An American in Klagenfurt

Man the time here just seems to seep through my hands. It's practically Christmas and soon some people will be leaving me. Sad. Quite sad. It's been only two or three months and I feel like I've connected to these people like they were my family. A huge, international, interracial family. Don't ask me how that could realistically work. Thanksgiving was really enjoyable. Nothing compares to the family one, of course, but that fact that I got to eat turkey and sweet potatoes again made things alright. But, there was no pumpkin pie. That was a downer.
For one familiar tradition I added a foreign one. This past weekend was Krampus, in which men dress up like demons/satyrs on a bad acid trip. I don't know which one yet. BUT, the masks that these people make are incredibly detailed, and could scare the crap out of anyone. The story behind these things are that this demonic thing, the Krampus, steals bad kids from there home and takes them out to the woods and buries them alive Santa is the good guy, and comes to save the day, for those that have been good of course. Charming, huh? A little sadistic, I know, but still really COOL. Also this past weekend, I walked around in the Weihnachtsmarkt, and saw all the stuff that the people were making and selling. Pardon my redundancy, but COOL. So many things to do, see, smell, hear. Gloves, hats, ornaments, and so much more, and they all (or atleast appear to be) hand made. Awesome. Plus the snow made for some excellent diversions.
With these festivities about, I have considered the whole nationalism thing. We spend nights (the Erasmus students) comparing and contrasting traditions, and, or course, food. For example, noone outside of the US has sweet potatoes. Blasphemous, I know. But, we Americans, don't have glühwein, or Kebabs (this is also blasphemous). My mind of America has changed since I was younger, when I use to think it was cool to deride where I was from. But living here has made me grow to respect my country, and everything about it. I know, America isn't perfect, but no country is. I could list off mutiple things about multiple countries that are equivalent to the bad things America has wrong with it. People in other countries talk down of America, but half the songs on the radio are from America, half the stores in the mall are American companies, and there is a McDonalds on nearly every corner. Plus, we have great music. Austrian music, I'm sorry to say, is really bad. Either that, or they just have no musical taste. The folk music is awesome, it's just the recent music that sucks.
One last thing. I find that there is a huge gap between generations here. The older generation is the uptight, conservative one, while the younger generation is just like young generation in America. I think that is really interesting, because Austria has never really had a transitional period. In America, we had the 50's, then came the counterculture of the 60's, and then things settled down to what they are today in the 80's. Austrians never had that type of period, the 60's-70's, they just went from the 50's mentality to the 80's. That is why I think that the older people are so hestitant to accept anything different, new, because it is like they are going from A to Z, without stopping anywhere in between.