Okay, I am taking a break from my usual Sunday afternoon task of studying German to give a quick update as to what has been going on. Obviously, since I am still writing this it means that Kristin is still not here, but the good news is that the longest she will still be gone is less than a month. So that is good news. I finally got to meet the person in city hall who has been giving us the run around. He kind of reminded me of a German Tony Soprano but with more grey hair. We had to give them (again) our original marriage certificate. One of my colleagues must call tomorrow to see whether or not the certificate needs further legalization. Of course, it will, and then that will take another week to get done, and then I will resubmit to them and that of course will take another week for them to review, and…you get the point. By further legalization, I mean more stamps. I am not 100% certain that the notary stamps from the USA are accepted in Germany so it might need to be stamped by a notary here in Germany. I have no idea how this is accomplished but I will probably find out tomorrow. This country’s soil is not comprised of dirt, rock and minerals, but of stamps, certificates, and books with rules that may be vaguely interpreted.
Yesterday I decided to go skiing and it was not the best day. The weather forecast called for partly sunny skies at the mountain, but when I got there it was totally in the clouds and snowing. This is what I found after a longer than usual drive to the hill caused by snowy roads. But there was no point in going back home. The traffic on the way back was still packed with people leaving Austria. Saturday is the big travel day because when people book ski holiday weeks here they typically run Saturday to Saturday. So you get an exodus coming into and out of the country and the bottleneck is a tunnel between Austria and Germany called the Phander Tunnel. They are currently expanding it, but it won’t be ready until 2011. You can wait hours getting into that thing at peak times with your only other option going through Bregenz Austria. That is what I took on the way back because it is not so far out of your way going to back to Friedrichshafen, and even though you are going through the city, you are at least making progress and not at a standstill.
Skiing with clouds is not very fun. If the clouds are dense, like those I found at the top of the mountain, it can seriously reduce your visibility to perhaps only 20 feet. The problem is exacerbated by the fact the clouds and the snow are nearly the same color. The lack of contrast gives you no sense of space or speed. So basically you have to be very careful and keep your eyes on the next trial marker. Thankfully, I was already familiar with the runs at this mountain so that made it just a little bit safer. A bit lower on the mountain, the clouds were not as thick and you could see farther, about 100 yards, but still you have a problem with contrast, which makes it very hard to read the terrain so you can get surprised by big bumps or other variability in the snow. And since this was the only place where people could ski, that is where everyone was skiing which meant the runs got torn up pretty quick.
So I put up with it for about 2 to 3 hours and then headed back home and went to bed.
When I woke up from my nap, I got onto the second part of the day, which was to go to Fastnacht. This is celebration we would liken as a cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween and is considered to be the “fifth season” to those who celebrate it. Our friend Maike invited me to this. She grew up in the town of Überlingen, which has celebrated this festival since the Middle Ages. Everyone gets dressed up in costumes and begins the night by watching a very interesting parade that winds through the narrow streets. The highlights of the parade are the bands from Überlingen and the Hänselejuck. The bands play the anthem of Überlingen as well as other traditional music that is only played at this time of year. The Hänselejuck (pronounced hans-alla-yuck often just reffered to as hans-alla) are comprised of men from the area. Traditionally, you had to be born and still live in the area to be a member. Today, you must meet what I guess you could call a group consensus that you are “from the area” but it is still a strict requirement that you be a man. They dress head to toe in a very elaborate costume that cost upwards of 1000 Euros. They are primarily black with the colors of red, green, blue and yellow in horizontal stripes about every foot. Basically it is a pair of pants and a shirt and the material is layered in little strips like that of some Native American dress. They wear hoods with very small openings for the eyes and the hoods have a foxtail on the back and a trunk on the front. At the end of the trunk is a small red feather duster, which is usually covered with perfume. If you are not completely lost trying to figure out what this must look like, they also carry hemp whips as part of the costume, which they use for remarkable demonstrations throughout the parade. Basically as they go through the parade route, they run up to women, and tickle their noses with the red feather duster. They will also take their hats, try to scare them, mess up their hair, pull them into the street for a dance, and grab younger girls (12 years old or so) and run away with them. You might think that girls would want nothing to do with these guys but it is actually quite the opposite. Younger girls will put themselves to the front of the crowd in order to hopefully get some attention from the Hänselejuck. It was described to me that the mystery of who they might be is actually what makes them attractive to the girls. As for the whips, they will occasionally stop and get into groups of 1, 2 or 3 spaced about 10 feet apart. They push the crowd back and then with FULL force crack them in the streets. It is louder than a good size firecracker and when they are swinging near you, you pray they don’t miss. It is really cool and quite the crowd pleaser.
After the parade, everyone pretty much goes to the various bars and drinks. You can stay out until 7am if you want. But I went home at midnight because that is when the last train left. Kristin will definitely want to see this but maybe it’s better that she waits until next year because then we can make up some good costumes for the occasion. The festival goes on for almost one week and each day has a main theme. I think the Saturday during the festival is considered to be the biggest party day.
Here are some links to videos so that you can satisfy your curiosity of what the parade is like and what the Hänselejuck look like.
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