Today was the day. The big day. The one day. The day the registration office of UT Vienna would open their doors and let in all the young people who want to study technical stuff as of this year. And I was there, too.
I did register for the study of Medizinische Informatik, which more or less is biotechnical engineering. We will see how it works.
I’m turning 25 tomorrow, and I’ll be partying already tonight.
If you’d like to join, send me an email (sburtscher[at]gmx[dot]at), or check the Vienna Group on Couchsurfing. I’ll give you all the information you’ll need!
Today, I’ll be doing “my thing” again. My thing in Couchsurfing Vienna is walking around with Couchsurfers. From time to time I would point out something along the way and say something about that thing. It’s not a guided tour, it’s just a walk.
Usually, these walks take place at Zentralfriedhof in Wien Simmering. If so far you never considered Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) to be a sight worth 2 hours time, try my walk. I have done this about a dozen times by now, and had a lot of people coming with me. All the feedback I received so far was somehow connected to the words amazing, awesome, so cool, fascinating, incredible or similar.
The next date is TODAY, 13th of July. I won’t publish the exact time and meeting place here, simply to avoid masses of people showing up.
If you’d like to join, send me a mail to sburtscher[at]gmx[dot]at, and I’ll send you the directions. I’ll be checking my mails until 5 pm.
Yesterday’s BBQ seems to have made an impression on somebody. One of the organizers received a message saying “Hey, it was really cool having a BBQ with so many people. Why don’t we do it again? I have a reservation for today!”
This means: if you didn’t manage to join yesterday, try again TODAY!
Tuesday, July 12th, as of 6 pm, at BBQ place number 9 on Donauinsel.
I won’t be there, as it is Tuesday, and there’s a Pubquiz to win 😉
Today is July 11th. You know what this means. And if you don’t, click here to find out.
See you later!
A short forecast onto the next days and weeks …
On Friday, the keeper of the inn where CS Vienna has its weekly meeting, has his birthday. We’re all invited to come and party with him – it’s going to be great!
Next week, I’m turning 25 (old? young? decide for yourself). My birthday is on Saturday, and the plans for the whole weekend are the following:
Friday, 15th – party. Don’t know yet where, or what, but we’ll see.
Saturday, 16th – it’s a macabre thing, but hey. Otto Habsburg’s burial is taking place Saturday afternoon, so I’ll be there. How often do you have the possibility of watching a Habsburg funeral nowadays?
Sunday, 17th – a brunch at Georg’s place, as his flat mate is not here at the moment. His flat is not bigger, but nicer than mine 😉
One week later, as of 22nd, I’ll have about one week off. This means:
Friday, 22nd in the evening, or Saturday 23rd sometime – leaving for Upper Austria, paying a visit to Georg’s family.
One, two, maybe three days later – leaving for Tyrol, to go to my place.
Thusday, 28th to Sunday, 31st – Couchsurfing at my place. There’s a huge medieval festival taking place at my hometown, and I made a plan for some friends to come by. We’ll be attending the festival, going to the Neuschwanstein Castles, maybe go for a hike, and of course have BBQs and some beers.
I’ll be back in Vienna on August 2nd, have to work again on 3rd.
Sounds like a plan.
At Vienna Calling 2009, I met Kwentin. At Vienna Calling 2010, he introduced me to Werner. One day, at a dinner most likely, Werner introduced me and Georg to Susi. And Susi introduced us to Frida and, later, to Björk. They are her cats.
Susi often has to go abroad for her job, as she’s working with IKEA. During those days, she of course needs somebody to take care of the girls. That’s where Georg and I come in. Once, when Werner didn’t have time to look after the cats, Susi needed an alternative, and I just LOVE cats, so I offered to do the job. Werner obviously left a good reference, and there was no further discussion. After a short training on the job, Georg and I became regulars at Susi’s place.
And I still love it. From time to time, we take care of two lovely cats and we’re even allowed to stay at Susi’s place, which is a really nice flat with a good kitchen and a biiiig TV (we usually don’t have a TV). Apart from living in a luxury (and not-shared) flat, there’s of course the funny things you experience when having cats. Cats playing, for example. Or cats fighting. Or cats staring at something, like the street, or water in a bowl, or the TV, or yourself.
Did I mention I love cats?
Oh, and THIS just nails it.
Some days ago, there was a post on the CS Vienna Group by a friend of mine. It said “Spontanous Picknick tonight at Burggarten?” and had everything in it: fun people, food, drinks, and a nice place to sit and relax. The time was set for 8 pm, so it would not be that hot anymore, and some people immediately said they would join.
When George and I were leaving, the initiator of the picknick wrote another message: She’d come a bit later, 8.30 pm plusminus 10 minutes. That was okay with us, we had had dinner already, and only came for the drinks and the people. So we went there, and met some of the others, and had a nice chat, and had some ice cream, and apricots, and beers. The time went by, and suddenly it was after 9 pm already. Maria was still not there. But of course she did make it there – just in time, as we were starting to pack our stuff! We decided to go to another spot, with more light, and a better view, picked some people up on the way and then had a great picknick. Maria had caught a cooking fever – she had done a lense salad, tsatsiki, bread, another sauce, and she brought water melon. To our amazement, plates, forks and spoons were also provided. It was great!
My parents are quiet young, I know that. Me being nearly 25 and my brother turning 28 in August, our parents are supposed to be 55 or something, compared with friend’s parents. But they aren’t. Actually, my Dad only turned 50 around two weeks ago.
Having an “even” birthday is always something special. Being one of the executive committee members of the largest skiing club of the area, makes it really funny. In this case, my Dad received several poems, lots of nice parcels, and a song. Yep, the other members of the committee did rewrite a song (“Komm hol das Lasso raus”) so it would fit the occasion 🙂
Other nice things happening that weekend:
– several aunts and uncles coming to visit (some from Switzerland, some from other parts of Austria)
– meeting lots of my parents’ friends
– having lots of laughs because of those awesome poems they wrote
– a huge party, including food, drinks, songs, dances and comic mishaps (e.g. mistaking my Dad’s aunt for his mother)
Also, my Dad did hear one thing quiet often during the party and the rest of the weekend: “Take more time for yourself!”. He’s working hard, has always done so, and somehow he doesn’t seem able not to work. 2 weeks off, that’s already too much for him. But we’re trying to get him to calm down and sit back more often. Lots of the presents included hotel vouchers, e.g. in Styria and Vorarlberg, but also vouchers for mountain pass roads so he could go on motor cycle tours more often. Now he has the means, he’s only missing the time. Let’s hope he starts taking time.
Last Wednesday, I had an unanswered call from a swiss number on my phone. Usually I’d just wait for the person to call again, but I was in a good mood, so I called back.
A girl answered the phone, saying she and her boyfriend had to go to Vienna, bringing goods to the University. The goods had to be brought there by him, by car, on dry ice. It sounded strange in the beginning.
But it turned out, that the girl, Nina, is the room mate of a good CS friend of mine. Her boyfriend had to bring some samples from Bern to Vienna for his dissertation, and Nina wanted to come with him as they both had never been to Vienna before. And so far they had not found a host, though posting onto the Last Minute Couch Search Group.
After checking Nina’s profile, of course, I agreed on hosting them. And it was a good decision 🙂 We did not spend too much time together, as I was working, and Donauinselfest was going on, and Nina and Claude had plans of their own considering sightseeing. But still, it was a nice weekend with friends. Just the way I like!