Week 6 - Karneval

In the Rhineland part of Germany (where I am currently living), Karneval is a HUGE thing.  The hardcore locals start partying November 11 at 11 pm and keep on partying until Rosenmontag (Rose Monday, the last day of Karneval).  I was a little worried to see what would happen when Karneval season ended/if the world would end too.  But, the Germans just cleaned up the incredibly dirty streets after a weekend of crazy parades and carried on.

My Karneval experience started with a Women's Day parade in Beuel (a town on the other side of the Rhine of the AIB), which was pretty fun.  Claire, Maggie, and I were the three blind mice, and Kanci was a cat.  The engineers could not start enjoying Karneval yet though because of the diffeq exam looming over our heads.  That night, I took the hardest test I have ever taken in my life.  We were given eight free response problems with multiple parts to complete in 75 minutes.  A week later, our AIB math tutor told us that he finished the exam in 90 minutes.  Let me repeat that:  Our math tutor, who has his PhD, took more time than we were allotted to finish the exam.  I completed about half of it.  I also do not have my PhD.

Anyway, Karneval continued through the weekend.  A group of us went to Maggie's village for a parade on Saturday (and Claire's birthday!!) which was a lot of fun!  That night we went to a super nice Italian restaurant in Bonn to celebrate Claire, and it was delicious.  Later, we went to a couple of clubs and had fun dancing!  Sunday, we got to participate in a parade and push special needs and elderly people in wheelchairs during the parade.  Monday was the biggest day of Karneval, so we went to Cologne.  There was a huge parade with tons of candy and flowers, and everyone had a good time.  I definitely enjoyed my Karneval experience in Germany!