Some Turkish

Here are a few Turkish words:

Çakırkeyif = Tipsy (which I am right now)

Başın bağlı = You have eyes for only one women. It literally translates to the "wrapped head" that devout muslim women wear, but - at least in western Turkey - it means that you have one women are don't want to even look at any others.

By the way: Ç = ch and Ş = sh

ı is at "hard" i and ğ has no english equivalent but it's closest to an "h".

Döner and Weg

I forgot one thing about the previous post, but it fits nicely with this:

Last Friday night I went with Ozan and Berk to visit Julian in Hütteldorf. Julian is from northern Germany and a native German speaker. He helps us out with our Deutsch a bit. The whole plan was to go to the "Badeschiff" after having a few beers or some rum at Julian's. We wound up starting the night way too late and getting to the "Badeschiff" after it closed but we sat on a bridge that spans some little stream of water. I think that stream is there just so that the Stadtpark has a little river flowing threw it, though it might have some actual function. Then we went to Westbahnhof and bought some food and wine and sat out in the sun. For some reason I don't understand, I was in a pretty miserable state by then which was weird because I didn't drink enough to do that and it had been a decent amount of time since I had last had something. Oh well, it was an interesting night. And I slept for a good 24 hours after that. A good weekend.

I learned a little bit about Vienna from Julian - the part I don't know, and don't think I'll ever be able to know, because I'm not a native German speaker. Julian says that the Viennese are a little impolite. He'll be talking to someone and they say something in a way that isn't incorrect but how they say it sounds a little more cold to a native speaker. I mentioned that when I was in the Stadtpark with Milan, Slobodan, and Slobo's girlfriend that some guy cleaning up said to us, in a pretty firm way, "Weg, Weg!" When someone says "weg" like that it means "go away!" but in a very rude way. I didn't know that until Julian told me. Julian said that he thought that was very strange and very rude. Something he wouldn't have expected, even for a Viennese. He also said that the Germans have some prejudices against Austrians. One of which is that the Austrians don't like you and if they are saying things like, "Oh, you're so cool, yada, yada, yada...," then they are being disingenuous.

There was also some discussions about the Turks living in Germany. Julian said he gets his hair cut at a Turkish barber but that it's a little hard because the Turks there don't speak any German, just Turkish. Ozan and Berk couldn't believe this because the Turks who come back from Germany are always speaking German with each other. To me, it sounds like the situation that the USA has with the Mexicans. Some Mexicans just don't speak any English. Also, both the Turks in Germany and the Mexicans in the USA tend to live in little communities - especially in the larger cities - so that there is voluntary segregation occurring. I think this leads to animosity between the two groups (natives and immigrants) though I haven't really given any thought to causality. It could go the other way, though I do think there is a link between the two. I do think both groups of immigrants bring something special to the respective countries to which they're immigrating and this mostly manifests itself in a larger variety of restaurants. I am also convince that Oxford needs a Döner stand.

Speaking of Döner, last night Erkal and I went to a Turkish restaurant at Schwedenplatz. The meat was so tender and it was the first time I've ever had hard liquor - Rakı - to drink with a meal. We drank Rakı because Erkal, and the waiter, both said that Rakı is the drink that goes best with the Kebab and Döner we were eating. Plus, it was Erkal's birthday so there was cause to celebrate. Döner is a derivation of a Turkish word, something like dönüş or dönmek, which means spin. So the döner meat is just meat that spins. In the Kebab stands in Wien the meat is normally lamb or chicken or something like that but at the place we were at last night it was beef, which is traditionally what it eaten in Turkey. It was incredible. We hung out with Merve later.

Happy Birthday Erkal!

It's Erkal's nineteenth today. He's getting so old.

In other news, I bought a ticket to München today. I'll be meeting Danimal there for three days. Should be a good time. I'm especially looking forward to the Hofbrauhaus.

I haven't written in a while and a lot has happened so I'm going to try to do a quick recap. I'll work my way backwards.

