KARNEVAL!

An overdue post on last weekend's visit to the Karneval festivities in Köln!
Karneval is the Rhineland's version of what is called Mardi Gras or Carneval elsewhere in the world--i.e. the big celebration/sinfest before Lent, where excess and indulgence is encouraged. In Köln, the party starts on a Thursday and goes until the next Tuesday, with the Monday (Rosenmontag) being the craziest day. I had to be in Berlin on Saturday night, so I took a rideshare on Sunday to be there for Sunday evening festivities.
Part of going crazy Kölle-style is everyone wears a costume everywhere, so I reprised my zebra costume from Halloween but with warmer zebra print pajamas (yes I own more than one pair...thanks Mom!). Dini and Mari were Piraten, and Jan was a Gärtner:

And we were ready to go out on the town!
On the way, Jan pulled out little bottles of fruit schnapps from his overalls (haha) and we drank them in a particular way: you have to hit the top of the bottle against something--either a surface or the top of another bottle--then put the cap on your nose and balance it there while downing the bottle's contents. I noticed at the parade the next day that some people had crimped the bottle tops to their noses and just left them there, haha.
Our destination was a huge tent in the town center where you had to have a ticket to get in. The costumes were varied and crazy--Elvises, convicts, schoolgirls, farmers, angels, frogs, and basically everything you could imagine as well as just random crazy outfits.
There were also other zebras:

And one guy dressed as Bert as in Bert and Ernie. Dini asked if I knew what Sesame Street was, and when I told her it was American, she was super surprised. Turns out Jan and Dini thought Sesame Street was a German show! Strange.
Karneval music is hilarious, and I learned quite a few of the songs. This was one of my favorites:

The lyrics are in the video, and the chorus translates roughly as:
And I fly, fly fly
Like a flyer
I'm so strong, strong, strong
Like a tiger
And so tall, tall, tall
Like a giraffe
So high
Whoa oh oh
And I jump, jump, jump
Again and again
And I swim, swim, swim
Over to you
And I take, take, take
You by the hand because I like you
And I say
Today is such a lovely day
Lalalalala

When you say "flieg, flieg, flieg" you flap your arms like flying, "stark, stark, stark" flex your biceps, "groß, groß, groß" stretch your arm up as if measuring a tall thing, "spring, spring, spring" you jump, "schwim, schwim, schwim" you make a breast stroke motion, and "nehm, nehm, nehm" you grab the hands of the people around you and dance with them :) It was so fun! And my companions seemed proud that I caught on so quickly, haha.
Here's another fun one:

Translation of the chorus:
Unfortunately I don't know anymore what you look like
I don't know your name
Don't give a shit! DRUNK!
(repeat once, then...)
Shala-lalala-lala-lalalala-lala-la-lala
DRUNK!!!
etc.
Hahaha.
or this lovely little number, by the same guy:

Chrous:
Oh...Joana (you horny sow!)
Born to give love (you hussy!)
To experience forbidden dreams (you motherfucker!)
Without question until the morning, aha, aha, aha...
Classy, no? The famous German tallk show host Stefan Raab thought it would be funny to serenade Rihanna with that song on his show...when he translated, she was none too pleased.
There are also tamer Karneval staples such as Viva Colonia.
The next day we went into the city to see the Rosenmontag Karnevalzug (Karneval parade). Basically you stand for 3-4 hours by the side of the parade route while innumerable floats and marching people in costume come by and throw candy, flowers, and sometimes toys into the crowd. Instead of flashing to earn these gifts, people scream "CAMELLA!" (at least I think that's how you spell it), meaning candy. When it gets thrown people go nuts, scrambling on the ground and snatching at treats. They fill great big bags with them, or umbrellas if hanging from a window above:

I was given a bag to hold, not understanding that the intention was for me to keep everything that got put in it! Yikes! I also got wounded by flying chocolate bars more than once. Seriously, it's dangerous! They throw great big chocolate bars and whole boxes of chocolates. By the end, I thought I was developing a twitch from flinching so much, haha. It was fun though, and I got to show off my new-found knowledge of Karneval songs by singing along with the crowd. I will say though that I have never seen so much blackface. Um? Inappropriate. Since when is that ok?

