Throwing myself into walls

I'd like to start this post with a shout-out to a few ladies I used to work with. You down with OGC? Yeah you know me! I miss my pals. I haven't been posting much lately for no particular reason. I had an interview with a very prestigious law firm last week and every other minute or so I stare at my phone and try to will it to ring. I guess I feel like I'm in limbo. I think I've got a shot but what the hell takes so long. My German class is going really well. I am done with the first month on Friday and i've already payed up for next month. My understanding of the grammar is really coming along but I need to memroize the vocab. German has different three different genders and four different cases. For exampe "the apple" in german could be, der Apfel, den Apfel, or dem Apfel. There's a lot to memorize. I've met some cool kids from class and we play squash evey Tuesday. I like Squash. Squash and racquetball are unique sports in that you are forced to throw yourself into a wall at full force. I am happy to announce that I beat the reigning champion Claudio from Italy and currently hold the squash title, although this is currently being disputed. Shannon and I traveled to a town south of Salzburg last weekend for some skiing with some work friends of her's that were in town for the weekend. Not fun. Salzburg looks good and the ski resort was nice but it was a stupid turn-around trip and we spent more time on the train than on the slope. The Apls are gorgeous though. The Rockies are amazing but the Alps are surreal. They look like an artistic representation of what beautiful mountains would look like. Shannon and I are moving into out new apartment next week, just before Mother and Butch arrive. The weather is getting warm here and I'm looking forward to sitting at picnic tables drinking liter-sized beers. Tschuss.

I never liked that stupid salamander

So Shannon and I had the option of shipping one of our cars over here. We chose to ship my Grand Cherokee because it was newer than her Civic. We sold her Civic and now the Jeep is on a boat on its way here. I was tasked with finding insurance for the car. No problem I thought. Well, I contacted Geico which has offices over here and they, very politely, told me that they could not insure me because I have 13 points on my license, 3 tickets in the last 5 years. Is that bad? I don't think so. I haven't been in an accident since I was 18. I wrote them back and asked them if they could put Shannon on the policy and get insured that way. She said that they couldn't insure her as long as I was on the policy. I have been judged. The real irony is that the Geico office I contacted is in Germany and they don't even have speed limits, so what the hell do they care that I was caught going 88 in a 75 last summer. Which brings me to this tangent. I liked the caveman Geico commercials. They were nuanced, but I have never liked that stupid Salamander. Why does he have a british accent? Geico be damned! I will curse their name across this continent and the next! Hear me Salamander species! I will smear you across any wall on which I find you!

Update

I'm on my second week of German class. It's fun. I'm in class with people from all over the world: Italy, Brazil, Korea, Australia, England, Serbia, Bosnia. One of the strangest people in the class is from Kansas. She goes to some University called Nazerene or something. It's a christian college obviously. She was telling me about how they have strict rules at her college. Not only can they not drink, smoke, or have a member of the opposite sex in their dorm rooms, but they can't dance. Fuck that. Even though I usually try to avoid dancing, I would have violent tendencies towards someone who told me I couldn't.

Shannon just arrived at the cafe. This means that I must now turn over the computer--okay, her computer--so that we can search for dinnerware online. You see we can't choose anything until we look at every single plate that exists. After which I will no longer like dishes.

American-Specific Anxiety

I grow less and less confident as the days go by that I will get either of the jobs I interviewed for. This has been causing me some stress which is personified by extreme mopiness and random acts of violence on Colfax, my cat. Nothing serious, I just throw him when he tries to sit on my face, he never seems to learn. Anyways, today, however, I had lunch with an Italian guy and an English lady from my german class who made me feel better about my predicament. The lady said I was being too American. The Italian guy agreed and said that he had been floating from job to job for years. I told them about how I was basically living off my "wife" and that it made me feel sort of worthless. But they explained that I'm looking at this from entirely the wrong angle. I am able to go to german class for three hours a day and take long lunches and naps in the afternoon. I am living the life. Apparently this situation is no problem for most European's to enjoy, but I can't help it. I feel unproductive. I haven't always been this way, but since law school I see myself at least partly as something with money-making potential. If you had a milk producing Holstein you wouldn't feed it and not milk it would you? Bad analogy--somehow I have emasculated myself. I shall overcome my own anxieties. It doesn't help, though, that every day I come home and Shannon asks me if I had heard anything from the jobs. When I say "no" she pauses looks a way grits her teeth for a second and says "oh," and then she smiles sweetly and says, "that's okay, it doesn't matter." Right.

