welcome to carnival

Last weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in Germany. Friday night I went to the abipach rty (party at a club for highschool students to raise money for their prom-equivalent) of my Canadian friend in Dusseldorf with some other girlfriends and we danced all night and had a really good time.

Then, a friend of Julia's who lives in Köln and is very involved in Carnival invited us to come with him to a very exclusive carnival party called Kajuja where you gotta be in the know to get tickets to, so Saturday morning Julia and I went to a costume shop in Dusseldorf, spent the afternoon playing dress up, and spent all night at one of the coolest parties in Germany.

There were, what, three bands, two famous comedians (the only jokes I understood were the ones featuring the NSA, I think there were about a dozen of them), a ventriloquist (who was actually incredibly talented and funny and I mostly understood him), a dance group, the Kajuja royalty feat. a drag queen, a marching band, and a dancing brass band.

The people in our group were hilarious and fun and friendly and we spent the entire night making jokes, drinking Kölsch beer, and dancing (me on a chair so that I could actually see things).

It was really interesting because Germans are crazy especially when they've got beer, and the Kölsch people are REALLY patriotic and proud of their town and that is a little unusual for Germany I think.

Oh yeah I forgot to add, everyone dresses up crazy. Most people are some variant of clown/jester thing with red and white stripes (for Köln), some are costumey like Julia and I were, and some are just, well, crazy.

marching band/opening sequence. after the musicians left the stage, they did a dance, part of which included rubbing one's butt against the butt of the man next to you? welcome to carnival!

 dancing on the chairs. shorties unite.

 julia :)

 ventriloquist plus funny monkey

 bläck fööss: kölsch rock and roll band. if you live in köln, they are like the rolling stones, if you don't live in köln you have probably never heard of them and you will not understand half of their songs even if you are fluent in german because kölsch is impossible.

 raise the roof, china man!

 i think i took this while dancing.

 julia and her lovely pirate friend

 the kajuja tanzenkuchen (dance chicks? but like, baby chicken chicks)

 another really cool german rock band, they all wore black and red plaid, and i wanted to get a picture of the bassist because he did his solo while standing on top of the confetti vent and his kilt flew up and it was great but i was too slow

 shamless selfies

probably the coolest brass band in the world, they were young and danced the entire time they played and had so much energy it was great

 a real cat and a pretend cat watching from the background.

cute <3

hospital visits?

I don't really know what to say but I was told that I should write something about my stay in the German hospital???? I came down with a horrible fever the first? second? day of January and ended up going to the hospital. I stayed in the hospital for four days (turns out I had something that was the beginning of a lung infection) and it was not fun and I really don't have any idea whether it was different from American hospitals at all having never been in a similar situation but I can say that it is crazy because every single Starbucks employee in the country speaks perfect English but only one of the doctors and nurses in the entire hospital spoke English???? Anyway I got my blood tested again this week and now I'm totally fine and thanks everyone for the well wishes and concern.

christmas!!

 me being super helpful while decorating the tree. i tried to get into it, i really did, but its so much less special when the ornaments arent half things that nora and i made in elementary school and half weird things like sparkly cows and canoeing santas and all things that hold a lot of memories...

 but our tree looked super pretty anyway julia did a good job and alex's battery operated candles were really cool.

 we open presents on christmas eve, my present was earrings and a trip to the camel farm which was PERFECT and not shown is me freaking out because i was so happy.

 but here's me thanking julia

 julia and alex reading the card i wrote them they said the german was really good and now the card, which is a stick figure drawing of our family, is sitting in a pretty frame on the tv counter :)

 alex opening his present from me

 i think he really liked it because he brought it to the christmas party and showed it off to his family :)

 julia with the rings i gave her

 me and alex's father looking at their cute christmas tree on christmas day

 christmas at alex's parents apartment

 alex's family

<3

Christmas Cooking

I had some friends from school over and cooked enchiladas, tacos, and strawberry margaritas (and Alex made guacamole because he is a bomb guacamole maker) and we had a spanish lunch.

Later in the break Rachel from North Dakota stayed with us for a couple days and Rachel and I cooked chocolate chip cookies and whoopie pies and then helped Julia make some German cookies.

Here's pictures

 margarita makin'

 tacossss

 wow there are so many pictures of my back as i do kitchen related things

 yum

 rachel and julia do productive things while i whip my hair back n forth a la willow smith

rachel is a model and i am completely oblivious to the world because wow phone
                                     
 me and rachel watched love actually aka the best christmas film and i had to include this because our faces are so priceless

and then we ate cookies

Iceskating

Before Christmas break, Julia planned a surprise for me and James, and wouldn't tell us what it was until we got there. It ended up being this incredibly cool outdoor ice skating rink, in this old mining building with music and cool lights and it was really really awesome. It was the third time iceskating and I had so much fun. I figured out how to do little twirly things without falling over and I felt like a princess ballerina. James is actually bomb at iceskating because he comes from New York where it actually snows and he found a bunch of pro German iceskaters and they taught him to do tricks and it was legit.

Christmas Markets

Prepare yourself for all the holiday posts that I should have posted a long time ago...
(Sorry guys I'm so horrible at this whole blog thing I know I know)

First of all, Weihnachtsmarkts!! Aka Christmas markets. Every German town has one, for pretty much the whole month of December, and you can get a bajillion different things to eat, sausage on a stick, apples with marzipan, candy apples, candy, nuts, candied nuts, asian food, crepes, fish, cheese, anything. You can buy all sorts of handmade/artisanal things like jewelry, candles, scarves, hats, slippers, etc. Often they have carousels or other kiddie rides and sometimes they have outdoor iceskating rinks. And then of course they have stands where you can buy Gluhwein (hot wine cider stuff?) which is the traditional Christmas drink and hot chocolate and also eggnog which does not taste the same because the Germans don't put nutmeg in it and they never serve it alcohol-free...

I think in December we went to a weihnachtsmarkt nearly every weekend. With Julia and Alex and Ilaria and Alex's sister Ingrid and her boyfriend Frank we went to Essen and rode the ferris wheel and ate these really delicious Argentinean potato things made by actual Argentineans. There were a few different weihnachtsmarkts in Köln and I went a few times with friends and once with Julia and Jamie. And Julia and Alex took me to the one in Dusseldorf also.

Hold on for pictures...