Homesickness isn't like the Measles

I always expected that I wouldn't get that homesick once I went off too college. I'd been homesick on and off for SA and my family my last year of high school, and considered myself having enough practice with it. But homesickness isn't like the measles. Once one gets it, they are not then inoculated against it.

I was looking at pictures of people from Vienna, out in the first district (the old city). That was my favorite part of the city. Where I'd roam weekend nights invariably cold, in noisy shoes, reeking of cigerretes, with the smell of cold and horse shit in my noise. Looking for fun I guess. Something memorable. The familiar. I also miss kissing people on the cheek in greeting (once on each cheek), not being sure if I'll get past the bouncer, the territorial nature of people in clubs, the cold politeness, the type of rudeness. I miss chatting to taxi drivers on my way home, avoiding eye contact with other passengers on trams, barely making the last bus home, sending and receiving SMSs as I drift into sleep. "Where were you tonight?" Alot of my experiences I feel I can't communicate to anyone, other than via e-mail (they were there). I doubt anyone here cares to hear about how the stars looked in the box created by the platz you got to when you walked from Waxies to Schottentor via Judenplatz. My favorite ice cream place on Schwedenplatz, where the service was terrible, but the chocolate ice cream made me feel like heaven was in my mouth. And rightly so. There's nothing more annoying than people going on about their high school (so I'm told). Though sometimes I wish my friends would tell me more about their high school experience, because in many ways it was so different from mine.

I am certainly infatuated with New College, but still in love with Vienna I guess. If that makes sense without coming out too trite (emotions are cliché anyway).

Sunday Afternoon Sail

This afternoon I didn't want to go sailing, but Nina made me. I was tired, and still am. I had a lot of work to do, and I still do. But I went. We hustled a bike for Katie to borrow and set off to find someone to take us sailing. All Nina's usual sail buddies were away or occupied with parents. So, I suggested we go down to Sail Club anyway and maybe we'd find someone to take us, which just so happened to be the case.
At sail club we found three second-years that were kind enough to agree to take us out with them. They had the disclaimer that there were holes in their sail boat they were supposed to use plugs to close, but they were using duct tape instead. My companions at this point started to mumble the "I don't know"s, but I was all for going, the idea of having to bail water at the time didn't seem... not alright to me for some reason. Water was actually bailed using a pudding cup.
Initially being out in the boat was very chill. It was pretty, but it was mostly just pretty, and my panorama was also being blocked by the smaller sail. It also looked to be a very short trip, and not much worth mentioning was going to happen. That was until somehow the wind wasn't letting us get back to Sail Club. Then a small storm moved over where we were trying to go (Sail Club, John Ringling building, New College), so the plan was to wait it out on the bay. While all this was happening a couple of fast loud boats passed us, and the Coast Guard yelled at us over their mega-phone to put on our life jackets, as the waters to the North (incidently we had to go that way to get back) were rough. At the time I was thinking, "don't they have anything better to do?", but it turned out just as well. The water to the North was pretty choppy, we hit a couple of waves, and we almost capsized a few of times. That's about when the storm we had been trying to wait out, decided to pass over us. The water got very choppy, more almost capsizing, and girlish screams and yelps (not necessarily from the girls on board) eminated from some of the less experienced members of the expedition.
Finally the storm stopped, the bay calmed, and sopping wet from rain and sea water we made our slow meandering way back to Sail Club. The wind decided to play games, and not only be slow, but once we got the closest we'd got to getting back that afternoon it was either barely there or blowing the wrong way. It seemed intent on blowing us off course. The people on shore later told us we looked funny struggling back to the Sail Club beach, which I doubt any of us found funny.
Basically we made it back alive thanks to the competence of our primary sailor. There were six of us in the boat, but he was pretty much the only one who knew what he was doing. We got worried sometimes about being dumped in the sea, and miserable with the wind keeping us from getting back, but over all it was quite the Sunday afternoon adventure. However, I don't know when next I'll voluntarily get into a sail boat. I doubt unless something seriously goes wrong next time it will match up to this first time of mine in a little boat with a sail.