February 2
Today we went sightseeing in Duesseldorf in the morning. First we walked around the Altstadt and then we walked along the Rhine to the Medienhafen (Media Harbor). One of the buildings that houses the TV and Radio station for the state, NRW has little figures climbing on it and the other buildings haave really interesting architecture that were built in the !980's as office units. As we were walking along the Rhine, it began to snow/rain/hail and then a short while later (after we were wet) the sky cleared up and we had beautiful weather. We went to a cafe to warm up and try to dry off. After this, we decided it was time to buy something to make us fit in with all of the people at Karneval. We went across the street to a souvenir and costume shop, where we all bought crazy hats and facepaint. We went back to the hotel to change our socks and pants and dry out our shoes. Meanwhile I painted everyone's faces for the evening.
Shortly thereafter, we headed out to Koenigsallee to watch the Tuntenlauf or Homosexual race, which involved men running along a catwalk in high heels and drag. This was hillarious and some of the men could've passed for women had I not known... We also got to see some musical performances and German cheerleaders dancing. The music that they kept playing was typical for the Rhineland and was also hillarious. I think we know almost all of them by heart now since we heard them so often! We had a rrived to the place a bit late and the crowd was already overwhelming. There was a really nice woman and her husband who let us (Helen, the other Ohioan in Schleswig-Holstein and I) in front of her so we could see the whole event and take pictures. This was very nice of them because they were literally around six feet tall and before this we couldn't see hardly anything. Helen and I stayed around after the show to get our picture with the winner because his/her costume was very impressive. We met up with the others at an irish pub and then went out into the streets where all of the people seemed to be dancing and having a good time. It was the largest party that I have ever been to. There was music playing in the streets, everyone seemed to be in a good mood, random people were dancing with us and there were some really interesting costumes. It was a fun atmosphere in general.
The only thing that I didn't like was that there was trash everywhere. It is one of the only times you will ever see so much trash on the streets in Germany. You couldn't go anywhere without walking on broken glass or bottles, until you got out of the city center. Just as Helen and I were saying that we were getting bored, along came Mozzy, a guy from Iran, to make things more interesting. He was hitting on Helen. He was Emo and he had so much gel and mousse in his hair, that I thought it might catch on fire, seeing as we were standing next to a fire-producing heat lamp. It was really random and hillarious as his first words to me were (of course in German) "It's ok I'm not going to kill her." We spent the next half hour or so talking to him and then he asked Helen for her number. This is where the conversation came to an end of course and we headed to Burger King for the Restrooms. In Germany, you have to pay to use the restrooms and if you are going to pay, you might as well go where you know they will be clean. This is where we made all of our bathroom stops during Karneval.
February 3
Today we decided to sleep in, as we knew that nothing much would be open in the early morning. We wanted to go up in the Rheinturm or Rhine Tower to get an amazing view of the city from above, so we checked the price online and were off to see it. We were impressed with how cheap the prices were and when we got to the top the view was great. We had really nice weather and decided to sit down at the cafe on the 168th floor and have coffee and cake. We spent about 2 hours up in the tower and then left to check out what was going on in the city. We walked into a Children's parade and stopped to watch a bit of it. Then we went back to Koenigsallee, where everyone else was. They had lots of stands for food and drinks everywhere and the streets were packed full of people. We took some pictures, grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to the hotel for a bit. We left for dinner and ate at an Italian restaurant that was also full of people. In the evening we went back to the Altstadt where the dancing was and joined the party. I ended up calling Ryan, the Scot who left us for Sweden, and he was really excited to hear from us. It's too bad that he couldn't have been there with us. He would've loved it.
February 4
We woke up around 6 so that we could pack and get to breakfast at 7. We were informed that it wasn't until 8 but the woman was nice and let us go ahead and eat. It was a good thing because we checked out right after that, so that we could get to the station to catch our train to Koeln for the Rosenmontagzug or Rose Parade. We wanted to get there early this time so that we would have good spots and we knew that it would be chaos if we arrived late. We got to Koeln at 8:30 and not too much was going on yet. People were most likely still in bed, but this didn't bother us because it meant that we would get better spots for the parade. We found one spot but then realized that the parade wouldn't be there until too late so we had to move closer to where the parade began. We got there just in time as it was filling up with people. We had to stand there for 2 and a half hours before the parade started and it had begun to rain. We met some really nice older German ladies. They heard us talking and asked us where we were from. We told them and then the one said that their sister has lived in New Mexico for 30 years and that she was there. We also got to talk to her and she was interested in what we were doing here. Throughout the parade they were picking up candy and filling our bags and they kept telling people that we came all the way from the U.S. This one guy who was in the parade came over and talked to us and she told him that we were from the states. We then recieved flowers and candy from him. The only thing I didn't like about where we were standing was toward the end when this really pushy German was trying to move me out of the way. I bent down to pick up candy and she had pushed herself into where I had been standing. I wasn't much at all suprised by this behavior as it seems to happen to me quite often, so I returned the favor and pushed her back.
As for the parade itself, there were lots of bands, cultural entries, political floats (which is one of the things that Karneval is known for), tons of flowers were thrown out and massive amounts of candy. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Helen and I were taking pictures and we would get hit in the head with boxes, yes I said boxes of chocolates. When the Germans do something they go all out. They don't just throw out piddly pieces of candy, they throw out chocolate truffles and big bags of Haribo!! They had vans full to the top of boxes that were filled with candy and flowers. It was a sight to see! We came away with lots of sweets as you could expect. One guy even tied a rope to his umbrella and dropped it down from his window and was catching candy in it upside down! Unfortunately, we only got to see the first half of the parade which lasted three hours! I would have loved to stay for the rest, but in Schleswig-Holstein we don't get vacation days for Fasching so we all had to leave to catch our train. This time we managed to get decent prices for the fast trains. There were people sitting in our sits that we had reserved and we had to tell them to move. They were hesitant at first, the guy actually stood up read the sign that said reserved and then sat back down, but we finally got them to leave.
February 5-8
School was pretty boring this week so I don't have too much to talk about there. A lot of my classes were cancelled and I didn't have to teach any lessons this week. I was however, informed by one of my teachers that my lesson on the "use of hyphens" was not interactive enough...she said that I didn't have the students talk enough. I was a bit puzzled as to how on earth you are supposed to motivate the students in a class to have a discussion when the topic is hyphens!! Here I am from the U.S. and could talk about anything with them, but no...the lesson she has me plan is about hyphens and then she critiques it by saying that?? Of course I just laughed at this after hearing it. What else are you supposed to do. I don't mind hearing feedback from the teachers, but I like the feedback to make sense. I would love to see her do the lesson differently. Other than that, I just sat in on a few lessons and tutored my three students after school.
Thursday night I went out with my roommate and some of her friends again. The weather has improved over the last few days. The sun is finally shining in Kiel and not just for a few minutes! It feels like spring is on its way and there are flowers starting to bloom, which makes me happy. My roommates have also returned from their world adventures. Nicholas was in Canada and Anke was on a cruise to Fiji and Togo.
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