Karneval!

So. Its Karneval season here in Germany but no one in Berlin except kindergarteners celebrates so I went to Duesseldorf to celebrate with my friend Julia instead. Here Karneval is a pretty big deal, a much bigger deal in fact than I would have imagined.
So. I got here late Wednesday night and Julia picked me up at the train station and then we came to her house, said hi to her parents, talked for a while and then went to bed because she had to work early yesterday. She has officially graduated from college and high school now and got the best possible grade on her abitur which is really cool so now she is going to go back to school to become a doctor. But for now she is a Kindergarten teacher. Which is super cute, but also really crazy. It is strange to have friends with real jobs.
She had to work on Thursday morning, which was the opening of the Karneval Festivities here, so she had her best friend Natascha come get me and take care of me all day til she got off of work. So we went over to a collegue of Nataschas house and had a cute little German Breakfast. Then everyone had champagne even though it was only 11:00 which seemed strange to me but such is the Karneval tradition I guess. Nataschas collegue, Daniel told me the story of the "old womens day" as they call the first day of Karneval. Apparently at 11:11 a group of women storm the city hall and cut off the mayors tie. He then has to leave his office and the Karneval commitee rules for a week. The day is actually supposed to be a day where only women celebrate, so if a man wants to go, he is supposed to wear a tie and then the women get to cut it off and then have to kiss him on both cheeks. Anyway, after breakfast we headed in to the city to join in the party. It was really strange to me that literally everyone you passed on the street would be dressed up ( I was from Hawaii- I had a hula skirt on over my coat and looked really ridiculous). Julia lives next to a high school and as we walked by to get to the tram every single student was wearing a costume. It is strange to see 17 year old boys who arent too cynical to go to school dressed up as a princess or a cowboy. these costumes are generally really elaborate too. Anyway, once we got to the "city" as everyone here seems to call downtown, we pushe our way up to the stage. I cant really describe the situation, but there was an ocean of costumed germans all singing along to these really kitschy songs that I think people only really listen to at Karneval. But everyone knew all of the words and was singing along and dancing. Everone was drinking german beer and just having a grand time. I thought it was ridiculous but couldnt stop smiling. there just isnt anything at all like Karneval in America. Even Mardi Gras is completely different, Karneval didnt seem to have anything at all to do with debauchery, everyone was just having a good time and singing german songs and drinking and wearing crazy costumes. and everyone was there and all in the same place, from little kids to old women dressed up as firemen. It was really great. The rest of the day we just wandered around the city and had a great time. The only problem was trying to find a bathroom. I almost peed my pants more than once waiting in line. But most of the time women would just go in the mens room because the line was faster. and then the men would all be like you are in the wrong line and these crazy german women in their beer keg costumes would shout about them being descriminatory and tell the men to go pee outside. The whole thing was really funny to me.
Anyway. Today I am jsut hanging out at home til Julia gets off work at 4:00 and then we are going to go do some touristy stuff and then tonight it is probably back to Karneval. 5 days of this. Germans are crazy. But at this point Im really glad I came because I relaly never have seen anything like it.
Sorry this is so long.
Love you all!