GDP: Goats Drink Pepsi

Sitting outside my new Austrian home's balcony, watching the moonlight dance off of the lake's wrinkled surface, I reflect on my first week here in Austria. So far, I have admittedly have not done much work, it is more of a vacation, really. I have gone to a work site once, for half of a day, to help do a dynamic load bearing test on a foundation slab for new construction. I have seen the kids once or twice now because they are currently staying at their mother's house (I am at the father's house). What I have done is gone to the lake each day-twice, gone on three runs about the lake, tanned my skin, drove up to the top of Dobratsch-a popular Austrian alpine mountain, bought spätzel noodle at the local farmer's market, cooked said noodle, did some pleasant yard work, and taught my host family how to throw a frisbee. What am I supposed to do here again? I am not complaining by any means, this is a much appreciated break from the life back in America.

But really, I do start "work" tomorrow with Andy. We are going to go to four sites to do some more dynamic load bearing tests and other geotechnical tests--it should be a rather busy field day. After the long day of work, I will go to my first Austrian frisbee practice for the only ultimate frisbee team in Carinthia, Austria: Disc-Fiction. I am quite excited to meet other people from Austria that are not my family. Even though I love my family, I want to see if other Austrians are just as nice. :)

I want to start discussing the differences I have already seen from my past summer experience in Bolivia to America and to my current experience in Austria. Wikipedia shows me that Austria is very well-off on the GDP-per capita, they are ranked 10th. America is ranked 7th. Bolivia is ranked 151st. As you can see, Bolivia is on the other side of the human development spectrum, it was a bit of a cultural shock coming from America. America and Austria are both fairly well off on GDP in comparison to the rest of the world, but from my little experience, I already notice quite a difference between each life-style. This is, however, coming from a very naive, young perspective of the world. Austrians seem to live life a little sweeter, eat better, exercise regularly, work efficiently, and play daily. Their main exports are not agricultural goods, but manufactured quality goods. They are also a socialistic country (so is Bolivia), and have no real beefs with other countries. Now, I am not saying Austria>America, I am simply putting some biased facts in my blog so that you can get a better perspective on my three country/cultural experience in the past year. Tomorrow, I will get to see what it is like to be an austrian engineer. From my little engineering college experience, it will be good to use some of my education in practice--especially in Austria.

More to come on this subject later.
For now, some pictures...

Evi (10, Andy's daughter), Andy, and Me at the school playground

Standing at the top of Dobratsch mountain, under the Austrian flag, with the Alps in the background.