Back to the Castle!

We got up around 9 this morning and headed up to the castle! So lucky that the weather was nice! Each time I walk up there it gets easier and easier! Maybe by the end up the semester I'll be able to get up there without being tired! We'll see...

Neither of us brought money with us so we only walked around the outside of the castle and through the gardens. That's what we did last time I came with my group and it was a lot of fun. We took some really pretty pictures and Caitlyn got to see Heidelberg from another view! She really liked how all of the roofs are red and couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed that when we were walking through town. Most buildings are 4 or 5 stories so of course she couldn't tell! We took our time walking around and then came back to my apartment. We had about an hour before we had to leave for the train station. We couldn't really do much since EVERYTHING was closed. Caitlyn took a little nap and then we headed to the bus stop. I forgot that the bus schedule is different on Sundays so we cut it really close. I think we arrived at the train station three minutes before her train arrived! Whew! Close call, but she made it!

I got a little sandwich and waited for the bus to come. I was pooped when I got back but decided to jump rope. It always works out the best when I'm tired! I did 3,000 jumps! It felt so good to get some real exercise and to finally use the jump rope. I thought it would be too loud to do it in my room, but it wasn't! I turned my fan on, opened my window and turned on my music. Keith said he didn't hear me at all! PERFECT! I thought I might have to go to a park or playground nearby.

Keith worked out too and asked if I wanted to go for a walk after a little bit. So after we were both ready we headed out. He wanted to stop and get some coffee so we tried to try a new cafe. But nobody came to our table! So we got up and went to the cafe across the street! Of course right after we did that the waiter came out and helped the people who sat down at the table we were just at. I got hot chocolate, but it tasted a little burnt. Maybe one of these days I'll be adventurous and try coffee...we'll see. Heidi would be ecstatic if that happened!

We walked out to the bridge again and took some more pretty pictures. I swear you can take pictures of the same thing and the pictures just get more and more beautiful! Oh how I love this place! There were these two people playing music on the bridge. The woman looked like she stepped right out of the 80s. She had a short fro-like hair cut and was wearing red heels, black tights, a short pleated skirt and a red turtleneck. She was playing a tambourine and doing some kind of dance. We couldn't help but laugh! They weren't nearly as good as the kid Caitlyn and I saw last night! But it was still nice having music in the background!

Heidi came over for a little while after I had eaten dinner. She also had a good weekend and it was nice to catch up and SPEAK GERMAN again! I had to get my mind back into German mode since I had spoken English pretty much the whole weekend. That was a little hard. I kept wanting to tell Caitlyn things in German, but after I said one or two words realized that she had no clue what I was saying! I just love German so so so much! I know my speaking has already gotten better since being here and I can't wait to see where I am come December! Except I don't want December to come for a long time!!!

Heidelberger Herbst!

Caitlyn and I slept in this morning until about 11. We definitely need it! I made us crepes for breakfast and she loved them. Since she doesn't like chocolate (gasp!) she didn't try the Nutella with powdered sugar, but instead used cinnamon and sugar. I should be able to pefect this recipe by the time I come home!

Pretty much every town in Germany has a fall festival. Heidelberg's was today and was called Heidelberger Herbst. We were told that there would be about 3 million people here for the entire day! Somehow, Keith had no clue that this was going on. We invited him to walk around with us and see what was going on. There were bands and food stands set up everwhere. The Hauptstrasse was PACKED with people and walking was sometimes a challenge. Some of Keith's friends called him and he decided to go meet up with them after a little while. No problem for Caitlyn and I! We could go where we wanted and do what we wanted without worrying about boring him. She wanted to buy a beer stein for her boyfriend so we checked some out at one of the shops. We wandered around for a long time and went into a few stores here and there. We bought these adorable pink shoes for only 5 Euros! They have a cute little bow and everything! After walking to the bank and buying huge Coke Zeros at PennyMarkt, we made our way back to the Hauptstrasse to find some lunch. We decided Caitlyn needed to eat something German so we both got Brats on rolls. The wursts were so long we had to snap them in half! Quite funny! Some people were dancing on a stage so we sat near there and watched a little. I asked a little boy to take a picture of us and he understood what I was saying! I absolutely love the picture!!

We went to H&M and bought a few cute things. Caitlyn really liked the fact that there are little bakeries everywhere. So we stopped at one after walking some more and got the most delicious thing! It was crumbly and sweet and just delicious! She couldn't get over how cheap it was and said that she would be in trouble if she lived here. That was really the first time I had gotten something sweet at a bakery, so I'd saying my self-control is pretty good!

It took us a long time to walk back to the other end of the Hauptstrasse. People didn't seem to get the whole walking on the right side of the street. We stopped in Kaufhof (department store) and I bought some Clinique Happy Heart perfume. I didn't bring it with me and absolutely LOVE that stuff. Nice little treat. Instead of walking on the Haupstrasse we went out the exit that is on my street. It was a LOT easier to walk there! Caitlyn said something about how she couldn't believe people were just walking in the middle of the street when cars were coming. Right after she said that someone behind us on their bike got hit by a car. It was so scary! Earlier we saw a guy being taken away on a stretcher. The man on the bike was ok, but he was understandably pretty mad!

