Kölle Alaaf, Alaaf! Kölle Alaaf!

So here I am. It's Wednesday morning, which means I have a couple hours of free time to myself while Lisa is out for a baby/mom gym class. Every week she comes home with new reports of how Emilian (new nickname: The Baby Crusher) has found new baby victims to roll on top of. Too funny. Emilian is getting SO big! I can't believe it! This past Monday he officially turned 5 months. His first tooth is starting to come in, and personally, I can't wait for it just so that when he smiles/laughs he'll look like a little hobo :D

But today being Ash Wednesday also marks something else: the end of Karneval here in the Rheinland. I didn't go as crazy as I would have first thought, but again, non-stop partying for 5 days is usually easier with a big group of friends--and alas, I do not quite have that here. But I'm sure my liver is grateful for this fact. At 11:11am on Thursday, Karneval officially began. "Weiberfastnacht" is what they call the first day of celebrating here. Although, it was still a work day for most, so likewise for me. Lisa said she was going to stop working at around 1pm so that I could leave as soon as possible. One o'clock came so much sooner than I had expected. I had talked with Bertus the night before and him and a few of his friends and brother were going to begin at his apartment at 10:30 and then head out to the streets. With the fact that I still do not have a cell phone here (mine was stolen last Saturday), I was worried that I wouldn't have a way of meeting up with him. He messaged me before he left and said that he would come back to his place, and that we should meet there at 2pm. So as soon as I was able to begin getting ready I changed quickly and headed for the U-bahn. It was a very surreal experience on the train to his house, because looking out the window you saw everyday people doing regular everyday activities... but dressed in full costume. I couldn't help but laugh when I looked over and saw a pirate casually riding a bicyle.

When I finally arrived to Bertus' flat, it was about 2:10. I walked up to his building and there he was sticking his head out of the window. It was soo funny, I can't describe. He then went to buzz me in, but the door had stayed locked. He then decided to throw his keys down to me. As I walked up to his appartment I found him in the kitchen. He said hello and I could tell he wasn't in the least bit sober. I mean, the guy had been drinking for about 4 and 1/2 hours at this point. He then looked at me and said "Immotherfuckingdrunk". All in one word. It was so cute/funny I couldn't help but blantantly laugh in his face. To add to it, his "costume" consited of only a "crazy hat", so clearly I couldn't help myself but to make fun of him constantly for it. We went next door to Jalle's appartment (Bertus' and Lisa's other brother) and hung out there for a bit. Felix (the youngest brother) was also there with one of his friends. We were only there for awhile when Felix, Niko, Bertus and I went back over to Bertus'. Felix was sooo drunk, it was pretty humerous. Bertus said he just needed a little nap, like 30 minutes or so, so while he laid down, Felix, Niko and I went into the kitchen. I drank a few beers, but it seemed pretty pointless because there was no way I would "catch up" to the rest of them. 30 minutes went by and Bertus was still sleeping, so I taught Felix and Niko how to play quarters. I then found the Jäger. We took some shots of that, and by then I was starting to feel no longer sober. Felix and Niko then decided they were going to leave to go back out to the party in the streets. I decided to wait for Bertus to wake up before I would go as well. Well, long story short: he didn't wake up. I fell asleep as well, and when I woke up it was 7pm. Crap. So as you can see my first day of Karneval was a realllllllllllllll wild time...

Friday turned out to be a fiasco. That night I was supposed to meet up with one of the daughters of Kai and Lisa's friend at a bar in Bonn. I was running late, and knew that I wouldn't be able to get there by 11pm (which was our original meeting time). Lisa tried to call the girl and tell her I would be a few minutes late, but her phone was off. I have never met/seen this girl before in my life, so I really didn't know who I was looking for. And on top of it, its Karneval, so she'll look nothing like she would in normal life. I got to the bar at around 11:12pm.. I didn't see anyone that kinda looked like the girl that Lisa had shown me a picture of, so I just kept waiting. There was a long line, and you needed a special ticket for enterance, so I just kept waiting outside. In the cold. For an hour. It. Was. Awful. When I checked the time again it was 12:15. I could no longer feel my toes, so I said "screw this" and got a cab home. I felt so bad because it was the friend of Lisa and Kai and they were trying to do me a favor, but they over-looked the detail that I am infact an idiot. So that was a bust. Then came Saturday. I slept in until about 11:30 and it felt sooooooo good. I haven't slept in that late in a long time. Johanna was here for the weekend as well, so later that day I asked her if she wanted to play a game with me. I couldn't get ahold of Pat (my Minnesota friend in Cologne) or Jon (the Texas baseball player here in Bonn) to see what they were up to. So needless to say, I had no plans. Life proves to be a little more complicated without a phone. Sunday was pretty much everyone's rest day to get ready for Monday, or Rosenmontag--which is one of the biggest party days of all of Karneval.

Monday I had a plan, and I was soooo ready for it :)Monday morning I woke up and showered and got ready. I then took the U-bahn to meet up with Bertus at around 10. We then went to Florian's (one of Bertus' friends) place--he lives in a German frat house! It was pretty funny.. frat houses anywhere in the world smell the same: like stale beer, a little bit of trash, and urine. We drank there for about 2 hours or so before hittin' the streets!
Everyone was outside throughout the city partying/celebrating. We went to one of the main city centers to watch the parade and just enjoy the party :) After drinking there for awhile, we all started to get a litte cold, and by this time 4 or so more of Bertus' other friends had joined us. We then headed to Rijad and Katrin's apartment to hang out and watch from the balcony where it wouldn't be so cold. We all stayed there for another hour or so, until it was apparent that everyone was pretty much crashing. Bertus and I headed back to his apartment on the other side of the Rhein and quickly fell asleep. At one point, I woke up and thought it must be around 3 or 4 in the morning. Bertus thought the same thing as well. We looked at the clock, and oh hey grandparents, it's only 8pm. Then we woke up, ate some dinner and watched a few more episodes of Dexter and went back to sleep. Rosenmontag was definitely a success, and I am already looking forward to next year's Karneval ;)