(no subject)
The last 6 days have been incredible. I can honestly say that
tuesday, including the first 4 hours of wednesday, have been the
most action packed, crazy, meaningful, thought provoking day of my
life.... I saw, met, helped, and was helped by more people than i
thought was possible. I am going to try and explain what this day
was, it will prolly be long and maybe a little boring for you so
here is your warning, it means so much to me so im gonna post it. Im gonna include a few pics in the story to try and help you understand. I wrote this for other exchangee and i dont feel like rewriting it, hopefully you guys will get it too. Oh, i got a new camera.
"Woke up at diegos with tyler and diego, ate breakfast and left
to get tyler to his rotary meeting. It was some of the nicest
weather i have seen a while, the sun was shining. We rented some
bikes and rode around wien, pretty much the best thing in the world.
We just cruised around enjoying the air and grabbed a nashmarkt
kebab and appreciated life. Im not gonna bother trying to make you
understand how good it felt, you will just have to imagine.
bikes, kebabs, nashmarkt
Then Diego and I went to stephans platz and decided we wanted to
make new friends. We went inside the church and found a nice group
of canadian girls. We approached and attempted to make them our new
friends but we failed pretty miserably, it was only the first try
though. I think its their fault anyway, they just werent cool. The
next group we approached was a group of american music majors on
spring break. They were pretty cool and agreed to be our friends, we
told them to meet us there at 9 and we would all go out together.
Then we found some choir that was gonna be performing in wien and i
started chatten it up with them, choirs are mostly girls you know :-
D but they had a performance that night and couldnt come. Its quite
a rush to just start talking to a random group of strangers in the
middle of a big city. The first time i actually go so nervous my
legs were shaking. A couple times they gave me the dont rape me and
no i dont wanna buy it treatment, but mostly they saw my angelicly
innocent looking face and said ah how much harm could he do.
Diego was talking about how happy he would be if someone just
came up to him and asked him to be their friend and then on the way
to his film interview he got his wish. These two italian girls
waiting on the steps called out to us and we started talking, well
talking is a bit of an eggageration. Diego speaks spanish so he was
able to figure out how to say a few things in italian and tyler and
i just laughed. The gist of the conversation was that they wanted us
to go party with them tonight and then they wanted to fuck all 3 of
us at their hostel....Thats what you get when you wish for new
friends.
Anyway we declined and moved on. Around 6:30 we went to spar and
bought some good ole musketeer and almdudler to split between the 3
of us.
we started drinking shortly there after and just wandered
through the streets singing and dancing and having a good time. We
spent an hour in the glass elevator in front of the opera talking,
drinking some 23% beer, and watchign people.
After a good heart to heart we headed over to stephansdom to wait
for our new friends. Americans are suprisingly easy to spot in a
crowd, even easier to hear, and pretty common in a tourist spot like
vienna. We then ran into another group of american musicians, this
time from virginia. They were pretty cool but im sure they were just
humoring us because they thought we were crazy. All 30 of them had
to go and walked off to find their hotel. 5 minutes later we found a
tie that looked like it was from their group because they had all
been carrying their suits and dresses and stuff. Diego picked it up
and we took off running down the street to catch them. 2 blocks
later we returned the tie and they thanked us and im sure felt
guilty about thinking we were crazy.
We set my camera up with the timer on a bench and passed the time
trying to get a photo of us all jumping at the same time.
Some girl
walked by and called out some comment about us jumping and laughed.
I started talking to the girl in german and she just looks at me and
says "english?" Turns out she was with a few of her friends from
milan italy and were lost. They got a map and we began the adventure
of trying to find their hostel.
I am guessing about an hour later we
arrived at this crazy place called wombats. It was decked out in
australian flags and everyone was speaking english. They had a
wonderful vending machine that sold tshirts, towells and condoms
with a sign that said "Rubbers, for you americans."
