Thanksgiving = Awesome

When I was selected for the Semester Abroad Program, one of the first thoughts I had was, “I bet Thanksgiving will be weird.” It was, but in a good way. It ended up being one of the best Thanksgivings ever. Thanksgiving started with a final in our Rhetoric class, or it was, at least, supposed to. At formation we found out that our final had been switched out with an airplane tour of Austria. As you can imagine, we were all greatly pleased by this.

The tour was amazing. We took off from the small military airport in Wiener Neustadt (when I say small, I mean the runway was grass) and flew all the way to Tirol in the west of Austria. The plane was relatively small, seating two pilots and six passengers, which was nice because we were able to fly slowly and get close to the mountains. Austria is absolutely beautiful from the sky and we saw several castles and even more castle ruins. The Alps were gorgeous and we saw several monumental ski resorts, which made me wish that I could fly. After three and a half hours in the sky, we landed once more in Wiener Neustadt and were promptly returned to the MilAk so we could get ready for dinner at the Ambassador’s house in Vienna.

Me just before take off.

One of the many amazing mountain views.

We arrived in Vienna about an hour before the invitation said to arrived, so we wasted some time looking for flowers for the Ambassador’s wife, Donna, and we got some coffee. At this point we all realized that we were extremely hungry, mostly because we hadn’t eaten that day, having missed lunch while in the air. Upon arriving to the Ambassador’s house, we realized that it was not a house at all, but a palace. We went through security and our names were checked off the guest list. When we were ten yards or so from the palace itself, the door was opened and a servant took our coats. --Side Note: I say servant because I think that is the best way to describe it, her title was probably “Palace Assistant” or something like that.-- We then entered the living room (or at least one of the several living rooms) and met the Ambassador again and he introduced us to his family. As soon as we finished shaking hands, another “Palace Assistant” greeted us with a tray of cocktails, wines, and beers. Settling down with a Gin & Tonic, we talked with the Ambassador’s sons, one of which is a sophomore at Duke, and their friends. It was a very nice and relaxed setting.

The Ambassador, William Eacho.

Drinks, anyone?

A few minutes later, the marines who serve as Embassy guards showed up and after a minute or so, we introduced ourselves. I’m not going to lie, it was extremely awkward. There is usually a little tension between army soldiers and marines, but in this case the bigger tension was caused by them being enlisted and us being officers (or at least officer candidates). I should also add that this tension was not at all our fault. We did not once talk about going to West Point or even college in general, we were actually very interested to hear what they had to say, but once they knew that we were West Pointers, it was like they had something to prove. Comments like, “Oh yeah, I haven’t had time for college since I’ve been deployed twice, but you wouldn’t know about that…” or “I’m sure life is real good at West Point, huh…” were common. For the first 30 minutes, it seemed like they wanted to fight us or something. I decided to try and get a tour of the house, after they asked us if we had brought a change of clothes with us and if we thought we could beat them at football. --Side Note: We had not brought a change of clothes with us. After all, this was a fancy dinner at the Ambassador’s house, not a barnyard feast. Also, I do think that we could have beaten them at football, especially because the son who goes to Duke and his friend both play Rugby.--

Eventually, we sat down for dinner. I was sitting down next to a guy wearing light jeans and a polar fleece jacket (which I thought was a little weird because even though it was a casual event, everybody was pretty dressed up (I was wearing a sports coat)). Next to him was Donna and across from her was the Ambassador. After the start of the meal, the guy in jeans starting talking to me and I found at that he was the CIA Chief of Station for Vienna. He talked with me about what my plans for the future was and rattled off his extensive resume, which included speaking fluent German and Arabic, being the former Chief of Station for Iraq in 2003, and a long career in the Special Activities Division. --Side Note: The Special Activities Division is one of the most secretive parts of the CIA and is made up of a relatively small number of paramilitary officers, basically Jason Bournes. -- We talked during the entire dinner and he gave me his card and his email and told me that if I was ever interested in joining the Special Activities Division, I should give him a call. I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I just nodded and said “Sure.” The meal itself was fantastic. It was cooked by the Ambassador’s chefs and had everything that a Thanksgiving dinner should.

Turkey? Yes.

After dinner, people started to leave. At 8 o’clock, we decided that we should leave, although we really didn’t want to. It was a truly great experience and a great Thanksgiving.