I have visited several of the churches here in Salzburg. Especially over the Christmas break I could go to many in one week because they were holding services on the holidays as well as Sundays. Their verse theme for 2009 is above. It was preached about on various occasions as I church-hopped.
So far the visits have been good. There is a church I've visited a few times and a guy and I were talking in German and he asked where I was from but formed it as a statement/question, so you're British? I thought that was funny for him to get that impression of me. I guess he couldn't hear a southern American accent while I spoke German.
At one church I sat by a woman, Connie, whose native language is Spanish but we were able to chat in German before the service started. Afterward this church always has coffee and cake. So another woman in the church who knew Connie asked if I am also from Spain because had been sitting next to her and I guess I look like I could be Spanish.
I got perterbed (spelling?) one night when I went to a church and a polite man shook my hand and after finding out I'm American he spoke English the entire time. I realize I stand out and don't look like an Austrian but when I told him in German that I am studying and know German, it didn't seem to affect him. He just wanted to speak English. It was strange because usually as I meet people and go through the basic info, they are surprised that I speak German and compliment me on my German but never switch languages.
Most of the time when I introduce myself I say that I am from Alabama when the question comes up. That leads to them coming up with a connection... the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Sweet Home Alabama" inevitably. I just say yep that's the one. But if they as me about my church back home I'm not really sure what to say. Baptist would be the easy answer. But I also don't think I like categorizing myself by a denomination. But I haven't discovered the word in German for non-denominational.
Also I was proud of myself at a service this past week. I've decided that jokes and humor are the most difficult things to translate between language and culture differences. Sometimes even in English I am slow to catch a joke, so then it is awkward. But while a preacher was speaking he made a joke and I immediately understood it. And when he said "the disciples caught a lot of net in their fish" I understood the mixup there and kind of quietly chuckled with others in the congregation.
Here below are videos and pictures from New Year's Eve. Alison (senior at BGSU) and I were pretty much the only two still in town so we celebrated along with hundreds of tourists and Salzburg folks. It was strange because they did the 10...1 countdown in English. The second video is better than the first.
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| Madness of Fireworks on New Years Eve |
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| New Years Eve |
