Karneval and Karneval Songs

Here is some songs that are being played in the lead up to Karneval! They are played alot so if you are coming to Köln (where is biggest and best Kareneval happens) then know these songs!

Viva Colonia



KölschPass



Köln ist schön



Nur nicht aus Liebe weinen (My favourite one!)



I found the best quote i think that sums up Köln at this time of the year!

"because the people of Cologne regularly go mad once a year for five days, they are much saner the rest of time"

Love it!

So today I also got some stuff for Karneval, tattoo's and badges! I have great ideas for Rosenmontag!

The Second German Hangover :P

Its Saturday and its the day after the toytown meetup I mentioned yesterday! Whata fantatsic night it was! It was great to meet fellow auslanders! I am not going to mention names of who I met and what I thought of them, suffice to say everyone was lovely and welcoming and god can we talk shite (I know I can I am Irish!). I think a great night was had and definately friendships formed as we are going to the cinema tomorrow!

It was great not to have to talk in a German accent for a change though I kept slipping into it! So I have a German accent! yay! :D noone will understand em when I go home and everyone will think Im German!

Every time I go out now, I see more and more people dressed up for Karneval. I am going out again tonight and will try and get pictures so people will see what the costumes are like!

I am free at the moment arsing around as the boys have to gone to Essen, so its a nice break for me. So I am in the basement with my MP3 player and online! How bad!

So here is a list of bars I ahve been in and a quick rating out of ten

Corkonian 7/10
Jamesons 9/10
ExCorner 10/10
Ix Bar 5/10
Iron 8/10

So have loads more to try! :D

Thats all for now! Tscheuss!

Day 5: Sick no longer, getting into the Routine and Karneval!

Guten Tag!!

I have gotten over a headcold that nearly had me in bed for the day on Wednesday but all is well again! (Thank you panadol cold and flu!) Things are flying over here and I have the boys moving like a well oiled military maching in the mornings to be out the door at 7:15am!

The boys have a sleepover tomorrow night in a cousin's house in Essen, so I am free for saturday evening and I believe I will be having fondou for the first time!

Tonight I am going to a toytowngermany meetup in Köln. If you are an english speaker in Köln come join us!

Karneval
Karneval is coming up now, well the climax of it, which kicks off on the 31st of January! We are discussing costumes and the boys want to be elephants, we are not sure! When I arrived in Köln on my walk around on saturday I found a large shop that sold costumes I am told there is a bigger one out near Ikea! (I'm getting my halloween costume early this year!! :P)

Some links on Karneval:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karneval#Germany_and_Austria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_carnival
http://www.koeln.de/en/whatson/carnival/carnival-index.html

The "fifth season of the year" as Carnival is called, begins on November 11th at 11:11 AM. But the "crazy days" start on so-called Weiberfastnacht, the Thursday before Rosenmontag (Carnival Monday). In the public squares and streets, the "crazy days" of Carnival are greeted with great indoor and street celebrations. The closing times for pubs and bars are suspended for the duration of the festival.

A typical day
I have definatley gotten´into the routine. Up at 6:30, breakfast then leave the house at 7:15, get the 7:30 tram to Röttgensweg and walk the boys to the school. Back to the tram. Stop in the kiosk for a drink, choclate (sometimes I go to the bakery for a cake!) then back in the house for 8:30! Then I do a mix of following, clean, play the Wii, watch TV(in german i don't have a clue what be going on!), go online, sleep, or read. Then at 12:30 I set out for the school to collect the boys at 13:15. Back home for dinner, then they do their homework, practise their music and feed their rabbits! Then it is playtime until 18:30/19:00 then it is Tea time and bed at 20:00 at the latest and I am free again!

Okay thats enough for now I think!

Danke for reading and Tschuess
Steve
xxx

Contact Made and Day 1

It is the end of my first day as an Au Pair and it was fantastic. I was collected yesterday after lunch from the hostel and brought to meet the family. What a joy they are. They live in a lovely part of Köln, a good bit out from the city but still on the tram line. It reminds a bit of Ballincollig. Tomorrow is the first day of school after the holidays for the boys so it will be my first early morning and first time taking them to school.

The boys who inform they are now 9 not 8, are two bositerious, full of energy, ruggamuffins, who I must say are the easiest Kids I have ever worked with. I have worked with a lot of Children in my time so I can say that.

The language barrier is something I have noticed and it is a barrier. The parents do not seam to mind as the Kids have to ask me for things in English, but I do not understand any German. It did become a problem towards the end of Sunday in Köln. I am picking up a lot of German, though my Irish seams to be resurfacing. I shouted "Tog a bog e" and "bi curamach" at the Kids. They were mostr confused. I am picking up bits and pieces of German and definately know more then I did on Friday! So things will get better language wise.... I hope!

