First Communions & Spring Festival

(Sorry the font keeps changing, no idea how to fix it, it looks fine until I publish, but anyway, enjoy!)

So my brother has come and gone, he is currently on a 24+ hour bus ride to his new job in Limoges, France. (Since I am taking so long to write this post, he has actually since arrived, he starts work on Monday.) We packed a lot of things into one week, a week that included me starting German lessons. We visited a castle near Austria, Neuschwanstein, made tacos for the family, visited a bowling alley, did lots of German homework, ate Weiner Schnitzel, saw lots of May Poles, visited Beatrice in Munich, waited over 2 hours for pizza, and made cheesecake cupcakes for Eric's birthday.

So now I am going back in time and catching up with other news, I am posting this video, because I went to a Catholic church here in a neighboring village. It was White Sunday or 1st Communion Sunday. I really liked the singing, and no I have no idea what they are saying either. I met a photographer there. He told me about an online German photo community so maybe when I learn a little more German I can meet some photographers. I also asked around about how to make friends at the church and nobody seemed to have any suggestions for me, but they did mention another American. "She's always looking for people to talk to, I think she's from South Carolina, I think her village is called Greenville..." So yeah I am going to give her a call. (ok, I finally called her today, very nice talking with her, we plan to get together sometime, turns out she is from Virginia, not SC, I guess its like when we hear someone is from France and you think "oh, that's near England! sorta)

Oh yeah, I've gotten a lot better at driving a manual car. 

Eric told me that when you are at a stoplight it is a lot easier to get going again 

if you go down to 1st gear. I didn't know this, I would just start from 3rd, 

he was like "I didn't even know that was possible." 

Nobody told me it wasn't possible, story of my life.

This is a video of Tiffany and I on the "Mouse Trap/Wild Mouse" at the 

Spring Festival, I forget what it is called in German. I met Tiffany by googling the

words "au pair, Germany, blog" and I found her blog, she is about an hour away

in Stuttgart and she was kind enough to take me out for the evening and show me around.

This is a video of Tiffany in the green shirt, this "ride" has a conveyor belt that moves you uphill really

fast and these guys are paid to just mess with you while you try and keep your balance.

The ticket you buy lets you go twice, but after one try, Tiffany did not want to go again.

Also we ended up in a tent with cookie necklaces around our necks & free beer 

(yuck, I'm trying but yuck.) My cookie says "You are sweet" Tiffany's says Super Bear (I know, what?)

Here is a video of people dancing to "99 Luftballons" I couldn't believe I was actually hearing

this song in Germany.

This is Chiara's 1st Communion, she is the oldest of the cousins.

I point out in the video which one is her. 1st Communion here is a big event. 

After church, we went to a very nice lunch, hosted by Chiara's parents, 

everyone had presesnts for Chiara. Then we

went back to the family's house and had 3 more kinds of cake

and presents. Chiara wore her white dress all day. In the morning

she went and had her hair professionally done.

And now introducing Malou! The newest of the cousins. (Taken at 1 week old.)

Oh and one last thing from the Communion: a very cute video of Emilia trying to eat her aunt's ice cream (Eis pronounced "Ice")

And here is a May Pole picture, and a video of some local kids doing a song and dance about gnomes, I think. I kinda like the song. Normally they raise the May pole at the event, but last year I think the tree at the top fell off on top of some people, so this year they did it the night before. 

This is the menu from the May Pole thing. I'm glad my host mom ordered my food for me, I managed to get a drink, but only after a very confusing discussion about how it costs 3 euro, but you get 2 euro back when you return the bottle. (Guess how I knew the word bottle?) Also you can see the word "Maypole" as "Maibaumfeier 2009". I think that's why I took the picture.And this is what I ate, don't ask me what it's called, and don't tell me its a brawt, there are a million names for all things hotdog/sausage looking, and it depends on where you live! (And April I would like more updates on what you've been eating.)

One more random thing, a very cute video of me, Hannah, Marie & the neighbor Paul picking flowers in the field next to the house. Paul knows very little English, but he was very proud of himself when he said "Thank you" to me and I was trying to capture it again on video.

Up next pictures and videos from my visit with Eric, Beatrice & Munich! I will post a facebook link to some more pictures later, but I have to make the album first and now I have to study for my 1st German test! So Happy Mother's Day and congrats to my aunt who got married on Saturday! I look forward to the pictures.