When people ask me where I live...

I'm going to show them this map.  Or make my hands into a diamond shape and tell them there's a cut out part.  I think I can be forgiven for saying "I'm from DC" when you look at such a map.

Personal Finance Friday

Hey everyone, happy Friday!

Recently I entered the new world of student loan debt, a place that I, nor anyone in their right mind, actually wants to be.  I borrowed 18k from the government, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I chose an in-state school and got in and out within four years, nothing too expensive.  Around the internet this week I've seen some ridiculous things.  First I saw an image on reddit that shows the ridiculous debt of the person the poster was marrying.  Almost 100k with some loans over 10% interest?  UGH, HOW AWFUL.  I'm sorry for showing you this.

THEN I found out that a person can be even MORE in debt.  Consider a four year private college and then four years of 70k per year medical school.  Jesus Christ.  Can you imagine such a thing?  Again, I am SO LUCKY that I got in and out of James Madison before they doubled the interest rates on student loans.  I just barely made it out alive.


So how am I handling my new "debt crisis?"  Well, I paid my first bill off okay.  I'm not earning much every month here being an Au Pair in Austria, but I don't spend much either.  I intend on paying off my loans as smartly as possible, "snowballing" (as the pros say) is my main goal.  That means paying off the smallest loans with the biggest interest rates as fast as possible.  I've got my eye on one of those loans right now, and it's going down in less than two years if I have anything to say about it.

In addition, I'm using this website called Tuition.io, reviewed here by one of my favorite websites, Lifehacker.  It doesn't really DO much, but it provides clear visuals to explain the reduction of my debt.  I had another option ready, Student Loan Hero, but that dumb thing costs $5 per month.  Who the hell do they think their market IS?  We're poor!

Not my loan

I hope you like it, if you're into that kind of thing.  I'm also looking at some other miscellaneous websites about personal finance...Here's a bunch 'o' links!

• Credit Card Churning - People apply for a ton of credit cards and use all their perks and then cancel them right before the annual fee kicks in.  I don't recommend this for the lighthearted, I don't even think I could do it myself unless I had real grown-up money.
• Wall Street Survivor - This is a game to help you learn how to invest and learn about finance... I really want to play it, but I think I'd need a free weekend to spare.  Seems cool, regardless.
• Mr. Money Mustache - Ok I know nothing about this website, I just saw it linked on the personal finance subreddit and bookmarked it immediately.  Apparently it has sound advice and good podcasts.  We'll see!
• The Motley Fool - I had weird deja vu when I followed the link to this site for the first time.  Oh right, the headquarters are located in my hometown!  How cool!  This is another learning website that has a good podcast...rest assured I'll be looking into this one as well. 

That's all I've got for you today, FINANCE LOVERS.  I hope this has has been educational or mildly entertaining!  

Cultural Observations: Vienna

I've been living in Vienna for seven weeks.  I feel like this is a good time to point out some of my observations of the lovely Viennese culture.

1.  Ketchup ain't free
I don't know why this is so strange to me.  Every time I go to McDonald's (which has been like, twice, don't judge me), I forget that important fact when I get my meal.  This means pulling out my wallet again and looking like a dummy while holding up the line.  Aggravating stuff.

2.  Bewegung
Bewegung is German for "movement," and it's something the family I live with likes to do after a big meal.  I don't understand this one either.  We've just eaten a gigantic meal, the last thing I want to do is go outside and hike around in the fresh air.  However, I am coming around to the idea of this one.

3.  Jack Wolfskin = North Face
Jack Wolfskin is the Austrian equivalent of the American North Face jacket brand.  You see them EVERYWHERE.  Just about ever traveller on the metro has one and they come in just about every color.  It's pretty interesting.

4.  "Wurscht"
Wurst, the proper pronunciation of the word above, as you may know means "sausage."  However, the Viennese dialect has integrated this word into their daily conversation to mean "I don't care/It doesn't matter to me."  Do you want to have chicken or steak for dinner?  It's sausage to me.  I love using this phrase but it certainly took a few weeks to remember how to say it properly.

5.  Vienna is clean
So clean that I have to italicize the word.  Loic visited from Paris, a well known "dirty" city and was astounded by the cleanliness of the streets.  Seriously, in the metro and on the ground, there is no trash.  It's amazing.  Also, it doesn't smell like pee everywhere like some cities *coughparis*.

More observations will come as I notice them,
bis dann!

Around the Internet

If you know me in person, you know I like to read a LOT of articles online.  I am a news junkie.  I use feedly (after Google Reader bit the dust), an RSS service that collects the recent posts of all my favorite blogs into one page for convenient reading.  I follow over 100 blogs and news sources, anything from world politics reports to recipes, and if I don't get through ~500 blurbs a day, it starts to add up.  I was away for the weekend and my current to-read (well, to look at and decide if I want to read the whole article) is over 2.500.  Yeah.  And I hate marking something as read if I haven't read it... There could be something interesting in there that I could miss!

