Thanksgiving Weekend

The weekend of November 29-December 1 started off on November 28 – Thanksgiving day. I spent the day in History class, working for Mr. Wolter, and doing homework. Around 3pm, I started helping people get ready for the Thanksgiving dinner and Austria ball by sewing up people’s dresses and braiding hair. Marissa, Shannon, and I headed over to the Mensa at 5:15 because we had volunteered to serve the dinner. The Mensa was decorated for Thanksgiving and everyone was dressed in Dirndls and Lederhosens (traditional Austrian clothing that we can rent from the school). Marissa and I and a few others ended up serving Franciscan students in the Keller. There was some sort of soup served first, followed by turkey with gravy, a dumpling,  mashed potatoes, and carrots. For dessert there was a slice of apple tart with a scoop of ice cream and a dolip of whipped cream. The dessert was the best part…and not just because dessert always is.

After the dinner, I went back and freshened up to go to the ball. After a little bit of meandering around talking to people, the dance got started. I danced with Joseph for the first dance and it was so much fun and confusing because we had no idea what we were doing. They took a break and they had some Slap Dancers come out and dance for us. It was super cool! For the second dance we learned, I danced with Becca because, as is typical of Franciscan, girls end up dancing with girls because there are way more girls than guys. It was tons of fun. We danced together for the next dance, and then I switched Becca out and danced with Ashley. There was some more slap dancing for us to watch, and then Matt and I danced while we slammed into the other fifty people who were also dancing. I took a break and ended up taking my shift as bouncer (it was really Hana’s shift, but she went to Switzerland and I volunteered to do it for her) at the door to make sure people didn’t bring any beverages into the ballroom. The slap dancers came out one more time and lit this thing on fire in the middle of the room and it lit up the whole room. It was super cool. After they left, there was a ten minute break, and then the AMDG guys DJ-ed for the rest of the night. I stayed until about midnight when Jennifer and I got bored because the music was really lame. It all had the same beat and was the type of music you would mindlessly listed to while doing homework…not great dancing music. It was still a ton of fun though and I’m so glad I went.

Friday morning I did some homework, and then work for Mr. Wolter hanging up the Durndels and Leaderhosens that were a mess in the storage room. I did homework for the rest of the day. During the afternoon, Ashley and I walked into town and got coffee, chocolate, a poster board, and a kebob for her. In the evening, I worked on the poster asking for donations for the people in the Philippines. I didn’t have any glue to glue the pictures and typed paragraphs onto the poster board, so I went down to the RA office to see if they had any. Dan looked around and found this bottle of stuff in the RD office. Of course it was in German so we couldn’t read what it was, so he squirted some of it onto a piece of paper and felt it and tried to see if it would make the paper stick together. We looked it up on the internet and didn’t find anything, but we were pretty sure it was glue. I started using it to put the pictures on the poster and we were kinda just hoping it was gonna make the paper stick. After I had put the last piece on, Scott, the RD, walked into the office and asked what I was doing. I told him I was making a poster about the Philippines and Dan chimed in to say that he found this bottle of stuff in the RD office and we thought it was glue so we used it. Scott was like, “Uh, yeah, that’s super glue.” Those pictures are definitely not coming off!

Saturday morning I decided to sleep in (8am! Yeah!) and then went to Mass. Fr. Ron helped me set up a spot in the back of church to put the poster up and we found a basked to use for donations. After that, I did homework until lunch and then Cheris and I walked around the Advent Market. There were so many cute little Christmas things that we were glad we had left our wallets in our rooms. I did homework all afternoon and then took a nap until dinner. After dinner, Ann and I went to the Christmas Carol play that the LCI students and Kartause kids performed. We sat up in the window so that we could see and it was so cute to watch! After that, Cheris combed my hair for lice (still lice free!) and then Becca, Cheris, and I hung out in a tea kitchen while I cut Nazzar’s hair.

Sunday morning was nice and slow. I went to Mass and nearly killed my feet in the process. I had to borrow someone else’s dress shoes but both the girls I’ve been borrowing shoes from were wearing their black dress shoes so I went and asked someone else and she gave me her 3” high black heels. I took them and put them on because I was about to be late for Mass, but as soon as Mass was over, I went straight back to my room and changed because my feet hurt so bad! I mean, they fit, but my feet aren’t used to heels. After Mass I went to Sunday brunch and then joked around with Marissa and did homework all afternoon. And I threw snowballs at Ashley’s room when I needed something to do. I combed people for lice and then went to bed early around 10:30.