Konstanz fog

 Beware the fog.

When I first decided to travel to Konstanz, I was haphazardly warned that the "fog" causes depression and that suicide rates were higher in Konstanz's winter than other provinces because of it. I took it with a grain of salt, even laughed. How could FOG be that bad?

Wrong.

I still love Konstanz just as much as ever, don't get me wrong. I don't regret coming here at all. But I don't think we've had sun for a week. Maybe even longer. We are all extra exhausted and have begun the wintertime blues that even the best Europahaus parties can't fix (haha..)

I think the best way to remedy this is to travel. Once classes began, I've kept myself holed up in Konstanz. I had some trips planned, but it's quite expensive to travel from here, and no one has the spare cash to accompany me (neither do I.. but it's a priority to go. I can live on noodles if it means seeing Paris).

Keep yourself happy by remembering the small things. A coffee date with friends, a good movie (auf Deutsch, naturlich!), even a good hour counts. The sun will be back before you know it.

Tonight, my American/German roommate and I threw the Halloween party to end Halloweed parties. It wasn't our idea- so many people wanted the "American" Halloween experience, we decided why not?

It was a beautiful sight to see. The Russian girls dressed as men and zombies, the Irish and Englishmen dressed as giant babies, the Spanish girls came as the Spice Girls, and my Australian friend Angus came as a Halloween Mad Lib and made us fill in the story. The best costume was an American guy, Stephen, who came as a beating heart. He wrapped himself in red lights for the arteries, and attached red glowing ventricles. It was fantastic.

It was so rewarding to have friends talk about how lovely their first Halloween was. I can't imagine not having Halloween, and I'm glad we could make it special for others.

We made apple cider, pizza, and lots of American candy. A strobe light materialized at some point in the night, and really added effect to our cobwebbed staircase and fake plastic spiders. We have a blacklight in our kitchen, so ghosts, witches, and axmen were well lit throughout the night.

I'm really looking forward to other cultural celebrations throughout my time here. For now, I'm just really glad we adopted (stole) Halloween from the ancient Celts.

I have the first cold of the year now. It sort of feels like the flu. I'm very achy. There was a random bout of snow the weekend before Halloween, and I was thoroughly unprepared. It was a beautiful sight to see, and walking arm and arm with a handsome German through the Altstadt made it even nicer. But my body did not adjust. Panic set in, as I came to the realization that the weather could be like this from now until the time I leave Konstanz. What would I have done if I had known that it would be winter so quickly? Certainly ride my bike more often.

It's a bit hard to schedule a doctor's appointment here, as everyone appears to be booked up for months. I will baby this cold a bit with some Honig Salbei