The World is Your Oyster

I realize in my last entry I didn't distinguish what I love about Germans. I'm in Austria so I can't comment on Germany, per se. But the Austrian/German culture by which I'm surrounded has much to love.

First, I love the assertiveness, everyone talking at once when we're ordering at a restaurant. I quietly and shyly await my turn for the server's attention, searching for her eye contact while I repeat in my head over and over the right way to pronounce whatever it is I'm about to order (freakishly long words, I know they do it so they can laugh at Americans pathetically trying to speak German). Everyone orders and the server begins to turn away before I realize I'm just supposed to SAY what I want, rather than expecting her to coerce the words out of me. OK, this method makes sense; say what you want when you want something. My friends make me laugh; they cheer when I prounounce something correctly. Thank you, thank you very much.

The German sense of humor is wonderful, something I've connected with immediately. I only wish I spoke better German so I could get the jokes. If you're familiar with my own sense of humor, you'll understand why I'm very in synch with Markus as his philosophy behind joking is "Better to get the joke right and lose a friend." It makes me think of my dear roommate Adam November, and how our best moments are spent making fun of each other. Miss you Adam.

Next, I LOVE SAUNA. I can't believe it's not more popular in the US. Oh wait, yes I can, Americans have uptight Puritan traditions and can't tolerate the idea of being naked. I do like the German mentality about nakedness - it's ok that you have skin, that you're male or female, that you are a human being. There's no sense of showing off or embarrassment, the sauna is about the SAUNA, no one creepily stares or worries about being looked at the way Americans worry. Fabulous, I think it's a great. And when in Rome...

I'll walk you through it. Shower, sit in the hot tub for a while if you like, then get ready for the sauna because it's a 'hell' of an experience. Water is poured onto the hot stones, the steam rises, usual sauna procedure. Then, the 'Aufguss' begins. The Aufguss master waves a towel in the air to spread the heat, then he/she waves the towel several times at each person so you can have your own individual wave of excruciatingly hot air in your face. This happens again, more steam, more Shaharan heat waves. WHOA, no wonder the Germans were able to take over Europe, these people are intense. The air got so hot I thought my skin was burning. That's no exaggeration. My first Aufguss I thought I was going to die, but over the week we'd go every afternoon and I really enjoyed it. We spent the entire day on the mountain, the wind blowing snow and ice, burning any microscopic morsel of exposed skin. I was miserably freezying, but it seemed as if my friends hardly noticed the inclement weather. They noticed, they just didn't complain, that was the difference. Once I stopped focusing on the cold, I had such fun. Peer, Axel, Annette, and I practiced deep snow skiing but I stopped long before they did since I was falling so much and I'd take so long to dig my buried ski equipment and body parts from the snow. Freezing fun ski days, hot fun sauna evenings. Couldn't be better. Thanks Suse, Andreas, Uli, Peer, Annette, Markus, Michelle, and Axel for the ideal ski vacation.

I'm currently writing from Vienna. Lovely, hope to see the Vienna Boys' Choir tomorrow at Sunday mass. You know me, I never miss a chance to go to mass.