Wie bitte?

Here's how I spent my Valentine's day:

Slept in until about 10 in the morning. Took my time getting ready and ate breakfast.

Left my dorm at around noon. Got on U-bahn and went down to Ringstrasse, which is a street that circles around the Inner district. The OK program did a walking tour of the city, which I missed since I am not in the program. So I thought I would just do it myself. Ringstrasse has most of the important buildings in Vienna, i.e. Parliament, Rathaus (City hall), and Museums Quarter. All the buildings were big and beautiful, and there was ice skating in front of the Rathaus. I thought I would feel lonely walking around by myself on Valentine's day, but instead I learned an important thing- I enjoy my own company. I was alone but not lonely, even when I saw couples ice skating hand-in-hand. All this week, I was constantly asked why I didn't join the OK program. At the time of registration, it was because I knew I had a whole semester to do all those things myself. But as people continued to ask, I began to get worried- did I really want to do all that by myself? My stroll taught me that I don't mind it. In fact, I had fun.

I ended my walk with a visit to the Natural History Museum. For some reason, it's a must-do for me. If I'm gonna do museums and the city has a natural history museum, that's the one I almost always choose. None can quite live up to the standard that New York's Natural History museum sets, but this one was OK. Because it was Valentine's Day, I sent myself a "be mine" card in the form of a Melange coffee and Apple Strudel. It was delicious.

By then though, my feet were in dire need of rest, so I hopped the metro back to my dorm. Instead of going in though, I took the bus that gets me from the metro station to the dorm and stayed on past my stop, just to see where it went. It was useful, as I found several bigger and better supermarkets on the line. Again, because it was Valentine's day, I bought a bottle of wine and some Milka chocolate. =)

I ended my day with pizza, sharing the kitchen with some Pakistani guys who were making a traditional meal. They let me try it and I told them how we really don't all ride horses in Texas. My roommate and neighbors then finally got home, bearing gifts in the form of more wine and more chocolate. An hour later, other exchange students had joined us and we stayed up late just chatting, drinking wine, and eating chocolate.

All in all, a lovely day.