Luck

Sometimes I am so ridiculously lucky I just don't get it. And I'm not even talking about the low level, background fluke that means the universe, the planet, and humanity exist, or the luck that got me born in the UK at this point in history.

I went to meet my 'buddy' Ruth at her house today,and I was pretty nervous, as I always am when attempting to be good friends with someone I don't know in another language (partly). Whatever I was expecting I was NOT expecting her or her friends to be Battlestar Galactica fans, or that they would like Deep Space 9 and LOTR, OR that they would also like climbing. OR that one of them had just read the Zombie Survival Guide.

It would be understandable if the buddy program asked me detailed stuff about my life, but all they asked was basically my name and degree... Anyway, despite the fact that I can only understand 1 word in 3 and that this is not enough to decode most conversations, I am extremely glad to have some Austrian friends to take me places where people don't speak English.

Also today I paid my bills and registered with the authorities. Afterwards I went on an aimless walk to a park called the Augarten. In the middle is this incredible concrete Flakturm (anti aircraft tower) from WW2. It is HUUUUUGE. And run down,and covered in pigeons. I love it, it is retro futurism come to life. I love that slightly unsettling feeling you get when you are next to something manmade which is just a little bit too big.


Check it out. It's not even the only one in the city! The other one has a climbing wall.

Hurrah!