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Victor Jouvert - The New Yorker who moves to Vienna

I accompanied my friend (and the guy I am staying with in Co-Op City) Victor on his way to work a couple of days before I flew back to Vienna for my two weeks stay.
Victor was born in New York and lived here all his life. He told me a little about his way of seeing New York City and his next big step in life.

"I love New York. I don't wanna miss all the experiences growing up here although I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of drugs and crime. I don't know if it's a little more than in other places... I ride my bike to work (from Co-Op City to Brooklyn) pretty often and you get to see so many different parts of the city. You get to see all kinds of neighborhoods. The so calles "good neighborhoods" as well as the so called "bad neighborhoods", you see tourist areas as well as authentic areas of New York. I love the variety of people you meet from all over the world living here or not living here.
I like people. I don't know if that's specific to New York but I've just been living here all my life."

"Lately I'm getting more impatient with the city. Probably because I'm leaving soon. If you drive your car there are always people trying to come in front of you. They honk and shout. Using the train is not a lot better. People are pushing each other, they try to get a seat for every price. There are people using their cell phones, hving loud conversations, people throwing stuff on the ground and people begging for money. Everybody seems to only think about theirselfs. They think everybody has to slow down and get out of their ways. It's not relaxing anymore."

In about two weeks time Victor will be moving to Vienna for a year. Moving to Vienna heh... Why is this guy moving to Vienna? Guess why... Because of the Viennese "Krapfen" (something like crullers) and because of a girl.

Victor and Monika met in New York City while Monika was still living there. She is from Vienna originally and moved back to her hometown about one year ago.
So what are Victors expectations to Vienna?

"I just want to experience living in a foreign country. I want to meet new people and get to know the people I already met in Vienna better. Developing friendships. I guess I'll be really relaxed in Vienna. You don't always have to be on guard like in New York. I never felt any danger or threat in Vienna. And the customer service in Vienna is a lot nicer then it is in New York. People are a lot friendlier in stores over there..."

Monika and me had to contradict at least for this last part regarding customer service. (See more Victor here.)

Posted by Martin Fuchs on July 27, 2005 08:42 PM