I’m about to go to the country of baconnaise, the home of hamburgers, fries and Dr Pepper. The land where you get asked a question and are not expected to really truly fully answer.

Can’t wait to see how Miki, my travel mate, will react to this. Entering shops, placing orders in a restaurant, pretty much everywhere you get greeted by a phrase that might look like this:

“Hello (Sir), how are you doing today?”

When I first went to California, this warm and open greeting seemed kind of alienating to me. You get asked how you were doing today… In the most formal restaurant? That – to me – used to be material I talk to friends and people close to me about. Not waiters. Not staff. Until I realized that this is not supposed to be some intrusive question or anything of the kind. It’s just a way to greet someone and loosen up a bit.

You are not expected to give detailed updates to your waiter on your critical condition concerning your inflamed right pinkie toe. Just shoot back a nice “Fine thank you, and you?” and where ever you are – may it be in a café, restaurant, shop,… everywhere – the person that will be helping you for the day will appreciate it.

What Europeans get wrong very often: You are not expected to give orders to a waiter before you greet him/her accordingly. That would be considered entirely rude. “Hello, how are you?” – “Two scrambled eggs and bacon as an aside!”. You get used to that warmness very quickly and I sometimes miss this kind of dealing with people. Use phrases like “May I have another diet coke, please” instead of “My coke’s empty. REEEFILL!”… You get the idea.

What Europeans get wrong too often: Tipping accordingly.

Can’t wait to give you more updates on our upcoming trip. Just ordered the New York City guide by Lonely Planet since the Encounter version was just too superficial for a 10 days stay. Covering just the basics that I knew about already made it look like there wasn’t too much to do.

How handy, I already have a category on my blog that covers entries on US related traveling topics. The rumors are right: I’m going to the US one more – and probably not the last – time. You know what they say, third time is a charm. I’m lucky to announce that I’ll be able to share that American East Coast charm with High School friend Miki who also wanted to take a peak at the awesomeness and thus will also be on board of the Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to New York. Here is our itinerary.

Our awesome theme picture. Based on a shot by joiseyshowaa on flickr.com

Our Flight Schedule

7/11: Vienna International (VIE) to John F. Kenedy International (JFK) – Austrian Airlines (round-trip ticket 595 EUR or ~790 USD).

New York, Neww York.

We’re hoping that Economy is overbooked, so that we get the seats in Business class we initially wanted. We booked a nice hotel near Central Park that will allow us to navigate easily around in NYC. Ten days is our time window to do all things New York. You know anything really special, that our travel guide won’t tell us?

7/22: John F. Kenedy International (JFK) to Miami International (MIA) – Delta (120 USD or ~90 EUR).

Miami, down south in Sun State.

We head down south on a flight by Delta in order to get some sun, beaches and a cool cocktail served to us by some hostel staff. We’re still working on that. But I guess, we need to be economic down there.

7/27: Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International to Logan International (BOS) – Jetblue (140 USD or ~105EUR).

Boston aka Athens of America.

Ideally meeting up with a friend that stayed in Austria for a semester as a FEZ (foreign exchange student)… Can’t wait to see Boston. Heard so many good things about it.

7/30: Logan International (BOS) to John F. Kenedy International (JFK) – Jetblue (65 USD or 50 EUR).

Now, quick, Phil and Miki, you’ll need to catch that flight home. I her it already “Passenger Philipp A, we are boarding. Go to gate XYZ. Your Schnitzel is waiting. Same goes for Passenger Mee-kee Row – How the hell do I pronounce that?”

7/30: John F. Kenedy International (JFK) to Vienna International (VIE) - Austrian Airlines (see the flight from VIE to JFK).

I can see it all ready. All teared-up and still short of breath from transfering from the Jetblue terminal to the one that Austrian Airline operates from, we’ll board our flight taking us home to European ground. Where we’ll face our Master card bills flying in, just 10 days later. One thing’s for sure, we won’t regret anything. And I’m more likely to actually keep to that rule, if the Dollar is really weak compared to the Euro. Fingers crossed.

This is where You come in…

We have quite some time on our hands, we need suggestion for restaurants, sights off the beaten track, ball game recommendations. Really anything that will spice up our touristy program. Things I have in mind for our trip and thus need other people’s opinions… (Remember we’re going to New York City, Miami and Boston)

• Great, affordable restaurants
• Off the beaten track places and fun activities
• Coffee shops where you can hang all day long, possibly internet access
• Beach recommendations for Miami
• Boston museum tip (there are too many for only 3 days)
• Excursions from New York to some great place, I was thinking of going up the Hudson River, or up the coast. Public transport?
• Any other ideas?

