I am finally in Stuttgart. Things are great. I might have scared some of you into thinking that I had some type of emergency with an email I sent out but I was really just trying to get money. I know…I’m shallow. But I really did need the money. My new place is great, we have woods right by our dorm, I have a balcony, and international students are really easy to make friends with.

I live with two Germans and a Colombian. I have started my last month of language training. However, everyone here is always speaking English. The germans speak English because they love to practice with Americans and the international students speak englsih because it is the international language. Almost everyone’s English is better than their German. I guess that is a pretty good summary of things so far. I will update you with more later.

Every morning for two years my sister and I drove to school together in my silver Altima with an oversized spoiler. Sometimes we would talk, sometimes we would fight, most of the time we would listen to music, and sometimes I would throw her cds out the window. However I had gotten used to that time we spent together. I didn’t realize in the way that I do now how great that time was. I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes it takes the absence of something to realize just how incredible it is.

When I came to Europe, I knew that the absence of my wonderful girlfriend, family, and friends—and car—would be felt. However one of the things that I didn’t realize I would miss is having the day to day support from other Christians. This fellowship has proved much harder to find in Europe. Partly because I am moving around so much and also because the church and its ministries seem to be stronger in America. Nevertheless, I just realized the other day how much I take the wonderful fellowship that I have for granted. It really is a gift and I wish I could always view it as such.

I was reading a couple articles today about September 11th. It just made me kind of sad to think about it…

Do you remember the “Where’s Waldo” books? Most of the pages were relatively easy to find Waldo but that last page was always a pain in the butt. Why? Because the last page was full of a whole bunch of other people dressed like Waldo. Just as it is easier to see where Waldo is when he is not surrounded by other Waldos, I feel like I can better see what it means to be American when I contrast myself and what I know with my European experience. I have found many things from observation, reading, and conversation. I suppose I could write about all of it: the things I love about Europe; what I wish could be different in America; what I wish was different in Europe, but I feel like it all comes down to one statement:

I am proud and thankful to be American; we really are blessed to live in such a great country.

Earlier I talked about how Innsbruck just doesn’t like me and whenever it hears I am coming it turns on the crappy weather to keep me away. Well, I had had enough and I tried to take the city by surprise by means of a last minute decision and an overnight train.

I had originally intended to move to Stuttgart and stay in a hostel for 5 days until I could move in to my new place, but it didn’t occur to me until the day before I was supposed to leave that I should travel all around Austria instead of staying in a hostel in Stuttgart. Why pay extra money to stay in a city that I will be in for 11 more months. So I finished my classes, packed up my stuff, left it with friends in Vienna and headed to the other side of the country.

Poop on a stick, what the frith, and skibidy skat, as I have heard it said by others…of course it was going to rain. You can’t take Austria by surprise…it is birthplace of wiener schnitzel, red bull, and the Governator, and those are the secret ingredients for omniscience. Therefore, Innsbruck knew all along that I was on night train 405 heading west from Vienna. It was rainy when I got to Innsbruck and I decided to stay on the train and go all the way to the far west of the country for that day (I had an unlimited travel ticket).

Innsbruck was angry and my defiance and a day later when I tried to revisit the city, it not only turned on the rain switch but it made the bus to the campground invisible. So after 2 hours of rainy sightseeing and looking for Bus Q, I decided Innsbruck just couldn’t handle me and I got on a train to see a city that would appreciate me.

I bought an unlimited student travel ticket for 49 euros and my travel plans were really just to go to the west end of the country and make my way back to Vienna over a period of about 4 days, stopping in whatever citys seemed interesting. With that said, here is the Top 3 for The-Seven-Rainy-Austrian-Towns-in-4-Days-tour.

1. 7 oclock on a rainy sunday morning in a small Austrian town is kind of like being in the middle of the ocean; there is absolutely no one there and it is very wet…especially without an umbrella. So after a while I decided to go to another city. Problem was I left my camera on the train platform for whoever might have been in need of a digital slr. By the time I realized this I had arrived at another city. Immediately I got on a train back to the first city…nothing…so perhaps I only imagined that I forgot it and it was actually in the 2nd city, yeah that’s it, I will go back to the 2nd city… nothing…ok, maybe I didn’t look hard enough in the first city, I’ll go back there…nothing…there is supposed to be a lost and found in the 2nd city, I don’t know why it would be there but I have to check…nothing…I suppose I could ask another service desk but they have already said they don’t have my camera…hey, that looks like an official door, maybe if I go in it someone will help me…door opens…there’s a lot of Austrian men in funny conductors hats looking at me…stop staring, say something, “ich habe mein Kamera verloren, konnen sie mir helfen?” This is when things started to get good. One of the men, decided to patronize me and make a call, I love that man. He called the 1st city, more specifically, he called the other room with men in funny conductor hats. You can see where this is going. They had a big Canon camera, so I sprinted to get the next train back to the 1st city. I got off the train and entered the other room with men in funny hats. I guess one of them picked it up from the platform because it was sitting there in the room. Once they handed it over to me, I proclaimed my sincere and undying love for them in German. All of a sudden the rainy, wet, and empty streets seemed like a mountain sunset taken to the 5th power plus 4. I had a new vigor for traveling and crappy weather.

2. I found a wonderful pension in Kitzbuhl run by an old Austrian lady. However, I realized the next day when I came back from hiking that their American flag was upside down. I felt like I had to say something so I did. Of course she said that she didn’t know, and she actually might not have known because I saw that the German flag was also upside down, but then again Austrians are not famous for their love of Germany. Nevertheless she said that she would change it at the end of the season since it is a bit complicated…right…so I said in poor german that I felt a bit unwelcome staying at a place that has my flag upside down and I would be happy to fix it for her. So we fixed it together.

That night I was coming home from dinner and I saw a car drive by and it looked like they threw something out the window onto the rainy street. I walked over and picked it up and it was a big bouquet of flowers; I mean real nice flowers. How perfect was that. I could definitely give them to the lady with whom I spoke to earlier that day in case she didn’t like me for being the American who was insistent on having his flag hung the right way. She was surprised and extremely excited to have fresh flowers to display in the kitchen where breakfast was served.

3. I also met a guy at the bar where I ate dinner who actually wore one of those leather hats with a feather. That has to make the top 3. And to top it off, at the end of just about every sentence he said, “Ohh Santaaa Marrrria” Which I don’t think is German.