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Karneval was a blast! My host mom had a bunch of costumes from her daughters and previous host students so buying costumes was unnecessary. Now most of the costumes were for girls but there were some unisex costumes. My roommate and I searched through the collection of silly costumes looking for the perfect one. My roommate tried on this potato sack costume that looked hilarious. I knew it was going to be really cold and we were going to be outside all day and night so I wanted something warm. My eyes gravitated towards this ridiculous elephant costume that seemed pretty warm. There were also these fruit covered leggings that really stupid on me so I had to wear them.

The Karneval Parade in Beuel was a lot of fun. We met at AIB in the morning which really set the mood after seeing everyone’s costume, listening to the Karneval music, and eating Berliners which are jelly-filled donuts. Karneval Thursday was also women’s day where the ladies would cut the ties off of businessmen. Dr. Wasser gave all of the guys ties to wear. We walked across the Rhine River to get to Beuel. We seemed like a parade ourselves with all of the AIB staff plus the students from every program. The parade was near near the church St. Josef on Herrmannstraße. Brynn cut my tie. Yelling for candy was a great time. They also threw things like tissue paper packets which I thought was really useful since my room did not have any tissue paper. I also got some sunglasses and a bag.

After 2 whole days of partying plus the upcoming Rosemonday Parade I really needed a break. We went to a wildlife park which was very relaxing and fun seeing all the animals. There was some slight snow and ice at the park. We saw some deer that we got to feed. I had some popcorn from the previous Karneval parade that I fed them. There were some wild pigs which were super aggressive and were behind two fences so you wouldn’t get your finger bitten off.

We went to the Rosemonday Parade in Cologne which was the greatest parade I have ever seen; the longest one too. The parade didn’t have as many good things as the one in Bonn but for sure it had more candy. The Rosemonday Parade in Cologne also had some political floats with some to do with German politicians. There was also one float involving Kim Jung Un and Trump with Kim Jung Un holding a nuke and the a sign on the float saying “Dirty Dancing”. The Rosemonday Parade in Cologne lasted from the morning to the evening which is crazy. We stayed the whole time and left right before it got too crazy. The train back to Bonn was surprisingly not that full.