Oktoberfest Ist Here!!

Who would want to be in a party where you could drink the best beer in the world? I know that I definitely would!! In fact, travel to Germany during the Oktoberfest is part of my bucket list. As you can see, I haven't experienced yet, but nonetheless I wanted to do a little research and tell you some facts about this appealing tradition.

Oktoberfest takes place every year in München  (located in the south of Germany, it's the third largest city of the country) starting on the first Saturday after September 15th, it usually lasts 16 to 18 days. This year it started on September 22nd and will end on October 7th. 

The first Oktoberfest took place in 1810 to celebrate the marriage of King Ludwig I, where all the citizens were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields, specially the horse races that marked the end of the event and were the reason to continue the tradition (they stopped doing them in 1960). Since then, it has been canceled 24 times due to several reasons, including cholera epidemics and war.

In our days, the festival starts when the Mayor of München taps the first keg of beer at 12:00 o'clock. After that, visitors from all over the world can take a seat in the tents, enjoy the music, taste the food and drink the many different German beers that are offered.

The festival receives approximately 6.4 million visitors each year, who drink around 7,100,000 liters of beer in those famous big jars. Hopefully, I'll be one of them someday, and I will be able to tell you more about this cool German festivity.   

If you have more information regarding Oktoberfest or want to share your experience, please leave a comment below.

Cheers!!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest, http://www.oktoberfest.de/en/.

PUTUMAYO WORLD MUSIC

Whenever I'm teaching a language, I always encourage my students to practice and increase their vocabulary by listening and singing along with the songs of foreign artists. This is also useful because music is an important part of the cultures, and in order to learn a new language you should understand a little bit about the cultures of the countries in which that language is spoken.

A great example of that is brought to us by Putumayo, a genious record label that introduces people to the music of the world's cultures since 1993. It grew out of the Putumayo clothing company founded by Dan Storper in 1975, who later on launched Putumayo World Music with the help of the co-founder Michael Kraus.

Always fulfilling its motto “guaranteed to make you feel good!”, this unique company is considered pioneer and lider in developing the non-traditional market. In addition to that, they are also commited to help others by contributing millions of dollars to worthwhile non-profit organizations around the world.

The CDs can be found in most record stores and in thousands of other retailers everywhere in the world (book stores, gift shops, cafes, etc.). Plus, to honor their motto, if you purchase a CD that doesn't meet your expectations, they are happy to give you a full refund.

So I highly recommend Putumayo's wonderful music, either to practice a language (they have a collection of more than 80 CDs from all around the world), or just to relax while you're having a good cup of coffee.

Putumayo has music for every taste, and I'm sure that you will really enjoy listening to these tunes.

Pics from the covers of my favorite Putumayo CD's

If you would like to find out more about Putumayo World Music, listen to some of the music, or purchase a CD, you can visit their web site www.putumayo.com.





Info & img source: www.putumayo.com