Doing Nothing to Prepare for or Celebrate Midterms

It's been a pretty slow last couple of days. I was very busy preparing for midterms, and by preparing I mean not doing much. It really wasn't my fault that I didn't study; I blame Noah for sending me a 200 level online riddle. Despite procrastinating so much, I was quite efficient in my studying. I planned it out so that the 45 minutes before my first midterm I would study for that test; after I finished, I'd have just over an hour to study for my next test, and having finished that test quickly, I studied for my final exam in class. It was the perfect study plan, and allowed me to bust my brain on a riddle while watching TV too. My Art and Architecture test was slightly tricky, but it's still architecture so it really wasn't that bad, and my interior design architecture exam was literally one picture. It was actually pretty sweet; identify whichever piece of furniture was in my photo, and BS about it for as long as you want. I had a very gorgeous Renaissance commode, and all I had to do was write whatever I want - including the word 'perhaps' in many situations helped too. My economics exam was fine, neither good nor bad, and I had prepared just enough to have learned a pretty basic history of the EU. The one problem with the Europeans and their damn governments is they all decide to call everything by the same names. Examples include the Council of Europe, the European Council (EC), the European Committee (EC), the European Comission (EC), the European Economic Community (EEC). They always have to brag about their Europeanness, and love the letter 'C' for some stupid reason. At least you can't go wrong by guessing EC for any answer.
I guess the real exciting news of the week has been the unbelievable weather. There hasn't been a cloud in the sky and I've been wearing shorts everyday without a jacket since Monday. It's truly been amazing... in my apartment. Outside, it's been a little different. From Monday evening until Thursday morning, it did not stop raining. It did often only drizzle, which was a nice relief from the often downpour, but it sucked the whole time. The only thing that made the rain worse was the 15 knot winds that carried the water drops. Actually, the other thing that was pretty miserable was the 35 degree weather which paired with the gruesome winds. They were pretty brutal and prevented pretty much anything from happening. Especially since it now gets dark at 4:30... that also puts a damper on any motivational drive. So basically it's been a slow week because the weather sucks.
On the contrary, there have been some fun moments. For example, when I was walking to class on Thursday, I got to see real live crackhead gypsies again! Yea the most I've ever seen congregating has been like 3, but on Thursday, I got to see 6 of them shooting up together. It was pretty sweet... and by sweet I mean I felt real awkward and tried walking quicker by them. MVP of the shoot-up sesh goes to the homeless guy who was passed out on the bench, and needed his heroine so badly that he had a friend inject him while he just laid there. He seemed pretty warm and friendly, just like the rest of them. The only thought that passed through my head at the time, other than 'get the hell out of here quickly,' was 'please don't take your needle and stab me with it and give me the HIV.' I should have realized the economic infeasability of that, because without enough money to buy lots of needles (and thus sharing them) they would never waste their precious life medicine.
We decided to go shopping yesterday for Halloween outfits, that was fun. Right next to the main train station there is a second hand clothing store that I guess is really popular with the Czech people because it is massive. It reminded me of the Japanese in Hawaii at an Armani Exchange sale, or a bunch of pidgeons plucking at a fountain. Unlike Americans, the Czechs choose not to organize their stuff. This means the only separation was 'kids clothes' and 'grown ups clothes.' Everything is either thrown in a pile, or hanging from a rack, and its not separated by color, size, gender, or even price (even though they claim it is). You can buy leather coats for 90 krown, and fur ones for 120 (approximately 20 krown to the dollar right now) which is pretty nice, and you can find some great Cosby sweaters. My 3 ideas, with help from Dillon, were Bill Cosby, Russian, or nuts. Dillon and another guy advised against dressing as a Russian for political reasons, so I think I may do that sometime in the future. I got bored looking at 1970s Soviet styled sweaters, so I decided to go with being absolutely ridiculous. We found what had to have been a women's small tank top that said 'everybody need somebody,' and what better way to start off looking totally ridiculous than with something like that. Although I was scared I would rip it when I got it on, it was surprisingly more comfortable than the previous, similar styled top. This one was more stretchy since it was all cotton, and didn't even cut off feeling to my arms, a definite plus. It was a little awkward after trying it on when a woman walked up to me and asked where she knew me from, only to realize that she is one of the yoga instructors at my studio here. Oh well, at least she thought it was downright hilarious, and I think she was also laughing at Dillon who was rolling on the floor dying after she asked me that question.
Having trouble finding any acceptable bottoms, someone grabbed me a pair of jorts which were, especially upon confirmation with some girls, definitely made for women. Women's jorts are even less comfortable than mens, and are fit differently so that they are quite painful. After a little bit of stretching them out, I finally got into them when we got home. Robert was appalled at our costumes: me in the most ridiculous outfit ever, and Dillon wearing super short neopreme briefs and tassles around his arms and legs only (he was a wrestler). When we walked into the restaurant in our building for drinks, every single person in the place stopped talking, looked at us, and starting laughing hysterically... and they couldn't even see my shirt at first. At the next bar, we only got the silence, until some random Czech guy jumped up and started screaming about how he loves Haloween and we are the only ones who celebrate it well. I ended up waiting outside of club and looking to my left last night, and realized "your an American, and not on my program, but are from Emory!" It was actually a guy that I was real good friends with freshman year, and I had no idea he was studying in Vienna. I joined his friends and went into a hotel, down a few flights of stairs, and walked into a massive underground club/bar. Again I go into a random building and find a huge underground complex: it's like this city has a whole city underneath it.
Today has been the most productive day possibly since I got here: I watched South Park, the Office, and typed this. Dillon claims this happened to him last year after Haloween too, and after reflection, I think I was the same way. The grocery a block away is waay too far from our couches, so we have both sat watching TV, slightly hungry, for the past few hours, too lazy to do anything. Everyone has those days.

PS: It's now 6pm and has been dark for almost 2 hours. Without a clock or watch, you might think it was 10pm outside.

PPS: I'm real glad there are no pictures from last night to post, although I'm sort of pissed that a girl did snap a picture of us.