Today I gave a presentation in my International Monetary Economics class. I discussed the history of the United States exchange rate policy from 1861, when the greenback was introduced, until today. Today, the US doesn't really care about its exchange rate policy because foreign exchange doesn't make up a large part of GDP. I didn't think I did too well, but the professor talked to me afterwards asking me what I studied (Economics or Business) and where I studied. He also told me that he didn't expect me to present the material that I did, but that he thought it was a good overview. Later on I met Peter, a Serbian guy who is in my class and lives in kolping, and he told me that what I talked about was pretty interesting - especially because I didn't use many (or any) numbers. Really, I'm just trying to reassure myself about this. I've also got to remember to reformat by paper and email it to the prof.

Today in the U3, Erkal and I let an older couple take our seats, but we wound up sitting down next to them after the next stop. They began speaking Deutsch to us and Erkal became very confused. The guy started chiding Erkal for not knowing Deutsch and living in a Deutsch speaking country. I asked them if they spoke any English, which is a toss up if the people are older. They knew "ein bisschen" (a little). So I told them he just arrived here and the lady said "ah, ganz neu," which means "brand new." They seemed to like that explanation and started asking him questions like how long he'd been in Vienna and where he was studying. Erkal was hilarious to watch as he tried to answer. It was like when he was first speaking english with me, which is a good sign since he needs to learn Deutsch. I think he'll pick it up pretty quickly. And speaking with the couple on the Ubahn was good practice for him, even though his nerves were pounding afterwards.

Last Thursday was a pretty full day for me. Luana was going to the Zentral Friedhof, or central cemetary, and asked a number of us if we would like to join her. I went along and it was well worth it. We saw Beethoven's grave, Strauss's grave, Brahm's grave, and Falco's grave. Though Falco's wasn't nearly as nice as the composer's graves. Plus, the church they have there is pretty nice. Erkal tried to get a picture of a little chipmunk or something and he spent a long time looking into a hole in a grave, trying to coax it out by talking to it.

When we got back to Kolping, Slobodan and Milan were talking with Peter and Sanya in the stairwell. Milan and Slobodan were going to the Stadtpark for some reason and asked if I wanted to go with them. Of course, I was fine with that and went with them plus Slobodan's girlfriend. I spent my time speaking with Milan about how the women look in Serbia. Apparently, I should really go there. We also spoke about the intelligence of women in Europe and America. Of course, the usual stereotype of Americans being stupid persists and Milan assumes that American women are a lot dumber. Maybe I should explain what I mean by dumber. Milan told me that an American girl asked one of his friends what religion they practice and the guy said they worship Jedi's. The girl asked this guy - apparently in complete seriousness - that, "You know that's only a movie, right?" A Canadian girl here actually asked what language they spoke in Scotland, refering to a Scottish guy here. Slobodan told her that they speak Scottish there but their English is really good. She believed that, apparently. I don't think Americans do a very good job at presenting themselves over here. Especially when there's the MTV image of America firmly implanted in Europe's vision of America. And maybe it's not that we're stupid, but we're ignorant about the rest of the world. For some reason, Slobodan and Milan don't think I'm a "typical" American because they don't have to keep explaining every little thing to me.

We went to the Biergarten in the Stadtpark for a couple beers. While we were in the garten we saw this hedgehog running around. I don't think I've ever seen a hedgehog running around in the "wild" like that before. It was a really cute little thing. In Serbian, if you mess up something, then you'd say that you "fucked a hedgehog in the wrong direction." Interesting little phrase.

I Should Be Writing a Paper

The thing is, I don't want to forgot a couple of things:

I was taking a walk a day or two ago and I saw a mother and daughter riding a tandem bicycle. The strange thing was that while they were riding their bike, the mom was also walking their dog. They weren't going extremely fast but that dog didn't really have the longest legs and its leash wasn't exactly the longest I've seen.

Another thing is that I just got back from going to Spar so I have some beef/swine to eat for dinner. It's not uncommon to see someone stopped, waiting for their dog to finish pissing on the side of a building. It's a little less common to see a mother holding her about three year old daughter over the street so the daughter - with her pants around her ankles - can take a piss. And by "a little less common," I mean that I've never seen that before, or ever expected to see that.

Also, a kebab in a box is better than a kebab in a bun. Much better. Though it is more expensive.

