Part 1: Karneval! Alaaf! Alaaf! Alaaf!

Karneval season kicked off in Cologne on 11/11 at 11:11 am and ran up to Ash Wednesday, but the real fun began the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, called Weiberfastnacht.  A description of the kickoff festivities in the city can be read here. I was really excited for the 5 days of Karneval for several reasons. First, it was finally semester break for me so I could enjoy not having a term paper to write, or exams to study for. Second, every German I talked to said it was crazy fun and tons of excitement. Even my host parents were telling me about it and preparing for it back in August and September. Third, and most important, I was reuniting with friends from back home and would be getting to spend a few days with them!

I had already seen Samson about a month prior when he came to visit me in January, but Samson's a guy you're happy to see as often as you can. Full of energy and optimism, Samson wanted to go FULL THROTTLE for 4 straight days, from Friday through Monday, until he had to go back to Nottingham. Miranda was also coming to visit. She studies in Paris this semester and was planning on making the 4 hour train ride over to Cologne with her friend Justine. Then there was Samir, also part of the crew from LSU. Samir was the last to arrive in Europe and had 6 weeks to kill before settling down in his Uni town of Torino, Italy. In the meantime he was trekking across the continent, starting off in London and Nottingham with Samson, then going to Amsterdam, then to Paris where he stayed with Miranda for a while, and then on to Cologne and Bonn to be with everybody at once. The fact that Samson, Samir, Miranda, and I were able to meet up was exciting and a dream come true. Since the day we were all accepted into out study abroad programs, we promised each other we'd have to meet up and visit one another. Unfortunately the last member of the crew, Laine, wouldn't be able to attend because she was meeting up with her brother.We're still hoping to get all of us together at least once before the semester ends!

The arrival situation was, initially, really planned out. It ended up being super crazy with missed trains, a bomb threat, and miscommunication....BUT in the end we all met up!

Reunited! The Frenchies got 'welcome beers' and I got a 'welcome baguette'! Cultural exchange at its finest

Reunited with Samir! I think he's just happy to finally leave McDonald's after 2 hours of waiting....

Samson arrived the next morning and we were off to party. We traveled to Cologne on Friday to show the newbies the city and the Koelner Dom, the famous cathedral which draws thousands of visitors each year to the city. We stopped off there for a while and took a bunch of pictures before heading back home to Bonn to attend a German fraternity party where costumes were mandatory.

The LSU Crew in front of the Dom. Geaux Tigers

Costumes are a huge part of Karneval, much in the same way that they used to be and to some extent still are with a New Orleans Mardi Gras. Because we had several days to celebrate, we all had a few costumes. The above picture is our day as "LSU football fans;" we painted our faces with purple and gold face paint, wore hats and t-shirts, and Samson even had some Mardi Gras beads to wear. Another group costume we had was simply "a bunch of bananas," which ended up being a huge crowd-pleaser and invitation for Samson to randomly shout out Gwen Stefani's song in the subways, trains, streets....really anywhere. Sometimes we would pass other bunches of bananas and so we'd run up to them and just start dancing together without music. We wore the banana costumes to the fraternity party and kind of stole the show with them.....

Banana Crew

We had a great few days together. With such a large group it was impossible for me to host in my dorm room, but I was lucky that Cat was able to let all of us crash in her living room. We got introduced to friends from all over: my LSU friends got to meet my friends in Germany, Cat's friend Jack from NYU who was in town from Madrid got to meet us, and we all got (re) acquainted with our German friends Lena and Julia (who actually spent a year abroad at LSU in 2013-2014) and knew exactly where to go during Karneval.

Karneval was a lot of fun and I had a blast getting to see my friends again even if only for a short couple of days. When Karneval ended and everyone was on their way back home I took refuge in my dorm room for 2 days trying to recover from the fever I got on the last day of Karneval. But once I recovered I was out on the road to England, where I'd be spending about 10 days before catching a bus to Paris.