Denmark, Matura ball, Tutoring, Run, Choir, Ski Trip, Buddhism, Films

so on thursday i took a train to vienna to begin my travels to denmark. The train ride was beautiful, with lots of winding and beautiful fall tree colors along the way. trains are far superior to airplanes! once at the vienna train station i took a bus to the airport where i took a 1.5 hour flight to denmark. when i arrived, the barons were there waiting for me! the trip there was very very easy and not stressful at all which was nice.

we had a good time together. we went to the Louisiana modern art exhibit, where the best exhibit was (depending on your taste) either a photography exhibit showing the "darker" side of america (mostly taken in the 70's of poor people living in shacks, under bridges, gun toting americans, kkk, etc.). It was quite shocking and also sobering that we have such things (even still!) in america. another cool exhibit was about the future of architecture in a "green" world. the best model buildings had trees growing on them. i can't wait for those!

forgive my lack of capitalization. i am being quite lazy right now, perhaps it is this delicious beer that i am drinking called Stiegel, from Salzburg. The smallest bottles of beer you can buy at the grocery store is .5 liters, which is about .2 liters more than the bottles in america. lulz.

anywho, we also had a great dinner at the museum and the barons even got me a piece of delicious carrot cake for my birthday. the next day we went to the carlsberg brewery which was quite interesting and we had some great beer as well. om nom nom. we also had dinner at a great italian restaurant.

i left saturday morning and came back to graz where i got home and promptly got ready for my first matura ball ever! this was definitely a cultural experience.

I took the train to Deutschlandsberg where it was located. a matura ball is basically for the "seniors" (which is the 5th class at the technical school who was hosting this ball). they have this ball mostly to raise money so that they can go on a trip together somewhere. that being said, they invite as many people as possible so that they can get ticket revenue. so there are teachers, parents, grandparents, little kids, and friends there. everyone dresses up really nice. the ball is opened with a polonaise, which is a dance that they have all been working on for weeks. each person has a partner. there were actually 2 classes that had the matura ball together. the first class' dance was ok, the second classes was awesome! you could tell they practiced a lot. all the maturanten (males) wore the same colored tie and/or shirt and the maturantinnen (girls) all wore the same color/cut of dress.

they also have bars that they serve food and alcohol at. the 'seniors' are the ones working at the bars, while the guests enjoy themselves at the main dance floor (live band, and live styrian band with accordian and lederhosen!) and the younger people go downstairs to one of 2 discos.

there is also a midnight show where the seniors do little skits and dances.

all the decorations are made by the students themselves, and they arrive early to set them up and stay late to take them down and clean up (which usually lasts until 5 or 6 in the morning!).

i had fun with the students and teachers and wine. on sunday i just relaxed and hung around and watched a movie and cooked beans and tortillas.

on tuesday i went to the house of sabine, the woman who directed our hike to mariazelle, to help her daughter with english. she was working on the past tense. tutoring english was harder than i envisoned because i know what is right, but i don't always know the rules why. but it was worth it because i taught her the question words and what type of answers go with each question word (like people for the word who). i also made 50 euro for 1.5 hours of tutoring. Not Bad.

that night i also was thinking about going to a bar for quiz night, but no one i called wanted to go, so instead i went for a run (which is much healthier) i just followed some other runner and ended up exploring this running forest, which is aawesome and i will definitely go back when i get that feeling to run again (maybe in a month, lol).

on wednesday i went to a meeting for a graz chorus. i don't have anything better to do with my time, so why not. they were actually not having practice when i went, but rather a celebration for st. martin's day, aka martini fest. they had prepared a really ornate meal in the beautiful cellar of the evangelical church. the meal was very traditional for st. martins day, including a "martini ganse" (st. martin's goose) and cabbage and knödel which is like really hearty bready stuffing. i had goose! i figured, hell, its tradition, i will try a bit. it tasted just like turkey to me. next week we are going to practice though, for a christmas show of Bach's Weihnachts Oratorium. (maybe you will see me sing in an austrian chorus fam!)

today at school i found out that there are 2 ski trips that the school goes on in march and that i am invited to go on one of those, so i am really excited! one is in corinthia, and one is in salzburg.

i also talked to one of the teachers in the teachers' lounge and he was a religion teacher. i told him i also studied religion in college and he invited me to speak about buddhism in a few weeks with his religion class. i am really excited about this also!

finally, tonight i am going to go watch some movies at the graz congress and convention center about mountainns, nature, various cultures, animals, etc. as part of the berg und abenteuer film fest. it is free! woo hoo! the venue looks beautiful.