Daheim is where das Herz is...

It's that time of year again, officially the season for hot apple cider, football games, colored leaves and progressively shorter days. The month of September, though pleasant enough, was mostly lackluster in terms of goings-ons. Now that we're into the third week of October though, things have picked up a little bit and the past couple weekends have been busy.

The last weekend in September was Homecoming at Newark Valley High School, my alma mater. My younger (though note that I don't use the term "little") brother is one of the captains of the varsity football team and was nominated for Homecoming court; we're so proud of him! :)

The morning started off with the Homecoming parade, which wound its way through Newark Valley with marching band, Homecoming court and sports teams in tow.

Opening the parade, the Newark Valley High School marching band.

That afternoon, after everyone settled down from the 10 roaring minutes of parade, we gathered at the school to watch some good, old-fashioned American football! I personally am not a fan of the sport, but I try to be at least a little supportive of my baby brother and where I come from... I also LOVED the person in the cardinal mascot. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a while.

The team coming onto the field, with my brother leading the way... and that hilarious cardinal dancing alongside.

In the end, my brother didn't win the king crown, but NV won the game and everyone went home happy.

The following weekend was the annual Apple Festival, a Newark Valley tradition. Across from the high school on the edge of town is an old restored farmhouse from the late 1700's called the Bement-Billings Farmstead. As a kid we took numerous school field trips there to learn about ye olde candle making, ye olde blacksmithing and how cold and unwelcoming ye olde houses were. They were always my favorite field trips! Well the Apple Festival is pretty much the same thing, execpt it draws a much larger crowd and they have great food and music and dancing and such. I haven't been home in a while, so this was the first year I went in about 4 or 5 years. I'm glad I got to; it was fun!

His sign said he was a "wonder horse", though we couldn't decide what that meant.

Pressing apples for cider on a vintage press... did I mention the Apple Festival has a lot of apple stuff?

English folk dance... I think.

I even got to shoot my first gun- And I almost hit the Gatorade bottle target with the foam ear plug too!

Spinning yarn.

Nerd alert.

A great bluegrass band that played: The Coal Town Rounders... check out their Facebook site HERE !

Inside the historic house

So other than the few outings mentioned, my days lately have been spent working, getting ready to return to Germany and enjoying the time I have left at home.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about going back to Germany? Well, I'll be leaving December 11 and arriving in Hamburg December 12! I think I am now officially allowed to say that my boyfriend, Matthias, and I will be moving to Berlin and starting a new adventure! He got a great new job that starts on January 1 and, though I'm still hunting, I hope to be doing an internship for a few months in the German capital city. I'm in the middle of applying for a master's program in Brandenburg for the Fall 2013 semester and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out. Everything is so uncertain, but exciting and thrilling at the same time. I have never before made such a huge move in my life with no real concrete plan and had to make it a total leap of faith. I'm sure I'll find an internship eventually and grad school is still almost a year away, but it's comforting to know that even if it gets hard and frustrating, I won't be alone. :)

On that note, I'll leave everyone with some recent pictures of autumn in beautiful Upstate New York.