Oktoberfest pictures

Haha, nuber one or number two? The men's restrooms in one of the beer halls . . .

These were amazing!

This guy had 29 and then 1 1/2 later had 33, insane!!!

Trying to lift steins, they were so heavy and Bec was able to lift FIVE . . . WITH ONE HAND!!!

Yummy gingerbread hearts with sweet sayings, given to those you love!

Lol, yummy!!! Love that food!

Munchen!!!

some local German kiddos enjoying the fair games and rides. Are they not just the most adorable!?!

Hey, if hostels and hotels are full, one's got to sleep somewhere!?! Under cars . . . or perhaps the bathrooms!?! Lol, ick!

Oh my! Haha . . .

Free cookie! So yummy too!

Lol, another aussie, me, and Bill

Beer hall maidens! Bless their hearts . . . I would never want that job! O_O

Bec and I on our firsts, Bill starting his second.

Bec's friends, Alice and Rachael

This was so gross. I personally don't understand this, guess they just had too much, oh my. Apparently, the guys tackle each other and try to rip of their buddies underwear and fling it about the room!!! Ick! Yes, that is somebody's victorious efforts above . . . *gag*

It was only early evening and this poor guy passed out in the crowd, so his friend's picked him up and carried him off.

Liederhosen!!! Haha!

Siblings . . . lol, what can one say!?!

Lol!

The visit home . . . :-D

All my memries, gather round her

Miners lady, stranger to blue water

Dark and dusty, painted on the sky

Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

Country roads, take me home

To the place, I be-long

West virginia, mountain momma

Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice, in the mornin hours she calls to me

The radio reminds me of my home far a-way

And drivin down the road I get a feeling

That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

~John Denver, Country Roads

02.10.08 Found me on a plane traveling across the Atlantic, this time to the States and home to the wee country home in the mountains of VA. :-D After watching 4 movies on the plane including, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Leatherheads, I was on common soil making my way through customs, which is truly a pain in a most unfortunate spot for a pain to be . . .

It was however, first of all, in English, and second of all, they were so nice . . . haha . . . love dem suth'un folks!!! I spent a few hours at the Altanta Airport checking out the different concourses which E is by far the loveliest atmosphere, but C has Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, which depressingly, I did not by . . . oh well! Then I was on another TINY plane to another smaller airport near home where the whole clan was waiting to pick me up. The littles were so surprised to see me too! Only my brother knew I was coming so it was a lovely surprise and so nice to see them all again after almost 5 months away. :)

We drove home in the new Van, which is smaller tan the old 15-passenger (haha) and has DVD players! Woot Woot!! That evening I was exhausted and it was so cute as everyone was talking at the same time and couldn't stop talking and the girl's kept watching me as though if they didn't have my in their company I might vanish like a naughty pixie. :) We three slept together during my stay and the first few days were just filled with morning snuggles and talking, walks, and being lazy.

During my stay, I sent a special package to Washington D.C. and got a lovely sticker!;-) We also celebrated one of my sister's birhtday with the best chocolate cake in the world, ate such lovely food, and enjoyed the farm life including goats and chickens escaping. There was also a new puppy to greet me which is positively the sweetest, fluffiest big puppy EVER! During my stay the kiddos also went through the rounds of Chicken Pox and I visited a good friend and went to my old work, The Martha Washington Inn, and had a fantastic steak! Yum! Medium rare!! It was so perfect!

My visit was far too short, but enjoyed nonetheless, and the flight back went rather well as I had a lovely German chap to chat with who travels all over for business and only had 6hours when he arrived to visit with family before he had to be on a plane to Singapore. Oh my!!! Jet lag going home is nothing, but the jet lag coming here is horrendous!!! Ack! I still feel a bit out of sorts, but soon hopefully I will have normal sleeping hours.

I've been back in CH for a week now and getting ready for new adventures to come soon!

Oktoberfest im Munchen, Deutschland!

A few weeks ago I went to Munich, Germany by train with Rebecca and her brother Bill, who was visiting from Australia. My goodness! He had such a long plane ride! Apparently he was on the plane for like 30 hours!!! I am no longer allowed to complaign about my wee trips across the Atlantic!

