Some Birthday Fun...and Snow!

My birthday was this past Saturday, and my sweet friend Nora planned a wonderful celebration with some of our friends, a night of Mexican food and dancing in Vienna.  The weather was beyond gross, cold and rainy which then eventually turned over to snow, but we had a really great time.  I still can't quite get past the mix of languages when someone orders "zwei tacos" but this food was definitely the most authentic I've had the whole time I've been here...I had apparently just not been asking the right people!

some of the girls

every birthday should include being slightly terrified of a giant flaming dessert

And then...after a bit of a dusting of snow Saturday night into Sunday...Sunday night into Monday the snow continued so that this was our drive to school Monday morning.   

The leaves are still colorful and on the trees!

Now, as you can hopefully see in this picture, this wasn't just a slight dusting...this is some actual snow.  The forecast however, just seemed to causally mention "oh yeah, and maybe it will snow", and everyone seemed totally satisfied with that.  I guess here there's less of the obsessing on the maps where the 2 inch line versus the 4 inch line is...just oh there's snow...deal with it.  So deal with it we did...slipping our way up the mountain to school, but we made it just fine. 

This was actually taken today on our way up to school...the vineyards covered in snow

And now the clouds are moving out, and we could see the mountains again!  It's actually been a while, we've had quite a bit of fog recently blocking this view way out over the city.

And yes, while a lot of life is very picturesque...this is the view most of my days...in class, with my notebook and a pen...this is actually in microeconomics class during a break...I wasn't really snapping pictures during class.

Busy week this week, but we do have a holiday on Thursday, so class-wise it isn't terrible, just lots and lots of other things going on!  

Glad everyone back in NYC, CT and DC seem to have weathered the storm ok, some still without power, but thankfully no major damage.  Thinking of those that weren't quite as lucky, and hoping for a quick cleanup.