Hola! My name is Juan and I’m a Venezuelan living in Vienna, Austria.

1.    Why did you move abroad?
I believe that it doesn’t matter where you come from, we are all striving for the same thing in life and that is to be happy. Regardless of your background, you want to have a nice family, a nice job, health etc.
What culture does, is that it shapes the way you want to get there and it determines the standards of those things.

It’s these differences between my perspectives and yours what drives to live abroad, constantly traveling looking to experience cultures from across the world. I love to learn about how others approach life because it allows me to expand my perspectives.

After living in USA for 6 years, I felt that I had gotten everything I was going to achieve there so, driven by a great interest in cultures, I decided to move again.

2.    How do you make a living?
Awesome question! That’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out ever since I moved to Vienna.
Currently, I’m responsible for the strategic development at a company that organizes startup weekend events for people who have a business idea and want to make a business out of it.

At the same time. after 12 years living abroad, I’m launching an online course on personal development by living abroad with the goal of helping expats get ahead in life by making the most out of the challenging experience that is living in another country.

3.    How often do you communicate with home and how?
All day actually! Well, at least I try. Right now I would say that Whatsapp has become the main channel for staying in contact, followed by the occasional Skype call every now and then.

Since my sister is also living abroad, we have a family group through which the 4 of us (my parents, my sis and I) talk and keep each other in the loop.

Everything else, is done through Facebook.

4.    What's your favorite thing about being an expat in Vienna?
Although my expat status does not offer any legal benefits, I love being exotic. Back when I was living in USA, I was asked very often, where in Mexico is Venezuela or, if my name is Jose.

Now it’s different, people show me a particular interest in wanting to learn more about me and my culture. At the same time, Vienna is extremely international and well located in Europe so it gives me easy access to world cultures, which I love.

5.    What’s the worst thing about being an expat in Vienna?
Being an expat from a none EU country makes it very challenging because I am very constraint legally as to what I can do, earn and so on. Also, at home things are not the best, which makes it all very hard for me to see my family as often as I would like to.

I know I can always simply go somewhere else so I try not to let these challenges bring me down.
I’ve come very far on this journey so by now I really believe that there is nothing bad about being an expat.
Perhaps it’s too positive to think that there are no bad things, but with so many challenges given to me by living abroad, why should I have a negative attitude and become my own obstacle?

Culture shock has some very orthodox ways to teach you life lessons but, if you manage to reflect on your experience and grow from them, trust me; the worst thing about the place where you are, is that you learn something.

6.    What do you miss most?
Definitely my family. Nobody is getting younger and I would love to spend more than just 3 weeks every 2 years with them. I also, would love them to have the chance to experience and see the things I have seen in the last 5 years (My parents have never been to Europe).

On the second hand, I would say the food and the amazing Venezuelan rum!

7.    What did you do to meet people and integrate in your new home?
When I first arrived, I moved straight into a student dorm and that went extremely well, until everybody left in the summer. So I decided to look for organizations to join (Toastmasters, AIESEC, Etc).

Since I was also enrolled in a language course at the time, it proved to be very good for meeting new people.
Networking events are good but, organizations that force you to work together or language courses are a great way to start building strong connections.

Connecting with other expats will be the easiest and especially with those from you home country. Push yourself to surround yourself with locals. Volunteering is always a good cause.

8.    What custom/ habits do you find most strange about your adopted culture?
The critical attitude. Sometimes it seems to me that in order to fit in, you need to be able to critique things in general regardless of its level of importance. I understand how this mindset has help them develop through constant improvement but, sometimes can be too much.

Viennese people are also popular for their bad mood, which still manages to surprise me.

The fact that you can smoke almost everywhere is crazy.

The eating times where also a bit strange and the fact that lunch is normally just a quick sandwich in front of the computer at work.

9.    What is a myth about your adopted country?
That everybody is on time all the time. That Austrians are perfect Waltz dancing skiers. That they are super strict with rules and not funny people at all.

These 5 years have proven all this wrong. For sure not everybody is on time although it’s not Venezuela where people can show up 2 hrs later, here it can be up to 15 mins depending on the type of event.

Not everybody skies nor dances Waltz, although they do take classes for both growing up depending on the school.

They really know how to enjoy life here, for sure they are not so strict with themselves or others. I believe than anything else, they are productive and work effectively so that they can go ahead an enjoy their time doing what they love.

As for the humor, they have a very particular way of laughing at life, must of the time is through very dark humor. They respect each other a lot so making fun of others is not that common.

10.    Is the cost of living higher or lower than the last country you lived in and how has that made a difference in your life?
When you live in the city ranked as #1 in Quality of Life, the price value relationship that Vienna offers it’s actually very cheap. Compared to my home country, Vienna is actually super cheap.

Given the current inflation rate in Venezuela, the low salaries and the low quality of life in general, I’m for sure saving money and living a more fulfilled, productive life by being in Austria.

11.    What advice would you give other expats?
BE PATIENT and avoid hanging out with people from your own country. Keep in mind that it took you years to build the life you had at home, so again BE PATIENT.

Be open-minded, stay positive and don’t take things personally. DON’T COMPARE your current city with how things are at home.

Try to figure out what you want to get out of your experience (whether personally or professionally) and make sure to reflect on it often as you grow from it.

12.    When and why did you start your blog?
About 6 years ago, I decided that I would like to write a book one day. So in order to develop my skills, I began to write, the problem was that I had no idea what to write about.

After meeting people from all over the world, I started noticing patterns between the things they would like to do or achieve and the obstacles holding them back in life.

Soon I realized that their biggest obstacle, was actually themselves. Through their frustrations they were not able to overcome themselves. So I began to write about it.

Today I have 2 blog projects:
•    Fun Side of Life, which focuses on living abroad and making the most out of internationalism (www.funsideoflife.net) and,
•    Skills of Life, which is focused on helping young professionals and new entrepreneurs, develop their self-leadership skills to get ahead in life (www.skillsoflife.net).

Juan's blog, Fun Side of Life

Guide to Vienna

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