Life as a Wiener  

 Febuary 27, 2007

LIEBE FAMILIE!!!!  ES FREUT MICH EUCH ZU SCHREIBEN!!!!  ICH LIEBE EUCH!!!

Hey fam,

That there is how we say hello, and just a little sample of the language of love:  German.

Hope you're all doing well.  Just wanted give a quick update since I've been a weasel and haven't gotten around to writing, I'll try to crank out an update (or outsource to Tiffany) every other week.  

Things here are absolutely incredible.  The city is awesome and the folks are great.  In fact it's exactly how I had stereotyped it:  a bunch of midgets frolicking through the streets in lederhosen with schnitzel in hand.  But they also have really fast automatic doors here on the elevators and on the trams.  They close fast and with authority.  To date I have seen them take out 3 cats and a small child... 

I digress, basically the last two weeks have been almost like a complete party in a foreign country with no school/accountability--wait, yeah, they have been a complete party in a foreign country with no school/accountabilty.  But alas, this party train is coming to a halt (note:  we really had an entire party car on the train to venice) and Scotty's been hitting the books hard these last few days in preparation for a behemoth exam he unsuccessfully tried to weasel his way out of.  Moral of the story:  I'm havin' to keep this baby short.

But I've attached some photos and here are just a few of a thousand highlights:

--Aldi's Nostalgia.  Yes, blessed be the day, my first day here I came upon a store sign that had me look up and ponder, "methinks I have seen that crooked "A" with blue and post-soviet orange before"  And sure 'nough, I walk in and observe many a third world product and test tube manufactured lunch meats and say unto myself, "nay, Aldi's!"  So anyway, that's been great for saving some coin.

--Wee man.  My roommate next door is from Vietnam and named Wee.  Great guy, always helpful and says "no prob'lem" to almost anything I ask--though I'm sure he'd like to vent and say something else, fortunately his limited vocabulary, limits him to one emotion in English.  No, actually he speaks pretty well.  

--Roommate to the North.  My other roommate (with whom I share my room) is Thomas, from Canada.  We exchange "eh"s and diatribes on Cheney.

--The Austrian Fraeulein.  Though ever-exotic, a true Wiener Fraeulein has yet to come knocking, for those hoping for a little Schnitzelerin in the fam (Mom).  

That's all i got time for at this juncture, but i'll attach a couple photos too:  a view from my dorm room, picture with some random Asians in Vienna, and me right outside the train station in Venice...some others I'll try to put on the fam website Matt set up...

Anyvay, I hope you all have a wunderbare veek and aren't too jealous ov us Austreans und ower zuperior vay of life......za schtupid americans, BWAHAHEEHAAHA-DA-SCHNOODALVAFELYA!!!

Viele Gruesse,