An Exam and a Pub

I took an exam last Wednesday in International Monetary Economics. It wasn't that hard, I didn't think. I just hope I'm not overconfident about it. The funniest thing about the test, and this was something I actually expected to see, was that every sentence in every question ended in an exclamation mark or question mark. There wasn't a period on the question sheet. Well, at least not in the questions - though, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't one on the entire sheet.

After the test, I asked my professor why they teach the IS-LM model. He told that it was well known and simple. He also said it was the first model they teach but that in upper level classes they also teach the AS-AD model. So I suppose that in MU's equivalent to ECO 202 they teach the IS-LM and in what would be ECO 317 they teach both IS-LM and the AS-AD. I was just thinking about a conversation I had, which I wrote about earlier, with a guy from Holland. He was telling me that they were using the IS curve to derive the AD curve. Aren't they the same thing? I don't understand how that works.

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For something completely different, here's a picture of a phone booth:
That one's from London. There are quite a few of them there. But here in Vienna, we have them, too:
This is the Hundertwasser House with a British phone booth by it's side.
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After the exam, Gregoire organized a trip to Charlie P's, a nice pub on Währingerstraße near Schottentor. Gregoire and I got there at about 7:45 and were expecting people to arrive around 8 to 8:30. Turns out, we should've gone to Charlie P's at about 9. People take their time showing up. While we waited, Gregoire told me about a bachelor party he had to plan. The party's taking place this weekend. He organized some role playing thing were the groom-to-be had to run around getting weapons and accomplices to stop some evil wizard from raping his wife-to-be. We also talked about politics. Gregoire is an easy guy to talk to about this subject because I'll say something like, "I don't think Bush was stupid," and he'll respond with, "Well, from what we hear in Europe, it really characterizes Bush as stupid, but I don't know what you see in the US." This is opposed to Tom, who told me categorically that Bush is a dumbass and there's no way anyone could have a different opinion. Since the media knows all and is always right, or whatever.

Gregoire also told me that Jacques Chirac is a very sympathetic figure in France. Apparently, Chirac's stand against Bush truly endeared him in the hearts and minds of the French. So what if his administration was incredibly corrupt? He stood up to America. Though, the way Gregoire says it is - and he's the one that told me that Chirac was incredibly corrupt - that Chirac really did make the French have pride in there country by standing up to Bush. It was a way for them to say that yes, the US is a major power, but France is powerful as well, and we won't cowtow and do whatever the US wants.

When Arno arrived, another guy from Kolping, we started started about Westerns. I didn't know this, and I don't quite remember all the directors names they were mentioning, but apparently the best Westerns are Italian. I'll need to look into this, even though Westerns are really my thing.

There was also a conversation with the waitress (yes, a waitress in a Pub - Gregoire didn't think that was right) about parents. Arno's parents are from Italy and Germany (or Austria, I don't quite remember). Both Gregoire and our waitress said it's a waste to have parents who are of the same nationality because you don't get the mix of cultures. I also think I should say that at this time I was the youngest person at our table. Gregoire is six or so years older than I and he has a Ph.D. in some sort of biological field. He's worked with horse and dog DNA. Arno is 40 and we don't know why he's living in a student house. It's gotta be pretty hard for him. He works in the Staatsoper doing the lighting. Apparently, there are 30 or 40 people working lighting in the Oper at any one time.

The other notable conversation I had was when all the others arrived - Kirstine, Erkal, Mara, Berk, Adela, and Ozan (which made me slightly above the median, agewise). I spent most of my time talking with Kirstine and we talked about the drinking age and drinking laws in the US. I told her that it was illegal to walk down the street in the US carrying an open container of beer. She told me that a five year old could walk down the street drinking a beer in Denmark. It's frowned upon, but it's not illegal. We also talked about drunk driving and she said that she thought the incidence of drunk driving was probably higher in Denmark. That maybe true, I don't know. I just think the legal drinking age in the US should be, well, nonexistent.

