Sunday September 30th
I went to the Herbst Fest in Wolfurt today. It was a big celebration of Autumn with pumpkin carving, good food, music, booths, brass bands and all around merriment. I went there by bike with Agnes and we browsed the stands for a while. I bought a few gifts and such, then I contacted Emily (who lives in Wolfurt) and met up with her and Mark. First we watched Emily host dad perform in a local choir group. They were good, and all of their songs were in English. It is interesting how anything like media or marketing is in English. Most slogans and advertisements from companies are in English, then even sometimes in movies the actors switch into English to make a point stick or swear (poorly). We spent about an hour and a half checking our the festival. The fire brigade was there with one of their automatic lifts and they were taking kids up to look at the festival from high above. Tons of apfel strudel, sausages, beer and crafts from Vorarlberg were on sale. After we were finished at the festival Emily took us back to her house. Mark already knew it, because they are swapping families in February, instead of having 3 families they only have 2. It was a big house (about the same as the Thurnher house) complete with a pool. Her host family is a part of a familie that used to own pretty much the entire Wolfurt, so their neighbors are two sets of grandparents, and two or three sets of aunts and uncles. They have a joint yard with the family directly next door, and they set up a little soccer field. Not very many friends come over to the Thurnher house, so I was surprised when our little game of 5 (Mark, Emily, Emily's host sister and host cousin) turned into an 8-on-8 game. Kids from all around the neighborhood came and turned into a pretty decent game. They were all way better than me, regardless of age, but I had a good time. We played for quite a while, and after too long I walked back to the festival to pick up my bike and ride back home.

Entering Wolfurt

Riding to the festival

A side view of the festival

The fire ladder above the main stage

A giant apple strudel cut into pieces, this festival competes in the contest for World's Longest Apple Strudel

Yum.

The stands, this went on about 4 times over

In the center of the square

Emily's host dad's choir

Mark and Emily watching

The view walking to Emily's house

Mark and Emily walking/biking

One of the brass bands

Arriving at her house

Soccer in the joint yard

A cool view on the ride home

Afternoon ping pong with Jakob

All of the meals here are so presentable