Much is Happening

So, We had our Thanksgiving program here last Thursday. The video can be found here. It went off better than I hoped it would. My German introduction and prayer were also pretty good, although I kept forgetting announcements.

Then, I got sick immediately after at the same time that it snowed (am I allergic to snow?). I'm still a little sick, but it's not a big inconvenience.

Yesterday we went to Salzburg for the Christmas Market and a Christmas concert. My favorite part of the evening was seeing the "Krampus." Essentially, they are people who dress up in devil masks and furry suits and walk around with St. Nicolaus scaring people. The more you react to them, the more they go after you. I was pretty unaffected, as you can see in the following picture.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Gray

Okay, not really unaffected, I may have been laughing my head off at him. What you can't see is that Amanda is huddled behind me, clinging to my coat and whimpering (there may have been some crying as well). He was after her, but I thought he was kind of funny looking.

I bought some gifts at the market and a nutcracker for myself (because I love nutcrackers). Then we went to the concert, which was about 7-8 people playing such instruments as:  dulcimer, harp, violin, guitar, piano, accordion, and cello. 2 of the people were also singing and one was reading. IT was pretty good, especially at the end when they sang songs with tunes that I knew.

All in all, it was pretty fun. Then today I received my care package from Southern. Apparently they don't believe that I am brushing my teeth (they sent floss, toothpaste, and mints...although oddly, no toothbrush). I also got a $25 online visa card and a $10 iTunes card. It was pretty exciting.

This Last Week

So, on Friday I went into Braunau/Simbach with 4 other guys. We shopped a bit (I bought 2 pairs of gloves at the Army Shop) and then we went to Subway. It was fun, if a bit loud (specifically the car ride).

The activity that dominated the last week was the "Battlefield Hollywood" organization, which is two guys who used to work in Hollywood and now feel that most forms of electronic entertainment are bad. While I agreed with their general points (repetition of themes makes one eventually accept them, violent video games can be harmful, etc.) I disagreed with the examples they used. For instance, Mario is obviously a stand-in for Christ because he had a blue-collar occupation, traveled to another world, loves a woman who wears a crown, and rides a dinosaur (okay, they referred to it as a "steed"). In reality, I think Link would have been a better choice for a Christ analogue, if you're going to do that. Also, they said that in the movie "The Dark Knight," Batman represents Satan and the Joker represents Christ. Raise your hand if you noticed that in the movie...no one? Well that just shows that you're being brainwashed.

Yesterday I went swimming at the city pool in Braunau. It only costs 2 Euros for 2 hours with my student ID card. It was fun. It turns out one of the guys I went with is a swimming instructor, so he was giving us lessons on how to swim properly.

Last night was Talent Show. I thought of something really cool that I could do...during the program. A little late, but there might be another opportunity to do it. There were some pretty good acts, and I filmed most of it, so some of that might appear in this space sometime in the future.

I played soccer Saturday night and had a ball hit me in the face so hard that I had a headache the next day. One of the other shots bounced off the ground and into my chin, making me bite my tongue. It now hurts to eat. Also, the Battlefield Hollywood guys played with us and further reinforced the idea that Americans are good goalkeepers.

New Room!

I got a new room on Friday. It happened like this: on Thursday, I was informed by some other language students that when the second trimester started, I'd be moving to another room. Then, on Friday, my roommate (and his current roommate) approached me and asked if it was okay with me if they roomed together. I said this was fine, and they asked when I had time to switch rooms. A few hours later, I was in my new room. The main reason for the room switch is that my new roommate can be kind of abrasive at times and he snores pretty badly. Neither of these things is really a problem for me, although everyone kept expressing sympathy for my new circumstances. All in all, I have a new room.