October 7, 2007

Strange Days

This weekend has not been particularly eventful. Friday night, after having met with our new landlord, we were both soaking wet from biking home in the rain. We ended up staying in and watching a movie with Christian's parents, and then watching the episode of House that I had downloaded. All TV series here are one season behind, and in German, so in order to keep up with the ones that I want to watch, I am left at the mercy of the Internet. Anyway, on Saturday it was a crummy day outside, spent reading or messing around on the computer until the entire family + me drove to a nearby shopping mall. It was a fruitful expedition, but except for one minorly funny incident, pretty unremarkable. For Saturday night we had made a commitment to go see one of Christian's friends' band play at their CD release party. Christian had played their music for me before (at http://www.strangedays.at.tf/), and I thought that I might not really enjoy it. But, they were surprisingly good, and they put on a pretty good show.

Perhaps as a result of my less-than-thrilling weekend, I have decided to start compiling the following list, which I will update as necessary.

THINGS THAT ARE RIDICULOUS ABOUT AUSTRIA (in no particular order):
1. Everyone has three types of recycling, including "Bio-müll" which is compost, and the apartment building has a giant, well cared for compost downstairs, which is more awesome than ridiculous.
2. It is usually cheaper to order a half liter of beer than 250 mL of Coke in a bar.
3. You can smoke in the malls, and most public washrooms have an ashtray in the stall.
4. It is legal for the passengers of a car to drink while driving, and it is legal for the driver to drink while driving, as long as they are under the legal limit.

These are the things that have struck me so far as the most different between Austria and Canada, for better or for worse. I'll update it with more ridiculous things as I notice them, but for now I have to get off the computer.

0 comments: