Diese und Dass (This and That)

Our computer is down so I have not blogged in awhile since I have to use Charlie's computer and as you will see, we have been very busy.  Since my last post school has started, we visited with some friends from Mallorca, Spain, Nathan had a birthday, Oktoberfest, and Charlie's birthday.  I may have left out a few incidental things, but that is the gist of it all.  So, here it goes: 

Nathan started school on September 13.  He and I took the train into Munich to buy some new school clothes a few days before.  He got all his favorites, colored skinny jeans, bright colored tops, a few sweaters, and lots of school supplies.  Here are a few of his choice outfits (very Euro):

This last one is from our trip into Munich.  From the train we had to walk through the fish market to the clothes stores.  We thought this huge lobster was a funny prop advertising a seafood restaurant.

Some of the Shortt family friends from Mallorca, Spain who are Germans but have lived in Mallorca for 30 years came to Bavaria to take advantage of the spas and to visit some family, they were staying in Bad Kohlgrub about one hour from us.  We drove down to visit and had a great time.  Renate and Uli showed us around the historic Kohlerei where they make charcoal and we also had a nice dinner in town complete with a traditional Bavarian chocolate cherry cake.

Here are some goats grazing on the side of the hill behind the Kohlerei.

On the way back we came across these two little donkeys.  Nathan and Uli fed them dried bread.  Uli always carries some in his pocket in case he runs into any animals.  :)

This guy shows the way to the kohlerei.  Someone had decorated him with flowers.  It was really cute.

Charlie, Nathan and Renate on the our expedition to the Kohlerei. There is something wrong with the computer (or more likely operator error) that is not allowing me to get these pictures rotated in the right direction.  Hope you can still see.

 Charlie and I went to the huge Mercedes Benz dealership in Munich to purchase the company car.  We got a C220 wagon.  It is really nice and should do just fine on the Autobahn.  The dealership was amazing.  It was like a museum and had a lot of classic cars on display like the one above.  We also saw an SLS for 220,000 Euros!  Wow!  That is the price of a house in some parts of the country.  The picture below shows part of the showroom.  It is four stories!

Nathan turned 11 years old on Sept. 27th.  Charlie was on a business trip to Belarus, but made it back the day after and we had a nice dinner together.  Nathan wanted to open his presents before school on his birthday.  He got a watch and a Packers shirt.  Later his friend, Benny, came over and gave him a present too.  Then they both spent the rest of the day at the skate park and later that night, Benny's family took us out for ice cream.

On Saturday, we took Nathan and a few friend to Skyline Park to celebrate his birthday.  It rained most of the day and we all wet all the way through to our underwear.  I think the kids still had fun.

After Skyline Park, we all came back to our house for cake and more fun.  The kids liked Nathan's traditional Oreo Cookie Cake.

They got all riled up from the sugar and started wrestling, so the parents sent them into Nathan's room with the iPad to watch cartoons.

Nathan's teacher said it was OK to bring in some cake on his birthday, so I took two Apfel Kuchen (apple cakes) made by the local bakery.  The kids liked them.  This is Nathan and his teacher, Frau Loffler.

Charlie got an early birthday present.....Lederhosen!  Our family went to Oktoberfest with the Stangassinger family on Sunday, so we both had to wear our Bavarian clothes.

Nathan and Sebastian wore their Bavarian shirts and their special neckties with Eidelweiss flowers on them.  This is typical Bavarian.

We went to the farm fair before Oktoberfest and saw lots of animals and farm equipment.

This new mama sheep had her babies with her.  There is the white one in front and there is a black and white one curled up behind.

This is the Stangassinger family in all their finery standing in front of a tractor at the farm fair.

Charlie and Rosalia 

 One of the restaurants where they serve wild game.

 This was a ride for little kids, I thought it was really funny.  It had lots of cute little gnomes, woodland creatures and fairy tale characters.

This was one of the tents.  It was so crowded that we could not get a seat.  

 Hansel and Gretal

Oktoberfest is similar to a county fair and has a lot of rides for the kids.  This is a really old one (75 years old).  Riders go up the incline on a moving belt that quickly pulls them up to the top.  It is really funny because the kids are helped by the workers, but adults are left on their own and they often fall.  We watched a few adults ride up on their butts.  Andreas says it is super funny later in the day/evening when people who have been drinking in the tents try to ride up the belt.  He loves to laugh at the drunks.  

After Oktoberfest, we went to a fair in Herrsching where Nathan did this stacking contest.  He had to stack these beverage cases and climb up them while balancing.  He ended up stacking all the cases they had and then jumped off kicking over the tower.  There were a lot of people gathered around to watch once he got up so high.  He stacked 28 cases!

On Charlie's birthday we walked the 5 kilometers to Kloster Andechs.  Obie met these sheep and they kept kissing each other on the lips. 

Here I am with the Kloster Andechs behind me.

 Charlie and Obie in the courtyard of the church.

 Our friends lit a candle for Charlie's birthday.

 On the way home we found this dead tree with these strange mushrooms growing on it.  They looked like skin (maybe ears) and were almost translucent.

So, as you can see, we have been very busy and are having a great time.  Charlie and I started our German language course and are doing well.  We have also met some international people in our class.  One Canadian lady, an Australian man, a Columbian man, a Romanian man, a woman from Hungary, and a teenager from Thailand.  I also recently became friends with a French woman and a few others.  Living in a small town, we are getting to know the shop keepers and seem to see the same people day after day.  I take Obie to the lake in the mornings to run around and often see other dog owners doing the same.  Some of us have started waving and occasionally the dogs play together.  Things are coming together and we are settling in.  I think we are going to like it here and will leave with several life-long friends.