After that, we went to a party at Gregoire's university (I think he teaches there or does research). The best thing about these parties is the music. I heard London Calling by the Clash, Self-Esteem by the Offspring, and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. There is no possible way I would walk into a party in the US and hear any of these songs. It would be either rap/hip-hop, country or something like the Backstreet Boys and that would be more of a joke than anything else. I also went to a club with Erkal, Ozan, and Berk a while ago and the club was playing oldies music - stuff I know - and the crowd was about my age, maybe a couple years older. Why can't the club scene be like that here? There are, of course, the clubs that play the normal type of music, but at least there's diversity. Or maybe not diversity, but they're playing stuff I'd want to hear.

A Nifty Way to Curb Illegal Immigration

From an article in the NYT today. It's working better than our previous efforts so I think we should keep it up. That or let them in legally. Maybe we could charge cover!

And I saw this on Instapundit:
If this doesn't make you miss W, I don't know what will. Except possibly his accent. And the fact that he'd be a helluva lot more fun to grill out with. Even the White House's rather cheery estimates - after the deficit stabilizes in their estimates - is still larger than even Bush's largest deficit. The CBO has darker, and probably more realistic, estimates of the deficit.

But no worries! Obama's on the case.

London (Day 2)

I woke up a little late and got a late start - something that probably wouldn't have happened if I wasn't traveling by myself.

My hostel was right by St. Paul's Cathedral, so I thought, "What the hell? It's right there." St. Paul's was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who is also buried there. His grave is a lot less elaborate than I would have guessed. Also, it is one of the more impressively decorated Cathedral I have visited (right behind San Marcos in Venice). I climbed up the dome of St Paul's, too, which was a pretty impressive view. There is a building, which you can see from the dome (and all over the place) that looks like an egg. I told Iori about the egg shaped building and he asked me if someone told me that it was an egg shape or did I come up with that myself. Apparently, some think it looks like a cucumber (though I think British English has a different word for this - Iori?). I came up with the egg shape by myself, by the way.

From there, I thought I ought to see another church and made my way toward Westminster Abbey. On the double decker there, it passed through Trafalgar Square, which is kind of cool, but what was even cooler was that the National Gallery was right there, which was on the Iori itinerary of London. So now I knew where that was, which is more than I could say for just about everywhere in London.

Westminster Abbey, which I'd seen from the outside the day before, was also very nice from the inside. It's still a working church, as they love to publicize. While I was in Poet's corner, the whole place came to a standstill for prayer, which they apparently do every hour or so. There's a lot of different things to see in the Abbey. The most beautiful part of it is the Lady Chapel. It was built by Henry VII. Near the entrance to the Lady Chapel is St Edward's Chair, on which the Kings and Queens are seated when they are crowned. The poet's corner is also neat. The first poet buried there was Chaucer, of Canterbury Tale fame, though he wasn't buried there for his writing but for his service as a clerk or some sort of tax guy for the King. Then followed names like Tennyson and Lord Byron. Dickens, Kipling, and P. B. Shelley are also there. After walking through the rest of the Abbey and getting to the front entrance, you go on a hunt for the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin (and I still don't understand why he's buried in a church since he didn't believe in God). I asked a guy for some help spotting them and, besides showing them to me, he also pointed a memorial to another guy, Alfred Russel Wallace, who worked on the theory of evolution at the same time as Darwin.

After that, I went off to the National Gallery. The reason I want to go there was to see some Monet and Van Gogh and other impressionist painters. So I got a map and completely skipped everything up until the mid to late 1800's, since the place was in chronological order. They had one piece by Van Gogh that was very different than his other work. It was of crabs and the colors was much darker than I normally associate with Van Gogh.

After this, I wondered around for a little around parliament and on the other side of the river. I got on a bus that said "London Bridge" because you always here about it falling down. Turns out, when I got to London Bridge, it was actually very boring. Just your run-of-the-mill bridge. But it is within walking distance of Tower Bridge, the most famous bridge in the world (though I'd argue that the Golden Gate Bridge or the Brooklyn Bridge would be more famous). I walked accross that and went by the Tower of London, which was the stronghold of the Royalty throughout the centuries. The Kings kept adding onto the thing. The coolest part of the Tower of London, though, is that it had a moat. A functioning moat.

