A Little Competition in London

As I mentioned before briefly, a team of 5 of us that I study with here in my MSc program formed a team and applied for the Hult Prize Competition this year.  We found out in early January that our team had been selected to compete in the London regional finals the first weekend of March.  While we were super excited for the opportunity, that meant we pretty much dropped everything else to work on coming up with a sustainable social enterprise to help address the issue of non-communicable diseases in urban slums worldwide.  We basically lived at school for 6 weeks or so thinking of nothing else, and then finally we took off for London to present our idea to a panel of judges among a 2 day program of activities put on by the Hult people.  

Since one of our team members had never been to London, and the rest of us hadn't been in a while, we decided to go a day early and play tourist.  Obviously with this being London it was entirely possible that we would be trudging around in the rain for 4 days, but instead we had ridiculously picturesque spring weather the whole time.

We spent most of Thursday just walking around, stopping here and there for a coffee or a bit of shopping, and lots and lots of photos.

One huge bonus to being in London was getting to see this girl!  She was a camper of mine at Shiloh, so while in my head she might still be that little 11 year old at summer camp, she's now 19 and studying abroad for the semester in London so she was able to join us for dinner.

Friday's official program didn't begin until the afternoon so we spent the morning making some final edits to our presentation and getting in a nice stroll in the sunshine.

Our team's photo, sadly our 5th teammate wasn't able to join us in London for the actual presentation.  While it did seem like some teams only formed for the purpose of this competition, our cohort is a fairly small one here in Vienna and we do lots of projects together in some combination or another so the photographers seemed sort of surprised when we we posed for our photo and looked like a group that's used to being together.

 

Saturday was the official presentation day, and then all the groups headed to the British Museum for the final round of presentations and a reception afterwards

Only one team from this London final made it past this stage, and no, it wasn't our team.  The whole process was a wonderful experience though.  Our project is something we hope to continue to develop once we're done writing our thesis and have a bit of time to spare hopefully.

Sunday morning, the three of us girls took off for another half day of sightseeing while Klaus and his cool fold-able bike began the journey through the English countryside for a few days and eventually to Brussels to then catch the train back to Vienna.

Back in Vienna the weather hasn't been too shabby either.  It's making sitting in the library and working increasingly difficult, but thankfully there is still some time for enjoying the weather.

One of the perks to the Prater having no entry fee...when you and a friend are on your way somewhere and cutting through the Prater is the fastest way there, it is totally possible to just stop and ride one ride quickly...

Friends with roof decks which overlook the Prater are pretty awesome as well.  Beautiful views over the whole city, although there is the odd screaming every once in a while as people launch themselves on these bungee catapult things or any number of other rides. 

 

And finally our MSc semester kickoff evening on this roof.  I think we're getting spoiled being able to be out on the roof at night in March, but we'll take it!

Other than that it's still pretty much just reading and writing for me these days, although an Easter break trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina has been finalized so it's giving me a nice little deadline for myself which should be helpful.  

"Alles Walzer!"

Once again last night, while standing in a large crowd watching the opening of the Rudolfina Redoute Ball at the Hofburg, someone who had already established by talking to my other friends that we were all studying here in Vienna heard me speaking English and asked me where I was from.  "The U.S." I replied.  "Well yes, obviously, but where?" "New York." "Then why are you living in Austria?!".  My friend did kindly point out that I in fact have recently come up with an entire list to answer just such a question, but seriously, we're all here in the grand ballroom of a palace, dressed in formal wear, listening to fantastic music and dancing...why would I be anywhere else?   

There are about 450 balls which take place over the course of a Viennese ball season, most of which take place in January and February before Lent.  This 2014 season marks the 200th anniversary since the Congress of Vienna, when the Viennese waltz was at the absolute height of fashion, so this year has also been marked as some sort of official year of waltzing.    

While these various balls are held in a number of beautiful venues all around town, the two I attended this year were both held in the Hofburg downtown, which I was just fine with.  Each ball seems to have it's own feel to it, between the choices of music, the decorations and the guests making up the party.

At the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Ball.  There were just about 4,000 people in attendance, with a dozen or so ballrooms and other spaces hosting live bands playing a huge range of music for everyone to dance to all night.  At one point we were dancing and singing along to a live (and quite good) cover of Love Shack in the Radetzky apartments...if that at all helps to round out your idea of what a ball is.

The Austrian portion of the opening festivities

And the traditional opening (hopefully the video below works)

It is easy to get caught up in all the fun and dancing and sort of forget that you are in fact in this ridiculously grand imperial space.  

The main Festsaal

This is the cover of one of the Sunday papers just over a week ago.  The Opera Ball last week turned into something even more exciting than usual, between Kardashian drama and fist fights between grown men in white bow ties and tails (this paper is from before all that unfolded). 

And then last evening, with a perhaps more distinctly Carnival feeling, was the Rudolfina Redoute where all the ladies wear masks until midnight.

The opening processional

Alles Walzer!  It really is so mesmerizing to watch everyone spin perfectly in sync all sorts of colors of long dresses floating around the room.  I really do need to practice this particular skill more.

One of the other ballrooms near the Festsaal, fun fact about this room...apparently this is where Napoleon asked for the hand of Maria Louise, one of the Habsburg daughters. Not sure they could have imagined we'd be dancing to contemporary music with multicolored lights in here in 2014.

And of course, being in a palace does not mean there cannot also be a "Heurigen" inside, complete with the accompanying food, drinks, and music.

And after midnight the masks were able to come off!  Such a fun evening, I will never turn down a night to get dressed up and dance around a palace.

The other side of the Hofburg in daylight.  I never tire of walking past or through this complex of buildings.  It is beautiful day and night from any angle.

I had to rush a bit to go through these photos and post this as we're packing and making last minute adjustments to our presentation for our competition in London this weekend.  One more day of preparations tomorrow and then we're off very early Thursday morning.  We've allotted a bit of tourist time on the front and back ends of this trip, and then it will be back to Vienna for some serious thesis work!