My old room-mate wasn't the only one to visit that weekend; on thursday night, I had to go to the airport to meet an old friend from high school. By the time we got back to my "apartment", it was really late, so we just went to sleep in preparation for the big day.
Sometime in the early morning, we woke up and got ready to go to Oktoberfest. We got there shortly after 9, walked into a beer tent, and asked three german guys around our age if it was okay to sit at their table (at nine in the morning on a weekday, Oktoberfest is already packed and there's no getting a table of one's own-- besides, sitting by germans gives me an excuse to practice). We talked a bit-- they were from northern germany, one of them was working (internship or apprenticeship, can't remember what german word he used and wouldn't know the difference if I did) and two of them were studying mechanical engineering. I think. Might have been the other way around. Luckily, I was sitting closest to them out of everyone at the table, so I got to practice my german quite a bit. I would say something in grammatically incorrect german, and they would reply in english. At ten, the waitresses came by with beers, and the drinking started.
I kept telling them that they could speak german, and as they started to drink a little they spoke more and more. I don't remember everything we talked about, but it involved a lot of pointing at Annie (friend from high school) and saying that she was the only one at our table that didn't understand german. Over and over again. I don't know why I did it so many times, but it was sort of funny because she didn't understand what I was saying.
Inside the tent was so cool. There were so many people from so many places, all brought together by alcohol. There were drinking songs, people chugging maßs (a liter of Oktoberfest beer), and lots of standing on benches and tables. Also, beer was everywhere, making everything quite slippery.
Sometime in the afternoon some guys from our program came over and convinced me and Annie to go to the funhouse with them. The funhouse wasn't that great, but there was a room that spun around so fast that everyone got stuck to the wall. I don't know who's idea it was to have so many rides at a festival full of drunk people.
We went back to a friend's room and she made us pasta. After that, everyone passed out except for me. Around nine Annie and I got back together with two other girls to hang out, but I left early in order to meet two people from my college who were also visiting me that weekend.
I went to the Hauptbanhof, and Annie went to a club. I met who I was supposed to, a friend from college (Katie) and a guy who I hadn't met yet (Daniel), but who also goes to Wooster and is in the same study abroad in France program as Katie. We got back to my room around 12:30, grabbed a beer each, and went downstairs to see if anything was going on. We talked with a few guys until 2 and then went back up and went to sleep.
We woke up around 7:30 to find that Annie had never come back. I went and knocked on a friend's door to see if she was there, and when she wasn't, figured she was a big girl who could take care of herself.
I left a note saying that I would be back in time to take her to the airport with a few hours to spare, and then left with my college buddies to have a second day at Oktoberfest.
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