We walked back to the place with the beer steins and picked out a really nice one. I thought they would be more expensive, but the big one she bought was only 29 Euros. We weren't able to take pictures of the bridge and stuff last night so we went there next. PERFECT timing because it was just before the sunset!!! We took the most beautiful pictures! We also met some other Americans who took our picture. They are also studying in Heidelberg through their school in California. I hope I see them again sometime because they were really nice! When we were walking off the bridge we saw a kid playing his saxophone. He was so good! I really like seeing things like that!

Since we had been gone for about 7 hours we went back to my apartment. We chilled for awhile and then headed out to find dinner/take a picture of this bar that Caitlyn's boyfriend loves. We were going to try Döner, but we were a little skeptical of the meat. We got ice cream instead and walked down a little side street so we didn't have to fight the traffic on the Hauptstrasse. I was also holding my camera and some ice cream spilled on it. When I went to wipe it off, I lost control and ended up throwing my ice cream against a building! OOPS! So sad! I guess it's better that I threw that instead of my camera! We continued walking and suddenly this guy yelled HEY to us. I FREAKED out, but it was just Patrick O'dell (he's the one from Elon). There were other guys from my program with him and they thought it was pretty funny. Definitely scared me! Heidi and Maressa came running up next and they asked if we wanted to go to this dance party with them. I don't really like dancing and I didn't want to make Caitlyn hang out with them since I knew they'd be speaking German and she'd have no clue what was going on. So we kept walking and eventually found this place called Big Pommes. They have french fries so we ended up buying some. Bad idea to have them put ketchup on them because it was curry ketchup! GROSS!!! We tried to throw out the ones with the ketchup on them, but it was pretty much all over. So that was a bummer!

We figured we might as well make our way to that bar so we could get a picture. On the way I bought some Glüwein (warm wine), which is a Christmas specialty. I have heard a lot about it and wanted to try it, even though it clearly isn't Christmas!! At first I didn't like it, but the more I drank the better it tasted. I think I'll wait until Christmas before I get it again! It took us FOREVER to get to that bar. It was so annoying. Everyone was pushing and it was really chaotic. We took the picture and figured that since we had gone through all of that effort to get there, we might as well go in and get a drink. But when we got in, we had NO clue what we wanted! And then we decided it was dumb to get something to drink just beacuse. Waste of money and calories! So back home we went. We had been around way too many people and just needed some peace and quiet! We chilled in my room for awhile and didn't stay up too late since we needed to get up early tomorrow!

The DSH is DONE and Caitlyn is HERE!

Most of the students in my program met up at AJY at 8. We had to be at the testing place by 8:30, but the building is right across from AJY. We payed our 50 Euros and got all set up. They put us in groups alphabetically and I was in the same group as Heidi, Maressa and Alexander. We all sat on the same row for the test. The first part of the test was for reading comprehension and we had to answer a bunch of questions. The second part was just grammar. This test was crazy. We had about a ten minute break and then started into the next part which was a listening test. We had to listen to a guy read a really long article about the death of languages and then answer a bunch of really specific questions. The last part consisted of looking at a chart and then analyzing it according to the questions asked. I was definitely happy when it was over!!! I didn't have a bad attitude about it, but going in I knew it would be hard, so it wasn't a surprise when it was! I'm just not at the level in my German to where I can perform really well on a test like that. But I'm ok with that because that's what I'm here for, to get better at German and to learn a lot.

Caitlyn's train was supposed to arrive fifteen minutes after we finished the test. Heidi was really excited that she was coming and said that she felt like Caitlyn was already one of her friends! So she came to the train station with me. I was SO nervous that Caitlyn hadn't made it! I had told her EXACTLY where to sit and when I walked through the door, there she was!! Sitting on the bench, holding her big green bag tightly in her lap! I ran up and hugged her!! It was really exciting to see someone from home!! I think I told her about a million times how I happy I was that she was here! We walked back out to where the busses were and decided to risk it and not buy her a ticket. We made it to Bismarckplatz just fine and went to a restaurant for lunch. Heidi had some stuff she had to do, so she didn't join us. Caitlyn told me all about her travel adventures from the morning including how she accidentally fell asleep on the train! She said she woke up just as they were pulling out of Heidelberg! So she got off at the next stop, walked across the tracks and got on a train going back to Heidelberg! She is really lucky they didn't check tickets because she probably would have gotten a huge fine. Oh well, it all worked out! She actually arrived an hour early thanks to the help of someone at the airport who told her about busses and trains that were leaving earlier than hers!

We both ordered margarita pizzas and enjoyed talking. She was really tired so after I showed her a few things on the Haupstrasse we went back to my apartment and I let her nap for a few hours. I needed to shower and answer a few emails anyway, so it worked out perfectly. After we got ready, we took a little stroll around the town. She got to see the pretty view of the castle and the sun set! When we were walking back to the main part of the Haupstrasse we ran into Heidi and Maressa. They took a few pictures for us with the castle in the background! Caitlyn and I decided to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. She wanted to get a shirt, but the ones they had were really boring and not worth the money. We both ordered cheeseburgers that we thought cost 3.90. When it was time to pay the waitress told us that it was "Burger Tag" aka Burger Day and that all burgers were 4 Euros. We couldn't figure out why the price would be more expensive because of a "special." Who knows. We were going to meet up with a bunch of my friends who were celebrating the completion of the DSH, but ended up just going back to my apartment and hanging out. We had a Skype date with Brittanie and Jessica at 12 and we didn't want to miss it! It was so cool that the four of us got to talk! I think we talked to them until about 3:30 and then called it quits. We stayed up for about an hour more and then crashed. So happy to have my first visitor and even more happy that it was my Caitlyn!!!

