Oktoberfest

Whew! The first full week of our new jobs is over! I'm a bit embarrassed to admit how exhasted I am from working a standard 40 hours/week...it's just been so long since I had such a regular schedule. Things will be a little different when classes begin, but for the next week or two there won't be too much variety.

Alex and I had fun comparing our "first days" in the office. I showed up at Chemeketa, and my co-workers had my desk all set up with all of those office-supply-goodies: pads of paper, post-its of various sizes, pens and pencils, a phone number list, and a cute purple-potted plant. I got my computer booted up and was changing my settings when my co-workers came into my office with a huge boquet of roses! They are so pretty!

vs.

On Alex's first day, he showed up to his cubicle, and it was COVERED in old files that his boss admittedly hasn't touched the entire time he has worked for US Bank. Oh, and a dead potted plant. His boss asked him if he had a green thumb.

Wow. A dozen roses vs. a dead potted plant. It was awesome.



Anyway...we celebrated a free weekend by hanging out with our friends Vince and Christi (we went to a yummy italian resuraunt) on Friday night. Then on Saturday we went to the big local Oktoberfest in Mount Angel Oregon. It is a really big event. We had never been. The entire town is structured around this 4-day annual event. The buildings "downtown" are German-styled resturaunts, etc. There is even a large tower replica of The Glockenspiel from Munich. It was a bit like a country fair, but more upscale. They had mobile food vendors designed like German caravans. We had sausage and sourkraut, doughboys (like a donut), and a divine piece of apple cake with hot butter-sauce. Not a great night for the diet...but it was fun.