Day 50 - Bad Godesberg

Phew! almost done with the fifth season of Germany. It's been an absolute blast, but I'll be happy to not be going to a bunch of parties all the time. Anyway, i woke up today and went downstairs to see that Sophie had already left for the parade and Marie was just hanging out in front of the TV. When I came down, we played our favorite game: catch. Catch turned into soccer which turned into tag. By the time 1 came around, Annette was just starting to get dressed in her costume, and told the rest of us to get ready as well. When it was about 2, the doorbell rang and two other people came in dressed as a cow and an Indian. We talked for a bit, well...they talked and I tried to catch words I knew. I've actually been getting better! It's gotten to the point that I can understand about 20-30% of any given conversation, and more if it's a subject I know about. Anyway, we went to catch the bus to Bad Godesberg and walked for a few blocks to where the parade was taking place.

 Me, Marie, Annette, and Phillip

 Marie looks so cute as an Eskimo!

Annette and her friend all dressed up

At the parade place, I didn't know anyone or the language they were speaking, so I just hung around with Marie until the parade actually started. Annette kept saying hello to nearly everyone that we passed, I think she's secretly the mayor of the small village we're in. It was pretty cool to watch, and soon we had a large group at our little corner of the street. A few people talked to me (in English since Ich spreche kein Deutsch) and we had a great time enjoying all the fun things about Karneval. The parade started and soon the streets were filled with cries of "Alaaf!" and "Karmella!!" as we all shouted at the floats and people streaming by. We even got to see my host sister Sophie as she walked by with a bag of candy. I don't know how I'm going to go back to normal old Mardi Gras when I get back to the States after Karneval, all we really did was the King's Cake among my friends. Which reminds me, I got the king last year and I'm supposed to bring a cake to the party I'm supposed to host this year because of it. Oh well, due to being across an entire ocean, I regret to say I will be unable to fulfill my duties. But hey, I'm here enjoying Karneval, so I'm happy.

 Look at these floats!!

 I just really liked this guy's costume

 Yes, those are people that crawled out the window to the ledge

Some of the flags of the area and of Germany

Sophie after the parade was done

After the parade was over, we walked back to the house, and I explained to Phillip just what my studies would eventually lead into and the focus of the three different tracts and what they did. I even explained a little bit about the project I was working on for Otto Bock this semester. I just can't get over that little fact, it's so exciting! When we arrived back at the house, there was a short break before Annette told me that there was a party at their neighbor's house and asked if I would like to come. Now, I had just spent 4 hours in a screaming mass of people, so I was a little bit drained. I would have gone, but I was happy to have made plans to go to mass at 6:30 with some friends, meaning I would have some down time on the train and during the commute to and from the church. I don't know how I'm going to survive tomorrow in a huge crowd of thousands in Cologne. Oh well, at least I have Tuesday to recover before we present our socket ideas to the class on Wednesday.

As I said, tomorrow is a day in Cologne, and I expect a ton of pictures. Also a bunch of candy. Due to not knowing when I'll be back because I'm going with a group of friends and we all have to travel together, I may not be able to post tomorrow. I'll try, but it's entirely possible I don't get back until around 3 am the next day. Yes, it's that big of a party here.

Bis Bald!
Erin Z