Maressa Leaves...BooHoo :(

This morning we had our last breakfast all together. We then got right to work on the scrapbooks and they were all done by 12! Great timing! Maressa’s check out was at 12:30 and so we went to her place to help her finishing cleaning and get the last of her stuff together. Frau Heckmann showed up before we had finished and she was in a ripe mood. I stood watch by her car and then Alexander came up and started helping them. Frau Heckmann and I took Maressa’s stuff to AJY and then Dan helped me get her suitcases out of the car and up the stairs. I was hot, needed to study and didn’t want to get roped in to doing any other little tasks for AJY so I went home and read over my text for my exam and then started studying for Frau Heckmann’s exam tonight.

I was so nervous about reading my text because she had set up a video camera and after we were recorded she played it back for everyone to analyze! I felt like I had done an ok job, but when it came to my evaluation, I was really surprised. Voigt-Zimmermann said that she was so pleasantly surprised at how well I read it and was just so pleased with my work! Everyone in the class agreed and they all said that they thought it was by far the best in the class. Wow. Totally unexpected!!! I know I don’t give myself enough credit for my language abilities, but what was said during class definitely boosted my confidence a bit! I ended up getting a 1 in the class and was really happy about that! I asked if I could take picture with her after and she said that I was just like the Japanese, always wanting a picture of the professor. She was by far my favorite teacher from both semesters and I want to be sure that I remember her. She really is just the coolest lady and I wish I could take her back to Elon with me and keep her as my personal German coach!

After class I showered, studied and gathered pictures for the AJY slideshow that I had told Dr. Tracy I would prepare. I was stressing a bit, but in the end, it all worked out ok. The exam wasn’t too bad, actually pretty much exactly just like our study guide with a few extra things, and I finished relatively quickly. I finished up the slideshow and got ready for the party.

We had delicious schnitzel, cheesy potatoes and salad for dinner. Then we had some kind of vanilla thing for desert with a raspberry sauce. Yum! I was stuffed! We all watched the slideshow and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then it was finally time to give out the scrapbooks! We got the nicest compliments from both other students and Dr. Tracy, Frau Heckmanna and Herr Doerr. It was so great to watch everyone read them at the same time. I just LOVE making things for other people. But I’m definitely glad that the project is done!

A bunch of us went out for a drink afterwards. All Heidi and I could think about, though was Maressa leaving later in the evening. It just felt like we were waiting to say goodbye. I really hate that feeling. We stopped by Penny Markt so Maressa would have something to eat during her 26 hour train ride to Bulgaria. She is going backpacking with her host brother throughout Bulgaria and surrounding countries. Heidi and I are a little sour about it since she’s leaving us a week early, but that’s one of those things you can’t pass up if the opportunity comes about!

We went to Mannheim with her and after about 45 minutes it was time for her to leave. We talked up until that point, just trying to laugh and stuff, but it was still sad. Heidi got a little upset because she felt left out of the conversation, and that really started the tears for me. I felt so bad that she felt that way and was sad that the last few minutes we spent together were spent a little upset with one another. Maressa got on the train and Heidi and I just cried and cried. We kept crying long enough to miss the next train back to Heidelberg. We then found where the next train would leave from and cried while we waited. We cried on and off the whole ride back and then luckily the S-bahn came and took us to Bismarckplatz. We talked through some things and then after we stopped crying and realized that we would be ok, even though it’d be sad without her, for the next week since we had each other. I was exhausted from crying and went to bed a little while after getting home.