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.