Zwiebel Markt

This weekend is Weimar's Premier Event of the year, the 358th Annual Zwiebel Markt or in English the Onion Market. Now, that doesn't sound too impressive, but it is huge! There are various different food booths, crafts, clothing, carnival rides, and more. Last year over 350,000 people attended the festival. There is even a giant ferris wheel right outside our new home on Rollplatz. It is fun to watch as it extends well above the roof line. We haven't ridden it yet, so we might try tomorrow. It would be 14 Euro for our family so we're not sure (about $19). We got to explore the festival today and found a lot of neat sights and sounds. There was a great medieval section with soft animal skins, blacksmith, woodcarvers, and more. We were also able to take in some of the great tastes of the festival. Some pepperoni stick type meat, some Langos (think elephant ear with garlic and cheese instead of sugar), and a great stir fry with meat, potatoes, vegetables with a great sauce on top and a pasta dish also with the same sauce. We will go back tomorrow to look for a hat for Heather and I, possibly a Christmas gift for Stanley and an onion fall wreath for our door.

I was also able to run in the Weimar City Run. There were about 1500 people running the 10k with me and 286 who ran the half marathon. This was my second 10k ever, my first being in June while pushing the stroller in the race. I ended up doing pretty well. You can check out the results here. Just click on 10k run, and then you can search for my name. I am also excited that my second 5k was faster than my first. I ran about 18 min 20 sec for the first half, and then about 18 min for the second half. I have been running here in Weimar, often going for runs pushing the kids in the stroller. Unfortunately, the past 2 weeks I've not been able to run as much due to being really busy at work and not getting to bed at decent hours. The only time I have to go for a run is in the morning around 5 or 5:30 am. It feels good to be in the shape I'm currently in, and hopefully I'll be able to do more runs in the future. They have running circuits here in Thuringia and a lot of different races available.

In other happenings, Stanley was accepted to a Kindergarten and he will start the beginning of November. We were hoping to have him start in Oktober, but other circumstances kept that from happening which actually works out perfectly. This allows him to be home when my parents come to visit, and he will start after they leave. This also allows us to get into our new place and settle down. Quick update regarding that, they are going to put in new carpet hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday so we can move in next weekend. Right before my parents arrive. Back to Kindergarten. I got to meet the teacher a couple of weeks ago. They were having a parent's night, and Erik invited me to join him. It was really nice to see the school. It seems like it will be great. For those of you wondering why we are putting him in Kindergarten let me explain. First, Kindergarten is the socially common thing to do with children. In fact many parents will start applying as soon as they are pregnant (or sooner) because it is so hard to get into a good Kindergarten. Secondly, we thought that this would be the best way for Stanley to learn the language. Total immersion, and we expect that he'll be fluent within 3 months. He will also just be there in the mornings instead of the all day option. Thirdly, This will also give Heather more focused time with Holly in the mornings and it will be easier to get household tasks done with one child around instead of two. The first bit will be a trial and if it doesn't work out then he doesn't have to continue to go, but we feel this will be a great opportunity for him.

Finally, I wanted to update you on our German class that we've been taking. I think I mentioned this before, but for Heather's Visa she needs to take a German test. So we've been taking a class twice a week for an hour and a half. At first the class was total immersion, the teacher spoke no English! This was really hard and frustrating. We actually had a few students/teachers drop the class. However, the teacher adjusted for the group, and the class has gotten much better. We left on Thursday feeling like our brains were going to explode because we were learning so much. This was quite different from the first few classes when we felt like our brains were going to explode because we did not understand a thing that went on. I do have to say that our teacher probably has the hardest job having to teach a group of teachers. We teachers are the worst critics. We don't feel that Heather will be completely prepared from this class, so we might still have her take the intensive course but if she does that then Holly would have to be in Kindergarten too. It's 5 days a week in the mornings.

I think that is enough for now. I'm off to bed. Thank you for taking the time to catch up with us.

From Germany,

The Overby Family