Frolicking with St.Stephen

I set my alarm for 8 this morning so I would have plenty of time to get ready and out the door by 8:30. Thomas woke up at 7:50 and went to take a shower. I set a timer for 10 minutes and went back to bed. When I woke up again, the water was still running so I set another timer for 5 minutes. Even still the shower was on. This boy took FOURTY MINUTES in the bathroom, 30 of which were spent IN THE SHOWER! HOW can you spend that long in a shower?? It’s beyond me. Anyway, I had to skip my shower then, because there was no more time if I wanted to be on time (9, NOT 9:30!). I put my UT Study Abroad shirt on (because Billy told us to wear it for the Stephansdom tour), and reminded Thomas to, because he was about to forget it. Jonathon was casually making breakfast in the kitchen, but since we were all leaving, I made sure he knew we needed to be at class by 9. He wasn’t concerned

Thomas insisted on going this new “shorter” way to class that he had discovered, walking from Karlsplatz instead of StadtPark. It actually was a little faster, but really only saved us about one minute. Then the group waited, because Jonathon wasn’t there. He came about 10 minutes later and we clapped for him.

To climb up the South Tower of Stephansdom, we had to enter directly into the spire from Stephensplatz. We climbed the 418 tight-circle stairs to the top (I had a lot of fun speeding up and waiting to jump out at Kelsea, who was right behind me), where there was a gift shop. I bought another keychain for my friends here, and a postcard to send home. It was very cool to be able to pick out all the places I had already been to or at least seen– Peterskirche, Karlskirche, Votive Church (which was constructed as a “thank you” to god for a failed assassination on Emperor Franz Joseph’s life in 1853), Le Belvedere, Hundterwasser’s incinerator, the Vienna woods, and New Vienna (with the Donatorum). There were also huge horns at each of the 4 windows, because the tower was used to spot fires and alert the city. Since all the buildings are connected, they wanted to make sure to catch it as soon as possible and send the bucket brigades.

After seeing what we could, we took a few pictures (including some in fron to df listening ) and then made the descent back the way we came. It’s difficult to use that staircase for opposing traffic, especially when you can’t see when it’s coming (and sound can’t help you determine how far away someone is, due to echoing). When we got out, we all felt like our bodies were trying to continue to walk in a counter-clockwise circle.

We took several group pictures around Stephensdom(and I took a couple of Billy, because he needed headshots) for the Study Abroad Team back at UT. We saw the place where you come out of the catacombs over by the North Tower. Definitely a tour to try. We went into the enormous church and waited until about 10:45, when we went back to IES for our German class at 11. Today she talked more about ordering food from a resturaunt. At the end, I asked her how to exchange money and I went to get rid of the last of my US Dollars. Carlos awkwardly followed me, and then jumped up to the counter at the same as me, thoroughly confusing the bank teller and myself…This kid is a very odd duck. One of us really understand him. He kind of clings to me though, because we were in the same cabin at Camp Texas. We all find it very difficult to communicate with him, because the things he says never make any sense or are totally random.

Anyway, I went from the bank to H&M to see what they had (and because I knew a group had said they were going). Everything was EXPENSIVE! And THIS is Europe’s discount store! The least expensive thing I was were some V-necks that were 6.95 (euros, of course). I guess those weren’t so bad.

I didn’t see anything I wanted to buy, or anyone from the group, so I left and went to Pasha (where I found the group that wanted to go to H&M) to get a Kebap Box. I tried ordering in all german, but I really had no idea what to say whenever he would ask a question, so it became an English thing very quickly. He asked if I wanted a little spicy sauce, and I said yes please, but he gave me FOUR SCOOPS of spicy sauce. My food was very hot.

By the time I’d walked out with my kepab box, they’d left. I went again to search in H&M, and then I gave up and went back to IES. Billy made up the lost time from the morning by lecturing now, in our lab time. Kelsea and I had a blast watching all the I-just-can’t-help-it sleepy people. Especially Thomas.

Finally he let us do the labs, and though I didn’t finish in time because I couldn’t find one of the commands for over 20 minutes, I think ‘ll be able to finish it for homework tonight, no sweat.

After lab, Kelsea and I went home together and finalized our plans for this evening: we were to “frolic” in a meadow in the Vienna Woods. She told everyone to wear “FROLICKING ATTIRE!” Apparently this means business casual. We waited for over an hour outside because people were taking forever. Then Emily, Corin and I went ahead to the stop where the bus picked us up to take us to the woods. It was here that I realized I had left my SD card, and I was pretty upset about it. Fortunately, Ashley let me use hers. We were supposed to have wine & cheese & grapes, but we replaced the grapes and cheese with more wine instead. Adriana decided to come with us, and we probably scared her with how much alcohol was consumed (however, she said when she came with her group, they did a pub crawl in Budapest and got free shots between the bars which made them all REALLY drunk, so we know she isn’t personally opposed to drinking at least. It was just strange because there are rules that she may not consume alcohol with us. She says she’ll forget the rules the last week and just hang out with us. We’re excited. Adriana’s great.). I think the final number was 11 bottles. However, there were a lot of us – about 25. But it is true that the wine was not distributed evenly among us. Kerri, Paige, Thomas, and Zach B. all had way too much. Before not too long, Zach was trying to make a fire with 2 sticks, Paige & Kerri were falling over and calling themselves “tree nymphs,” and Thomas was telling an elaborate story that all takes place a couple hundred years ago in his made-up version of history.It got the girls laughing pretty hard. Kaelsea had quite a bit to drink too, but it had worn off by the time we were back home.

On the U-bahn ride home, we were talking about when Germans stare at you in a subway. We had some pictures of previous starers, and also some of those around us were doing it right then.Emily has the BEST one on his phone.

Back at the apartments, I went over to the girls’ briefly to drop off Ashley’s SD card after transferring the pictures to my computer. I realized I accidentally left my camera charger in there too from earlier today. Kelsea says I can get it tomorrow, because they’re all asleep. I guess I’ll just charge it during lecture tomorrow (9, NOT 9:30!).



That’s all I can think of right now. WOW! Look at how much shorter this post is than the others!