A Bar Joke

f(x) goes into a bar and asks for a drink. "I'm sorry," the barman says. "We don't cater for functions."

From here. Found the link at Marginal Revolution. It seems fitting.

I should be reading this article that I have to write a paper on. Instead, I'm going to see Die Tote Stadt at the Staatsoper with Sam. I'll take the article with me and see what happens.

Also, I registered for classes today. I signed up for Graph Theory, Topology, and Jazz History at Hamilton campus. I need to figure out which econ class I'm going to take but I'm not too worried about getting in to it. We'll see how it goes.

Service/Dienst

There are a number of shops that offer two things: Schlüssel Dienst and Schuh Service.

Schlüssel Dienst means Key Service. Schuh Service means Schuh Service. My problem is that this is AUSTRIA where people speak GERMAN. Why do they throw in an English word - "service" - into a sign that is clearly meant for a German speaking audience?

Also, I don't know if I've written about this yet (I probably have, but I'll risk repetition) but many German speaks pronounce "v" as a "w." This is a bit odd because there is no "w" sound in the German language.

Just a couple things to ponder.

... and then I found $20!

Tonight, dinner was amazing. It was the dinner Mara, Alessandro, Erk, and I planned. The participants in the dinner were the previously mentioned folks plus Luana and Gregoire, a Frenchman. For dinner, I made my chili, which I thought was just alright but everyone else seemed to like it (Luana said it needed salt - she's right), Alessandro made spaghetti with a tasty tomato sauce, we had some sort of salad with lettuce, tomato, yellow and red bell pepper, olives, feta cheese, and some sauce made for olive oil, dijon mustard, and red wine vinaigrette made by Gregoire. The salad had a lot of flavor. It was a good flavor, too. Erk made some cake with chocolate in the middle, which was very good. I'm going to get the recipe (though I think he used my rocks glass to measure the sugar and flour). As a topping, he mixed sliced bananas, walnuts and a copious amount of honey. We also had three bottles of wine. The best was this Sicillian wine. It was very strong but it went well with the meal.

After dinner, we talked a lot. The most notable conversation was between me, Michael, Christina, and Gregoire. It was about genetics. Gregoire is a PhD student in genetics and he's studying genetic defects in dogs and how it spreads in the population. I was wondering what affects the inbreeding of dogs has on this, and surprisingly (to me) he said that inbreeding cuts down on genetic defects but lowers immunities to other diseases. Then we started talking about evolution and creationism, and how this Turkish guy sent a whole bunch of free books touting creationism to all the European universities. Erkal is Turkish and Muslim and we asked his opinion. He said that he didn't think humans evolved from monkeys or that humans follow any sort of evolution at all, but maybe plants are products of evolution. He also said that in his part of Turkey, the people are much more opened minded (Çorlu is on the European part of Turkey, but Western Turkey is this way, as well). But there is the problem of their PM being very conservative, wanting the women to all wear veils and whatnot, so Turkey is beginning to face a pretty difficult issue on the separation of church and state.

And that was dinner. Earlier in the day, I went to see the Wiener Philharmoniker play Beethoven's third and fourth - as previously mentioned. I woke up at 8 and got to the Musikverein at 9. I was a little surprised to see the doors had already been opened. I went upstairs and I was at the back of the line. Just as I walked up, the buzzer rang and everyone started walking in the hall. Now, it was only 9:30 and the concert was supposed to start at 11. The buzzer normally rings a half hour before the concert. Let's just say I was a little confused.

The concert was awesome. Completely worth the €6 and the standing. The house was packed, too, but the Philharmoniker was playing to a home town crowd. I even dressed up a bit for it. I also really like the first movement of Beethoven's third. The theme is beautiful.

After the concert, I came back home exhausted. I barely stayed awake on the Ubahn. I went almost directly to sleep and slept until I had to start cooking at 5:30. At 4:30, Erkal says, "Hey Zack, it's 5:30. Shouldn't you be going to cook?" Well, that was what he meant. His English isn't quite up to that level. Sometimes understanding him is a little tricky, but his English is improving by leaps and bounds. Anyway, I looked at my watched and mumbled something about sleeping another hour. An hour later, I looked at my watch and saw it was 5:30. Cool. I got up and Erkal goes, you know, it's 6:30. We argued for a second and I went to the kitchen. Sanya was sitting there and I asked him, "What time is it?" "It's 6:30." Apparently, the "spring forward" happens here about a month after it happens in Ohio. This is good, though, because it means that I have to wake up at 2, instead of 1, this Tuesday to register for classes.

... and then I found $20! Literally. It was in the pocket of my blazer. I have no idea how it got there, but when I get home, it's going to Skyline or Skippers.

p.s. Erkal is sleeping wearing a brightly colored, knitted, skull cap. I have never seen that before. He's very entertaining. A few nights ago he was really tired and he was trying to ask me, "Can I get something from you?" Instead he said, "I want something." (Something sounds more like sometink, just for reference, and he says it pretty slowly since his English is in the improvement stage). I ask him, "What? What do you want?" He looks around a bit, thinking, and he says, "You." After he sees my expression, he starts going, no no no no no no, and he clarifies himself. Pretty entertaining guy.

Two Important Lists

In no specific order:

Things I miss in the USA:
Skyline Chili
Native English Speakers
My Family
My Dogs
My Cat
Driving
People not having to clarify whether they're joking or not
My Friends
Water Fountains

Things I'll miss when I come back:
My Friends
Being forced to cook Cincy Style Chili instead of just buying it
Beer
- Gösser
- Stiegl
The Music
Living in a big city
Public Transportation
An easy schedule (Month long spring break)
The women
Not getting carded everytime I want to buy beer/wine/liquor
Learning about recent history from people who lived through that history

These lists are probably longer, but it's late and I need to wake up early tomorrow.

The Rundown of April

Here's my schedule for April:

April Third: Leave for Milan by Plane. Sam and I will mess around there for the morning and then be off to Rome.

I went into some detail about my Italy trip earlier. So I'm skipping the details.

April 13th: Leave Venice for Vienna.

April 15th: Leave Vienna for Budapest.

April 17th: Return from Budapest. I'll be going to a concert with Sam and Iori that night. It's the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle playing Mahler's Fifth. I'm pretty sure that's right.

April 20th: Leave for London.

I'll be hanging in London for a bit. The last few days, I'll be spending with Iori in a town about an hour away from the city. I don't remember what it's called.

April 25th: Come back to Vienna.

April 27th: Classes start again.

Sweet.

Snail

Most posts take me a long time to write. I have to meet Mara in 23 minutes to get food for tomorrow. We decided to have a little dinner with maybe six or seven people. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be full. I'm seeing the Wiener Philharmoniker play Beethoven's third and fourth and then cooking dinner with some people. I think Alessandro (Mara's boyfriend) and I are going to be mostly in charge of the actual cooking. I hope whatever we cook is good. I know he can make decent food. He's Italian, for God's sake. If he can't make a decent pasta dish, everything I hold dear in this world (pasta) is thrown out the window.

Which reminds me, there are some puns that are impossible to use with non-native English speakers. If the occasion ever arises to say, "so you can throw defenestration out the window," odds are no one here will get that. Though, I don' t know how many people back home would get that, either....

I quick run through of yesterday: I finally found my way to one of the outlying hills. There's a vineyard (or at least they grow grapes) on the hillside. There was this cool stone path that led up to the side so I walked up and took a picture or so. It's on flickr. I also found these Schrebergartens, which are "rent-a-yards" for people in the city. You know, in case they want to barbecue (which I thought was an American thing and am still pretty sure it is. Posers). I met Manuel (my tandem partner for languages) and we hung out in a bookstore akin to Borders except much larger than anything in the Cincy area. It was about the size of the Barnes&Nobles I went to in NYC on my trip with Feier, Josh, and Angie - the superior of the trips, except for seeing Mike Stern in 55 Bar. When I got back to Kolping, I went for my key and - SHIT! - not there. I thought I had dropped it somewhere. Sanya let me up to the living area, nicely enough, and I went to the kitchen. That wasn't all that bad because the eurosports channel was on and they were talking about formula one. The adjustments they make to those cars are crazy. And apparently there's a race that lasts for 24 hours and whoever travels the farthest wins. Just one driver, too. That's badass. Michael and Christina told me that a Danish driver won it the last four, five, six (whatever) years.

