Halfway Point

So, about a week ago, I hit my halfway mark of the time I'm spending here in Vienna. I seriously can't believe I'm only halfway done. But, whatever. Anyways, since I've been here, I've just been writing down my random observations of life in Austria/Eastern Europe, the people, the food, the culture, etc. It's become quite a large list of interesting things. Without further ado, here are my observations of Europe so far! Enjoy!

• The men smell terrible. Like awful. The best way I know how to describe it is that it's like a weeks worth of BO all jam packed into one armpit. Not good.
• They rarely drink their beverages straight out of a bottle. It is almost always poured into a cup first. One of my teammates even told me one time that she had NEVER drank a Cola straight from the bottle. 
• The only thing they sell at airports is alcohol. Like they have a ton of stores there, but probably 75% of the things in the stores are alcohol. The rest is perfume and cologne.
• Walk on the right side of the sidewalk? No. Austrians will walk straight at you until you move for them. One of the most annoying things I've encountered here.
• Naked friendly. VERY naked friendly. As in coed sauna sessions. Oh, and they sauna naked here. So yeah, you can picture that for yourself.
• Soup. Every day. Every meal. I've had more soup in the past three months than I have in my entire lifetime. No joke. 
• Everything is overpriced. 
• Sometimes after a plane has landed on the runway, the passengers will clap for the pilot. 
• During a traffic jam, the traffic lanes become invisible and people drive wherever the hell they want, often hovering over the lines for several meters.
• They don't put their napkins in their laps while eating. 
• No ice in your drink. Anywhere.
• Escalators: stand on the right, climb on the left. If you stand on the left you will get pushed aside.
• They don't give you bags at the grocery store. They sell them to you, but they won't give them to you free. And they don't bag your groceries for you. So you better bring your own bags, and you better be prepared to bag your groceries yourself at lightning speed because they want you to get out of the way of the next person ASAP. Basically, epitomizing the phrase "Get your shit and get out."
• Europeans have tiny feet. How do I know this? I was told that I wouldn't be able to find shoes over a size 9 probably anywhere in Europe, but I could shop in the men's section. Awesome.
• European volleyball players are expert screeners (illegally blocking the opponents' passers' view of the server). And apparently the refs don't see the need to call them on it.
• Europeans use the knife during the meal so much more than Americans do. We normally only use the knife to cut something or butter something. They use it do that, and to help neatly navigate their food onto their fork. So, they always have their knife in one hand and the fork in the other.

So, those are just a few of my observations as I've reached my halfway mark. I'm sure many more observations are yet to come. I miss home dearly and I am counting the days til I'm back in the States! 77.

Kayla

P.S. Of course you get your "The Office" clip of the day :) Enjoy!