Wien Stammtisch

We have been really having a great time living at our house here in the 10th district. From here, you can take the U1, subway to pretty much anywhere in the city, with a transfer or two. Things have been generally cold, but we have seen snow fall every few days, and sometimes when I am waiting for the subway, the snow falls onto the tracks at the street level station and it's very pretty. I have certainly getting into the hubbub of daily city life, which is fun, running for the bus and every time you come out of the subway stations, you are in a different part of town, and some of the stations open into big streets with beautifully decorated buildings and cobblestone streets, it is all a very unique feeling.

The good news is that I have gotten a second job at a kindergarten, and now my work week has been filled up! I was very surprised that here in Vienna the demand for native English speakers as teachers for your children is huge. Perhaps it is the lack of native English speakers without the papers to work here.

Last Friday we went to the Wien Stammtisch at Cafe Benno, a few blocks from the Alserstraße stop on the U6. "Stammtisch" is a German term for "Regular's Table". The Vienna couchsurfing group put together their Stammtisch on the 11th of every month. There are 6,500 members in the Vienna couchsurfing group, so you might imagine that quite a few people were going to show up. Stefan, the couchsurfer who set it up, reserved the entire downstairs of the bar. When we showed up at 10pm, there were at least 120 people there, all couchsurfers! Everyone had name tags, so I got a name tag, .5l of beer, and headed to the back room to make some friends. At first I met up with Massi, and Italian guy started the sustainability group here in Vienna. At the time he was running the "Free Box", a table covered with free stuff that the 120 or so people had brought that they did not need. Then I ran into a guy from Vienna who had traveled through the USA, and had actually traversed through Idaho from Boise to Coeur d'Alene, what a small world! I met up with an American guy that had just gone through the process of getting his residence permit here and gave us some tips for Laina's. The event grew and there were so many people in the bar, i couldn't believe it, and before I knew it, it was 2 and the bar was closing. They practically had to push out all the couchsurfers. It was a great time. The public transportation runs 24/7 on the weekend, so we were able to get home by 3 for a good nights rest.

Other News: Laina just got her paperwork in for her residence permit, so she may be able to work in 4-5 months! We are chugging along with our school work, and Laina got her health insurance trough my work! We're still looking for a place to live, and having a hard time because we're a couple and most people don't want two people instead of one. I went two five different interviews, got 4 job offers, and now I am working in two jobs!

Ah, Vienna!

We've been settling in pretty well, working our way through the job interviews and visiting different flats. Vienna's been pretty cold lately, down to -6 C! I have been going to the school and last Tuesday I taught my first English class solo! Pretty much all of our time until last Tuesday was spent split between Starbucks and Oma's house, and playing Bauernschnappsen (an Austrian card game) over slivovitz until late.

We moved into a flat, only temporary, in the 10th Bizerk, in south Vienna. We're having a great time, we have three roommates, Elizabeth, Kay(its his room we're subletting), and Shawna. From our house, we're only a block from the grocery store, and 2 blocks from the Turkish grocery store. If you don't know, Vienna has a huge international population, many people from eastern Europe, especially Turkey. Walking down the streets here, you most certainly will see a Doner Kebap stand on almost every corner. and in the stand you'll see a big rotating meat slab in which the server will slice you off delicious shreds of lamb or chicken. It's not healthy, but you can buy them for 2.50 euros, and they can feed two.

We spent Australia day with a big group of couchsurfers at a local Australian pub in the inner stadt(city). We had a great time together, and what diversity! There were people from Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, Australia(of course), Canada, and Germany. We had a fun time chatting over Cooper sparkling ales, and talking about the in's and out's of Austrian paperwork, and what it takes for Laina to get her residence permit (green card).

School has been crazy, as you may or may not know we are taking classes online from George Mason University, which we are really enjoying. We are trying to find a balance of time, since they are graduate classes, and require a lot of reading and intelligently written papers. I think we'll get by. All in all things are going well, and we are really looking forward to this weekend, they say it'll be 50 on Sunday, and it is free museum day in Vienna! Sweet!

p.s. The photo is of Stephansdom, a giant cathedral right in the center of the inner stadt. It's super old, it was completed in 1160.