Thanksgiving in Austria

---

Sorry it has been awhile since my last real post. I say "real" because I realized that the last one was unnecessary, and I deleted it. Especially since it attracted a comment from a stranger who wanted to get in an Internet fight. Which isn't what this journal's about.

This past week has been SUPER busy. I will leave out all the boring details concerning academics and registering for classes at Augsburg next semester, and just talk about the fun stuff. Brief summary of last weekend:

Friday - went to an Italian restaurant w/ friends and then to my friend Eric's house for the evening
Saturday - made pumpkin pie (using a PUMPKIN! Not canned stuff) with Dan and Hillary, at Dan's apartment. It was SO good. Then, went to the Christmas tree lighting in front of the Rathaus (parliament building) - I will post some pictures from that.
Sunday - went to the English-speaking non-denominational Protestant church w/ Dan, Allie, and Hillary, then to a youth group at one of the congregation member's houses that night... they made us all a huge Thanksgiving dinner! So I have had 2 Thanksgiving dinners this year 😊 At the church service in the morning we met three very nice Hungarian girls, who we are probably going to start hanging out with.

Nothing eventful on Monday; Tuesday - went to a ballet with my friend Katie... Tuesday was a very cultural day for us (I felt so cultured and rich and stuff) - for one of my classes, we went to one of Beethoven's houses, and then that night Katie and I went to Giselle (the ballet) so we felt like we accomplished some good stuff that day. Wednesday, some of my friends and I went karaoking at one of my friends' dorm buildings - they were having a special karaoke night, and I sang 3 songs... it didn't take much convincing on anyone's part, because I was hyper that night.

Anyway, fast-forwarding to tonight: I just got back a few hours ago from Baden, a small town about half an hour away from Vienna, for the big Thanksgiving feast that IES provided for us. It was a wonderful meal - and they did a great job of replicating a typical American Thanksgiving dinner. If it were reversed, and I tried to make a big Wienerschnitzel dinner in the States, I don't think it'd work so well.

It's one in the morning, so I should end this. I will now commence w/ the picture-posting!

---

Photos

random, I know
I just thought I'd post a few pictures from one the music performance workshop concerts - here are some people performing in a Mozart piece.

Right before the Mozart piece
The girl on the far left w/ the violin is Pearl... Nicole is next to her (the one with short dark hair)

The Mendelssohn piece
The choir...

The three soloists in the Mendelssohn piece
Bridget, Katie, and Tara

me and Diane at the Christmas market
This is a disgusting picture of me, but I wanted to show my friend Diane

Diane, Hillary, and Dan at the Christmas market
I made them pose for this, looking "yonder"

Hillary and Dan attempting to have a staring contest
Neither of them is a staring contest champion, as you can see :)

riding the double-decker
We got to ride on the top of a double-decker bus tonight going out to Baden for the Thanksgiving dinner! This is my roommate Alex in this picture.

Katie, Nathan, Alex, Shannon, and Dan (a different Dan from previous pictures)
This is the first of many pictures I took at the Thanksgiving dinner.

@ the Thanksgiving dinner
We ate at a Heurigen

There were cats in the Heurigen :)
I got to hold this cat for quite awhile.

Dan w/ the cat
he claims he doesn't really like cats... I beg to differ!

Shannon w/ the cat
As you can see, we were all taking turns...

Shannon and Dan
This is a documentable moment - the first digging in of the turkey...

hahahaha
I liked this - it looks like Dan hates the food. But I just caught him chewing, and got the complete wrong expression. He actually did enjoy the dinner, I promise.

Daniel, me, and Hillary
(and the water bottle cap)

me and Eric
This is the Eric who was all nice after The Music Drama...
It's a bad picture of me, I know. Oh, and obviously this is on the bus to the Thanksgiving dinner.

Comments

[alia142]

!
You seriously met someone who went to that church?? Cool!! It's a small world. Next time you see him can you ask if it was called the VCC? - that stands for Vienna Community Church. I really like it there; the people are very friendly. And I've met some really interesting people - one girl from Tasmania, a woman from France, some girls from Hungary... and of course, many from the US and from Britain. Wow, 20 people for Thanksgiving - that sounds like a lot of fun! And your fruit salad was much enjoyed, as always, I'm sure. Hiking sounds like a good thing to do during the fall. I bet it was pretty. Love, Alia

[Mom]

Was that cat really sitting on people's laps at the table????
During Thanksgiving dinner??????? You know what I think about that! Well, anyway, it looks a lot like Lulu, bless her soul.

[alia142]

haha...
No, don't worry - the cat was on our laps before the dinner. Although you know I'd have let him/her stay during the dinner... lol. I miss my kitties so much! You're right, I see the resemblance to Lulu quite a bit!