Oktoberfest

Birte trying to teach me how to dance to Traditional German music.

Steffi, Christian, and Thorsten eating German food.

The Desert Table
The German Oompa Band

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday, we went to a cultural event - Oktoberfest. It was a great time. We went with German people, there was a German Oompa band, traditional German food, and German dancing. The event took place at The Wild Dunes (http://www.wilddunes.com) which was a really nice gated community/golf course/resort area. I wasn't prepared for how nice the event was going to be, I thought it was put on by the College of Charleston, but was actually open to the public. There were tables and tables of food, nicely decorated room, ice sculptures, and more. It was a lot of fun, especially because our German friends explained what each dish was, how it was made, and the significance of it. It was a great night, had a lot of fun with everyone and it was a good weekend.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to go study in Marion Square (a park a block away). I layed out in the sun, it was 31º. It was nice, so I went back today, 33º, but now I'm burnt on my back. I'm thinking about going again tomorrow, but will sit in the shade to study. It's still really hot and still beach weather. There's still not too much going on lately, just studying and going to class.

I'm still meeting a lot of people and having a great time. The weather has warmed back up and everything is great.

Another Weekend come and gone...

The International Office had planned a Harbor Cruise for the International Students. So on Friday evening, about 50 people borded a boat, and toured the Charleston Harbor. It was a tour type deal where one of the guys had a microphone and gave history notes, pointed out different buildings, and interesting things that happened. The city is full of history.
The first battle of the US Civil war was fought in the Charleston Harbor, Most of Downtown Charleston is man-made landfilled and was one of only 3 walled cities in North America.
We were on the boat for sunset and had really good weather for the tour. We went down to see the shrimping boats, the battery, the new $637 million bridge (picture above), Fort Sumter (where the first battle of the civil was), and along the docks.
It was a good chance to see the harbor and a different view of the city.

Not much has happened lately because I've been busy with school and was trying to catch up with sleep from last weekend.

Best weekend EVER.......

*Warning, this might not make 100% sense, but I tried*

This weekend was amazing. I'm going to try and do my best to put it into words, but I know it won't even come close.

To start the adventure, my flight got out of Charleston three hours before the airports closed due to Hurricane Ernesto (which I hear didn't really do anything...)
I then met Andrea in the Seattle Airport - her luggage didn't make it onto her flight. We then waited, waited, and waited for Amanda and Andre to get to Seattle. We thought the latest flight was 11:30am. Long story short - Amanda's flight got delayed and Andre missed his flight and had to catch another one. It was a struggle, but we all made it to Seattle. We toured around and hung out in Seattle. It's a really nice city and I wish we had more time to see it (hopefully next year).

Friday morning was spent driving out to the Gorge Amphitheatre to see the Dave Matthews Band. We stopped in Ellensburg on the way to get groceries and provisions for our expedition. It was a really fun drive out to the camp site. Ther place to stop and take pictures on the side of the road. One might call it a scenic stop. So we stopped, got out and met this crazy lady, Di, who is a teacher by fall/winter/spring, and a Dave Matthews Roadie (not officially, but she may as well be) by Summer. Her show count? 95. (This is what I aspire to). It was interesting. But time to move on. After the rest stop, it was about a 10 minute drive to the camp/concert site. (In the picture above is Vantage. One might call it a village, I called it a camping town with 2 gas stations, a diner, and all of it something out of the Twilight Zone and stuck in the '70's. It's an extremely cool place, but the sign really freaked me out.....so I got a picture with it).

The concerts were amazing. All three shows were sold out and could've sold more tickets if the venue was more accomodating. Dave played a lot of songs that I wanted to hear (Let's just say Everything he played I wanted to hear). There were a few songs that haven't been played on this tour that I really wanted to hear that he played - mainly Say Goodbye.

During the days, we hung out down by the river, swam, layed in the sun, and just hung out with hundreds of other Dave Matthews fans. There were stereos playing his music everywhere. The setting of the Gorge is amazing. It's an outdoor amphitheatre built right into the cliffs just outside of George and is considered one of THE premiere outdoor venues in North America and is breathtaking. There are pictures of the venue, but not on my camera, so I will post them when they become available.We took our Canadian flag with us everywhere - and got noticed. Everybody was excited to see us and talk to us - especially other Canadians. There were plenty there from all over. During the three days, we had located people from every Canadian Province.
The campground was full of thousands of fans camping, many like us were camping for the entire three days. It went on for as far as the eye could see. This picture is taken near the edge, there is way more people behind me. There was also other campgrounds 10-15 minutes away, but this one by far seemed the most fun. It was also extremely convenient to be a nice walk to the venue.

When the sun started to fall, people would start their way to the venue. As in the last picture, you can see the thousands of people walking.


Some of this blog might not have made sense for the following reasons:
a) I'm jet lagged
b) I am lacking sufficient sleep
and,
c) This weekend was speechless and I don't know how/what to write to describe it, I feel like I'm not doing it justice.

I don't know what else to write. I mentioned earlier, it's really hard how to put this experience into words. It was a long 5 year wait, but I finally got to see DMB. The Gorge/Seattle is one of the most amazing places I've ever been. I had the time of my life.

Coming again is DEFINETLY on my list of things to do. But next time: Reserved Seating.