Shannon's off on an assignment near the Meditteranean. She took the camera with her, so no pictures for a few days. I borrowed a gym pass from one of her co-workers and went to the gym this morning. You aren't supposed to use other people's passes so I had to act like a regular if I didn't want to get caught by the scary Austrians. It was very exciting. The gym was super-nice. It costs like $200 a month or something. I'm going to go everyday until they ask for the pass back.

There's a Finnisch Sauna in the gym, and I have grown to enjoy the sauna. I would have used it today if I had had a bathing suit. I probably could have gone in with just a towel but I wasn't sure. Since its in the men's locker room it probably doesn't matter, but it would just be my luck if bathing suits were required. I'd be sitting in there with a towel and a 7 year-old would come in, shreak in terror after viewing my bits peaking out the bottom, run off and go tell his rich, Austrian daddy. Next thing I know I'm shipped back to the states a convicted pervert and I have to register as a sex offender the rest of my life. Now that could all be avoided if I could read the stupid instructions posted next to the sauna door. That's why I'm starting German lessons next week, to avoid the sex offender registry. I will have class five times a week, for three hours a day.

I'd really like to watch the UA v. USC game tonight. It's not going to happen, it doesn't start here until 4:30 in the morning. It's a cruel world. These are going to be some amazing games. Arizona could be on the verge of something really great. I haven't felt this good about the team in years.

I've been sitting in the same cafe for the past two hours and have only ordered one latte. The girls walking around are nice not to give me bad looks. Nonetheless, I think I should order a little beer or something. They come in tall-narrow-cylindrical glasses, very attractive in the candlelight.

This is Stefansdom, Vienna's most famous landmark. It sits in the middle of the city and all roads lead to it. It's pretty awesome, I especially like the tiled roof. Obviously they are doing some work on the top portion of the spire.

This is the view out of our sponsor's window. A sponsor is the one who picks you up from the airport and shows you around a bit. There's some big time apartment envy going on out here among the employees and spouses at the embassy. Our sponsor's apartment is rididulous. Right downtown, huge rooms, and tall ornate ceilings. Our apartment will look nothing like it. Thus, we are envious. Oh, and sometimes the sky can be gorgeous here.

We thought this looked funny. It loos like a temporary house was caught in a tornado and landed on this fancy building. In fact, we heard that they are working on a statute inside there.

This is Colfax in hell. I took this picture through a little hole in his carrier. He spent over 12 hours in the carrier and came out covered in his own urine. Poor little bastard.

Here's a piglet and other meats hanging in a booth at the turkish market.

Cavern Tavern

I can't believe I'm busy. I really have very little to do but my days are consumed. Unfortunately yesterday it was filled with convalescing. Saturday night we went out with some new friends and ended up drinking and eating most of the day. First we drank gluwein, which is like warm spiced wine, that they were serving from a little booth next to the skating rink. Then a bar where we were treated to some Erdinger Weissbier, which is a wheat beer. You could probably find that in the States although I can't say I've ever had it. But then we went to this cavern tavern. The Cavern Tavern was in this old cellar with arched low ceilings made of brick. It looked like we were drinking in a dungeon basically, but it was clean and nice. Then we ordered some food--bad move. I had a giant dumpling, some pork roast, some blood sausage, and...oh god...some sauerkraut. I had had sauerkraut before and this stuff tasted going down. But it did not taste good coming up, and it tried to come up all the next day. To make matters worse I got the flu during my hangover breakfast. I spent the next 20 hours in bed reading and sweating and stuff. Then I had an interview this morning. Luckily my fever broke an hour or so before the interview. Some how the interview went okay. Now I have to go take a placement test for german class, my biggest fear being the place me above my level. I hate sitting in class not knowing what they are saying. I promise pics soon.