One good thing about school early in the morning, I get to finish early at night! I finshed at 7:30 tonight! It was great!

Anyway that is it for now as I ma tired and must also get up early!

So guten nacht!

Steve

I am in Germany!!!!

Aftera long day of travelling, I arrived in Köln at 7 last night. So far Köln has surpassed all my expectations!! The people are lovely, the city is gorgeous and the beer is cheap!! My head still hurts!!

I got a handy last night and ended up going with Vodafone DE as the credit will work in my Irish Handy also! If people want my German number (it will be my main number) E-mail or textmy Irish number!!

The weather is dry but cold, especially on the bridge over the Rheine! So its the U-Bahn in future.

I am looking forward to meeting the family tomorrow!

oh I found Headquaters of the CDU last!! :-)

Thats all for now!

Missing everyone in Cork!

Steve
xxx

One Sleep to Germany...

Its nearly here, I leave tomorrow morning at 8:30am to drive to Farranfore with my parents to fly to Germany!

I can't believe it. Its here already! How time flies when you are having fun!

I am suffering from a mix of 3 emotions which seam to combine to make me nauseous. They are excitement, nervousness (which can do that anyway) and sadness.

I went out last night with a few friends to Instinct and Freakscene like I mentioned I might do. I had great fun and yet again I cried.

By this time tomorrow (5:30pm CET) I should be in Cologne and nearly in my hostel.

Today I got a gift for the Kids, I know I haven't mentioned much about the family in awhile but all that will change on Sunday when I meet them and start work! Easiest way to get Kids to like you? By them stuff!!! Its only small but will hopefully send us off on the right track.

Tonight I am going out for a meal with my parents and sister to Ballinlough, the Silver Key to be exact. So its the last supper for me at 8:30!

This may be the last post before I leave, so best of luck to all here in Ireland. Dont forget to subscribe to my feed or email!

Places I will Miss in Cork: Instinct

I've been going to instinct since I was 19 and hence why I will miss it. It is where I regularly go on weekends with friends for drinks and dancing.

Instinct has one thing that sets it apart from all other bars.... It has a poll on the dancefloor!!! Its great fun and I will truly miss drinkingly swing off it for 6 months!!

Instinct are great for hosting themed parties, beach parties, fancy dress and of course foam parties!!!

Now i will have to find a new regular where everyone knows your name.... :D

Now for some reason very time I go to write these pieces my mind goes blank!! argh!

so until i can think of more i will post it then!

Finished... for now!

Well my packing is finished for today proabably will need something out of those suitcases before I leave on Friday morning!

I mentioned in the last post about my reading material, well that is because they are books you would not associated with a right-wing signed up Fine Gael member!

I have your usual German Phrasebooks. I also have a French and Polish (Don't ask) Phrasebook with me. The main reading materials are by Paulo Freire and Saul Alinksy. The books I am reading by Freire are 'Pedagogy of the oppressed' and 'Pedagogy of freedom : ethics, democracy, and civic courage'. The Alinksy ones I am reading are 'Rules for Radicals' and 'Reville for Radicals'.

Whay am I reading these? Well when I return to Ireland I intend on going back to college to study Social Care in CIT (via a FETAC course in the College of Commerce). These two writers along with Robert Putnam are major writers in the area of community, its all a bit lefty really! I enjoy reading these, I might not agree with them but they will add to my understanding on how some people see community and maybe add to my own views on community.

Well after all the philosophising to time to finish this post and think of anything i didn't pack....

My life in a Suitcase, well 2 really and a carry on....

So I've started packing! Argh! Its that close!!! I have reconfirmed my flight as advised to by Ryaniair! Good thing I did, I had the time wrong!!!

Its sooo weird trying to pack for 6 months, really it is. I've never done this, I've lived away from home and here I am about to leave the country for 6 months. What have I got myself in for?

Well so far with the packing its going well. I have one which I will live out of for the first two days as I'm staying in a hostel, thats the small one in front. The second is all the big stuff. Then my carry on is going to have all my reading material which I will post about later!

Its strange to try and pack your life away. I have a friend who told me he cry's everytime he packs. Now for someone who was raised camping, thats strange cause that would involve me crying every weekend for the summer!!!

Procrastination...
thats what this is. I dont want to pack. I hate packing always have cause i never know what to pack. My lunch was really long today and I think I offered my dad coffee and cake just to delay me having to go back to packing!

I am leaving
I am not regretting taking this opportunity, but I just hate packing, now where do I find a good man servant at short notice :P

Okay I better get back to it before someone notices I'm blogging again....

Apologies!

Well it seams a site i was linking from, got a picture changed hacked and so affected my site! I only discovered this morning when it was in my email! I do apologies to anyone offended. I know i was nearly sick myself!