Eastern...

The other day in German class we were informed that Austrians consider Barvaria to basically be part of Austria. They know it's part of Germany, but when you go there the dialect is like Austria's and the people act Austrian...
I found this pretty funny, since Fabi always ranted about how she hated Barvarians. "Oh they think they are so special..."
Yesterday I noticed that people dressed up for school, which made me happy. I usually don't wear a t-shirt and jeans to school, but I did yesterday, which is how I finally noticed because I felt out of place. Most of the girls from European countries wear pretty nice clothes and even heels. It's a nice change.
It's weird how eastern Vienna is. I never really realized that before. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria#Origin_and_history_of_the_name ) Most of the students at school who are from Europe are from an Eastern European country, with the exception of some people from England. But you hear no mention of anything going on in France, Germany, Italy, England...instead you hear about Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, Russia, Moldova, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria...it's really weird for me because these are the countries I barely knew existed before I came here. In fact, I didn't know Bulgaria was in Europe untill I read Harry Potter (I also didn't know that Wales was a country untill I went there). What's really crazy about all these countries is that even though they all seem alike, they're all really touchy about where they're from, to the point where people in Romania closer to Hugary speak a Hungarian dialect of Romainian, while the people closer to Ukraine speak a more Russian dialect... It's really confusing, and I had no clue that things were so tense here still. I guess the last I really heard about things here was when we were studying world war 1. But people get really offended if you say the wrong thing to them, which is actually something European students have to worry about more than Americans. I'm not going to offend anyone by thinking that their accent is Hungrian and it's Romanian. Just yesterday I thought someone's accent was British, turns out she was from South Korea. Eh, I was a little off. (In my defense, she only said like one sentence)
But, it's really cool getting so much exposure to Easten Europe. There are more Dunur Kabab stands (a turkish food) than Wurstel Stands here. And there was so much Backlava at the Nacht Market!! Mmmmmm....
On one last note, what is with the way people say the time in German? It's bad enough they only use a 24 hour clock here, but seriously, we were taught about 5 different ways to say each time, and none of them were "three-ten". Not to mention trying to keep track of how they say it in Germany, and how they say it in Austria. The one that wins for being most confusing is "It's five past 3 quarters till 4". What? Just say, "3 20". So much easier!! I will never again complain about how to say the time in Spanish.