Day 9 - Karnival costumes

So today was a rather unremarkable day except in two aspects. I left for the tram a little late, but luckily got there on time, and even at the exact same time as my friend who goes to the same stop as me. She's so lucky, it's only a 5 minute walk to her house from the stop, mines about 15 min. I've been really lucky that the weather has been so nice here with almost no rain and a relatively warm winter season from what I've been told. In fact, I think was the coldest day so far, clocking in at 4 degrees Celsius when I walked out the door at 9:30. Anyway, I got to class alright for history of medicine.

Now that class is really fun, our teacher tells us about all the ways that physicians and priests handled diseases, going into the Mesopotamian region, the Ancient Egyptians, and the Greeks. Most of these cultures believed in a surprisingly accurate form of why people got sick or stayed healthy, which is that your body is in a constant state of balance or imbalance of different elements or fluids or whatever deities they believed in. Now, the homeostatic part was right, if your body goes too far out of balance, you'll get sick until the balance can restore itself, but what the balance rested on was wrong.

After that all the BMEN kids were kicked out so that the science people could have their class. The free cakes outside the room made it seem alright though. Many of us started working on our homework that's due this week (yes, I've actually done a lot of it now). When the class going on above us was done, some of us left to go get some lunch and ended up near the marketplace. This is where the first cool thing of the day happened. There were a lot of different fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads, and meats on sale at this marketplace, but there are always little shops selling ready made food around. At one of these shops, I noticed that they were selling bratwurst. Now, I have been in Germany for just over a week now and I regret to say that until that point I had not tried bratwurst. That changed today. Oh, it was wonderful! I know I say this a lot, but I recommend German made sausage, it's absolutely delicious.

After lunch was another class (circuits) with even MORE homework being piled on top of the already existing monster. The worst part was that although I could understand the basic principles behind what was going on, I was often left in the dust while the one person who understood answered the question or the teacher worked it out for us. This has actually happened quite a few times now, and that's worrying because that means I'll have to do even more work when I could be doing other stuff!

When circuits ended, a lot of people wanted to stay at AIB to do their homework and then maybe go for a drink later on. Now, one thing that I've come to terms with is that I like to be around others, but after a while I get irritable at people for little things and that's when I know I need to quietly separate myself and go hide in the corner or somewhere by myself so I can relax and unwind. When everyone started talking about how they wanted to stay to work, I was initially all for it...until I realized I was sitting on a table all by myself while everyone congregated together at the opposite end of the room and that throughout the day little things had started to irritate me that normally would have made me laugh. So I left and had a wonderful quiet, relaxing, and most of all productive day doing homework in the little room at my host home.

At around 7, my family came home and I went downstairs to talk with them and eat before heading back up to my work. And this is where the second remarkable thing happened today. When I walked in, Sophie was all dressed up in a white and purple floor length dress with costume jewelry on. It was actually quite pretty, but I wasn't expecting it considering how cold it was outside. Then Marie came out in an Eskimo outfit with matching leg warmers that looked absolutely adorable on her. Turns out that the family had gone shopping for Karnival costumes while I relaxed! Then their grandmother walked in. Even though she doesn't speak a lick of English, she was still sweet and, turning to Annette, asked where my Karnival costume was, as I would obviously need one when the end of February came around. She laughed and showed me over to some boxes and started pulling out costumes that I could wear; pirates and fairies and Indians all came out of the box along with a sheep costume, a clown, a scarecrow... there were costumes coming out all over the place! They had kept every single costume they had ever had for Karnival and she said that anything I wanted to wear I could. I eventually chose a tiger costume, and it looks rather good if I do say so myself. Now that I'm all ready to go out on the streets, I'm super excited for Karnival! I seems like everyone else is too as I hear more about it that even the Olympics (which I've only heard about when talking to my American classmates, haha).

That's really my day today. Hey, the way I look at it, the last week has given me enough memories that I deserve a rather chill day to recharge. Unfortunately, the ordinariness of the day means that no pictures were take, and so I cannot post any today. Tomorrow might be better, but if all else fails, Wednesday we have breakfast with the mayor and I'm almost positive that there will be pictures.

Thanks for all the support I've gotten! I know the comments are acting finicky for a lot of people, but I appreciate all the people who are reading what I have to write.

Erin Z