Dirndl! Dirndal . . .Dirndahl. the traditional German Dress.

I actually have forgotten how you spell it. I believe its the first one. Whatever . . .
But yes! I bought a Dirndal yesterday. Woohoo (as Katharina so lovingly likes to say). It has a light blue top with a black skirt and shimmery purple apron. The trim goes all the way to the floor, which is more traditional. I love it :D It is very cute. It will suit me very well come Oktoberfest on Sunday. They are a little expensive, but well worth it. Photos to come later, right now . . . it requires some complex connections that take up a lot of time. Two pictures are currently bumming out on Facebook.

What else . . .
Friday night was spent seeing the Batman movie "Dark Knight" in German, very interesting. It was surprisingly good . . . but I also didnt understand everything, as usual (naturlich). The speaker the chose for the joker did an excellent job. He was quite the villain . . . I would be scared. Just kidding, I WAS scared.
Saturday was my first Rotary conference-thing. Rotex (past exchange students) organize each Rotary weekend or trip, and this one contained Rebounds (students from Germany) and Inbounds (students from other countries). It was fun to meet all the other people on exchange and their opinions on the culture, etc. (usw. . . ) There were 5 Americans there, 2 from Arkansas. Of all places. One of them was named Ryk and had a very strong accent, the typical American. Very funny. Most of the other students speak virtually no German, except for a couple who have studied it. I hope they pick up on the language quickly as well, because even with the communcation skills I have I sometimes have a very difficult time understanding people. Plus, everyone has Bayerisch accents. We also had to have a long meeting about rules. . . blah, blah, blah. No, they were good to know. Traveling has some very strict rules set down upon it, you need 6 different signatures to be able to travel alone/with friends. This includes short train rides out of the city for a few hours . . . psh. Even Ulla and Dieter said that was unneccessary. That has too many double letters in it . . . When you study German, or try to learn it, you forget most English words and how to spell. Complex. I did get to travel through the city of Ulm though, and spoke a lot of English. Im not entirely sure if the latter is a good thing, but it was nice to keep up on my skills.
Sunday I visited the Büchter church (Kirche). The are Roman Catholic, so some pracitices were very different, but the basic church plan was very similar to mine at home. The church is not very detailed and decorated, like most in Europe, but more functional. Afterward we visited St. Lawrence, the largest and oldest church in Kempten with a cross from the middle ages, and that was very intricate. I tried figuring out a German word for intricate, but in English we have a lot more adjectives and expressive type words than in German and I dont think there really is an exact translation for intricate. Detailed, yes. Intricate, no. We also, naturlich, went out for Kaffee and Kuchen that day as well. It was very fun.
Sunday also allowed Theresa and I to visit the CamboMare, the new Spa in Kempten. Really, its just a big swimming area. It also has a whole "SaunaWorld", but it costs extra and on Sunday we just went swimming. There are two slides, one with tubes and one "Disko" one, that is all dark with flashing lights. Im not entirely sure how that constitutes a Disko, but it was quite fun. There is also a pool outside. It was quite entertaining to see all these Germans walk around in swimsuits, not meant negatively at all, just that all of the older men and young boys wear very tight, short suits because, supposedly, they could take all of the nice clean pool water away with them when they leave if they had baggy shorts. HILarious. I have also come to the conclusion that the stereotype of Americans being overweight has some truth to it. Of course, many arent, and most probably arent, but almost every European Ive met so far is very healthy. They are not tiny, tiny skinny . . . and are not big either. How Germans do this with as much bread and cake they eat I will never know ( except that maybe the blisters from walking have some truth).

Kathi, Theresa and I have also been watching the "Sissi" series, about a Kaiserin from Austria before the Revolution (?) and German culture. Its a little cheesy and kind of like a fairy tale, but so fun.

I hope things back home are starting to clear up as the weather here is doing . . . warmer would of course be nice. Im looking forward to being a new "cute" jacket, because in Germany you just cant wear the jacket youd wear skiing around town. Ah well . . . Other things Im looking forward too: Oktoberfest Sunday, last School day Friday, and possibly a trip to Zurich, Switzerland in Oktober! Woohoo. Also a possible trip to Berlin the first week of November.
Much love to those I love,
Sonja