Fasching- CRAZY MONDAY

We knew that 'Crazy Monday' would be, well, crazy. But we weren't prepared.

We went to school, just like any other day. But on this day we basically had a half-day, because Horb was having its Fasching Parade (Umzug).

I should have seen how the rest of the day was going to go, when at 12:00 in the morning, completely sober, I tripped and fell and skinned both knees. It was terrific. Or at least, that's what all of the angsty German teenagers who saw me fall, thought.

Brian headed home during lunch to get some things he would need for the rest of the day. He of course forgot to factor in the fact that there wouldn't be a bus back in, and he had to walk back down. So I waited for him, and the two of us ended up watching the umzug in front of the Hotel.

It was pretty amazing. It wasn't as dangerous as the Rottenburg parade, but it was really cool to get to see all of the costumes from this area. These costumes are very expensive, and are passed down through families. There's usually only one or two people in a region that can make these particular costumes. 

Here are some of my favorites:

(You may be thinking, why is there a bush in the street?)

(The answer is because it's a person..)

When the parade finally ends, everyone is supposed to follow it to where the big party is going to be. This year it was at the Firehouse. Which, is probably a good plan. 

For the sake of most of the people involved in 'Crazy Monday' festivities, I am going to keep this next part brief and vague.

Things that happened:

-Dancing on a foggy-stage

-Pole Dancing on a platform

-Finding a rubber snake in my pocket..

Things that almost happened:

- A particular person almost getting arrested... twice...

-A different person almost getting in a fight

Fortunately, everything worked out for the best. At least until bed-time.

I had already told Brian and Kelsey that they could sleep in my room, so they didn't have to find a way home. But then Joe realized that if he were to go home, it would have to be at 7:00p.m. So I told him he could stay too.

Then I get a call from Karla, saying that the night-taxi hadn't come and they'd been waiting for an hour, and could she sleep in my room tonight.

And Adam makes 6.

In my room I have a total of two blankets, a sleeping bag, and two pillows.

It was oddly similar to the logic-puzzle where you have a fox, a goat, and a head of lettuce, and you're trying to get all three across a river, but you can only take one at a time. 

-If you leave the goat with the fox, it will get eaten...

-If you leave the lettuce with the goat, it will get eaten...

-If Karla has a pillow, than she can't have a blanket,

-If Brian has a sleeping-bag he can't have a pillow...

Finally it was all sorted out. The next morning I woke up at 7:30 and just looked around my room. I felt like I was smuggling illegal aliens. The entire floor was covered with boys, the bed was being shared by the two girls. I was partially in costume still and just looked down to see my legs covered in dirt, glitter and a little bit of blood from my skinned knees. 

I woke everyone up, and helped them along their way, mentioning that never again could five other people sleep here at the same time. 

In the end I feel I did the right thing, because otherwise these kids might not have made it home okay. Plus, we all survived Crazy Monday, which is a major perk.

For us at least, Fasching was over. A feeling that was decidedly bittersweet.

Fasching- Parade in Rottenburg on Sunday

On Friday, our teacher Susan had recommended that we check out the Fasching parade in Rottenburg on Sunday. Joe, Adam, Kelsey, Cassie and I decided to do just that. We took a short train-ride to Rottenburg which is a pretty cute little town. 

This parade was a little more dangerous than cute little Nordstetten's. It turns out, for this brief period, anything goes. I mean anything. A parade like this in America would be shut down before they turned the first street corner. People in elaborate and horrifying costumes are allowed to harass the innocent bystanders.

Witches grabbed people, mainly girls with horrible blonde-dye-jobs, and threw them in wagons of hay that spin really really fast. Others would take a tube of black paint (or tar, or something) and just smear it on peoples faces. People watching got hay shoved in their faces, their hair messed up, and my personal favorite, confetti rubbed everywhere.

I made a pretty large mistake during the parade. I saw a witch with both hands filled with the most massive amount of confetti he/she could possibly carry. So I pointed at Cassie, hoping he would rub it in her hair.

Nope.

(I got it instead..)

(And then I got a finger up my nose, and then into my ear)

(I am still finding confetti on my body)

The parade lasted for almost two hours. We got some sweet Crépes afterwards, and headed back to Horb. Naïvely, we thought that this trend would continue, that Fasching would wind down until Wednesday.

We were wrong...

Fasching- a Peaceful Saturday

Friday I came home and napped the rest of the day after school. We were all pretty beat, and decided to call it an easy night. Then Cassie told me that her host-parents were skiing til Tuesday, and had left her the house to herself. 

Which can only mean one thing to a group of foreign students...

COOKING PARTY!!!!

Let me make this clear. German food is delicious. I would eat like this at home if I could, but 6 weeks of basically just carbs was getting us all a little crazy. So Cassie and I met up on Saturday morning and bought a ton of veggies to make a stir-fry. We looked everywhere in Horb for some Tofu to add, but tragically we couldn't find any.

