's like what I said earlier. I have this habit now of keeping to myself. Breaking it seems scary. It's inertia.

I spend most of my social time with other exchange students from my Intensive German course. I am in A1, the lowest level, so none of my fellow classmates are comfortable conversing in German. They come from Turkey, Australia, Italy, Finland, Mexico, Columbia, Japan, and the U.S. We hang out outside of class, and it's great. Everyone gets along very well. Last Saturday night some of us went to Maria's apartment for dinner. Maria is from Italy, and in my class. Virpi, from Finland, made the sauce for the pasta (odd, considering it was PASTA. Delicious, though!) and we all ate and drank and talked. Mostly in English, but we also tried talking to each other in German. Since they are all at the same knowledge level as me, it doesn't feel as intimidating to talk with them.

So one day soon perhaps, I will greet Bettina with a "Servus!" and a "Wie geht's?". I'll keep you posted.