Photos

I always intended this blog to have more photos but I've never gotten into the habit of carrying the camera around with me everywhere I go like I did with whichechoes. But I intend to make good so here are some photos of our first season in Vienna:

These are my German classmates. The students in this picture left to right are from Iran, Taiwan, Serbia, Brazil, Quebec, Turkey and Italy. It's interesting hanging out with people from all over but at the same time none of these people speak English very well and I've come to realize I am much more clever in my mother tongue. Did you know the butt in German is Popo. That's pretty funny.
Here I am in Bratislava, Slovakia with two of our new friends...and this jolly metal man. Bratislava was on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain and you can still feel it. There's less commerce, fewer people out an about, and outside of the city center the buildings are boring and sad. Communists don't care much for decoration.

These are painted eggs that were sold at the Eater markets around town. They also had stalls with hot sausages and beer.

This is in the Alps south of Salzburg. The mountains aren't nearly a tall as the Rockies but the terrain was good and the snow wasn't bad for March.

How do I look?

What do you think of the new scheme? Easier on the eyes Scatfish?

A rip in the space-time continuum

I apparently missed a meeting between two groups of my old friends, which makes me very happy that they wanted to spend time with each other and sad that I missed out. In my mind it seems like the two groups of friends shouldn't be able to exist in the same place. Like in Star Trek when you meet yourself in a time-loop and risk causing a rip in the space-time continuum. And apparently some ripping did occur. I've gathered that Ande made a semi-ridiculous argument, Tim told her that she was ridiculous one too many times which caused Ande to suffer emotionally, and Tate somehow revealed that he is a bit of an asshole by nature. If someone could provide me with more details I would truly appreciate it. I live for this shit.

and now for news from Vienna:

We had a party for all of our German classmates last weekend. It was fine. One of the guys from my class has a girlfriend who is 18 and speaks five languages, which I have concluded is why Europe is going to own us in the global market for the next century. I felt stupid talking to this teenager and I'm one of the biggest American know-it-alls I know. The ping-pong table was a big hit, and everyone enjoyed Colfax's antics which included attacking people's heads from behind the couch and jumping on the ping-pong table during matches.

We went out with Shannon's colleagues last night for St. Patrick's day. Everyone ate fish and chips which were supposed to be green but looked gray in the dim light but tasted good. I drank many Guinessi. At some point I ordered an Irish Carbomb at the bar and got a strange look from the Irish barmaid. Then I remembered hearing that the term isn't PC in some parts of Ireland, you know because carbombs kill and maim people. I think it might be just an American thing. I've decided not to order the drink until I can discuss this with an Irishman.

I played my weekly game of squash today, and was able to steal one game away from Claudio. Tomorrow I'm playing in the weekly basketball game with the old men from the Embassy. Last week my play was tremendous and lately I've been daydreaming about hitting mid-range jumpers. The key to my basketball success is and always will be my ability to sweat more than everyone else. The impulse of whoever is guarding me to do everything in their power not to come in contact with my slippery surface gives me just enough room to make some decent little moves.

I'm totally excited from the NCAA tournament although I get the feeling I'll actually watch much less of it than I usually do because of the time difference which puts most games on at 3 in the morning. Not to mention the slingbox progam my mother setup for me to watch US TV on my computer hasn't been working lately. Shannon and I are driving five hours out to a German military base on Friday for a shopping trip. Apparently you can buy a bunch of gov't subsidized stuff at the bases. We're on the market for a flat-screen TV and some black beans.

Guiness schmeckt sehr gut

We moved into our new apartment and it's amazing. The location is perfect and the apartment is spacious and we love it. The only problem is the ping-pong table we ordered doesn't quite fit. Oh bother.

I just picked up my Auto from the Embassy. I had heard horror stories about damage caused to cars in transit but mine was fine except the battery was dead. It took two jumper cables to finally jump my car, and then as I was pulling away to take my car to the shop to get some modifications, it died. So we jumped it again and I was off. I revved the engine at stop signals in case it tried to die again. It didn't, and my first driving adventure in Wien went smashingly. It's pretty much like driving in the States except you must yield to the Strassenbahn, which is the trolley, they always have the right of way you see. I left the car with the mechanic and I hopped on the U-Bahn with the cables which I will return tomorrow after Deutsch class.

I'm throwing a party this weekend for my friends from German class. It's called Juan Jo's going away party. Juan Jose is one of my buddies from class and he's returning to Mexico. We play squash once a week with Claudio from Italy and Yi-Chen from Taiwan. Juan Jo will be missed. But Squash will live on. I've invested in my very own raquet as has Claudio. So even when I start working and I don't have my afternoons to enjoy sport, I will have a regular squash appointment. Claudio has beaten me almost everytime. He calls himself the champion.

It's 5:50 hear and Shannon should be off work soon. I'm having a Guiness in a British pub near our new apartment right now. I will have to mask the smell of my breath if I desire to go undetected, or else...

Oh yeah!

I got a job! Once my work permit comes through in 4-6 weeks I will be a fancy-pantsy attorney in one of the world's largest law firms. I'll be doing international arbitration work for multi-national corporations. It actually sounds sort of fun to me. I love a good argument and the most heated arguments are often over large amounts of money. So for the time being I guess you could say I'll be in the business of getting the rich richer. So it goes. I do miss my public defender days and hope I return to helping the wretched again someday, but for the time being I'm going to wear tailored suits and get a regular haircut. Yesterday I went to a going away party for the guy whose apartment we are moving into next week. We smoked flavored tobacco from a hookah, tried to drink some homemade liquor from Romania, and successfully finished off the rest of the liquor cabinet. I was drunk most of the day. Then this morning Shannon and I watched Forest Gump. The movie is maudlin and manipulative and I could see all the tearjerker scenes coming a mile away, but I couldn't resist. Which is not to say I was balling. I just got a little misty. My mother was supposed to come for a visit at the end of the week, but she fell off her horse and broke her leg while she was riding at an arena near her house. She passed out and didn't wakeup until she was in the ambulance. The amazing thing is the horse crossed a four lane street by itself, walked home and waited by the gate until someone let it in.

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!