Last Day of Class!!

Finally! No Homework!

Post coming soon!

Time for Course Planning!

Post coming soon!

Meersburg and Long Bus Rides

Post Coming Soon!

Switzerland & Lichtenstein

Post Coming Soon!

Lünersee - Absolutely GORGEOUS!

Beautiful Castles, Long Hikes

Waking up at 6:30 this morning was not easy since I talked to my Elon friends until really late last night/early this morning. It was totally worth it though! I showered, quickly packed and threw some lunch and a few snacks in my backpack. I had wanted to get to AJY around 7:15 so that I had enough time to put my stuff in the suitcase. Heidi, Maressa and I decided to share a large suitcase so that we each didn’t have to bring a bag. It worked out pretty well. I’m glad I didn’t take a ton of stuff because after they had put everything in, there wasn’t a ton of room left for me.

Anyway, I ended up getting to the bus right before 7:30 (the time we were meeting to leave) and I pretty much ran there. Everything worked out fine though and I had plenty of time. SO happy I live so close! I would have preferred to have my own seat, but there were none left by the time I arrived. I sat with Charis and across from Heidi and Katie Wolfe.

The bus ride was INCREDIBLY long! We stopped for a break about two hours into the trip. I decided to buy something else for lunch while we were there since I had only packed a Nutella sandwich this morning.

We arrived in Füssen and saw the Neuschwanstein castle in the mountains. I can’t believe that my family and I were here seven years ago. After parking we had a little free time and at our lunch by a gorgeous lake. It is actually the lake where they found crazy King Ludwig dead. They say that he drowned, but it is thought that he may have been killed. The water was absolutely beautiful and we could see straight to the bottom! It was also open for swimming, but none of us did that!

The first castle we hiked up to was Hohenschwangau (Ludwig’s father’s castle). The view from the castle was breathtaking. It overlooked the lake and also had a great view of Neuschwanstein. This was a summer castle where Ludwig would come with his family. We went on a tour in German. The tour guide was slightly hard to understand since she spoke Bayrisch Deutsch (German with a Bavarian accent). The pronunciation of some words is a little different, but I got the gist of what she was saying! Most of the rooms were pretty small, but of course elegantly decorated. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but definitely snapped a few out of the windows!

We had a little break after walking back down the hill and I bought a few postcards. Next was the big challenge: Hiking up to Neuschwanstein. The hill is steep and very long. You also have the option of taking a horse-drawn carriage up to the top, but of course we didn’t do that. I remember when we did this seven years ago Derek and I complained most of the way up! It was warm outside so we were all sooo sweaty! Once we got close to the top we had to hike up an even steeper hill to the Marienbrücke. There is a bridge there were the best pictures of Neuschwanstein are taken. Super tiring, but definitely worth it. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so the pictures were PERFECT! They don’t even look real! Next we headed to the castle to take our tour. It was a really short tour since only 1/3 of the castle is complete. King Ludwig died before it was finished. I wish we could have taken pictures inside, especially in the room with the throne. There was gold EVERYWHERE and they told us that the chandelier weighs 2 tons! Wow! Even though I had already been on this tour, it was cool to see again. I think I’ll be framing some of the pictures I took there.

We were all super tired and hungry after walking back down from the castle. We hopped back on the bus and headed to Lindau where our youth hostel was. It wasn’t too long of a trip, but pretty much everyone slept the whole way there! Lindau was really nice. First, it’s an island and second it was BEAUTIFUL! The youth hostel was really nice and I shared a room with Charis, Maressa and Heidi. That was really cool because we could just leave our stuff out when we left instead of having to worry about other people being in our room.

After we were all settled in, the group walked to the main part of town to find some dinner. AJY gave us 12 Euros so we had a lot of options of places to go. Half of the group went to an Italian restaurant and the other half went somewhere else. It was about 9 o’clock when we finally sat down because Dr. Tracy kept showing us different places in the town. That was sort of frustrating because we just wanted to eat!! We ate outside since the weather was so nice. I had some kind of cheese tortellini and it was so yummy! Heidi asked if I had enough to eat (in German) and I didn’t know how to say that I wasn’t too full, but instead comfortable. So in German I said “Mein Bauch ist bequem” literally meaning my stomach is comfortable. You totally can’t say that in German, so we had a good laugh about it. It doesn’t sound too funny when I write it, so I guess you kind of have to know German to think it’s funny! We just went back to the youth hostel after dinner and got ready for bed. Charis can imitate people really well and started talking like one of her roommates who has the sweetest little voice. I could have sworn that she was actually there! It was really funny because her German was pretty much perfect when she talked like her roommate. We couldn’t believe it! We laughed and laughed and laughed for the longest time. Heidi had fallen asleep and I can’t believe we didn’t wake her up! We asked Charis to talk like different people in our program and then we guessed who she was trying to talk like. I can’t believe how good at that she is!

Off I go!

Today I leave on my trip to Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein! Today we are going to see the Neuschwanstein castle. It is absolutely gorgeous and the view from the castle is phenomenal. Super excited! I've already been there once, but I'm so ready to go again! Except I remember walking up a massive hill to get to the castle, so I'm not looking forward to that so much! There's so much we'll be doing that I'm not even sure I can remember it all! But I do know that we will be going to Luzern (Lucern), Switzerland and Vaduz, Lichtenstein. Somewhere in there we are also going to the Island city of Lindau and will visit the Luenersee. Each night we will stay at a youth hostel which will be a cool experience because I've never been to one!

