You are what you eat (and drink)

If it is true that you are what you eat (and drink), then I suspect when this trip is over I will look like a wine-soaked piece of cake on a slab of fresh bread. By Weight Watchers guidelines, eating me would result in about 150 points (and contrary to logical thinking, more points is BAD, like golf).

I cannot say enough good things about the few foods I've sampled while in Vienna. Today I went to a restaurant in the Turkenschanz Park. I had a delectable piece of hazelnut cake with chocolate icing (and one of those cute pieces of candy on top). This was accompanied by a steamy cup of dark coffee. I learned that when you order coffee in a Viennese cafe you do not say that you want coffee. Viennese are likely to be insulted by your stupidity (why would you NOT want coffee when you come to a cafe). Instead, you order coffee by the type (dark with cream, light with cream, black, etc).

After my mid-afternoon meeting at the restaurant I came home to a gathering with our new friends, the Beilman's. They brought us a variety pack of assorted chocolates. I really cannot describe them except to say that I am using every shred of willpower right now not to eat the entire package. Actually, it would probably be very responsible of me as a loving father and husband to spare my kids and wife from the devastating consequences of eating too much of the chocolate. Wait . . . I'm caving. No, I cannot eat any more. But my family is counting on me. I'm gonna do it. Wait . . . Ahh!

I topped off this eating spree by drinking wine from a bottle that cost 2 euros. But this was no 2-buck Chuck! It was Austrian through and through--smooth and sophisticated, with a hint of sarcasm and attitude. Call it 2 euro Thoreau (as in Henry David).

Tomorrow the students arrive and Saturday we begin orientation. Stay tuned for more exciting updates . . .

Signed,

Running to Get More Chocolate