Jänner

Hello everybody. January is almost at an end and that can mean only one thing: I am getting older. My birthday is on Thursday. I will be twenty three. I'm back into the swing of things and have started doing a bit of English tutoring as well, with some students as well as people who live in Wiener Neustadt. The picture is from the Hirschenkogel, overlooking the mountains surrounding Semmering. It feels like real skiing when you can see jagged snow-capped peaks in the distance. Lately, the skiing has been terrible because of the warm temperatures. The snow just melts during the day and freezes again at night, making for dangerous and slippery slopes. I am going again with some students on Monday. I promised one guy I would try snowboarding if he did, so that may be what will happen. I recently went to Vienna's English "Theatre" to see a sketch comedy/improv group from the Second City in Chicago. Most of it was funny and satisfying, but they sang a number at the end called "this is the world we made" that basically sounded like an apology to the world on behalf of America. In the song, they mentioned several of the cliché negative stereotypes about America and it's people, which of course everyone has already heard before. I hope they were trying to be tongue-in-cheek about it, but it didn't come off that way, especially since they were performing for an audience that was almost exclusively non-American. I didn't think it was really clever or necessary and, honestly, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Since when did America create the world anyway?
I recently went to an interesting restaurant called the "Wiener Deewan" before my traditional Thursday night Vienna Pub Quiz. If the place had a slogan, it would probably be something like "all you can eat, pay as you wish". It is an Indian/Pakistani buffet-style restaurant that has no set prices on its food. The customers just eat as much or as little as they want and pay as little or as much as they want for their food. The drinks have set prices, but it was an interesting task to name a price for food I had already eaten. When it came time for us to leave the restaurant, the 'waitress' who was tending to the room we were in told us to pay at the door. She didn't give us a bill, we were just responsible for telling the guy in front what we had had to drink, and we could also tack on some extra Euros for the food. He says thank you to every customer after they pay. It would have felt like stealing had I looked the guy in the eye and only paid for my drink. I can't remember how much I gave for the food, but I think it was probably a bit more than what it would have cost if it had had a fixed price on the menu. I think that is probably the case for most people who eat there as well. It was very good, as were the service and ambiance, and it felt like I was paying for an experience more than anything else. A very interesting business plan. Well, hope everyone is staying warm and healthy. Hear from you soon.