Dis and Dat
Back at the press hall. Still sitting at a table all by myself. That's ok. I'm getting a spray tan on Friday and then watch out! Everybody will want to hang out with me. Heh. I wish I could smuggle in some wine and glasses but the security is being amped up and nobody wants to be friends with someone who got caught smuggling booze in. Actually, there is a guy clapping along to the song currently being rehearsed and I am pretty sure nobody wants to be friends with that guy. The other journalists are an interesting mix. You have some people who seem generally into this and greeting old buddies and looking up Youtube songs by the artists, then you have a couple of young girls wearing outfits more appropriate for clubbing (I bet they made friends on the first day) and then there are the ones who look like they want to jump off a bridge and end it all.
I do have to say that this is a finely run production. The volunteers are really lovely and easy to spot in t-shirts that say "May I Help You?" and God willing nobody has gotten plastered yet and said something inappropriate about "helping". There is a kiosk with water and coffee and apples and again, why no booze? We haven't gotten access to the main hall yet but on Friday we will finally be able to go. The large screens around the press hall are great and I have to say that the Stadthalle has done a pretty amazing job with the stage. Oh dear lord, somebody just cheered and clapped after the 3rd time this current song has been sung. She probably has no friends either... oh wait, yes she does...dammit.
Soon the next act will come on to rehearse. Yesterday when one act's rehearsal time was announced as over, some of the journalists cheered. I laughed. It still is a thrill to be doing this. I am seeing this as a once in a lifetime experience and I need to take full advantage of it. Hey, Dutch people behind me! They are friendly! Maybe they will talk to me? God Tova, keep it together.
Anway, I will be here for another couple of hours taking notes. I am also waiting on a couple of e-mails and this would probably be a good time to make appointments to get my hair and makeup did next week. I'm not going to be on camera but with my luck, I'll trip over a cord while someone is being interviewed and I want my humiliation to at least look pretty. 200 million people will be watching this event! 200 MILLION! That is like a whole lot more people than all of Austria. Like almost... I don't know. Math, not my strong point. Which brings me to the conversation I overheard on the Ubahn this morning on my way to work. Two international school kids were sitting beside me. They started talking about the IB and my ears perked up. The IB was the bane of my existence for 2 years of my life. It was constantly there, lurking, making you feel like you knew shit and then BAM! 4 hour English exam that would count for 80 per cent of your final grade regardless how good a student you were for 2 years. It was the weight of 20 pound books in your backpack and doing community service and singing and performing in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat while wearing overalls because we performed on the US compound in the press conference room and did not have a theater or costumes. It was a tough two years but in the end, it was worth it... Yeah, ok. Sure.
But the funny thing was overhearing the two youths talking about trigonometry and about their TI83's and I wanted to yell "ZOMG! I had one of those! And aren't they awesome for writing notes to friends during class?!?" but I restrained myself which is a good thing because in the next breath one of the students said "Yeah, but the app is so much better." Ugh. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be a teenager in this day and age. I have said it before and I will say it again, I am incredibly grateful that we did not have Facebook back when I was 16. Status updates would have been Sylvia Plath quotes and pictures of me looking sad and Counting Crows album covers would be my profile picture. The worst. Absolute worst. So I am pretty grateful that I thought my Texas Instrument calculator was awesome and that there was no way that someone could "tag me" at the Hungry Duck in Moscow dancing on the bar. So while these kids may be able to use "apps" for everything nowadays, I am going to sit back smug in the knowledge that I avoided multiple reasons for being grounded or sent to military school.
And so I slowly end this post. Tonight I am watching a friend in the Barber of Seville at the Vienna Staatsoper and that is incredibly exciting. And of course there will be my interpretation of the Barber of Seville coming in a day or two. I wish you all a fabulous day!
I do have to say that this is a finely run production. The volunteers are really lovely and easy to spot in t-shirts that say "May I Help You?" and God willing nobody has gotten plastered yet and said something inappropriate about "helping". There is a kiosk with water and coffee and apples and again, why no booze? We haven't gotten access to the main hall yet but on Friday we will finally be able to go. The large screens around the press hall are great and I have to say that the Stadthalle has done a pretty amazing job with the stage. Oh dear lord, somebody just cheered and clapped after the 3rd time this current song has been sung. She probably has no friends either... oh wait, yes she does...dammit.
Soon the next act will come on to rehearse. Yesterday when one act's rehearsal time was announced as over, some of the journalists cheered. I laughed. It still is a thrill to be doing this. I am seeing this as a once in a lifetime experience and I need to take full advantage of it. Hey, Dutch people behind me! They are friendly! Maybe they will talk to me? God Tova, keep it together.
Anway, I will be here for another couple of hours taking notes. I am also waiting on a couple of e-mails and this would probably be a good time to make appointments to get my hair and makeup did next week. I'm not going to be on camera but with my luck, I'll trip over a cord while someone is being interviewed and I want my humiliation to at least look pretty. 200 million people will be watching this event! 200 MILLION! That is like a whole lot more people than all of Austria. Like almost... I don't know. Math, not my strong point. Which brings me to the conversation I overheard on the Ubahn this morning on my way to work. Two international school kids were sitting beside me. They started talking about the IB and my ears perked up. The IB was the bane of my existence for 2 years of my life. It was constantly there, lurking, making you feel like you knew shit and then BAM! 4 hour English exam that would count for 80 per cent of your final grade regardless how good a student you were for 2 years. It was the weight of 20 pound books in your backpack and doing community service and singing and performing in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat while wearing overalls because we performed on the US compound in the press conference room and did not have a theater or costumes. It was a tough two years but in the end, it was worth it... Yeah, ok. Sure.
But the funny thing was overhearing the two youths talking about trigonometry and about their TI83's and I wanted to yell "ZOMG! I had one of those! And aren't they awesome for writing notes to friends during class?!?" but I restrained myself which is a good thing because in the next breath one of the students said "Yeah, but the app is so much better." Ugh. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be a teenager in this day and age. I have said it before and I will say it again, I am incredibly grateful that we did not have Facebook back when I was 16. Status updates would have been Sylvia Plath quotes and pictures of me looking sad and Counting Crows album covers would be my profile picture. The worst. Absolute worst. So I am pretty grateful that I thought my Texas Instrument calculator was awesome and that there was no way that someone could "tag me" at the Hungry Duck in Moscow dancing on the bar. So while these kids may be able to use "apps" for everything nowadays, I am going to sit back smug in the knowledge that I avoided multiple reasons for being grounded or sent to military school.
And so I slowly end this post. Tonight I am watching a friend in the Barber of Seville at the Vienna Staatsoper and that is incredibly exciting. And of course there will be my interpretation of the Barber of Seville coming in a day or two. I wish you all a fabulous day!
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