In our travel program, it tells us the different things we are supposed to bring. Under the "bring" section, it says money for lunch and dinner if you speak English on the trip. But under "things that will be covered by AJY" it includes lunch and dinner if you speak only German! Totally going for that second option!

We will be returning late in the afternoon on Monday so you probably won't hear from me until Tuesday or Wednesday! Have a great weekend! I'll be thinking about you on my travels (as always!!).

Last Day of Class for the Week!

Since the crepes were so easy to make last night, I decided I'd make them again this morning! Katie let me have a cup of flour last night and I was able to whip them up really quickly. I asked Keith if he wanted to have some too. Who can turn down crepes? We hardly saw each other yesterday so it was nice to catch up. We just tood in the kitchen and ate them. We talked a litle bit about Julia and how she's such a control freak. Whenever we cook, she always tells us how we should be doing things differently. This morning when I was cooking, she picked up the pan and said "No, you should do it like this." I told her that I had made them last night and knew what I was doing, in a nice way. This morning I ate my crepes with Nutella and Keith with butter and cinnamon. GREAT start to the day!

None of us were looking forward to having two periods of grammar today. The first one went pretty quickly though and when it was my turn to answer questions, I got them all right! During our break Katie Wachter bought some kind of tomato sauce bread thing, but didn't like it. I tried it and liked it so she gave it to me. It needed to be warmed up a little, bit it tasted fine cold. And it was free! In the second period Frau Heckmann read us this really long story/article and we had to listen and take notes about what she said. Then she gave us a two-sided test that we had to complete. The reading was about siblings and I think I understood it, but it was really hard to answer the questions. We weren't allowed to use a dictionary and I didn't know so of the words. I don't think it was actually for a grade, but that exercise was a practice fot the DSH.

I was going to just come home and have tomato soup for lunch, but Katie Wachter asked if I wanted to go to the Mensa (dining hall) with her. I hadn't been there yet so it sounded pretty good! We have these student cards and we had to put money on them before getting our food. It was pretty much just like having a meal plan! Except not. There were some pretty good choices. It was funny because we wouldn't have half of that stuff at a dining hall at Elon. There was spätzle, schnitzel and other German dishes. I got salad and a few other things. It was all so new to me I wasn't really sure what I should get! Instead of charging a flat rate for a meal, you put your plate on a little scale and that determines the price. Pretty cool! A lot of AJY students ended up eating there too so we sat with them. I hadn't really talked to Katie much in the past week or so because we've both been pretty busy.

When we finished lunch, Katie and I went to the Uni-shop aka Campus Store because we both really wanted to get Heidelberg University Sweatshirts. I got a gray one and love it! I love new sweatshirts because they're sooo soft! Since we're going to be in the mountains some this weekend it will be cold at night. So the sweatshirt is totally practical! They also had car decals from Uni-Heidelberg and I think I might have to get one of those before I leave!

Charis offered to cook dinner for Heidi, Maressa and I tonight. She made Indian food completely from scratch. It was cool because we got to see where she lives and just hang out without having to worry about doing homework. She lives with four other German girls. Every semester an AJY student lives in their apartment and on their chore chart it has everyone's names and then AJY. It was Charis' turn to do the dishes and there were a lot of them, so we all helped out a little. The food she made was really good, but incredibly spicy. She made something that you pour on the food to cool it down, but it didn't help too much! One of her German roommates at dinner with us and it was a lot of fun talking with her. We talked in both English and German. My favorite thing she said was "This food is bloody hot!" Too cute! After dinner we hung out in Charis' room and talked and listened to music. She had some candles so we lit them and it was so peaceful! Loved it!!

I think we came home around 11. I had a Skype date with Jessica that night and got to talk to her for about an hour. Erika stopped by and said hi, but she was cooking dinner so she couldn't talk too long. They had the BEST idea though! They asked if I wanted to eat dinner with them! So they put the computer at the head of the table and then all ate the dinner that Erika cooked! It was like I was really eating in my apartment with them (except it was late here and I didn't eat anything)! Brittanie also came to dinner and Spencer stopped by. It was the best Skype conversation ever!! After dinner everyone had to go to meetings and stuff, but Erika was available to talk! I think we ended up talking for about an hour! Alison came back from work and we got to talk briefly. We finally got off Skype around 3:30 my time. Super late, but totally 1000% worth it!!

Studying at the Castle!

Class today was absolutely fabulous because we only had to go for one period! Most of the time was spent going over homework and we didn’t even cover half of the stuff we had to do last night! Frau Heckmann didn’t assign too much homework (compared to last night) so we were all pretty happy by the time class was over!

Katie Wolfe told Heidi and I that she had made crepes for dinner the other night and that they turned out really well. That was exciting news and we thought we should have a cooking class sometime! Keith had asked Heidi and I to cook with him tonight, so we figured we might as well make those and he can just eat them too! She said all we needed to have was milk and eggs because she already had the flour. She also said she would come to see Hairspray with us tonight! How exciting!

