I have a lot to talk about, but per the promise that I made in my first post, I'm going to keep it all as concise as possible!
At Hofer, which is the Austrian name for the Aldi chain, one can purchase a liter of white wine for EUR1.20. It goes down really easily because it kind of just tastes like apple juice. There might (probably will) be some pictures on Facebook that illustrate the effects of the availability of said wine for said price.
Yesterday I went skiing in the Alps for the first time. It was incredible. The first time I went down the "easy" hill I wiped out three times. And I mean wipe out, not fall down. Think flying through the air, skidding across snow and ice for at least 100 feet, and then having to backtrack to pick up both skis and poles. The "easy" hill that I skied twice yesterday was significantly harder (and much, much longer) than any hill I've ever skied before at home. On my second wipe out, I lost both poles and one ski, and as I went back to retrieve them, a man who was passing one of my poles stopped to pick it up and bring it to me. When he handed it to me he said "Die Skier gehören auf den Füße", which for you non-German speakers means "The skis belong on the feet." I responded by thanking him and telling him that I knew that, and then he went on his way. Even though I was rather sore about the whole incident, that smart ass joke kind of made my day. The second time I went down, I didn't fall once. Nice.
On top of the world - the text on the cross reads "Für Gott u. Heimat" which roughly translates "For God and Country."
We met a couple of Brazilian guys on the lift (well, it's really a tram car type of thing) and also a couple of U.S. Army guys who are stationed in Germany. None of them spoke a lick of German. It's cool to meet other foreigners here, especially when they find it as refreshing as you do that English is the preferred language of communication.
Tonight, Jonathan and I got dinner at McDonald's. Like moths to a flame. The restaurant itself was MUCH nicer than any McDonald's I've ever been in. The food costs a little bit more, but not all that much more, and I thought that it tasted a lot better. I got a Hamburger Royale TS, which made me really happy for the following reason:
Since I got a meal, I got a free Coke glass, which also made me really happy because I felt like I got a happy meal with extra food. I would have to say that it was probably the most satisfying meal I've had here thus far.
Regarding Diversity: the woman who was cleaning the floor while we were eating was rather obviously a Chinese (or similar) immigrant, and I found myself thinking "You decided to leave your country, but you came here instead of America?", and so I was somewhat shocked by the whole situation, but then when we tried to get up and dispose of our own garbage she told us (in English!) to just go ahead and leave it there and that she would take care of it, and so that made everything all better, because I really think it should be that way in America too.
Here's a great example of some bad graffiti. "Ausländer" means "foreigners" and "rein" means "pure", so we're not sure what they're going for, but it probably has something to do with purifying the country of dirty foreigners. Like me!
I would like to conclude this post by quoting my roommate, Mr. Jonathan Asbury:
"The great thing about being a guy is that the world is your bathroom."
Word.
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