Working out the kinks

This morning I set 2 alarms, and they both went off correctly, so I woke up at 8:30. It was very very quiet, so I was going to wake everyone else up, when I realized…everyone was gone. I thought maybe they had decided to go get breakfast or something, so I wasn’t too concerned about it and I started making myself some toast. I noticed when I glanced in Corin’s room that David had chosen to respond to Helmut’s email by moving all of his stuff into the closet and putting it on hangers. I decided I would deal with this today.

I went into the kitchen to figure out how the heck a European toaster worked, and then I heard the toilet flush. It was Thomas. When he came out of the restroom, I asked him where everyone else went and he said he didn’t know because they were all gone when he woke up. I said “class starts at 9:30, right?” and he said that was correct.

He left the apartment about 9:05, because he wanted to try a different route and take “getting lost” time into account. I left at 9:15. The train was on time, so while Thomas (who did get lost) got there at 9:25, I did what any Mills would do and showed up at 9:30, satisfied that I was on time. False. Apparently everyone but us  got the memo. Class started at 9.I was especially embarrassed because I had been late the day before due to the train, and Billy knew it. I didn’t want to disturb anyone else, so I just picked the seat next to the TA, Adriana.

Today he was talking about circles. Geometry…gross. I didn’t like it the first time, second time, third time, …

Then I woke up. Oh. My. God. Did I really just do that? Again? What is wrong with me? I was so angry at myself I didn’t know what to do. I remembered little snippets of consciousness where all I knew was that people were staring at me and laughing. Right now I was awake because as everyone was walking around to stretch between lectures they all said something like “did you have a nice nap, William?” I was livid with myself. Billy came over to say something to Adriana, but didn’t even look at me, which was very unlike him.

I was about to get up and try to apologize somehow (…please excuse my idiot body for only becoming sleepy while you were lecturing), but then Brittel came into the room. She randomly asked us individual questions in German, like what’s your name, where are you from, etc. and then she talked about numbers for awhile. We learned how to ask and answer “How much does that cost,” and listened to a dialogue of a couple ordering food at a restaurant. She told us our homework was to go to a restaurant and try  ordering in all German. Hahahahahahahahahaha.

After class, I got everyone’s’ crap for sleeping again, and I decided to get it all out before lab time, so I took a nap instead of eating lunch. As I was settling in to sleep, Helmut walked in with his 3-week old baby boy, so I had to at least go see him first. He only had a few minutes before his wife came to pick the baby up though, so I was back to the sofa not too long after I had meant to be. Of course, I was photographed and made fun of when I woke up, because I tried to fall asleep while taking up as little of a sofa as possible. However, I felt well energized for the lab, which went by SUPER fast. I was one of the first to finish, because I understood the software after playing around with it on my own the night before.

Taking advantage of this extra time, I coyly asked David if I could borrow his key to go see Thom. He knew exactly what I was going to do, but I had figured out that I needed to do it myself because he sure as hell wouldn’t do it willingly. Of course, he had writtenen “David” on the key cover in Sharpie. MY KEY. I got back the apartment, grabbed 40 euros (basically all I had left), and went to Thom’s office.

I explained the situation a few times to Thom, and when he finally understood what I meant, he stamped his feet and said “And now the cookie crumbles! Tell him he needs to move his s**t because that messes with our cleaning staff if you have to, but you get that hoe to leave! If there’s bloodshed, please clean it up best you can. But do try to be nice to him, because those are the people you need to put on your front lines in a war. Are you excited for that World War Z Movie? The CGI is gonna be faaaaabulous. Did see the new Star Trek?” Then we talked about Star Trek for about 20 minutes, and I was off, with 2 sets of keys(MY pair, and David’s CORRECT set to HIS apartment rather than MINE).

Back at the apartment, I put his keys on his bed. Everyone else came home and we dicided we were going to make chicken for dinner. Corin & Thomas went to get some wine from the Billa (one for drinking and one for cooking, of course!). Corin had mentioned something about how he shouldget some more coffee, because what we had gotten the day before was actually coffee BEANS. I told him not to, because we could crush them ourselves. We tried several methods, in a baggie using hands, a knife handle, a frying pan and a cup. Then I realized we could just put it in a bowland find something to serve as a pestle. The consensus was the curry powder seasoning jar. As we took turns, we suddenly realized we’d found a new favorite pastime to relieve stress, and for the rest of the night our apartment was filled with “crunch crunch crunch.”

But to the more important thing here – FOOD!

I got the corkscrew ut to open the cheap wine we were going to cook with, and I thought “man, this cork is really rotten, because the corkscrew was too easy to get in. I realized this was because there WAS no cork, which made us all laugh. I made the pasta & the chicken seasoning (white wine, basin, thyme, salt, & pepper), Corin dealt with the actual cooking of the chicken, and Thomas made the caprese, while Ryan crushed coffee beans and Jonathon did homework in his room. Joren knocked on our door in the middle of our cooking and quickly said “canwehavesomewinenowpleaseweneedwineIcanbuyyouanotherbottletomorrow.” We had already taken what we needed to cook with, so we gave him the rest of the cheap bottle…without the lid. Maybe we’ll find out later what the emergency was. We were laughing about it saying there was probably  a bleeding person in his apartment and he needed alcohol to clean the wound.

Rosa, the RA that moved into the girls’ room, also came by to ask for our names so she could add us to a Facebook group. As she left she said “now remember, I’m your Austrian friend, not your RA!” She seems like a nice lady (probably mid 50s).

We were all so proud of our meal. It was very very delicious. I usually don’t like chicken, but this was superb. Our 2012 Wien Manu Faktur Krems Chardonnay went very well with it too, so our home cooked meal was a big success. We would like to try cooking some other things too, but have decided that we should make this exact same meal again at some point before we leave.

David came in as we were cleaning up from dinner. He went to his room and came out holding the keys from his bed saying "who left their keys on my bed?" I told him they were his, and he said "no, mine have my name on them." "These keys are the ones to your apartment though." "My apartment? So I guess they're officially kicking me out? This isn't fain. I live here." None of us wanted any trouble, so we just didn't say anything. He bickered and bickered and bickered about how they were out to get him and I was out to get him. He took several of our things from the kitchen and bathroom, but they're nominal enough that we don't care (a jar of Nutella, a bar of soap, and a sponge). But he is now officially GONE. Day mission accomplished.

Te rest of the night was spent doing homework and laughing at Thomas as he danced to “That’s Not My Name” and “Car Wash,” until Kelsea invitedus to go back to Bitzirk Eins (District 1) to get some gelato. The original plan was to go to Zanoni & Zanoni  again, but we decided to go to Eis-Greissler instead because it had been recommended to us several times and the line was only out to the street instead of all the way down the block like it normally is. I got a 2-scoop of the hazelnut & butterscotch, and it was totally worth the extra 25 cents per cone (also, the cones didn’t taste like paper, so even that trumped Zanoni & Zanoni.). We went and looked at the creepy teddy bears again, and then went back to our apartments. Thomas and I finished up our homework and he went to bed. I stayed up to write this post, and now I’m about o hit the sac too. Class starts at NINE (NOT 9:30!)! Tomorrow (er…today) is the day where we will tour the South spire of Stephansdom!