Oktoberfest and Tierpark (zoo)

Ever since sometime in August, they have been setting up for this huge thing called Oktoberfest (a.k.a. Die Wiesn by the locals). Have you heard of it? Of course you have, who hasn't? As we can tell here that it is the thing to do. A half a million huge liter glasses (a.k.a. a 'mass') of beer were sold that first day. And 14 full cows! We went on Saturday. There was so many people. I did not see many people drinking roaming around but the tents were packed with people with a long line outside. We went on one ride (each ride is about $8 per person!). We had a beer at one of the outside booths. It was fun. There were a lot of people in their traditional outfits (Dirndls and Lederhosen). I however, did not wear mine, since it was in the 40s. Many people were looking rather cold!


It is just down the street from my work, so I have been having my lunch break while watching them set up this huge festival and now have been enjoying walking through it on my break. There were still a lot of people on a Wednesday afternoon and a ton of people coming in. The trains have been packed full. We have had two little girls in the kindergarten come in in their Dirndls and one boy in his Lederhosen. It is so great!


The rides were fantastic! I didn't go on this one, but isn't it cool! You can see it in the distance in the first picture on the blog. There were so many rides, games, and food booths. Lots of booths selling nuts, sugar coated nuts, and chocolate nuts. I, who does not like nuts, liked the cinnamon and sugar coated cashews. I am sure Chris did not like this since it was his snack that he bought!



After the crowded Saturday at the Oktoberfest, we went to Tierpark (zoo in english). It was huge as well. The place was very much a nature walk among the animals. There were the typical animals, monkey, lions, camels, giraffes, zebras, etc. But there were some animals I have not seen before. Such as the anteater.










What do you think of our next pet? Isn't it cute!




Or how about this one?












The playground was so tempting to go on! It was so big. The rope swing looked fun!

And okay, we felt weird being the only people that did not have a stroller!

But no matter where we are, even the zoo, there is always a beer garten. What did surprise me was the amount of people that brought their pet dog to the zoo. I would have thought the zoo would not want that. Who knows how the dog would react to these animals. But there were a lot!

Fall is here.

The last two weeks have changed a lot of things around here! The leaves are just starting to turn color. It is getting colder, and I have started my job. It is quite a learning experience!

The first week was very hard. It made me question this whole idea of working in a bilingual kindergarten. There was so much going on. The kindergarten room was not quite set up completely, still not two weeks later. We had electricians come in while the kids were there, drilling holes and creating lots of noise. We had the furniture arrive that Wednesday. We even lined up the kids to watch them bring in the furniture! Great career day! The room was echoing because of the bareness of the place. Parents were with the kids that first week, which did not help any. We have a very young group of kids- 16 kids 2 to 3 1/2, not the range we were hoping for (2-6 is what we hoped). And they all look at me funny, who is this person speaking funny words! It was harder than I thought to get them to listen to me, and to understand me.

Chris didn't have the best week either, so we took off that Saturday and spent the day at a lake an hour away. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm. The lake was peaceful. We had a picnic lunch and read our books. It was just what we needed.

The next week went so much better. The parents were now gone. We had all the kids the whole day instead of half the group in the morning and half in the afternoon. By noon most of the kids left so the afternoon was much quieter. The only chaos was that the kitchen came on Tuesday, so we had to close for a half day. No way are we having the kids there during the installation of a whole kitchen in the same room as the kids! Thank goodness Melanie stood up to our boss and said no. Last week was enough for the kids to endure. I am getting more comfortable with the language and the kids. It is still hard to get their attention. It takes Melanie no time to get them to come to her, but, hey, they understand her. There are 2 kids that speak only English and 2 more kids that speak both English and German. Those 4 kids listen fine! The kids are comfortable with me, but it is a challenge to get them interested in the activity when they don't know what I am saying. Makes me aware how much we use language in our everyday activities. Body language and motion signals only work so much. I know they, as well as myself, will figure things out.

I am also learning the differences between a US Kindergarten and a German Kindergarten. One of my critiques from my boss was that I was not being affectionate enough with the kids. In the US, it is the sad truth that the child care industry is failing at providing that warm sense of affection when you can only touch a child on their shoulder for comfort if at all. What is the world coming to if the fear of "what could happen" gets in the way with the quality of care that every child should be able to experience. Caring is falling out of the industry because the teachers are too afraid and even told not do anything that may be seen by an outsider to be inappropriate or "sexual in manner." You are not even allowed to give a child a straight forward hug. You have to turn your body sideways for a child to hug you. It is ridiculous and has gone to the extreme in my opinion. It is hard to tell ones motives, yes, but why are we not putting our trust in teachers to know the difference? It is those people that have infiltrated the system and done the wrong that has ruined the possibility that the child care industry will truly be safe and comforting for the child.

This weekend we stayed around here. We went to town yesterday and walked around, did some shopping. Today we cleaned and went to two art museums in town. They are only 1 euro on Sundays. Since everything else is closed, museums are a nice place to go.