Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the USA but obviously that means nothing in Austria so there will be no turkey dinner with family. I could eat a turkey sandwich perhaps, but I just bought some chicken today so I think I'd rather make a schnitzel. I'd like to wish all my family and friends back in the US a happy Thanksgiving though, please eat a dark turkey leg for me.

I've heard Minnesota is completely snowed in which is unimaginable here. We're still having nice weather with temperatures in 40's and 50's. Sometimes there's rain, but not a hint of snow. In the Alps though, there's already plenty of snow and skiing season has begun, here in Vienna the only hint of winter is that an outdoor skating rink downtown has opened. Tom and Pete know the area well, in the summer they visited the place when it was a sand volleyball bar.

Of course Thanksgiving in the US is always the last significant event before Christmas season starts. My dad has already reminded me that this year I'll need to write a Christmas card and send it out to people since Marlene and I are technically a new family now. If anyone is wondering what we(I) might want as a gift, my old Xbox along with Rock Band 2, a guitar, and a microphone might be a good idea... I've really been missing playing video games even though I'm fully aware it would negatively affect my job search.

As far as my job search goes, I did get a piece of good news this week. I got an offer for a temp job opening as an IT support guy where the customers are mainly English-speaking, based in the UK, but it's quite a bit outside of Vienna in a town called Wolfsgraben. It would take an hour to get there with trains/buses but I told the guy I'd like to come for an interview. I'm still waiting to hear back from him. Apart from job searching I'm also looking at going back to school which makes me regret ever being educated in the US on account of the cost of universities here. Some are close to American prices like 20,000 Euros for an entire Master's program but many are only a few hundred Euros per semester, while some are free!! I'd have to pass entrance exams and be accepted but it seems crazy that Americans would pay so much for an education when it's so affordable here. Ethan, if you're reading this, please look into going to university in Spain. I'm sure you'd love it and I bet you have enough money saved up already to fly here and pay for the first couple semesters.

Unemployment Woes

So I have posted anything for a while, it's mostly due to feeling depressed not being able to find a job. I've been applying to several jobs per day on average and have had two job interviews since I last posted. One was at a company called Titan Gaming who design slot machine games for casinos and it went really well but they ended up not hiring me because my German isn't good enough. The other interview was at Starbuck's and they said they would hire me if I commit to working there for several months but I'm not sure if I should settle for that yet.

If you've ever looked at my Current Music section in the upper right, you'll have seen that I'm listening to The Futureheads. Somehow Vienna is hosting 3 of the bands up there this month. I already missed Ratatat, but Marlene and I went to see The Futureheads last night. It was pretty strange since I'm used to First Ave of Minneapolis which was recently declared as one of the 10 best rock venues of the entire USA. The concert was at the Szene Wien which only has space for a couple hundred people and it wasn't even full. That wasn't disappointing to me at all because I was able to stand right in front of the stage and catch the lead guitarist's pick at the end. Afterwards, we hung around outside the door to get backstage because it was right next to the coat-check and bar area and I got to meet the lead singer and get a picture with him.



Please notice now that I've added two entries to my Current Music and they are Girl Talk and Pendulum. Girl Talk makes remixes rather than original music so his albums are completely free to download - http://illegal-art.net/allday/. Pendulum is a sweet band from Australia who will be on tour supporting Linkin Park (who suck) in January so they'll be at Xcel Energy Center on Jan 28. I strongly recommend going to see them!