Valentines with my Gnomies

In the past few weeks, two particularly big program “events” happened that I have yet to mention. The first was AIB Carnival which was the only day of Carnival that I was in the Rhineland and dressed up. Long story short, it was one of the more exciting and weird things I’ve ever seen. I went dressed in drag as a Lady Gnome and as a result of the way I was dressed I got to see at least a little glimpse into the daily struggle of women. One major example was that I wore a pair of Nicole’s boots that were a little too tight on me and had more of a heel than I was used to. The resulting pain in my calves and blisters on my toes made me appreciate the ladies who are crazy enough to wear uncomfortable high heels every day. The makeup part of my costume meant that I was constantly aware of things that might potentially smear it. Going to the bathroom in a long dress was…..interesting. Long story short, there were a ton of things that I didn’t know about being a lady and even though I’ve only scratched the surface, I appreciate being male that much more. Anyway, Carnival was a crazy party beyond what I expected. The parade was massive and I managed to collect enough candy to make even the most hardcore sweet-tooth cringe. Beer bottles and small shot-glass-sized bottles littered the streets that were even further buried in candy wrappers and confetti. Everyone was friendly and talked and laughed openly (which is fairly unusual here). Also, since it was ladies’ carnival, there was a lot of tie-cutting and random kissing (Since I was in drag I even got the opportunity to kiss a random German on the cheek). All in all, Carnival was a crazy party unlike anything I have ever seen. The other program (sort of) event that I’d like to mention was the Valentine’s Day cards. Even though this wasn’t technically a program sponsored event and Valentine’s Day was nearly a 3 weeks before the day we showed them I thought I’d mention it because so much time and effort went into them. Some background info: One of my closest friends from High School, Ben Kim, is master with MS paint. He can make incredible caricatures of people given only few minutes and computer with paint installed. One night before our trip to Vienna, I was on Skype with Ben and I asked him to make a Valentine’s Day card that I could give to Reid on Valentine’s Day. Five minutes later I had what would be the start of Reid’s Valentine’s Day card and Johanna and I had the idea to make cards for everyone. The goal was to make them funny/creepy/weird but not so much that it would offend anyone. This turned out to be a daunting task and together Johanna and I spent at least 50 hours working on them. By the time we were done, we had amassed a hefty slideshow of Valentine’s Day cards and a ton of laughs. Though they were a lot of work, they were definitely worth all the effort that went into them.