We invited the
italians to go out with us and they said theyd love to. While we
were waiting for them to put their stuff in their room we checked
out the pub.
We had been doing it all day and decided to continue trying to
meet strangers. We found 3 guys from canada (drinking a pitcher of
beer each) and diego and i started talking to some german on
vacation. All of a sudden i heard an accent out of the corner of my
ear that made my stomach jump, but i didnt recognize it. Being the
thing of the day i walked up to the most redneck looking guy ive
seen in 6 months and started a conversation. the accent wasnt just
familiar, it was from charelston....the capital of west virginia.
Turns out the guy had lived in my city for a year and after takign a
picture with him and his WV drivers license him, diego, and i sung
country roads together.
Quick summary so that you follow. I met a redneck from my home
town in a hostel in vienna that i was only in because we had decided
to go out of our way to help a group of lost itialians find their
hostel, which we only met because they commented on our goofy
pictures which we were only taking because we were tired of waiting
for our new american friends to show up who we had only met because
diego and i had decided to get out of our comfort zone and make new
friends from random tourists. Got that?
Then we go onwards, the italians knew they wouldnt have made it
there without us and so when we finally arrived at Bricks they
bought us all tequila...and then another round, and another round,
and another....and we danced and it was incredible fun. We had only
just met them but we became friends so fast.
We danced the night
away and when we were done we went outside. On the way outside Tyler
just make things a bit more random we happened to leave at the exact
same time as a guy from idaho. We heard eachothers accents and after
a round of potato jokes and of course makign fun of canada we added
another tally mark to our new friends list.
A couple minutes later, this is around 3:30 in the morning after
we had started partying arond 6:30, the italians had materialized
some something that im sure you can all imagine what it is and we
had a nice puff together. It was all just too much for me. 30
minutes later finds me propped up against a bus thing vommitting and
not really having the ability to stand up or go anywhere. I pretty
much embaressed myself. As i sat there on the street in vienna
puking i heard them all saying americano, blah blah blah, americano,
blah blah blah, americano. I assumed this was the usual oh great,
the inexperienced american has drank too much and is now puking
everywhere and we will ahve to carry him home bullshit. I was
ashamed and felt like i was being a horrible represenative for my
country, an embaressment. But it wasnt like that at all, well i mean
yes, i was embaressing myself and my country i suppose, but they
werent making fun of me, they werent judging me and saying great, he
is just like the stereotype, they were concerned about me. They
werent disgusted or whatever, just amused. Tyler brought me water
and we caught the next bus and the girl i had danced with patted and
rubbed my back, asked me if i was ok, and was generally nice helpful
and concerned, much more than a stranger i had met only a few hours
before and could barely talk to should have been. We had just
decided to be their new friends and then guided them through a city
they didnt know and they respected and appreciated our random
kindness and in return these strangers became my friends and when i
was in trouble they returned the favor.
When it came time for their stop we all said goodbye to eachother
and hugged and kissed and the girl i had danced with hugged and
kissed me goobye and i was so moved by the fact that this stranger
was willing to hug and kiss a stranger who had 15 minutes early been
on all 4s with a pair of helpful canadian fingers down his throat
spraying the sidewalk with a very wet and smelly version of
confetti.
I hope if any of you made it this far reading my story that you
will remmeber it and learn from it. That you will be kind to the
next stranger you meet, that you will help someone just for the fuck
of it, and that there really are good people in the world you just
have to go out and find them, and of course, that it never hurts to
go and make new friends. You never know, the next person you help
when they are in need just might end up helping you back.
Oh, it continues, some wierd guy from california had heard all of
what we were saying and sat down with me and tyler for the rest of
the bus trip and we chatted it up for a while. He was a pretty
groovy beach boy, if not a little wierd, and the conversation was
interesting, and then i took my little cup and puked again. The dude
from california was like "oh man, so thats what you were dumping out
at the last stop, duuuudde." Was funny.
