This past week was awesome! For starters, I've joined a soccer team. Well, sort of. I'm not really sure what my status is as far as being on the team, because I just showed up on Monday with my neighbor, Wibke, and practiced with them. But they all seem to be pretty cool with me being at their practices, which is actually I was really hoping for right now anyway. I am so out of shape that it's ridiculous, and I don't expect to be playing in any games for a while. But, like I said, the important thing is that I'm playing again. And I've already had my first injury, aside from the horrendous pain in my legs from using muscles that basically don't exist anymore. Last Monday it was raining, and it rained during the whole practice. Not that big of a deal, really, except that I still didn't have a pair of cleats, and we play on dirt. Yeah, it only took a couple of minutes before I was basically lying on my face in the mud. I was slipping and falling the whole time, and in the process I managed to scrape up my knees pretty good. Needless to say, I bought a pair of cleats the next time I went into Köln. It was actually pretty sweet because the trainer told me on Monday where I should go, who to talk to, and whose name to drop in order to get a discount on my shoes. It made me feel important. I ended up not getting a discount because I bought a pair of cleats that were already reduced by 25% because they were the model suited to what I need that also fit. Apparently Europeans have big feet, because I was told that the size I needed was almost considered a children's size. I know I have small feet for my size, but they aren't that small. Anyways, that's why I went with the pair that was already on sale, but otherwise he would have hooked me up with 30% off. Thursday evening I went to practice again, this time ohne Wibke because she couldn't make it, and I had to take the train into Junkersdorf to get there. Not a big deal, really. It was actually quite easy. But it was also raining again, so one of the girls, Andrea, gave me a ride home. Yesterday I practiced again, and today my legs feel like I just played a 5 game tournament. I have seriously got to get back in shape.

The other thing that made last week so spectacular was Oktoberfest. That's right, I went to Oktoberfest. I left Köln at a little after 10 on Friday morning to head to to München. When I got there I checked into mo hostel right away and then was planning on going directly to find myself a Dirndl, but got a little sidetracked. For some reason they didn't have any of the key cards programmed correctly, so I was helping my roommates and a couple of guys from down the hall get things all figured out before I left. A couple of the guys in the other room actually came with me to go find my Dirndl. They were Swiss, but from the French part, and had no idea how to get around München, so I told them I would take them to the center of town and then they could find something to do there. Well instead they came with me on my walkabout. It seriously was a long walk to find the store where I bought my dress, but the only places right in the city center only sold the cheaper, mass produced Dirndls and I wanted one a little more authentic and unique. So I asked someone where to go and they told me how to get to a store called Angermeier, and this place literally has hundreds of these dresses in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors. I ended up with possibly one of the most expensive dresses in the store (thanks, Mom and Pap!) because once I saw it, the other ones simply weren't good enough. It's not your standard, everyday Dirndl, but more of a dressy one. Due to difficulties with the jackasses at the credit card company, however, I had to go back Saturday morning to actually purchase the dress. Kind of pissed me because it meant getting to the Wiesn several hours later than I had intended and is the reason that I didn't get the opportunity to see the 200 Anniversary section of the festivities. It was so crowded that if you didn't get there super early you basically didn't stand a chance of getting in, and every time that I went to attempt to purchase a ticket for this section the ticket stands weren't even open because there was no point. But, I still got my dress :) Oh, and on the way back to the hostel Friday night I was crossing a bridge that was closed off to cars because it was a major pedestrian walkway leading to the Wiesn. Anyway, there was a police van on this bridge that was blasting music through the loudspeakers on the roof. There were 4 cops sitting in there just hanging out and playing DJ, waving at people walking by and listening to party music. It was totally awesome, and something I don't think you would ever see in America. One more reason I love this place.
I actually spent the better part of both Saturday and Sunday at Oktoberfest. On Saturday, since I showed up alone, I just kind of walked around and checked everything out at first. I was just kind of hanging out, doing my own thing, when this group of Asian tourists (a small group of about 5, not your typical mob) stopped me and asked me if they could take pictures with me. They thought that my dress was so gorgeous that they had to have pictures, so I had them take some with my camera, too. Not long later I met a group of people, mostly Italians, who invited me to come and hang out with them. The person in the group that actually started talking to me was a Bavarian in Lederhosen. Anyway, they had a table in one of the Biergartens (outside, of course, since it's impossible to get into a tent) and I went and sat with them. After a short period of time they all kind of disappeared, but it didn't matter because I had spent most of the time talking to the guy from South Afrika on my right. He actually has a kind of interesting story. He was born and raised in South Afrika, but right now he's living in Beijing, where he works for Volkswagen, and was in München for the week on business. After he left I hung out with the people at my table, which consisted of a group from Australia, 2 guys from northern Italy, and later on a couple guys from England. The whole experience was pretty intense. Everyone having a great time being completely loud and obnoxious (but in a good way), and it doesn't matter who you are, where you came from, or who you're with, and in a sense it feels like the world's largest block party because everyone is basically "friends" with everyone else. Which was really good for me, because it's not always easy to fit in when you show up alone and don't know anyone.
After I got all my stuff packed up and checked out of the hostel on Sunday I went to the Hauptbahnhof to put my stuff in a locker until I had to leave. I decided not to wear my Dirndl on Sunday because my feet hurt too much to put the shoes back on, and I refuse to wear such a beautiful dress with filthy, beat-up converse. Anyway, I had just finished locking up my stuff and was headed out of the station when I ran into Olaf. I knew that he was going to me in München on Sunday, but I didn't think I would ever see him there. He had just arrived and was doing the exact same thing that I did. He actually had plans to meet up with a bunch of brokers from his work, who had a reservation at 12 for 40 people in one of the tents. Since I didn't have any specific plans or anyone to meet, Olaf invited me to come along. That was really awesome for 2 reasons. First, as I already mentioned, it is basically impossible to get into a tent. You either have to have a reservation or get there before anyone else to even have a hope of getting into one of the tents, and thanks to Olaf I got in. Second, because it was technically a work meeting, everything was paid for. Beer, schnapps, food, everything. So I got to eat a 15 Euro piece of chicken and drink a 9 Euro beer without having to pay for it, while sitting in a tent that I had no chance of getting into on my own. Unfortunately I was only able to stay for about 3 or 4 hours because I needed to catch a train before 6, but I had a really great time hanging out with Olaf and his colleagues. After I left the tent I bought a few souvenirs and hopped on a train to head back to Köln.

This week it's back to the real world. Yesterday I had class in the morning, then I took my driver's license to the auto club to get it translated. It takes a week, so I have to pick it up next Monday and then take it to Bergheim where, hopefully, they will issue me a German license without any further questions or complications. Today had potential to be absolutely horrible, but was actually quite a pleasant day. Pauline stayed home from Kindergarten today because she had such a horrible cough last night. She actually coughed so hard that she threw up again, and she was crying and didn't sleep all night, so Esther wanted to just give her a break and keep her at home. Normally it sucks to have to keep the kids home "sick" because they aren't sick at all and run around the house being loud and insisting that you spend every second keeping them entertained. Not today, though. I put on a children's CD that I found in Gustav's room and Pauline just listened to music and played by herself all day. She didn't cry or whine the whole day, and she didn't even really ask me to play with her, either. She was perfectly content playing with her dolls and occasionally explaining some sort of nonsense or watching me while I baked in the kitchen. All in all a good day.