Carnival - Fasnacht fun!

Europe takes Carnival seriously. Particularly the eastern stretch of Germany right around where I live. Europe is very Catholic, and Carnival serves as an opening festival for the Lent season, as well as ancient traditions of scaring away the winter spirits. Here in Germany, the Carnival season begins in October, but the week of Carnival is kicked off Thursday before Ash Wednesday at 11:11, and it is a constant party until then. The whole city shuts down - the carnival-ers storm city hall and "Run" the city for the week. Schools are closed for at least 5 days, most a week or two. What are normally busy shopping centers in the center of Bonn and Cologne, close up shop, and board up the windows. People wear full - incredibly well done costumes - classy, funny, historic. Some where them for events weeks ahead of time, but EVERYONE wears costumes for parties, parades, everyday activities the week of. It's heaven.

I spent Thursday and Friday with the boys as they didn't have school. We went to an Aquarium, the park, and swimming, all in costume and with one of their friends. Friday night I went dancing with some friends in Cologne. We went out all night. Cologne is actually a very Gay friendly city, we wandered around the city, met some funny German guys, and then went to a club - which turned out to be a gay bar - then a wonderful pub where everyone was singing carnival songs and having a great time. Saturday we dressed up and went to dinner. Sunday, after church, a wonderful friend from the ward took me to Cologne for a parade. Steffi works in Cologne and is very familiar with the city, so she showed me some fun things.

Here are a few of the groups accompanying the floats/wagons.

Everyone in the crowd yells "Camello" to receive candy. Camello means candy in the old, Kolsch dialect of German. The parade is all about the tribes, groups and villages throughout Cologne's history, so the dialect is used in many floats and signs. 

This terrible selfie is to show the flowers that are handed out. It's so lovely! They toss out all sorts of funny things in addition to candy. I received: A hand towel, a bottle opener, a small bottle of schnapps, tissues, a pen, a sponge, and FLOWERS! It's so classy. Sometimes, when they hand you a flower, they also kiss you on the check. 

Steffi showed me e famous locked love bridge in Cologne.

This was the loot from just one parade. 

Monday is the craziest day. The parade in Cologne has over 1 million people in attendance each year. I was working, so Patrick, Nico, Phinni and I joined the Orman family and about 300,000 other people for the Bonn parade.

Yes, that's a camel. In a parade. ???

This whole group was drunk and playing rock music and having a grand ol' time.

Chinese draggon

I went to Basel, Switerland that weekend. Basel's festivities are based on the Heathen calendar, so they take place after Ash Wednesday. Sunday night, just outside of Basel in a village called Liestal, they take the scaring of the winter spirits seriously. Here are some before shots of the place:

The parade starts after dark. Therefore, all the floats are lanterns, and people in the parade have lights on. 

Tons of political commentary within the parades. Obama - Yes we Scan. (side note, people here LOVE Edward Snowden, obviously)

Giant Monkey man.

Then the parade gets a little crazy. I didn't take any good pictures of the ground, but know that there was about 4" of  paper confetti covering the parade route. 

Yes, these men are carrying huge "brooms" of logs on fire. Men, women, children all carry these. 

None of these are taken with a zoom. I was standing less than 3 feet away from these flames. 

 Remember that cart/trailer full of logs with men on top? Here it is about an hour later. (you really want to watch this one, even if I took it the wrong direction like a fool)

Yeah, it was an incredible experience. It was really neat to see such a longstanding tradition in action. People have been taking fire under that tunnel for hundred of years. It made me want to be Swiss.

Basel's big kick off starts just a few hours later - promptly at 4 am. A city of about 150,000 people goes completely dark - they turn off the lights to the city and that's when the parade begins. Like those in Liestal, all floats are lanterns. While Cologne has funny, silly costumes, those in Basel all involve these crazy makes that make the person look like their head is abnormally large and strange. 

These are taken a few minutes before the lights shut off.

Yes, it was incredible. The parade follows no real route, the flutes and drums go all throughout the city, apparently every night throughout the week. 

Carnival is like the 4th of July, Mardi Gras, and Halloween in one, but bigger and better. I love getting to be a part of these crazy traditions that have roots with some of the earliest human civilizations. Yay for Carnival!

Reflections on the Rhineland

Germany is a neat place. I like it here, and I really love getting to know how things work around here. I have yet to ever feel unsafe, and I don't just keep to the touristy places or good suburbs. German laws are very different than American laws. I'm not trying to take any political stance, but I just think it's interesting to compare.

Underage drinking is not enforced by police, but pubs and restaurants are required to follow these age rules: 14 year olds can drink beer and wine if accompanied by a parent, 16 year olds don't need a parent around. 18 can have any type of liquor.

Prostitution has been legal since 2002.

The autobahn has no speed limit. I've been driven around on the autobahn a few times, but I haven't driven anything. I did check the speedometer a few times and we were going over 160 km/h (about 95 mph). The luxury auto industry has lobbied to keep things this way because it's easier to sell an amazing car with the capacity to go 150 mph if you can actually go 150 mph somewhere. 

