Morgan picked up a new wetsuit and put it to use a few times in October. He was able to squeeze in a few windsurfing trips before the end of the season (no windsurfing is allowed on the Dümmer See from November 1st to March 31st).
Also in October I made a new friend – Jodi from South Dakota. She is married to Ben who is German (they both work for ZF and they have a little daughter named Ella) and we were introduced by one of Morgan’s work buddies. Morgan and I went to their house for dinner and then the next week she had me over to her house in Ankum for lunch. She had made a homemade pizza and then we went for a walk around town (well make that village). She took me to see the Artländer Dom which is the second largest in Lower Saxony (the first is the Dom in Osnabrueck).. which is pretty funny since Ankum is pretty tiny – approx. 7,000 people whereas Osnabruck has close to 175k. We grabbed some eis (icecream) and then walked through town and over to the lake. On the way back to her house we cut through the cemetery behind the church which was actually pretty interesting. In Germany the burial plots are maintained like little gardens and it isn’t an option. If you don’t have time, you pay for a company to do it. Also burial plots are rented for 20 or 30 years, not bought. When your lease is up, your family is asked if they want to renew or not. If they don’t your tombstone is removed from the spot and someone else can be buried on top of you. Interesting huh? I guess when land is more limited you have to come up with ideas like this. It probably sounds weird, but the cemeteries are really pretty to walk through.
November 1st we went with a big group to Bremen to the Freimarkt – which was pretty much a big fair that lasts for about a month. There are rides (small kids’ rides plus bigger roller coasters), food stands, beer stands, games, etc. We road one of the roller coasters (only one because it was 7euros per person!), did some people watching/walking around, and the boys played a shooting game. Then we made our way to the main event – the Oktoberfest tent. We had reserved 3 tables (10 people at each) in the private part of the tent. The tent itself was huge- it sits a couple thousand people plus there are bar areas and a huge stage with a live band. They actually had a lot of meal options – I went for the wurst salat (kind of like potato salad but with meat slices instead) and Morgan had some bratwurst, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut… plus we had a couple beers. And I say a couple because the drink sizes are HUGE (1 liter glasses) so you can’t really drink much more than that. We also tried these little Feigling’s shots. They come in 5 or 6 flavors – we had the original Feigling flavor on the train (yep here it is ok to drink on the train and we weren’t the only ones… there was a group of 40ish mom’s drinking champagne the whole way there!) and tried Apple pie while in the tent. They also have an “American Popcorn” flavor- who wants to come visit us and try it?! It was a really fun night with a few of Morgan’s work friends plus some of their family and friends!
Also in early November we got our first care package from back home! Thanks to Beth and Tyler we’ve now got lots of goodies from back home – including some Starbucks Peppermint Mocha packets and some pumpkin bread mix! Big thank you to them!! 🙂
