So what is your awareness of the German-speaking world? I've got to confess, I was only aware of a couple cities in Germany a few months ago, and of course, the names of the countries (Austria, Switzerland), although I wouldn't have been able to point them out on the map. Today I just found out that there was recently an election in Austria, with a dashing young gentleman by the name of Sebastian Kurz elected as Kanzler, and there is its own share of drama associated with that (not to mention that he's just a year older than me ). Does any of that get to you via your German friends, or were you pretty much like me? I mean, a year ago I was pretty much pin-point focused on the US politics, so an entire country could have disappeared off the map in Europe and I wouldn't have noticed...