Danube-Networkers
Encounters with strangers
Text: Margarita Holzer
Translation: Eva Linton
I was born at the Danube in a city called Russe, in Bulgaria. At school we learnt German. In August 1992 I came to Austria and I found out that my knowledge of German was not enough to have conversations with people. In March 1993 I enrolled in a German class at the community college Brigittenau. Our teacher, Werner, asked everybody in the class to introduce themselves. After that we noticed that we are 20 participants from 18 different nations.
The course was intense and we had to get along well every day from Monday to Friday from 8a.m. to 1p.m: people of all walks of life, different ages and different cultures. The only thing that bonded us was the wish to learn the German language.
During the breaks we chatted and so we got closer as time passed by. After a short time we became friends, Anna from Spain, Angy from the Philippines, Pilar from Portugal, Folla from Nigeria, Sonetra from Sri Lanka and me from Bulgaria. After class we started meeting at our apartments. Each of us prepared their favourite national dish, we had lunch together and we all tried to give our best. All dishes tasted great, only the dishes from Nigeria and Sri Lanka were too spicy. Everybody liked my Bulgarian dishes best.
One day we met at Folla’s. She has a very big kitchen. I also cooked there. We agreed on three Bulgarian dishes: filled bell peppers,minced beef patties and potato goulash with beef. Anna, Angy, Pilar, Folla and Sonetra watched me preparing the food and wrote down the recipes in their mother tongue because we hadn’t known enough German yet.
Anna invited us to her wedding with Robert in May, in September Sonetra and Gerhard got married and invited us, too. Angy gave birth to her first son and once again we were invited to the Christening. After a couple of months Anna gave birth to a daughter and also at her Christening we were all there.
The course finished but our friendship is still alive. Starting off as strangers we got friends and our relationship is like relatives for the last seventeen years.
