The beginning

Loving & Living together

The idea to set up my own blog to express my opinions and share my stories came when I finally got rid of an annoying walnut sized boil on my certain body part, thanks to the information found on the internet forum.
It started with a skin abscess which got infected and improperly treated. The small lump grew bigger within a week to a size of walnut, hard, rather painful and red, the symptoms which not only made me worried but also  hysterical due to its vulnerable location and size.
I started to do some research on the internet and came across to an internet forum on 'how to treat furuncle'. Some people wrote that operation was not really a good option considering the pain one had to endure and the risk for another boil to recur.
One member of the forum recommended homeopathy remedies that were 'effective against furuncle'.
Never wanting to undergo any surgery, if I could help it, I tried the remedies recommended and swore, if this horrible thing would go away, I would share my stories to others, and let them know that there would always be a solution to (almost) every problem.

Within 2,5 weeks the abscess was completely gone, thanks to the homeopathy cream (and probably the globules, my positive thinking and care).
I know, not everybody believes in homeopathy, but I do. As long as the abscess is gone, I don't care what other people believe in. They might say I was cured not by homeopathy but by the placebo effects   of the homeopathy. Could be. Doesn't really matter to me.

The skin problem was gone, I had another kind of 'problem'. What should I write on the blog?
I couldn't just set up a blog and write about one subject, 'Furuncle' and basta.
What kind of blog was that? Pathetic and ridiculous. I had to write something else that I was really
interested in.

Some days earlier I saw an 'Invitation' sent through Facebook to a discussion on the subject of integration, organized by Sebastian Kurz (or his team), the state secretary for integration.
Always deeply interested in the theme, I decided to take part in the discussion.
During the Q&A session, I tried to attract the moderator's attention by first raising a hand, and eventually two hands simultaneously, moving them up and down but the good gentleman didn't seem to acknowledge that I even existed. It seemed that I was invisible to him.
Finally I got the chance talking to Mr Kurz only after the discussion ended, which left me feel disgruntled since I was convinced that for whatever reason did the moderator have, he had decided to ignore me. And as a result of his (lack of) action,  my question was not satisfactorily answered due to 'limited amount of time' Mr Kurz had.

So I went home feeling slightly morose and thought, 'I really want to know Kurz's answer. How he would respond to my question since he is supposed to be in charge of integration affairs.'
And maybe to be quite honest, I didn't like the feeling of being ignored. Who did?

The next day while  examining the boil which, fortunately, was really gone, I thought of the 'incident' and an idea slowly and gradually developed in my head. Why not setting up a blog on which I could express my opinions, and share my stories? Why should I wait for another chance just to speak up and be heard if I could make myself heard through other means and reach out to certain groups of people who shared the same interests with me? I still could write about the boil and of course about integration, and also other things such as life in Vienna,  Recipes, and so on.

So with that, this blog finally came to life.
I hope it won't just live for weeks but longer.
And most importantly the blog can be useful and gives some insights into Austrian culture in general  as seen through my (critical?) eyes.
I look forward to reading your comments / feedback on my newly born site.

Please understand that I am writing the blog in my free time, so I will probably not be able to update it everyday but I will try my best to do it regularly.
Some of the 'articles' written are in German. If anybody feels like translating them in English to help non German speakers to understand the contents, post them on my blog, they are very welcome, I'll be very grateful.
You can also use google translation if you don't understand any German, though like any automatic translation,  it will give you only an 'iffy'  (not so good) result:-)