First week in July: Hot and Busy

This week has been a lot of work trying to meet a deadline for this Monday which was pushed to Friday in order to allow the festivities of the weekend to be fully enjoyed.  Every summer CHBL throws a Sommerfetzt near the Alte Donau, which was what happened this Friday. I was kind of experiencing a burnout by Friday (because in addition to all the work, I went out a couple times with friends of friends from work – I finally experienced Flex, and came home later than was very wise) so my plan was just go to and work my shift (interns were required to be door men and make sure that everyone got a cd and raffle number) and then come back and sleep and be ready for Hornstein on Saturday.

First a little about how CHBL operates during a party:

1. Make trendy fliers, a cd of himmelblau hits from 05-09,  and raffell prizes (feat. were some CHBL bikini’s, rings from BMW Welt sketch, and other random stuff the industrial design department came up with).

2. Rent a summer camp looking building near on the banks of a river with an open bar.

3. Get DJs and play some remixed oldies rock songs that Wolf Prix can dance to (which he did. Which I have video footage of)

4. Keep if professional until about midnight when each team has a “meeting” – by which I mean shots.

5. Finally the DJ plays some sweet jams – so you dance with everyone from interns to team leaders.

** Optional: Swimming and playing volleyball (clothes are also optional).

Saturday I went to Neufeld in the morning with Stef and a friend of his from Golan – they both had diving licenses and wanted to test the waters. Neufeld sea used to be a coal mine or something along those lines and filled with water so the water is really deep (approx. 50m) and clear. And cold. So I sun bathed and waited for them. I went swimming and turned a little blue, so I didn’t go back in – but I guess it’s supposed to be warmer once the day wears on.

A view of the sea... and Stef's army bag.

Excuse me, I have places to go on my Slide-Boat, outta the way swimmers, this is a moving party.

I went to lunch with Omama, Kuma, and Onkle Paul afterwards and spent a little time visiting Peter Eberhardt before returning to Hornstein for a nap and a little walk afterwards.

What a great picture.

Hornstein... also the location of the first "Annoying Americans looking at your ..." Thank you Rosemary!

Love the Esterhazi colors!

At the end of the walk I ended up at the cemetery above Hornstein to visit some other relatives.

The night ended with a heurigen in Hornstein and then a night drive back to Vienna. I will be back on Tuesday though, to give Omama a proper goodbye.

I’ll update later because this stupid website crashed on me and deleted everything I just wrote. I’m going to get icecream with Andi. We just finished cleaning the apartment and after sweatin’ it up, we need something cool. I’ll be heading to a mass at Stephansdom tonight – hopefully I wasn’t wrong about the time!

Love to my family and friends,

Oh, and I hope everyone had a happy fourth of July!

EL