Mayday Mayday!

I feel like it's been a while since my last post...
My life is still just as amazing as it was before. I found out a couple days ago that I got into the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing, which is FANTASTIC news. It's great, really, but at the same time bittersweet because now I know that I need to be getting back to reality at the beginning of September (and leaving Germany). Guess I don't want to think about that quite yet. Last week was a pretty normal week for school, I have a really large project dealing with the immigration to Wisconsin in the middle 1800's and how it shaped their identities/Wisconsin's identity. It's pretty intimidating to me, but I'm teamed up with another girl who has been here since September so she's able to shed a little light on the situation. This weekend was amazing, as usual. I always have 4 day weekends, but this weekend was a 5 day weekend (!) and I had the whole weekend to genieß Bonn. (Denglish: we use "genieß" here a lot, it's a German verb meaning to enjoy. As in: Hey everyone, let's go genieß the weather!)
Friday was Flunkyball, which I just went to to check it out. It was nothing too great, especially because it started to downpour at the end of the game. We tried to go to a houseparty, but when all 40 of us showed up they decided to charge everyone 10 Euro each so we decided rightfully against it. I went home and just caught up on TV, which was nice. I'm now enjoying the use of my dad's DVR from our house, so I can watch whatever I want to, whenever I want to! Sad only because it's not really helping me learn German.

Hanna from Finland und I in Cologne

Saturday we were aiming to go to Düsseldorf, but it didn't happen because we were trying to figure some plans out for Crete. Oh, wait, did I forget to mention the most exciting part of my weekend? Yes, yes I did. Well, my friends and I all booked tickets to fly to Crete, Greece for Pfingsten (Pentecost) break. We'll be there for SEVEN days, genießing the sun, beaches and greek food. And the best part? The 11 of us will be spending the week in our OWN PRIVATE VILLA with a terrace and a swimming pool. The cherry on top? We'll be spending less than 200 Euro each for the whole week, accommodations and round trip flight. Yep. That's real life! Originally it was just 6 people from UW, Hanna from Finland, but now the group has expanded to include 3 Germans (one of which is my Bonn Buddy, another of which is my sprachtandem partner) and another Badger! words cannot describe...

Marc (sprachtandem partner) und I in Cologne

Saturday night a bunch of us went to Cologne to see the Avengers in English in 3D. It was pretty good, partially because we all played a drinking game in the theatre. (Every time the characters were in costume on screen together? Drink! Every time one superhero punched another? Drink! and so on) It did amount to one awful headache though, (moral of the story: don't drink and watch 3D). After the movie we went out to a really great nightclub in Cologne, complete with much better music than one typically finds here in Bonn.

Nazi Rally

Sunday was pretty chill, recuperated before the May Day festivities. In Germany, May Day is a huge holiday apparently, akin to our Labor Day. Everything is closed and everyone is supposed to "Tanz in den Mai" or "Dance in May." Basically that just amounts to partying a lot and dancing through the night. There are also Maypoles all over and a really cute tradition involving giving a relatively large birch tree to someone you have a crush on in the middle of the night decorated with streamers and hearts. It was really cute waking up this morning to such a festive forest all over the city! I didn't get home too late or anything, but it was a really fun night! I think my expectations weren't that high because other people seemed to think the night was lame. I'm not really sure what they were expecting though, it was a Monday night! I also saw the Nazi rally today (there were more Polizei than Nazis, and waaaay more anti-Nazi protesters than Nazis). The parade came right past my friends balcony so I got some pretty good pictures.

Example of May Trees

A part of me still can't believe those people still exist here. It's Germany for goodness sake! You'd think that someone sometime would've learned a lesson. It was cool to be around Germans for it though and hear them calling them apes and whatnot. I don't think they can believe it either...


Hope everything is well for everyone overseas! I miss you all! And to all my Bonners, I'm looking forward to our own little Mifflin Street Block party this weekend... :)