Catch Up for Real This Time...

Ok, we're going to do some marathon blogging so I can catch everybody up on what's been going on in my life since Wednesday.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

I'm a dork, so I started my Ball prep in the morning, since I had some extra time and the other girls were at class, so I had our bathroom all to myself. Most of the conversations before and during German class centered around who got dresses, who still needed to go shopping, what colors dresses were, how long they really had to be, etc. I got to be smug because I brought my green dress with me. I absolutely love that dress. It's a green velour halter A-line, with a slit up the left leg so I can walk. I got it for junior Harvest, and have probably worn it five or six times since. I think I like it better than even my prom dress.

I was the only person in the apartment when I first got there, so I decided to make dinner for myself since the Ball didn't start until 9:30. I more or less wasted time until about 7:30 because I didn't have a lot to do, but the flatties wanted to leave by about 8:30 to get to the Hofburg. The Ball was hosted by the Technical University of Vienna, and the Hofburg is the Imperial Palace. It is across the Ring from the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum. I curled my hair and put it into a low pony tail because I'm fancy-hair challenged. I decided to wear my pearl earrings and the gold omega necklace. Since I don't have any bracelets here with me, I went without anything on my wrists. Then I had my little black purse, the black shawl, and the strappy black heels. I got a "very nice" from the boys when I walked out of Natalia's and my room. We had a champagne toast and took the obligatory "pre dance" pictures, and then it was time to walk down to the S-Bahn and get to the Ball. Yes, I know, public transportation to an extremely elegant event, but we knew we'd have to pay for a taxi coming home and didn't feel like spending the extra Euro beforehand.

After we had changed S-Bahns, I got that nervous-excited feeling, like the butterflies you get when you're really looking forward to something. We walked in and checked our coats, but I decided to keep my purse at the table with me so I could take pictures. By the time we got up to the main dance hall, there were too many people in the doors to see the debutantes' first dance in society. In Vienna, the women between the ages of 18 and 25 can be debutantes. I'm not really sure how they become debutantes or anything, but each one wears a white dress and dances the opening dance with her date. They have the dance choreographed, and there were ballerinas in the middle of the floor dancing with them too. One of the other IES girls got a video of it, which I'll "borrow" from her at some point in the future.

Some of the other girls and I stood near one of the entrances to the main dance hall so we could check out possible dance partners. I got asked by an Austria only a few dances in. I danced three dances with him, and I couldn't understand his accent very well, so conversation was lacking. We danced the samba, the waltz, and maybe a cha-cha. He was a good lead, so it was fun, and I'm really glad I took the ballroom class at Penn State with Jolene, or else I would have been lost during those dances. I just want everybody to know that I samba-ed extraordinarily well for not doing it for over a year. :-) After those three dances, I dance two with IES guys, and at points, as one of them put it, it was like playing football and knocking into people because the floor was so full. I decided to take a bit of a break after that, and it was getting close to midnight anyway, when they would dance the first quadrille. I was up on the main stairs and a boy named Ingomar asked me to dance. I said sure. The quadrille is kind of like the Austrian equivalent to squaredancing. Everyone lines up in two lines. Each quadrille is made up of two men and two women. There is a caller, who directs the dance in German, so Ingo translated for us. At the end of the sixth round of calls, everyone kind of polkas under each others arms which are held up like little kids playing "London Bridge." And people will drop their arms randomly too and trap people. It was fun, but it didn't smell so great. After the quadrille, they played another waltz, but the floor was extremely crowded and Ingo and I only got partway around. We decided to take a bit of a break and he took me to meet some of his friends at a table in another room. In true Germanic fashion, we discussed politics. I did decently well, since the conversation was in English, but since Ingo is majoring in Physics and Mathematics, he likes to take charge of the conversation in any language. Being the polite person that I am, I let him. Around 1:30, it was time to check on the flatties and see what was going on.

