Oktoberfest

A lot of our neighbors are harvesting right now, and Brennan is loving all of the tractors. One of our neighbors, "Cüpp," is bringing in his father's potato crop and he was nice enough to let me take some pictures of the sorting and storing process. Here he is with one of the workers; this whole set-up was just across the street from us. Pretty exciting!



On Saturday we attended our first Oktoberfest celebration in Germany. We had to choose between the one held on the NATO base in Geilenkirchen and the one held here in our town since they coincided, and we decided to stay local and check out the neighborhood party. We hired a babysitter for the first time ever, which was almost too much excitement in and of itself! We have a lovely 15 yearold named Anja who lives across the street from us and babysits. I see the beginning of a new and beautiful relationship!

We were very punctual and showed up right at 8, so of course we were almost the first ones there, beaten only by an older couple wearing formal and somewhat traditional attire. I snagged a pretzel, Patrick ordered some Leberkäse with Sauerkraut, we grabbed some beers and then we plunked down next to the older couple and sat in awkward silence for quite some time. Well, not quite silence. The dj was playing a nice blend of contemporary German rap and traditional Bavarian drinking music. We were determined to stick it out though, and after awhile people started to trickle in and fill the hall, and we even recognized some of our neighbors. One of the Trommel Corps members started talking to us, and when we asked about the logs in the hall he gathered some of the other young men and pulled Patrick into a drinking game involving taking turns hammering nails into a stump. (This seems like it would get dangerous as more beer is consumed.) Basically, the first person to hit their nail (or get it hit) into the stump buys the next round of giant nails (2e each) and the last person buys the next round of beers. There is strategy involved and it was fun to watch.



Lest they feel left out, there was also a drinking game for teenagers. They sat in rows of 2 and were designated as horses, kings, princes etc. One kid told a story and as he mentioned each character in the story they stood to take a drink. They seemed very young to me, but when in Rome... ? My neighbor, Gabi, introduced me to her two daughters and we had a fun time chatting in Germenglish. We also participated in another woodsy form of entertainment where we used a two person saw to cut off a section of log. The pieces were to be weighed later against a "standard" to try to win prizes for closeness. I will have to check later to see how we did. We had a ton of fun and are so glad that we went out on a limb (ie. awkward corner-sitting and snapping photos like a tourist) to have this experience!



On Sunday we went to Geilenkirchen's Oktoberfest to enjoy their family day. Hangar II was decked out and there was a great band keeping things lively. Patrick won some prizes for Brennan with his perfect score at the target shooting, including a soccer ball which Brennan loves so much that he is currently sleeping with it.



Really though, it was just an excuse for Brennan to wear his Lederhosen, and man was he cute!!! We squeezed him into an old shirt, pulled up his socks and he was ready to roll. I kept telling him how handsome he was, and he got lots of non-biased compliments too. Very fun. In non-related news, he has informed us 3 times that he needs to use the toilet and then actually used it!!! This is very exciting news in the Hudock household!