Guten Tag

Everything is still going great in Germany. My class is great, and I'm getting to know the other students really well. Besides me, the class is composed of 3 Mexicans, 3 Swiss (French speaking Swiss if you were wondering the same thing that I was when I heard this,) and 3 Chinese. So I'm the only native English speaker, but conveniently they all speak some English. On weekends the school offers free excursions to locations in the area. This last weekend we visited the Bodensee, a large lake in southern Germany that also borders Austria and Switzerland. There is an Island in the lake that has a little palace on it, and there is a botanical garden that surrounds it. Only a few dying roses and surprisingly lovely dahlias remained for our cold hike around the island. But, there was a green house filled with butterflies, plants, and birds that was really cool. Next weekend we're going to an old university town in the area called Karlsruhe. It should be fun also. That's all for now. Bis spaeter!

by Stuttgart...

On Monday a place was found for me in an intensive language school in a little town called Horb am Neckar which is close to Stuttgart in southwest Germany. I'm staying with a very nice host family here, and I attend classes about 5 hours a day. Today was my first day, and it went pretty well. I feel I'm at the right level, and can see that this will be beneficial. I plan on only being here for four weeks, and I hope to be flying back in time for Christmas. On another note, here are a few pics from Oktoberfest again. The first one is proof that I didn't just google Oktoberfest and post some random pics. Thats me right there with Franziska, my host brother's girlfriend, and my other friend Steiny.

The second pic features the typical german behavior of text messaging. These were the guys that were nice enough to get to the tent early to reserve a table for the group. More interesting is the Oompa/folk/cover band in the back. They played a crazy mixture of music. I also like the cool wreaths, lights, and streamers hanging from the ceiling.

That's pretty much it for interesting Oktoberfest pictures. Wish I had my own camera, but I still got a lot of nice pictures. Guess I'll just have to go back again with a camera if I want more, oh fiddle sticks.

Back again...

Sorry for the pause after Oktoberfest, I've been waiting for some pictures to post and I don't have a camera, so I just have to get pictures from other people. I had a really nice time at Oktoberfest, and it was much bigger than I ever expected. The whole Oktoberfest field is largely empty for most of the year, but they begin preparing for Oktoberfest about 2 months in advance. There are huge tents for each the 6 main Munich breweries which sell the food and beer. I believe there are also tents for Champagne and wine too. The tents are also surrounded by hundreds of other food vendors, carnival games, and park rides. We went on a roller coaster while we were there, and then headed into the Spaten tent. It's one of the brands that is most commonly seen exported to the States. I think we spent about 7 hours in the tent, where I had a couple Maß of beer and shared a pretzel. Here is where most of the pictures are from.

This first picture is of the Statue Bavaria, the goddess of the area I guess. She's actually very massive. This was our meeting point for the day.


I believe the entire La Crosse Oktoberfest could easily fit in one of these tents. After that we walked around the grounds at night to see it all lit up. It was very cool looking, but I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. This is also when I ate a half meter bratwurst. We headed back to the apartments at about 10:30, so it wasn't a totally crazy night. Even though the train workers were on strike the next day, my 2 trains were unaffected, so I made it home safe.



This second picture is of the friend of my host brother's girlfriend. She was the one who lived in Munich and was the only one sporting a Dirndl, plus the classic "stein" action makes for a great picture.

The final picture to the right kind of gives the scope of the tent, this is about 30% of the tent that we could get into the shot with a bunch of drinking people and the food windows in the back. I'll add more pictures later but this post is getting a little crowded. Plus, it's my host brother's birthday today, so we'll be eating cake soon. Hope everyone is fine over there, and I'll talk to you all soon.

Oktoberfest!

Hey guys! I just found out last night that my host brother's girlfriend will be making a trip to Munich to celebrate her friend's birthday, so I quickly made plans this morning to take the train with her there, and I'll be staying in Jenny's host sister's apartment since she goes to school there and it'll be unoccupied until she moves to her new apartment in a few weeks for the start of the new school year. So I'll be at Oktoberfest from Wednesday until Friday. I'm glad to be going with her because I don't think going there by myself would be any fun. Not much else has been going on. The eldest brother Felix (my host brother) is in Saudi Arabia doing an internship at a law office there. The middle brother Andreas is starting his first year at college in Darmstadt, and the youngest Florian has already started his 8th grade year. I hope to have a great time at Oktoberfest, but don't plan on doing much drinking there. A liter of beer will cost about $11, so I'm planning on having only one so I can say I did, but you can buy half liters at the supermarket for $.90 so saving the party for home is much more economical. I hope many of you came down to La Crosse's Oktoberfest. And if Jill came home for it, I hope Jenny went out with you to carry on our tradition. Many greetings from over here, and hope to see you all soon.