Kristin spent a week in New York visiting the Evans clan, including the adorable Mr. Avi. She really enjoyed meeting her new nephew in person. He is so precious! And of course, spending time with Michaela and Matt. After a wonderful week in America, she headed back to Munich. On that Friday, we hosted about 30 of our German friends in our apartment for a house warming party. We had lots of beer, wine, and food (We stuck to the European style of mostly crackers, cheese, olives, etc.). Everyone loved our apartment and had a really great time. It was a great success! It was really nice to be able to host all of our friends who have been so helpful over the last few weeks.
Two days later we were at it again with the start of Oktoberfest! Or Wiesn, as it is known to the locals (after the name of the fairgrounds where it is held). Oktoberfest lasts 16 days every year in late September to early October. The very first Oktoberfest was held as a celebration for the wedding of King Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The 6 main breweries of Bavaria all have tents where they serve their "Wiesn" beer, which must be at least 6% alcohol. You get one liter of beer at a time, which is the equivalent of about 3 American beer bottles. Although they are called tents because they are temporary structures, they are huge and don't feel like "tents" at all. Every tent also has a live band. Until about 6 PM, the band plays quieter music, mostly traditional German music. Later in the evening, however, they play much more fun songs, including both German and American favorites. They love "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver haha. They also love "Sweet Caroline" and many others. We also have learned some of the words to a few of the German songs, which are also a lot of fun. When the music starts playing, everyone stands on the benches to dance. But, it's important to remember that dancing on the TABLES is not allowed, under any circumstances. It's benches only. All in all, we had a fantastic first Oktoberfest as locals.
Along with the housewarming party and Oktoberfest, we have also been busy working on our apartment, as we FINALLY received all of our stuff from America!! It's really nice to have all of our own dishes, glasses, clothes, photos, etc. The apartment is really starting to feel like home now. We still have a little more work to do, but it's definitely coming along nicely. We'll take some more photos and post them next week.
We have "intercultural" training all day Monday at Matt's office, so look forward to a great post about that in the next few days. Should be pretty interesting! haha Also, we're headed to Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday and we'll be there until Saturday. We're very excited for our next adventure and we promise to share photos on the blog when we get back.
Cheers,
Kristin and Matt
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