I also didn't even know that yellowface existed, but apparently it does:

Plus there were these:

It kind of weirded me out/seriously offended me.
There were also lots of politically themed floats making fun of Obama...and only one making fun of Merkel. This particularly classy example shows Obama farting in the Statue of Liberty's face:


Also, despite the number of small children in attendance, there were some disturbing floats:

and some explicit ones:

Hm yeah so that aspect was...interesting.
It started snowing right as the parade ended and I had to hurry off to catch my ride back to Berlin.
All in all an awesome whirlwind trip and certainly a cultural experience not to be missed!
Bis bald,
D.

PS. The haul:

Leverkusen

So as I mentioned in my last post, I spent last weekend in Leverkusen visiting the family that I stayed with on my first trip to Germany, back when I was 12 or 13 years old. Sorry the post is overdue, but I was waiting on them to send me some pictures. Since the pics still haven't arrived, I'm just going to go ahead and give the general gist.
There's a great website here when you can find rideshares online so I had lined up two rides to and from Köln, which Leverkusen is near, for far less than a train ticket would have been. I got up and at 'em Friday morning to catch a 10am rideshare. Unfortunately I was tired and mildly hungover so my frenzied last minute packing managed not to include the batch of chocolate chip cookies I had baked special to bring to the family. D'oh!
After six hours in a car with strangers and no food (whoo) I arrived at Köln Hauptbahnhof (main station) right under the imposing cathedral, the view of which I still remembered from my youth (it is a sight one would not easily forget).
I remembered the Family Ellenberger quite well--Dad Roland, Mom Bärbel, and two very blond, very tan children: Jan, younger than me by about 5 years, and Nadine (Dini), who is my age and who I formed a pretty tight bond with when I was there the first time. We used to write letters back and forth on Diddl Maus stationary, but over the years we lost touch. I was kind of nervous to see them all again. Especially knowing that none of them speak very good English anymore and that my German was going to be put to the test!
Anyway I recognized Jan right away outside the Hauptbahnhof. He's taller but still has the same blond hair. We chatted away in German while we waited for the S-Bahn to Leverkusen. So far, so good.
They've moved down the street into Grandma Ellenberger's house, but the street still looked vaguely familiar, and we drove by the old house, which looked smaller than I remembered--it always surprises me when that happens, when things look smaller than you remembered simply because you were a smaller person the last time you saw them (although that wasn't true of the huge honking Kölner Dom). Bärbel came out to meet us--her hair is shorter and lighter, but she has the same welcoming smile. Roland looked smaller to me too (I'm much taller than both parents now!) but has the same loud, joyful laugh. Bärbel had made pear cake, and we sat around the table and chatted and caught up. My German was shaky at times but I think pulled through pretty well.
We all went out to dinner where Dini met us with her boyfriend, a footballer for the local second-string team, and we also met some family friends who I had supposedly met ten years prior but did not, sadly, remember. Again my German held up and I was feeling more and more comfortable with it!
The next day Bärbel made her famous goulash and it was just as scrumptious as I remembered. Then, since they had asked what I wanted to do, we went to Köln's contemporary art museum, the Ludwig, where I learned about some German artists I hadn't previously known of and saw some great pieces by artists I already knew. What a great museum--views of the Rhine and the Dom and a huge collection. I was really surprised at how good it was.
That night, we drove to Düsseldorf, which I hadn't realized was so close, for a round of disco bowling!
And the next morning I hopped back in a rideshare and headed home.
It was a quick visit but so good to see everyone again. And, most importantly, I found that my German is much more fluent than I tend to give myself credit for. If I had to live in a total immersion situation, I could totally handle it. I wouldn't be able to express too-complicated ideas right away, but I learned so much in that short time that I think it would come quick enough. It makes me feel a bit sad that I chose Berlin and non-German roommates, but then again, now I know that the skills are there, for whenever I may need them.
They invited me back for Karneval (the Rhineland's answer to Mardi Gras!) in a couple of weeks and I think I'm going to go and see if my zebra costume goes over better there than it did at Halloween :)
Bis bald,
D.