Busy Week

I'm so happy it's finally Friday. This week has been busier than most because I had a presentation, an extra three-hour class session, a Student Council meeting, and an essay on top of the usual schedule. It was also Fasnacht here in Freiburg, which is the annual carnival that ends on Ash Wednesday. I put up the link to my photo album, but in case you missed it, here's one picture to give you an idea what it's like:

So glad they threw the furry helmet on my head at the last second...

While I'm with my American friends and some random Germans in this picture, I attended Fasnacht with my tandem partner. IES set up a system where students in the program can meet with local German students to practice speaking German and English together. We all got our partners last week at a big meeting, but now it's up to us to decide how frequently we meet and how much time we spend practicing in either language. I have two partners who study at the university here. They're both really nice and their English is excellent. It will definitely be good for me to practice my German, although I do get in a fair bit of practice with my flatmates.

As for an update on the living situation, I have no complaints whatsoever. Even when one of my flatmates had two guy friends living here for two weeks (bringing the total number of guys I live with up to seven), it was totally fine. I get along really well with three of them and am friendly with the other two, although one is never here. We've seen him maybe two or three times all semester, and one of the others raised the concern that he might be planning to kill us all in our sleep because "he's never here and when he is, he's just too quiet. It's just not right." Wow, thanks for that pleasant thought! Here's hoping we all emerge from this semester unscathed.

I'm going to Basel, Switzerland early Monday morning (as in 1:30 am) for Morgenstreich, which is the Swiss version of Fasnacht. It's supposed to be pretty wild - the parade itself starts at 4 am. All I know is that there will be costumes, music, wine, and good times to be had. I'll post an update when I can, although next week looks like it will be even busier than this last one.

Bis dann!