Karneval

The time of Karneval has arrived! This week long celebration, the original purpose of which was to drive out witches and evil spirits from winter, is celebrated in different places in Germany. It begins on November 11 at 11:11am and continues on a calmer level until the 42nd day before Easter. This festival is often considered a way to go wild and crazy before Lent, and my coworker told me it ends with a big bonfire where you burn your sins from Karneval. On Sunday afternoon, Christian took me to neighboring Kapelle for Karneval. When we arrived, people were in costume, lining the main street in anticipation of the parade. Big floats drove by, and marching bands and dancers performed in between them. People in the parade threw candy to the crowd, and little children scurried around with bags in an attempt to gather as much as possible. I was able to take some pictures of the children, my favorite being one of a chubby cheeked little strawberry! I have decided that Karneval, from what I have seen so far, is a combination of Mardi Gras, Halloween, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. On Monday morning, I went to class with my friends from 8:00am-1:00pm. They had three classes, two teachers, but remained in the same room the entire time with two breaks in between. The first teacher asked me to stand up and introduce myself, which was pretty embarrassing and very unexpected. Although I could not understand much in the lessons, I know that they learned about the politics and financing involved in the gardening business. After class, we headed to a gym to celebrate Karneval in Straelen. The room was completely packed with people of all ages, dressed up head to toe in themed or simply silly costumes. A band played traditional German music, some of which I have begun to memorize, and people drank, danced or stood around and talked for hours. The "Karneval Prince" I mentioned before made an appearance with his troops, but this time they had lady soldiers with them. Again, the men performed a marching dance with rifles, and then the ladies danced a sort of can-can, kicking their legs in every direction while wearing big red boots. I remembered my camera this time, but it was much too dark inside to take any good pictures. Luckily, the "Prince" was conversing with the commoners as the party ended and the lights came on, so I took some pictures with him. He even gave me a pin to remember the moment. Outside the gym was a large food cart, and I can proudly say that I tried my first Bratwurst, the equivalent of a long hot dog in a little round bun, and it was pretty tasty, considering I am not a big fan of sausage. So now I have experienced Karneval twice. Jonathan Pinney and Lauren Jones are coming to visit tomorrow, and we plan to see Karneval in Köln, the most popular location and largest gathering, on Thursday and Friday and then travel to Salzburg, Austria for the weekend. Also in Köln, which you know better as Cologne, is a famous Catholic cathedral called the Dom, so I am really excited to see that. Please pray for me though, because I think I am getting sick. My throat is a little sore, but I do not want that to ruin my weekend. Hopefully, we will have a blast travelling and seeing awesome sights. I think I can safely report that after four weeks, I am a little bit homesick. I am thankful that I am here, and I have loved every moment of this experience thus far, but I wish I could have one day in my American comfort zone. I want to see your faces, hear your voices, hug you (I miss good hugs so much!), eat at Olive Garden, devour some Oreos and then work it off at Ramsey, and be in a smoke free environment again! Anyway, I will write again next week and tell you about my trips in as much detail as possible. I love you all very much. And now I will leave you with a few more things I have learned about Germans, some generalized of course from a small sample size...
Germans have no sense of personal space; they wear wedding rings on their right hands; they all know the words and sing and dance to traditional German songs during parties, which I find very patriotic and fun; their school system is very different from ours and kind of confusing; the majority of their TV shows and movies are American ones dubbed in German; they have no problem blowing their noses, anytime, anywhere; they have not embraced smoke free laws, which means that I smell like an ash tray all the time and constantly hear my lungs screaming for help; I have yet to meet a non-Catholic.