Fasching and whatnot

Faschingszeit is underway in Ulm! Fasching is kind of a mix of Halloween, a parade holiday, and a beer festival, to my estimation. This picture is from the parade, we were right next to it, and some of the people were playing these kickass trumpets!! I want one! Trumpet-things. The parade was pretty crazy, there were forty groups of different people from all over Germany, each one had a different theme, like one group were lumberjacks or something, and they had this big pole like the kind people used to ride people out on a rail with, and they caught a random woman, put her up on the pole, and bounced her up and down on it, she flew about three feet off the pole (it had a sort of padded seat). But still. Wow. And every group had confetti, and would randomly rub it into people's hair, or stuff it down people's shirts or up pant-legs, they would also pick up random girls, sling them over their shoulders, take off their shoes, and take the laces out. Hehe. And there was plenty of candy throwing. Once, this group went through that were dressed like some sort of officer or something, and one guy was throwing candy at the crowd, and a kid threw a piece back that hit the guy in the chest, and the guy turned around and was starting to scold him when the kid nailed him right in the face, which really pissed him off and made him go after the kid in the crowd. Hahaha, I burst out laughing next to my host family, who didn't see anything. Each group also had a welcome call, they were all on our program/leaflet, and they're all schwäbisch, the dialect around here. The people in the group, or the announcer guys would call out the first part, and we would yell back our part in greeting. So, that was the Fasching parade downtown on Sunday.

After the parade, I played a really intense and complex game with my host brothers and one of their friends (playing games is almost obligatory here, and they're usually fun. And it was really cold outside) called Der Ritter Canaans, The Soldier of Canaan. It was really complex and involved building cities and castles and whatever else to defend against the barbarians and earn Victory in Battle points, which decide the game. My older brother Moritz won after we had played for almost three hours. If we play it again, I'll understand it from the start and kick their asses.

Today we had school, in Chemistry our teacher burned different alcohols when talking about the properties of alcohols. When he burned methanol, the flame was colorless, and he was like, 'you think nothing happened, huh?', and then proved us wrong by burning part of his seating chart. I love Chemistry.

Math was ridiculously boring and easy as usual, then we had our two hour break while the rest of the class and Morgan had French, Aaron and I walked around downtown, into the Münster, then found Nunt enjoying a coffee milk thing in Henry's all alone. So, we sat and talked to her for a while, didn't buy anything, Henry's is too expensive unless somebody else is buying or you have a coupon. Very good gifts. Then we had English, hilarious as usual. Need to get out my quotes.

Teacher: "Do you buy anything from Britain?"
Aaron: "I hear they sell nice tea..."
Teacher: "Do you drink tea?"
Aaron: "Yeah..."
Teacher: "Could you live on tea?"

Teacher (suddenly) : "Hey, you two. You can tell us something about Bill Clinton tomorrow."

Then, at the end of class, we were supposed to make up a new term involving the European Union, real terms were like Europhobia or Euromania. As a joke, Aaron came up with Euromullet. The teacher ended up writing it on the board. The only thing that was written on the board. I was supposed to clean the board, but I didn't, haha. The teacher was like, "Euromullet, never heard of it before..." and Aaron and I were dying laughing, as usual. We even explained to him what a mullet was. Complete with business in the front, party in the back. I love English.

Went home, worked on the last of my harmony for my organ lesson, ate lunch (my host mom makes kickass mashed potatoes, they might actually be pre-packaged, which would disappoint me, but I think I saw and smelled potatoes that she got out), and went to church to practice before my lesson at 5. Was there before my teacher for once, played more cadences and a new piece. He was very happy with my playing today, wahoo! Next week I have to play a hymn with only the melody and harmony notations, though. Gulp. Must do more cadences and hymn analyses. At least I'll be allowed to do it very slowly. Mmm, got all my U2 playing. Most delicious. I think I will burn it all. My hair is so long for me. Combing is a pain. Literally. I never used to comb my hair, back when I got haircuts. Hehe, trying to go the whole year without a haircut, will be hard when my parents visit in May/June. It'll be a good run, though, even if my mom makes me get a haircut. Ok, enough boring rambling. Should read/sleep now. Have German tomorrow, must finish reading book. Max Frisch. Homo Faber. Is it in English, too? Should look. Ok, signing off.