Happy Birthday Bama!

Well today would have been my Grandma's 87th birthday.


Originally I was going to write a post about how wonderful she was and how much she shaped who I am and all that.

But instead I think I will just post these pictures from my wedding day and go make some Goldenrod Eggs in her honor [a picture of that will come later].

 

 PS: For those of you who don't know. Her "name" Bama is not pronounced like the nickname for the state/that awful school.

Where Palm And Pine Are Blowing, Where Southern Seas Are Flowing...

As I mentioned yesterday, I am heading to Florida later this week. To be exact, I leave Zurich at 10:40 am Central European Time on Wednesday to head to Gainesville for the wedding of one of my dearest friends in the world.

We shall start with why I am going:

This is Mandy. She and I met during our first week in Gainesville as freshman. We lived on the same dorm hall. We haven't lived in the same town in 4 years now, but we are just as close as ever. We know all about each others faults, fears, and general hates. We also have quite a few shared passions, pumpkin flavored anything being the most unusual. She is one of those friends that I absolutely cannot imagine living without.

The picture above was taken the night before I moved to DC from Gainesville. It was also taken just days after she met the man she is going to be marrying in just 6 days!!


It is an incredible honor that she asked me to be a part of her wedding, so just 14 months after this picture was taken, our roles will be reversed!!

Other than all the standard wedding festivities that will fill the weekend, there are quite a few other things on my list for my trip to Gainesville. In fact, it has been 18 months since I last visited [the longest stretch of time in my remembered life...], so the list is quite long!!

 I plan to spend quite a bit of time at Salty Dog, my go-to bar in college. A very good portion of money earned by me and my parents was spent here [as well as money given to me by the lottery players of the state of Florida. Thanks for the scholarship!!]. Cheap beer will be mine!! 

No trip to Gainesville is complete without a visit to Burrito Bros. Its just a standard taco/burrito place, in theory. But its also a long time family favorite. My mouth is already watering.

Yes, two Bar-B-Que places. Both delicious in every way. Meat prices here are beyond insulting, as a result most of my protein has come from eggs. BBQ is a must. 

While there I will also get to spend time with two other people quite dear to me, my hubby Josh and my BFF Amanda:

I kind of impressed that the three of us have so many pictures together, and that I was able to find them [with a huge assist from Facebook]. 

I will also get to see:

My parents [and maybe my sister]

My "second" parents [my parent's best friends who I love with all my heart]

And the family I nannied for while I was in undergrad. 

Finally I will get to go to my single most favorite place on earth: the Swamp!! 

PS: For those of you unlucky enough to not already know, the title of this post comes from the Florida Alma Mater: 

Florida, our Alma Mater,

thy glorious name we praise.

All thy loyal sons and daughters,

a joyous song shall raise.

Where palm and pine are blowing,

where southern seas are flowing,

Shine forth thy noble gothic walls,

thy lovely vine clad halls.

Neath the orange and blue victorious,

our love shall never fail.

There's no other name so glorious,

all hail, Florida, hail!

One of those weekends...

Last weekend was, obviously, epic. And as a result I have had a cold all week. Which is just freakin' fabulous. I'm apparently getting old...I had talked with some friends here about traveling somewhere this weekend, but for reasons to be addressed later, we did not. And since I'm leaving early Wednesday morning to head to Florida, staying in town and relaxing seemed like the best choice.

With that said, if I was back in the States there are three different places that I would possible be this weekend, and I can't help but day-dream a little about each.

Here are those places, in increasing level of "passion" or likelihood of my presence [I hope that makes sense]:


First

My parents are hosting a retreat for an organization they are involved with here, at their house in the mountains of North Carolina. While its entirely unlikely that I would actually be here, it doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it. Its an absolutely beautiful home and I love being there so much. How can you not with a view like this:

 

Second

This weekend is the Red River Shoot-Out in Dallas. And last year a group of us went up to Dallas to partake in the adventures of the Texas State Fair and then the game. It was a BLAST. We ate fried EVERYTHING [beer, margarita, cookie dough, chicken fried bacon, etc. etc. etc.]. It was a crazy adventure that everyone should experience at least once in their life.

Third

If I was in the States right now, it is pretty much guaranteed that I would be here:

In Death Valley. Watching the Gators play the LSU Tigers. I would have spent last night partying in New Orleans with my best friend:

Then this morning we would have headed to Baton Rouge to party with my aunts and then go to the game.

GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But instead I am here: 

Yep...its cold and rainy. This is why we decided not to travel this weekend. Its cold and rainy all over the continent. 

Now a little note. As I mentioned earlier I am heading back to Florida on Wednesday, and I couldn't be more excited!! With that said, when I originally was planning for this trip, I assumed that I would be very homesick at this point in my journey. It was about the 5 week mark of my time at Cambridge that I really starting to crave some familiar "Americana." But that hasn't been the case this time around. I mean obviously I miss Josh, my puppies, and my family. But I get to talk to them daily and often do so through video chat, so that I can see them. In Cambridge I would just check my email once or twice a week, so there was much less contact. I was also much younger. 

The moral of this whole post is, while there are time I think of my life back home and what I would be doing if I wasn't here, I think coming here was one of the best decisions of my life. I am having an absolute blast. So while I'm excited to get to go home next weekend, I don't need to in the same way I thought I would. 

I hope you are all having a great weekend wherever it is you are. And GO GATORS!!!!

Oktoberfest 2k11

Anyone who knows me knows that The Sound of Music is my all time favorite movie. I have seen it dozens and dozens of times and know it all by heart. I start with this fact because when I went to start writing this post, I started singing my own version of one of the movie’s best numbers: “How do you tell a story like Oktoberfest?” to the tune of “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” As my windows are open, and I was actually singing out loud with my fabulously hoarse voice and total lack of any musical talent I am sure I have scarred those around me for years to come, but there it is.

How do you tell a story like Oktoberfest?

Do I tell it chronologically? Thematically [yes there are themes]? Do I use pictures? Should I protect the innocent? Do I even document this for the internet?

I have decided to just write and illustrate with no set plan [which is VERY difficult for me, I love plans!]. This will be very stream of consciousness, I may ramble, jump around, or just get off topic. I beg your indulgence as I try to tell you all about it while still in recovery mode.

Picking up where we left off, I took a train out of St. Gallen at 830am. Well actually 819

 The train ride was....uneventful, long, boring, etc. Yes it was pretty, but still I wasn’t in the mood for looking at scenery. I just wanted to be in Munich. I had written down directions from the train station to the hostel. No big deal, I was ready. And then I stepped off the train and was totally overwhelmed! The Munich train station is much larger than I was prepared for. And as it turns out, the building is a square with four exits. Who could have imagined such a thing?!?! Well, apparently in my preparations it never occurred to me! So I know what road I need to be on, but NO CLUE where that road is. Amelia, epic fail. I am now totally overwhelmed, angry with myself, and lost. Awesome start. After wondering around with thousands of other tourists, I finally found the road I need! Yay! Now I need to go 800 meters down the road. 800 meters. Seriously, a distance I’m totally familiar with. Dammit...all I know is that 800 meters is about 8 football fields.Aafter 800 meters of freaking out I finally see our hostel and am just praying that Suzanne is there. All I want right now is a familiar face. And as I turn into the door there she is. Running at me! Apparently she was just as overwhelmed and desperate for something familiar. After checking in and dropping off our luggage, we head next door for some pizza and beer; familiarity at its best.

Over the next few hours, Eric and Stacy joined us

Apparently I missed Eric more than I realized, because I shrieked a little when he showed up! 

Eventually we all got a bit impatient for Daniel to join us so we decided to meander down to the train station and meet him there. At this point we had also decided that some new ensembles would be necessary. Everyone was wearing lederhosen and dirndls, and we felt that we needed to jump aboard the costume train. As we were trying on some funny hats, Daniel joined us, and the party was officially underway!

Once we realized the actual lederhosen and dirndls were going to set us back at least 120 Euros, we moved on from that plan. And then we saw a trailer selling some not so accurate dirndls for 50 Euros. The boys just settled on hats [although they seriously considered the lederhosen printed t-shirts...]. Once we were done shopping and had settled into our hostel, it was time to head to Oktoberfest.

Yes, that does say Cafe KaiserSCHMARRN!!!!

 Beer tent

The scene inside one of the tents, they are incredibly elaborate and huge and tent is just the most inexact word ever to describe them.

These signs were everywhere. And they made me giggle.

After wandering around a bit and exploring the whole area [don’t want to surprise you, but its quite the big event], we settled down at a tent with an incredibly nice German couple.

 Yummy pretzels were everywhere. 

 Beer Duck!! Don't ask why. Just accept it. 

