Raining Confectionaries??--Woche 4

The first week back went relatively well.  The kids reluctantly went back to school.  Hockey seems to have slowed down, somewhat.  Dan was gone to Antwerp for a couple of days this week.  We seem to have things running pretty smoothly. 

On Monday, I went to a girl's lunch.  I haven't done a whole lot of "girl's nights" since we got here.  Things just seem to be very busy with all the kids activities and spending time with Dan, when he is in town, seems to be more important.  Since this one was during the day, when kids and husbands schedules did not conflict, I decided to go, and I was glad that I did.  It is Restaurant Week in Vienna.  Some restaurants have set menus for set prices during this week.  It is a good way to get out and try new places.  We met at a little tiny restaurant called Chameleon.  It is right in the downtown area.  It has about 5 tables maximum.  The owner is Swiss, and his restaurant is fondue.  On our set menu, we were served a very nice salad, followed by a cheese fondue and then dessert.  The owner was so good to us and to Danyon.  I've mentioned before that it is rare for someone here to pay attention to Danyon, and when they do, you can usually bet that they are foreigners.  This was no exception, but the owner was very happy to have Danyon there and thoroughly enjoyed him.  He even asked to hold him, but Danyon wasn't having any of that.  The food was delicious.  When the owner discovered that we did not drink alcohol, he said that the "set dessert" had alcohol in it.  He said he was working on something else, especially for us in the kitchen.  He came back with a huge platter of fruit and a chocolate fondue.  It was very, very good.  I would like to go back with Dan sometime.  Anyone who has that amount of customer service in this city will get my vote and return visit!! 

We went to the final home AIS basketball game.  We had a friend who was playing on the team.  It was interesting to me that we didn't need to buy tickets and they only had one set of bleachers set up.  Our family got there just as the game was beginning and we doubled the people in the stands.  According to a friend, the school only gets about 3-4 parents to come out and watch the games.  For a varsity basketball game, I thought that was sad.  Our team ended up winning fairly easily.  It was fun to support our friend and school.

Just before stepping into the awaiting carriage

This was a big week for us.  I had to finish preparations:  I got my dress all ready.  I got my fingernails and toenails painted.  I bought fake eyelashes for the first time.  Dan got the babysitter.  We were so excited to finally go to the ball!  We picked our friends up and headed to the Wiener Konzart Haus.  We walked into the building, that was crawling with people.  In the large foyer, they had little bags and candies for everyone.  They also had a gift for everyone--ladies got a package of cookies and the gents got a package of coffee.  (Dan was a little less excited about his gift--we will find someone who will be the lucky recipient.)  This is a tradition that started long ago, with the first ball.  This gift called the Damenspende is a token gift presented to the ladies upon arriving at the ballroom.  It used to be something really cool like a mother-of-pearl fan and a card given for gentlemen to claim a dance from the lady.  But now it is something cheaper--usually confectionary or a CD or something of the like. With the equality of the times, some balls also give a Herrenspende (man gift), but it was not given long ago.  At the Bonbon Ball, there were 3 different dance rooms.  The main hall had very good music with fully orchestrated band.  The music played was traditional ballroom music with a huge variety of styles.  There were waltzes, rhumbas, fox trots, etc.  In the other rooms, the bands were playing other genres, one was a latin room.  It was so much fun to dance.  However, when I say dance, I mean it quite loosely.  There are so many people on the dance floor, that you can not move without running into people.  Although most of the people at the balls know how to dance--especially the Viennese Waltz, it is impossible to do any dance correctly.  It seems that no one knows the line of dance, and everyone was milling about with no rhyme or reason.  We now know why line of dance was created!  It was still so much fun to try to dance!  The bands also shortened the songs so that they were only a couple of minutes long, rather than the entire version of every song.  This made it possible to get more styles of dance in and also it kept the men, who were in their jackets the entire evening, from completely overheating. 

Of course, eating Bonbons

We watched the crowning of Miss Bonball ceremony.  It wasn't really a highlight.  It seemed rather boring, actually.  But things picked up with the midnight Quadrille.  It is a traditional dance that is called (kind of like a square dance) and they play it at every ball--stemming from the first balls in Vienna.  Since our German is not spot on, we decided to watch the first round.  It was fun to get to see the chaos that was the Quadrille.  Everyone had a great time.  We loved spending time with our friends.  We had to pay extra money to have a table, but we were so glad that we did.  It was nice to have somewhere to go and sit, visit, and rest our feet.  They had a few more candies at each of the tables, which was nice, but paying 4 Euro for a small bottle of water was a bit steep, I thought.  It just seems that water would be a given at a dance--to keep people from passing out, but not here.  You have to pay for it. 



Props to Dan, my best hairdresser. 
This was even after the
 entire evening of dancing!

No one lost their glass slippers and no one was forced to leave at midnight.  We quite happily danced the night away, and finally our feet gave out and we ended up leaving at about 2:45.  I thought I would be okay with going just once--as it is a once in a lifetime experience, but somehow, we had so much fun and the music was so good, that we are convinced that we will go again.  Maybe not to the Bonbon Ball, but we would love to attend another one next year.  Dan was even ready to go again on Saturday night, although, I have to admit, my feet couldn't have handled it!

Side effects of the Bonbon Ball

So instead on Saturday, we did our usual grocery shopping.  Dan took Dyllan and Deagan to their last hockey practice on the outdoor rink.  (It is getting to look like Spring here.  We have leaves starting to pop out on bushes and trees have started to bud--a huge turn around from last year.)  Dan met some friends at the hockey rink and helped their little boy with his first experience skating.  Dane went along and Dan helped him with some pointers for his skating as well.  I stayed home with Danyon, while we both took naps.  That night, Dan promised the kids that he would take them to Ebi again (the all-you-can-eat sushi buffet).  I think the promise was more for Dan's enjoyment than the kid's, but it worked.  We met our friends there and had a great evening.  By the time we got home, Dan was practically a zombie.  He hadn't gotten a nap in and we since we live with kids, there was no sleeping in that morning.  He needed to send a text to someone from church.  He fell asleep 4 times while trying to type one text.  I woke him up each time telling him to hit the send button.  Once he did, he was asleep before he could put the phone down--and he told me he was ready to go to another ball that night.  It would've taken a lot of help from his fairy godmother, just to keep him awake for another ball!