New York - Feel the City

Last weekend, my school had a ball. The theme was New York City - and, of course, as the American in residence, I found it rather amusing.

The decorations were great. The Midnight Show (sort of a variety act the 5th year students directed and performed) was adorable - about this little Austrian girl who goes off to the big city and  gets into a production of Fame.

The venue was the sports hall across from the school. And the one thing that totally freaked me out was the drinking -  even though I should be aware of this by now. Seeing as kids can drink at 16 in Austria, they are going to...I was just a bit taken aback by how much they drank at a school function.

And smoked.   I felt like a strip of bacon by the end of the night. And smelled like an  ashtray.  

And there was not much dancing - except by the old people doing the waltz. Mostly it was just standing around with a beer or  glass of wine and listening to the band - there was a live band!

But it was enjoyable nonetheless.

 Here are the pictures I took of all of the great decorations.

There are also some pics of what most people did all night - stand around.

guy in Lederhosen

There is also a great one of this guy in his Lederhosen. Yes, in Austria some people really do wear their Trachten as formal wear. They are typically older, conservative people. But there were plenty of ladies in Dirndl wandering around. Most of the teenage girls wore American-style prom dresses...appropriately enough.

Subway - to hell?

my camera also had something to drink ;)

People *actually* dancing!!!

And finally: the Liberty Cafe. I sort of supervised/helped out here for a bit at the end of the night. I was kind of surprised how many people came to drink coffee at 3am - but perhaps I shouldn't have been!

Also, the overabundance of Statues of Liberty at the dance reminded me of my own Junior Prom, whose theme was "Paris in the Moonlight" and where there was an overabundance of Eiffel Towers as well. It seems national monuments can spontaneously multiply if they figure in a school dance theme...

Statue of Liberty #7?