... is my favorite Karneval song by far. I only just found out what they were saying in it yesterday, when my host sister helped me find it and then kindly explained it. It basically means drinking, morning, noon and night. In my defense, I didn't know what it meant before I decided it was my favorite. Besides, I think the message it sends is very true to the Karneval spirit. Karneval week was definitely one to remember.
Monday
So Lauren, Katie, Emily, Corey, Mitchell and I all got back from Budapest Monday, with Lauren and I arriving in our normal late style to class that morning. That day passed in a haze, as we had to wake up at 4 that morning to make our 6 am flight. Naturally we woke up a little late and spent most of the early morning hours chasing buses and running through airports. I feel a little better about eating an average of six pastries a day because of the amount of running we do during traveling. I was also sort of freaking out because we bought really really sketchy flights through a site called Wizzair, and I was nervous my luggage was going to be too heavy and I'd have to pay a heavy fee to make up for it. Fortunately, we boarded out of a shed so we never had to weigh luggage. And when I say shed I literally mean an old airplane shed. I'd do it again in a heart beat though, the flight was cheap and just about as comfortable as any other plane. Once landing in Dusseldorf, we had to run around a bit more to find a bus, only to find that the buses wouldn't arrive in time for us to make our other bus that was going all the way to Bonn. We then ran back through the airport to find a taxi and ride our way to the main bus station in Dusseldorf, where we then ran some more to make it to our bus in time. I passed out on the bus, and woke up a few hours later to familiar surroundings. I have to say that Bonn is really starting to feel like home. It was nice to recognize where I was, and it was nice to hear German again (even if I still can't understand it) after being in Budapest all weekend. Lauren and I thought we'd be able to go home, change and still make it to school on time, but per usual we miscalculated a bit and showed up about 10 minutes late to class. After a full week of traveling school was hard to sit through, but I am here for school after all (right?).
Tuesday
Tuesday passed even quicker because I was in a panic about our BMEN 211 test that we had on Wednesday. I knew I was underprepared, and therefore it was harder to try and study. I did what I could, and went to bed (might as well sleep a little).
Wednesday
Romi's birthday! And test day! I don't particularly want to talk about this day because of the test, but I guess failing a test is just as much a part of this program as everything else. I definitely learned a lot-- that school needs to be put in front of traveling a little bit more. And since I'm writing this about a week or two later, I can say that I have gotten a bit better about school. After the test everyone was exhausted, sort of depressed, sort of ready for Karneval. Lauren and I went costume shopping, which was honestly harder than the 211 test. We had no idea what to be, and didn't want to spend insane amounts of money. So we decided to just dress up super brightly. Lauren really wanted to wear a wig, so she convinced me to buy one too. I was super against the wig at first, but quickly warmed up to it once I saw everyone else's costumes. The idea of Karneval is to dress up and have a good time, which is exactly what we did.
Thursday
Karneval! Lauren and I woke up late (this should just be assumed at this point), and of course putting on costumes takes a lot longer than just getting dressed, so we were about 40 minutes late to the AIB Karneval party. Walking to the bus we were kind of freaking out because no one else we saw was dressed up, and we were about as insane-looking as possible, especially with the wigs. Even when we first got on the tram, we were surrounded by normal looking pedestrians. But as we rode closer to the city, more and more people were getting on with some type of costume. We saw everything from a guy with just a red clown nose to a guy painted completely blue and spray painted white hair. At this point I was super pumped about Karneval. The whole city seemed much more alive, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. When we finally got to the AIB, everyone was eating berliners and drinking juice, looking at each others costumes. We soon left for the parade, and Karneval week began! We stood and watched part of the parade for a bit, yelling Alaaf and Kamelle right along with everyone else. My host sister Naia recommended different types of candy to collect and the ones to avoid, but I ended up trying everything. We spent the rest of the day in a little plaza dancing and hanging out, listening to the live music playing. It was my favorite day of Karneval by far.
Friday and Saturday
Friday and Saturday I did absolutely nothing. I spent most of the day in bed, and even caught up on some homework. This was mainly because we weren't sure where to go for those two days, because our little village didn't have a parade like most other villages. Lauren, Emily, Katie and I had also planned to go to Cologne on Sunday, so I'm pretty glad we took Friday and Saturday easy.
Sunday
Sunday Lauren and I met Katie and Emily at the train station around 11 that morning, and we rode our way to Koln for the massive parade on Rosenmontag, which is all anyone talked about when we asked what we should do for Karneval. While Fat Tuesday is the day of celebration in the States, Rose Monday is the party day here in Germany-- and Cologne has the biggest one. We arrived in Cologne and popped over to our Airbnb, which was a short 10 minute walk from the Dom (I'm still amazed we found this place, especially during Karneval). The apartment was beautiful, and the host was awesome. He and his friends gave us a list of things to do on Sunday and an itinerary for Monday. We quickly unpacked our stuff, changed into costumes, and went out. We spent most of Sunday walking around, just enjoying the atmosphere. We ate at a traditional German restaurant (and enjoyed a Kolsch beer) before heading back to the apartment. I had some last minute homework to turn in, so I did that and then we all went out to one of the bars our Airbnb host recommended. It had a 20 euro entrance fee, which didn't appeal to any of us, so we went into the bar next door which look insane. Turned out it was an older bar, filled with 50+ year olds. I met a girl named Valerie in the bathroom, who turned out to be 29. We ended up hanging out with her and her friend group, who then gave us a few recommendations for younger bars. We found a pretty fun place, and spent the rest of the night there, dancing to Karneval songs.
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