US-American view on refugees

A frikadelle is shaped like a hamburger and in Scandinavia we make a big difference between meatballs and frikadeller.

In Sweden the schoolchildren get a warm meal and there is served, pork meat, chicken and vegetarian food. Something for everybody.

apparently just over 15,000 have arrived since the election

Germany registered close to 92,000 migrants in January, a number which represents less than half of November's level of more than 200,000. Among last month's total, some 35,822 people came from Syria while 18,563 came from Iraq and 18,099 from Afghanistan.
[...]
A changing development in refugee numbers could be a much-welcome trend for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. Support for her refugee policy has fallen sharply in recent months, with a recent poll showing that 81 percent of people believed her government did not have the current situation under control.
Merkel said the number of migrants entering Germany would fall after totaling 1.1 million people last year. Germany became the final destination for the vast majority of migrants who reached Europe in 2015, with the largest number of asylum seekers fleeing from war and conflict in Syria.
Merkel had recently announced that the majority of arrivals from "safe" countries of origin, including Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, would be deported under expedited circumstances; however, asylum-seekers from North African countries only amount for a small fraction of all arrivals.

Carnival Thursday is called Altweiber (Old women day) in Düsseldorf or Wieverfastelovend (The women's day) in Cologne. This celebrates the beginning of the "female presence in carnival", which began in 1824, when washer-women celebrated a "workless day" on the Thursday before carnival. They founded a committee in 1824 to strengthen their presence in the still male-dominated carnival celebrations. In each city, a woman in black storms the city hall to get the "key" for the city-/townhalls from its mayor. In many places "fools" take over city halls or municipal government and "wild" women cut men's ties wherever they get hold of them. Also, as a tradition, women are allowed to kiss every man who passes their way. On the following days, there are parades in the street organized by the local carnival clubs. The highlight of the carnival period however is Rose Monday (Rosenmontag). Although Rose Monday is not an official holiday in the Rhineland, in practice most public life comes to a halt and almost all workplaces are closed. The biggest parades are on Rose Monday, the famous Rosenmontagsumzug (Rose Monday Parade), e.g. in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Mainz, and many other cities. During these events, hundreds of thousands of people celebrate in the streets, even if temperatures are low, most of them dressed up in costumes. Many regions have special carnival cries (Cologne, Bonn and Aachen: Alaaf!; Düsseldorf and Mainz: Helau!).