Name that tune! The band actually played that song (and many other cheesy favorites) at the HTL Ball in Waidhofen an der Ybbs which I attended on Saturday night. Waidhofen is a bit like Pella, Iowa: not very big but quaint and somehow well known. I was told it has a population of 6000 and yet there are at least three schools in town, two of which have nearly 1000 students apiece. And I thought the Austrians suffered from a declining population due to low birth rates? I was told that kids come to these schools from all over the surrounding region, which is mountainous and where, apparently, no one has anything to do except reproduce.
How did I end up at this ball, you ask? I went with Jung, a friend of mine who is in his second year as the English assistant at this HTL. We met for the first time this year at the assistants’ orientation seminar before the school year began. Jung is a (former) frat boy, but not the kind you loved to hate. He’s funny and open and genial. As an Asian American in a very homogenous place, he would have been noticed even without the magnetic personality. Due to those two facts, he’s a minor celebrity and, having been in the same place now for a year and a half, even people outside the school know him or at least know of him.
Being at the ball with Jung was a bit like being somewhere with my dad. Everyone under the age of 25 wanted to talk to him, so we were stopped every three feet by another group of students yelling out “Servus!” (Austrian for hey). I was there as arm candy (if I want to call myself that) and Jung’s boys were impressed with me, or so I was told afterward. Maybe it was because I straightened my hair? A couple of them were so swept off their feet that they kissed my hand in greeting—how genteel! Chivalry isn’t dead, at least not in Waidhofen an der Ybbs.
The balls here in Austria are a serious production, even at school. I’m guessing many of you are thinking of prom, which is very similar, but these balls have a little something else. There is the opening ceremony, for example, which involves tuxedoed guys and girls in white dresses processing around in complicated formations before dancing a waltz. The group of students that does this has to take a special class in order to be ready for it. At midnight the students also put on a show. The theme of this HTL ball was “Back to Mythology”, so the students built a Trojan horse (that five of them could actually fit into—this thing was at least 20 feet tall) and a sail boat and told the story of Odysseus’ travels, including cameos by Medusa and the Sirens. The show was a huge success, as you can probably imagine.
We did some dancing, but perhaps not as much as you’d think, seeing as were there from 8:30pm until 4am. There was a live band on the main floor (oh right—four stories to this thing and six bars) playing the aforementioned crowd pleasing music. People were waltzing continuously, even if the band wasn’t playing a waltz, and Jung and I felt a little out of place with our traditional version of American slow dancing. How is it that we Americans lost the art of dancing and reduced it essentially to a hug where you turn in circles? Why did we learn line dancing in gym class instead of waltzing? I guess your average American doesn’t waltz all that often, but still, it would have been nice to learn.
After the ball closed at 4am, we went to a couple different bars where the students like to hang out. We weren’t really feeling it though, due to all the smoke and the fact that neither of us were drunk (I was, in fact, completely sober pretty much the entire time), so we left and went to the café for breakfast where they always go after a night of partying. I think it was important for Jung to be there and show them all that what happened the year before at this same ball was a one time deal. I won’t embarrass Jung by telling you that story, which I learned in anecdotes throughout the night told by students and friends, but suffice to say he’s a former frat boy. We caught the 6:36am train back to Jung’s town (he lives 25 kilometers away in Amstetten), which we had to walk 15-20 minutes to catch! It was 15 degrees F and I was DYING. My legs turned all red and splotchy and it took them the entirety of the train ride home and a hot shower to return to normal color.
Jung’s other school has its ball this coming Saturday, but I think one was enough for a while. Besides I wouldn’t be a novelty anymore and they’ve already seen my dress.
