No Screens On The Windows

This is a blog post that I’ve been meaning to write since February. It’s also not the only entry of it’s kind that I’m going to rush to get out online before we leave. The purpose of these kinds of entries are to show you just some of the differences in Austrian culture from US culture that the culture comic didn’t help explain. So here’s the first one of those blog posts.

This first part will be about the simple fact that there aren’t any screens to help keep bugs out on any of the windows. You know that these simple things are on almost every window on the houses in the US. It is an observation I made on February 16th, the first full day we were here and ever since have been meaning to write about on my blog, but clearly never had the chance until our last 16 days of being here. It seems quite odd at first that they don’t, but that’s simply because of how we think as being americans. This of course means that bugs will get into the houses if the windows are open simply because it’s a straight path. That also means that when the windows are open anyone inside can accidentally manage to get something out the window. The nice thing I can think of about this is that when the windows are open we actually get more wind though than if there were screens on the windows.

That was my first simple observation about the deeper (or less necessary-to-know) culture differences. Within the next 2 weeks many more of these will probably show up on my blog. All of which were in my head practically since we got here in February. Enjoy, Alex.