I ate at some pub pretty close to Trafalgar Square (I took a bus from the Tower). I got some nachos and fish and chips. The nachos because I miss Mexican food and the fish and chips because it's London - that's what people eat there. Both were delicious. I also had so ale because that's the type of beer that goes with fish and chips, I think. Whether or not I'm right, the ale was very good. I also got a lesson from the bartender about the different types of beer, of which I could understand about 50% because of his accent. They other waiter was pretty nice and talked to me while I ate and then invited me, if I wanted to wait an hour for him, to go to Soho to the bars. Not that I didn't want to go, but I didn't want to go. He seemed like the type of guy who might try to hit on me, and I didn't really feel like that's how I wanted to spend my time in London - fending off gay dudes.

I went back to the hostel and went to sleep after that.

London (Day One)

Going to London was the first time that I've actually traveled by myself for any length of time, which was a little strange but nice. It was nice to be able to set my own pace. For example, if I was traveling with a group, I seriously doubt I would've been able to ride those double deckers as much as I did.

I flew with Ryanair, again. Ryanair really is a great airline. In London, Ryanair flys into Stansted. Arriving in England actually feels like you're arriving in a different country because the UK isn't part of the Schengen treaty. I had to fill out a little card about who I was and what I was doing in London. I didn't think I had anything to worry about, though the questions the customs guy asked me were a little more pointed than I expected. I didn't think I had anything to worry about, though I might be wrong about that...

Anyways, Stansted is about 40 minutes to an hour outside of London so you have to take a train to the center. The train seemed very similar a subway train (until you actually ride in the tube - those trains are a bit different). I arrived in Liverpool Street Station and from there had no idea about where to go. I had some directions to my hostel that said get on such and such bus for about 10 minutes. So I found the bus and realized I probably needed some sort of ticket. It took me a while to figure out the ticket scheme and then it took a little longer to scoff at how much the damn things were. So I bought a ticket, found my bus, and started riding.

About an hour later, I found myself by Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. In my defense, it was a double decker bus, and those things are a kind of novelty. Since I was by Wetminster Abbey and Big Ben, I decided to get off and walk around a bit. There was some protest going on (which lasted about as long as I was there, though it died down a lot after that first day) about genocide in Sri Lanka. There was a sign that said, "Britain, Rectify Your Historical Mistake to Tamils in Sri Lanka." After walking around the parliament area, I by the Thames on the Victoria Embankment. It was a nice day for a walk, though I wish I had found my hostel so I could've put my backpack away. After walking a bit, I decided it was about time to find my place, so I hopped on another bus, trying to get back to Liverpool Street Station. That didn't work, and I had no idea where I was. There were some signs, and from them I found that I happened to be in the finanicial district on Threadneadle Street. The Royal Stock Exchange is here and the Royal Bank of England is here, as well. Continuing on my walk, I headed in the direction I thought was the right way. Honestly, I never found my way back to Liverpool Station (at least, not that day). But, one of the first things anyone sees in London are the little black cabs. And, if you're me, you really want to ride in one. So I grabbed one of those cabs, even though it was really expensive.

I was reading about these cabs. The drivers are required to take an extremely rigorous test on the streets of London so they always know where they're going and which routes are the best to take at any given time of the day. And as far as I know, it's true. The driver new exactly where I was talking about when I gave him the address and he got me there in 10 minutes or so. Oddly enough, the first bus I was on had a stop exactly where I got out of the cab. My hostel was only a minute or so away.

The hostel was the wort one I have stayed in so far, which says a lot since it wasn't that bad. The beds were stacked like drawers. There was one shower (that I could find) for 9 different rooms. It was a little weird.

Anyway, I found out about a jazz club in Dalston called Vortex. There was a show that described the band as having some fusion pieces in their repertoire. So I ventured to Dalston, not one of the better neighborhoods in London, to see this band. When I got there, I realized I didn't have any money so I went to an ATM and withdrew a considerable amount. It was a little shady, too, because some girl came right up behind me and asked, "How much longer you gonna be?" What a bitch.

