Oktoberfest in Munich

It’s hard to believe I’m already in my third week here in Germany. This past weekend we went to Munich for the day since all the hotels were either super expensive or booked because of Oktoberfest. We got there around 11am and headed straight to Oktoberfest even though it was pouring. It was quite a fun and eventful day! Email me if you want the long version. I don’t have time to write it all now sine I’m on my lunch break. But it was crazy and I am so glad we went! We took a train home around 2 am which was AWFUL since it took 9 hours (the way there it only took 4) and we had 5 transfers. We arrived back to base around 11:30 am Sunday morning, very haggard and very tired. I slept all day, woke up ate dinner then went back to sleep.

Work has been good. I am in a single ratio room so I am usually by self with the kids which has it’s ups and down. Sometimes it would be nice to have another teacher to talk to or help. My kids are pretty well behaved though. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to the pumpkin patch!

This coming weekend we are going to… PARIS. I couldn’t be more excited. The forecast says it is supposed to rain but I am really hoping that it doesn’t because that would be terrible! I am excited to stay in our first hostel too, we are staying at the Aloha Hostel. We are only able to go for 2 days so hopefully we can fit everything in that time. I’ll take lots and lots of pictures.

Today was a fairy tale

We survived our first week of work! I found out that I will be working in one of the pre-school rooms. I met the kids on Friday, but the lead teacher was out sick so I didn’t get to meet him. There are only 9 kids so it doesn’t seem like it going to be too crazy! This week we also made it to the gym which is really nice, it’s about a mile and a half away though. The first day we walked and the second we decided to ride bikes. After work on Friday we went with one of the girls Ashley to her friends house for a birthday party. It ended up being really fun and it was cool to see what German houses look like. On our way back we got stopped for a random check at the base gate where we show our ID’s. They made us all get out of the car and they searched our whole car including the hood and also let a drug dog smell around the whole car. Ashley who was driving had to show one of the guys all our documents and Liz and stood on the curb freezing talking to one of the soldiers who was from Georgia. After we decided to see what the bars on base look like but they looked like they were closed. It was really weird since it was only around midnight.

For our first trip in Germany Liz and I headed to Heidelberg yesterday. We had no clue how the train system but we ended up not having any problems. We bought tickets from the automated machine and we were on our way. Once we arrived in Heidelberg we took a bus to Old Town Heidelberg and walked around all the shops and restaurants. It was so cute and pretty! All the streets were cobblestone and they were so many cool things to look out. We saw about 5 brides too, I guess here after they get married they hang out in the city square to drink champagne and celebrate. Kind of weird. After exploring for a little bit Liz and I decided we had to get Doner Kebabs for lunch. They were so good and filling! After we walked up the 350 stairs (we opted out of paying for a tram)to the castle in Heidelberg. It was really pretty, nothing like I had ever seen before. We walked around, took lots of pictures and then headed back down into town. We went to a cute little bar later that had a tree inside and had a few beers. It was about 7 and we had been in Heidelberg for around 8 hours so we decided to head home. On the train back we met a really cute and nice local boy and he even gave us his number and invited us to his hometown in Germany and said he would show us around and what not. I am sure I am leaving lots out but I don’t want this to turn into an essay. All of the roommates are going to a huge wine festival today which should be fun!

And here are pictures from yesterday

Hello from Germany!

After all the waiting and excitement, I am FINALLY in Germany. It basically took FOREVER to get here. But definitely worth it. Liz and I got to SFO around 2ish on Saturday, no problems. We met 2 of the other camp a girls at the airport Ashley and Katie. Liz and actually ended up being randomly seated by Ashley which was cool since we could talk especially since the movie system wasn’t working on the plane for the first like 5 hours! The plane ride was long, we had dinner, some Spanish wine, finally got to watch a few movies and then we had breakfast even though is was about 2am CA time and none of us could sleep at all.

Then we had our 6 hour layover in London which is a huge airport with tons of stores like Gucci, Prada, and Tiffany. It was really weird. We pretty much just laid on the chairs and tried to sleep while we were there.

Then we had a short 1 and a half hour flight to Frankfurt which was fine. After our flight we couldn’t find one of the other camp a girls and we didn’t up leaving the airport till like 9:30pm even though our flight got in at 7:20. Once we got outside it was pouring and dark. Then we had to pick up our PC’s rental car and get gas. It seemed like we were never going to get to base. We finally got to base around 11:30 we met our Point of Contact who showed us our apartments and told us she would meet us at 9am the next day. Our apartment is pretty nice we have tons of things and appliances and a washer and dryer. Liz and are sharing a room, our bed sheets are pretty gross though so we’re thinking we will have to go buy some new ones. Here are some pictures from the trip and at the airport.

Today we got our base id’s and then went to the German grocery store which was quite the adventure. It was really hard to figure out what certain things were and how many calories and fat were in things. Hopefully grocery shopping will get easier as we go along. I’m really hoping though someone at work will offer to take us to the commissary on base which is way cheaper and it is mostly American food. We start training tomorrow so hopefully that goes well! Miss everyone and can’t wait for the adventures to come.