One thing I've noticed is that people from a specific country are always telling you about accomplishments from people of their country. I don't think I've ever seen that type of patriotism in the US. Whether it's for the country, or a state, or a city. I understand that it happens, but it's much more prevelant here.

Yesterday was the first "real" spring day. Today is even nicer. Here is a picture of a snail:

"Liveblogging" my Studying (nix the timestamps)

I'm going to make some notes on this thing which will, in theory, help me remember what I need to know for my exam tomorrow. The class is "Economics of the European Integration."

Discussing integration theories, one of the slides talking about the Division of Labour theory says: Complexity of cooperation extending to the whole re-production process. Now I take it to mean that the theory says that the labor pool is rather acutely divided across countries and through cooperation the countries relax restrictions on the movement of labor until there is institutionalized cooperation and countries are able to specialize in specific industries instead of producing everything themselves. That's the beauty of comparative advantage. However, there's more than one re-production process.

I have never seen it hail as much as it has here.

It goes from a beautiful, sunny spring day to hail and back to the spring day in less than 15 minutes. And I thought Ohio weather was volatile.

Presumably (hopefully) this won't happen but: There is this "single licence" policy which says that if a financial institution (bank, insurance company, etc) gets a licence to work in one EU member country, then they can operate in any EU member company as long as they "sign in." This is a handy little thing because it strips away almost every barrier to doing financial business across EU countries. But what happens if one country denies this priviledge to a company from a different country? What can the EU do to enforce the priviledge the financial company has within the EU? The U.S. would send in the National Guard or something similar, but does the EU have something like that? I know the funding for EU security comes almost exclusively from the UK, France, Germany, and Italy (with some help from the Netherlands and Spain). If one of those countries denied the "single licence," what would happen? Although I think the probability this happens is very small (p < 0.001), the one thing the class didn't cover is enforcement mechanisms of the EU.

Completely unrelated to the task at hand, but I just remembered that in Russia you can't drink tap water. Or at least in Tomsk you can't. Their pipes are so old that they've rusted a bit so their water contains arsenic. It's a very small percentage of arsenic, but still. It's arsenic.

It's really hard to study when other people are speaking on the phone. Especially if it's Turkish and emphatic. Not conducive to studying at all.

People in the States tend to look at the European education system and say it's better. People in Europe (at least, the people I've talked to) look at the US's education system and say it's better. I think the most important observation is that neither Europeans or Americans know anything about the other education system. The grass is greener on the other side. From what I see, the European primary (in the US, K - 12) is better than the US but the university system in the US is better than the system in Europe. The European system has a 3 years undergrad and a 2 years master (the Bologna system). By the way, Bologna is the location of the oldest university in Europe.

The Blues

"Along with Jazz, white people have also taken quite a shine to The Blues, an art form that captured the pain of the black experience in America. Then, in the 1960s, a bunch of British bands started to play their own version of the music and white people have been loving it ever since. It makes sense considering that the British were the ones who created The Blues in the 17th Century." From here.

After considerable thought, I don't care if I can speak another language or not because everyone speaks English. What is interesting is how languages develop, especially the grammar. The reason to study other languages is so that you can learn how they are structured differently. For example, English is different that German and Spanish in that you don't have to conjugate verbs with respect to the pronouns. English speakers almost always must use pronouns like "I" or "you" or "it" while Spanish speakers can drop it completely - instead of "yo quiero" they can just say "quiero" and German speakers normally use pronouns. I always wonder if these differences affect how people view different issues. Especially about things such as collectivist thinking. If you drop the pronoun, does that give you the inclination to think you're more a part of a whole than an individual? I don't know, but it's fun to think about sometimes.

NYT Quote of the Day

"It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak."
President Obama, defending his decision to wait a few days before expressing anger over bonuses paid to executives of the insurance giant A.I.G.

Because anger and indignation takes time to work up. (sure it does)

Because the people who were getting those bonuses weren't the same people who got AIG in all that trouble and are working their asses off to fix the problem.

Because we want to strip anyone who works hard trying to correct the HUGE mistakes of not only their money, but their dignity as well.

I heard on CNN International tonight some lady in Penn Station saying that Obama has only been in office for a short while and people haven't given him enough time. But he knew what he was getting into (supposedly). Why shouldn't we call him on his mistakes? And when we do, why the hell isn't it getting publicity? Or is that obvious....

Spaghetti Bolognese

I have found the ancestor of Skyline Chili. It is Spaghetti Bolognese. There are a few slight differences, of course. I use chocolate and cinnamon in my recipe. It may be a good idea to throw a little red wine in with it, though. Maybe I'll do that next time.

Today I made my chili again. This time, I got the consistency right. I also discovered that cumin was the spice that gave it a very weird flavor the first couple of attempts.

In other news, Sam emailed me and said that we can grab the 8 o'clock flight to Milan on April 3rd. That's 8 o'clock in the morning and the airport's in Bratislava (about an hour away). So, we're going to Milan. Also, if I can convince Iori and Sam, maybe I can talk them into stopping for an hour (if the timetables work out) in Bologna to try some Spaghetti Bolognese at its source. But that will come later in our trip.

In news other than the other news, Iori has graciously allowed me to crash at his place from the 22nd to the 25th or April, so I'll be off to London. I do need to find a hostel for the 20th and the 21st, though, but that'll be nice because then I won't have to commute quite so much. Maybe, depending on what Iori recommends, I'll sightsee in London for most of those days but maybe take another day and see a different part of England.

Feier: I'll be taking plenty of pictures, so don't worry about that.

And now, I should study. I've got an exam (no one ever says test, it's always exam) on Friday and I have plans tomorrow afternoon/night.

Venting and Other Things, Many Other Things

For my International Development and World Monetary Systems class I had to write a summary on some article by Eduardo Aninat who is some Deputy something or other at the IMF. I wouldn't mind reading these articles so much if I'd never read The Elusive Quest For Growth by William Easterly or The Mystery of Capital by Hernando De Soto. Unfortunately, I haven't read The Other Path, but I've heard it's good. De Soto is the only economist I've heard of that has become the target of a terrorist group because of a book he wrote.

That's not the point, though. The point is, I had to summarize this dumbass article touting the Millenium Development Goals. First off, I thought I was done summarizing articles. Part of the reason I choose the math and econ as my majors is that I don't have to write pointless papers that are basically regurgitating someone else's words. Summarization is an exercise in creative plagarism, as far as these assignments are concerned. Second off, those goals are a pleasant idea but that's really all they are. If there was some enforcement of some of the goals, like actually getting countries to allocate 0.7% of their budget for development aid, then maybe some progress could be made. But wait! Even then, how are we going to monitor that aid? After reading a couple of those previously mentioned books, it's a wonder why we give some of these governments aid at all. One blatant and famous example of this is Iraq's "Oil for Food" program. Who did the money that was flowing into Iraq benefit? Saddam? Yep. And many African and Latin American countries have similar problems. There's that and there are other bureaucratic reasons, as well. For development issues, the best source of current information and genuine debate is Bill Easterly's blog.

Also, the article mentioned some of the cures for poverty. Programs like debt relief, which have been tried in the past and have failed, were one of his suggestions. The article was written in 2002 when Bono, the Pope, and Jeff Sachs were in vogue and pushing debt relief as the cure for poverty. Another measure mentioned was a call for social safety nets for developing countries to soften negative transition impact. Where are these governments getting the money to fund these programs? The rich countries? And would the money even actually make it to those who the programs intend to benefit? Who knows? The kicker sentence was this: "The need for the kind of high-quality analysis that the IMG provides, helping to keep the global economy on an even keel, has become more evident." That's one helluva plug.

Needless to say, it took me forever to write the damn summary and it's quality is... questionable.