Travis got The Look, so he and Natalia and Matt and I went down to the salsa room in the lower level of the Hofburg. We did more swing-like things than salsa (sorry, Matt, but I don't remember much, you'll have to re-teach me when I get home), but we had a lot of fun. My feet were hurting and Travis needed a break, so we went back up and sat at the table with the other flatties. At 2:30, they danced another quadrille. I didn't take part in this one, but I did take a lot of pictures and some videos too. Matt and I took a turn in the jazz room and I learned to foxtrot. Just the basic, but it was fun. Then it was back to the table for us. It was getting really late at this point and we needed to get home, since most of us had presentations or exams in class the next day. By the time we had all the flatties rounded up, it was headed toward 3:45. Jeremy, Alison, and I were in one taxi and the others followed us. We got back and changed into our pj's and compared pictures. I called Matt to tell him about the Ball. And then we passed out around 4:15.

On Friday, I got to sleep until about 9:00 and I was pretty impressed because I didn't look like I had been up until 4am the night before. One of the girls even commented on it when I was at IES. It was sehr toll. I had to be at IES a little bit early because Mary, Mandy, and Violetta and I were doing a group presentation in class and we had to put it together. I left the apartment around 10:30, but I straightened up before I left, like doing dishes and fixing pillows and such, because our cleaning lady comes on Friday afternoons. Our landlady also accompanies her. I just think it's ironic that we clean for the cleaning lady.

Our presentation went well, and the quiz/test wasn't as terrible as the first one we had the week before. After class, I had to wait at IES for a bit because I had my interview for the business internship. There were about ten of us that would be in the class and then have the internships. We each got three top picks for the internship we would like. My favorite was an internship with a branch of the Economist, a magazine published in Europe. I would be doing research and writing, and might even get published. My second choice was with a group doing research on management trends, and my third was with a bank doing stock analysis. I know that that doesn't make any logical sense because I'm studying Finance, but I think I want to get my PhD in Economics and teach at the collegiate level.

I had planned on coming home to change and then head back to the first district to see Anne in an opera, but when I got home and had something to eat and done my laundry, I just didn't feel like going out again. It had been getting cold the last few days, and the girls had a class field trip to a Heuriger (mine is tomorrow) and the boys were watching the Family Guy movie. So I stayed in and worked on travel plans for St. Patrick's Day weekend and Easter break. I went to bed early that night (like around 11 or so) and called Matt and Erika.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Yesterday was kind of like market day. I did all my food shopping, and I think I managed to hit up most of the major Austrian chains in the process. I've started shopping according to sales, and I manage to get pretty much everything I need for several days for only about 25 Euro. Everything also includes ginormous Milka bars with almonds. :-) Spar, one of the markets on the corner, didn't have any chicken on sale, but I'm going to check again tomorrow before class. I like to cook it up and make sandwiches and different dinners with it during the week. And all I need right now is the chicken, because I have everything else to make chicken parmesan.

We also got some snow yesterday afternoon. Maybe an inch or so. This prompted me to take lots of outdoor pictures, and also some of our apartment and the flatties. So now you can see what they look like when I put them up tomorrow afternoon. We talked about going ice skating after dinner, which was goulaschsuppe. Sarah made it and the rest of us girls played sous chef. It turned out a bit more like beef vegetable soup, but it was amazing. I had two big bowls. We broke open a few bottles of wine and sat around and talked til about 9:30. Since the rink we were going to is only open until 11:00 and it costs about 11 Euro to rent skates and for admission, it wasn't really worth going out. Then Jeremy woke up from his nap and told us that Tobi, one of the student assistants at IES, was going to rapping at a local club. Around 11:30 we pulled ourselves out of our warm, comfortable apartment and walked through the snow to the club. I got talked into going at least for a while. We got lost a couple of times and had a snowball fight.

The club was more like a hooka lounge with a basement. Tobi was in the basement and there was a LOT of IES kids there. Like maybe 25 or so. It was about 1:00 before he came on. Then there was some dancing, but it was a bit smokey in there -- both kinds, pot and cigarette. It was a somewhat new experience. But it was a pretty good time. We left around 1:45 as a "family." I love my flatties. We're awesome. I stayed up and talked to Matt online until obscene hours of the night. And then I proceeded to sleep until noon and I'm still sitting around in my pj's. I might not even change out of them so I don't have to do more laundry.

And that's all there is to tell. I think I'll probably end up bumming around for the rest of the day, but we talked about maybe going to see a Mass at St. Stephen's in the first district tonight. We'll see. Pictures posted tomorrow from the Ball and this weekend. And I'll go through Facebook tomorrow and borrow pictures from people there too.

Love and Kisses,
Amanda