hi again everyone out there...hope u all are all enjoying the month and having a good week...It's hard to believe this year is nearly over, but that only gets me even more excited since that means our time is nearly up here.... (just 2 more years I think I've been counting down ever since I stepped off the plane here!!!) I guess everyone looks and feels different about being here or anywhere else, but this clearly isn't for me being stuck on an island being the restless travel type that I am and can do absolutely nothing about that...I'm just glad to not be in a small town since I am not from one, and don't really know what to do with myself being miles and miles from everything around...I really miss our state fair that is going on back home now sooo soooo much that I went to last year with my friends whenever I visited back home for awhile...I hadn't been to this in quite awhile, and I specifically went home so I could go to the fair since that was all I could talk about, and how I couldn't wait to see everything again.....I guess it's not as big as some others that go on, but being stuck living in a very small town in Italy with dirt roads and corn fields where people got excited if they found a gas station opened, was not my idea of a good time. I had never been around small town life ever ever, so moving from a big city to somewhere like that was a total nightmare for me at least...Since I'm one who can't seem to pass up a fair, I of course wanted to know what Oktoberfest was whenever we were living in Italy...I had no idea what it was, but had heard of it plenty of times...These top 4 pictures are of our state fair back home and the bottom ones with the ferris wheel and huge crowds are the ones at Oktoberfest up in Munich, Germany. Also the one with the horse and carriage...I wasn't sure what Oktoberfest even was, but it turned out just to be a huge fair/celebration...It started out as a wedding celebration, and ended up lasting a week in October. Now it is held the last week of September until the first week of October and has about 6 million people going to this every year with it being the largest fair. I loved going to this, seeing how huge it was, and it was all mostly rides, countless beer halls with lines and lines of people waiting to get in, and they also had locals in traditional costumes and it's mostly just eating different foods they have there and drinking different types of German beer...It also has people from all over the world, and Germans tend to be exceptionally friendly to those who are visiting. I'm not a drinker, and didn't care much for the food, maybe the cookies, but they insisted on making everything gingerbread, and I won't go into all my likes and dislikes when it comes to food things... but it was so much fun getting to meet and talk to locals that lived there and got to go to Oktoberfest every year there. I only got to go one time to this but loved it of course and would definately go back. It is a lot more fun to go at night when everything is lit up like it is, and it's not quite as crowded as the daytime. I"ll try to arrange these pictures better, I didn't know it was going to keep stacking them on top of each other.... hope u all are doing ok where ever u are now, and that we get to talk soon on here...take care all...catch up with u all soon.... =)http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=unCaUN05i9I&feature=related (parades etc) http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=5u4f6gRtO2Y (rides at night)