Thankfully, Pichler (the prof) decided that instead of a test we'd write a midterm paper and a term paper. I really am happy about that, too, because he asked us to analyze these papers rather than regurgitate them. I much prefer those types of assignments. The only problem is that if I don't get this midterm written before April 3rd, I'll be gone to Italy for a couple weeks. When I get back to Vienna, Iori and I (and hopefully Sam) are going to Budapest, Bratislava and (maybe) Prague. Though I doubt we'll have time for Prague since Iori's leaving on the 20th. I need to make it to Prague, though, because so many people have said so many good things. I feel like I need to see it for myself. Also, I'm thinking I might join Iori in London (if he doesn't mind, of course) for a few days because my break goes from 13:30, 1 April to 14:00, 27 April. It just might be the longest spring break ever.

Besides the cities I've mentioned above, the other cities I'd like to see are, in no specific order:
Dublin
Sofia
Barcelona
Amsterdam (specifically for the Van Gogh Museum)
Belgrade
Istanbul
The Cappadocia Area (Huge underground cities. Awesome.)
Izmir
Munich (specifically for the Hofbrauhaus. I want to see how it compares to the one in Newport.)
Berlin
St. Petersburg
Moscow (these two Russian cities mostly because Ayn Rand's novel "We the Living" is set in St. Petersburg and she - basically - calls Moscow a bitch city, which is why the Reds chose it as their capital. I'd like to compare)

Tyler Cowen recommends rural Albania. I'm not convinced. Out of all of those, though, I'd like to see Sofia and Barcelona the most. I'd like to see what Bulgaria is like since I've heard so much about it from Iori and would like to see where he spends his summers (since he knows where I've spent mine). Barcelona is there because I did a project on it in my high school Spanish course on Gaudí and I remember many of his buildings, including the Sagrada Família, are there. His buildings have a similar attitude that Hundertwasser's buildings have and I like that thing.

Also, I made Cincy style chili yesterday and it was the best batch yet. I used less chocolate and less Worcester sauce, which probably helped it a lot. I bought some Chili Powder today. Hopefully, that'll do the trick. I also think I'm cooking it too long. It's thicker than it should be.

I've covered enough. Done for now.

Cincy Tea Part Update

Via Jeff Bieszczak: "My dad came out to visit for his birthday today, and he told me that he actually went to the Cincy Tea Party. He said it was a pretty good time, and that the only 'comeback' that the one or two protesters had was to exalt and kneel at the altar of Obama. Plenty of clever signs and chants as well."

That's disgusting. During W's term, I don't remember hearing of anyone genuflecting to Bush. There are plenty of things you can say about Bush supporters but subservient is not among them. What is wrong with these people? Are they able to think for themselves?

And my Wii character helped him beat Danimal. A homerun to win. Awesome!

A Piece of Trivia

I forgot this in the last post. I was talking with Milan and a girl whose name I'm not going to attempt to spell, and the girl was saying she was going to run in a marathon. Milan asked me if I knew where the term marathon came from and, instead of the obvious answer of "the gas station - it's because cars can run for a long time," I went for the more obscure answer of "the Greek dude who ran to Athens from Marathon to announce that - even though their army was vastly outnumbered - they prevailed. The runner then died after delivering the message. Milan was genuinely surprised I knew that. Apparently, Americans aren't supposed to know little things like that. Honestly, I have no idea where I learned that but for some reason it was one of those stories that stuck. And honestly, I wouldn't expect too many people in America to know that, either (personal friends not included in that characterization).

So here I am, trying to reconcile my country's image to the rest of the world one piece of trivia at a time. Too bad the image is pretty accurate.

A semi-related note: Milan was the guy who told me that the Mississippi was the biggest river in the world. At best, it's third but I think it's fourth. The top two are, of course, the Nile and the Amazon, depending on which aspect you're measuring.

Everybody Needs a Bosom for a Pillow

Update on the Rakı. According to Iori, Bulgarians claim it as traditional Bulgarian. Also, according to Mara, Romanians claim it as traditional Romanian. It's definitely traditional 'some country on the Black sea.' Beyond that, I have no idea.

Friday I stayed up late talking with Ozan. The more I talk to him, the more I like him. He's a really cool guy, curious about history and, well, he's just curious. A good trait to have, in general. And here's where I steal a story from Dr. Richard Feinman, though I won't tell it as a story, I'll only write the moral: Think about someone who spends their life learning language after language after language. They can tell you the name for "bird" in French (oiseau), German (Vogel), Italien (uccello), Spanish (pájaro), and Russian (птица). (If any of those are wrong, blame babelfish - I can't speak any of those languages.) So this person knows all these differents names for "bird" but if they can't tell you anything about birds, e.g. their bones are hollow so they don't have to carry so much weight during flight or that it's likely that birds evolved from dinosaurs, they don't really know anything about the world around them. They don't know how the world works. It's a good skill to have, speaking all those languages, but when it comes down to the wire, you still don't really understand anything. Curiosity is what spurs this understanding in the world. You just keep asking why. And that was my Friday.

Saturday was great and I must break it into three parts. The first part: Ozan hadn't seen Vienna yet. Actually, he hadn't left Kolping since he got here. That's just unacceptable. So Ozan, Erkal, and I went down Mariahilferstraße because Erkal wanted to go shopping, but he didn't buy anything which is beyond me. I didn't feel like walking around Mariahilferstraße any more than necessary, and I didn't think it was that necessary, so I suggested we go to Stephansplatz so Ozan could see that big church. They call it Stephansdome. We walked down Kärtnerstraße, which I was pretty excited about because I finally realized where it was (though I had walked down it a number of times before). Kärtnerstraße is a pretty important street - one of the main streets in the city - and it was mentioned in the Third Man, a delightful novel by Graham Greene. We watched a street spray paint artist at work. Ozan really wanted to see how they painted. It was pretty incredible. It only took him about twenty minutes to finish the painting. He'd use bottom of a spray paint can or a larger pan to make paintings inside of a painting. It's a bit hard to explain. The bottom line on the paintings are that 1) they're very cool and 2) very affordable. I think I'm going to buy one before I leave. After that, Ozan wanted to get a hot drink so I suggested Café Central. It was nice because I didn't get lost when I was trying to find it this time. And I have a much better idea about how the Erste Bezirk is structured. When we looked at the menu, both of them saw the prices and were... put off. But we ordered, and, as I've written before, the atmosphere is wonderful, especially with the pianist. The drinks came out very quickly but Erkal ordered food. They took forever getting the food out to him and we - but mostly Erk - was getting a little annoyed. Once his food finally arrived, he tasted it and declared (in Turkish - I got the translation later) that he would wait twice as long, it was so good. Since we were waiting so long, I had finished my coffee. I asked for the menu to look at prices. They have Remy Martin VSOP priced at 2 cl for €5 - very expensive. I thought about it for a second and thought, ah whatever, you'll only in Wien for a bit, so I ordered a glass. Plus, I wanted to try Remy Martin without having to buy a whole bottle. It was so good. So, so good. It was also the first time I've ever had Cognac in a snifter, which is the way it's supposed to be served. I really do love that Café. I'll miss it when I leave. Ozan said we should try to come back three or four time a month. I don't think I'll have a problem with that.

Second Part: We got back to Kolping and it was 9ish. There was some sort of hubbub in the kitchen, so I went to check it out. There were the normal crowd - Milan, Slobodan, Nikola, etc. - and there was this girl there. When I walked in, I think it was Milan who yelled, ah here's the American we were telling you about. Turns out, the girl - Crystal - is from Canada. Awesome, a native English speaker! It was pretty nice because for once, instead of listening to a lot of people speaking in some other language and then having to translate for me, we could talk in English. It's the same thing when Tom's there, but Canadians and folks from the US have a bit more in common with each other, especially with respect to accent and idioms. Apparently, they were all going to some club and asked me to go. Since there's no way I'd refuse that, I found myself heading to Thaliastraße at a quarter to midnight. The club was really crowded but they played pop rock, which is what I prefer to hear in a club. That "house" music lacks something. I think it's called "any talent whatsoever." That's how I got Brimful of Asha stuck in my head. Thank you, Mr. Doughty, for exposing me to that song.