Each week we work on projects in our groups. We stay with the same group the whole time, so I still have to work with the guy who took forever on the last project. Maybe it will be a test of patience. One group presents their big project at the beginning of the week and the other two groups present on a little trip they took. My group took a trip to the Freiwilligenbörse. It was basically a volunteer agency type thing. Only four people in my group went because one of the other groups was going to a Gymnasium (high school) and a girl in my group wants to be a teacher. I think it would have been cool to go there since they were going to sit in on a class, but I guess it’s ok that I didn’t since I did that when I was with Katharina. So Heidi, John and I took the bus to where we needed to go. Frau Heckmann and the other guy rode their bikes and met us there. We met up with a lady there and she talked to us about the place. She used a lot of words that I didn’t know, so I pretty much nodded my head through most of it knowing that I could look through the brochure later and fully understand everything. There were a few types of cookies on the table and we got to snack on them during our meeting! Frau Heckmann left right after we got there, so when we were done we just went back to AJY. We were going to work on what we would say in our presentation, but decided to do it another day after we had read through the brochures. I liked that idea. Before we decided that, a few of the people started to get on the computer. I said something about maybe we could start working on it then so we didn’t have to be there all day. The same guy who slightly annoys me told me that I am so impatient with everything. Really, I wasn’t being impatient. I just think that I like to be efficient and get work done in a timely matter instead of messing around and wasting time doing/talking about other things. I’m trying to just ignore him because I think that’s just the way he is, but it he’s so dang annoying!!

Heidi and I decided that we’d go see Hairspray tonight at 5, but she asked what I was doing this afternoon before that. I told her that I was just going to go home, have lunch and do homework. She had a much more exciting idea. After we had lunch at our own apartments, she was going to come over and we would go do our homework somewhere. I worked on a little homework while I did my lunch and even finished two worksheets!

The two options we had were going to a café or going up to the castle to do our homework. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, so we couldn’t pass up the chance to sit outside! And really, how often do you get to do your homework at a castle? The walk up there is steep, but not too long. I was wearing better shoes today, but for some reason it seemed harder than last time! That’s probably because Dr. Tracy walks slower and we would stop every now and then and talk about the different buildings and such. Since it rained some yesterday, the grass was a little damp, but we decided to sit there anyway. We took some pictures and I finished some of my homework while she read. We had a great time and I hope we can go back up there again!





We came back down around 4 since we were meeting Katie at 4:30 at AJY. We came down a different way than we went up. Nice change of scenery! One our way down, there were two Americans in front of us talking about what else they should do while in Heidelberg. I wanted to suggest something, but I didn't want them to know I had been listening to their conversation. They seemed like they knew what they were going to do, so it was ok.

When I got to AJY, there was a package sitting on the table. I didn't pay much attention to it, but Heidi picked it up and told me it was for me! It was a birthday gift from the JONES!! They sent me some beads, a game we played at the beach (Swipe!), a pack of refill blades for my razor (we didn't think they'd have them here!) and a nice card! How sweet and thoughtful!

The movie theater we went to was right on the Hauptstrasse. We got a discount since we are students and then I bought some popcorn. Even here, the concessions are expensive! I don't know why I was surprised about that since everything here is pretty expensive, but I was. The popcorn they have is sweet, not salty or buttery. But it isn't like Kettlecorn. It's just really good! The theater we were in was pretty small. I think it was about the size of one of the theathers in Seaside. One of the seats was a double seat and Katie and I just happened to sit there. I can't tell you how excited I was to see Hairspray again! I sang along (quietly so I didn't bother anyone) to all the songs. The songs were in English and the rest of the movie in German. Most of the movie is in song, so Katie and Heidi understood it pretty well. When they sang, they had German subtitles and it was cool to see how they would say some of the stuff in German. Du bist Zeitlos für mich! aka You are timeless to me.

After the movie I ran to the grocery store on the Haupstrasse and bought milk and eggs. Katie went back to AJY to talk to her mom on Skype and then came over a little later. When Heidi came she brought some of her German CDs she had been telling me about and we listened to them until Katie showed up. The crepes were SO easy to make! One cup of flower, one cup of milk, one egg, a little sugar, a little salt and a little water and that's it! They also cooked really fast! We all ate two and the first time we spread nutella and then sprinkled powdered sugar on them. The second time we spread butter, sprinkled lemon juice and then added a little powdered sugar. I was a little skeptical because it sounded really weird, but it tasted really really good!

Heidi finished up the book she was reading (The Kite Runner in English) and I did the worksheet I had to do. Then Katie and I played a game of Swipe and we tied! We had to do a tie-breaker and I ended up winning! One of the first times I've won that game. When I played with JT Jones he beat me everytime! I think they left around around 10:30. I was so tired and went to bed after talking to Jess for a few minutes on AIM! Everytime we talk I always laugh out loud. Love it. Love her!

LOTS of German!

I slept so well last night and even work up on my own this morning a little before my alarm went off! After showering and getting ready, I headed off to class and ate a waffle along the way.

Class was long and I didn't go anywhere during the break. I brought a banana with me and ate that instead. I'm trying not to buy something or go to the bakery everyday since it would get expensive and not so healthy. We also watched QVC again today because Patrick wouldn't change the channel. I have no clue why he likes to watch that! They were selling jewelry and it was the farthest thing from interesting!

Heidi came home with me for lunch and I made her my specialty of mozarella and tomatoes on a roll. She loved it! Of course we also had chocolate and enjoyed talking for awhile. I think our break was about an hour today so we didn't have to hurry.

