Alaaf!

Okay, I have been meaning to update since my very first Karnival on Wednesday, but as of Tuesday night I had a fever and have been pretty sick since and haven't really felt like updating. Don't worry, sickness didn't stop me from going to Köln for Karnival! So this past Tuesday I had my daily routine of taking Emilian for our walk and then coming back here. As I was walking outside I noticed I had a bit of a sore throat but nothing major. So as the day winds on, I noticed a headache developing and towards the early evening I told Lisa that I was going to go up to my room to lie down abit. An hour later: Pretty sure I have a full-blown fever. So that sucked big time. I couldn't believe that I seriously had a fever the DAY before Karnival--the day I had been looking forward to for awhile! I later texted Lisa from my room that I wasn't feeling well and wasn't too hungry and would not be coming down for dinner. Lisa then later came to my room with some tea and medicine (German asprin I think..) to help get rid of my fever. She also said that if I feel better by tomorrow morning, that I should really consider still going to Karnival so that I could experience it--I told her I would. The next morning my fever was at least gone, so I took a shower and got ready for the day. There was a change in plans, and I was now going to be meeting up with Alicija (pronounced "Alit-ci-a") who is Lisa's OTHER brother's (I forget his name.. but he is 28) girlfriend. She is originally from Poland and doesn't speak much English, but she takes German courses at an institute in Bonn and was going to be meeting up with a number of other students from the place, so Lisa thought it might be better for me to go with them, since they will all be in about the same boat as me--new (kind of) to Germany. I got on the train here in the small town of Widdig, and took a short 10 minute train ride into Bonn. There I met up with Alicija and her friends from the Language course. We waited then for the train into downtown Köln. Everyone on the platform, for the most part, were in full costume--some of them were HILARIOUS! And everyone was already crackin' open beers.. keep in mind.. it was 8:45am.. made me feel like I was back in Morgantown ;) On the train was even a bigger--more crampt party. Everyone was passing around bottles of wine and beer and singing. It was great (and we all wonder how Swine Flu spreads?!) The costume I think that made me laugh the most were the ones of girls dressed up as "Native American Indians".. although they didn't look right at all, so to me it was a bit humorous. After arriving in Köln, the train station there was packed with everyone arriving to the epi-center of Karnival, and was even more of a party. People everywhere, of every age were drinking and laughing and singing, it was pretty funny. We stayed in the train station a bit longer and drank with strangers before making our way out to take to the streets! Once again, as soon as walking out of the station, boom, theres the Dom. Gorgeous. We walked to a nearby center town square where a big stage was set up, there was a free concert going on, and everyone was just having an awesome time. It was a lot of fun. We ended up merging with the group of about 5 that were standing next to us. At one point I apologized for my bad German and that they would need to speak slowly. One of the guys in the group then asked if I was from Sweden? I said "no, American" and then the girl in the group asked me what state I was from, because she had just gotten back from Au Pairing in New York. I asked her what part of NY and she said outside of NYC.. we got to talking, and turns out, the girl Au Paired in West Chester.. aka pretty much where Travis' Lisa is from. Small world. We drank and danced and sang for a few more hours. It was a lot of fun, but by around 3ish, thanks to my illness, I decided to cut it short. I was starting to feel as if my fever was coming back and thought it was better to go home when Alicija was leaving, so I headed back to the train station around 3:30. I got on my U-bahn and made it back to my house here easily. As soon as I came home, I could really feel my fever setting in again, so I made some hot tea and went up stairs and back to bed. I really wish I was feeling better, because it would have been fun to go on to do a bar crawl with the group later that night, but I just wasn't feeling up to it. I also thought of how much fun my friends from home would LOVE Karnival. The guy who asked me if I were from Sweden asked me if this was my first Karnival, I said yes and he replied "and hopefully not your last". I really hope not. I would love to try Karnival again, next time when I'm feeling better, and have Jill and Jas and Lisa and Andy and Erin and all my WVU family with me. (I mean, I suppose Emily would like it too.. but I'm not sure. I kinda feel like I need to throw her name in here or she'll yell at Suzy Bear for raising such a "rude daughter". Hahaha. You're doing it now, aren't you? HA!) Anyway, they would absolutely LOVE it! But luckily for me.. there apparently is another Karnival in March of pretty much they same exact thing. So I guess I get to try again. Next time, as God as my witness, I will not be sick!! (In my best Scarlet O'Hara voice).

I ended up having another fever that night and again a little bit on Thursday, but I feel a lot better today. I now only have a little bit of a cough, but hopefully I'll be back to fighting form soon. My brother, Travis, contacted me last night on G-chat to walk me through the installation process of the SlingBox he finally bought so that I can watch his TV from Germany (aka FINALLY watch College Football again). It's incredible. If I change the channel from my laptop, it changes it in their living room. If they change to HBO in Texas, I'm watchin' HBO here in Deutschland. Isn't technology neat? I watched the WVU/UC game last night all the while chatting with Trav and Lisa while they watched it at a bar in Texas. The only problem. It was an 8pm kickoff.. which was 2am my time! Yeah.. I stayed up for the whole thing, finally was able to go to bed dissappointed at 5am. True... Fan... I'm going to be watching the OhioState/Iowa game here in a bit. Luckily 3:30 kickoff is 9:30 here, so not nearly as bad as last night. But still lookin' to be a long night. Tomorrow afternoon around 5ish I am taking the train back into Köln to meet a fellow Mid-Westerner (he's from Minnesota, but went to Wisconsin) at an "American Sportbar" that plays NFL games to watch the Bengals game. I'm pretty excited to watch the game and also to finally go out with someone I can talk to :)

Well.. Gonna get back to changing the channels on Travis and Lisa's TV while Lisa tries to watch the Michigan game. I mean, she doesn't need to be watching that garbage anyway :P
Bis Bald, xoxo Megan
(oh, and PS-the word "Alaaf" aka the title of this post is the word that the people of Köln yell during Karnival. If you were just to yell it out for no reason, everyone around you would yell it back. Similar to LET'S GO! ... or O-H! ;)