Third Part: I have no idea when we left the club. The more I go to clubs, the more I realize that there's no way I'll be able to remember what time I leave them. It's not because I drink too much that I can't remember, it's that I don't look at my watch. Plus, there're more important things happening and honestly, I don't care when I leave. So at some point in the late night/early morning, I walk into my room to find Erkal and Ozan still hanging out. Apparently when I entered, Ozan wanted some food and Erkal said it was too late to cook. Of course, I had to put in my couple of cents and said it's never to late to cook. And off to the kitchen! Erkal cooked a variation on what I normally eat, which is pasta with a ground beef and tomato sauce topping. Quite tasty. Ozan and I started talking about relationships and, from what I understand, we have very similar views on that topic which would take more too much time to write about right now. The other important thing is that Ozan keeps telling me that I must visit him in Izmir this summer. It's an offer I can't - and wouldn't want - to refuse.

The title is from Brimful of Asha, since it's been stuck in my head for a while now.

Fuck you, Fed

I know it's one answer to the US's economic woes right now. My problem is the exchange rate. It's now 10 cents worse. Here's Tyler Cowen's at Marginal Revolution short discussion on it (which is where I found the original link). Here's a lengthier discussion from James Hamilton at Econbrowser.

As you can tell, I think this announcement by the Fed is somewhat responsible for the exchange screwing me. So fuck you, Fed. Where's my bailout?

Here's an update.

Start Wearing Purple, Wearing Purple!

There's a lot I haven't written about yet that I've meant to record. So I'll do this by category:

A little about last night: Erkal bought me a little bottle of Rakı (pronounced rahkuh) which is a traditional Turkish drink. It's 90 proof and came in a little 5 cl bottle, which - as Feier aptly pointed out - is cute. In the Turkish tradition, it's drank in a tall thin glass. Unfortunately, the only somewhat appropriate glass I have is a highball glass. You must chill it and then add the same amout of ice cold water - but you don't you ice. After the Rakı is in the glass, you poor in the water which clouds the drink. It's a very cool effect. The taste is like black liquorice, so it's similar to a light colored Jägermeister. Here's a picture of Erkal and I with the drink and the bottle:Cheers!

Also, Erkal is slowly teaching me some Turkish. Very slowly. The only word I know how to spell is susadım, which means "I'm thirsty." Sa is water. I also know how to say hello in a more polite way. It's like popping into a room and announcing, "I'm here!"

A little about Nagy: His most important characteristic is that he's Hungarian. That explains why most of his examples come from Hungary. He's a pretty good teacher. I'm actually learning how the EU functions, which is what I was hoping to do. Some of the things he talks about, like their energy policy, is really interesting especially when you put it in context. For example, the oil pipelines coming out of Russia and the pipelines that service Western Europe are different diameters. This means that if there's a problem with the oil supply in Russia, such as when it's coming through Ukraine, all of Eastern Europe has a serious problem (they can't connect to Western pipelines). I think it was last year that Slovenia couldn't get oil from Russia and had to shut down production for a week and a half. That cost them about 3% of their GDP. But it was either shut down production or shut off heating in all the houses. Energy is a serious problem for Eastern Europe.

Another interesting thing Nagy talked about today was how to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of EU development programs. When the EU gives, say, Hungary some funds for a specific project, the way the funds are dispersed (and the low level of monitoring) make it very easy for the employers to made the addition of 3 jobs seem like they added 10 jobs. When this is aggregated, he says that the figure of, say, 10,000 jobs is actually a lot less. But the employers won't report the real figures because then the EU funds will be taken back. The only reason he was able to get this information was that he'd actually go sit with these employers, drink a couple shots of pálinka, and once they're loosend up, maybe half of them would tell him how the scheme works. Pálinka is a homemade, traditional Hungarian liquor, by the way. It's flavored with fruits or honey and is very good.

Another important point he made is that in the northeastern part of Hungary there is high unemployment while in the south towards the Austrian border there are a lot of employers looking for workers. The Hungarians in the northeastern part don't move south to where the jobs are even though there is no language barrier because they just don't want to. He said it's a cultural thing. I'd like to know what kind of unemployment benefits Hungary disperses. Chances are, they're pretty high, because if those people were really unemployed for that long of a time, they wouldn't have the money to sustain themselves. They'd have to move.

On employment, there was a very interesting discussion about language barriers and national pride. In the US, you can live on the east coast, get a job on the west coast, and - in theory - be out there in around a week. Everyone speaks the same language which makes the move that much easier. Plus, people on the west coast have no allegiance to whichever state they're from because they're from the US, not California or Nevada or Washington. They have no incentive to hire a Californian or Nevadan or Washingtonian above a New Yorker or Ohioan or Virginian. In Europe, someone from Hungary or Rumania will have a much harder problem getting hired in France or Spain because they don't speak the same language and those country's citizens prefer to hire their own countrymen before foreigners. Even though the labor market is theoretically open, these problems still persist. He did say it has recently gotten better.

Finally, the title of this post is, again, from a song. The song's by this Turkish artist called Teoman and it's really funny. It's also really good. Whenever I hear it, it reminds me of Tom Waits because of his voice. The Turkish culture is very different. They have different words for older brother and younger brother. They have completely separate words for aunt and aunt-in-law. According to Ozan, if a man isn't able to provide for his family, he doesn't really feel like a man. I think this is similar in the US, but not to the extent that it is in Turkey. Honestly, I think this sentiment is dying out in the States, especially in my generation. This is good, I think, since it allows men not to feel that kind of obligation and pressure if his wife can provide. It seems like in Turkey, if a man's wife's income is the main source of funds, the man feels even worse than if no one would be able to get a job. I'm not sure if this is true, but this is the impression I got when talking to Ozan.

That's enough for this one. So. Start wearing purple for me, now!

I'm So Tired

That I'm stealing titles from songs on the White Album. Quality listening, though it's no Debussy (or Scofield, for that matter). Since I'm so tired, I have no real reasons for doing anything I'm doing. I should just go to sleep but instead I'm posting my new desktop. Here she is:

This replaced the picture that is directly under the bat. It is my favorite picture that I've taken, but I think the mosaic is better for a reason that has currently slipped my mind.

In other news, I can now type in Cyrillic. What good that will do me is yet to be determined.

English?

Yesterday, when walking to class, I ran into (not literally) Kate, a Russian girl. She asked for help with her English homework so later yesterday evening she came down. Apparently her homework was easy enough, so instead she told me to teach her American history. It's been awhile and there are large chunks of it (most of the 1800's except for the civil war and maybe a few things about Jackson and Clay) I don't remember. Oh, there's also Van Buren and the Van Buren Boys. You can't forget the Van Buren Boys. I started explaining the founding but that got complicated and eventually we wound up talking about the Iraq war and why the US invaded. Apparently in Russia, it was not just about the oil but about drugs, which made no sense to me. And, of course, we talked about oil and how Russia has a lot and is selling is and how the US isn't drilling. She thought that was a smart play. Erkal was in on all this, too. We went to the kitchen for tea and after a bit Eugene, Kate, Olga, Milan, and, well, a lot of people show up and it turns into a regular party. We were playing cards and drinking. It was a good time. I probably should've went to bed before 3, though. A 9 o'clock class isn't conducive to staying up late.

The card games I learned where interesting. The Russian girls tried to teach one that I can't even explain because I still have no idea why people were playing the cards. I do know you wanted to rid of your cards first. I just wish I knew how to get rid of them. I did when the first game, though. The next game we learned, Ozan taught us. It was like speed. You divided the deck in half. Both players lay down three cards very quickly and then, if there's a matching pair, they try to cover those cards with their half of the deck before the other player can. Again, the person to get rid of all the cards wins. The last game we played was called Kookoorikoo. That's just what it sounded like. You divide the cards evenly among the players and then each player goes around and lays down a card. If it's an Ace, you must be the first to slap the card and you take the pile. If it's a King and you're the first to salute the card, then you get the pile. Queens you must say Pardone Madame or however you say that in French and Jacks you must say Bonsieur Messier. The first to say the phrase gets the pile. When a ten pops up, be the first to yell Kookoorikoo to get the pile. The object is to get the whole deck.

