Snail

Most posts take me a long time to write. I have to meet Mara in 23 minutes to get food for tomorrow. We decided to have a little dinner with maybe six or seven people. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be full. I'm seeing the Wiener Philharmoniker play Beethoven's third and fourth and then cooking dinner with some people. I think Alessandro (Mara's boyfriend) and I are going to be mostly in charge of the actual cooking. I hope whatever we cook is good. I know he can make decent food. He's Italian, for God's sake. If he can't make a decent pasta dish, everything I hold dear in this world (pasta) is thrown out the window.

Which reminds me, there are some puns that are impossible to use with non-native English speakers. If the occasion ever arises to say, "so you can throw defenestration out the window," odds are no one here will get that. Though, I don' t know how many people back home would get that, either....

I quick run through of yesterday: I finally found my way to one of the outlying hills. There's a vineyard (or at least they grow grapes) on the hillside. There was this cool stone path that led up to the side so I walked up and took a picture or so. It's on flickr. I also found these Schrebergartens, which are "rent-a-yards" for people in the city. You know, in case they want to barbecue (which I thought was an American thing and am still pretty sure it is. Posers). I met Manuel (my tandem partner for languages) and we hung out in a bookstore akin to Borders except much larger than anything in the Cincy area. It was about the size of the Barnes&Nobles I went to in NYC on my trip with Feier, Josh, and Angie - the superior of the trips, except for seeing Mike Stern in 55 Bar. When I got back to Kolping, I went for my key and - SHIT! - not there. I thought I had dropped it somewhere. Sanya let me up to the living area, nicely enough, and I went to the kitchen. That wasn't all that bad because the eurosports channel was on and they were talking about formula one. The adjustments they make to those cars are crazy. And apparently there's a race that lasts for 24 hours and whoever travels the farthest wins. Just one driver, too. That's badass. Michael and Christina told me that a Danish driver won it the last four, five, six (whatever) years.

One thing I've noticed is that people from a specific country are always telling you about accomplishments from people of their country. I don't think I've ever seen that type of patriotism in the US. Whether it's for the country, or a state, or a city. I understand that it happens, but it's much more prevelant here.

Yesterday was the first "real" spring day. Today is even nicer. Here is a picture of a snail: