Oktoberfest 2010 and other insights

Look closely, and you'll see mountains :)

This weekend was spent at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. Many people believe Oktoberfest takes place the month of October, however that is a misconception. It began the middle of September, and ended the first weekend in October. We decided to go as a day trip on Saturday. The picture to the left is the view of the main drag of the fest from the top of the Ferris Wheel. It took us about an hour to walk from the far end you see in the picture to the line at the Ferris Wheel, plus an hour wait in line for the Ferris Wheel. The group of us that went were all really tired from experiencing some of the night life in Ansbach the night before. We actually did not arrive until about 3pm. Our train left at 7pm, so our time at the fest was very little. To get inside a beer tent, you had to make reservations or get their at the crack of dawn and wait in line. By 3pm, the wait to get in any beer tent was a few hours, so we skipped it. As you  can tell by the huge crowd of people, walking through this mess was chaotic. Germans are not polite people all of the time, and even less so when you had many liters of beer to their system. Many will simply push you out of the way, never saying any form of apology. This behavior isn't only common at Oktoberfest, but a familiar behavior around Germany. They don't apologize after bumping into you either. This is rather annoying when you've been raised to use manners. My ultimate conclusion of Oktoberfest: I've been there once and that was enough.

Pretty church we walked by to get to Oktoberfest. Nice placement if you ask me.

In other news, work is going well. There is always some frustrating parts about it. Army children are much different then Air Force children. I've had some discussions about this with a few people who have the same viewpoint. Many times we feel unappreciated in the work we do which is really hard for me at times.
I have built some relationships with some co-workers and had interesting conversations.There is one lady at work who is a civilian but works on the base. She has given me some insight on her viewpoint of the Holocaust. Her standpoints really astounded me and I didn't have much to debate about because of my shock. She believes the Hitler was not at fault for anything that happened in the Holocaust, that his intentions were good. He just believed that people who were unhealthy should be killed (and all of those people just happen to be Jews . . . ??) She also said that Hitler never wanted any sort of concentration camp, and that the people below him were the ones who were "power hungry" and turned it into something much bigger than initial intent, which we now know as WW2 and Holocaust. Maybe I need to brush up on my WW2 history, but this is not what I was grown up to believe. I asked her, and none of her ancestors were involved in the war; they were all from Bavaria which did not partake. She said that Germans still hold a grudge against each other, depending if you were on the east or west. Traveling up to northern Germany is much different then southern Germany apparently (I have yet to visit). After the Wall came down, the Easterns were invited to the Western side by government, but not by people. They were offered cheaper food and other items because they were from the East. This caused resentment between the two, and apparently it is still in effect today. I wouldn't be able to tell, but she said she usually can when she visits northern Germany. Germans today still hold a grudge against the government because 3% of their income must go to rebuild Berlin and other cities in effect from the War, even though it ended over 50 years ago. Another interesting fact I learned, Germans must also pay a church tax, amount depending on if you claim the Catholic Church or Protestant Church. Not claiming a church is rare, and there is usually a mess of business to go through. Claiming a church and then disclaiming a church also requires a lot of paperwork and a meeting with your priest. Very interesting!

My weekend trip was pretty uneventful, but there have been lots of things I have learned. Another being German schools. The same woman who told me about the Holocaust also worked in German schools for several years as a kindergarten teacher. Parents stay home with their children until about age three until kindergarten starts. Daycares are pretty uncommon here. Kindergarten is considered to be from age 3 to 6, and the primary focus is social development. I was told that the children do most of the teaching; the six year olds teach the three year olds. The way she portrayed it was there were 2 teachers for 30 kids and it was perfect because the children knew how to behave. .  . I may have my own viewpoints on that, but I have noticed German children to be very well behaved when I see them on trains and other places in public.

This is week 7, and homesickness has definitely kicked in. I miss things like driving, being able to read cooking instructions in English, being able to understand what people are saying. I miss the simple things. Within the past week I have begun to miss people a bit more. I was to the point that I wanted to return home early, but then reality set in. I know I will stay and finish the second half of the semester and it will be great, but I'm still in a slump and want to go home. I'll get over it. 2 more months :)

This weekends plans: PARIS!!! Look for an update next week!