Anyway, thats what i know consider to be the best day of my life....just so you guys know.
tuesday, including the first 4 hours of wednesday, have been the
most action packed, crazy, meaningful, thought provoking day of my
life.... I saw, met, helped, and was helped by more people than i
thought was possible. I am going to try and explain what this day
was, it will prolly be long and maybe a little boring for you so
here is your warning, it means so much to me so im gonna post it. Im gonna include a few pics in the story to try and help you understand. I wrote this for other exchangee and i dont feel like rewriting it, hopefully you guys will get it too. Oh, i got a new camera.
"Woke up at diegos with tyler and diego, ate breakfast and left
to get tyler to his rotary meeting. It was some of the nicest
weather i have seen a while, the sun was shining. We rented some
bikes and rode around wien, pretty much the best thing in the world.
We just cruised around enjoying the air and grabbed a nashmarkt
kebab and appreciated life. Im not gonna bother trying to make you
understand how good it felt, you will just have to imagine.
bikes, kebabs, nashmarkt
Then Diego and I went to stephans platz and decided we wanted to
make new friends. We went inside the church and found a nice group
of canadian girls. We approached and attempted to make them our new
friends but we failed pretty miserably, it was only the first try
though. I think its their fault anyway, they just werent cool. The
next group we approached was a group of american music majors on
spring break. They were pretty cool and agreed to be our friends, we
told them to meet us there at 9 and we would all go out together.
Then we found some choir that was gonna be performing in wien and i
started chatten it up with them, choirs are mostly girls you know :-
D but they had a performance that night and couldnt come. Its quite
a rush to just start talking to a random group of strangers in the
middle of a big city. The first time i actually go so nervous my
legs were shaking. A couple times they gave me the dont rape me and
no i dont wanna buy it treatment, but mostly they saw my angelicly
innocent looking face and said ah how much harm could he do.
Diego was talking about how happy he would be if someone just
came up to him and asked him to be their friend and then on the way
to his film interview he got his wish. These two italian girls
waiting on the steps called out to us and we started talking, well
talking is a bit of an eggageration. Diego speaks spanish so he was
able to figure out how to say a few things in italian and tyler and
i just laughed. The gist of the conversation was that they wanted us
to go party with them tonight and then they wanted to fuck all 3 of
us at their hostel....Thats what you get when you wish for new
friends.
Anyway we declined and moved on. Around 6:30 we went to spar and
bought some good ole musketeer and almdudler to split between the 3
of us.
we started drinking shortly there after and just wandered
through the streets singing and dancing and having a good time. We
spent an hour in the glass elevator in front of the opera talking,
drinking some 23% beer, and watchign people.
After a good heart to heart we headed over to stephansdom to wait
for our new friends. Americans are suprisingly easy to spot in a
crowd, even easier to hear, and pretty common in a tourist spot like
vienna. We then ran into another group of american musicians, this
time from virginia. They were pretty cool but im sure they were just
humoring us because they thought we were crazy. All 30 of them had
to go and walked off to find their hotel. 5 minutes later we found a
tie that looked like it was from their group because they had all
been carrying their suits and dresses and stuff. Diego picked it up
and we took off running down the street to catch them. 2 blocks
later we returned the tie and they thanked us and im sure felt
guilty about thinking we were crazy.
We set my camera up with the timer on a bench and passed the time
trying to get a photo of us all jumping at the same time.
Some girl
walked by and called out some comment about us jumping and laughed.
I started talking to the girl in german and she just looks at me and
says "english?" Turns out she was with a few of her friends from
milan italy and were lost. They got a map and we began the adventure
of trying to find their hostel.
I am guessing about an hour later we
arrived at this crazy place called wombats. It was decked out in
australian flags and everyone was speaking english. They had a
wonderful vending machine that sold tshirts, towells and condoms
with a sign that said "Rubbers, for you americans."
We invited the
italians to go out with us and they said theyd love to. While we
were waiting for them to put their stuff in their room we checked
out the pub.
