Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Carnival, school, and going home?

Is it really already just a few days before I hop on a plane back to the U.S.? It doesn't quite seem real yet that my adventures across Europe are coming to a close (for now, anyway). Since it's now been about two weeks since I last blogged, you may be wondering what in the world I have been up to. Fear not, I shall explain.

The past two weeks I have been continuing going to school with Anna, attempting to work out details for the next leg of my gap year, finished El Hobbit (go me! honestly I felt like I had just accompanied Bilbo on the long journey involved in reading the book. Quite a lot to get through. But hey, now I know just about every word for "goblin" in the Spanish language...because that will certainly come in handy at some point in the future), read 2/3 of the series of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (very compelling and intense books that I have been greatly enjoying), and also got a taste of Germany's Carnival (boy oh boy)!

On the school note, I must say that I now have a great respect for the German school system. For one, the block schedule. It's nice having some variation in the day by day routine. It's also nice because then students can take more subjects and they also select which two are most important/that they want to focus on. I don't like the idea of having one big test at the end over everything you've learned for the past 2 years and only one shot to do well, but this seems to be okay for them. Anyway there are many other advantages (and disadvantages) which has been very interesting for me to get a chance to see.

With Anna's block schedule (and many others), she has P.E. once a week for 2 hours. This class is not nearly as intense as Uni's P.E. regimen, but it is kind of nice having 2 hours straight to do something rather than a 45 minute period (1/3 of which is spent changing and unchanging). Last week we got to use ripstiks which was really very fun. At first it was very hard and only a couple of people could stay on for more than .01 of a second, but by the end many of us were having success and even doing the limbo on our ripstik boards (for those who don't know, this is like a skateboard but with 2 wheels and you have to kind of zig-zag to stay upright). The week before we were missing Abby when we got to play inline hockey. Everyone either brought gear or were able to use skates, sticks, helmets, etc. from the school. I wasn't particularly good at this, but it was still really fun and cool that we got to use real skates and such (something that is probably not allowed in U.S. P.E. classes).

So now what you've all been waiting for, this past week I got to participate in Carnival! The U.S. really doesn't have anything like this. The only at all similar festival is Mardi Gras and/or a weird fusion with Halloween but only New Orleans really celebrates Mardi Gras anyway. Basically I would describe carnival as a giant 5 day long party that began Thursday and ended Monday (no school yesterday). There were several parades in the towns along the Rheingau (the series of towns on the Rhine River) and tents set up and also parties in the evenings (some of which were in the tents).

We started out Thursday by going to school dressed as athletes (as was the theme for the senior class). I got to borrow some of Hubertus's old bike gear from the 80s so that was pretty fun. And Anna went as a football player (with intense shoulder pads and all). Then during the evening and on Friday I dressed up as a patriotic American. I had a flag as my cape and I decorated a shirt with a flag-like design. Saturday we went to Frankfurt because the Bosch's American relatives were there for a giant Europe tour with the D.C. Symphony that they are a part of. We spent the day in Frankfurt with them walking around and chatting and then in the evening they went to the concert and Anna, Jannik, and I went back to Rüdesheim and took a break from the carnival festivities by watching a movie instead. We considered going to the concert with the Adults, but tickets were 90 euros. So that wasn't a very desirable option.

On Sunday and Monday I brought back out my cheetah costume from Halloween in Spain since I could make this one a little warmer and we were outside in the cold watching parades (and then participating by joining the last float and parading around until the end). I now know all of the Carnival songs and dances by heart and would say I am much better friends with several of Anna's friends.

Sadly I will now be leaving in only a few days, but I'm glad that I have been able to have such a new and different experience. I've heard that 1-2 months is kind of a weird amount of time because right as you are finally adjusting you have to leave, and to an extent I would say I might agree.

I mentioned earlier that I was smoothing over/figuring out what I will be doing for the rest of my gap year. I don't have my placement details yet, but I will most likely be spending two months volunteering on Manu Biosphere Reserve in Peru working on an Ecological Restoration Project. This is one of the largest and most diverse national parks in all of South America, so even though it will be quite rural (30 minutes by car to the nearest internet connection..... a little daunting) I am very excited and will try to keep you updated (somehow) on my amazonian adventures.

See you soon Chambana!