[Recap] Karneval, Pt.1

Obviously, more things happened than Karneval, but that was the single most important thing that happened here in week 3. Of course, it spilled over into week 4 because big holidays are weird like that. That's why there's a 'Pt. 1' in the title. Effective communication!

During he week was more normal class, for the most part. This is when things actually began to get difficult, too. I'm still really salty about having to take Circuits and Signals. I'm not an Electrical Engineer, I'm a Biomedical Engineer. I literally did not sign up for this! Anyways, that week of class really whopped me over the head. It woke me up to the fact that even though we were in a fairly unorthodox situation, the curriculum wasn't going to be pulling any punches. Up until now things had felt like a very unconventional addition to Christmas break. If last week was the comforting, routine part of school, this week was the part where I remembered that, no, I still had to actually do work, even for the classes I didn't actually enjoy.

In the middle of the week we visited the main headquarters of Bayer, most well known in America for the lovely invention known as Aspirin. While there we got a look into what it's like for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies, what sorts of challenges they face, and what kinds of problems they try to to solve. Very interesting stuff. I was also surprised to find out that they'd started life as a textile company. Their first drug was actually a byproduct of the dye-making process that turned out to have useful medical properties. I suspect finding that out has a few interesting stories behind it ('Hey Hans, bet you can't drink all that crap in the waste tank!').

Then, the week ended early, because of Karneval. Yes, the same holiday as celebrated in Brazil. On Thursday the whole AIB got dressed up in costumes (I went as a vaquero, complete with magnificent face-paint waxed moostache), and went to watch a parade. We sang and yelled, and watched the parade and generally had a good time. Then we went and got pizza, and went home, because standing around and yelling for two and a half hours is surprisingly tiring. Then, an unfortunate few of us had to drag ourselves back down to the AIB to take Differential Equations, because it's streamed over the internet rather than taught in person, and our friends back home weren't going to get the day off for the sake of a few punks who ran off to Europe for the semester. The next few days were quiet weekend days, with most of the Karneval celebrations concentrated on that first Thursday, and at the end on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday).

The Crystal Key is Broken, Theophany