Step 1:
Do as many things as possible to keep yourself physically and mentally active.
Step 2:
Drink heavily when friends come into town.
Step 3:
Immediately regret large quantities of alcohol consumed because the day after you will feel like death the next morning. Do NOT attempt to eat large quantities afterwards to cure the hangover, it will not help.
Step 4:
Choose a new television show to follow online and instead of doing work, watch said tv program.
Step 5:
Wash, rinse, repeat.
I had a very busy cultural week. Wednesday a group of us went to see Romeo and Julia the ballet. It was set in a modern way, and of course, only in Austria would you see someone cast in a ballet to wear lederhose....which I can only imagine to be difficult to dance in. Besides the odd choice in garb, the ending of the ballet left Romeo and Juliet "in the rain" and "in their underwear" on stage. That was a choice. By the time I saw them throwing other members across the incredibly wet stage, I feared for their lives (of course, it had been rehearsed), and decided it was not meant to be the original work, but an interpretation. Yes, a very wet, very naked interpretation of Romeo and Juliet.
Friday the whole Salzy crew went to Hallein to help our scottish mate fix up a scottish tradition of "Burns Night". The whole evening is surrounded around poet and composer Robert Burns (who inspired John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men", and wrote "Auld Lang Syne"), the eating of Haggis, scottish music and dancing, and good friends. Fleur, Mary and I arrived around 1 to help Ali set up for the 130 guests, and made sure there were enough tables, chairs, benches, plates, silverware and drinks for everyone, and then when the other TAs arrived, we subsequently waited, washed, cleared, and cleaned the whole place. Thank god that we've all had shitty jobs before...because it doesn't even seem that bad anymore to have to do something like it.
In fact, at every spot there was something traditionally Scottish...the main attraction being the Irn Bru, and meal of Haggis and potatoes. Irn Bru, is the scottish version of Mountain Dew, I've decided. It's color is akin to that of Mountain Dew, but instead of going for the yellow-green toxic sludge look, it has gone for the bright orange look. I'm pretty sure I saw bags of toxic chemicals in the chemo rooms that look like Irn Bru. The taste of Irn Bru is also different to any American pop, and I can only describe it as a mixture of cotton candy and redbull. But what makes Irn Bru so special? Well, first off the drink is full of quinine and caffeine. The quinine is obviously there to keep away the rampant malaria of Austria, and the caffeine is to keep you from falling asleep during a bagpipe concert. I don't know how many one could drink in a day and still stay alive, but I assume that if you drank 3 a day for your whole life and were somehow left in the middle of the African jungle, that try that those mosquitos might, they would not be able to pass you some of their malaria juice. Win.
Haggis, is also an interesting scottish tradition. Ingredients listed: sheep innards, scottish water (VERY important), suet, flavorings, etc. Doesn't that sound delicious? Scottish water, sheep innards, and suet. The only time I've ever seen suet (aka LARD) is in my backyard rolled in seeds to fatten up the birds during winter. If only they would eat the innards and drink the scottish water...they too could celebrate Burns night. It didn't have too terrible of a taste, but I couldn't really eat more than a bite. My mind took over in telling me what the ingredients were.
After serving all of the students, teachers and guests, we ran out of food. Unfortunately. But after working for hours on end...my appetite had gone, just like it used to do when I waited tables, so we luckily made up for the experience in dancing, stealing tequila shots from behind the fridge (that's right, they left their tequila there. Momma had a hard day.) and in getting back to Salzy at a fashionable hour.
After Friday night's excitement, we had another Salzburg get-together last night. William, from Linz, came to stay with me and I exposed him to all that is Salzburg....lots of love and lots of good times. We have a great group to say the least, and we really are like a family here, so it is always good to bring in newbies to hang. We had a great night, and while somehow 3 bottles of wine disappeared between us...neither of us are dead today. Sure, it might've been a little difficult to eat lunch. Sure, I might've wanted to stay in bed for 10 gazillion hours...but the fact that I'm still alive attests to the fact that the body is resilient. Sometimes.
In any case, I hope this week goes well. No one ever wishes for a bad week, but sometimes it just happens.
Hope you had a fabulous weekend as well! Sending you all my love
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