Jen & Germany: Fasching

Kes, Mike, and I at the parade

A very exciting event going on right now throughout Europe is Karneval, or Fasching in south/west Germany where I am. The celebrations take place before lent starts and conclude on Ash Wednesday, or Ashenmittwoch here. Yesterday was the big parade to celebrate the holiday and it was definitely the best parade I've ever been to! Just imagine a typical American parade of floats and such, but everyone in the parade wearing extremely elaborate costumes and instead of just throwing candy from the floats, they pass out alcohol!! It was quite an experience to say the least, and even though it was very cold, it was still a good time! I took many many pictures, but I will just upload a few here, to give you a taste of the festivities.

Because of the holiday, a lot of the schools here have a week long vacation, so my host family left yesterday for Austria to go skiing! I unfortunately still have school and it would probably be frowned upon if I missed the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th days of class... so I'm still here and staying with my host-Grandma and Grandpa! They are both very nice, and Oma cooked a mean sauerkraut last night for dinner. They natürlich have many stories (most of which I could understand) and Opa has biked pretty much all over the world. Their house is ein bisschen farther from the city than the other house, so I have to take the bus to school in the morning, aber es ist nicht so schlecht!