We rode the bus up to Nordstetten, the small town next to Horb where Cassie, Maya and Kelsey live. The original plan had been for Maya, Kelsey, Kimmy and Karla (from Mexico) to join us for lunch, so Cassie and I were prepared to cook a lunch for 6. Which slowly turned into a lunch for two. Kelsey and Maya decided to eat with their families, and Kimmy and Karla who live in a town further away called Ahldorf, couldn't get a bus in.

So Cassie and I had a delicious lunch of stir-fried veggies, all to ourselves.

(The Set Up)

(The Peppers, there was also zucchini, onion, garlic, snow peas, and rice)

(Enjoying the smell of food that is neither bread nor potato)

(The Final Product, if this doesn't belong on the cover of a magazine, I don't know what does)

After lunch, we met up with Maya and Kelsey, because Nordstetten was having a small parade for Fasching. I'm not sure if 'small' is a good enough description. It was teeny. The number of people in the Parade could have very easily been double the number of people watching. It was still really cool though. Sadly I didn't bring my camera with me, because it is a battery-eater.

After the Parade, we all headed back to Cassie's abandoned house, to watch a movie, and make some Gnocchi for dinner. As usual, the night ended in a little bar called Bella Arti, which is right down the street from my hotel.

An excellent day to get us ready for the craziness that would be coming our way in the next few days.

Fasching - Dirty Thursday

One of the reasons that this post is two weeks late, is that I have been struggling to put together the words to describe the events of Faschings-weekend...

I will do my best.

So Thursday, (originally 'Schmaltziger Donnerstag' meaning 'Greasy Thursday', today it is known simply as 'Schmotziger Donnerstag' or... 'Dirrty Thursday') we went to our normal day of school. Dirty Thursday is a favorite for school kids, because it is the day when people dressed up in Witch costumes come into the school, to announce that the children are free and don't have to finish school for the day. The kids, who came to school dressed in costume, get to make a small parade around the town. They also have a week long break for Fasching.

So school ended, and our group of HHK students got ready for the night, which we were told is just a giant, town-wide party. We had a pair of cats, a bunny, some American indians. Basically an assortment of some of the strangest looking costumes we could put together for as little money as possible. And of course, as a costume design student, I was not to be outdone.. so I went as...

(Bacchus the God of Wine)

(Maya as a witch, Cassie as a cat in a coat, and me)

The festivities started near the Rathaus, where the Bürgermeister (which means 'Mayor' and not 'boogey-man' as one of the girls present thought) told a lengthy story in a thick Swabisch accent. Finally, the witches of the town took over and did a little mini-ballet celebrating the fact they had stolen the city and wouldn't be returning it until Ash-Wednesday.

After this little ceremony, we headed to one of the many outdoor parties spread through-out town. I made the mistake of standing too near a metal post, where a group of middle-aged women dressed as Indianer, were waiting to tie me up.

Yup. I got tied to a pole...

(Tied to a pole..)

They tied me up, made some spectacularly politically-incorrect noises and told me I would have to pay ten euros to be set free. I explained that I didn't bring any money, which was a lie, but I certainly wasn't going to pay them. Of course they didn't believe me.

Thankfully, Cassie was there to rescue me..

(Tied to Cassie...)

Realizing their efforts were futile, our captors finally let us go.

We spent the rest of the night, going from tent-party to tent-party, and into a couple of bars. We met some really cool people, and some slightly less cool people. The latter group including a boy with thick black eye-liner dressed as a pirate. He was feeling very in to the idea of speaking in english.

Pirate (in English): I had got the highest grade in English at school, you should speak English to me.

Me (in German): But I'm here to improve my German

Pirate (in really excited English): See!! I understand you much better when you speak in English!

Me (in German): But... I... haven't said anything in English..

Pirate (finally in German): Wait really?

He then proceeded to introduce me to a group of his friends, speaking veeerrryyy slllooowwwwllly. I finally just leaned forward towards his friends and said in German, "I don't really understand why he's talking so slowly.. I actually speak German pretty well,"

His friends all agreed, and then proceeded to make fun of him.

So a pretty wild night. The worst part of which was that we had to wake up and go to school the next day. Fortunately our teacher was really nice to us, and decided to teach us alcohol vocabulary. 

Fasching however, was far from over...

Week 5 (Feb 16-20th)

I know, I know, I haven't written in a while. For as small as Horb am Neckar is, it certainly offers plenty to do, for me at least.

But anyhow.

Recovery from Triburg was a slow and steady process. Apparently, going from sweating profusely to having icicles form in your hair, isn't the best way to stay healthy. In addition to my horribly aching feet, (which by the way didn't compare to Kelsey's feet, which had been marinating in her wet Ugg boots all day) I also developed a little head-cold. Not to worry, the hearty diet of Southwestern Germany got me back to healthy pretty quickly.

