fasching is crazy.

Just gonna do a little update, because today was ridiculous.

Right now is "Fasching" or "Karneval" time in Germany, basically an excuse for all the old people to get drunk and wear stupid costumes. I went downtown today to experience the festivities, and honestly it was insanity. Imagine Times Square on New Years Eve and put it smack in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. It was around 3pm and everyone was completely trashed, packed into Marienplatz. There were old drunk German men pissing on the SIDE of the bathroom instead of inside because the line was too long. Literally just in a huge crowd of people pissing on the side of a building...then we saw more drunken guys pissing on a pile of gravel as if it was a urinal, out in a huge crowd of people, no shame.

The best part and what made me want to do a short entry so I don't ever forget it, is the fact that on one of the stages the radio stations had set up there was a guy dressed up as BLADE from the vampire movies doing a choreographed dance to a techno song. Literally of all the things I would have thought I could have seen today, BLADE doing a dance routine...let's just say I would never have believed it if you had told me I would see it. Of course after his routine he proceeded to strip with a bunch of GoGo dancers around him. Of course. He was wearing a sword and had a big fake gun and would periodically wield one or the other at the crowd. Hilarious.

Anytime you feel yourself getting down, just remember, you aren't a BLADE impersonator doing a dance routine in Germany as "Faschingszeit" entertainment.

Okay, so I've been slacking on the posts...

Yeah so I know I've been slacking on the posts. I just have had quite a bit to do, and not enough time/heart to keep this thing 100% updated, but tonight was just too fucking ridiculous to let it blow over. To start it off, I had THREE finals on the same day yesterday (Thursday the 8th of February) so tonight (Friday) was the night to have some fun.

I didn't really feel like drinking very much, but was persuaded to go to the "All-you-can-drink ERASMUS Farewell Party" which was in the same complex as my apartment building. I figured what the hell, if I have 2-3 drinks over the course of the night, the 9 Euro cover charge will pay for itself. You can imagine what happens at an "All-you-can-drink" party...

It was fine when I got there at about 11:45, people were of course already sloppy drunk, there was quite a bit of ridiculous drunk dancing, etc, but no violence, just drinks being spilled all over my shirt. At about 1:00 am, I helped the single security guard and a few other guys throw this drunk fucker out who had been ruining my (and everyone else's) night by slamming into them and grabbing girls in inappropriate places. I got hit with his disgusting wet shirt which had been dragging around on the ground, (yes he was so drunk for some reason he didn't have his shirt on)...

I got to enjoy myself for quite a while until about 2:30, when two guys, one of whom was an acquaintance of mine, decided that the accidental drunk-bumping-into-someone was something to get in a shoving match. Being the idiot that I am, of course I had to get in the center of it and try to break it up. I managed to avoid any punches, and the situation was distilled into all-you-can-drink retardation. I went back to enjoying myself, but kept a wary eye out for the next fight, which by that point I realized was going to be inevitable when free alcohol is involved.

I saw my friends off at about 4:15 am and was heading back to my apartment to catch some sleep when I saw a friend-of-a-friend who was visiting from Spain standing alone obviously lost. I helped her find her way back to her friend who was still at the party, where an all out brawl had broken out. We stood outside, not knowing quite what to do as one guy was thrown out. We tried going around to the other entrance to no avail, it was not open. We waited until we thought the situation was calm enough for her to find her friend and for me to get back to my room and get some deserved rest. It turns out, the idiotic male alcohol-aggression was nowhere near finished.

I've seen a few drunken fistfights in my time, but nothing compared to this. Ever. The security guard was trying to escort a guy out while both sides of the fight were clamoring around either side of him, totaling about 12-15 people. As he got closer to the door, the sides started pressing together. I'm not quite sure who threw the first punch, but the image of one of the first people I met here in Munich being hit in the face as hard as possible is something that will stick with me forever. I've honestly never seen anything like it. It's not like in the movies where people take punches and keep swinging. This guy took a hard punch to the face, blood splattered on his jacket and shoes and he was down. I went into 'protect people' mode, pulling the people around me back and standing in front of them, like an idiot (as if I would have been able to fight...I'm a lover not a fighter, (and I've lost all the muscle I put on this summer) haha). I don't know how long it lasted, it was one of those bizarre seconds-feel-like-hours moments. People look fucked up after a fistfight. It's nothing like you've seen on TV, one punch and people are seriously fucked up, broken noses, eyes swollen shut, blood everywhere. I've been in Germany now for close to five months and I have never seen anything like this before.

The Aftermath is luckily only lots of bloody noses and black eyes as nobody was seriously hurt. I was worried about a gun (which has happened at parties in Seattle in the past), then realized that I was in a civilized country where gun control is strict. The one guy who was really fucked up was taken care of by an ambulance (no stitches or hospitalization was required, just an ice pack and cleaning up of his face), who then called the Deutsche Polizei to file a police report.

All in all, a fucked up night. The moral of the story is - don't give in to the idiotic feelings of (most often male) aggression when under the influence of alcohol.