If you’re planning a similar trip, have a look at the prices stated after the flight information, to get an idea how cheap or expensive those flights are. Prices stated in currency we purchased it. Per person.

Even though Florida is considered to be thee old people’s home of old people’s homes (according to Sarah Silverman’s The Great Schlep), Miami is still on our imaginative table of options for our East Coast project this summer. We want sun, we want beaches and we don’t mind partying. Our decision is still in progress though. Mostly because we’re still negotiating the budget with financiers who basically consider our cheery spending policy and our enquiry for support as venture capital*. Let’s hope we won’t need a bail-out.

Cousin Lisa just came back from her trip to Sunshine State. Florida that is. I asked for a picture of Miami that I then – I couldn’t help it – CSI-Miamified it in a matter of seconds. See the before picture.

I’m not messing with the Almighty H here. Don’t want to offend the CSI Miami fan base.

CSI-Miamified.

*What’s venture capital you ask? A type of private equity capital typically provided to early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Or a trip by college students to the US. Not. (adopted from wikipedia.org)

As you know I have recently moved to Vienna and therefore I am trying to make my new place feel homy. I’ve been looking for a neat poster that matches the green in my room and found it online over at orkposters.com. Have a look, it’s a city map of San Francisco. Doesn’t it look awesome? (It comes in all kinds of US American cities.)

Once it is shipped to my apartment I’ll have to figure out how to hang it up. Here are some ideas. Love the binder clip hanging method. Or should I just go for a plain frame?

San Francisco City Map Poster (in green)

Remember me ranting about the metric system, that how stupid it is to use a unifying system that is built on logic rather than chaos? For instance, stating the damage of a scratch on your car in an insurance paper with units like Equators is much more convenient.

Well, maybe being on metric scale isn’t so bad after all. Can you tell the above mentioned appears somewhat unreasonable? Maybe the metric system is made for you the. What brought the change in me? Boy, I don’t know, but that’s not my point. My point is that I from now on fully support it and that’s how you, Imperially-Royal-Mile-Inch-kinda-guy, come in. I’ll help you convert to the bright side of life? With metric units? Or the dark, which would be more fun anyway,… The clou being the conversion to the metric system…

Want to know what 40°C feels like? Your spit goes CUNK... (See? Just use new reference points!) · by xkcd.com

“Gentlemen, a depression is for capitalism like a good, cold douche.” (Joseph Schumpeter)

As the pictures title puts it: These are the jokers running the financial markets... by cactusbones

What about CEOs who ask for exorbitant sums for bailing out the big 3? Doesn’t sound like a cold douche to me. More like a vacation to the Maldives no expenses spared and thus charged on the tax-payer’s account. The next time I’ll go the US and pay taxes in a grocery store, I’ll feel good about helping those people out…

See into the past and find out who has pointed out that there might be an issue with the ever growing wealth built on money given away recklessly. Looks like it is true  that “much of the ever-expanding wealth is an illusory façade masking a teetering tower of debt.” (During my research – yes I do research – for the perfect picture for this A Picture A Quote entry I ended up running in a circle that brought me back to a picture you an me have seen before)

If you attend WU and/or have been to the Gluehweinstandl right in front of our beloved university, you couldn’t help but notice that the American Ambassador Girard-diCarlo will deliver a lecture and invites students to an open discussion on his lessons of leadership he has learned over the years.

I am really curious what he has to say about the current American pickle-ish economic situation. Googling him I came across with a picture and something told me I knew him for some reason. Until I realized that the ORF (when waiting for results of the first states to come in) had to fill their program with more or less relevant interviews during the Election Marathon night I held in order to be one of the first to call Barack President-elect of the US of A. One of the rather interesting interviewees was the Ambassador Girard-diCarlo, and that’s why I’m attending.

December 16, 4 pm. WU Festsaal (the happy place I took my miserable maths test in). Admission is free and can only be granted with prior registration.

Nikolaus descending from heaven? I thought that was Santa. Well, what is the difference anyway?!

Whereas the Krampus and the Nikolaus are supposed to hit off their job in distributingdisciplinaryactions and candy filled Sackerl (bags) this weekend, the UPS man* seems to be the American equivalent for the Austrian traditional pre-christmas happy clappy cheery time that usually is dominated by Glühwein sessions and “feasty” meals.

I guess that sums up the pre-christmas happy clappy cheery time here in Austria telling from the amounts of Glühweins consumed and Weihnachtsgänse (X-mas geese) slaughtered in our fair Alpenrepublik (republic of the alps).

*Why the UPS man? Well, an American friend put the following thing in his/her status (in order to maintain anonymity). Cracked me up.