6. NKHS OKTOBERFEST am 28. OKTOBER

FOTOS:
1. NKHS DEUTSCHKLUB vor dem OKTOBERFEST. Wir mussten uns zuerst verstärken und ernähren.
2. ALLE MEINE ENTCHEN, super gesungen!
3. WACKELN MIT DEM PO!
4. WIR SIND DEUTSCHLAND!
5. HERR CASEY UND FRAU LAUREN, 2010


The 6th Annual OKTOBERFEST is now behind us, and there certainly were some surprises. Thankfully most of them were of the pleasant variety. I’m really encouraged about how easily you all learned so much so easily and so deeply in the past few weeks. Your performances were energized and outstanding! The parade was a riot, and I think the EDELWEIßTANZ was our best yet.

Did you follow the wedding vows? Didn’t Robert do a great job helping us? Do you realize that he was substituting? -- And so was Zach, our last-minute Münchener Monch. As for the imaginative vows themselves, they were composed by the Deutsch IV class during Junior testing. Special thanks to Nielson and Michaela for adding their brand of drama and charm. And didn’t our Prinz Ludwig (ZSR) and our Prinzessing Theresa (Lauren) contribute loads to our celebration?

Although the Schuhplattling was really missed, our VERY OWN LIVE MUSICIANS -- and dancers -- filled in so nicely. I won't soon forget watching our versatile drummer (der Schweizer) continue keeping the beat while chasing after his dropped stick. I’m also glad that our Turtle (Mattias) unzipped his green head in time to play the trumpet. Special thanks to clarinette and flute players, Sonja and Margret, for their patient coaxing, and for pulling this off. As to our cheerful dancers, these brave souls made the Zillertaler Wedding March come to life! (I agree that our center stage was pretty intimidating. Hmm. Let's devise an improved floorplan next year.)

I’m grateful to Sabine, Dominique, and Annie, who worked with warm enthusiasm to teach some of our youngest guests the duckling song, ALLE MEINE ENTCHEN. Everyone should also know how thrilled I was to have had Kari handle absolutely all the public communication duties as our fabulous OBERBÜRGERMEISTERIN! I had the night off, right?

Even I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try to fill that acoustically challenged cavern that is our cafeteria when it came time to sing Wise Guys’ NUR FÜR DICH. But it was just delightful to have Nielsen, Sigrid, Kari and Casey all lend their voices, too. I hope you enjoyed the performance as much as I did. (Johann, glad you survived being throwned off the train. Thanks everybody, for contributing great theater!)

Discussion regarding who deserved to be honored as Herr und Frau OKTOBERFEST was more challenging this year than in the past. So many of you qualified! In the end, the German Club’s decision to leave this to our Seniors (partly since our previous faculty committee all retired) proved to be the deciding factor. Congratulations, Lauren and Casey!

How fun it is to have our own German-Homecoming festival! After hearing from several grads, who were sorry to have to miss this year, that made it all the sweeter to welcome back Till (thanks for serving as our Sound Guy), Tatiana (!), Sarah (toll, dass Du uns mit dem Theaterstück helfen willst; hast Du wirklich Zeit?! Dann: JA!), and Michael, not to mention Sam Turner, who's really cranking up her web-zine, PATCH. Check it out!

Food contributions to our feast were outstanding. Thank you everyone for such delicious and thoughtful salads, vegetable dishes, main courses, fruit trays, and cookies! (On the other hand, the brats were disappointing, and I’m actually pleased that our supplier didn’t provide any beyond those we purchased. I’m hoping to transfer their offer to donate $30 to our Advent Calendar GAPP Fundraiser. More soon, but meanwhile bring in your orders: $3.75 for each chocolate-filled Advent Calendar; 2 for $7.50; 3 for $10.)

If you catch a glimpse of Mrs. Hammick and Mrs. Morgan in the lunch line, do thank them for the outstanding job they did behind the scenes. After a full day on their feet, they worked with us until 9 pm, only to report back for work as early as 5 am on Friday. We're so lucky to have their support!

And finally, a huge thanks to Siggi and Maddi and families for contributing so generously to our raffle table! What a shock I got to have a hand-carved, wooden pyramid show up -- just what I've had on my WISH LIST for the holidays! So, after 10 prizes, and with the clock striking 8pm, I decided to halt the raffle contest itself, declare the wooden pyramid a classroom feature, and then, to help justify this exchange, make EVERY ATTENDING, COSTUME-WEARING GERMAN STUDENT an automatic raffle-prize winner, starting Monday!

The energy "in der Mensa" (in the school cafeteria) was really sky high the whole time, and I never tire from hearing supportive messages from our guests. (Thanks, everyone, for inviting them!) As to our actual German language learning, we’ve got a solid foundation to build on already this year, and loads of reasons to continue doing so.

Macht weiter, liebe Leute!
(Continue on, dear people!)

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
(Can you infer what this means?)

Frau Steinlicht Baker

PS This is the second time the school's Nikon Coolpix has delivered non-transferable images. I was anxious to get photos up, so finally thought to simply post screen shots from my iPHOTO file. If you're interested in seeing (screen shots) of any of the thumbnail prints which also appear here, let me know. I've made the photos large for now, but will soon shrink them back, so they appear less blurry.