Karneval, Not Carnival (Week 7)

This week was a short one since we got Thursday and Friday off for Karneval, the Rhineland's pre-Lent celebration. But it was still quite stressful since everyone had the first physiology exam on Wednesday. BMEN and BIMS took different exams, since we cover different topics in class. I don't think the exam was hard, necessarily, but there were a few questions that were very confusing due to the wording. Of course, a couple of questions I just couldn't remember the pathways being asked about, so that's on me. But now that I have a better idea as to the structure of Dr. Wasser's exams, I think I'll be able to do a bit better on the next exam.

We got our grades back for the genetics exam, which was good. I scored a bit above average, so I'm feeling pretty secure there. Just have to keep it up for the next two exams and the final. I'm thinking that I'll take all of the exams before the final, that way the comprehensive final isn't weighted any more. I would just get so stressed and worried about my performance on the final if it counted for more than the 25% it already does. Skipping exam two or three would make the final count for 50% of my grade, since the exams are all we have. I just can't handle that pressure. Exam one wasn't very hard, so I don't think it'll be a problem to take the rest of the exams.

Thursday, all of the students part of an AIB program were part of the Karneval parade in Beuel. Everyone met at the new AIB building, picked up a sweatshirt, and picked up either a blue or orange bob wig. The sweatshirts apparently ran a bit small, so I can't wear the hood on my medium sweatshirt without the fabric on the shoulders being pulled up. But it's comfy, so I'll probably use it around the house, at least. The wigs were terrible and made me flashback to the Enigmatic show that Johnson High School did. Since I was in the color guard, I had the same wig, just platinum blonde and not blue. Didn't want to ever wear a wig again but it was for a parade, so I sucked it up for the morning. Being in the parade, we all got bags full of candy to throw out to onlookers. I was a bit too generous early on, unfortunately, and didn't have much to give in the last half of the parade. Also, going through the candy, we all found some really odd ones. One of them was a lollipop contained in a plastic shell- a supreme choking hazard- and mini cheeto-esque chips with a candy coating. There was plenty of Haribo gummies, and I will admit to enjoying a few of those myself. 

Didn't do too much the rest of the weekend. I was just doing my writing assignment for VIBS 311 and preparing for the next genetics exam on Wednesday. I did all of the chapter questions, because that helped me a lot in the last exam, and then reviewed the PowerPoint presentations. Pretty boring Karneval weekend compared to some peoples', I'm sure. Actually, my host mom's older daughter was in town for a few days this weekend for Karneval. She and Naja went out to some of the parades and different things in town and seemed to have a good time.

Today, Monday, we also have no class because it's Rosen Montag, which is the biggest day of Karneval with the biggest parades. I thought about going to the parade in Cologne, but I wasn't feeling up to dealing with literally a million other people and possibly not being able to get back to Bonn on the train. Instead, I just went to the parade in Bonn for a bit, which was still quite nice to see. The weather was pretty bad and it started raining pretty badly about 1.5 hours into the parade, and at that point I decided to just go home. I collected a bit of candy, or Kamelle, that was thrown by the people on the floats, mostly gummies, of course. Some of the kids around me, though, were getting a lot of candy and their moms were vicious in helping them grab as much candy as fast as possible. One girl almost got run over by a float because she went out into the road to pick up a little chocolate bar. 

The parade was nice before it started raining, but I didn't stay too long. This whole week I was feeling pretty worn out and I wasn't up to staying for the entire parade, especially in the rain. But I'm glad I went for a bit because it was still fun and you can't not do something for Rosen Montag.