After cards, Kate, Ozan and I went to Ozan's room and listened to music. Kate played some Russian "hard rock" which was really just ska. I played Rancid's "Time Bomb" and she was like, "Ah it's the same!" Or something to that effect.

And at two, I went to sleep.

An Answer

To the question, "Why did you choose Vienna?"

Part of the reason I choose Vienna to study:
From left to right, it's Menger, the founder of the Austrian school of thought in Economics, von Mises, who has had great influence throughout the field, and F.A. Hayek, one of the most influential economists to have lived*. The one thing all these men have in common is that, at one point in their lives, they have either taught or learned economics in Vienna. I wanted to come here just to be in the same place that fostered these minds.

There's that and there's also the plethora of good music. That plays a big role in the decision, as well.

And Dr. Denny Sullivan also said it was a very cool city. He was right.

On a different topic, I had my first Economics of the European Integration class today. The guy, Nagy (or Alexander, since his full name is crazy to pronounce), is a young Hungarian professor. He seems pretty cool and, though the rest of the class doesn't seem to agree, I thought the material was rather entertaining. So is this Peruvian girl, which made it a little hard to pay attention. I didn't mind. It should be a good class, though I don't really know where the material is headed yet or how difficult the exams will be. I have confidence in this guy.

*The others that come to mind are Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and Karl Marx. This is a very incomplete list, but these names should be well known.

Feeling Down Because of the Crisis?

Or are things looking up?

Pride in my Region

I have never been more proud of the people who live in the Cincinnati region.

There's another one scheduled for Tax day. Protest by not paying. I think that's the rational way to go.

Anyways, this morning I woke up, looked at my clock and saw that it was 11. I thought, "Shit, my class started an hour ago!" I ran to the bathroom and started showering. While I was washing, I was thinking, "Damn, I didn't write that paper. Now I have to do it this afternoon and then figure out how to print it." Similar thoughts were running through my mind until one thought - a rather important one - crossed my mind: "What day is it?"

As it turns out, today is Sunday. Who would've thought? So I got up at 11, ran into the shower, and completely freaked out for no reason whatsoever. I told Erkal about that after I woke up (I went back to sleep since 11 is too early for any sane person who went to sleep at 4 to get up on a Sunday). He thought it was hilarious, and told me he was mildly confused by whatever I was doing. He just went back to sleep. Smart man.

In other news, I hung out with Ozan and Erkal again today and we went to Mcdonald's and Billa. Here's a little suggestion. Next time you go to Arby's and pick up some curly fries, grab some sour cream as well. The two complement each other quite nicely.

And now, I must write that paper.

An Atlas Shrugged Thought

Out of all the parallels between Atlas Shrugged and the current crisis in the United States (and the rest of the world), the one parallel I haven't heard yet is that, in the book, the moochers are always trying to make it look like the movers are voluntarily signing away their hard work when, in fact, they actually committing what amounts to be armed robbery from the movers. The one example that comes to mind is when Hank Rearden refuses to sign the document releasing the patent for Rearden Metal to the public and he's sent to trial. The fictional government tried to make it look like Rearden was voluntarily giving up HIS patent to HIS product.

If you haven't noticed, the Obama administration tries to make it look like all the experts agree on his plan when they don't. He's got talking heads like Krugman and DeLong supporting wildly expensive and irresponsible spending (whether or not they like the spending bill that actually passed) and these guys are - literally - calling those that question them evil. The Democrats don't need these people's agreement to pass this foolish legislation. Hell, they're even trying to make the Republicans either look like they approve or look like they're just playing politics if they say they disapprove when they don't even need the Republicans vote since the Dems have the majority.

When I first read Atlas Shrugged in 2005, I thought it was a great work and a great demonstration of what principles should guide general human behavior but I never thought reality would come close to resembling her fictional world. I didn't even think it was possible. Now I'm scared. And this is just one example - Instapundit links to many more.

Let's just hope there's enough people going to these Tea Parties to make a difference.

A Lesson in Turkish History

So I was laying down, listening to my ipod and Erk walks in the room. He says, "Hey, come hang out with us." Erk's friend, Ozan, comes in and we're introduced. So we go to his room and hang out for a bit. Erk and Ozan are both speaking in Turkish and I have no idea what they're saying but it sounds cool, which is what counts. Ozan offers me some coffee and we go to the kitchen.

Now, I don't know if this is the right phrase, but this is where it gets interesting. Ozan takes it upon himself to show me that the Turkish are not bad people. He says that the Turks who live in Vienna are bad. By bad, he means unfriendly. But he goes on and says that Turks who are actually from Turkey are very friendly people. We start talking about religion. Ozan says he's Muslim, Erkal's Muslim, I'm Christian, whatever. It makes no difference. We're all sitting there, talking, enjoying each others company. He calls up a map on in laptop and shows me that in the eastern part of Turkey, the people there - the older people there - are much more fanatical Muslims, to use his words. He says that for people around 70 years old, they always have the man in front, walking like he owns the place, and the woman follows, her eyes to the ground. He says things like this give Turkey a bad reputation. He says that some men - the number Erkal and Ozan gave me was about 20 percent - in Istanbul at the big parties at Christmas or New Years will come up behind women wearing short skirts and rape them. Ozan explained that, no matter what religion you practice, to rape a women is wrong. It's evil. He said that, in Turkey, if a man gets caught for rape and sent to prison, he will be killed (which is just, I think). He said that these men at these celebrations give Turkey a bad name. Honestly, in respect to this issue, I have always had the impression that the Turkish were much more progressive, i.e. this isn't as big a problem as it is in say, Iran or Afghanistan (though I've never been to either so I can't really say. It's just the impression I get from the news and sometimes the impressions you get from the news are WAY off).

He then asks me what I think of Obama. I tell him I don't like him too much; I think he's spending way more than he should and that his foreign policy efforts have been a joke. I decided not to go into the technical details because they're hard enough for me to explain in English and explaining to someone who's second language is German and third language is English (there were some words where he'd go from the Turkish to the German and then to English. It was really interesting to watch) would be even more difficult. This picture will help explain some of my views:He told me about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who fought the Allied plan to split Turkey into sections. Ataturk won, by the way, which is why Turkey is a whole country today. Ozan told me that Ataturk declared that the State and Religion will be separate. One of the most interesting things I heard tonight was when Ozan said that, and I quote, "The religion and the state should be separate, I think - No, not I think. It's not an opinion, it's fact." Those aren't the exact words, but they are close and convey the correct meaning. And he's right. He tells me that their current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says that Ataturk was wrong when he said that Religion and State should be separate (I'm looking a lot of this up on Wikipedia as I type because of translation issue/finding out how you spell this guys name). Neither Erk nor Ozan like Erdoğan, and I can't blame them. It seems like state religion is an important issue in Turkey - even I've heard about it in the States - and, in my view, they're right. Ozan was explaining to me about how when you're at work you shouldn't be thinking about prayers or whatever, you should be thinking about work. Religion is some personal which you do on your own time and when you're at work, that's not your own time.

The whole conversation was very interesting and very entertaining. Something you wouldn't get in, oh, I don't know, Lux? This is what it's all about, not going out every weekend like I was chided about last week, but learning about other people and other cultures. Ozan told me that in Turkey, when you say goodbye, you shake hands and do the kiss on the cheek, then the other cheek thing. He asked if we did that in the States, and I said no. He said that the English think the Turkish are gay because of the cheek kissing thing. I told him that I've seen this in Austria and I'm pretty sure the Italians have the same form of goodbye (I know the between women for sure and I assume it's the same among men). As far as I'm aware, it's standard accross Europe. Ozan didn't seem to know this, he thought it was only a Turkish custom.

Yes, tonight was fun. Tomorrow, Erkal and Ozan asked me if I wanted to go to Billa and maybe get some coffee with them. If I don't hear back from Sam, I think that'll be a lot of fun. Und jetzt, ich schlafe.

