September
The month of September was partially covered in my blog about Oktoberfest, because the festival of beer and German-ness starts mid September. But prior to this, my company decided to throw a Sommerfest party. You might recall a previous post about Sommerfest. And indeed, I had already attended one, and whats more it had been for my company. But it had been for the families. This time around, the big boss organised a really wonderful 'All White' themed Summer party for all the staff at one of our 11 centres, outside in the garden. It was a wonderful night, with lots of laughter, good food and dancing.
There were of course mishaps, with Michael managing to cover my white dress in red wine (the cork got stuck in the bottle as he was serving someone else - without a corkscrew our school handyman had forced the cork into the bottle instead of pulling it out - and Michael used a straw to re-free the cork, causing an eruption of wine all over me). I even ended up with wine in my eye (which really does sting a bit!).
But regardless, it was a wonderful night. The photos tell the best stories really so I will just post them.
This is the Biederstein crew
Me trying to dance without sinking my heels into the dirt. 
Shortly after the kids Sommerfest, Michael had actually commenced working for my company as an IT support technician and thus, was invited to come to the party as part of the office crew. But he spent most of the night with the Biederstein crew and me.
After Oktoberfest, there really was nothing much else to report for October as my weekends were mostly filled with study. That was, up until Halloween.
So, in Germany, Halloween is becoming a thing. For this ignorant or oblivious Aussie, it really wasn't a big deal. Until I was informed that it was to be celebrated with the children (we alternate, one year the German Harvest festival Erntedank, the other year Halloween). Not only were we celebrating Halloween, it was up to the English teachers to organise it, because of course, every native English speaker celebrates Halloween! And guess who happened to be put in charge... the one person who hasn't actually ever celebrated it! Me!
Lucky for me I had some awesome team members, with Shauna particularly coming to my rescue, and Claire also getting into the spirit of it. We organised an amazing morning of rotational games and activities so that each group was able to experience several halloweenish things. There were spooky sports games, a scary story circle with face painting, while I created a collaborative canvas with every group.
Meanwhile, over in Shauna's room (hands down the best room of the day) the children got to play with all things messy. There was goop, there was slime, there was foam, there were fake spiders and eyeballs. There was even some oozey mess called Ooblek and some gel balls for the kids to enjoy for sensory reasons.
I will pop only one or two photos here as of course, as always, I cannot share with you the children's images. However, I have a link to our school website where all the details of the day were posted including some promotional photos!
http://wichtel-muenchen.com/biederstein-schwabing-halloween-mit-english-native-teachers/
I should mention also that the day started with a bang - with a Spooky Fashion Parade. We were all dressed up in our finest creepy attire. I was a vampire bat - halfway through transformation. Long story, just look for the pictures. It also included new blue hair!
And these were the finished collaborative canvases. The Tigers made a monster mural....
The Pandas made a Ghost portrait....
The Giraffes made witches and vampires....
And the Kangaroos made Spiders!
So, that brought us to the end of October. Phew! I was exhausted. But I couldn't stop there. Next up, November, brought with it more stresses and more challenges. Starting with St Martins. Like Oktoberfest, this was my second time round celebrating St Martins. But this year was different. I have this school year been promoted to lead English Teacher at my particular location and therefore was the English Vorschule Teacher. This means I work specially with the oldest children for a year before they head on to Primary school next year.
So this meant that I was heavily involved in the presentation performance at our St Martins festival. I really enjoyed delving more into the story behind St Martin this year and really loved the message behind it that we teach the children (sharing). It is of course the story of a soldier who sees a beggar in the street on a snowy night, so he stops, slices his cape in two and gives half to the beggar. He then decides to be a good Samaritan for the rest of his life. To signify this, we walk through the cold dark night carrying beautiful lanterns (that we make with the children) and sing songs that honour St Martin. It is actually a really lovely celebration!
Sadly the only photos I took show the children and their families. But again, I have the website...
http://wichtel-muenchen.com/kinderkrippe-und-kindergarten-biederstein-schwabing-sankt-martins-umzug/
The very next day however, (after a late evening in the park) we had a very special event happening at my company. And for once it didn't involve the kids. I was asked to be a part of a special presentation day (Praxisfachtag) where the company welcomed in a large group of teaching students to basically put our institution on show. I shant go into major details but even though the day was mostly in German, I was asked to be a special guest presenter alongside my boss so illustrate our Bi-Lingual program. There was video footage of me at work, along with photos and a presentation.
I felt very proud to be a part of such a big event for my company and quite amazed that I would be considered such an important part of the organisation. Who knew this little Aussie English teacher could make such an impression!
