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.