The school week was positively normal, with one small exception. We were preparing for the weekend ahead, which in retrospect, how could we have prepared? 

My next post, will most certainly be longer, as I detail for you, dear readers, the wonders and the horrors of German Fasching. 

Additional Triburg Photos

Apparently there's a limit to how many photos you can add to a post. So here are some more pics from Triburg.

(Base of the waterfall)

(A snowy picture of Triburg)

(More Triburg)

(Heading up to the waterfall)

Valentines Day in a snowy German mountain village.

I woke up to another romantically snow-dusted morning in Horb, stretched my arms to the ceiling and sang out "What a beautiful Valentines day"

Hindsight's 20/20 right?

I went downstairs and had breakfast in the holidy-decorated Goldener Adler, and then got ready to leave for Triburg. Noriko decided that she would like to come, because she's never been there. The two of us bundle up and head towards the train-station. We arrive and I introduce her to the other Americans, Mexicans, Spaniards and Chinese students. As a group we board the train.

It was a three hour train ride, but there was snow everywhere, and we were heading into the Black Forest, which was really just breathtaking. So no one really minded sitting on the train for that long.

We were expecting the normal HHK tour: arrive, make a quick circle around the main part of the city, free time. But our "Führerin" told us that we were doing things differently. First we were going to climb from the train-station up to the biggest waterfall in Germany. Then we were going to, she literally used the word for, hike up to the biggest Cuckoo clock in the world. Finally we were going to end up at a Museum, back where we started by the waterfall.

Meanwhile we were having a Michigan-worthy Snowstorm.

There was no question that it was absolutely beautiful! 

On the other hand... fun to walk in? Absolutely not. The next portion of the trip I like to call "Mountain Climbing". Many people would disagree with me, saying that it wasn't actually mountain climbing. But here's my basic definition; when we started walking we were at the base of the mountain, and when we finished we were significantly higher up. Maybe there were no harness or grapples involved, but there was definitely some mountain climbing going on.

We finally arrived at the waterfall, which I was excited about, because I've never seen a waterfall before. I guess the word "biggest" distracted us in the phrase "biggest waterfall in Germany", because we were all expecting something much much larger.

(Behold Germany's mightiest waterfall)

(Small group photo, Kimmy, Cassie, Kelsey, Elisabeth, Brian and Me in Back)

The highlight of this portion of the trip, was when Elisabeth accidently dropped her purse over that platform and into a torrent of practically frozen water. Brian, everyday hero that he is, climbed down and got it for her. I helped her take the cell phone apart and kept it in pieces through out my jacket so it could dry. 

We were then given some time for lunch. So six others and I headed down to this little pizzaria for lunch. Unfortunately the food took a very long time to come, so we had to call the group to let them know to head up to the Cuckoo clock with out us and that we would catch up.

After lunch we headed to a little travel information store to get instructions. Which is where this happened

(Yup, that's a "No Cell Phone" sign, and a picture of Cassie inside on her phone)

Then we headed still further up the mountain. I'll admit it was a pretty rough hike for me. I actually got so sweaty that by the time we got to the clock and went inside, I was actually steaming from my head. The man working tried not to laugh, but failed.

The clock was basically just a house. We got to go inside and see the gears working.

Then we paid a euro to go out back and take a picture of the actual clock from the outside.

It was really pretty, especially with the snow, but we could kind of picture the guy working there, at the bar with his friends saying "Ok, Ok, guys, I have an idea. Let's charge people a euro, just a euro to go into my back yard to take a picture of the clock. No, they'll totally pay, it'll be hysterical"

We went back outside and headed back down the mountain to the museum. So, here's what happens when you walk up a mountain and get so hot that you start sweating, and then take a break, and head back into the cold.

(Yes. That is an icicle forming in my hair)

We made it back down, paid 3 Euros to get into a museum, that I'm still not 100% sure what it was a museum of, and walked around inside. It was actually a pretty scary museum. Lots of weird statues and mannequins.

There was a room with a lot of rocks and cool minerals that you had to walk down a tunnel to get to. Elisabeth went and explored it on her own. She got to the very end, and on the wall was just a little button and instructions in several languages saying to push it. So of course she pushed it.

Which is when all of the lights in the room went off. 

She said it was like being in a horror movie. But then some of the minerals started glowing, and she finally understood that the lights went off to show the minerals, and not so that someone could come in and harvest her liver, to sell on the black market.

There were some really pretty cuckoo clocks in the museum as well.

After the museum we headed back to the train-station, stopping at a few coffee and chocolate stores on the way back. We ended up being late and having to run to the station, which was thankfully downhill, or I'd probably still be in Triburg. 

We rode home and collectively decided to cancel any plans we had for the evening, to go home and sleep.

We're nearing a month in Germany, and I couldn't be happier. I'm having the best time I could imagine, and it looks like it's just going to get better.

Have a great week, and I'll write again soon!