The Oktoberfest - Prost!

Monday, October 5, 2009

What most surprised me about the entire Oktoberfest experience was the hospitable nature of Munich's people, the Bavarians. From the moment we landed at the airport on Wednesday morning at 8am, we were helped along by friendly train officers, information desk clerks, shop attendants. Quite delightful, it was happiness from beginning to end.

We hardly understood anyone we met but they knew we were there to have a good time and enjoy what the Oktoberfest had to offer and they appreciated it. The festival looks like a huge big theme park. There are lights, food stalls, rides and rollercoasters all over the place, the aromas of sugar-coated nuts, sausages, pancakes and schnitzels fill the air. Every type of sausage you can imagine; you just wouldn't believe it.

There are fourteen beer tents in all and six kinds of beer. Some of the beer tents had outside areas but these were generally very full and one had difficulty finding a seat. We spent most of our time at Lowenbrau and Hofbrau in the late afternoons and evenings (foreign tents, ie Aussies, Kiwis, Italians, Americans). In the day though, we tried to do the more German experience at tents like Paulaner and Augustine. These were my favourite beers, lighter and more tasty than Lowenbrau or Hofbrau.

We made many many friends, partly because we were a group of four girls at a beerfest and partly because people were just so damn friendly. The first day Mills and I were alone, we met four Bavarian girls who helped us order beer and half 'sign-languaged' a conversation with us. I'm friends with a couple of them on Facebook. There were many groups of Italians, too many to mention, some nice, some really slimy. It was all about where you could find a place to sit down. There was hardly ever a free table so we'd always have to join a half-full one.

We just had a ball. I can't even write about how wonderful it was. My mother would be happy to find out that I have a new respect for the American people. Since meeting a group of them on our final day, I have realised they can be incredibly intelligent people and I will give all American people a chance from now on.

Katie and Marli are on exchange in Amsterdam and met us there. The campsite was really nice and so well-organised. I'm definitely not a great camper though but you'd have been very proud of us. There was no complaining and the weather played its part in the success of our trip.

The new teaching job...HELL on earth. I happen to be an LSA (learning support) in a school with a reputation for bad behaviour. Great!This last week has been one of the hardest of my whole life. I thought the probation office was bad. Think again! The probation office was better than this. I officially do not like children in the UK. Take the coaching incident I told about you a while ago and times by one hundred. Dreadful manners, no wait, they do not have any manners, no respect for teachers or their contemporaries, hooligans running about and throwing things around the classroom. Ideal! I am going to make a change in the lives of the two boys I work with though. I have to make it work. Unfortunately, they are a few years behind the rest of their class which makes it all the more difficult. It is very sad to watch how the other children react to someone who is at a lower level and even more sad to watch how the child reacts to knowing he's not as clever as the others in his class.

Fra