But I digress.  I'm introducing a (hopefully weekly) list of articles that tickle my fancy and I want to share with someone.  Let's just do this.  If you're really interested in what I read, look at my media fingerprint.  This comes from an extension I have added to Google Chrome, it analyses the articles I read and then sends me biweekly suggestions of articles they think I'll like.  I've only had one email from them, but I think it is awesome so far.  The graph in the following link is especially cool.  Yay, data!

An interesting profile of the beloved brand Sriracha- Quartz.  They don't spend any money on advertising, so how is this sauce so damn famous?!

This video absolutely killed me.  "I am worried about my grade" embodies the laziest students in college who come in to office hours on literally the last day to try to fix their failing grade.  Ridiculous.

Why Young Americans Should Work Overseas- I keep reading articles like this and I'm often impressed by the facts laid out; the reasons are truly compelling.  Honestly, this article exaggerates the dearth of opportunities in the US- it makes it seem like there are literally zero jobs out there for those with degrees in humanities, not true.

Ok, that's all I have right now.  Enjoy!

Lange Nacht der Museen and LOIC'S VISIT

As my friends and family know, I am in a long distance relationship with an amazing guy named Loic.  He lives in Paris, working as a programmer for a game company.  For all those wondering, we met online.  I am not ashamed of this at all, because he's the best person I've ever met and continues to surprise me.  I'm lucky to have met him.

We first started talking in late November of 2012 and have been dating since December.  We first met in person in May of this year, shortly after I graduated and right before the beginning of the Munich catastrophe.  If you followed the Munich story, you know that I stayed with him for a month in Paris while I tried to figure out my visa situation. Unfortunately I had to return home to the US in August, and worked here for a month before we got to see each other.  Finally, after two months, we were reunited for a long weekend in Vienna.

Something only my close friends know about me:  I'm a planner.  I like to imagine things in the future and organize events as best as I can so I can effectively daydream about them.  Lists are one of my favorite things.  The Lange Nacht der Museen is literally translated:  The Long Night of Museums, and occurs all across Austria annually.  This year coincided with Loic's visit, October 5th.  129 Museums were open from 6pm-1am Saturday night, and that's only Vienna.  I paid about 11 euros for the opportunity to go to almost every exhibit in Vienna for seven hours.  Luckily, to maximize efficiency, I made a list.

We attended:

• Albertina:  To see Gottfried Helnwein's hyper-realistic portraits.  This stuff is fucking amazing.  Larger than Loic's Parsian apartment sized paintings- with every little hair individually painted in oil and acrylic on canvas.  See below for one of my favorites.  The picture here doesn't do it justice- you must see it in person.

(Just to give you an idea of the scale/realism of the damn thing)

• Staatsbibliothek Oesterreich:  The State Library of Austria.  Heralded as one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, these few rooms are truly breathtaking.  I took some pictures on my phone the previous time I was there, but again... you have to be there

• Heeresgeschichtliches Museum:  Military History Museum.  A ton of people forget that Austria-Hungary was one of the strongest empires in world history for over 600 years.  More to the point, the assassination of one of the royal family members was the spark that ignited the first world war.  Really mindblowing if you remember this.  We looked at Franz Ferdinand's car and tasted a popular Austrian dish called Kaiserschmarrn:  basically shredded pancakes with stewed plums.

Honestly I wish we could have done more last night.  We finished up around 11:30 and I just could not go on.  We had to make a few pit stops here and there, for water, wurst, and espresso to keep us awake.  You know, the important stuff.  I would certainly love to experience this night again, it's super cheap for an unimaginable list of world class museums, some with fun extras like the Kaiserschmarrn.  We really should've hit up the schnapps, chocolate, or coffee museums, each of which provided free samples.  Oh well.  Next time.

Brice and Salzburg

I know.  I'm a terrible blogger.  I'll keep it up for a few weeks then completely lose interest under the guise of being "too busy."  Lots of things have happened in the past month, and here's a rundown.

Most importantly...I HAVE A NEPHEW.  My sister had Brice Aiden Stalvey on September 21st, 2013.  I know he's family and everything, but this kid is adorable.  Not all weird looking like I was when I was born.

Everything seems to be going well over there in the states, mother and baby are both home and my nephew is already a week old.  It's crazy how time flies like that.   I don't really have much else to say about it at this point because the news I'm getting from home is pretty sparse, but I'm taking that as a good sign.



While all this was going on, I was in Salzburg for the day (after traveling to Linz with the family) with a dying phone that had no minutes and no internet connection.  Yeah.  Smart of me.  Honestly though, there was nothing I could do about it.  In any case, Salzburg was lovely and I met with an old friend of mine, Matej, from my exchange trip in 2009.  We had a nice breakfast together in the city and discussed all that had changed in the past four years.  When he left, I had the opportunity to explore the city and accomplish pretty much any sightseeing I wanted.  Did you know the inner city of  Salzburg is small enough to cover on foot within a day?  me neither.   I remember it being much bigger.
I'm glad I live in Vienna.  But that's an entirely different post altogether

Matej and I

View from Mirabell Gardens

Anyway, that's all I've got for right now- obviously I've got much more to write about, but it will come in the following weeks.

How I feel about living in Austria, told in a single comic.

Credit goes to Itchy Feet! basically the comic that defines my life.