Jetzt zuhören!

Turns out I found something to do last night. I don't know how we got on the subject, but I showed Erk (that's his nickname now) how I can give my computer verbal commands. He decided that he must try it on his. By this time, I was getting thirsty so I went to the kitchen to make tea and Erk came with, bringing his computer. Mara was in there cutting up some Sachertorte and Erk set his computer on the counter. The whole time he's telling his computer "jetzt zuhören" to try to get the thing to listen to him. If you've ever seen anyone trying to get their computer to listen to them and the thing just isn't cooperating, you know why Mara and I were laughing so hard. Milan showed up and, yada yada yada, Milan and I wound up sitting in the kitchen "critiquing" peoples facebooks. Turned out to be an interesting night.

Today was especially nice, so I decided that - after I went grocery shopping - I'd go for a walk. By the way, I went to this market (bazaar as Erk says) and bought six eggs for €0.70. What a deal!

On my walk, I took the U6 to Hendelski (I have no idea if that's the correct spelling) and walked down by the Donau until I got to the U1. From there I went to the Stadtpark, which is beautiful. The flowers are just starting to bloom. I am so excited for spring, and it's just around the corner. I took a tram around the Ringstraße to Schottentor and headed back to Kolping on the 40 tram. Along the way I took a few pictures, all of which are on flickr.

And Iori: if you read this, I commented on some of your flickr pictures. I don't know if you get notices or something but I just wanted to let you know in a very obscure way. Also, when commenting on your Cappadocia pictures, it helps to have a Turkish roommate. And Italy will kick ass.

I just realized I've gone all this time without posting the itinerary for the April in Italy. Here it is:

3 April -- perhaps you can catch a night train Vienna - Rome?
4 -- meet in Rome, sightseeing, Vatican
5 -- more of Rome and Villa d'Este
6 -- travel by train to Naples
7 -- Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, and more of Naples
8 -- travel to Florence, maybe stop in Siena or Assissi along the way
9 -- Either Florence, Pisa, Siena, or Assissi
10 -- same choices as 9
11-- Florence to Venice
12 -- Venice
13 -- to Vienna

I'm pretty sure Sam and I are flying, not taking a train. A train trip from Vienna to Rome is along the lines of 12 hours. Not happening. Other than that, I can't wait to go. Just a little less than three weeks away.

UPDATE: I finally figured out how to post pictures throughout the post rather than just at the top. These I took today. There are more on flickr.

Heute

For starters, this is interesting. Again, ganked from Instapundit.

I got up today to go meet my tandem buddy, Manuel. I think he might be getting more from me at the moment because his English is much better than my German. Both of us need work at pronunciation, but he can put a somewhat complicated sentence together while I don't have the grammatical tools to do that yet. But I think I am picking up more and more of what I hear - which still isn't much but it's something. We talked about politics and the Iraq war. Since he's a soldier, he's got a different perspective on the whole thing but that's about as much as I could understand. His pronunciation is not incredible, but most of the time it's comprehensible.

Then I went to class. Or, I thought I was going to class. It turns out that, though the schedule I had and was aware of said the class started at 15:00 it, in fact, started at 13:00. By the time I got there, the room was empty. Sweet. I felt great after that. I sent the professor - Georg Busch - an email. Hopefully, he'll get back to me.

So, while staying a little pissed at myself, I went to Mariahilferstrasse and looked for a bag. I like my backpack but when I'm on the Ubahn I feel like anyone could easily unzip my pack and take my ipod and camera. I don't really want to loose either of those, since they've both been very useful. After looking at this "Bag Shop" and deciding that it was not worth spending €40 on a bag that would cost $20 at most in the US, I found this Army store. They had these bags which were exactly what I was looking for and it was only €14. Sweet. I have a new bag. It hangs down by my side so I can keep my hand on it and feel a little more secure when I'm walking around.

And now I'm bored. Maybe I'll find something to do tonight. That'd be nice.

Laundry Day

I'm doing two loads right now, and it's really not enjoyable at all. Who would've thought?

Here is the difference between two of my professors, Pichler and Sitz:

Pichler teaches my 9 o'clock on Tuesdays. He gave us an assignment the first week which asked us to solve the Truncated Keynesian model. The assignment required knowledge of something called the "Keynesian Cross" which was never taught to me, and apparently many other students. This week he told us the distribution. There where 7 F's or about a third of the class. He was completely baffled at the thought that we didn't put enough thought into the assignment when it would've taken 5 minutes. He also critcized the sloppiness of what we handed in. I don't know about the rest of the students, but he introduced the assignment as a "test of your peers," which I took to mean he wasn't going to collect it. If I'd have known that, I wouldn't have done it on scrap paper and used different notation than his. I don't like the C for consumption, I for investment and c for MPC. I prefer sticking to lower case letters, which meant that I used alpha for MPC. And I had stuff scratched out. I wouldn't mind him so much if he didn't act like we were all idiots for not know the Keynesian Cross. Plus he calls solving a system of equations something fourth graders could do. I'd like to see a fourth grader solve the systems he's giving us. When he talks, it sounds like there's a special little secret between the him and the class and everyone's in on it. Well, I'm not. In general, he just seems like a pompous ass and I don't feel I've learned anything I couldn't have looked up in a book. He makes a lot of normative statements like they're positive.

Sitz, on the other hand, actually teaches. He asks us if we get the calculations he's making and if someone says something, he goes back and explains a bit more. Today he was talking about a model he'll be teaching next time. It's based on the Keynesian model, which he was kind enough to go through a very simple explanation of the model and the multipliers. I doubt he would've gone through this explanation if the class was full of Austrians, but he recognizes that in other countries, especially the US, the Keynesian view is not as commonly accepted as it (apparently) is in Austria. He explained the difference between the "Real Cycle" (RBC) and the approach he would be explaining (the key difference he mentioned was that in the RBC it's assumed that P and W are flexible while Keynesian's see them as rigid). The reason he thinks the RBC is more popular in the states is because there aren't as generous unemployment benefits which he said made the labor market more flexible. I agree, but I don't think that the inflexibilty of the European labor market is any more inflexible than the US labor market. If unemployment benefits were the same across markets, I think the unemployment rate would generally be the same. But maybe he said this and it was lost in translation. The point is, Sitz doesn't assume we all intuitively know what he's talking about and judge us on that regard. He's a good professor.

So. That's my little rant for today. And I know the Pichler part's a little scattered, but it's because he pisses me off. He's also the guy who threw the overhead at the wall, if that tells you anything.

American Beer: Second only to Germany

Here is the proof. The beer in Austria is quality beer. It's massed produced but has a lot of flavor, unlike oh, I don't know, Bud Light. But American beer is making a come back, with just the state of California winning more awards than any other country except for Germany. Now, if only the good beer in the US and the cheap beer in the US were one in the same.

In other news, I met my tandem partner today. He's 23 and works in the Austrian army. He's spent time in Syria in a working capacity. The coolest thing he told me was that... well, there needs to be some background. There was an awards ceremony for women who've achieved various feats - don't ask me what - in Vienna within the past couple of weeks. He said his job was to drive around a big ass Mercedes and to ferry people from the awards ceremony around. He told me he had a lengthy, and apparently very good, conversation with Kelly Clarkson. He also met Monica Belluci, who he said is hot. And he was paid for it, too. Damn. That's a good job.

Also, my second attempt to make chili turned out very similar to my first. I used tomato paste this time and it made the chili too firm. It wasn't runny enough. So I will keep that in mind for my next attempt.

The New Deck

I just bought playing cards. The normal index for cards is this: A K Q J 10 9 ... 2. The deck I just bought goes like this: A K D B 10 9 ... 2. It took a little effort to find out what K, D, and B stand for. The K is for König, the D is for Dame, and the B is for Bube. That's from here. The way the pack was arranged when I opened it goes as follows: The A, D, and K of hears - the 3 other Aces - the 3 other Königen - the 3 other Damen - all the Buben - then the jokers followed by all the numbered cards going hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. I have never seen a deck of cards like this before. I thought I should document it.