We had a lovely time! It was such an experiance I shall not easily forget and the whole weekend was just too funny! We left on early Saturday morning from Zurich HB and traveled four hours before we found ourselves in Munich. We then made our way to the campsite of Rebecca's friend who was working for the Fanatics, an Autralian traveling group. Haha, they were great fun and I was adopted into their clan for the weekend and became an aussie, mate! Ha! About 5pm that evening found us walking towards the beer halls amidst all the various County Fair type games and rides. Rachael (Bec's friend) called another co-worker and by gripping each other's hands we were able to barely squeeze by all these people waiting in line for hours to get into the halls which were already far too full. Felt like I was VIP or something, lol. Once inside the hall, I just about died. It was too insane! SO MANY PEOPLE! And almost all of them were standing one the benches, laughing and attempting to sing while swinging 1 liter steins full of cold beer that had like two inches of foam served from these huge kegs. The "Fraus" bringing the beer to the tables were amazing. They had to be so strong in order to carry all these steins and had to put up with crazy drunks.

Each stein cost 10 euros and to think how much money they make in these halls in insane. I only had two that night and two the next afternoon, but wow, some people drank so much! I am not a huge fan of beer, but I will say that this beer was some of the best I've ever had so if one loves beer, then it is a must to come to Munich for an authentic Oktoberfest beer!

That evening after the beer halls closed we made our way out into the night walked around, won some gingerbread heart cookies from a "bloke" (or rogue ;-) ), danced in the crowd to "Sweet Home Alabama", and made our way back to our tent. I attempted to sleep, but ended up waking every hour shivering and praying the morning would come!!!! Finally dawn made her glorious apperence (:-P) and we had breakfast, helped clean up, and then made our way to another Hall which already people were wasted at like 11 in the morning. Anyways, after that and buying of a few gifts we ran to catch our evening train back to Zurich. We mostly just slept on the way back as we were so exhausted and the train was so warm. Actually rather suprising as I find it most difficult to sleep in trains, planes, and automobiles . . .

Overall, it was a fascinating weekend and if I could do it over I would make sure I bought and wore one of those drindle dresses. It was fun and I am immensely pleased I have my "Munchen Oktoberfest" sweatshirt/hoodie. :-D

The Legend of the Edelweiss

During my absense lately, I have been to Munchen (Munich, Germany) for Oktoberfest and Virginia, U.S.A to see family and friends. I had a lovely time and will describe more in detail later. First, I want to share about the edelweiss flowers. I was looking up various stuff one day and came across this legend and rewriting it a bit I decided to post it here. :-)

Edelweiss in German meaning “noble” and “white” is a small white star shaped flower that grows high in the Alps sometimes at 2000-2900m in altitude. Blooming between July and September, it was used for homeopathic remedies to treat abdominal and respiratory problems. However, now being protected by law it is forbidden to pick the edelweiss.

According to legend, ages and ages hence atop the highest, most dangerous of the Alps there lived in this treacherous abode the fairest and prettiest of women. Referred to as the “Ice Queen” her one flaw lay in the fact that her heart was as cold and hard as the ice and snow surrounding her dwelling. She lived alone except for gnomes who loyally served her every desire.

In addition to her exquisite beauty she possessed a voice none could equal. Shepherds in the valley below would hear the faint melody of her beautiful songs, and consumed with a desire to find the source of such haunting music climbed the perilous mountains. These shepherds fell in love with the “Ice Queen of the Alps,” who being intrigued and flattered by the attentions of the shepherds, indulged them. However, once bored with their infatuations, her faithful gnomes would toss the poor shepherds down the mountain where upon meeting the ground their hearts ruptured.

Incapable to feel love the long years passed while the mountains echoed of yearning. One day however another shepherd decided to risk the treacherous journey in order to gaze upon the beauty of the “Ice Queen.” Despite this man being an ordinary shepherd, while he sat listening and gazing intently on her beauty, she discovered her frozen heart was melting. As the days passed she grew to love this humble shepherd.

The gnomes, noticing the change, grew jealous of her devotion and plotted to throw the man over the mountain where he plummeted to his gruesome death below. Upon hearing the screams of her lover, her heart bled inwardly. One solitary tear slid down her cold face and as it slipped off her cheek landing in the snow, a small white flower bloomed. This small flower became known as the edelweiss, a symbol of love, purity, bravery, strength, and dedication.

Sunday's Roman Ruins excursion

The Roman Ruins were awesome! So cool to see (or play on :) ) something so incredible OLD! These girls were precious and were playing house with their babies. Can you imagine your playground as being ROMAN RUINS!?! Whoa!!!
Haha, I have a mad infatation with gnomes . . .
"A shortcut to MUSHROOMS!!!"

There was a building over the best part of the ruins in order to prserve it more. All those little squares were heating tiles underneath the flooring.
Flooring with intricate tile work.

Lol, delightful "Millie" and I had a blast embarrassing Lacey. If I was bold enough I would have waved at the bus driver, but people were already staring as it was, hehe . . .

