Yoga, Sushi, & PhD Students

I took a friend to a yoga class Friday night at the WUK, which is a local artists' collective with various studios, cultural exhibits, and open courses. I had been to the yoga course on Tuesday nights before, but had never gone on a Friday. Interestingly, even though the room for the Friday session is bigger and brighter than the room used on Tuesdays, there were still noticeably fewer people there on Friday, probably because most people want to get an early start on the weekend.

I chatted with the teacher for a few minutes while we were waiting for the class to begin. I learned that he is working on his doctoral dissertation in philosophy, but when I asked him what school he was attending, he proceeded to tell me that he actually wasn't attending any school at the moment. He was just writing the dissertation and then would submit it to one of the Viennese universities for approval. I looked at him quizzically. "Don't you need to be enrolled in a doctoral program in order to get a doctoral degree?" I asked him. "No," he replied, "the dissertation is most of the work. Once it's written, you just need to find a professor to approve it and then the school will grant you the degree." I'm far from an expert on the Austrian university system, but I do know several PhD candidates here and they are all enrolled at their universities. I hope he knows what he's doing!

After yoga, my friend and I were both starving since neither one of us had eaten dinner before class. We found what looked like a little chain Japanese restaurant, right down the street from the WUK. The menu looked reasonable, so we decided to give it a try. We were both amazed. The food was excellent -- much better than expected for Austria, which is not known for its "ethnic" cuisine. Between the two of us, we had miso soup, seafood soup, sushi, curried duck, and coconut pudding. We had plenty to take home, too! It's always a nice surprise when an average-looking restaurant turns out to serve far-above-average food.

Together with a few other friends, I've been compiling a list of restaurants we need to visit before leaving Vienna. I'm definitely adding this one to the list!