Carnevale in Venice - Costumes and Masks

Carnevale in Venice - Impressions

Yesterday I got up at 3:00 am to catch a ride with the Italian students and faculty to Venice, Italy for the opening of Carnevale. The bus left at 4:15, and we arrived well in time for the opening ceremonies, which included the Volo di Colombo (flight of the dove), a person who glides down a zip line from the Campanile to the Ducal Palace in a burst of confetti. Here you can barely see a person standing on the top of the Campanile, about to slide down:Then we had a whirlwind tour of the town (two hours = whirlwind when you are continuously walking and don't know what you're looking at!). I was, however, able to capture some impressions:

Nightrace Schladming

The Planai ski slope dominates the skyline of Schladming, a town of about 4500. The Postbus service organized a special trip to and from the venue for a reasonable 11 Euros round trip from Irdning. My friend Caitlin and I met up on the bus. Ash arrived late and, in a sea of nearly 50,000 spectators, there was no way we could find each other, even with modern cell phone technology!

It began to snow just as we arrived. We bought our tickets (15 Euros apiece) and hurried into the stadium. The first run began at 6:00 pm. We didn't get too far, but we could see skiers when we looked up the hill, and the big screen and finish line when we looked down the hill. and it's amazing how fast the race goes. Each skier takes about 1:45 minutes to make it down the hill. 25 skiers took about 45 minutes. Bode Miller fell, so he was disqualified for the second run. Boo boo boo!

The second run didn't begin until 8:45 pm so Caitlin and I went into town with 48,000 of our closest friends. We grabbed a roast pork sandwich, and tried to meet up with Ash again to no avail. There was a festive atmosphere in town to day the least, fueled by copious amounts of beer and Jägermeister. I preferred to remain sober, especially since it was sooooo icy. I slipped and landed on my... anyway! We watched the second run from the bottom of the slope. Because we're both so short, we couldn't see the finish line, but we could most of each skier's run. Mario Matt (AUT) won, followed by Jean-Baptiste Grange (FRA -- some woman thought I was French, for crying out loud!) and Manfred Mölgg (ITA). The USA's Ted Ligety came in fourth.

What? You want to see pictures of people skiing?! Well why didn't you say so!

After the race, we had a beer at a local brewery (Schwalbenbräu Schladming has a great logo!) then caught the bus back to Irdning/Liezen at 11:00. I got home at 12:30 and had to go into work today at 7:05, so at this point it's questionable whether I'll get to my dance class tonight!

P.S. My colleagues invited me to go to Venice (!) for Carnival (!!) this weekend... I think I might go!

Let the celebration begin!

Pre-game to the Bad Aussee Maturaball. My friend Ash decorated her apartment with streamers and balloons and had petit fours and champagne for my birthday. Ash (left), Caitlin and I went out to a superb dinner and then to the Maturaball, where the midnight entertainment started off with a video parody of the White Stripes The Hardest Button to Button (I'll try to get the Bad Aussee version sometime, it was brilliant!).

Stayed up partying with 15-18 year olds until 2:30 (here, Lisa and Hanna from the 6B) -- what a life!

This afternoon my landlady had a party in my honor. Yes, folks, this is what 43 candles looks like!

Before and After

This is me "Before," taken last week at movie night with the students of the 7B (January 11 - orange sweater, protesting Guantanamo)And this is me today, "After" my new European hair cut!

Happy New Year, y'all!

I spent NEW YEAR'S EVE alone (by choice) after breakfasting with friends. I went shopping, made zucchini tea bread to give as presents, tidied my apartment, and then watched "Dinner for One" at 11:30 pm. This is a classic 1960s sketch about a woman celebrating her 90th birthday, who invites all her friends to attend her birthday dinner. The problem is, all her friends are dead, so the butler must play the role of all the guests. Mild hilarity ensues as he drinks four toasts to every one that the birthday girl makes. As the program finished, I put on my coat, put a piccolo bottle of champagne in my pocket, and planned to into town for New Year's fireworks. I didn't get that far, because I could see HUNDREDS of fireworks in every direction from my terrace. I stayed up til 2:00 am Skyping.

NEW YEAR'S DAY began inauspiciously. I broke a coffee cup while washing up the breakfast things. Later I used the coffee cup as a spoon rest, and while washing up a second time I cut my thumb on the broken coffee cup... badly. I thought I might need stitches, but I went to a neighbor's house and got a second opinion (I took them a zucchini bread!). This coupled with a burn I got while baking the zucchini bread made me a pretty sad little apple in 2008. But I'm happy to report that everything is healed... Gott sei Dank! The rest of New Year's Day was spent in front of the TV, watching the New Year's Concert from Vienna and about 3 hours of alpine skiing and ski jumping.

I spent the rest of my vacation sledding (an hour up, 5 minutes down) and entertaining K & A at the Stainach Glöcklerlauf ("Bell Run"). This is a romantic tradition in which participants dressed in white with bells on their hips carry huge illuminated forms on their backs (stars, city crests, etc.) They "run" through the main city square at night making the same noise as Krampuses but without the threat of thrashing and beating.


The video starts getting good at 00:08, when I zoom out to see the whole tableau:
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And now everything is back to normal... all Upper Styrian assistants present and accounted for. We're planning to go to a Maturaball this weekend in Bad Aussee, and perhaps the Night Race in Schladming (World Cup skiing) on January 22. That would be a nice way to celebrate my birthday, don't you think?!