Miles to go before I am done.

OK, so tonight. A whole lot happened. I watched X-men 3. Which, I deem as the worst movie of all time. Unless they do a whole crap load of fixing in X-men 4 and 5. I am going to consider X3 excomunicated from the X-men series. I think they only made two movies of that or something. OK, so enough of that. If you are a huge nerd, you understand, If not, you don't care. Suffice it to say, I am more pissed than after I say Star Wars episode 3. Aka, Star wars, attack of the HUGE TURD SANDWICH!

OK, so tonight, and I guess this morning I argued pluralism for 4 freaking hours. We came to the point where I said, I can absolutely say that gunning random people down in a street is bad. Where my friend said that she cannot say that it is absolutely bad or wrong. That is pretty much where it ends kids, you cannot go much further than that.

It is nights like these that remind me why I have no faith in humanity. X-men and pluralism, ohh what a world. I am glad I have hope in something more.

I am going to bed for like 5 hours. It is now, 4:30! POOOP!!!!!!

Stupid cell phone!

Well, I feel like crap. And, as it is a Sat night and I have nothing else to do, because I am sick and my cell phone is not working. I believe it is time for another blogging.

So, I had a lovely conversation the other day with some very lovely people. They had something very interesting to say. I was speaking with 2 girls one from Ireland, and one from German, and 1 guy from Indonesia. All three of them were explaining how rude the Austrians, with the Viennese in particular, were. The Irish girl was talking about how the rest of the European continent believes the Austrians to be rude. She was talking about how bad the customer service was, and how people in general were just crappy. The German girl was a flight attendant, and was explaining how Austrians, and especially the Viennese were the scourge of the skies. She said that when there was a flight out of Vienna with mostly people from the city you could not expect please, or thank you, or even a smile. The Indonesian guy had much the same tale to tell. This totally surprised me. It had been my experience that the Austrians were rude, to the point of being mean. This country does not know the meaning of customer service or any other western convention for making life more pleasant. But I had initially thought that they treated me like shit because they knew I was an American. I can blend in pretty well, but once I open my mouth, the game is always up. But what my friends were saying means that the Austrians treat all outsiders equally like crap. This was a total surprise to me. I guess it was just hard for me to believe that a country, and a city can derive much of their identity from being dick noses.

This is not to say that I did not experience any anti-American statements or attitudes while I was here. But it does help explain to me why I got so much crap. It is surprising how common and accepted it has become over here to slam America. I am not going to rally for the flag or anything but they seriously apply any negative stereo type that they can to us. It is really surprising. Once you get to know most people, they will say something like. “Wow, you don’t act very American at all”. I am always confused at this, I take it as both a compliment and an insult. They are praising me for being a decent person, but at the same time telling me that the place that I am from and that I get my culture from produces loud, obnoxious, and dense individuals. Speaking to older individuals they will comment that American bashing has really gotten more popular in the last 10 years or less. I guess that I just have to say that that sucks. They are stupid enough to believe something like that, and we are obviously doing something to send that message that we are like that to the rest of the world.

Also, has anyone ever heard of Euro-Vision? Apparently it is the big deal over here, way bigger than American Idol and whatnot. Tonight was the final, and I think most of the Europeans I know were about to crap their pants they were so excited.

OK, well I must say that this was an enjoyable blog. I will probably have to edit it tomorrow, as while writing this I was on a large variety of cough medicines. Both American and European.

Hmm?

You are a Social Moderate (50% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (16% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

This better work!

Must stop the madness!

OK, so for the 3rd weekend in a row I found myself leaving the mellow, and sometimes boring country of Austria to discover the more untraveled parts of Europe. Yup, this weekend I found myself visiting Slovenia and Croatia. I slept in a hostel which had once been a prison and had executions in the basement, and I climbed lots and lots of HUGE hills to see beautiful perspectives of random cities. It was fun, and neat, but I am tired. I took a lot of pictures, so if you want to know more, E-mail me and I will send them to you. Or, I can tell you if we ever hang out. Goodness, I am looking forward to staying here this weekend.

I went on this trip with a guy from Sweden, a girl from Germany, and another guy from Finland. After a long discussion about family and family history over dinner. I realized something fundamentally different between myself and my 3 companions. No, it is not that I only speak one language. It is that my national and cultural heritage is so drastically different from theirs that it clearly has produced differences in who we are. After talking to the German girl, Bretta, I had to stop and think what it would be like to come from a country with such history. She would say things like, "I think the country we are in was once part of Austria. I think that is why the food seems Austrian." She was explaining the very interesting culture of the Slovenians and the Croatians as something that traces back HUNDREDS of years. As we talked she spoke of her grandparents, and their involvment in the wars. And I had to think, I get my cultural identity as someone from Oklahoma, and Kentucky, but mostly just as an American. The American culture, has instilled some fundamentally different ideas from everyone else. I could not even comprehend what is would be like to think of another country having conqoured mine. Even if it had been 200 years ago. It gave me a lot to chew on. A cultural identity that took losses and accepted them and moved on. I am not sure I could handle that. I take great pride in the fact that the US has not been invaded. I don't know, I keep talking, and I am not sure I am saying much, but it was really something for me to think on.

I am going to bed now.

Must stop the madness!

OK, so for the 3rd weekend in a row I found myself leaving the mellow, and sometimes boring country of Austria to discover the more untraveled parts of Europe. Yup, this weekend I found myself visiting Slovenia and Croatia. I slept in a hostel which had once been a prison and had executions in the basement, and I climbed lots and lots of HUGE hills to see beautiful perspectives of random cities. It was fun, and neat, but I am tired. I took a lot of pictures, so if you want to know more, E-mail me and I will send them to you. Or, I can tell you if we ever hang out. Goodness, I am looking forward to staying here this weekend.

I went on this trip with a guy from Sweden, a girl from Germany, and another guy from Finland. After a long discussion about family and family history over dinner. I realized something fundamentally different between myself and my 3 companions. No, it is not that I only speak one language. It is that my national and cultural heritage is so drastically different from theirs that it clearly has produced differences in who we are. After talking to the German girl, Bretta, I had to stop and think what it would be like to come from a country with such history. She would say things like, "I think the country we are in was once part of Austria. I think that is why the food seems Austrian." She was explaining the very interesting culture of the Slovenians and the Croatians as something that traces back HUNDREDS of years. As we talked she spoke of her grandparents, and their involvment in the wars. And I had to think, I get my cultural identity as someone from Oklahoma, and Kentucky, but mostly just as an American. The American culture, has instilled some fundamentally different ideas from everyone else. I could not even comprehend what is would be like to think of another country having conqoured mine. Even if it had been 200 years ago. It gave me a lot to chew on. A cultural identity that took losses and accepted them and moved on. I am not sure I could handle that. I take great pride in the fact that the US has not been invaded. I don't know, I keep talking, and I am not sure I am saying much, but it was really something for me to think on.

I am going to bed now.