I Hate these People

Michael an I are both having real adjustment problem to life here. I like my house other than the garage and a lot of little things that go wrong (normal in an old house). My family is settling down. I don’t see them as much now.( Other than my brother cause we’re working together). My Dad comes by once or twice a week for lunch, and I talk to my mom every couple of days or so when they are not travelling.

So we’ve settled into a sort of routine. It is a rather mind numbing and somehow boring one. We still feel like fish out of water here. We can’t really relate to most of the people we meet on a day to day basis. We both laugh that we’re real snobs but it has gotten to the point where we laugh and quote a line from Stephen Sondheims play Sunday in the park with George. Two rich Americans are in Paris and are complaining about how terrible the people are and how nothing is like it was back home. There favorite phrase was " I Hate these People! Let’s go home".

I understand these people but I do not like them. There is a morbid lack of curiosity. They are brain dead. They are numbed by mediocrity and think that they have and are the very best. There are thousands of examples from the most trivial to the major where we have shaken our heads and said "if they only knew that it could be so much better and that in other parts of the world it is."



A trip to the super market and they pack your stuff in hundreds of tiny flimsy useless plastic bags. No thought of a normal Billa bag or of recycling. The selections of food are large but not wide. You have tons of junk food in jumbo packs but not a lot of variety in the fresh meats fruits or vegetables. We have found one store that is some 45 minutes away by car that does have really good fresh goods but it is far away and very expensive.

Fresh flowers. No one buys them except for Valentines. Then only red roses. People are shocked that we’d spend $25 on flowers for the house but when I told them that they spend at least $25 a day eating out at various restaurants around town where the food is mediocre and the service worse and they then shit it all away the next morning …I ask whose wasting whose money? It’s just a difference in priorities.

The normal response is "Well why don’t you buy silk flowers they don’t die and look almost real?" The said thing is they do look almost real. There is a mega mart here called Garden Ridge that looks like a Dutch Wholesale Flower Market. Millions of Flowers and Plants all of the fake. ON the weekend this place was full. Not 100 meters away is a large Garden center with many of the same flowers and plants and Michael and I were one of the few people there buying the real thing.

We bought normal flowers for our pots and planter boxes. Of course we were the only people we know that have planter boxes. They size, variety and quality were sad by comparison. I’ve bought better plants at Billa at the check out counter that they had here. Primula that in Vienna were 1€ were $6. Pelegoniums that we’d buy at the B&B for 3€ here were $12. This is why I buy so many of my plants at the reduction shelves. I buy the ones that need water or have a few dead blooms on them and the people won’t buy them.

I wanted to use the receipt from the bookstore for tax purpose. In the newsstand in westbahnhof they always had it printed what the magazine was and what it cost. Not here. Too complicated

I went the other day to the biggest and most comprehensive copy shop in town Kinko’s, It is owned by FedEx and they are the McDonalds or Starbucks of Copy shops. I wanted to take my normal USB stick and print out some plans. I did this all the time at my RepoCopy around the corner with not fuss. Here it as possible but unnecessarily complicated and expensive.

The roads are a disaster. They are badly maintained and much to small for the amount of traffic on them. No one here knows how to use a turn signal and will cross 4 lanes of traffic to exit off the highway with out a signal and then get mad when you honk at them.

There is a mind numbing sameness here. Everyone wants to be different but not too different and therefore everyone is the same. They segregate into their like kinds and ghettoize themselves. We do not see or come into contact with anyone who is not white and middle class. There is no opportunity to do so outside of work.

People are afraid here. They are afraid of everything. It is clear why we have the Caesar Disgustus we do when you see how these people act. America has the government it deserves. GW Bush is really a "Real Guy" American;. Affable, a bit stupid, a real guy’s guy, not the least bit curious, naïve and at the same time arrogant and self assured that he is right, but not able to tolerate anyone questioning that he may not be. This is so so true of the people I’ve met here. They do not want to hear or believe that they may not be the best or that they may not be right. This is a country in Major denial and very afraid.

Media tell them they are, the religious ayatollahs of the Christian right tell them they are if they keep to the strict rules of "Family Vales", business sells them the idea they can be if only they buy buy buy. The government tells them to be secure and safe they have to reject anyone and anything that does not fit the American norm because it is terrorism. We are bombarded constantly and after a while it is just easier to believe or just shut up and shut your brain down.

The people here are not only brain dead they are lethargic and lazy almost to the point of comatose. The result is they are unbelievably fat. Of course everyone is on some kind of diet or fitness routine but like everything else here. They want instant results and a quick and painless way to solve the problem. If they can’t solve it then of course it not their fault. No one here accepts responsibility for their obesity, their lack of curiosity, they poor sate of their kids manners and or education, the conditions of the roads or anything else. It is always some one else who is responsible for all our problems.



A lot of that inactivity is due to the car and the fact most of us don’t do phyicscal work anymore. It is absurd that you have to drive for 15 minutes to go "walk" in the mall. Or that you go to the gym to work out but all you do is stroll on the treadmill at a leisurely pace that does not eve get you heart beat up. Then go an d graze at an all you can eat buffet.

At our gym most of the people there are at least 20 to 30 pound heavier than the people in Austria. This includes even the people who are in shape. Size here is really becoming a Class issue. The rich are thin, the middle class are overweight and the poor are obese.

People are very appearance conscience but when you go to the mall and look at the clothes these are not the clothes people wear. They wear shorts and sports clothing that may be ok in the fitness club but not to go out in public. It seems the bigger they are the more they wear clingy stretch fabrics.

Michael laughed the other day at work because he must dress "professionally" Some one commented that he should not wear corduroy pants again because it looked like jeans. Yet they get away with polo shirts, sleeves T-shirts, running shoes as "professional". Michael got pissed at the comment and has wore a suit and tie everyday since then. he’s the only one in the office who does. He also has become something of a sarcastic "fashion Police" in the office to those who made the comment to him.