Keri Goes Abroad: Dan's Visit

The most epic picture of the two of us ever. Cue the 'awww's.

Today is senior prank day in the school. I remember witnessing this back in Lindau - the graduating seniors invaded the school dressed in hazard suits and gloves and masks and rounded up the teachers while wreaking havoc. Surprisingly, it seems that my public school is fairly tame. When I got to school this morning there was a sign on the door announcing that the school had been turned upside down (in German of course) and there were streamers and balloons everywhere. I could hear trumpets and shouting from somewhere, but I guess I missed most of the fun. Apparently as the students were arriving this morning, the seniors sprayed them with water guns full of water (if you were lucky) or beer (if you weren't). There was also a kid who hacked into the school's computer system and switched the security settings to allow blocked sites and block important sites like language dictionaries - which made test taking impossible for language students today. He is apparently in big trouble. No teachers have been rounded up yet, thank goodness.

So, back to the (ir)regularly scheduled blogging. Dan's visit was the week of St. Patrick's day, so at least we're getting closer to the present. Dan and I did not do much during his visit. I was still sick, the weather was awful, and he's a fairly uncomplicated person and had no specific desires. We had planned to go skiing on my day off but it sleeted all day long, which would have made for awful skiing. I went to class Monday and Tuesday but called in sick Thursday and Friday (mostly to spend more time with Dan, but also because I felt crappy). We did, however, manage to do some of the important things. We explored the fortress, and I finally took the tour that I've never taken. Dan spent most of the time pretending he was and enemy army and figuring out exactly how he would try to invade the fortress. I think he concluded that the Salzburg fortress is pretty safe. It is built into a mountain, after all.

Dan and I also hung out with my friends, which was incredibly important to me. He and Maija started bantering within minutes of meeting each other - always a good sign - and he made friends easily with all of the boys when we went out for drinks at one of our favorite Irish pubs. Later in the week we celebrated St. Patrick's day (but shhh, I was supposed to be sick that day and the next....actually I was sick, but St. Paddys took priority since it was Dan's spring break and he wanted to go out on the town a little). All in all, we had some good food, we saw the sights, and we enjoyed seeing each other for the first (and last) time in months. Hopefully he understands a little more why I want to stay here next year after seeing it in person.

The last night of Dan's visit was spent in Munich, enjoying Hofbräuhaus beer and the bewildered stares of American tourists as we sang 'Ein Prosit' loudly and then prosted with eye contact. I explained it to at least two groups of tourists. The next day we said (a slightly tearful) goodbye in the train station, and while Dan took the S-bahn to the airport, I took a train to a train to a bus to a taxi to the mountain hut for my epic ski week with one of the Catholic schools.