Deutsch Homework

Ich heiße Zack. Ich bin 21 Jahre alt und lebe in Wien. Normalerweise ich lebe in Oxford. Ich studiere Wirtschaft bei WU. Normalerweise ich studiere bei Miami Universität. Ich wohne mit Erkal. Erkal kommt aus die Türkei. Ich lebe in eine Studentwohnheim im achtzehntes Bezirk. Die Studentwohnheim heiße Kolpinghaus. Ich mag es. Ich habe einen Bruder. Mein Bruder heißt Jake. Jake ist achtzehn Jahre alt und studiert bei Miami Universität auch.

In meiner Freizeit gehe ich fahren und besuchen meine Freunde. Ich reite mein Fahrrad auch. Außerdem lese ich. Ich lese Bücher vor Chuck Palahniuk und Christopher Moore. Ich rauche nicht Zigaretten aber ich rauche Huka und Zigarren gerne.

Pulp Fiction

There are so many applicable lines from this movie:

"English Motherfucker, DO YOU SPEAK IT?"

"Jules: ....You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France?
Brett: No.
Jules: Tell 'em, Vincent.
Vincent: A Royale with cheese.
Jules: A Royale with cheese! You know why they call it that?
Brett: Because of the metric system?
Jules: Check out the big brain on Brett! You're a smart motherfucker. That's right. The metric system."

Everytime I walk into a McDonald's, I'm tempted to order a Royale with Cheese!

And then wash it down with a tasty beverage.

More on that Bitch

The video is great.

This is a good post on how our new foreign policy is working in general. The best excerpt is this:

"At the moment in Britain, we're still in the "Doesn't she look fabulous in a designer frock" stage of understanding of Michelle Obama. Gradually, though, we'll begin to realise that she is every bit the terrifying executive's wife that Hillary Clinton was. Or, shudder, Cherie Blair."

Finally, there's this.

I'm glad we have someone as smart and reliable as "that Bitch" at the helm of US foreign policy. Can't we get some talent back in the government? Say what you want about W, appointing Condoleeza Rice was, at the very least, a responsible decision.

And again, I must thank Instapundit for linking to all those sites. If Glenn hadn't linked to them, I'd have never found them.

The BYOB Culture

Last night I was hanging out in the kitchen with a Serbian guy, Mila - though I don't know if that's the correct spelling - and the Russians. Erkal was cooking some pasta with one of his friends. He comes over and throws down some candy at the table where we're all sitting and says, "Please, take." We all laugh, say thanks, all of that. Mila tells us that it's a cultural thing. He says that the Turkish are culturally very generous and it's natural for them to do something like what Erkal just did. He then goes on to say that generosity like that isn't something to expect from, for example, me. He's right, too. I would never have thought to grab my own sweets and set them on the table like that. It's not that I'm not generous and wouldn't go out of my way like Erkal did, it's just that it wouldn't occur to me unless someone asks directly about wanting something to eat. I'm used to BYOB.

Another thing I learned, which I probably should have been able to figure out, is that the Syrillic alphabet - which I knew is used by the Bulgarians and the Russians - is also used for a few other languages including Serbian. The odd thing that Mila told me was that in Serbia it is legal to use either the Syrillic or the Latin alphabet. I wikipedia'd it later and found out that the Syrillic alphabet was invented by a Bulgarian, which I thought was cool.

We also talked about characterizations of people from different countries. For example, Mila said that people think Serbs are terrorists, a characterization of which I wasn't aware, and that Turks are dirty, a characterization of which I was aware. There is also the general belief that Americans (specifically in the US) are fat and stupid. I blame MTV for the stupid part. Fuck MTV. I've watched MTV over here and the people I watch it with ask me if that's the way Americans really are. That channel seems to be the standard for how the US portrays itself to the rest of the world (at least the younger generations). But the point of the matter, according to Mila - and he's right, is that you can't fall victim to these stereotypes. It's important to judge a person as an individual. This seems like a simple lesson - trivial, even - to learn and take to heart, but the past month I've spent in Vienna has shown me how easy it is to fall into these traps. I know that when Erkal moved in and I found out he is from Turkey, I was a little skeptical about how clean this place was going to be. The fact is, he's just as clean as I am. Plus, he's a great guy. I've gotten pretty lucky with random roommates. (Another example of falling into that trap manifests itself in how many times I'm asked if America really is that fat.)

We are fatter than Europe. The number of Really, Really fat folks over here is so small that seeing someone like that is a memorable occurence. I don't think that we're as fat as they think we are, though. Of course, I think a bit of conversation gets lost in translation.

Now, I probably have mentioned this before, but I'm so glad that I've done this program instead of Lux. I'm meeting all these people and getting exposed to so much mainstream European culture, like what I've describe here. In Lux, you don't get that. You get drunk. And you make friends with more people from Miami. Maybe they're people you ordinarily wouldn't have met, but you don't really learn anything about the country you're living in and the people who live there. It doesn't seem to really be that "international." Not like it is in Vienna.

Plus, hearing a Serbian say, "Hillary Clinton, That Bitch!" really makes the trip worth it. He meant it, too.

Freizeit

I had a class at 3 today. Or so I thought. I arrived there and the room was dark. There was this older guy there who I think was studying. He didn't really speak English, though, so he wasn't much help. I went to check my email and found that the class had been pushed back to next Friday. Great. Now I've got a whole Friday and I have no idea what to do with it. Too much Freizeit. Maybe I'll study or something. There was a girl in kitchen when I went to get tea. Her name's Christina, I think, and she's from Denmark, I think. I have the worst time remembering these things. She said she might want to get a beer tonight and maybe her boyfriend would, too. She said she'd let me know so I could go with them. That'd be nice.

Earlier today I was talking to a women from the Philippines. She was telling me about Khadafi and Al Qaeda and how most people don't know what's going on. She recommended a book about Khadafi called, oddly enough, Khadafi. Talking with her was really interesting because she liked Bush, oddly enough, and was a McCain fan. She likes American foriegn policy and said she's always explaining to everyone that the US does cooperate internationally and that the US is always the first ones on the scene because we have the most resources. And we can mobilize quicker than other nations. She seemed to have a decent grasp on reality. The one thing she didn't know is that, since I'm from Ohio, she assumed I voted for Obama because Ohio went for Obama. She didn't know things like cities are always Democratic (usually) and rural areas are usually Republican. She thought all of California is Democratic and thought it very odd when I told her that northern California is more Republican. It was a very cool conversation.

Oh, and she worked for the UN doing financial stuff - her original training is as an accountant - but now she wants to sing in an opera performed in the Staatsoper. She told me she hopes to audition this month. That is what I call a career change.

Best Description of the Job EVER

And it's from the Onion. Who would've thought?

HAPPY GBD

Or GBT as it would be over here. But it's not. Oh, well. Drink up, Miami. Cheers!

Update: I was telling some people here about GBD and how it's a substitute for St. Patty's day. Their reply: That's creative. Ha

The Telegraph

I found this interesting article today. Browsing the comments, here are ones I like. I'm pretty sure all the commenters are British.

"Obama is a foreigner to us and under no obligation to be our friend, just as we should not be obliged to be his. He is not the Messiah and I remain to be convinced he is actually an improvement over his predecessor."

"Sure NATO is a busted flush. Sure the Germans only fight in daylight where there is no fighting and on weekdays. Sure the French are cheese eating surrender monkeys. But we owe more to the USA (WW1, WW2, Cold War) than they will ever owe to us."

"Actually I think Obama is going to fail anyway - you cannot spend you way out of a Depression and put future generations in hock as leftish Obama is doing."

Bragging Rights

I made Cincy style chili today. It was just a normal three way. I made way too much and ate all of it. It was fun. I hung out with this girl who lives down the hall from me while my chili simmered. Everyone thinks it's strange that I put chocolate in it. It tasted pretty good, but it's not up to skyline level yet. My next batch should be better.

Thanks to Feier

It's Square Root Day! 3/3/09. Well, it's not for me anymore, but for the folks back in the States - Party Up! While you still have time...

