I performed a Lachner piece with Liz on clarinet. It was fun to collaborate with someone in that way! I'd never had to do a duet with an instrumentalist before and I really feel like I learned a lot.
Friday was SUPPOSED to be a day of studying and nothing else because we had our German midterm on Saturday, but as per usual, that definitely didn't happen.
After German class we were all hanging out and drinking coffee and decided to go on an impromptu trip to the Smetterling House (butterfly house) at the Hofburg. For those of you who don't know, I used to be PETRIFIED of anything remotely bug-like, including gnats and house flies. Butterflies were an absolute non-no. The last time I went to a butterfly house I was seven years old and ran from the entrace to the exit screaming hysterically.
As I've "matured" (hah) and lived in the Midwest for some time, I've slowly but surely overcome my bug phobia. In fact, I'm pretty smug about the whole thing.
But yesterday was the final test. I felt like I was fufilling some sort of destiny. Not really. But sort of.
The set up of the butterfly house was much different than the one I went to as a little kid at the Central Park Zoo or Bronx Zoo or whereever it was. The one at the Hofburg was set up like a mini slice of a rainforest, with waterfalls and trees and tons of different exotic plants basically dripping from the walls. It was also a STEAMFEST in there. It felt amazing on my lungs, but horrible in my winter coat.
The butterflies were all different colors, shapes, and sizes, and fluttered around unaware of all the stupid people gaping at them. Occasionally there were some little plates with banana slices on them where five or so butterflies were hanging out.
AND I SURVIVED!
I actually loved it!
I did a little victory dance in my head.
I studied a little in the afternoon, but met up with Belle, Matt, Josey, Ilana, and her parents at 5:30 to go to a Heuriger for dinner! We went to the same one we went to last time and because it's significantly chillier out now, we sat inside and had a wonderful, cozy, two hour dinner. It was definitely a good "break" from all the "studying" I'd been doing. To make myself feel better we had a rapid-fire review session between entrees and dessert. After that I stopped stressing entirely.
This morning felt really weird because it was a Saturday, but I had to get up and head to school like I do every morning during the week. I knew it was going to be a good day though because when I went to Anker for a croissaint before the exam the woman behind the counter took it fresh out of the oven for me. That's the kind of thing that gets me ready for a midterm.
Emily and I also had our friendship lambs with us (yes, we have stuffed animal friends, and yes, it's a long, long story), which I kept on my lap for the entirety of the test. Because these things work better than studying.
I finished the test in an hour because I'm a champ.
After we'd all finished with our exams we went to eat lunch at Cafe Griensteidl, which is apparently a pretty famous little cafe. It's right by the Hofburg and was recommended to us by Ilana's parents. We all got spaetzle with cheese (again recommended by Ilana's parents), and IT WAS DELICIOUS! Victory lunch: check.
(Frederic is obviously defeated by the mac and cheese feast, but Franz is still going strong)
Matt, Ilana, and I went back to my house and we watched an episode of Dexter and drank vanilla tea. Sarah joined in and so did Franz. Obvi.
We were back at IES by 3:40 for the SQUEEZENGER HUNT (scavenger hunt but IES "squeezing the juice" style). My team was made up of me, Matt, Emily, Josey, and NOT ALEXA (Alexa wasn't officially part of it, but she came along and was a vital member of team "Energy Legs", we just had to be really stealthy and make sure she was never in any of the pictures).
We had two and a half hours and 32 different things to find. The clues were relatively easy and we knew a lot of things because we'd recently visited them or learned about them in our classes! We POWER WALKED for the entire time and managed to check off about 26 of the items!
(Making a "ring" on the Ring)
(We had to get some random people to spell out "IES" for us... these are the third group of people we asked, we got horribly rejected a few times first)
Once we had handed in our pictures and check-list to be evaluated, we went to 1516 to get some much needed dinner. 1516 is this pub/restaurant place that has a huge sort of Austrian-American fusion menu. I got ribs with "BBQ sauce" AKA spicy ketchup (Oh, Austria...), and shared them with Matt. Who also got goulash. I felt AMAZING. This is really what the human body is made for: expending energy and pushing itself to its limits and then refueling. I feel like you see so much these days people being sedentary and over-fueling or people being overly active and then under-eating. All I know is I felt like the fucking Hulk after dinner and loved it.
The prizes were announced at an after-party at some smokey ass bar later that night. DRUM ROLL PLEASE....
WE WON THRID PRIZE!
Hurray!!! I think there were 13 or 14 different groups, so third place aint too shabby!
OUR PRIZE WAS FOUR 300 GRAM BARS OF MILKA.
WHAT.
Matt looked like he was about to have a heart attack.
That's over A KILOGRAM of chocolate.
Happiness was had by all.
Today I slept in, did yoga, and AM TRYING TO STUDY (aka, writing this blog). Later tonight we're going to see Fidelio at the Staatsoper! I'm super excited because it's Beethoven's only opera and rarely ever performed because the lead role is so damn hard. The tenor who sang Tamino for Magic Flute is singing the role though, and I'm sure it's going to be amazing! An added bonus is that I can bring my studying materials with me to standing room and am basically forced to review for the two or so hours that we wait on line. I am NOT bring my nook with me. NO, GEORGIA, NO.
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