Greetings, friends, family, and travel lovers! Today sees me sleeping late for the last time in quite a while, I think, reading, writing, making silly Flipgram videos, and just generally enjoying my last day off before work starts!
Last night was fantastic for me. Markus, the chief here in Jennersdorf, made me some amazing lasagna for dinner, and afterwards, two new friends, Claus and Phillip, took me out to see the town, and showed me the best spot for ice cream. I had vanilla chocolate chip mixed with cookies and cream - talk about some great ice cream! After we made the rounds of the city for the evening (the sunset was beautiful), we came back and just chatted for an hour or so. Claus knows a good bit about the Austrian economy, and so we discussed American vs Austria economics! Right up my alley.
It's funny, one of the main questions I get here is "Is America just like the films we see here? Does everyone own a gun and are all the buildings super large and is everyone always busy?" It's a good question, I suppose, because all they see are images Hollywood portrays. I have to explain to them that my hometown looks much like Jennersdorf - a bit of town mixed with a lot of country, fields, and woods, and that most of America doesn't go around bustling in a city with a gun on their hip. It's been extremely enlightening for me - I have a better grasp of the way things work in Austria compared to the US, and I can see why both cultures, American and Austrian, sometimes misunderstand one another - we just don't know everything about each other, and thereby make assumptions. I have been so happy to learn about my Austrian colleagues.
Tonight at the bbq I had so very much fun. I made new great friends (swapping music makes good friends too, I've found), and tried SO many delicious new foods. Markus translated his welcoming speech into English just for me, and I walls extremely impressed. I think he is trying to get me fat, though, with all this great food. ;)
The team is super nice to me. I feel very at home, but I wish I spoke German so I could interact more (and be more polite) with those around me. It's hard to make friends when there is a language barrier! But I am still making friends.
Tomorrow I leave to serve in an ambulence around 7:30am. Real work starts, and I'm excited!
No comments:
Post a Comment