It's a high possibility that my liver might come knocking on your door trying to escape me. If that happens will you send it back to me?

Sorry it's taken me so long to update, I've been busy having too much fun!

Last Wednesday we caught the train after our half day and ventured to Tuebingen. We got to see where we will be living, which is located right in the middle of the city. Compared to Horb/Ahldorf it was like getting smacked in the face with New York City! I can't wait to move there. But, we weren't there for too long. After seeing our soon to be dorm, I went on an adventure by myself to find a backpack. Some guy speaking really quickly in German sold it to me, but I still have no idea what he was saying to me.

Anyways, on Thursday (Dirty Thursday/the beginning of the end of Faschings) is when the real party started. After a long day of suffering through class we were finally set free. Cassie and I decided to be cats together, so our personal makeup artist (Drew) made us into some sweet cats. Around 4pm went to Kaufland and stocked up on some cheap drinks, and the only plastic cups we could find. (They were actually mini pots for plants.) Let's just say from then on, it was downright awesome. We went and listened to some short little play in the Marktplatz and spent the rest of the night dancing and drinking.

At some point a small tribe of Indians came up to Drew and tied him to a pole he was standing next to. Then demanded 10 Euro to be set free… He didn't pay but was finally set free when they realized he wasn't giving in. The night ended at Belle Arti (a bar in Horb). We danced the night away, and then I never made it home… I walked home with Cassie, whom bribed me with scrambled eggs in the morning to come and stay the night with her since her host family was leaving to go skiing for the weekend. Which by the way we got back to Cassie's at almost 4am and they were just then leaving. Who leaves for vacation at 4am? Apparently Germans do. Anyways, Thursday night was awesome and scrambled eggs Friday morning made my day.

Friday morning I showed up to school with the same clothes I was wearing the day before. I didn't feel so bad though because Brian was sitting next to me in his same clothes to. Friday class was absolutely miserable, but as soon as we were finished I came home and pretty much slept all day. Until some people came over trick-or-treating for shots….. So, I joined in with the small party while it lasted.

On Saturday we had a parade here in Ahldorf, and I met my soul mate. Not literally, but I'm standing at the parade and someone introduces me to this girl and I start talking to her in German. Until she busts out with "What's up?!" Meet Audrey. She lives in Frankfurt right now and works as a Nanny, but she did our program 2 years ago and she came back just for Faschings weekend and was staying with her old host family. So I was kind of taken aback to meet another person that could speak "American" and we pretty much became best friends at first glance.

We watched the parade, which was really small but Audrey got one of her shoelaces stolen by some Bears. (She never got it back either.) Then we followed everyone to this Hall that had a stage for performances and dancing and a bunch of bars set up. As soon as we walk in Audrey goes, "Hey, wanna split a bottle of wine?" Remind you, at this time it was 3pm and I started to wonder where this girl has been all of my life. The rest of the time spent up to dinner consisted of me meeting tons of Germans. Around dinner time everyone takes a "break" (sober-up time).

After dinner we all came back and spent the rest of the night being tied to all these guys dressed up as mountain climbers, drinking, and dancing. Sometime around 4am I made it back to my house, and couldn't find my house key. I had to ring the buzzer and proceed to explain to my host dad why I was being such a jerk at 4am. Luckily though they weren't mad and Angelika gave me a new house key on Monday that's attached to an obnoxious yellow lanyard. I think she's trying to hint something to me…

Sunday consisted of me sleeping. Almost all day, until Audrey came over and we had a movie night in my room.

Yesterday was "Rosenmontag" and was even bigger than last Thursday. We were given a half day of school so we could go to the parade in Horb. Audrey came and met us in Horb, so before the parade we ventured to Kaufland again. This time we started drinking at like 2pm, and didn't stop until 1am. The parade was the biggest once I've been to yet, and creepy as usual. After the parade Audrey and I attempted to catch the 4:20pm bus back to Ahldorf. Of course we missed it because we were waiting for our French fries. Luckily though Audrey got a hold of her friend Roland and he was coming to Horb to pick up his brother so he offered to drive us back. As soon as we got back to Ahldorf we decided it would be a good idea to go visit Audrey's other friend Benni. On our walk there I was joking with her saying that we weren't going to leave his house until like 8pm…

7:30pm rolls around and we're finally leaving, only to go put our costumes on. Benni offered to cook us dinner and some others were coming over to and we were all going to go back to Horb together. We ended up joining the rest of the region in the Fire Department where they had this huge party/rave. This night also consisted of lots of dancing, drinking, and bad German speaking. You know your German is bad when the Germans will just tell you it's easier to speak in English (haha). However, after another eventful night consisting of me losing my phone, and not being able to get my cup untied from my pants, I made it home around 1:30am.

Let's just say… I was miserable in class again today and I'm really thinking my liver may disown me.

After class today I caught the first bus home having high hopes of sleeping for a couple hours. However, by the time I got home I only had about an hour before I got to witness by the far the most absurd ever. If you think the parade pictures are creepy, you should have been here for this. To celebrate the end of Faschings, they stuff a suit with hay, light in on fire then walk in circles around it pretending to cry while everyone watches. For a few minutes I had thought we joined a cult without knowing it.

Anyways, I have pictures to update with to so make sure you check those out. The rest of the week I'm just going to try and get my body back to a normal state. Tomorrow we're going back to Tuebing though to get fitted for our equipment we're renting on Sunday to go skiing in Austria. I'm sooooo excited! Saturday we're going with Herman-Hesse to Freiburg, then staying the night in a hostel in Tuebingen so we can get up early and make it the 5am bus that leaves to go skiing.

Overall though, my German is getting way better and my relationship with my family is slowly getting better. The kids aren't scared of talking to me anymore since I finally clarified that they need to speak to me in "high German" and not in their crazy dialect.

Anyways I probably won't be updating until at least next Monday. Until then occupy yourself with the image of my host brother singing "We all live in a yellow submarine…" while they cheat like crazy when we're playing Uno. Hilarious.