Last Monday Brian and I met some people at a meeting way across town. We were chatting with one woman when another woman came up and introduced herself. She asked us where we lived and when we told her the neighborhood, she responded, "Oh, that's difficult."
Difficult? I wasn't sure what she meant. Since we were speaking in English and she said her English wasn't very good, I thought maybe she had used the wrong word. So I gave some generic answer like, "Yes, it's very different than the place we lived in the U.S."
That's when the first woman piped up. She asked, "What do you mean 'difficult'? Is that a nice way to say it's not so nice a place?" And the second woman explained that she was viewing it from a social worker's standpoint.
So apparently we live in the ghetto. Or as Carla from Scrubs put it, we're from the block.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Alisha From the Block.
I think you've got the title for your first album and #1 hit single.
I don't see how a neighborhood with that gorgeous view can be the ghetto.
Alisha,
my german teacher's wife used to teach at a school near Rennbahnweg-and I believed he used the word "ghetto" or the "gangster part of town" I forgot about it, since I didn't really get that feeling in the area, but your blog brought back the distinct memory!
I think I'm glad this post came out AFTER we visited. I'm not sure Scott would have let his girls come to the 'ganster part of town'. I thought the place looked great and I wasn't afraid to walk around, but now I'll be worried about you walking around. Love, MOM
I guess I should have clarified that we don't really live in the ghetto. There are people who don't like the area, but there's nothing unsafe about the neighborhood. Most people who would say something about the neighborhood either don't like the commie-style buildings (they are a little blockisque) or don't like immigrants. (The amount of racism here is quite surprising -- not against us, but against immigrants from certain countries.)
So there's no reason to worry about us. Besides, the crime rate in Austria is so much lower than in the U.S., even the ghettos of Vienna are a walk in the park compared to many of the neighborhoods I've lived in in the U.S.
Don't worry. I live about 1/2 mile from the ghetto here and I work in the ghetto (there is weekly someone shot close to where I work) and thus far I haven't gotten hurt. But then again, I'm not actually IN the ghetto...
Candace, it definitely sounds like you live in a rougher neighborhood than me. The other night, Brian took Sharkdog out after midnight and when he came back he said there were some kids out causing trouble. I asked what the kids had been doing and Brian said they were kicking around a grocery cart. This is what the hoodlums in our neighborhood do -- kick around grocery carts!
Post a Comment