Other things:

Football (soccer) is loved more deeply than religion, patriotism, or success. Each professional team (there's like 40 throughout Germany) has it's own song that's sung as a hymn/anthem at the games, at pubs, at community events. Here is a video to demonstrate (terrible sound quality, and I forgot I was still recording at the end, oops)

So many trees here remind make me think Dr. Suess spent some time in Germany. They have these spheres of green in all the trees. I wanted to get picture before the tress fill in again with leaves. After asking genius boy Nico, I learned it's mistletoe! I don't think I'd ever seen that before. It gets blown to the trees and grows perfectly spherically on the branches, they have symbiotic relationship and creates for some weird looking trees.

I live about 25 minutes away from a place called Neandertal. Yup. The place where the first set of Neatherthal bones (the species got it's name from the town). So my neighborhood has been the cool place for humanoids for about 40,000 years. Really though.

Last week I went to stake conference in Dusseldorf, and it was an interesting experience. It was a braodcast from SLC, so there was an English broadcast and a German one. Greg Schwitzer spoke, so did Elder Hales and Elder Bednar. Bednar spoke in German - he served his mission here 41 years ago. I was really impressed that he freshened up on his German in order to better connect with the people here, I'm sure he's a bit busy as is. 

More updates to come as we're just finishing up with Carnival (a post on it's own) and next weekend I'll be in Basel, Switzerland! 

Beginning to Explore

Things are good in Germany. I've learned what my role is, a tiny bit of German, and my way around the city, as well as met a few people over the age of 10. I'm getting comfortable and I have plenty of time to myself. 

As a nanny, my schedule is usually: do whatever I want til the boys are done with school, usually around 2, sometimes 3pm. Then we go home and I make them a snack. If they don't have soccer, violin, Faith in God, Dr. appointments, or learning groups, we may go to the park, the Aquarium, play games, talk about science, but usually just build things out of legos. I start making dinner around 6 and shortly after the parents get home. After eating and cleaning up dinner, I again can do whatever. I have a few other tasks helping around the house, but I really am lucky to have so much time to myself. 

The family doesn't have a car- we all have bikes and the public transportation system is excellent. Some days, both boys sit in the front of this beast-mobile, and I bike them around. This is called a trio, and functions as my minivan. This is the only one I've seen, it's not like its' a common German thing. 

This is my life as a soccer mom:

So yesterday I went to a few museums in the morning. Apparently the Secretary General of the United Nations wanted to join me at the Deutsches Museum. I had to lift my bike around a police car when I left. Unfortunately, they didn't also escort me home, just Mr. Big Shot. This was the scene once I got my bike.

Today, I went to Cologne, the large city only about 40 minutes from my house via trains. When I got on the train, I picked a random seat. Turns out I sat in the middle of a bachelor party. Noon, and they were already pretty drunk and hilarious. They were on their was from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf for more drinking. They spoke some English, and we laughed the whole ride. They also made me a sandwich called a mettbroetchen. I made them each promise me I wouldn't die if I ate it, as they just pulled a hunk of raw meat from under the seat. They smeared it on a fresh roll, and dipped the whole thing in onions. One of the guys called it "German Sushi." It was actually delicious and the whole encounter was so delightful. Probably the highlight of my German experience thus far. (And I don't even feel ill 10 hours later)

Cologne is amazing. Mostly this cathedral. While my small camera and I don't take the best photos, here are a few:

And here are some pictures of the cathedral and my nostrils.

Here is a picture that makes it look almost as cool as it is. It's 516 feet tall. It's huge. Also, there has been a cathedral in this spot since the 2nd century. NBD. This one began construction around 1250 AD.

I can say with 98% confidence, this was the filming location for the fight scene between The Beast and Gaston. Notice the Gargoyles.

It was a lovely rainy day to wander the city and the Rhine. 

I went to the Lindt Chocolate museum, delicious.

Famous Statue of  important men:

Random building I thought was neat:

Things are going really well and exploring is very fun. There are so many places I'm excited to see within a 2 hour train ride, let alone flights and night trains. It's so fun to be in a completely different world, and yet have so much be familiar. Here are some things I love about Europe so far:

1. Dogs don't bark or attack your groin. 

2. Traffic and car accidents do not affect my life.

3. Everything tastes real, and stronger. They eat less, but what they eat is covered in butter and seasonings. 

4. Everything closes at 7 pm. Thursday night I was in the center of Bonn around 8. During the day it is a bustling area. Come 7:30 it's quiet, peaceful, well lit, and lovely. Also Sundays. Nothing is open. 

5. Fresh bread all the time.

6. Meeting people from so many different countries. This week I made connections with a woman from Lybia, a man from France, another from Serbia, I woman from London, and people from all over Germany. 

6. Learning about WWII and the Berlin wall through the eyes of German Museums. 

7. How many people approach me and talk to me. People are friendly and chatty!

8. Listening to conversations in many languages every day. 

9. Anticipation of Carnival! Parties begin this month, and from what I gather, it's madness.

10. Challenging myself: my ideas, my habits, my time, my weaknesses.

German Birthday Party

Phineas, one of the boys I take care of, turned 8. Here are some pics of his birthday party. First to the park:

Launching water Rockets

Then off to the Bowling Alley! 

Even Germans love Bowling

Most of the boys

Finni!

Yeah, German birthday parties are pretty much the same. Only when the kids get mad and make each other cry and come to the adult to fix it, I don't speak enough German to know why they're crying. So we all cry. Jk. It was fun.