I found the club and went in but the band wasn't playing yet and I was hungry. The downstairs had some sort of restaurant so I ate there. A beef lasagna which, after spending a couple weeks in Italy, was refreshing. The band was really strange. The cover was £8. There was an alto saxist, a bassist, and a drummer which is only a little strange. Their music wasn't what I'd call thrilling, either, mostly because the alto player wasn't that good. But then they invited this other guy, someone from Cyprus, up to play with them. This guy got up there and grabbed another alto. So there were two altos. Now that's a little strange. But the Cyprus dude TORE IT UP. He was crazy. His licks were more interesting and he be playing and swinging the sax around like an axe at the same time. Then he'd go over to the drummer, who was a character himself (he'd sometimes started howling or making some weird noise - I don't know how to call it - while playing), and start blasting some riffs in the drummers face. The drummer seemed to dig it, though, and would howl back with a little smile. The guy from Cyprus really stole the show and you could see it in the audiences reaction. He also said the Brits don't really understand jazz. They thinks it's pretty but it's really an American thing (damn straight) and so to make it more entertaining for the British audience, you need to tell jokes. His joke went something like this:

"A feminist goes to Afghanistan in the 90's and sees how the women are treated there. She sees things like women always walking behind the man because they aren't allowed to walk beside them. She takes this back and tells everyone about this. She gets appointed to commissions and committees to change the fate of women in the middle east. Recently, she was sent back to Afghanistan to see how things have changed. She is surprised to see that the women are now walking in front of the men. She declares, 'Wow, what progress we've made!' She asks the man, 'How did this happen, that your wife is now walking in front of you?' He turns to look at her and says, 'Landmines.'"

All in all, the show was great. Dalston is sketchy, but I got to ride another double decker back home, so I didn't mind so much. And then I went to sleep.

It's Summertime

Or close enough to it. Iori alerted me to the fact that I haven't been blogging very much. There is a very simple reason for that. Well, there are two. One is that it's summer. The weather is nice and I want to spend it outside. And I have been. The other one is that I have more and more work that I have to get done so I can hopefully pass the classes I'm taking. So now, I decided I should continue my very successful procrastination efforts by resuming my posting.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I believe the most memorable event was last Saturday. Last Saturday was Kirstine's (a friend of mine) birthday, and she decided to have a picnic on the Donauinsel - the island in the middle of the Danube. It started at one, but since I've gotten into a bad habit of not waking up before one, I got there at three with Erkal, Ozan, Berk, and Mara. The weather was perfect for the picnic. There were frankfurter's, and a homemade potato salad (Kirstine and her boyfriend Michael are very good cooks), and Kirstine made a sort of apple cake that was delicious. Olga, Kate and Evgeny were there along with Gregoire and a host of other's that I didn't know. There was a volleyball and a football (American football) there. I think the people that brought the football were Australian. We bumped the volleyball around a bit and threw the football around. Later on, I taught a few people how to play 500. That was me, Ana - a Spanish girl, Ozan, Erkal, and Berk. Olga, Kate and Evgeny also joined us but Kate declared the game was a little too aggressive. We then started playing "fireball" which is very similar to dodgeball. The Turkish guys taught us that one. The night ended with a few of us walking away while some people farther down the island were shooting off fireworks. There need to be more birthdays.

Another thing: last Friday there was some sort of festival on Währingerstraße complete with a band on stage (two guitars and a violin) and a marching band. There were rides for children and all the shops were selling stuff on the sidewalks and in the street. I went to study and after getting back, I ran into Ozan who was in the lobby smoking with some other Turkish guys. One of the Turks, named Suat, speaks English very well and with a British or Australian accent. I'm not quite sure which. I had only met him a few days ago but he was sitting out in the lobby with an electric guitar and some other guy on acoustic. They were getting ready to go out on Währingerstraße and play. Ozan and I joined them after we bought a couple beers from the Spar. We sat out on the sidewalk listening to them play and drinking. That's something the US has got to learn from Europe is that there's no crime in sitting out in a public area drinking a beer. Turns out that Suat is a pretty good guitarist and I really enjoyed listening to him play. Hopefully, that'll happen again.

