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The Dismaying Close-mindedness Of A Country I Love


Austria is a lovely country, but it's hard to love. It's like that awesome friend who always manages to offend everyone at a party with off-color jokes. You want to defend him, because you know everyone would love him if they could just get past the, well, yeah. Sometimes you just slink away. That's how I feel about Austria.

For a year after college, I taught high school English in a tiny Austrian town. I got there in September 1999, just weeks before the electoral triumph of J