February, schmebruary...HELAU!

To begin, I would like to blame the fact that I have failed to post for a month on the fact that February is barely even a month. 29 days hardly seems to qualify if you ask me. A month should have at least thirty days. And that is why I didnt find the time for the more regular updates I had envisioned when I began writing this blog.
So. Now that my perfectly valid excuse has been laid out for you all to graciously accept, I can tell you about my favorite non-month of the year.

From Silke!

From Florian!

First, and clearly most importantly, was my birthday. It was fantastic! I worked like a person with a real job all day (Valentines lessons!!), tutored, and then came home to enjoy dinner and good company ("the gang"). Even though I wasnt home, people still managed to shower me with "congratulations", thoughtful gifts and flowers. ...As a side note, I love that people are congratulated on their birthdays. "Congratulations, you have managed to make it through another year." It seems just all too appropriate.

Anyway, my birthday landed on a Wednesday, but the the real celebration did not. My lovely bestie Sharon came to visit on Friday. Her visit was much too short, but it was exactly what I needed to bring me home. Sometimes its not the place that brings you home, but rather the people. We enjoyed my "Eislingen favorites" together: Paganinis pizza, Eis from out Italian Eiscafe and obviously coffee and cake by Damianos. We climbed the stairs and looked at my city from my hill...and had a great time catching up. My friends came over Saturday night to continue the birthday celebration, and we played some games. Lesson learned from the night: drinking games should be played with beer, not jack and cokes. We shall leave it at that.
To sum it up, I really couldn't have asked for a better birthday. (Over here, I mean...obviously my family would have improved the situation even more !! but I shouldn't get too greedy...)
So what else have I been upto!?
Well, February was actually really busy in school! I got to do Valentines Lessons with not only the little ones, but with the older students as well. I made them all write Haiku after what was a very interesting (if I do say so myself) lesson on the history of Valentines Day. I got everything from mushy gushy poems to really witty commentaries on consumerism! I had a great time.
Valentines success. I even had a lovely date myself after my lessons. And, who knew it, more flowers!
I also had the interesting challenge of presenting the issues of gun control, the death penalty, and the Iraq war and America. It was nice to be able to bring a personal, American perspective to the issues (although I had trouble being impartial when it came down to presenting the death penalty). I cant say I was particularly patriotic after those lessons, but its my country, and its my job to present the facts, and hopefully a little insight and understanding where appropriate. At the very least, these classes tend to be excited just by the fact that an American, and not their normal teacher, is giving a lesson.
My other groups in school are actually going really well too. I love my reading group students. I never worked that hard in high school, so I have to say I admire the dedication and time spent outside of school work.
I also am having fun with my conversation group. We have been talking about "American High School: myth v. reality." So is American High school just like it is in the movies? A little bit...
And now I can skip over a few boring weeks. Well, not boring, just not so noteworthy. I spent a lot of time with my friends doing everything from building furniture (and when I say building, we all know that I mean observing others build...passing out hammers...picking sticky labels off of things...pointing out imperfections in the work of others...preparing snacks...and, you know, providing good company) to cooking and or playing games. Life here is constant and enjoyable. "The Gang" here is a good one. I couldn't have asked for a nicer group of people to meet!
......................And then there was Fasching.

Back row: Phillipp, me, David. Front: ?

My friend Steve showed up for a visit just in time to experience German Carnival! And I have to say that he is a lucky guy, because Fasching is awesome. Its basically Halloween, except its Mardis gras. I went to a Fasching party Thursday with David and Phillipp and had my first taste of the extremely stereotypical German fest music and shenanigans. The music that played is basically what Americans think Germans listen to all the time. And they do listen to it all the time...if you are at some sort of festival like Fasching or Oktoberfest... Otherwise, and I hate to burst your bubble, America, they listen to the same crap we do at home.
But like I said, Steve is here visiting...so we had to return to Fasching on Sunday. I convinced Florian and David that I had to see the parade before we went to the party...and it was worth it (sort of). The parade was fantastic! Really cool costumes and floats...people shouting HELAU!!! over and over again, free candy...aaaaand confetti. Confetti will be the death of me. I was assured by Flo and David that they were actually trying to rescue me, but I was taken away by some people in the parade and covered in confetti. Not just in my hair and on my clothes...but in every pocket, every article of clothing...in my ears and mouth....well...you get the idea. Confetti everywhere....which, days later, I am still vacuuming up. Its like sand...no one knows how it gets everywhere...but it still manages to do so. So without further adieu, pictures from the parade and the ensuing celebration:

The men on our long walk to the parade: Flo, David, Steve

Friends! yay!

Part of "the gang"...Flo looks concerned...David, a bit sinister!

Scary trees. Warning: they do attack.

Chickens! Dioxide scandal float...

Recognize that man in the float!? GWB! Germans just looove him...ha

America!

 

Well...I only included pictures from the parade, because there is the possibility that we drank quite a bit following the parade, rendering all further photos unusable. However, it was a blast. Great people, great times, great parties. HELAU!
Off to Vienna tomorrow, so surely there will be an update to follow.
Much love from Germany, everyone!