I hung out by the fire last night with the Austrians. I brought out marshmallows before they ate dinner then before I came out to roast them I was talking to Christian while he was using my wine key and I told him I'd be out in a minute to roast marshmallows. He asked, "is this something all Americans do?" I, of course, asked if he had ever heard of s'mores or made them. He said no and I promptly went out there to show them the way. . . They all watched me roast a marshmallow before they tried their hand at it, which was an interesting moment. All eyes on me while I slowly roast a marshmallow. I'm not one of those people that lets it catch on fire, I take the time to roast it perfectly. After I showed them the trick to pull the marshmallow off of the stick using the graham, they were sold. S'mores are such a universal fire thing here, so it's funny to come across people that have never heard of them. It's also a little exciting because I got to introduce them to the wonderful world of roasted marshmallows and s'mores.
They were speaking in English mostly, but they'd occasionally exchange a few words here and there in German. It's amazing how much I understood without formally knowing the language. A lot of times it would be one of them asking the other to clarify an English term or metric conversion, and a lot of the time I'd just answer the question even though it was asked in German. A lot of German and English words are very similar, but it still surprised me how much I understood.
We spoke a lot about the similarities and differences of social tendencies in the US and Europe. Really interesting stuff to hear the European opinion and to hear how their world is treating them right now. I can't remember the exact place they live in Austria, but they're a half hour from Italy and Germany and 1.5 hours from Switzerland. What a great location, right? I think it's someplace near Innsbruck. With its great proximity, I may have found a good European location to stop in when I go cruising around Europe in the Spring.
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When dad and I went to Germany we decided to go to Italy for lunch. At the time we were in Lichtenstein or Bertesgartden, we went thru a tunnel in Austria that was about 20+ miles long. It took us all day but we made it, only to find it was their half day and everything was closed. (We ate at the border, the best Carbonara I ever had) When we left we ended up in Saltzburg, not too far from Innsbruck. Did you ever think of being a Geologist, Miss rock collector!
I actually spoke with Christian about that very tunnel. They're planning another similar one in Austria at the moment and he's one of the geologists monitoring the area so they know what they're dealing with underground before the construction starts.
So Miss Rock Collector ever think about it?
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