Last night, instead of doing work, I decided to go out with Ozan and Berk to a café. Nothing really substantial happened. Berk, who's a pretty small guy, got stuck in a statue and we video recorded ourselves a lot doing basically nothing. We were just hanging out in Vienna's center having a good ol' time. I'm going to miss nights like that one. But I guess I do the same thing in Oxford - it's just a little different when you're hanging out in such a different setting. It's nice to have that sort of change.

And the last bit of this post is devoted to Slobodan. Thank you for stopping me and helping me to make an appointment with the hair guy. I don't know his name and he doesn't speak English incredibly well, but he sure knows how to cut hair. He seemed a little limp-wristed, which supports what Milan said about him, but I think that could only help him in his line of work. It was a little strange, though, because he looked like he had just gotten back from a car wreck. He had a bandage under his eye and a neck brace. The other thing is that he works out of his home. The adjacent room was his kitchen. And he only takes cash, I think, and just ten euros! That's about the same as what I pay in Oxford, and this guy did a better job (though I will always be loyal to Temple). A way to avoid paying taxes probably - and I fully support that effort. Again: Thank you, Slobodan, for telling me about this guy.

And that's what I have for now. Maybe I'll get to posting about those other cities soon, but I think I'll skip Napoli, Pompeii/Vesuvius, and Florence, because I've already written accounts of them elsewhere. So there's Bologna, Venice, Budapest, Bratislava, and the London/Oxford/Egham trip. Let's see how quickly I can get them done... as soon as I write this paper.

The Last Night in Rome

After Tivoli, we got back to Rome and went to bed. We were pretty tired. In the middle of the night, some guy walks in and he's acting very strange. Since he woke me up, I decided to watch him to make sure he wasn't going to root through my stuff, or anyone else's stuff. Finally, he got into bed and I went to sleep.

Later on that night, I was woken up again by some weird shaking. The shaking became pretty violent and lasted for about 40 or 50 seconds. After it stopped, I could hear emergency sirens and howling dogs. It turns out that I just experienced my second earthquake (which is what I thought it was, Sam and Iori weren't convinced until we reached Napoli). The epicenter was on the other side of the peninsula on about the same latitude as Rome, so we were actually pretty close. If I remember correctly, it was a 6.3 on the Richter scale and caused the deaths of over 200 people.

Soon after the quake was done quaking, I went back to sleep. Unfortunately, I was once again woken up by that jackass who came in earlier that night. I woke up to hear him, and then see him, pissing all over the window sill. Luckily, his stream of piss didn't crawl far enough across the floor to reach Sam's stuff (I warned Sam about the piss in the morning before he got out of bed). Then, this guy just stood in the middle of the room, swaying. That's when I realized he was completely hammered. The pissing on the window should've tipped me off but one of my friends (CHRIS) did the same exact thing even though he only had two or three beers (so he wasn't drunk). Actually, I think Chris was just sleep walking/falling off the top bunk. I've heard other stories where people wound up thinking their pillow cases were a toilet.

Anyway, that doesn't excuse this guy. He stood in the middle of the room for a long time. Then he went of looking for his bed (I think). He actually wound up passing out on the floor with his back against the bed of the only girl in the room, which I thought was a little suspicious. I stayed up watching him a bit after he passed out to make sure he didn't do anything. And then I finally went back to sleep.

A Viennese Update

Since I'm writing a lot about Italy, I think I should just write a quick blurb on how life in Wien is.

I think the most important thing to note is that Gregoire, the french guy, has informed me of the French love of Burger King. Apparently, BK used to be in France but for some reason they aren't there anymore. So now when the French travel, their restaurant of choice is BK. That, and apparently the "French don't care!"

Also, a small group of us went to the Natural History museum. They have a few live animals including a display of poison dart frogs and garter snakes (of all things, I find those in my back yard - or Declan's back yard). They've got a really impressive collection of gems there and I went looking around until I found one from Ohio. I've got a picture of it some where. They also have a prehistoric fish skull from Cleveland. That being said, it's got nothing on the Smithsonian. It is a very nice museum, though.