Our group was going on a tour of the old university after lunch. Dr. Tracy gave us this tour and it was right outside AJY so we didn't have to go far at all! We got to go to this HUGE lecture hall that was absolutely gorgeous. It looked like a combination of a courtroom and a church. Dr. Tracy explained that a lecture was like a tennis match. One professor would speak from the front pulpit and another would stand at the back pulpit in the baclcony and would refute the points that were being made. Students sat in the middle of the room and wcould make up their own minds about the topic of discussion. To this day, when a new professor is hired, he teaches his first lecture in this auditorium. We also learned that the four original degrees offered at the university were theology, law, medicine and liberal arts.



Oh and did you know that Heidelberg University was established in 1386 and is the oldest in Germany? Pretty cool if you ask me! The full name is the Reprucht Karl University of Heidelberg (in English). The Karl part was named after Karl Friedrich and I wonder if that's the same guy who Katharina's Gymnasium was named after. She went to the Karl-Friedrich Gauss Gymnasium. I'll have to look into that.

A lot of the buildings in the old university remind me of the Nazis. As with all German universities during the Third Reich, Heidelberg University supported the Nazis. They used a lot of the buildings, courtyards and such. It gave me chills to think that they had met in the very places we were standing.

We also went to the Student Karzer aka STUDENT PRISON! I've been wanting to go there and was excited that it was part of our tour. It was so cool! There were paintings everywhere and neat little stories and pictures. Students who got in trouble academically were sent here for three days to four weeks at a time. It was shut down in 1914, but it gives a glimps of what the university was like before World War I. There was even a little door that allowed the prisoners to get to classes without going outside. Serving time here wasn't seen so much as punishment, but moreso as a rite of passage! So neat!





Outside the Student Karzer is the Uni-Shop where they sell Heidelberg University paraphanelia! I'm so going back there!

Maressa and I had talked during the first week about having a Bible study once a week or so. She asked if I had time today and I did, so we asked Heidi and Katie Wolfe if they wanted to join. We stopped and got ice cream on the way and it was only 70 cents! I got cookies and cream (sort of!) and it was so yummy! It rained while we were walking, but we had our ice cream so we were happy! I wasn't sure about how the Bible study would go since Katie Wolfe is Mormon, but it actually turned out pretty well. I couldn't stay for more than 20 minutes because I was meeting with my Sprachpartnerin (language partner) at 4. It was interesting hearing about Katie's thoughts and Heidi's as well since she's trying to rebuild her faith. I hope we continue to meet like this because it's nice to have people to talk about my faith with.

My Sprachpartnerin, Simone (the e sounds like an a), and I have been emailing back and forth for about two weeks. I was kind of nervous to meet her because I knew I would have to speak German a lot. But it was the coolest thing ever! We went to Star Coffe and of course I got an iced chai. She was sooo nice and really helpful. I asked her some questions about Caitlyn's trip since she lives in Karlsruhe, where Caitlyn flies in to. She also told me that she is 24 and is studying to be an English and German teacher. We ended up talking for an hour and a half in German! How cool is that? I was so excited (and impressed) that we could talk that long! I didn't understand everything she said, but the majority was really clear. This is going to help my speaking like no other. What makes it even cooler is that I have another Sprachparterin, Manuela, who I will also be meeting with. She hasn't gotten back to Heidelberg yet, so I guess we'll meet whenever she does! Simone lives in a single apartment that isn't too far away from where I live. She walked back to my place with me and I showed her my apartment. She thought it was really nice compared to some of the other student apartments around town. My walls hardly have anything on them and she said that we could go shopping and find some posters or something. I don't want to spend a whole lot of money, but the walls definitely need something! She even gave me a hug when she left. That's not a very common thing to do, so I think we will become pretty good friends!

After working on some homework, I went back out and got something for dinner. I did the Gino's taco thing again since it was so good! I saw Heidi on the way and we talked about going to a movie tonight instead of tomorrow since Tuesday is Kino Tag (movie day!) and the prices are cheaper. She came over around 8:30 and we worked on homework until it was time for the movie. The only bad thing was that the movie was at 10. That meant we probably wouldn't get back until at least 12. I hadn't finished my homework so we decided that it'd be best to wait until tomorrow. I think she left around 12 and I went to bed shortly after! I feel like I learned so much today and that my German is really starting to improve.

The Forgotten Day

This entry is pretty short because I'm writing it a few days late. So much has happened since then I can hardly remember what I did! Sorry!

We presented our project this morning and it went really well. Everyone did their part and the powerpoint turned out well. We only had one period of grammar and then after lunch came back to learn about planning out our schedule and some more information about the test.

I was so tired after all of that information so when I came back I just worked on homework and played around on the computer.

Keith and I cooked dinner tonight. He made the spaghetti and I prepared the salad and provided the bread. Nice and quick, but I couldn't eat too much and saved the rest for lunch one day this week. Not that we were on a date or anything, but spaghetti is one of those DON'T EAT ON A DATE foods. I ate super slow and didn't even finish my salad before he finished all of his food. Boys...

I went to bed soo early tonight! Well, around 10! I think I can't remember what I did this day because nothing super exciting happened!!

