One last blog

Now that I've been back for almost a week, it's given me some time to think about my time and experiences in Austria. It was truly an honor to meet all of the cadets and officers at the military academy in wiener neustadt. I can't thank them enough for giving me a great time that I will never forget. I already miss Austria and can't wait to go back some day, hopefully sooner rather than later. Who knows when we'll run into eachother, downrange, in a bar, or otherwise. The Austrian way of life is a great one that everyone can try to match. However, I love being in America, and would never want to permanently live anywhere else. The free ketchup and free refills are just to big to pass up on. Seriously though, I want to thank everyone that positively, or negatively for that matter, impacted my life while abroad. I especially want to thank everyone in room 210 for being there when I had questions or didn't understand your fast as hell speaking. The picture of us is great and I'll keep it for a long long time. Another big thanks to the guys that took us to the different cities. Big thanks to Bernd and his great family for their hospitality. Thanks also to Mathoi and Max and Andy for showing us around Innsbruck and Graz respectively. Thanks to Braz and Ratzi for always being ready for a party. Well, I guess that should go out to all of the Lehmaenner. What a great group of guys. I'll never forget you all. In closing, I just want to say that there was nothing like my time spent in Austria. It was really an experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. For all of those involved, it's not good-bye, just see you later.

the strategery of being classy

     Yesterday I worked on my term paper for my history class for the majority of the day. Ratzi helped me edit it for grammar and all that. I ended up finishing around 3. The paper is seven pages long and about 2300 words, all in German. That was pretty much the last thing I have to do here minus the "exams" this week, all (2) of which are oral. We do have to go to Vienna and take a German test to see how much we have improved, but this shouldn't be too stressful. Last night I was invited to play Risk with Braz, Andy, and Mayr. We played a different way than I'm used to, but I got it after a little while. We started off the game by breaking out a bottle of Cognac and Jameson. Fate led me to have Australia, so I knew it was going to be a good game. I started off slow, but eventually took Asia. We were playing with mission cards, and just as I was about to accomplish my goal of 24 countries, Mayr finished his, taking Africa and North America. The red troops were shocked. After a while we decided to go to the Christmas Market in the city. The specialty this time of year is Punsch. Its a hot drink pretty much made from wine. Instead of having regular punsch, we had the special punsch. If you keeping up with my blogging, then you can probably guess what special punsch is. Yes, those that guessed punsch with another shot of alcohol are correct. After about 4 mugs of this wonderful concoction, we headed to rox for a little bit. The night ended a little early and I went back to the academy.
     Today was a very lazy day. I watched a movie and studied a little bit for my test with major lampersberger tomorrow. It feels good knowing that I don't really have any more studious committments left while I'm here. I can just relax and enjoy my last week (5 days really) in Austria.

Time is dwindling

     This week was pretty normal as far as an Austrian life goes. Over the weekend it snowed a lot, so now everything is still covered in snow. At KA Seth and I ran with a group of cadets through the snow on a route I hadn't been on before. We went outside the gates and through a field, on what I assume was a path, except we couldn't see it because it was covered in 5 inches of snow. It was all about trying to stay in running step with the peson in front of you so you could step in their footsteps to make it a little easier. We didn't end up going all to far, just to the next town over, which was about 5 miles total. After KA we had another military history class, where feined paying attention. In the evening we had the dance course again. I've decided that the worst part of the dance course is walking the quarter mile to get to the bus from the academy, and then waking up after a 45 minute nap to the dance class. Actually being in the class and dancing is pretty fun. This week I danced with a girl from Manchester, England. She must have been about 4'8", just not tall at all. She was a surprisingly good dancer though, coming from a ballet background as she said. As we were leaving the dance class back to the bus I was able to take in all of the Christmas decorations in Vienna. It's a wonderful city, and especially beautiful this time of year. However, you're hard pressed to not find a place that looks pretty done up with Christmas lights and a layer of snow.
      Tuesday we had the german course again. Nothing too new or interesting. On Wednesday though, we had our LAST german class. Quite an event, especially now that I don't have to spend four hours a day in a stuffy classroom. During class we watched an Austrian movie parodying star trek and star wars. I don't think the maker could decide on which movie he wanted to parody. After the movie we played a board game to improve our german. It was all about matching up words that would go with different ones, and finding words from a jumble of letters. Afterwards we said our goodbyes. Later in the day, after another history lesson that consisted of doing a sudoku (professional sudoku mind you), we went running again. This time I went with Seth and Rene again, but we took a different route. We went through the same town as last time, but instead of coming straight back, we went across a bridge and then along a river on the way back. This meant running through about 6 inches of snow for 2 miles, which is about as hard as it sounds. When we finally got back on the asphalt, my feet were soaked, but it still felt great running on solid ground. Once we got back inside the park walls, we took the long path around, which was also covered in snow, but trampled on, so there was place to comfortably run. When were about a quarter mile out, the chase was on. I gasped to the end where Rene was stopped, and we lightly jogged in from there. The run lasted about and hour and fifteen minutes. I have no idea how far we actually ran. When I got back I quickly showered because we had plans to see a show that night in Vienna. This wasn't actually just for shiggles, but rather an essay we had to write for a class back at West Point. The show itself though was really cool. It was held in the Volkstheater in downtown Vienna. The play was called "Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti," which roughly means,"Mr. Punitla and his servant Matti." It was about a landowner (Puntila) that struggles with alcoholism and his relationship with his friend and chauffeur Matti. He is always happy-go-lucky when drunk, but penny-pinching and mean when sober. He also struggles with whether to marry his daughter to an Attache, or his friend Matti. Overall it was a good experience, and yet another thing to check off the list of things to say that I've done. It was pretty late when we got back to the academy so I went to bed.

Here's a picture of all the snow. As you can see from the balcony, we got about 8 inches in the past few days.

     Thursday started off with our final exam in rhetoric, a class we're not getting credit for, but rightfully so because he haven't actually done anything. The exam consisted of giving a presentation about our time in Austria thus far. It was very laid back and didn't take all that long. The rest of the day was ours to do with as we wished. We have a 7 page history paper due next week, so I started on that. I didn't realize just how long and how much effort it would take until I started. Oh yeah, it's also in german..About 200 words in I needed a coffee/tv episode break. Further diligence throughout the day got me about a third of the way through. Later in the day I went running by myself in the snow once again. This time around it was snowing, but the path I went on was recently shoveled/taken care of, so I didn't have to worry too much about where I stepped. I ran to the next town over again. Instead of distance, I just went for time. I ran 30 minutes out at a pretty good pace, and then came back. I was pretty tire on the way back, but managed to keep about the same time. Later I worked on my paper some more, and then got a pizza in the MAk Casino with Weicher. For those interested, The theme, or I guess thesis of my paper is: What effect did the Austro-Hungarian loss at the battle of Cer have on the for the rest of the war? In English..for the sake of simplicity.
     Today was another work on the paper day. I didn't do much besides that. Between research and writing, I'm about 2/3 of the way done. Ratzi also helped me edit it a little to make the grammar better. He owed me since I helped him with his English homework. The rest of the day was pretty much the same. In the evening Braz, Patrick, Mayr and I went to chen's cooking, a great asian food buffet where I ate entirely too much. My last weekend here will consist of writing this paper due next week and studying for the "final exams" on monday, tuesday and thursday. I'm sure there will be going away parties during the week though, so there's no need for me to fret about a lost weekend. Until next time then. And for those keeping track: yes, only 8 days until my return.