Self-Directed Intervention, Working Hard (Or Hardly Working), What Music Sounds Like, and The Color Purple

It is official. Right at this very moment in time, on a Tuesday evening at a quarter after seven, I am finally feeling defeated by the great German beer festival known as Oktoberfest. I thought I would be resilient, that I could make it through to the end but I’m already so tired. Maybe Oktoberfest is the kind of place you need to visit on vacation… not the festival that is on your regular daily train line. Don’t get me wrong – I love German beer and I love the revelry and spirit of the festival – but I don’t love being so drunk that I turn into a lush, that I fall down and bruise every part of my body, and continuously lose really important things like my keys and cell phone. No, I am not an alcoholic but yes, I realize that I’m drinking a lot more than I ever have before. And I am going to make a conscious effort to control myself. Oktoberfest is almost over, thank God, and once all the people are gone and the festivities are over, life will slow down back to a normal pace. It’s getting colder here in Munich and once winter sets in, I have a feeling I’m going to be going out a lot less. Plus, I need to start saving money for all kinds of stuff – debt and holiday travel, a language course. Staying in every other weekend or spending time NOT going to bars and clubs will be so beneficial and I’ll probably like myself a whole lot more come Sunday evenings.

Believe it or not but I do still work while I’m here in Germany. My life has been centered around Oktoberfest a lot since it commenced but I’ve also been taking care of the girls. It’s just so uneventful that I haven’t felt compelled to write much about it. They’ve started school so our schedules been pretty consistent and easy, at least for me. I wake up everyday at about 6:30 am and help with breakfast and getting the girls out the door. Then I’m free until about 4 or 5, depending on the day, and usually I stay in. I’ve been so sore from all my recent injuries that I can’t be bothered to move around much so instead of going out for a bike ride or a walk in the English Gardens, I lay in bed on Facebook and watch Sex and the City and write stories about vampires. I know this is bad behavior which creates bad habits but I’ve always been a pretty lazy person. No excuses here. Ha. The girls are loving school though. Today Eenie multiplied by tens, it was awesome. The downside is that I hardly spend any time with them anymore seeing as the Frau does most of the work – takes them everywhere, picks them up, drops them off, etc, etc. This coming weekend I have them overnight so we’ll probably get some good girl bonding time.

This past weekend was a really nice escape from my responsibilities (not that I have very many) as two of my friends from England, Alison and Helena, were here visiting. I’d missed them way too much. I had so much fun seeing them again. It was like being on an extended day off at Camp Cayuga and we were instantly transported back to the memories of our summer  in Pennsylvania just by being in each other’s presence. The first thing Alison says to me when she gets off the airport shuttle: “I haven’t heard an American accent in so long.” Haha. We obviously care about the most important things. I am so blessed to be so close to them now and I hope that a reunion like this happens again and soon! I’ll see them both over New Years in England and I am stoked for this vacation. Let’s hope I can save money and do it right!

Me, Helena, and Alison – reunited and it feels so good!

Oh, one other thing that happened this weekend… I fell on my ass. It wouldn’t be a drunken weekend without me falling over, would it? Alison and I decided to go on a spinning swings ride at 9 pm after drinking entirely too much beer and it was pouring rain. With the combination of my drunken grace and the wet slicked everything, I fell down the stairs of the Star Flyer and hit my butt pretty hard. It hurt more for the first few minutes than it did at any other point. But I could barely sit down the following day. I was miserable. The discomfort has gone away now but I’m left with a pretty gnarly looking bruise that I’m afraid will never go away.

There was one other monumental occurrence this weekend. I traveled out of Germany for the first time since I got here! I went to Salzburg, Austria on Sunday with Alison, Helena, Helen, and Sara. We did it in kind of an unorganized, last minute kind of way but it was fun. That city is beautiful! And it made me want to watch The Sound of Music so I downloaded it and did just that!

 Mozart was born in Salzburg, you know.

Gorgeous statue in the city

   Cityscape

Right now, I am going to bed. For having slept all day, I am so ridiculously tired. All that I want to do is finish Sex and the City season 5 and then sleep deeply all night. Which is pretty easy to obtain these days. Oh, the life of a college educated au pair!