Classes and a few other things

Orientation and the first day of classes were yesterday. They had us take a test to see how well we know German. It was multiple choice and since I don't speak any German whatsoever I chose my answers based on whether or not I knew one of the words in the answer. Apparently, that was good enough to put me in level 5 (out of 8). The teacher was speaking completely in German and I couldn't understand a word of it. I let him know and he told me the room of a beginner's class. It's much more to my skill level. The teacher wears her hair in dreadlocks pulled behind her head and it's dyed blond. It's a look that works for her, though, and she's cool. She asks us what we want to learn and how we want to learn it. There's a lot of class input into the teaching methods and material. I think the class benefits a lot from it.

Some observations:
* I hate February. Mostly because it falls in the worst part of winter, but that is no excuse. The snow and frigid temperatures are inexcusable. And February is bad no matter where you are in the world.
* I hate snow. It's pretty watching it falling and it's fun to play in, but overall the negatives outweigh the positives. First off, it's cold. And it's wet. You have to clean it off your car and driveway if you want to go anywhere. After the first couple of days the snow gets dirty and ugly. Snow is basically only good for a white Christmas and unfortunately that didn't happen this year.
* The best pizza I have ever had is from a stand in the Spittelau Ubahnstation. You get two huge slices - basically half pie - for 3.80 €, which is a little less than $5 at the moment. The second best pizza I've had is Avanlanche in Athens. Still, the fact that a pizza stand in a subway station in Vienna has better pizza than anything I've had in America leads me to believe that there might still might be a better slice out there somewhere.

By the way, the two pizzas I know to be famous are the Chicago Style deep dish and pizza from NYC. I haven't had the Chicago pizza yet, so I can't compare it to what is reputed to be the best in the US. All that really means is that when I get back home, I need to take a little trip to Chicago.

Oh, and the rant about the snow was inspired by the weather today. What also sucked is that is was raining, too. Actually, I was looking out my window watching it rain this afternoon. I look back at my computer and literally a second later Peter walks in and says, "Oh look, it's snowing!" The weather really couldn't make up it's mind today. Then, Peter decided to go to a Turkish market that's a few Ubahn stops away and asked if I wanted to tag along. That market might be the cheapest place to buy fruits and probably clothes as well. He says that on weekends the markets get much larger. I think I'm going to make good use of that info especially when it gets warmer. My main problem right now is that I have nothing with which to cook. I think this week I might go to a flee market and see if I can find some cheap pots and pans. And spatulas, too. (All the eggs are brown here. You really have to do some hunting to find white eggs. I wonder if they taste any different.)

If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty bored right now. The weather is not at all conducive to going out what with the cold and the snow/rain and all. Oh well, that's why I decided to study here second semester. I'll be leaving here when it's warm, on a good note. So I'll just have to tough this crappy weather out. But tomorrow I'm going to meet Sam and we're going to the Musikverein to see the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam play the Dvorak Requiem. I don't know the piece but I'm sure it'll be outstanding.

Oh yeah. Last night was the "Erasmus Lounge" at the Ride club which means free cocktails between 7 and 8. Peter and I went and I had a gin & tonic, a long island ice tea, a vodka lemon, and a cuba libre all for free. Then I had to pay for a sex on the beach, but that was only 1.90 €. And I had to check my coat, which was 1 €. So for five drinks and a very sincere recommendation to go travel to Morroco, I paid 2.90 €. That's about $3.75. So cheap and all the drinks were very tasty. We left around 9:30 and when we got back, this girl who was leaving today asked us to play football in the basement. I've never really played football, but what the hell, why not? It was more fun than I remembered it to be, but that might also be because I had had a few drinks.

So this has been all over the place and I think I'll leave it at that.