Weiz: Austrian prom and baaaaabyyyyyy.

For those of you who don't know [and if you don't...who are you and why are you here?!? just joshin', strangers are welcome here!], I spent my junior year of high school [2001-02] with a host family in Austria. Ten years later, they're probably regretting that decision, because they can't get rid of me. Weddings, the occasional Christmas, if I hear my host mom's making my favorite meal [Kaiserschmarrn!]...I drop by a lot.

This time I had two reasons: the younger of my two host sisters, Ali, was having her Maturaball, which is kind of like prom and graduation mixed together and multiplied by a thousand in terms of awesomeness; and the older one, Michi, had a baby last year! I had to meet my host nephew.

The entrance to Ali's school - the globe and Technikerball sign [she goes to a school with a technical focus] are for the event. A Maturaball [the Matura is the graduation exam in Austria] is like prom in that everyone dresses up fancy [well, I didn't dress up for my prom, but that's a different story] and dances; it's like graduation in that it's an event for the whole family and community, not just the graduates. And it's a thousand times more awesome because they usually decorate the whole school, and sometimes quite elaborately - not just a few streamers and silver balloons in the school gym where earlier that week you were getting hit in the face in dodgeball. They have several different bars [yes, with alcohol - yes, at a school function!] in various classrooms and areas with different kinds of music - in some places DJs and in others live bands. There's a restaurant. And it all goes on until 4 or 5 in the morning.

With Ali [the female graduates usually all wear white dresses - makes me feel like I'm attending several weddings at once] and Michi by the champagne bar. It was getting late by this point - we were all feeling a bit rough!

My host nephew Georg, who, I can say with complete honesty, is one of the most adorable babies I have ever met. I'm very lucky to have so many adorable babies in my life - and the luckiest part of that is that they're all other people's!

Around Weiz: Weizbergkirche, the church at the top of the hill in town. More importantly, right next door to my favorite bar, Luis [the bar's not quite as picturesque, though]. Luis, apparently, is also the only café-type-thing [besides McDonalds] in the entire town with wifi. Guess that concept hasn't really hit small-town Austria yet.