Excuses...I really am busy!

So, for those people in my life (and those who read this whom I’ve never met),  I have an explanation as to why my blog was abandoned for almost a month.  I’m very busy right now!  Germany is weird when it comes to school.  All semester long you only have to read and keep up with the class discussion.  Then after the class gets out you have to do your term paper.  Yes, after class.  Credits for german classes are awarded by how much work you actually do.  If you do a presentation, a paper, and take an exam, you get 6 credits.  If you only do two of those things, you get 4 credits.  If you do one of those things you get 2 credits (or if you do two of them and just write a shorter paper than 20 pages).  Now this is not terribly important to me, as I only get credit for the equivalent class at Western.  I get the number of credits that Western awards for that course, not what Paderborn awards.  So I do only 4 credits worth of work.  Sometimes 2 credits are only pass/fail courses and I don’t get a real grade.  I need the grade.  So I’ve been spending my days working on papers.  I just finished one that was 5 pages and now I have one that has to bee 10-20 pages and one that has to be 8-20 pages that are due on the 31st.  Oh, by the way, I’m going to Spain from the 21st to the 25th.  So there’s about five days where I can’t work on my papers.  

Now that you have heard my excuses…please leave a comment whenever you read my blog.  Whether you’re family, friend or someone I’ve never met, comments are appreciated.  It means someone is listening.  I like when you listen.  It makes me happy.  My blog will probably be a little idle for the next two weeks, but then I’ll have all kinds of fun things from Spain to tell you, so just hold on…it’s coming!

Kölner Karnival (Colder Carnival)

Ryo-Hei and Tomoya from Japan

Just before the beginning of Lent every year, Germany is filled with Karnivals. Generally, this is drinking and a parade. For one of the organized Eurobiz trips, we went to the Kölner Karnival. This means we all got on a train together and went to a big parade a few hours away. I spent most of the day with the two guys from Japan, Ryo-Hei and Tomoya. They were nice enough to make sure that when they wanted to go somewhere or do something they took me along so I wouldn’t get lost in a big drunken city. The Karnival itself was a little less than what I expected. I guess I expected some more festivities than just a parade, but no. Just the parade. Anyway, I bought a red, white and blue hat because most of the exchange students had painted their flag on their faces, but apparently the American flag is a bit more challenging. Especially when they don’t know how many stripes it has…thirteen, for those of you who don’t know. There is one important thing to keep in mind when thinking about festivals this time of year…this is not New Orleans. Germany is cold! I’ve now given it the spitzname (nickname) the Colder Carnival. Kölner…colder…you see the connection. If not, those Japanese guys sure seem to!