Festing

For the past 2 weeks we have been enjoying the German life of fall festing! Our first trip was to Bad Durkheim on Saturday the 13th. We started this trip off the same as we have lately...train difficulties, of course! Not too bad this time, we just missed our stop and realized it a half hour later. This time we are quite happy we did however because we met 3 other DoDDS teachers who we ended up staying with for the night. They showed us the way there and helped us make our way around the fest. The Wurstmarkt (Wine Fest) is the biggest wine festival in Germany. I have never experienced anything close to this! The fest is a big fair with lots of rides, all kinds of regional food specialties, along with traditional fest foods, and plenty to drink. Two large tents serve only wine (in 500 liter glasses) and another large tent serves both wine and beer. Traditional German music is played by bands in all of the tents, along with a few "American" songs here and there. The tents are lined with tables and benches full of people, which are most often being stood on. We met lots of other teachers there and had so much fun!!


This past weekend, Saturday the 20th, we made our way to Munich for Oktoberfest. Again, another amazing experience! We made it there with no train problems finally :) After getting off the train, we followed the flow of traffic to the main road where the parade was. We were able to get close enough to see the bands and horses pulling wagons for each beer brewer. It was beautiful. After the parade is finished, the crowds of people watching follow into the street and follow the parade to the fest. Lots and lots of people! When we got to the fest the 8 of us split up into 4 and 4 because there were way too many people to keep all of us together. It made it a lot easier to get into the tents and get through the crowds. We met up with some people there that one of the girls went to high school with. We spent the day in the beer garden, Hofbrau, with them. Saw all kinds of crazy outfits and the traditional Lederhosens and Dirndls, anything goes really. There were so many rides there, many I've never seen before. The girls got me to ride the swing ride, which was way higher than the ones in the US (see below!) After riding a few rides, eating some awesome food, and buying souvenirs we made our way back to Heidelberg. The train rides home are always long so I slept most of the way.


I am still loving my 6th graders! They make me laugh everyday. The teachers I am working with are also awesome! So many great ideas and very willing to work with special education students. I have seen them make great modifications for the students in special education to make them successful in the general education classroom without making them stick out or having to be pulled out. I am just starting to take over the social studies, math, and language arts classes. I've been spending most of my Sundays or after school during the week grading papers :(

We just found a nice market that is bike riding distance away that we've been going to that has lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. The apple orchard is my favorite; the apples taste amazing! We also try and make it to the gym that is on base. After a month without TV we have finally got a DVD player so we are able to watch movies now, but not actual TV, which is fine with me because I love movies. One of my teachers is a huge movie buff and has tons of movies and she brings in all kinds for us. We have already watched a couple seasons of TV shows, along with quite a few movies.

All 8 of us are leaving Friday for Amsterdam. I am looking forward to getting away for the weekend! We have a few things planned already for while we are there but I will post the details later. I hope everyone has a great week! Love and miss you all!!