Hamburgers and Iranians

I have been singing in the opera choir for Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges for a little over a month now, slowly getting to know the other choir members.  Surprisingly, the majority of us are not from Austria which is also the case for most of the students at the music university.  Among my fellow tenors there are guys from Thailand, Pakistan, and Mississippi.  Because we don't rehearse as often with the women (sopranos and altos), making acquaintance with them has taken a little longer.
Just this past week I struck up a conversation with an alto pertaining to something in the sheet music.  She was struggling only a little with her German but resorted to an English word while explaining something.  I believe the word was "awkward."  Anyway, I replied in English. She realized that I was a native speaker and excitedly jumped to English.*  I asked her where she was from and she cautiously said Iran.  Of course, my  reaction was instant intrigue and excitement as I'd never met an Iranian before.  On top of this, there are the lingering tensions between the United States and Iran over their supposed nuclear program.  Naturally, this only makes me more excited and eager to speak with her.  The geopolitical nerd came out of me as I blurted out the reply "Waohh, that's awesome!"  Her smile dropped.  "Why do you think that is awesome.  Wait, are you from America?"  I nodded.  Her look of "what the hell do we say now" was priceless.  Apparently avoiding any sensitive topics, she turned around and stared out of the window.  Because we formed 2/3 of the people in the room at the time the silence could only be described as... what's the word? awkward?

Last week my stomach was feeling a little homesick so I decided to make hamburgers and macaroni and cheese.  I know what you're thinking, eating this by myself would make me a fatty so I invited some Austrian friends along to share in my gluttony.  It was all delicious which was surprising because, I must admit, I've never made mac and cheese from scratch before.  I found this recipe online which turns out was the original one Thomas Jefferson invented.  Check out the photos...

Looks good doesn't it...

Also, my daily commute has become much healthier.  I bought a bike!  It is awesome!  I ride all over town now and save hours from my week (not to mention money I would have spent on the tram).  I'm still trying to think of what name to give it.  I'm thinking of calling it Arnold (after the governator who is believe it or not from Graz) but am open to suggestions.

...and just to round off the title a little more.  I met a guy the other day whose name is Daniel.  Daniel is from Hamburg.  There's nothing particularly interesting about him except for the fact that I can understand his German (at least when compared to Austrians).


*Whenever two foreign people meet in a foreign country there is usually a brief period of spirited back and forth questioning that goes something like this...

What's your name?
Where are you are you from?
What are you doing here?

...from there it can be unpredictable.