Last night, I went to a pub and spent a decent amount of time talking to Gregoire about the history of sea warfare from the 1600's on which I thought was pretty interesting. Afterwards, at about 1 o'clock am I went out with Erkel, Ozan, and Berk to go looking for food or a bar or something. I wasn't quite sure what the goal was. Those guys are great. They're all Turks and they're a helluva lot of fun. I wound up going to bed around 7:30 because we were out so late just hanging out. Good times.

Tivoli

On Sunday, Sam and I went to Tivoli. Tivoli is a little Italian town about an hour's train ride from Rome. It was Sam's idea to go there. Franz Liszt, one of his favorite composers (he did a project on one of his compositions and how changing piano technology changed the piece), wrote a piece entitled "Villa d'Este" which was inspired by his time spent there. Honestly, going into this I thought Villa d'Este was a town when it's actually a house in Tivoli.

We had been frantically trying to get ahold of Iori because Iori expressed enterest in coning with us. We failed miserably (the pay phones in Rome are impossible and I had turned my phone off because I was trying to get it to stop sending a text to Harry and to turn my phone back on, I needed a PIN and I had no idea what that PIN was). Oh well, it was Sunday and we had to go so we went without him.

The train ride there was somewhat uneventful until we got pretty close to Tivoli. We saw this water fall. Well, after we arrived we found out that the water fall was called the Gregoriana Cascades (at least, that's what I remember it called. I could be wrong, it's been a while). Sam was bee lining for the Villa but I wanted to see the falls. I had to reign in Sam and pull him back from his quest for a second - which I felt a little bad about, but I think it turned out for the best. I was a little disappointed that we had to pay to enter, but it was worth it to stand almost directly under the falls. The path was very narrow, too, and there where some fun warnings about avoiding overhanging trees. All in all, I enjoyed the little detour I caused.

Then we went looking for the Villa d'Este. It was on the other side of the town, apparently. We found out later we took the least direct route possible, which just means we got to see more of Tivoli. We also walked past a castle and some ruins from a Roman ampitheater on our way there. We finally found it and got in line to get tickets. Sam bought his first and as I was putting my change away he started nudging me saying, "Hey Zack, look who it is." I looked up and, lo and behold, there's Iori! He was on his way out of the Villa as Sam and I were entering. The three of us immediately entered and started catching up on what's happening. It was a joyous occasion which took place in a joyous place.

The thing about the Villa d'Este is that it's famous for it's fountains. I didn't count how many there were and as soon as I pull myself together I'll put the pictures up on Flickr. The actual house isn't too incredible, but the gardens where the fountains are are incredible. I'm glad I took pictures because otherwise I'd be hard pressed to remember what all these fountains look like (on the other hand, relying on photos may make my memories duller more quickly. On a different hand, maybe relying on photos creates storage space in my brain that would otherwise be used for remember what the fountains look like).

Near the entrance to the Villa, there was a concert being put on by some local Italian school. The program seems somewhat akin to an orchestra program in the States. There were lots of violins and other strings. There was a small wind section. The was a piano. What struck me as odd - and I think it struck Iori and Sam this way as well - is that there was a drum set and a large guitar section. After we finished looking at fountains, we watched this school orchestra for a while. I think we were really just waiting for the guitar section to play. It was also an interesting cultural thing, I think, that the three of us expected the guitars to be the lead but when they actually started playing they were just chordal support. What I thought was cool about the setting was that it seemed straight out of the Godfather. Complete with oranges, too. There were quite a few other places throughout Italy that had that effect for me.

We finally left the Villa in search for food. We walked down what appeared to be the main drag quite a few times and we finally settled on a pizza stand. It was delicious. It actually reminded me of Pizza Hut style crust. We sat on benches overlooking a hill/cliff that Tivoli is built on and watched the sun set. It was so beautiful. Then, of course, we went for gelato. And the gelato in Tivoli is the best gelato I've ever had in Italy. The melone tasted more fresh than an actual melon (cantaloupe) and the coffee tasted like good espresso. The pistacchio was the best pistacchio I've ever had (and I always get pistacchio - it's tradition). And then we went back to Rome.

No matter how you look at it, the Villa d'Este and Tivoli was a really good place to visit. Thanks, Sam. And I know Sam would say, "Don't thank me, thank Liszt." Well, thanks Liszt. It was a great travel recommendation.