A Lovely Night

 Whew, the whole day went by so fast. We had last minute things to do like filming Lainey and myself carrying our dresses into the apartment, the boys picking up their tuxes, doing our last lesson, etc. In our last class, we learned how to do reverse turns which turned Ben from an ok dancer to a legit waltzer. I was so impressed. I really floated around the corners of the room. We were pretty stoked to get to this ball after class. Lainey and I returned to the flat to get ready while the boys horsed around in the living room. While putting on our dresses, my zipper broke (perfect for reality tv right?!) and Lainey had to sew me into the dress. Thank god I brought sewing materials right? This made us really late for call time. I kept calling Marcus into the room to film what we were doing and Ben had to make me eggs so I could eat something while being sewn in. I am sure that footage will look pretty ridiculous! Once I was sewn in, we put on our masks and did the "reveal" of dates. The boys had shaved their faces and were wearing their penguin suits. Everyone looked very sexy indeed. We were considered VIP so we got to enter the ball early and take some pictures before anyone got there. Here I am with Ben.

This is the only shot I have with our masks on. We look like a team though. The boys commented on how nice our masks were and how ordinary the other ladies' masks were, which made us feel even more special. The ball was very regal and we couldn't see ANY of it because we were so short. We drank some champagne and I know the camera crew got footage so we'll just have to wait to see everything. We participated in the Quadrille which is a line dance, but in ball gowns. It gets faster each time and we were pretty much screaming because we didn't know which way to go. But it was great fun! 

 And here we are post mask. We didn't get to waltz nearly as much as we had hoped. The floor was SO crowded and pretty much everything we learned had to be minimized. Literally, people were purposefully running into other people. Pretend there's no floor craft. Ben was very nice in making sure I was safe, and we both played traffic cop. We even danced some lindy and balboa, though to very random songs.

Most famous chocolate cake, waltz, and driving Jonathan nuts

This morning we woke up, did some waltzing practice in the apartment, and even critiqued the other couple. We even "judged" them with Olympic ratings. Lainey and Jonathan didn't even give us anything above a 7! We then went as a group to cafe Sacher, a famous place for the world's most famous chocolate cake. I was a little wary as it is a tourist trap, but I am an elitist and didn't want to miss out on this. I had read that some found the cake to be overrated and dry, but I was pleasantly surprised and even happy. We discussed how it WASN'T too dry. Yeah, torte!

 We also got some Bohemian pancakes with plums! Everyone shared at the table. We also got special coffee drinks because Vienna has a rich history with coffee (ok, I got hot chocolate)

 We then headed to St. Stephen's cathedral to climb the tower (over 300 steps and I counted them all which annoyed Jonathan so he punched me in the neck) and then into the cathedral. I think it's sad but I don't think we've been in another church this whole trip. How odd for a  trip to Europe.

The roof is the most iconic thing about this church and is the symbol of Vienna. After the church, we went to our first private lesson for waltz and the teacher was amazing. Since we all already had dance training, we could focus on technique, like taking bigger steps, the ladies pushing back to the men like a conversation, and frame work.

After the lesson, we bugged Lainey about going back to the sausage man, had dinner, did recaps (Jonathan with me, Lainey with Ben so we could talk about each others' partners) rehearsals (MUCH BETTER) and Friends marathon! We're all exhausted but so excited about tomorrow night!

Messing up lines and first Waltz class

This morning we were given a choice; wake up early and leave to see the Summer Palace by 8 Am, or meet with the group at 9:30 in town. Since I don't know when I'll be in Vienna again, I got up early. Ben did his intro at the summer palace. It was nice to go early, but again, it was a sight we saw only from the outside. Once he finished and we did our walking segment, we hopped back on the tram to the city center to do my intro….

with Mozart. Since I had told Jonathan that I am a pianist, I really wanted to speak about how Vienna is the capital of music. I kept screwing up my lines and it was really frustrating to me. Almost the point of sending cast members off set just because I didn't want pressure to be good….I always feel like I take the longest time to finish my segments, and Marcus always has to reassure me that I take the shortest time. He DID however have to yell at me once to get me out of my funk. He gets me! We did lunch, then headed over to an ice rink. But it wasn't an ordinary rink as it was more of a track with many different labyrinth pathways. Jonathan surprised us all when he showed off his finesse on the ice. Ben couldn't really participate as it hurt his feet. 

We also passed this bizarre horse headed accordion player. He was really good….and wearing a horse mask. Class was easy, but beneficial for us all. We learned about basic positioning and half turns. I already started to feel like a princess, though dancing with Ben is a little more difficult than dancing with Jonathan due to height. It's nothing I can't work with though. 

On the way home, a sausage vendor who we have seen for 2 days, came out of his "sausage box" and gave Lainey a rose. Jonathan said that accepting a rose is like accepting a proposal. We teased her the whole way home. 

And we were so happy tonight during our friends marathon when we finally stacked Jonathan! We bolted out of slumber and said 'who put spinach on the couch?!'