{"id":445,"date":"2013-09-17T07:30:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T00:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=445"},"modified":"2013-09-17T07:34:20","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T00:34:20","slug":"octoberfest-91513","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=445","title":{"rendered":"Octoberfest, 9\/15\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

OCTOBERFEST!\u00a0 We\u2019re not actually that big on Octoberfest.\u00a0 October is the busiest time of the year for a marching band, with contests and games filling the weekend.\u00a0 In the past, to hear someone say \u201chey, let\u2019s go to Octoberfest\u201d, only made me mad they so much free time.\u00a0 Lived in New Mexico for 25 years.\u00a0 Never had a chance to attend the Albq. Balloon Fiesta.\u00a0 It was always in October<\/span>.\u00a0 The weather was always great for golf in October.\u00a0 Never had the time to play.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now I\u2019m attending an \u201cOctoberfest\u201d in September<\/span> in Beijing, China<\/span>.\u00a0 Weird!<\/p>\n

We meet Deb and Graham (Australian), Robin (USA, been at BISS for 1 year, and Israel 25 years before that), and Jeremy (Brit) at the subway station at noon.\u00a0 It\u2019s a short ride, 7 stops, with one quick transition to a 2nd<\/sup> train line.\u00a0 We come out of the ground at the north end of the Olympic Park area.\u00a0 The view is great.\u00a0 There is a gorgeous park to the north, and some dramatic views of the Olympic area to the south.\u00a0 We start looking for the Octoberfest area.\u00a0 None of the promotional materials ever really said where it was, except that it was in the Olympic Park area (and that\u2019s a huge area).<\/p>\n

We follow some signs and find the site fairly easily.\u00a0 It\u2019s only 12:30, so not many people around.\u00a0 It\u2019s 10y each to enter ($1.80).\u00a0 We walk in and wander in and out of 4 or 5 huge tents.\u00a0 Each tent has hundreds of big tables and benches, with a big stage in the middle.\u00a0 There is a band playing in one, so we make it our home.\u00a0 There is a menu with food and drinks, so we order a bratwurst and pretzels.\u00a0 The bratwurst is good, but it\u2019s weird to be eating it with chopsticks.\u00a0 The wait staff are all dressed in German \u201cbeer garden\u201d attire.\u00a0 It\u2019s an unusual sight.<\/p>\n

\"Brat<\/a>

Brats with chopsticks? Seated next to Robin.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Olympic<\/a>

One of the tents and the Olympic Observation Tower in the background<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tent\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We move outside to sit on an outdoor balcony overlooking the walkway for the event.\u00a0 The weather is gorgeous.\u00a0 We can see everyone as they move through the area.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great place to watch people and talk amongst the group.\u00a0 Jeremy is teaching at the BSB (British School of Beijing), another International School.\u00a0 We listen to his stories about school and living.\u00a0 He\u2019s lived in several countries, including Kuala Lumpur.\u00a0 Man, these international teachers have been everywhere.\u00a0 There are some really unusual living conditions for these schools.<\/p>\n

Judy and I leave around 3:30.\u00a0 There\u2019s debate about touring the Olympic Park area, but we decide to save it for another day.\u00a0 Home and naptime are calling. \u00a0We stop off at the grocery store in the mall when we get back to Taiyangong Station. \u00a0As we’re leaving, we pass a hair salon we’ve noticed before. \u00a0It’s always crowded and some of the staff have really crazy hair. \u00a0Check out the picture below. \u00a0You may have to zoom in to really see the unusual styles. \u00a0When we get home, we sack out for a little while.\u00a0 As we come out of our snooze, schoolwork and planning are on the agenda, and keep us occupied until bedtime.<\/p>\n

\"Hair<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OCTOBERFEST!\u00a0 We\u2019re not actually that big on Octoberfest.\u00a0 October is the busiest time of the year for a marching band, with contests and games filling the weekend.\u00a0 In the past, to hear someone say \u201chey, let\u2019s go to Octoberfest\u201d, only … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}