Forth! And fear no darkness!: Go Ahead

A couple of my friends here decided to search their names in my blog, and they were disappointed at the number of times they showed up. Thus, I am compelled to make new, hopefully brief post, about a few people I hang out with here in Vienna. I’ll start where it makes the most sense: my roommates.

Patrick and I hang out with our roommate David Richardson a lot. He’s in my german and Philosophy classes and attends Haverford (though he’s considering taking next semester off to work and live somewhere he wants to experience, either in the US or maybe Berlin?). He plays the guitar (of which I have posted pictures in previous posts) and had his own band in high school. Without glasses on he looks like James Dean, and with glasses on he looks like Harry Potter.

Evan Pilate is another roommate. He’s a stellar piano player (we asked him how long it would take him to learn a Disney song on the piano – Pat suggested 10 minutes and he immediately corrected us and said 5). He is also the inventor of scotch night (every Tuesday) and owns a fantastic movie collection.

Tad Lane lives with David and Evan in the triple in our apartment. He loves to have fun, and he also took a german class before coming over here so we all try and speak some together and learn from each other. Tad went on the 3 city tour with Pat and I where we actually got to be friends and hung out a lot. As I said in another post, he goes to Villanova, and he studied abroad in London last year. He also complained the most about how many times he was mentioned in my blog, so I will be including his name at the end of every paragraph from now on.

Jeremy and Egemen are my two other roommates. Egemen is from Istanbul (but studies at St. Olaf) and gave us lots of great advice about what to do when we went there. They are both music majors: Jeremy is a fantastic singer and Egemen is a composer (he had a piece played in front of the Turkish prime minister who gave it a standing ovation). We don’t hang out that much because they have different schedules, but they’re great guys. (Tad)

Outside of the apartment I hang out with a variety of people. I’ll start with guys because there are fewer of them (this isn’t my fault, our program has far more girls on it). I’ve talked lots about Roger Cheng – he goes to USD and is from Chicago (actually went to the same high school as Laura Jerzyk). I also hang out some with guys named Chris Machesney, Lucas Smalldon and Robbie Stickney. Them, combined with the roommates, comprise most of the guys I hang out with on a regular basis. (Tad)

There are a couple different groups of girls I hang out with. One of them is a group who mostly live in “the brothel” (which I only use because they use it). There are 11 girls that live there. Among them are Allison (who I’ve talked about a lot), Katie, Julia, and Michelle (who all went to Hallstatt), and Jamie and Annie. They have a less convenient set up for hanging out so I don’t go there a lot, but there’s always someone willing to hang out. Katie goes to George Washington and is in both of my political science courses here (she’s an International Affairs major), Julia is in my German class and plays golf at Trinity, Jamie goes to Denver, and Annie keeps them all in line (this video pretty much sums up Annie’s role: “sometimes you embarrass me”). Morgan Khodiyari doesn’t live with them but goes to school with Julia and hangs out with all of them a lot, and Carli Smith (who also goes to USD) also went to Hallstatt and Graz. (Tad)

I also hang out some with Ashley and her roommates Sam, Taylor, and their adopted roommate Casey (in one of my first posts here there’s a picture of the 4 of them from when we went out to dinner for Sam’s birthday). Ashley and Allison both went out to dinner with my mom when she was here, and my mom is actually already “friends” with Ashley on facebook. I also spend time with girls named Elizabeth Zajac (in my German class), Abbey Stroick, and Meredith Graham. I am, at this point, just listing names so I will remember them later. Early in the semester I hung out a lot with Claire Clancy, Lindsay Kaghan, and Jean Egger, though unfortunately I haven’t seen them outside of school in a number of weeks. (Tad)

(Tad)

I’m sure I’ve left someone out and they’re going to be mad (Tad) but I think I’ve done the best I could giving a broad overview. My mom met Roger, David, Evan, Ashley, Allison, and I don’t remember who else. Anyway, I hope this appeases everyone who was upset and helps those at home get a slightly better idea of the people I regularly see! Quinn Rodgers comes in tonight and Laura Jerzyk tomorrow!

(Tad)