fastnacht and Grindelwald and Jungfrau

Pictures:

Belen (Argentina) and I with a Hexen (witch) from some other city....ironically all the witches are men, and try to speak like a raspy feminine witch, very amusing

Some fastnacht group from another town marching through the parade in Säkingen

Two Wälder men: dressed up with backpack full of schwarzwald bacon and schnapps.

For some reason it's not letting me post any more pics, so as of now there are no pics of Jungfrau. stupid computer.

Well I have failed the last few weeks to post, and since right now ''Fastnacht'' is almost over, I guess I can write something about it. It started 3 weeks ago this thursday, and it common to the south western region of germany and also in switzerland. I dont really know how to explain it, but it has something to do with Catholocism and Lent. The name fastnacht comes from fasting and night, meaning the 3 weeks or so before Lent the people fast in the day time then in the night they can eat, or something like that. in fact that is probably wrong, but what Ive got from it is a lot of celebrating, dressing up, parties, and a week off from school. the ''Erste Faise'' or phasise i dont know how to spell it was the first thursday, then there is a 2nd one, the next thursday, then the Dritte (third) Faise was last thursday. I dont really know what the faise is, i forgot, but we hardly had school that day. On the first one, the Wälder (comes from wald, meaning the Swchwarzwalder's, black forest people) came into the city, well dressed as the tradtional schwarzwalder from way back when. there was a parade and they came into the school playing Guggemusik, whihc is the fastnachts music...lots of drums and trompets and horn instruments. they came into all the schools, dressed up, playing music, and went upstairs and drank schnapps and ate schwarzwald speck (bacon) with the teachers!!!! i thought that was funny. and they only speak dialect of course. there was acutally a lot of them that are from säckingen and just participate for the heck of it. every city and even a lot of the little villages have different traditinos, but they all have some sort of costume...they are all different, anything works, but a tradional thing is to dress up like a witch, with the specail hand made mask...some of them cost up to €1000. i really have no idea what the costumes mean or why they are waht they are...some people have tried to gvie me an explanation but it didnt really work. anyway theres some pics.

yesterday I went snowboarding again in the alps at Jungfrau!! the famous mountain in the Alps, looking out over the city of Grindelwald. I was there with two friends, Ben and Julia, and we took enough lifts up to get to the Jungfrau train station...here is a pic: http://www.worldtravelimages.co.uk/gallery/Switzerland/jungfrau_rail.jpg this is the train station i was at, except with snow. There is one that we wanted to go to, but it costs around $70 or so for a ride in it. But it takes you to the highest train station in Europe, http://www.cosatravel.com/itinerary/bilder/ACFY91Vzv.jpg... and you pretty much would ahve a view of everything because its sooooo high. It was verrry cool and i think i will be going back this summer for a chance to see it in the summer, take comparative pictures and camp overnight in the alps!!! oohh cant wait----gonna have to wait though, since it is once again snowing...the coldest and longest enduring winter in germany in 20 years by the way. and i am here. uhhhh im sick of the snow.

here are some photos

well it snowed about a foot last week and so that was pretty afterwards. i am really happy now though because it just rained a whole bunch so abotu half of its gone. i cant wait for it all to be gone...then i just have to wait on the warmer weather.....i almost teared up today, litterally...it was 10° C!!!! havent felt that warm of weather since around the beginning of november!!!! I think weather makes me the most emotional these days...litteraly...like the first time it snowed, tears literally came out of my eyes I was so happy. then about a month ago we had a lot of sun and i just went outside every day and sat there and took it all in. and then last night i went and trotted around a bit outside in the rain, becasue half the snow was gone and i was glücklich. then this afternoon after mittagsschule (afternoon classes) i was walking to the bahnhof (bus/train station) and it was so warm outside! like 50!! it had rained a bunch, and it was the afternoon-after-the-rain-weather...like spring soccer weather...really blue sky with pretty clouds everywhere a little breeze. i took my scarf off!!! but yes, these are some of the pics i took on monday when it was nice weather after the new snow. actually the pic of me was 2 weeks ago. went spazieren gehen (for a walk) with 2 friends in Herrischried to the Gugelturm (a tower thing) where we could see a lot.

78° in redding!!!

I AM SO JEALOUS OF THE WEATHER IN REDDING: i am so sick of the cold. i just checked the weather for redding...supposed to be 78 today, 26 in celcius, and here, its snowing, and cold cold cold. definitely below zero thats for sure, because its darn cold, and i got to sit in it in Rickenbach (another village where i had to change buses) for 20 minutes waiting for the late bus driver to come. and the snow is dry, so i know its below zero. and windy. and I WANT WARM WEATHER. and pop, I didnt delete your post, I honestly dont know what happened. But dont get the ideas that I am ignoring the video camera...I just have to find a time to video. I'd like to get the surrounding area here, niedergebisbach that is, but not in this weather. its waaay prettier when its sunny, and well, you can see 30 meters ahead. and yes, i will get manfred to explain the heater thing. believe me i have NOT forgotten it, but I just have to get the times right. once this tape it full, i will be sending it. but qustion? how are you going to view it? does gpa ken have a camera that can play the tape or something? anyway thats all for now.

oh ye.....CATS WAS AMAZING: for anyone that hasnt seen that musical and has a slight interest in musicals, it is a MUST SEE. of course, here it was in German, so I didnt understand that much considereing it was sang...but nonetheless. the Rotarians I was with even told me it is difficult to understand, so just like trysing to interpret english musicals with very loud BEAUTIFUL music. the danzing and singing was absolutely incredible. i wish i could danze and sing and act....looking back on this i realized i spealled dance with a z, hah germans rubbing off on me...''Tanzen'' = to dance. muhauhauahuh

my accent in german

well i thought this was really cool so i wanted to post it: i have been told that i have an accent according to:

a german accent (meaning no accent, native! woohoo)

american

an english speaker but unable to tell where from

eastern europe (by far THE coolest, and ive got it a few times)

french

skandinavien haha cool i just realized i spelled it the german way.

russian speaker of some sort (maybe that falls into the easter europe category.)

ok thats all i just thought it was cool. im out..and tomorrow im seeing CATS the musical in BASEL with a Rotarian!!! I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!

witness of a communist demonstration

Yesterday I went to Basel with a nonrotary exchange student from eugene oregon who lives in the next town over here...we were in a store, then come out and one of the main streets is absolutely full with people. Dressed in black, with masks on, shouting things in what I believe was Russian, and were carrying huge signs. Well it turns out it was a communist demonstation...anti democracy. We had no idea it was going to be happening, but there were a load of people there from news companies and stuff. I would guess there were approximately 2000 people marching through the streets of Basel...from all around the world, or just Europe perhaps, no idea. But they had signs in Gerrman, french, spanish, english, russian, turkish, and some asian languages. Lots of shouting in foreign languages too. Eryn and I decided to be as non american as possible at the moment. There was no violence, but still a little creepy. Really kinda surreal actually...Ive never seen anything like that...and these people were carrying huge picutures and flags with Stalin, Lenin, Ho Chi Mihn, Castro, Karl Marx, and Engels on them...and more that I forget or didnt recognize. They also had MANY signs with the USSR flags symbol, the hammer crossed with the sickle (yes I just looked that word up becasue I never knew what those things are called) and the star. you can see that on the top picture. so that was an interesting experience. and boooohoooooooooooooooooo i am saaaaddddd......my exchange is just about half over......cry.....