Ha! I forget now what Lacy called these, but it is basically streams of manure and the farmers plant the seeds into these streams. :-P

Lacey's mess to be packed. She'll be traveling eastern Europe for 2 months!!!
Millie and me! :-)
Lacey and me at the Reganbowen bar for her and Megan's going away party
Silly Steph! Hehe, the fantastic Chinese Restaurant in ZURICH!!! Yum!
Mwahaha . . . I can't take them out ANYWHERE!?!
Hehe . . . their cashew chicken and that duck dish are amazing!!! My chopsticks were most definitely deformed. ;-) I gave up and converted to the fork five minutes afterwards. *sigh*

Bratkugeli and Johannes Berren are so delightful! How I shall miss thee!

Wednesday Starbucks aupair meetings in Zurich!
Fascinating wee news article. :-D
http://news.yahoo.com/s//afp/20080908/sc_afp/switzerlandarchaeologyclimatewarming

Ack! I am sick . . . Ich bin Krank . . . :-'( I have a sore throat, but other than that all is well. :-) Yesterday was the last class for A1!!! How sad. Now I can move onto A2 when I return from my trip the 18th of October. Guess where I shall be!?! "I's say's i's g'winne tuh Adlanna, an' g'winne I is!(Mammy-Gone With The Wind)" (Edit note: this section has been removed for the time being and will be added again soon. ;-) )

I loved taking the intensive A1 course in Wetzikon and hopefully will be able to continue taking classes there as it fits into the schedule so much better. The last few days of our class we learned a bit of Schwyzerdeutsch (Swiss German) and it was soooo confusing. We listened on the CD of all the different dialects throughout the German region of Switzerland and it was insane! Haha, although I guess it is like low country southern (we'uns and y'uns) vs. that horrid yankee accent! haha! Following are some delightful examples of Swiss German our teacher taught.

"Ich gehe ihn." This is high German (hochdeutsch) and I guess means, "I go to him." In Swiss German our teacher said this would look something like this, "Ich gang en grad go hole." wow . . . Or like, I go to buy something (Ich gehe einkaufen), would become, ich gang go poschte . . . yeah . . . So, no wonder my ear is not attuned to Hochdeutsch yet. I think I need to live in Germany for awhile.

One morning on my way to class, I hopped onto my bus as usual and as I was making my way to a seat, heard the faint music of a glorious song I was raised listening too. Thouroughly made my morning. T'was the song "Cotton Fields" and I thought of my old man back home. ;-D Good o'le Creedence Clearwater Revival! Surprised me immensely to hear a Swiss listening to that song, though. :-)

When I was a little bitty baby my mama would rock me in the cradle, In them old cotton fields back home; It was down in Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarkana, in them old cotton fields back home. Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten you cant pick very much cotton, in them old cotton fields back home . . .

I am having mixed emotions about the aupair meetings now. It is so wierd to come and not know anyone as everyone is new! I miss all the old aupairs, but I know I will enjoy wonderful times in the future with these new girls and it is just the ever routating cycle that has to be endured. Very rarely do I buy anything at Starbucks, since it costs so much. I think I've only bought two drinks the whole time I've been attending these meetings. How bad is that? However, soon I shall the able to buy the yummy hot peppermint mochas! ahhh! One good thing about winter . . . peppermint mochas.

Last week, while taking down the laundry from the line, a neighbor came into the laundry area to wash his clothes. Come to discover, he spoke English with an aussie accent and we chatted for a bit while I folded laundry, but may I ask . . . um, what is hormonal yoga!?! O-O

I do believe I shall scurry away now and go through some stuff to take home and work on some more laundry. :-) Au reviou!

The Rhine Falls and weekend pictures

Chickens!!! lol . . . near Lacey's dwelling

I love these clocks!!! I want to own one one day, they do cost a small fortune though . . .
IKEA!!! I want this mug, tis huge!!!!
Pizza flambee! How sophisticated!
Girls night out. ;-)
The FALLS!!! Und reganbowen (rainbow)

Lacey snapped this one and it looks like I am standing in the middle, love it!!!
WOW!!!
Alter des falls, they are 14,ooo -17,000 years old!!!

Where the little Swiss flag is in the middle? Yep, that's where we were standing . . . "it rocked my world" ;-)

Deutsch Learnen!!!

The Rhine Falls the largest waterfall in Europe I believe. Doesn't look all that fascinating from this distance, but we took the ferry out to the middle of the falls and climbed up and it was AMAZING!!!! The water is so clear too . . .
In the middle of the falls