Gruß Gott

Let me walk backwards through time for this one.

I just finished playing football - the European meaning of the word. Every time I play it is more and more apparent that I'm terrible. But will I let that stop me? I think not!

I went to the doctor today to get prescriptions. I believe it might me the longest I've ever waited for a doctor. It wasn't so bad, though, because I brought my book, Rant, with me and I finished it. The doctor, Wolfgang Molnár, was pretty cool. He recommended to go to a club called Flex which is the club Harry and I couldn't find when I was almost pickpocketed. I've heard good things about the place, though, and I might go there at some point. Afterwards, I went to the British Bookshop and bought The Third Man. It's by Graham Greene and set in Vienna so it seems appropriate to read. As soon as I get back, I plan on seeing the movie since the book was meant as a sketch of the movie. By the way, I highly recommend Rant. Palahniuk is brilliant.

I had the International Development and World Monetary System class today. This is the one with the overhead tossing prof. He seemed a little calmer today, but he did give us some work to do. During his lecture, he was speaking about how in the truncated Keynesian model the marginal propensity to consume must be strictly between 0 and 1. I can see why this must be mathematically true in the model but in the model I've learned, we assumed the MPC to be 1, for simplicity. Not having a multiplier makes life incredibly more simple. He said that it couldn't be 1 because obviously people save money. If they didn't, the system would be indeterminite (which, working with that model, makes sense). But assuming the MPC to be 1 doesn't mean that there's no saving, it just means that if your income rises (permanently), then you will increase your consumption by the amount your income rises. That doesn't mean you haven't set an amount you save out of your income - it's just not a percentage of your income. So a MPC of 1 isn't necessarily a bad thing. It might not be great, but it's not bad. He also said that Zimbabwe's problem was that their MPC is greater than 1, causing aggregate demand to be too low (or something like that, I'm not too sure with this model). I thought it was just that Zimbabwe printing money, a lot of money. He showed us some graph called the "Keynesian Cross" which he assumed we all knew. The only time I've heard Keynes' name in a class was when my professor was making fun of the theory. That and there was something to do with animal spirits. I guess the economy is being run by a bunch of drunken teens. The nice thing was, the guys I know in there were also baffled by this Keynesian Cross thing.

And now to yesterday.

There's this jazz club called Tunnel I went to with Sam. The first band was really mellow, but they weren't bad. They were good background music. We had a pizza and a couple beers while discussing travel plans. Sam was wanting to go to Bucharest the last weekend in March. Unfortunately, I can't go because the flight we'd take would cause me to miss the last section of one of my courses. That's probably a final of some sort and I can't risk missing that. The last two bands were more fusiony. They're were really rockin' up there. It was a lot of fun to listen to - almost like listening to Mike Stern in 55 Bar, but Stern is better by a number of orders of magnitude.

I went for a run with Slobodan before I left for Tunnel. We went to a park and jogged around the 19th district. The 19th district is a very rich neighborhood. If you have money, you live in the 1st or the 19th. I'd prefer the 19th because the houses are much larger and they have yards. It's not that far from the first, either, so you don't lose the incentive to go out to concerts and whatnot. We talked about WWI. About how Austria started it by attacking Serbia. Slobodan told me the Austrians probably paid the anarchist to kill Franz Ferdinand just for an excuse to go to war. Apparently, the Austrians just took Bosnia and wanted Serbia as well. Slobodan also told me that Belgrade, his hometown, has been completely destroyed 45 times and rebuilt everytime. Belgrade is located where the Danube and Sava meet - an important place for trade - so I can understand why they rebuild. Forty five times destroyed is the most of any European city.

My first German class of the regular semester was Monday. During class, there was an exercise where one person would have to go to the front of the room, read and memorize a phrase or two of a paragraph in German, and go repeat what they memorized to their partner. The partner would then write the sentence down. My partner, Mustafa, and I did pretty well. The teacher, Ursula, gave us an assignment to write a short paragraph about ourself in German. Once I finish mine, I'm posting it. I know about half of the class, too, from the previous German course, which is nice. I know at least two people in all of my classes so far due to that German course.

By the way, Gruß Gott is hello in Austria and only in Austria. Germans just say Guten Tag, which makes more sense to me. When you walk into a store and go to the kassa, the cashier greats you with Gruß Gott. They say it so fast, though. Until today (which means Monday), I thought they were saying biscuit.

I think this is long enough for one night. 'Tchuss!

Harry's Visit and More!

Before I talk about Harry's visit, I'll write about the tandem meeting. I went there on Thursday to get some information about the program and maybe meet whoever my tandem partner is. By the way, the program pairs you with a native speaker of a language you wish to learn. It's to help both folks learn a new language in a stress free environment. My partner isn't there - they're in Budapest - but I do meet this Austrian guy named Peter and two girls, Gwen from Texas and Lana (I think that's right) from Canada. I found out that Lana is probably in my German class, too.

Now, Friday morning Harry arrives from Munich. After we get his stuff to my place, we take off and go to Stephansdome and look around inside. I've seen more impressive Churches, even in Wien. But we climb up the tower, which is a very long, spiral staircase. The view is great. I put pictures up on Flickr (at least, I'm in the process of doing that). After that, Harry wants to go on the Riesenrad, the famous ferris wheel, because it's in "The Third Man." Right next to it is a coaster called the Dizzy Mouse with this terrifying cat that the coaster runs through. It's freakier than any of the coasters in the U.S. just because of that cat. We head off, looking for a Café to get some coffee and wind up by the Rathaus. During the winter at night, the Rathaus is lit up in multiple colors and it's beautiful. We walked around there for a bit watching the ice skaters. The rink in front of the Rathaus consists of two large rinks and then a maze of trails connecting them. It'd be very cool to go skating, but it's a bit expensive - 13 euro. We finally found this Café Central, which is a famous meeting place for intellectual types. Trotsky and folks like him met there to talk. It's a very classy joint and Harry and I wound up going there again on Saturday. A pianist plays in the middle of the place and when the first piece ended, Harry was the only one who clapped. I think he started a trend, though, and more and more people began clapping. From there, we went and ate at 1516, which is always very good. Then, we walked around a bit and Harry called it a night at about 11. He'd only gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before. I went to the kitchen to read, but wound up talking to Kate, Olga and Eugene. Slobodan showed up and asked if I wanted to go to a pub with them.

We went to some Irish pub and hung out for a while. It was a good time and I met a few people. I gave Harry my bed and crashed on the floor, which was surprisingly comfortable.

The next day we'd set our alarm for 10. That didn't happen. We got up by about noon and headed to Schönbrun. We ate at a pizza place near the Palace which had some very good pizza. At the Palace we walked around the gardens, but it's a little sad since it's winter and there are no leaves or growth of any kind. We climbed up a hill that's part of the Palace grounds and overlooks Schönbrun. The sun came out when we were at the top and the view was beautiful. It was the prettiest day of my trip thus far - and of Harry's too, apparently. We went back to the city and walked on the bridge that crosses the Danube. The sun was setting which reflected off the water. It was amazing. There are pictures of that, too.

We went back to Café Central, which is one of the coolest places I've been to so far. We decided to get dinner at some place that's down the street from 1516. It was pretty good. I had goulash, which came with spätzle. When I had spätzle in Steinkeller's, I did not like it at all. This time, though, I tried it and I wasn't bad. It was the best thing I've eaten, but it was definitely edible. And the goulash was delicious. We went back to my place to get ready to go to some clubs. The first stop we got off at was Schottenring. At this stop, these two guys walk up to us and are start shaking our hands. The guy who was shaking my hand starts doing this weird thing with his leg and I feel his hand reaching in my pocket. I slap his hand out of the way and yell at him. He didn't get anything, but it was a little scary. Harry said he noticed what was happening because the other guy came up to him and asked him for a cigarette.

We went to some clubs, which was pretty uneventful and then got incredibly lost on the way back home since the subways stopped running at midnight and it was about 3 or so.

So that was this weekend. It was a good time, and I'm glad I discovered Café Central.