flying, schmoozing, eating, and being saved by my guardian angel

    This past Thanksgiving was probably one of the best days I have ever lived through. I went to formation in the morning to find out that we would be receiving a plane tour of Austria that day. We had about an hour of time to kill before we left, so I watched a little bit of TV. At nine we left with the major to the military airbase in Wiener Neustadt. There, we met the pilot who would be giving us the air tour. Our plane was relatively small, an eight-seater I think. The tour was supposed to last about 3 and a half hours, so using the bathroom beforehand was highly encouraged. We had to wait while the plane was refueling, so they offered us a coffee, which we promptly declined for obvious reasons. The plane took off after not too much longer. The land from up above was absolutely incredible. As we got further west, the mountains started to get bigger. Snow also started to show up on the mountain tops. Eventually we got out so far west that everything was snowcovered. It was very pretty. We also flew right by the tallest mountain in Austria. After another couple of hours we completed our airplane tour. (pictures to come later).
     Since the flight went until about 1:30 we missed lunch, which was okay because youre not supposed to eat at all on Thanksgiving Day until dinner time. We had to be at the Ambassador's house at 4:30, so we left around 3 just to be safe. We ended up getting to Vienna pretty early, so we stopped and got a coffee. Luckily we weren't wearing dress grey. Dan was able to talk to the person in charge of us out of making us wear this grotesquely uncomfortable uniform, which turned out later to be a very good call. It ended up being "casual attire" for everyone. We got to his house a little late (fasionably late, as if you will (and I believe you will.)). We were greeted by someone working at the house taking our coats, after being checked at the gate by security. We then walked into the Ambassador's living room and had a manservant bring a different variety of drinks out on a platter, which we could take, or make a further request should our fancy not be tickled. Ambassador Eacho then showed us around his extravagent house, which was adorned with many pictures of him and famous politicians through history. There was one of him with Ex-President Ford quite a while back, and many pictures of him with President Obama. After seeing his house everyone stood around for a while talking, and finding out how impressive another individual was. His second in command was also there, along with someone from the CIA. I'm not exactly sure on that story, as I didn't talk to him too much. Refer to Dan's blog for further details on that one. A little while later dinner time finally arrived. There was all kinds of stereotypical Thanksgiving food, expertly prepared by the Ambassador's chefs. After two large platefuls of food, it was time for desert. There was pumpkin, pecan, and apple pie. I felt it was my duty to try a little bit of everything. My patriotism was matched, if not bested by the Ambassador. He would joke with a friend of his son's every time he would get up to get more food that he was lagging behind. After getting completely full, we resigned to the living room once more, when people started to slowly filter out. We ended up leaving around 8. We got back to the academy around 9:45 after a little walking and train-ride back to Neustadt. This concluded one of the best days ever.
     Friday was a very busy day. We had KA in the morning, where I froze my butt off running with Seth. After that was our military history class. The subject was post WWII Soviet occupation, and the different sectors of the different countries. After lunch we had our German course again. I decided I'd go to Linz and Freistadt with Ratzi this weekend. During lunch I got a text message from him saying, "I'll ask maj. Lampersberger if we're allowed to leave at 1400." I laughed because I didn't think this would be possible. However, around 1:30, he comes up to the classroom and asks the teacher if it would be ok for me to leave early in order to get a tour around Linz and Freistadt by one of his NCO friends, to which she replied yes. Hence the title, being saved by my guardian angel. The others weren't too happy about me leaving early. Sorry guys. When we left, I got to Linz where Stitz gave me a tour of the other part of the city. Ratzi and I left and got to Freistadt around 5, at which time he had tennis practice, while Stitz showed me around the city and gave me a great tour. He's very smart about all things history, and knows a lot about where he lives and Austria in general. Later we met up with Ratzi and went to a bar, where we met Julie, whose house we stayed at one night last weekend. One of her friends was also there. We weren't trying to stay out too late, so we ended up going back around 1 or so. The next day we went to Linz. We looked around the city a bit, and then went to the barracks again. After a funny little chat with Braz, we went to Tina's (Ratzi's sister) apartment. His other sister Teresa was also there. A little while later, some of their other friends came as well.

After a while we went out on the town again. We went to the RememBar and Rox, where Ratzi continued to show his myriad of skills in the art of womenry. At Rox I talked to Helene, one of the people that was at the apartment. The night drove on for a while until it was time to head back to the kaserne. The next day we woke up and headed back to Neustadt.