Thoughts in My Head: Airports and Board Games

So I had a lot of down time at the airport yesterday, waiting to be  flown off to my next adventure. I just want to make it clear, you've been warned, this is going to be a weird post.

I took the train to the Zurich airport yesterday, and I arrived pretty early so I had some time to buy a muffin to snack on. I guess after almost six weeks here I still must look blatantly American because when I got up to the register to pay for my food the cashier automatically spoke to me in English. This caused me to lift my chin defiantly, and speak right back in French, asking her to repeat the price. She looked extremely confused, but did so. For a while I was very proud of myself for taking a step towards breaking down stereotypes but then I realized that my french is still thickly accented and screams "American", a fact that could hardly go unnoticed by the cashier. Suddenly my triumph at her supposed embarrassment waned as it donned on me that she was only confused why this obviously American tourist had switched to another language that wasn't even the local tongue, especially when she had already addressed me in my own tongue. So much for trying to be impressive.

I am eternally grateful to the board game Ticket to Ride: Europe. It has been extremely helpful for both entertainment and clarification purposes on this trip. In the game, the object is to build trains that connect major cities all over Europe, but all of the trains in and out of Switzerland are tunnels. As I've been traveling around with my host family and on trains by myself, I've been struck by the sheer number of tunnels that actually exist here. It seems instead of winding around drainages and up mountains like we do in Montana, the swiss just tunnel right through everything. I love it. The game also came in handy when I forgot that Vienna is called Wien in German, and this overlook caused me to stand stupidly at the departure screen for many, many minutes before I realized that I had seen the name "Wien" on the board game, and it was probably where I was supposed to fly.

I've arrived in Klosterneuburg now, and the adventures have already started. But I'll save them for another post. :)