Kareoke Night has become a bit more than a tradition here in Tübingen among the international students. It has become custom for all the students in this fall's international program to assemble at the Kareoke Bar, have a few drinks together and make fools of oursleves. We have a great time picking songs for each other and singing in languages that are not our own...the Macarena is very difficult to sing when you don't know any Spanish. It has also become tradition that all the women of Start Kurs I (this was my orientation class at the start of September) to sing 'Wannabe' by the Spice Girls and for all the guys of Start Kurs I to sing 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua. We have a good time, it's been a great way for all of us to see and socialize and catch up regularly because we no longer see each other every day.
Day 36: Another one of Tulio's Parties
This morning at approx. 10am I was woken by the Hausmeister and a handyman come to fix the heater in my room. I opened the door and thought to myself, "my heat's not broken, but knock your socks off." And then my roommates and I had to spend the morning cleaning the oven...keep in mind that Germans don't have self-cleaning ovens so it took about 2 and a half hours of scrubbing with just dish soap and sponges to get this thing clean. I am glad the handyman fixed the door though, because we've been cooking food in an oven with a door that doesn't close completely. Later that day I went to buy my semester bus ticket and hung out with a couple friends I found in the Altstadt. Then we all headed for Tulio's place for another international student 'get together'. It was a fun night and it was great to see every together in a place that wasn't a bar so we could actually hear what each other speak. Frances-Kate and I headed back to my place and turned in early inpreparation for the Oktoberfest in Stuttgart the next day! 
Day 37: Stuttgart's Oktoberfest 'Volksfest' (people's fest in English)
So a group of us met this afternoon at the Hbf and took the train up to Stuttgart for the Volksfest. This place was amazing! It may have been bigger than Oktoberfest in Munich, but less well known. There were rides and food stands and candy stands and games and bier tents like you wouldn't believe! FK and I headed to the fest on our own and waded through the sea of people. We wandered for a good hour just taking in the sites and checking out the shopping stands. Later we found a good-looking biertent and stopped for a drink. the Fürstenberg Zelt had the coolest entertainment. There was a live, nearly traditional, band of old men in Lederhosen and many different hats. We sat next to an older German couple and practiced our German with them a bit. The band entertained the crowd with crazy cigarette tricks and German folksongs. At one point, the accordian player did a trick were he smoked the cigarette with no hands, practically swallowed the whole lit cigarette and smoked it again-to music. My reaction must have been really big because he pointed at me in the crowd, yelled 'blondie!' and everyone was laughing at me. It was one of the funniest things of the trip. After finishing our drinks, FK and I bought our steins and headed out to see more of the fest. We played games, ate a bratwurst, ate ice cream, ate cotton candy, ate...well, you get the idea. 
After a few more hours of wandering we met up with the rest of the group at the Swabenbräu Zelt and took up a whole table of just our group. Let me just say that there was quite a party going on in this Biertent. The band was AMAZING!!! By half an hour in our whole group was dancing on the table with our beers in hand shouting German folksongs and dancing to 'SHOUT!' and 'YMCA'. The best way to learn traditional German drinking songs is to go to a fest and stay in one tent for aobut 3 hours; repetition is the best way to learn. I'm amazed that we didn't break the benches; you should see the pile of broken biergarten benches behind the tents, it's quite funny. We were literally hanging from the rafters of the tent (yes these tents are actually more like permenant buildings than tents). After several hours in the Swabenbräu Zelt, we headed out and took one more turn on the log ride and headed home.
On the train on the way home, we ran into several Germans who were quite drunk. And there's nothing funnier than a drunk German after Oktoberfest. They ended up following us for almost the whole way back (luckily they got off the train about 3 stops before us) it was kinda funny afterwards, the way they were picking fights over what kind of bier is better, naturally the answer is ALWAYS German bier. I strolled into my room around midnight and crashed. Yesterday was exhausing, but totally worth it!Kendra
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