All Work and No Play

This morning I let myself wake up when I was ready. I had talked about going to church today, but the girl I was going with was also the one who was supposed to tell me about Wine Fest. So I figured she wouldn't call. I think I got up around 11. After Heidi got back from Köln, she was going to call me so that I could tell the others when we should meet to work on our project. We decided on 2 at AJy so I sent out an email and she sent text messages (SMS is what we call it here!)

We had a lot of homework for the weekend, so I figured I would go to AJY early and start working on it before meeting with my group. I guessed that our meeting would only be an hour or so and then I could finish the rest of my homework, hopefully by around 6. Heidi showed up a little before two and then one of the other guys came. At about 2:45, we hadn't heard from two of the other group members so we decided to call them. I guess they hadn't checked their email or cell phones, but said that they would be there shortly.

While we were waiting, John (the guy who showed up on time!) and I went to grab something to eat. I had forgotten my wallet and wasn't going to get anything, but he offered to buy, so I couldn't deny! The bakeries were closed (almost everything is closed on Sundays) so we opted for ice cream. I got a scoop of mango and it was perfect. I've noticed that the ice cream here is more icy than creamy. Hopefully it is also lower-calorie!! I think this was only the second or third time I've had ice cream here so it really doesn't even matter!

In the time that we were gone, one of the guys had shown up. I had to run back to my apartment to get my computer and by the time I got back, the other girl was there, too. So at about 3:30 we finally started working on the project. We had all interviewed people and had our answers and pictures with us. We still needed to find a few more pictures online and then put them in the powerpoint. The guy whose computer we were using made everything more complicated than it needed to be. Really, it doesn't take that long to add pictures to a powerpoint and decide who will present each slide. As we worked on the project our conversations would go off onto random tangents and at one point I suggested that we focus on the topic so we could keep moving and finish it. The same guy tells me he thinks we are going as fast as we can and that we're doing pretty well on time. I could tell that one of the other girls was also getting frustrated so I did all that I could to move the process along. Finally around 6 (when his computer ran out of power) we called it quits. So in the time that I wanted to finish the project and my homework, I only partially finished the project because we decided we'd work on what we were going to say about our slide on our own.

Frustrated and annoyed, I came back to my apartment and worked on my homework for about an hour. I took a little break for dinner and warmed a brötchen with fresh mozarella and then added tomatoes and italian dressing. I also cut up part of a cucumber and it was a nice light dinner. Such an easy and tasty meal!! Back to the homework I went. I can't tell you how hard some of this grammar is! It is preparing us for the DSH (huge test to study at the university) but the stuff is so difficult and the test so deep that it seems impossible! Julia helped me with some of it and then I worked on my part of the presentation. I was doing the introduction and talking about "Typisch Deutsch" around the city (Bicycles, Public Transportation, Recycling, Autobahn, etc.)

Julia had a friend over for dinner tonight. She was Chinese and we spoke a little bit in German. I was surprised that her German didn't have much of a Chinese accent. They were in the kitchen talking and I was in my room doing homework with the door cracked and could hear what they were talking about. It was pretty cool because I could understand them without having to really focus on what they were saying. Then I had a question for Julia that I needed to ask in English and she explained it in German and then we finished our conversation in German. I just love the fact that we can go back and forth so easily!

Today Was My First...

Bored day.

I woke up around 10:30 and just messed around on my computer for awhile. Some people in my program had talked about going to this thing called Wine Fest later today, so I was hoping to hear something about when we were going. Keith asked if I would go out shopping with him so I showered and got ready. We had our first bottle returning experience and also learned that unless you stand really close to the person in front of you in line, someone will try to cut in front of you. Keith was standing in line to check out and this little old lady with a walker did just that! We couldn't believe it! After a few minutes she changed her mind and went to the other line, but it was still so strange. I had noticed that people stand really close to me in line and it drives me INSANE. I'm thinking Germans don't need as much personal space as we do.

On the rest of our shopping adventure we also returned something for the first time. Keith had bought an exercise ball (that was pink by the way) but it turned out to be too small. But we were able to return it and then went and looked at all of the fun toys in the store. The Jones kids would be IN HEAVEN. There were so many Playmobil toys that it was unreal! Huge boxes and some were marked way down. We also found the game section and they had games like Guess Who?, Operation, Taboo, The Game of Life and sooo many other good ones! They were all in German of course and most had German names. I really like Taboo and almost bought it, but then remembered that if I took it home with me, nobody would be able to play! Maybe I'll go back and buy it though. I could always take it to German club and play it here until I leave. We'll see. Heidelberg Monopoly is something that I will definitely be buying, though! I just think it's so cool that they have that!

We also stopped in another sports store to look for an excercise ball. I was hoping they would only have pink again, but he found a blue one. Bummer. The store was similar to Dick's Sporting Goods, except they didn't have a golf section, so my mom can't work there! We also stopped at an electronics store. Derek and Keith have a ton in common. While we were looking for an extension cord, he found the speaker section and was checking all of that stuff out. This is only one reason of MANY that they would get along really well. Keith is obsessed with this 4,000 Euro watch so of course we had to stop and look at it. I'm not gonna lie, it is pretty nice. But 4,000 Euros?! WoW! He said I could buy it for him for his birthday. Considering I only got a cup of hot chocolate, I don't think that's going to work out in his favor.

On the way to our last stop, a bakery, we saw this many selling canvases that he had painted of Heidelberg. They were so beautiful. I saw this one that wasn't too big (yes dad, larger than 8.5x11 but smaller than a football field!) and it was in black and white. The picture was painted from across the river and showed the river, part of the Altstadt (old city, where I live) and then the castle in the mountain. BEAUTIFUL. It was 70 Euro so I decided to wait.

