Day 45 - Costumes

So today was actually a fairly good day, despite the fact that we had a test. It all started with German class. Today was the last day that we have class before our final tomorrow, so most of today was just review over the things that we'll need to know for tomorrow. I'm not that worried about it considering about 40% had become ingrained in my mind due to interacting with people in Deutschland and listening to both my host family and the TV shows that they always watch. After that short class was our design test. As far as tests go, it wasn't that bad, and though there were some questions that I utilized my brain for an educated guess, most of it was rather straightforward. The other thing that made the test a good test was the fact that our teacher brought Haribo gummy bears for us to munch on during the test. She always did say that caffeine and sugar were essential to come up with good ideas, especially during a brainstorming session.

She definitely wins teacher of the year

After the test, my design group decided to meet tomorrow with some ideas for our Ottobock device before class starts so that when lab starts, we can have a good starting point to launch ourselves from. We ate lunch and just kind of hung around for a bit because classes were over for the day. It wasn't until about 2 that something interesting (besides studying for the test tomorrow) happened. A bunch of us decided to go out for gelato and to look for Karneval costumes at the Karneval tent that appeared over the weekend with all the costumes from the nearby department store inside. After a quick stop by the bank and the Eis store, we walked inside the tent. Unfortunately, a lot of the good costumes were already gone due to the first come-first served attitude for the costumes. I did find a good costume of a Renaissance lady/knight hybrid that was super cute and on sale for 27 euros. I eventually bought it because I can use it for Halloween or Ren Fest once I get back in the states. Plus it was super cute! Anyway, the others tried out a bunch of costumes as well, but only one other person bought something at the store, and left soon after.

Gelato is the best

It makes everyone happy!

 Brandon as a Mexican (confirmed)

 Melissa and Tessa as a police-lady and a gypsy (both denied)

Because most of the people still needing a costume didn't find one, they decided to go to the Karneval store (Deiter's) to try their luck. I went with them, but because now I have 2 costumes that I plan to use (plus all the other ones my family has kept,) I was just browsing their accessory portions. I say portion'S' because Deiter's is HUGE!! 4 stories of all things Karneval under one roof! Despite that, I wasn't that impressed with the selection and most of it was largely overpriced. Instead, I left after only a few minutes and headed over to my favorite accessory store: Claire's. Apparently they have a huge following here in Europe because I've seen quite a few stores and a whole lot of spin-offs of the store scattered around the continent (I almost said country...but I forgot I'm not working on American sizes anymore.) Anyway, I went inside and they were having a sale on earrings and cuffs, which was convenient as that was what I went in for. I left the happy owner of some adorable new earrings. Now I don't have to feel odd about not having earrings anymore!!

My new costume for Karneval, Ren-Fest, and Halloween

I went back to AIB to pick up my school stuff and modeled off my new costume before heading home. When I arrived, no one was home yet, but that was OK as it was still early and it allowed me to relax for a bit. A while later, I went downstairs to have some tea because I was cold and Sophie walked in in her dance costume. We ate abendbrot (lit. evening bread) together as the rest of her family came in with their friend Victoria and her small toddler Timmy. We watched him play with the broom and dustpan, and it was during that point that I realized I was truly suited for the Engineering field. How you may ask? Well, Timmy was first playing with the broom propped against the wall, but we eventually moved the broom so it was flat against the floor so the handle wouldn't fall on his head and hurt him. He would still bring the handle to above his head, but it wasn't such a big deal because the handle wouldn't hurt him as much from so small a distance. That was in layman's terms. What actually went through my head at that point was something along the lines of working out different equations of why the lower height wouldn't hurt as much. The higher height would allow the broom to fall for a long period of time and let the acceleration increase the velocity to be much more than at a lower height. Then it went on to how much damage each velocity would create and I started wondering how much the bones in his head had fused together to cover the hole in our skulls we all have at birth that eventually goes away as that would allow for more protection to his head if the handle did fall. See what I mean about knowing I was an engineer in that moment?

Anyway, I spent some time researching prosthetic legs for my group meeting tomorrow with Sophie, but after a while she had to leave to sort through her old clothes and get rid of the ones that she no longer wears. I followed and Marie eventually ended up in the room with us. It was a pretty fun experience to see some sister bonding hard at work and to go through the different clothes debating which ones looked good. A lot of the unwanted clothes went to Marie, but I ended up with two shirts and a pair of pants because they wanted to see if her clothes would fit me and when they did, insisted I take them. So now I have some real life European clothes to bring home, yay! The rest of the night is devoted to studying German and researching prosthetic legs, but tomorrow is the last day of class before the fun that is Karneval. It'll be quite the experience.

Bis morgen! (until tomorrow!)
Erin Z