Somewhere between Praxisfachtag and Christmas things got even more busy, with several work commitments and events. This included my sudden involvement in the hiring of new English staff for the akademie, numerous parties, multiple Christmas market visits and the Krampuslauf, and even the celebration of Michael and my 3rd wedding anniversary. Photos are excuse for lack of explanation here...
First, company Christmas party!
Our wedding anniversary! Of course we went for sushi!
Multiple Christmas markets - which means multiple drinks of Glühwein, Heiße Caipi, Heiße Hugo, and Feuerzangenbowle (where the drink was on fire). It also resulted in lots of yummy market food. Plenty of crepes, Spätzel, Flambrot and more.
A Swedish Christmas market with Michael's friend Nils.
And then there was the Krampuslauf - and I hear you asking 'What on earth....?'. The Krampus is the usually rather hairy gentleman (monster) that is usually teamed with Nikolaus, who frightens the children into doing the right thing for St Nikolaus. We celebrate Nikolaus on December 6, and the two men usually come in and visit each classroom. Nikolaus tells each child something that they have done very well that year, and he also gives them a tip on what they can do better. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on this topic as I know there are two types. Krampus is the scary monster man, while Knecht Ruprecht is somewhat more man like and does not frighten the kids as much. He still threatens to give them coal or walnuts if they are naughty but he mostly is just a hairy man. The Krampus on the other hand is known for his horns and monster like appearance.I tell you all this for two reasons. At school, Nikolaus and Knecht Ruprecht were played this year by Shauna's boyfriend Matt, and Carina's (another good colleague) boyfriend Andreas, which they did an outstanding job of. However, the weekend following, we went to Marienplatz to the Weihnachtsmarkt and were privy to the Krampuslauf - the march or procession of the Krampus. It turned out that there were dozens of small groups of Krampuses... Krampai.... I don't know what they are in plural form..... from all over Munich and outside of the city. They marched all around the centre of town along a set parade path, but there were so many of them, it felt like they were coming for hours!
And these guys were freaky! I mean, between the hair, the horns and the grotesque faces, I was running away with my tail between my legs and hiding by shop windows so that I could not be attacked by one. Most of them were very tall creatures and were taking turns to petrify the avid onlookers, either by grabbing them and pulling them into the march, walking up and smothering them within the folds of their hairy costume, or by simply towering over a person until they cowered in fear! My favourite Krampus however had at least 6 large horns, but one with a strange addition. Several hair ties adorned a horn, and as we watched, the number of hair ties multiplied as he went from girl to girl in the crowd, ruffled their head and stole their hair tie, before adding it to his collection. And we were fairly near to the beginning point of the parade, so I would have loved to have seen his horns by the end of the parade.
But the noise! Oh my. Most of the Krampus had large bells attached to their back or bottom, and walked with a particular gait so as to make the bells clang viciously. The only way to truly clarify this is with video, and even then I don't think we got the best footage. Mostly because even Michael had to stop recording every time a Krampus drew near for fear of being attacked!
There are still two more parties to explain. First, my class's Christmas party. As always, a lack of photos but enough to tell you that it was indeed a lovely afternoon for all the students and their families. And my team and I got spoiled with lovely presents from the families. We love what we do all year round and thus, putting the effort in for our party is always worth while. But it wasn't without its hitches. The party had to be postponed due to multiple illnesses, with all three Tiger teachers off sick the week of the party! But thankfully all the parents happily made the switch and we had a blast! 
I couldn't help but turn our venue into our very own Weihnachtsmarkt!
The stage for our performance - and later the backdrop for our Photobooth!
About to receive our gifts.... and as usual I am pulling faces!
My Amazing Tiger Team!
My decorations!
So following on from that exciting afternoon (on a Tuesday) the very next day I ran out of work a bit early because it was a special party that night. Lucky almost all the party guests and the guest of honor are from work so no one minded that I used a bit of my overtime! 
It was a very special party for my team leader Naiyana - her Hen's night! Two days after the party she was boarding a plane and flying to Thailand where she and her German partner Michi will get married in late January. But we couldn't let her leave without a good party. And what a party it was. Despite so many people being sick and a few last minute plan changes, we had a great girly night.
I made all of Naiyana's favourite foods (along with the help of Shauna who made Niayana's all time favourite - Chilli! cause we all know I would have died trying to make that!). We had some games planned and we all shared a few drinks before calling it quits around 11pm. It was a school night after all!
Shauna was a little over zealous during the game of Pass the Parcel!
All of us had a great time celebrating with Naiyana!
So finally, at the end of all that, I made it to Christmas! And finally, we made it to our first proper holiday in 6 months! But I will leave that for the next blog!
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