Things change

Back at work, Monday morning. It’s still vacation season, so while some colleagues are back now with a new tan, others have left to go get sunburned somewhere on the Adriatic. We were in Vienna on Saturday, to try to forget about the latest hoops that the immigration authority is making me jump through (I [...]

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How far have you ever traveled for food?

The blogroll subject of the week is “How far have you traveled for food”. Unfortunately, I don’t have any spectacular story of intercontinental journeys for tacos. I guess the farthest I’ve traveled would be clear across Vienna, on foot, for a hot dog (I’m using the term hotdog for all the myriad kinds of sausages sold at [...]

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Arms back to normal

We visited some friends outside of Vienna on Saturday.  They’ve just (well, 4 months ago) had a baby, which we hadn’t met yet, also didn’t get a chance to see their new place before we left the city.  Basically, it was high time for a visit.  Now I… don’t know much about babies, and frankly, [...]

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Lazy days

The weather today is oppressive.  It’s been hot for a few days, and now it wants to rain, but it’s having a hard time getting started.  Like peeing when you know someone is listening.  It’s hot and humid and overcast, but that’s all.  Maybe it’ll thunderstorm this afternoon. Today I stood outside the barricade at [...]

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Hot time, summer in the city…

Well, it’s finally summer here in old Europe.  It was 31°C today and it was pretty nice over the weekend in Tirol, too.  The trouble?  I live in the city, and it is really damn hot a lot of the time.  It doesn’t really cool down at night, you know.  The U-bahn is incredibly hot [...]

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Public transit etiquette

Hello again ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another edition of, “How the world would be run if Sabine were in charge”. Today: “How to ride public transit in Vienna without pissing me off” 1. The U-bahn (subway)– boarding, exiting. When the train comes to a halt, the people inside need to get off first. So [...]

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Holiday stress

Well, I just got back from doing all my Christmas shopping. I got things for my parents, my brother, Stefan, and my Aunt Barb, who I drew in abstentia at the Thanksgiving lottery. I can’t tell you what I got them, because some of these people read this journal. But they are pretty nice things, [...]

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Hangover Central

Well, the Berlitz Christmas party was last night. After trekking all the way out to Ottakring, to the end of the U3, I met up with my colleagues and the people from my training session. There was a giant buffet which must have included everything on the menu of the traditional Austrian pub Berlitz had [...]

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Ouch, my head

I got to my teacher training course this morning only to realize that I had forgotten my wallet at home.  Good thing they weren’t checking for tickets on the U-bahn.  Next week is shaping up to be a doozy.  I have 2 Teaching Practice sessions for this course, which are evaluated for my final grade [...]

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Thanksgiving nothing

Well, this is the first Thanksgiving in my life where I didn’t do anything but work. I had a company training seesion today with some people from a bank, so I spend the day from 8:30-5:30 sequestered in a tiny conference room with 4 beginners. They are really nice, and the warmed up quickly after [...]

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