Goodnight!

It's 12:15 am and I'm heading to bed, but before I drift off into unconsciousness, I thought I drop off a quick update.
This weekend was fairly uneventful. I did, however, get to meet Christian’s family, who came all the way from Lancaster, PA to see him (and have vacation). It was nice to meet people who know Christian really well and here some good stories. We met up in Stephansplatz and headed to the 19th District for some true Austrian grub. One of Christian’s close friends and a stand out guy, Dan Pucher, helped us find the restaurant, which was named “Zum Renner”. --Side Note: There is about a 12% chance that “Zum Renner” is the correct name.-- Regardless, I ordered the goose and it was absolutely amazing. After enjoying some goose, I headed back to work on a 15-page paper that’s due this Friday. By the end of the weekend, I had around 5 and a half pages finished.
On Monday we had our German class with Frau Graf, which was fun as always. Additionally, we were visited by Doctor Vazulik, who is running our correspondence class back at West Point. While I had never before had a class with Dr. V, I had several interviews with him and his visit reminded me how intelligent and nice he is. It was a very nice visit. I also had dance class and to my surprise, I think I'm getting better.
Today was… long. I had Tactics class from 8 am to 8 pm, with only about 2 hours of breaks. Most of it was spent outside in various Austrian fields and it was pretty interesting, however, it was also terrifically windy and cold outside. --Side Note: This wind was not messing around; it seemed to cut straight to the marrow as soon as it hit you.-- Upon returning to my room, I chatted with Michelle and a buddy from back home, Seth, and worked on my paper. Page Count: almost 8.
Goodnight!

Monday Funday

A relaxing snack while writing an essay.

Okay, so today wasn't really all that fun, but it definitely wasn't bad. Right after formation this morning, Major Lampersberger told us that that we were to meet him at 9:40 for a special meeting. When we met up with him he said that we needed better weather for what we were going to do (it is super overcast and foggy out), and that we were going on standby. A couple of hours later he told us we were going to take a helicopter tour, but that the weather was to poor. Bummer. Luckily, he told us that we would go on another day. Hooray!

Due the meeting and the subsequent standby-status, my morning plans were almost completely erased. I began to work on a short essay, but eventually just wasted the entire morning playing a Super Nintendo emulator that I got from Seth. When the afternoon promised more of the same, I decided to do something that I had promised myself before coming to Austria that I would do all the time: I went to a coffee shop and did homework. I know, I know. It sounds boring, but it was really enjoyable. I sat there for about an hour and just snacked on a Vanille-Erdbeere Schnitte and Riesen-Melange and wrote an essay on whether or not women should be in the Austria army. I'm not sure whether I'm actually allowed to leave the academy and go to a coffee shop during the middle of the day, but I went anyways. I find with things like that, I just kind of do what I want and nobody really questions me because I'm American. When I was coming back into the Academy I saw our Jahrgangskommandant (basically our TAC Officer). He looked at me and I imagine a conversation like this was going on in his head, "What is that cadet doing in civilian clothes at 3:30 in the afternoon? Something is definitely wrong here. Oh wait, is that one of the Americans? I'm sure he knows what he's doing." That is definitely something I like about this place, people just assume that you know what you're doing.

Tonight I have dance class in Vienna. So far we have learned most of the Waltz, the Cha-Cha, the Foxtrot, and probably a ton of others. It's usually pretty fun, because I am terrible and usually my partner is, too. When choosing partners a lot of the guys, Kopfy, for example, try to find the most attractive girl and dance with her. While looks are nice, I try to find girls who will be fun to dance with (AKA girls that talk). My first dance partner didn't say a word the entire time and needless to say it was about as awkward as someone farting during a fancy dinner. Having a partner who is a poor dancer has pros and cons. A positive aspect is that it makes you feel good to know that you are a better dancer than at least one person in the world. The biggest negative aspect is that they usually make you look even worse than you actually are. Regardless of the other positive aspects, having fun instead of feeling awkward makes it worthwhile.

Tomorrow I have riding early in the morning, from 6:00 to 7:15. We have been free-riding lately and it appears that we are permanently off the launch (the rope that makes you just go around in circles). When we first started free-riding it was pretty difficult and we’ve had to learn pretty fast. Our instructor informed us last time that most people spend 6 months on the launch before free-riding (in comparison to us, who spent 1 month on the launch). That makes me feel better.

Oh also, I want to congratulate Army football on going to their first bowl in 14 years. This is the year!

Alright, I’m off to dancing. Bis später!