Interjection:

While we were at this tent we were TWICE offered [by very pushy gentlemen] the opportunity to partake in a white powder they could only describe as “nose candy.” As you can imagine we were caught quite off guard. We were also WHOLLY unwilling to partake in the nose candy. Eventually we found out it was just “snuftobak.” Tobacco. Made white [instead of its usual brown] for Oktoberfest. Weird I know. We never did test it out though. No thank you. Back to the story: eventually Eric and Stacy decide they are ready for bed time, so they head to the hotel and the three of us are left to continue to hang out with the German couple.

 Sometimes its necessary to break up the beer with a few shots

 Daniel and the German dude decided to do one of those strongman carnival games

 They both did quite well in fact!! 

 We had to get a picture of this particular ride...

 But then we decided to go on a different ride [for obvious reasons]

 Daniel was pretending to be dramatic and scared. 

Suzanne and I though it would be a calm, simple, easy ride. We were wrong. It was terrifying. And awful. And I thought I was going to die. And there was techno music and strobe lights. This was my hell.

Eventually we decided it was most definitely bedtime and headed back to the hostel.   Friday    A full day of Oktoberfest fun. But first we had to move our luggage from our hostel to our hotel, eat breakfast, and buy some supplies [a deck of cards, some snacks, water bottles, and some roadies].

 Advertisements for this movie were everywhere. Read it out loud to yourself. We kept saying it "Wiki of Grosser Fart." And then we would laugh like immature children.

 

 They made us finish our beers before going into the festival.  

 When finished, Suzanne went to ask where we could throw our empties. The cop pointed to the ground and said "Right there." WTF. We are in law school, we know all about entrapment. None of us want to get arrested or get a ticket. But he assured us he was serious.

So we littered, and all felt quite guilty about it!

 Yes, I freaked out a little when I saw this. And it made me miss my Princess a whole lot. 

 The festival grounds are in the shadow of this church...just a little weird 

 These decorated and beautiful horse-drawn carriages with wooden kegs on them are all over. And they are awesome 

"Tent"

The day...well we found a table in the outside part of one of the tents. It was about 10am. We stayed at that table until 630 that evening. Yep, that was our day at Oktoberfest.

 Our home for the day 

He was more excited than he looks!!

Party time!!

 No one was excited...nope. Not even a little! 

 A little bit of southern Alabama I spotted in Germany. Seriously. Check out that mullet!

 Group picture!!

 They serve food in the tents. And we all ordered the chicken because it looked really good. And I would have taken a before picture, but it was so good that I inhaled it. We all did. Incredible yumminess on a plate. 

We played "Barack" all day long. Its not really called Barack. Its some Russian game Eric taught us that was quite a lot of fun. But its name is the Russian word for idiot, and sounds a lot like Barack, hence my new name for it! 

 In our fake dirndls and loving life!! 

 Biffles!! 

So cute!!

Friday night we were all back at the hotel and asleep by about 830. Eric and Stacy in one room; Daniel, Suzanne, and I in another. At about 230, the three of us are all awake and talking, and then we get a text from Eric. He and Stacy were awake too. So at 230 in the morning we had an hour-long pizza and wine party in our room. And then all went back to sleep until about 8am. Very, very random. Super fun.   Saturday In many ways Saturday was just like Friday, and in many ways it was not.

We headed in and went to a tent to post up at an outside table all day. But, this being the last big day of the event, it was beyond crowded, so there were no empty tables anywhere. Finally, at the second or third tent, we see a table with just three people at it and joined their group. Which turned out to be awesome. We spent the whole days with these two Australian guys and a Russian girl. All our age. All super interesting. And we all talked about everything under the sun. Seriously, we talked about sports, politics, serial killers, food, culture, school, work, and on and on. It was quite the advantageous seat find!!

The girls! [Eric and Stacy joined us later]

 The boys 

 They were in a deep conversation about some Italian serial killer...random

 Beer yummy times!! And yes, the waiter brought all of these in one load. Its magical. 

 We loved our waiter, Thomas!! Although, eventually we think he tired of us!

 Daniel made friends with just about everyone at the festival

Great group picture. Except no one knows who the random guy in the very front on the left is...

Thats about the jist of it. I would tell you all about Sunday, but I'm crashing...and I didn't take any pictures. Mostly it just involved everyone leaving throughout the day [some people made their actual departure time, some did not...]. Also, the formatting throughout this messed up, but I really don't have the energy to fix it right now. I'm sorry...

Also, for a final laugh, we passed this delicious sounding Mexican restaurant!