This weekend (Vienna/Prague)

This weekend, the following things happened:

• One of my German classmates, a Japanese woman, got married to her Viennese boyfriend. Jetzt ist sie verheiratet.
• My German language teacher, Barbara, sliced off the tip of her pinkie finger, found it on the floor, washed it off, stuck it back on, and wrapped it in gauze and medical tape. Wide-eyed,  "Did you go to the hospital?" I asked in present-tense German and using the English word for hospital. "Nah," she said. And after a little more thought/discussion, "But maybe I should."
• I went to Prague.

My favorite things about Prague:

Adventures in Wien (Vienna), Part 1

A street in downtown Vienna

Weather
It feels like autumn here already. We had a week of hot (in the low 80s Fahrenheit) and humid (one day it was 97% humidity!), and now we're having a stretch of cold, cloudy and sometimes rainy days. Today, for example, it was 61 degree Fahrenheit at noon, and the breeze is chilly.

Culture of tipping

Simple breakfast

Unlike in Spain and Paris, where tipping is completely voluntary & there are no hard feelings if you don't, tipping in Vienna is the norm, and if you don't tip it's an insult. I haven't asked anyone yet what the usual amount is, but based on experience it seems that 10% is completely satisfactory, and if you leave 20% they act like you've just given them a huge present. The tricky part - which luckily I learned during my first week from Georg, my housemate's brother - is that (unlike in the U.S., Spain & France) you're not supposed to wait until they've already given you change and walked away. Instead, when the server tells you the total, you should immediately say back to them a new total that includes tip. For example, if the server says that the bill for my coffee is €3,20, then I might tell her €3,50. That way she knows I intend to leave a tip and she might actually smile at me. Or at least let one corner of her mouth lift a centimeter for a split-second. It also saves her the trouble of trying to find the right amount of change when I only intend to give part of it back to her anyway. So I tell her the new total, she immediately says, "Danke," and then gives me the correct change minus tip.

Reflections on Paris & what's next

Pastry & coffee in Paris

In my previous visits to Paris, what I liked most was the food, the coffee, and the energy of the city. Regarding the last: it felt alive and vibrant, well-suited to philosophy and creativity.

My experience this time was quite different, in part due to being on a tight budget (therefore couldn't afford to eat out in restaurants much) and in part due to a difference in energy. I'm not sure whether it's the high unemployment rate or the particular neighborhood I was in, but this time Paris felt...heavy. Not stagnant, more like slightly oppressive. (Now that I say that, I realize that might again be a result of the limited budget; it's hard to feel free in a place where you can't afford anything.) I still loved the coffee (and eventually found some for €1,60) and the pastries were delicious, though, so not everything had changed.