So anyway, I woke up early enough to go to the flea market before mass, because I figured that this way I could spend a few hours at the market, go to the German mass, and then eat a quick lunch before meeting my group at 2. So I went to the flea market and it was pretty cool. I got a cute black and white patterned scarf and spent some time looking at just all the stuff that was around with my friend Johanna. Unfortunately, about 30 min after we met up, she had to leave so she could get to her protestant church with some other people (in English!!). I didn't really have anyone else there to pal around with, and it was too late to go to the English catholic mass and just come back later, so I looked around for only a little bit more before heading into Bonn central. Throughout the day, I kept my eyes out for a pin, because I collect them and I know Bonn was important until not too long ago due to being the place where all international offices and stuff were held. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything, so I'll just have to get one at another time.
I walked around for a while before the Muenster mass, and I saw the cutest thing in all the bakeries. They were all getting ready for Karneval with decorations hanging from the openings and streaming inside. One even put out some kind of pastry with faces and hats. It's awesome to see so many different people getting so excited, but I guess when your next-door neighbor (Cologne) is one of the biggest Karneval spots, and is actually mentioned in a lot of the songs, it's an appropriate reaction to have. Not only that, but there were people dressed up in colonial and clown costumes, as well as any other kind of costume possible. If this is Bonn before Karneval starts, I'm super excited to see Bonn and Cologne when it starts on Thursday.
These decorations continued inside
Everyone's getting ready for Karneval
I went to mass, and I was actually able to understand a lot of the songs and readings that were being read. Granted, this was because reading them allows me to intake and process the words at my own pace rather than the fast pace of someone talking to me, but I'm proud that I now know the response "and with your spirit" (it's und mit dein geist...or somewhere close to that). After mass, it was still a while until I had to meet my group, so I did my favorite Sunday pastime; walking. I finally was able to go to the giant church that was really close to AIB (remember that glowing gold and purple church from my first few posts?) and in the process found this super cute garden area and a bunch of food places that look both cheaper and more intriguing than the ones in the plaza I've been mostly eating from. I continued to walk around and saw a window that had the aliens from Galaga made out of paper. It was pretty cool.
Not a church, just a random building I walk past every day to school
This was that church in full view from the front
Same church, but from the view of the "garden" I found. The statue's cool too
Where's my joystick!? These Galagan aliens must be vanquished!
By the time I looped back around and went back to AIB, there were two other people waiting outside the door. When we got inside, the three of us started on karaoke because none of us were part of a single group together and were waiting for others to come. We hooked up my computer to the monitor because it was the only one with a port that the wire could connect to and just jammed out to all sorts of different music for the next hour or two. Finally my group came (we actually decided to meet an hour later than I originally thought) and we sort of got down to business. At least we hammered out what kind of device we wanted to make and made up a layout for the 5 slide presentation we'll be giving on the 5th to our professor on our ideas for the prosthetic. After that, my computer was till being used for music, so I couldn't be much help in researching stuff. Instead, I decided to help out David with his Karneval costume of a female Viking by winding up a bunch of yarn that he would later cut and braid for two pigtails. He even has two pretty pieces of ribbon tying off the ends of the "hair."
After that little pause, I realized my computer was no longer being used and started to help my team with looking up different kinds of trans-tibial (below the knee) prosthetics and what would be the best design to spring our ideas off of. We got a little bit more work done before it was time for me to head home. Before leaving though, I went with two friends to get some gelato and talked with them about their plans for Karneval weekend (they both plan on going to Munich while I am staying here to experience the full experience.) I got home, ate dinner and just hung out before heading up to my room to study some more.
Tomorrow is a nice easy day, but I can tell that it'll be the calm before the storm with two tests the next two days...and one I don't even know what to study for! It'll definitely be interesting to see what will happen. Oh! Apparently I did well on my test (I don't even know how with how I was feeling that day) and was one of the highest scorers in the class. Also, I feel much more myself after my relaxation day yesterday. It might have been just a case of sensory overload and I needed time to "reset" in the peace and quiet. I'm surprised at how long I lasted this time, over a month of almost constant interaction with people! I'm quite proud of myself. Anyway, everything is mostly back to normal and Karneval is gearing up. Over the next few days, don't be surprised to see a lot of pictures of the increasing decorations, and expect an explosion of costumes on Thursday.
Till next time,
Erin Z
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