Wir lieben das Leben, die Liebe und die Lust
Wir glauben an den lieben Gott und hab'n noch immer Durst."
["Count us in! That's great! Viva Cologne!
We love life, love, and fun
We believe in the dear Lord God and want to keep on drinking!"]
Karneval ( AKA "the fifth season") is finally here, and this is one of the songs constantly played/sung here during Karneval! We're on day two of six, the day when everyone sleeps to recover from the day before. Yesterday was amazing. It's known here as Weiberfastnacht ("womens abstinence night ") and the main festivities were right down the street from my house. EVERYONE wears a costume, and is the happiest I've seen the Germans yet! It's supposed to be all about the women so at 11:11 women storm the city hall to take power for the day and go around cutting off all of the mens tie's (in return they give them a red lipsticked kiss on the cheek). Everyone from AIB met up early in the morning for Berliner's (a Karneval specialty) and orange juice which were amazing. I don't know how baked goods here are so much better, but they really are! Of course all the girls forgot there scissors and lipstick, but after a stop by the DM we were ready to for Karneval!
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| The Berliners my host mom gave us one night this week as a special Karneval nachttisch (dessert). Delicious! |
The parade was so much fun and they throw out sooo much candy! All you have to do it shout "Kamelle, Kamelle Kamelle" and they make it rain! Tip: Don't bend over to pick up candy until a break in the floats, or else you get pelted in the head within 1/2 second. And you have to be careful, cause they don't just throw out little pieces of gum and tootsie rolls they throw whole candy bars, sheaths of cookies, calendars, books, packs of napkins, sponges (?), even conditioner and Axe, little jars of jam, even alcohol! It's nuts! After the parade, everyone pretty much goes home for a break, so the rest of the day was relatively quiet. Germans do things a little different for Karneval, they celebrate almost everything early in the morning and then just go home and sleep until the next morning!
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| Me and two other girsl from my program (Allsion and Rachel). You can't see the skirt (the traditional German skirt (Dirndl), or white stocking, or traditional boots)so my costume probably doesn't make much sense, sorry! |
Today has been a lot of preparing for our trip to Switzerland tomorrow (which I'm incredibly excited about!) especially since we're leaving at 4:00 in the morning! Wish me luck!
Other things that happened this week:
1. Tuesday: A group of us finally went to the gelato place I found last week and it was one of the most delicious things I have EVER had. I may or may not have gone back for seconds after my first cone.... I had already eaten my Hazelnut when I discovered they had Raspberry Gelato, and I just coudn't resist and they made it with fresh raspberry's and really there was only one scoop each time... I'll stop trying to justify myself, but I hope you can understand my side.
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| On my second cone... |
2. Monday Night: AIB held a little warm-up party for Karneval where we learned all the traditions and the chorus of the song that I have on the blog page. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go home and change into our costumes because school ran to late, but it was still fun!
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