On Faschingsdientag, WLE students Toshiyuki (Japan), Angela (USA) and Leah (USA) made their way to downtown Heidelberg and joined over 125, 000 people to watch the Fasching Parade live.

Faschingsdientag is literally translated into “Carnival Tuesday” and marks the last day of the German pre-Lenten Carnival season. Except for Munich's Oktoberfest, it is the one time of year when Germans take the time to relax and have fun.

Getting a little too festive	"Biene Maja"	Musicians in fancy costumes

The Fasching Parade that our WLE students attended was a loud and colorful affair, filled with extravagant costumes, marching bands and plenty of dancing on the streets. As we walked down the street towards the Heidelberg train station, we passed cars that that were impressively adorned with flag, ribbons and flowers used to signify the different town clubs and guilds.

Marching band	A decorated car	Dancing on the streets

The skeleton is throwing candy and popcorn	The Heidelberg Spielmannszug (brass band)	The Mini-Garde

Amongst the many live acts in the parade, WLE students found the Spielmannszug most entertaining. Spielmannszug describes a musical group consisting mostly, or entirely, of brass instruments. The Heidelberg Spielmannszug were dressed to impress, wowing the crowd with their brass tunes in handsome blue vests and large traditional hats.

Second amongst their favorite acts was the garde. The garde describe a generally female group of musical performers who wear similar outfits, boots, short skirts, and hats. They march during the whole parade, performing the “Schenkele hoch” (lift one leg) every so often to encourage audience participation.

The Green Garde prepares for a "Schenkele hoch"	The witches try to scare the audience	The Yellow Garde showoff their costumes

Other live parade acts included people wearing horror masks of devils, witches and skeletons. Traditionally, horror masks were worn during the parade to scare the ghost and demons of the winter away in preparation for the upcoming spring season.

Standing in the crowd at the German Fasching Parade and soaking up the colorful festive atmosphere is an experience unlike any other. It forms an integral part of German culture and is a must for everybody interested in visiting Germany and learning more about its unique culture.

For one special night every year, museums across Germany open their doors till the early hours of the morning, with buses and tours running especially to take guests to various venues around the city. On 5 April, 2008 the historic towns of Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim opened their museums to visitors from 7.00 pm to 3.00 am.

Dubbed the Long night of the Museums, this special event is always a great opportunity for WLE students to gain insight into many different cultural institutions in Germany. Starting our tour at Heidelberg’s Hauptstrasse, we made our way to Mannheim to explore some of the town’s many museums.

The first stop was the ‘Verpackungs-Museum’ (German Museum of Packaging). This museum displayed a unique collection of interesting product packaging from decades gone past, including cult favorites such as the famous Coca-Cola contour bottle and the yellow UHU tube.

Yellow UHU tube - Don't say glue, say YOO-HOO	LD tin-plates signs.

WLE students wandered down corridors of examples where uniquely designed packaging has achieved the status of genuine works of art. Student learnt how items that were formerly thrown away have today become sought-after and lasting records of imaginative creativity and inventiveness.

Chocolate box of the Nazi era	An old cigarette machine

Next, we visited was the ‘Kurpfälzisches Museum’. With its comprehensive collection of paintings, sculptures, craftwork, archaeology and much more dating back to the 15th century, the ‘Kurpfälzisches Museum’ offers a unique insight into the ‘Kurpfalz’ (Electoral Palatinate) and its capital Heidelberg.

Students in front of the Museum	Kerstin (Denmark) looking at paintings of 'Perkeo'	The very old rooms of the Museum

Analog of the 'Old Bridge' during the Roman era

The archaeological collection is located downstairs in the museum’s modern extension and in seven rooms on the ground floor of the historical Morass Palace.

The archaeological section	Students looking at the skeletons found in the Heidelberg area

After our visit at the ‘Kurpfälzische Museum’, we walked further down ‘Hauptstrasse’ all the way to the ‘Heidelberger Bergbahn’ (funicular railway), which took us up to the ‘Heidelberger Schloss’ (castle). As Kerstin works in a Pharmacy back home, she was very curious to visit the German Pharmacy Museum located in the Castle. This Museum was reopened in Heidelberg in 1959, after also being located in Munich and Bamberg.

Copy of an old pharmacy counter	Students looking at an old machine to produce medical drugs	Crocodiles were an important source for different types of medicine

The Pharmacy Museum hosts a wide collection of antiques and modern items such as furnishings (back to the baroque period), medical drugs and finished medicaments (an absolutely unique selection of more than a thousand raw drugs which represent the range of medicine of the 17th – 19th century), vessels (for representing, storing, and selling medicine), mortars and grinding bowls, technical glasses, instruments and laboratory equipment and much more.

Students exploring the different medicine	Our students had a blast at the pharmacy for kids, where they could mix all kinds of different medicaments and teas.

After a quick visit at the giant wine barrel inside the Castle, we decided that we now wanted to take the bus to Mannheim, to check out some Museums there as well. Unfortunately, it was 1.00 o’clock in the morning already, so it was defiantly too late to get to Mannheim. We spent so much time at the Museums around Heidelberg that we did not notice how fast time went by. So we decided to head home, having learned many new things and being eager to explore Mannheim’s Museums next year!

Name

Is this your first time in Germany?
No, I visited Germany in 2004 with my family.

How do you like Heidelberg?
Heidelberg is a great city to both, live and study in.

How are you finding your studies?
Very interesting and very challenging. Our teacher is great and tries his best to make learning the German language as clear and easy as possible for us.

How did you find the relationship between students and between students and teachers?
As all students here are foreign, it is very easy to make friends. Also living at the Student Residence helps in getting to know more people. The relationship between the students and the teachers is also more like a friendship. I really like the fact that we can ask any question, no matter whether it is concerning German grammar, German culture or German habits.

What is the most interesting thing you have done or discovered in Heidelberg?
My friends and I visited the Thingstätte at the night. The Thingstätte is an amphitheatre built back in the Nazi-Era and is almost in ruins. Nowadays it is used as a party location for thousands of people celebrating the first of May.

Are there any really interesting places that you have been to?
There are some nice clubs, and many, many very nice bars. I can recommend buying the ‘Meier’, a newspaper only for Heidelberg and Mannheim which lists all events and places of interests.

What were the major (cultural, social or educational) differences from your home country that you experienced when you first arrived in Heidelberg?
I can’t think of any right now. Germany and its people are similar to Norway.

What advice / tips would you give others who plan to come to Heidelberg?
Be prepared for a great experience……and don’t think that learning German will be an easy one. I discovered that I learned my vocabulary best when I just went out and tried to talk to the locals in German.

Do you think you will come back to Heidelberg / Germany?
Yes, if I should ever leave, I will definitely come back