i have my first visitor from austria. hansi, a former classmate form boarding school in bad gleichenberg. i haven’t seen him in quite a long time. he picks me up from work, but he is too early, so i send him down to rudy’s, the legendary dive right across film center where i work.
once i am at rudy’s we have a relaxed beer and it’s very nice to talk to someone in „österreichisch“. i don’t have to tell hansi about some weird american habits, because he lived long enough in florida to know how crazy it can be sometimes.
we are heading to gramercy park hotel. i have never been there so far, so i am curious. one of hansi’s coworker recommended the bar there. what should i say? it’s supercool! see here: www.gramercyparkhotel.com/bars.html. it’s in real much darker and looks much better. people are more upscale but still not over the top. i like it. one place more where i can take out visitors….
after rose bar we are heading to an „österreichertreffen“ 20 blocks uptown. nothing a new yorker would ever do by foot, but we are austrians, so „hurra die gemse!“ wharf bar: bettina is there, dominika and magdalena, the austrian student researching on hiphop language. and bunch more austrians.
one german guy is also here, who introduces himself as a spiegel-editor. he is looking for german-speaking students or very young people who moved to the city recently to stay here for quite a long time. that’s hard to find. because once you have your student visa, they let you study, but then you have to leave the us. or when you are young you probably find a job but you don’t get a visa… his story is about people who move to a city that’s actually falling apart, that’s lost a lot of its energy and vibrance already and has nothing to offer anymore for young people.
i have some thoughts here, but i will blog about that some time later…
i meet ursula, a physical therapeut from hartberg, who is married to a new yorker. again a nice evening and a good start into my second week…