Sausage, Wine, Trains and Rain...

This weekend we experienced our first official German festival! This country seriously rocks when it comes to festivals -- they celebrate everything.

So, Saturday we headed to Bad Durkheim with the gang (Danelli and Jen). Carl and I rode the train to Mannheim, where they met up with us and we took two more trains to get there. I forgot to look on a map, but someone told us we were very close to France when we got there (btw, we are only about an hour from France anyway here, so that kind of tells you where we were). Despite the fact that it was raining, and pretty darn cold, we still had a great time!

It was a sausage and wine festival. I know, you're thinking, 'that's soo not something you'd go to Kristen, you don't eat meat and you don't drink...' well, yeah, but you know what, when in Germany, do as the Germans do, right? Haha... no, I didn't eat meat! The vegetarian booth was empty but it had some awesome food! Even the non-veg's with us loved the food! However, I did have my half wine-half water combination.

We found a tent and plopped ourselves down to keep out of the rain. Carl and Dan made random food runs while us girls sat, chit-chatted and laughed. It was definitely a good time. After we sat at that tent for a while, the rain finally let up a little and we headed out to see the sights of the festival. We ended up in the music tent where there was lots more drinking, eating and dancing going on! Yes, we even joined in on some of the dancing. (They were playing Beach Boys, how could we not join in??)

Side note you must know: Wine fest does not mean "wine tasting" to the Germans. No. When you order a glass of wine, you get a half-liter glass of wine. And no, you can't drink just one!

We had a little mishap when Kelli accidentally cut her finger on a broken wine glass, but it finally stopped bleeding in just about enough time to head to the trains and head home. We got home probably a little before nine since there were some doggies who needed to be taken care of. All in all, it was super fun. A great way to learn the train systems here and see a cute new little town.

Sunday, we did some shopping at the PX and Commissary. That is one of the best benefits of being a civilian over here as opposed to a civilian in the States -- we get the shopping privileges too, which really help save money as well as have all our American favorites. Well, some of our American favorites anyway.

Oh yeah, and also at the commissary (and all the German grocery stores around us) we can get some good local German goodies. Of course we are completely addicted to some of the chocolates, and the breads are just incredible, but there is something else here we are crazy about that no one warned us of -- the yogurt!! Oh my goodness, we are addicts. I mean, we seriously need to go to German Yogurts Anonymous or something. There's just something about it...you'll have to taste it when you visit. We might have some to share. haha.

Today, we signed the lease for our rental house! We'll be moving in on Oct. 1! We are so excited. This temp. house has been nice, but we are ready to feel more settled in. Yes, our stuff is still en route.... thankfully not in the path of the hurricanes! Our landlord is the sweetest lady, and she even told our housing counselor she was really hoping we ended up in her house because we were her favorites of all the families who looked at it. Awww. :)

Tonight we went to the community theater on post because I am writing a story about them for the paper. They were holding auditions for an upcoming play, and we had so much fun watching! The director apparently wanted Carl to try out too; she said he had "the look," but he wouldn't try out since it was a musical... we'll see... we're going back Wednesday. Speaking of Carl's acting abilities, his last episode of Army Wives was on last night. Don't worry, if you missed it, you can still catch it next Sunday night at 8 CST. Or, you can do like we have to do and download it on iTunes or just go to the Lifetime Website and watch it. This week's episode was Awesome!!!!

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to update again tomorrow... after bowling league! (No, I am not bowling, I am just watching!)