So many events have happened this past week. So many that I find it overwhelming to discuss in this blog. I will try my best.
1. I went to Belvedere Palace one day after class. It was wonderful. Though my favorite part was a room full of sculptures of people making funny faces. A nice change from the typical paintings (which after 3 weeks in Europe, get a little old).
2. Class has inevitably gotten pretty boring. Breaks are much anticipated. But moments of amusement do happen, like when our teacher brought Michael a glass pitcher of water because of his obvious hangover. Quentin seems unfazed, but out you can't be fazed when you sleep through class.
3. World Cup celebrations occurred: we went to a bar in the city centre to celebrate the World Cup finale as well as Katie's birthday. Fun was had, but unfortunately I will rarely go into the details of partying. Some things are meant to be left in Europe. Here's a pic of part of the group:
Here is also a lovely picture of the flaming shot I enjoyed in celebration of Spain's victory. We got them for free from the bartender and you take a straw and have to drink it as fast as you can while its flaming.
4. KEBAPS CHANGED MY LIFE. A kebap (also called kebab) is this dish that they sell ALL OVER Vienna. This is not an exaggeration, there are little stands set up everywhere. You walk down the street and all you smell is slow-roasted heaven. I had my first one when I was drunk, but was delighted to realize later that they are just as good when you are sober. They shave meat (chicken or beef) off this rotating stick, and you get it served inside thick pita-like bread. Add lettuce, tomatoes, and some unidentified sauce...and bliss is achieved. The picture is worthless because you can't smell it. But here's one anyways:
5. WAKEBOARDING ON THE DANUBE RIVER: This was one of my favorite experiences. A group of us decided to go to this place where you can wakeboard or waterski, but NOT behind a boat. They have this giant cable system set up that creates a massive loop in the river. It is similar to a tow-rope system, so there can be like 8 people simultaneously going at once. It was one of the neatest things I've ever done. My partner in crime as Ashley. We both had little or no experience wakeboarding, but figured that we should challenge ourselves to see if we could do it anyways. We had two hours to go and try as much as we could. You stand in a long long, usually 10-15 minutes, and when it's you're turn, you either succeed and stay up...or disastrously fall right in the beginning. If you fall, you swim to shore...and get in line again. The video kind of explains it better than me:
So how did I do? First try: fell right away. You go from still to moving in an instant and I didn't know what to expect. Luckily, most people I was with fell right away too. Second try: VICTORY! I was the first girl in the group to stand up wakeboarding....I only made it halfway through the side...but now I knew how to do it. The worst part was swimming all the way to shore...and hiking back to the start. At this point, an hour had already passed (after only 2 tries). Third try: wipeout. Ashley was fortunate enough to get a video of me falling...and since I have no dignity to begin with I have no problem showcasing this:
My fourth run was my best, I stood up easily and killed it :) At this point, there were only 15 minutes left, and my entire body was already aching, so I figured I was done for the day. Ashley tried continuously to stand up, probably going about 5 times. Then finally in the last 5 minutes she stood up and did amazing. So we both finished the day feeling on top of the world. It's fun to try new things...and succeed! Here's a pic of some of the gang afterwards, we all stood up!
6. Intercultural Evening: a night where everyone comes together to celebrate the different cultures we all come from. Each country has the opportunity to prepare a traditional dish and a presentation. I'm not going to lie, most of the American group was hammered by the time the event started because people "pregamed" for it earlier. Then again, everyone was drinking at this event so it wasn't too much of a big deal. The presentations were actually so long that I think everyone upped their drinking just so they could pass the time (it ended up taking over 2 hour for everyone to go, but it was casual and people were coming and going). The Americans, being lazy-asses, didn't do anything besides set up beer pong. But that alone was amusing to many people who were unfamiliar with it.
Here's a pic of how the tables were set up. Each country had their own, here is Japan's. A lot of the tables had their traditional liquors with them. So it essentially became like "Around the World" and you took quite a few shots, just be courteous of course!
Here's America's set up:
Lastly, here is a video of the Ukrainian presentation...Natali did a pretty fierce dance which I only got a glimpse of haha...
It was a very fun night.
Anyways, I'm still missing a lot of things. But I'll post photo's and such to Picasa shortly. As of now, it is late and I have class in the morning. Hope you enjoy the post, and I'll try to update tomorrow too! Miss you all!
T
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