Week 6 in Europe

Hallo!

We’ve been in Germany for over a month now. This past week was my favorite week so far. On Sunday Feb 16^th, I went to a Karneval parade with my host sister Laura and I had such an amazing time. My host mom helped me dress up like a 20’s era flapper. My host sister and all of her friends are so welcoming and patient with my bad German. They love asking me questions about the US and I love spending time with all of them. It was a priority of mine to make sure to spend time with Germans my age to really immerse myself in the culture, and I really love all my time with them. I feel like an actual German sometimes. During the week we caught up on schoolwork, and on Thursday we were in the Beuel Parade with AIB. It was such an incredible cultural experience, and I learned how hard it is to not eat the candy you are supposed to throw out. After the parade, some of us stayed after, drank some Kolsh and went to the street party. Then we left for our trip to Sweden, and boy was it a long trip and expensive. There was a blizzard, travel issues, extra unforeseen costs, but none of it matters because we saw the Northern lights and it was the most amazing experience of my life. We went skiing In Narvik, Norway and I am still feeling the soreness from keeping myself upright with the wind. Sweden and Norway have been my favorite trip so far. After about 30 hours of traveling straight, we went straight for Karneval in Cologne for Rose Monday, and it was so fun! This week was busy, hectic, and exhausting, but I am so happy and wouldn’t change a thing. Now off to studying for a change for my first physiology exam, then Berlin and my host sister’s 18^th birthday this weekend. Bis bald!