I spent a lot of money this past week.
On Wednesday, I went to H&M. Finally replaced the jeans I ripped at PVL. That's a story for another time.
On Thursday, we had 7.5 hours in between practices so, Manon, Ségo, and I went to the Nike outlet, which is about 45 mins away (as is everything in Switzerland). I needed some shoes to lift/workout in and I ended up getting the same ones I had before in different colors bc they fit my feet well and that’s literally the only thing I care about. I also got a zip-up hoodie that I’ve worn every single day since. Ségo bought 3 pairs of shoes, one of which was actually for working out. Manon bought 5…none of which are for working out. We spent pretty much the entire time making pro and con lists to decide which shoes they should get, and in the end both of them just bought all the shoes they were considering.
So…I went to Oktoberfest.
First things first, on the supposed-to-be-4-hour-drive-that-ended-up-being-7-hours I left my wallet at a gas station. Dead sober, not even out of Switzerland. Didn’t realize it until we were going to ‘dinner’ in Munich that night. I say ‘dinner’ bc it was 11 pm and nothing was open except bars and the only food we could get were stale pretzels and a liter of beer. Strong start. We returned home slightly satisfied and definitely tipsy to our lawn-chair-cushion-mattresses that our Air BnB host so graciously provided us with and passed out. For a few hours. Because in order to get seats together in a tent on opening day…you gotta wake up early. The alarm went off at 5:45 am and I genuinely considered not going. But the thing about doing things with a group of people is that you feel obligated to not complain and ruin their experience. Which turned out to be super important bc we stood in the freezing rain from 6:30-9:00 when the doors opened. We did not bring an umbrella. But we left with three…oops. Once we finally got into the tent, we planted ourselves at literally the best table in the entire tent and ran around getting pretzels and talking to the other people at our table until 12 when they start serving beer. At noon on Saturday, one of the top 5 favorite days of my life began.
To be completely honest and not cool/hip, I really don’t like beer all that much. But, I want to reiterate that it was absolutely freezing. Z and Mic’s lips were blue. So when the beer came…we downed it. It took maybe 20 mins until all of us were standing on our bench yelling German chants. At Oktoberfest, or at least in the Hofbräuhaus tent (which is notoriously the foreign/rowdy tent), people stand on their table and chug their beers, and while they do this the entire tent of 7 THOUSAND people cheers for them. And if you fail, which a lot of people did, everyone throws shit at you. This one kid stood on his table, just trynna take a cool insta pic of his beer and all the people behind it, and the entire tent screamed at him until he started chugging. He didn’t make it. Napkins and pretzels were thrown. We all agreed that the coolest moment of the entire day was when the first girl stood up and chugged her beer. When she started everyone freaked out. Like it hurt my ears. And as she got closer to the end of it, the tent got quieter. It was like watching a half court buzzer beater shot go up…except the whole stadium is smashed. And then she finished and the ENTIRE crowd lost it. I got goose bumps. It was wild. Watching everyone’s fists go up in the air at the exact same time is an image that is permanently burned into my brain.
Also, at some point everyone in the tent started singing “Hey Baby,” and I just couldn’t help but get teary eyed with the memories that came flooding back from college.
At 3 pm, everyone has to clear out of the tent so that a new wave of people can come in. So we had to order lunch before then. And we did. And when the food came…I was not sober. A plate of food was put in front of me…so I ate it. Unfortunately, it was not my food. It was for the guy two people down from me who was in the bathroom when lunch arrived. Shoutout to my German best friends, Chris and Andre, for literally holding the man back while we ran out of the tent…I’m sorry.
At this point, we were a little lost. We tried to get into another tent VIP area (why we thought that was plausible none of us know) for a while. I’ve never really been shoved by a grown man before but a few security guards definitely shoved me. Which was fine bc we were being obnoxious. Then, we tried to eat at a restaurant so that we could be inside and not in the rain (it didn’t stop raining for the 36 hours we were on our trip, btw, see pic). And as soon as we sat down this HUGE man started yelling at us in German. He thought we weren’t going to order any food and so he wanted us to leave. We told him that we were going to eat bc despite having someone else’s lunch I was still hungry, but he was not having it. The people next to us were yelling at him in German telling him to calm down but it didn’t happen and sooooo we got chucked out.
At this point, we needed sustenance. Which obviously came in the form of a Nutella and banana crepe. I definitely shed a tear eating that thing.
We decided to then move on to trying to get into another tent. It wasn’t looking like it was going to happen so we were headed to the bathroom, when Mic suddenly decided to go in through the kitchen without telling anyone. Just took a sharp right and was in the tent, no problem. Me, Z, and Gunnar kinda looked at each other for a second and then ran in after her. And so we got into a second tent. This one was more chill, no one was standing on tables chugging (booooooo). Z and I were fading fast, it was 6:30 pm and I missed my lawn-chair-cushion-bed. We headed home, but not before getting some apple strudel. I closed my eyes the whole time that I ate it. Unreal. I know Oktoberfest is all about beer but the food is severely underrated.
Got home, showered, and slept on and off until 9:30 am the next morning. Gunnar tried to sleep on the stairs, Mic did not let that happen. Mic did, however, make him sit in a bumper car that gave him bruises up and down his shins and ride all the rollercoasters in the rain.
We went to this hole-in-the-wall place for brunch that ended up being amazing (I had a great food weekend). Went back to Oktoberfest and got some souvenirs, and headed home. The drive only took 5 hours this time, but you better believe it did not stop raining the whole time.
Then it was back to reality. Filipe decided to surprise us with circuits at practice this week, woo! But we’re on our last week of max lifting so I will gladly do all the circuits in the world. Last week I literally squatted until failure and that’s never happened to me before…shoutout to Z and Mic for not letting me die underneath the bar. Thanks. We just won our scrimmage tonight 3-1 and Z and Mic had to pass with 2 the whole time, so I’m pretty impressed with them.
The wine festival that our team has been talking about for the past month and a half is this weekend. Wish us luck bc it sounds like we’re going to need it.
Random Things:
The care package that my mom sent me has been stuck at customs for the past week. They made me send a full list of all the things inside and a receipt for each item. Tight security when it comes to things like candles and tampons, apparently.
After 6 weeks of trial and error, I have discovered the perfect amount of time to microwave eggs to make them over-easy. It’s the little things.
I finished Stranger Things…and I might watch it again.
Eleanor Derouin got her doctor’s coat last weekend while I was losing my wallet and stealing other people’s food. Don’t know why she continues to let me be her best friend. So happy for you, El! Saving lives. Being Meredith Grey. Legit.
I officially have access to Volleymetrics again (thank you, Inky) so the volley snaps are back. You're welcome.
When I texted my dad telling him to cancel the AmEx, he responded with, "don't worry, mom already lost it." Like mother, like daughter.
Sorry this is a day late but this is my blog and I wanted to watch Netflix last night. I know I let down my fans, I’ll try to be better.
Love love love,
Bugg
P.S. Please be safe everyone I know in NC/America/the world. Let’s try to spread more love and laughter and work together towards peace and equality and that’s all I’m gonna say about that rn.
