Easter was as beautiful a day here as God ever made! Austria has plenty of holidays, none of which I avoid celebrating with chocolate. However, the natives must use some discretion. I notice there is a remarkable absence of overweight people here. I don't know if it is living in the city (where even the old people run for the trams) or the diet, or the ongoing race to look chique, but it is prevalent enough that the door to my language school is so thin even I have to go in sideways!
There is also a very different attitude to the body. Lingerie is seemingly the favorite window dressing- a store about every two blocks- as if there is a serious underwear shortage! I'm amazed how much nudity there is in advertising, which includes body parts you would never see in public in the US. This is both good news– people are less hung up (In this atmosphere perhaps there will be more possibilities for displaying my films than I have realized at home–) and bad: this social tolerance is simply being exploited by advertisers, who have no scruples whatever and will not stop until the disgust level is too high for even this open-minded society.
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