Carnival and getting things off the checklist!

For reference, I put some links to google maps. We are currently in temporary housing near Darmstadt, so I show places in relation to there.

This past weekend we went to the Carnival parade in Mainz, Germany a town near us. This is effectively the German spin on Mardi Gras and was pretty amazing. Fortunately for us, Mainz is known as a carnival "stronghold" and they actually claimed they had a bigger parade than Köln (Cologne) this year.

As for the German take on the party: huge parades, everyone in silly costumes and outfits, lots of food and drinks, and carnival salutes - in Mainz they yell "Helau" fairly non-stop (it sounds like hello, but it isn't... its sort of like "hurrah"). Other places call the festivals Fasching, and some shout "Alaaf." I found this cool article about the carnival differences.

Our friends have some pictures here.

As for our checklist: We passed our driver's test (big deal) and got cellphones (handys). We have a bank and a post office box. We registered Carrie's new Jetta and got plates for it, but it is still in Bremerhaven waiting to be shipped in land (German customs). My car I shipped arrived in Bremerhaven as well, and is also waiting to be shipped in land (slow processing). Apparently, Germany shuts down during Carnival.

The most exciting news, is that there might be a leased house available for us, that would split the difference between our two work places (Kurt in Wiesbaden and Carrie in Darmstadt) to about a 20 minute drive each. We've seen it from the outside, and we might get to tour it this Friday. We are trying not to get our hopes up, but it sounds really good!

Everyone here is really great and we are starting to relax and get excited about living here.

Hope all is well,
Kurt and Carrie