The locals...

Well, I’ve killed more than my fair share of trees in the past few weeks with this project. I think the tally is now about 4,000 pages of documents printed off for reading, review, analysis and some form of integration into the manual I am working on. This doesn’t include the books I’ve collected on the subject. And this is only the start…Field interviews and partner meetings have yet to begin.

So, the locals. When downtown, you see three basic types of people: tourists (map or guidebook in hand, perplexed expression on face, camera around neck, and some form of day pack/bag with bottle of water protruding), East Europeans looking for a better life (typically wearing older or slightly shabby clothes), and the locals. The locals are the only ones well dressed. Very well dressed. Until that is, you go to the Prater (the huge ferris wheel and amusement park on the Danube). It’s like getting off the Skytrain in Whalley, except there are no auto wrecking yards. Drunks laying about, garbage on the ground, and graffiti on the walls. Quite surprising as the locals are by and large very neat, orderly, and law abiding.

I haven’t had it happen yet, but have been assured it will…being publicly berated by a local (usually older) for crossing the street without waiting for the light to change. This flagrant flaunting of the law apparently drives many locals nuts, who then feel quite right in yelling, finger pointing, and lecturing. I have also been told that if I want to have real fun, I should turn around and yell: “You haven’t seen anything! Yesterday in Stephanplatz I dropped a gum wrapper on the ground, and last week I walked my dog off-leash!” That, apparently, will drive many locals into attempting to make a citizens arrest on the spot. Anarchy!