We had been doing it all day and decided to continue trying to
meet strangers. We found 3 guys from canada (drinking a pitcher of
beer each) and diego and i started talking to some german on
vacation. All of a sudden i heard an accent out of the corner of my
ear that made my stomach jump, but i didnt recognize it. Being the
thing of the day i walked up to the most redneck looking guy ive
seen in 6 months and started a conversation. the accent wasnt just
familiar, it was from charelston....the capital of west virginia.
Turns out the guy had lived in my city for a year and after takign a
picture with him and his WV drivers license him, diego, and i sung
country roads together.
Quick summary so that you follow. I met a redneck from my home
town in a hostel in vienna that i was only in because we had decided
to go out of our way to help a group of lost itialians find their
hostel, which we only met because they commented on our goofy
pictures which we were only taking because we were tired of waiting
for our new american friends to show up who we had only met because
diego and i had decided to get out of our comfort zone and make new
friends from random tourists. Got that?
Then we go onwards, the italians knew they wouldnt have made it
there without us and so when we finally arrived at Bricks they
bought us all tequila...and then another round, and another round,
and another....and we danced and it was incredible fun. We had only
just met them but we became friends so fast.
We danced the night
away and when we were done we went outside. On the way outside Tyler
just make things a bit more random we happened to leave at the exact
same time as a guy from idaho. We heard eachothers accents and after
a round of potato jokes and of course makign fun of canada we added
another tally mark to our new friends list.
A couple minutes later, this is around 3:30 in the morning after
we had started partying arond 6:30, the italians had materialized
some something that im sure you can all imagine what it is and we
had a nice puff together. It was all just too much for me. 30
minutes later finds me propped up against a bus thing vommitting and
not really having the ability to stand up or go anywhere. I pretty
much embaressed myself. As i sat there on the street in vienna
puking i heard them all saying americano, blah blah blah, americano,
blah blah blah, americano. I assumed this was the usual oh great,
the inexperienced american has drank too much and is now puking
everywhere and we will ahve to carry him home bullshit. I was
ashamed and felt like i was being a horrible represenative for my
country, an embaressment. But it wasnt like that at all, well i mean
yes, i was embaressing myself and my country i suppose, but they
werent making fun of me, they werent judging me and saying great, he
is just like the stereotype, they were concerned about me. They
werent disgusted or whatever, just amused. Tyler brought me water
and we caught the next bus and the girl i had danced with patted and
rubbed my back, asked me if i was ok, and was generally nice helpful
and concerned, much more than a stranger i had met only a few hours
before and could barely talk to should have been. We had just
decided to be their new friends and then guided them through a city
they didnt know and they respected and appreciated our random
kindness and in return these strangers became my friends and when i
was in trouble they returned the favor.
When it came time for their stop we all said goodbye to eachother
and hugged and kissed and the girl i had danced with hugged and
kissed me goobye and i was so moved by the fact that this stranger
was willing to hug and kiss a stranger who had 15 minutes early been
on all 4s with a pair of helpful canadian fingers down his throat
spraying the sidewalk with a very wet and smelly version of
confetti.
I hope if any of you made it this far reading my story that you
will remmeber it and learn from it. That you will be kind to the
next stranger you meet, that you will help someone just for the fuck
of it, and that there really are good people in the world you just
have to go out and find them, and of course, that it never hurts to
go and make new friends. You never know, the next person you help
when they are in need just might end up helping you back.
Oh, it continues, some wierd guy from california had heard all of
what we were saying and sat down with me and tyler for the rest of
the bus trip and we chatted it up for a while. He was a pretty
groovy beach boy, if not a little wierd, and the conversation was
interesting, and then i took my little cup and puked again. The dude
from california was like "oh man, so thats what you were dumping out
at the last stop, duuuudde." Was funny.
Anyway, thats what i know consider to be the best day of my life....just so you guys know.