OKTOBERFEST

So, I survived! Here in a rundown of the weekend:

Friday: Woke up at 5 am to make my 8 am flight. Verryyy early. My travel partners in crime were: Alison, Marisa (alias: "downtown riz"), and Henry, all CC students. We sleepily boarded the airplane and two hours later, we arrived in Germany! We made our way to our very nice hotel, checked in, and after exploring downtown Munich, we headed to the Hofbrauhaus. For a vegetarian, German food is a nightmare. They offered three vegetarian options: salad, potatoes, or pretzels. Alison and Marisa split a boiled pig knuckle....sounds appetizing, right? I had a delicious potato and we all had our first steins of the trip. After our lunch of singing songs and making friends with the people sitting around us, we headed to the Residenz Museum and had our educational fill. The museum was absolutely gorgeous..beautiful architecture. After that, we wandered around Munich more, and stopped at an outdoor restaurant for some apple strudel. It was incredible! We then went back to the hotel, put on some warm clothes (finally, it was cold!) and headed back to the Hofrauhaus for more steins, music, dancing, and fraternizing. Henry made some very nice Dutch friends, and one gave me a fake flower. We picked up a refugee from our IES Barcelona program who had been separated from her friends, her iphone had been stolen, she had no money, and none of her credit cards/ATM cards worked because she had not told her bank she'd be in Germany. Her name was Annie and she was a trooper. We went back to the hotel and went to bed early to get ready for our big day on Saturday...

Preface to Saturday: At Oktoberfest, if you are not familiar, they have huge Beer Tents, which can hold thousands of people. These beer tents are packed with people, and are impossible to get into unless you have a reservation...or unless you go very very early. With that being said, read on..

Saturday: Alison woke us up at 6 am, so we could be at the Beer Tent by 7 am to stand in line with Oktoberfest's finest. Our beer tent was called "Schutzen Festzelt"...which very quickly became known as "Shoots and Ladders" because we could not pronounce German. The tent opened at 8:30, and we were served our first steins at 9 am, on the dot. I really can't explain to you the atmosphere in those tents..it's unlike anything I have ever seen before! There are people everywhere and they're all extremely happy, extremely drunk, and want to become your best friend. Our tent was not a tourist tent, so we really got to experience the authentic German Oktoberfest. We danced on the tables and sang songs all day with our new German friends. The popular songs were the German National Anthem (which was played probably every ten minutes, and you had to stand with your stein and cheers---"Prost"-- everyone around you), a German song about animals, "Hey Baby," John Denver's "Country Roads," and a few other hits. It was really quite the experience. I talked politics with a German man for almost two hours. His brother actually studied abroad in Cincinnati during high school! He went to Roger Bacon high school for his Junior year. My German friend, Lambertz, was telling me about the "most amazing chili" that his brother brought home with him...yes my friends, he was talking about Skyline. At about 4 in the afternoon, we decided it was time for a nap and headed back to the hotel and slept for a few hours. That night, we went out to dinner and then went back to sleep, for we were all so tired from the day's activities!

Sunday: Woke up around 9 am, went to go find breakfast at a coffee shop, and debated what we should do...should we go to more museums, or go back to Oktoberfest? Well...I bet you can guess what we did. We went back to the fairy tale land known as Oktoberfest for round two. We went to meet up with Henry's high school friend in the Hofbrauhaus tent. What a different experience than Shoots and Ladders! This was an entirely tourist tent and you could tell, but it was still a great time. More dancing, friend making, the works. In the afternoon we explored the carnival side of the fest. There were rides and roller-coasters, food stands, and vendors selling Oktoberfest garb. I don't understand how the Germans can drink all day and ride a flippy-twisty-spinny ride..but they manage, somehow. My friends went back to "Shoots and Ladders," but I was a little beer-tented-out, so I split off from the gang and walked around Munich by myself. It's such a nice place! We all met up, got on the train to the airport, and then flew back to Barcelona. We didn't get in until midnight and I am one tired girl. I picked up a very nice head cold which I am dealing with now. Thanks, Germany! It was so nice to come back to my homestay. Maria was SO happy to have me back, and (after charging me one Euro for a packet of tissues) she made me tea and served me delicious food that was not a pretzel or a potato.

Germany really made me more confident in my Spanish speaking abilities. German was so different than anything I had ever heard before. Street names were at least 6 syllables long! It all sounded like throaty gibberish and it was a little overwhelming at times. I thought everyone was angry. The Germans are great people though, at least the ones that we met. Very friendly, outgoing, and patient. They want to practice their English, so they're more than happy to talk to you. They offer a lot of hospitality, which is quite different than many of the Spaniards I've encountered here in Barcelona. Even though it was very clear I was a tourist, I didn't feel like I was imposing on anyone..which is how I feel all the time here in Barce. Anyways, back to my main point of this paragraph, although at times I feel like I am lost when I speak Spanish, I realized that I actually known a decent amount and can get around well. I am excited to continue my studies and work hard to learn this language.

Enjoy the videos I posted. I think that's the only way you can really get the grasp of the tents. Sorry if they're a little shaky, it's hard to videotape while dancing on a table!

That's all I got. It is time for me to get to bed and sleep off this cold. This is my first five day week of school since arriving to Barcelona. It's going to be rough!

On a more serious note, this weekend I head to London to visit a good friend who suffered from a terrible fall off a balcony and is in the hospital with pretty serious injuries. Please keep this friend in your thoughts and prayers.

Hope all is well with you, blog reader.