For some people, yes. It was not so for me.

I decided to lose all my weight from what I call "subconscious fat shaming." Basically, all my friends kept wanting to do things I couldn't (hiking, etc), and so I decided to lose the weight and get fit so that I could keep up and have fun, too.

Thank you for the encouragement and the tips! I was looking into working at the UN, but you have to take a series of tests and it's all for stuff I'm not familiar with. Hopefully something in media works out. That would definitely be ideal. I'm already involved with Vienna Expats, and I found a couple of women's…

Vienna is beautiful! We found a nice little place in the 19th (the cheap part of the 19th, not the expensive part!). Close to a small park and to good transportation, so I'm pretty happy with it. Sure we're not in the hubbub of inside the Guertel, but we're okay with that! We can always move later to be closer.

I yell at him while I'm asleep until he comes to bed.

Thank you! I am very excited! Everything is ready for my move—now I just have to find a job! (I'm following my husband, who is a researcher there).

Thanks! I just returned from there, getting my visa and paperwork all together and buying furniture for my apartment. I absolutely LOVED it. I currently live in NYC, and Vienna is...just wow. So impressive. So clean, the metro system is amazing (at rush hour the U-Bahn comes every 3 minutes, and on the weekends, every…

Really? Do you promise? I travel to Europe a lot (and I'm moving to Vienna in January!) and I've had it so ingrained in me that Americans are bad tourists that I completely change my behavior while I'm there. I try to dress better, remain quieter, and only carry a purse (since I've heard it's an American thing to…

I wonder about these magical upgrades. Do they actually happen? How do you make it happen? Do you pay extra? It seems like all the routes I fly either don't have first class available, or if they do, they're always booked.

Sometimes I change in the bathroom, but if my husband is with me, I'll usually change in my seat. I've gotten very good at being able to change my outfit while wearing an overly large sweatshirt. Last time, I only dislocated my arms, like, twice in that pursuit.

If my husband is with me, I change in my seat under a blanket (and with him as an additional shield). I've gotten pretty good at being able to change entirely while wearing a sweatshirt as cover. Otherwise I change in the bathroom, and I'll try to run in there before (hopefully) anybody is able to use it; if not, then…

As someone who just flew to Europe and back (and who is an American)—I refuse to dress like a schlub in the airport and perpetuate the American stereotype. That said, considering I'm about to fly for nine or ten hours, you bet your butt that I have an extra set of super comfy schlubby clothing to change into once…

This photo makes me want to work at Jezebel. Last time I went to Medieval Times (for a friend's birthday), I was the only one who dressed up! I totally rocked it, though. Plus I got to take a photo with the Heath Ledger-Ulric von Liechtenstein-Knight lookalike. I assume you guys were at the MT in Lyndhurst?

I was once filming a movie in a mansion that had its own ball pit next to the full-size basketball court they had in the "basement."

I'm not a beer person, so when I was in Poland (and they love their beer!), this helped with the taste. It's used with lighter-colored beers. They call it something like "soak," but that's not the way it's spelled (just the way it's pronounced). It's fruity flavors (there might be others, but I've never seen them).…

It's not like 30th cousins are that close. A generation is defined at about 30 years, so that really is a very long time ago—somewhere in the mid-High Middle Ages, as another commenter wrote, so the 11th-13th centuries. I've traced certain genealogical lines back that far, and it's not like I'd consider any of my…

Also, onion allergies are a real thing. My grandfather was allergic to raw onions (well-cooked he could handle). But I get people using it as an excuse.

That's actually a pretty standard way of drinking beer in Poland. Not with a straw, but beer with a flavored syrup.

When I was a freshman at Barnard, there was actually a girl who was a transwoman that started at the same time. Or...maybe it was a he and he was a transman? I don't remember. Wait I think he was a transman because I think his name was Ray. Okay let's say it was that way. His name was Ray and he was trans. Anyways,…

Thanks for the clarification! I did not read the third book (it seems a lot of people didn't like it, and I was getting pretty bored by the end of Catching Fire with a girl who didn't seem to be heroic at all and who seemed to be actively campaigning against any sort of heroism).