When we got home we made lunch that was delicious. I had bought fresh mozarella for a recipe Debbie Bishop gave me so I used some of that and cut up two little tomoatoes. At the bakery I bought a Baguettebroetchen (a baby baguette) so I toasted that and then put the cheese and tomatoes on it. Declicious. I think I could eat that everyday! All I needed was a little fresh basil and it would have been perfect!

Dad and I talked on Skype for a little while after lunch. It was so nice to hear his voice and talk to someone from home. When I talk to people on Skype, it makes it seem like I'm not so far away because it's all in real time! It's like I'm just at Elon talking to him on my cell phone. I forgot to mention that on Thursday I received my first package! It was so exciting! My mom sent a few things I had forgotten and then also included some pictures. Getting mail here is really exciting because at AJY there is a little mail center and we each have our own mail slot. Everyone can see when you have mail so they all get excited too. So if you want to send me somehthing, I'm not opposed to the idea! (My address is on my first post in August!)

I was hoping to hear something from a girl in my program about going to Wine Fest. I had sent her a message, but never heard anything. I was pretty bummed. I really wanted to go and she was the only one I knew of who knew what was going on. She sent me a message later saying she forgot she had a phone (she did just get one on Friday) and that she forgot to check it. Then she asked if I wanted to go up to the castle with her and I wrote back saying yes, but she never responded! How frustrating!! I am not a fan of things like that.

After awhile of just bumming around I decided to do something about my boredom. I went out for a walk and in search of dish towels and ground pepper. We only have one dish towel which means we have to wash it a lot. So I found two nice ones that were on sale. The only ground pepper I could find cost 17 Euros because it came with a grinder. We couuld use a grinder, but I am not paying that much for it. I will have to check out the grocery store to see what they have. I stopped by and looked at the painting again and seriously considered buying it. But I did not. If it's there another day, then maybe, but I'm sure I will see more things of that sort.

About an hour after I got back Keith and I decided to have dinner. He made a cheeseburger and I made some pasta thing that had already been partially cooked. Last time he tried to make a burger he didn't realize that he had bought sausage beef. So when he ate his burger, it was a taste he wasn't expecting. This time, he bought the right stuff (after asking me, of course!) I also cut up an apple and had a roll. The pasta that I had was Maultaschen. I was supposed to eat it with soup, but didn't find the right soup to eat it with. I didn't eat it all, so I might still try to look for some! The rest of the night was spent talking online with Jessica and Pearl. I didn't feel very well and went to bed around 9:30. My head has just been hurting since Friday night and now my throat is starting to hurt as well. I hope I don't get sick!

Finally Friday

I got a pretty good night's sleep last night, but was still sort of tired this morning. We had two class periods of grammar and then a quiz at the end of the second class. I was a little nervous for the quiz, but it turned out to be ok. I'm hoping that I understood everything correctly and that I did it right! I hate that feeling of taking a test and thinking it went well and then getting it back and missing a bunch of things. Let's hope that isn't the case!!

After class Heidi and I were going to come back to my apartment so she could load her pictures on my computer. Her computer died before she came to Germany, so she couldn't bring it with her. On our way, I wanted to stop at this place called Ginos and get something for lunch. I always see people eating there and think it looks so good! So I got this taco-like thing and it was really yummy. She got something too and we walked back to my apartment eating and talking along the way. I really love hanging out with her. She's so genuine and I'm happy that I've found a great friend here. We just laughed and talked while the pictures were uploading. She's going to Köln (Cologne) today to visit an old friend.

Since I wasn't able to get all of the groceries I wanted when I went yesterday, I went out after Heidi left. I just love the days when I don't have anything going on and I can really take my time. I went into H&M first to look around. I thought about trying things on, but remembered that I needed to get water (the bottles are huge so it's heavy when you have 6 of them!) Debbie Bishop sent me a few of my favorite summer recipes so I'm going to try to make something with avocados, tomatoes and fresh mozarella. I'll let you know how it turns out! Hopefully it will be good, but I guess we'll see!

Something I really love about the German (maybe it's European) culture is how trustworthy they are. You can walk into a store with a backpack without them even thinking that you're trying to steal something. When you go grocery shopping, you can put things in your bag to carry around the store and then take them out when you pay. Then you can put them back in your backpack to take home. In America that just wouldn't fly. I really like this whole concept of not getting a million bags when you go to the store. But I don't like how you have to go every few days. i'm sure I will adjust to that soon and figure out some sort of plan.

Another thing that I'm not so sure about is the fact that people usually drink warm drinks. Like right now for instance, I'm drinking Peach Ice Tea that has not been in the fridge. Usually I like all of my drinks to be cold, but it really hasn't even bothered me yet. I noticed that on the train the other day. Everyone always carrys around a drink, but rarely is it ever cold.

So after I got back from the store I cleaned a bit and started ANOTHER load of laundry. I had to wash towels and I wasn't sure if the ones I had gotten from AJY would bleed onto my other clothes. I had a white towel in the mix that is now a bit blue, so that answered my question! Whew! Glad I waited until today to wash them! It's nice having everything clean now. I feel like I have more options and am starting a'new!

Keith asked me to go with him to turn in some papers for insurance so we did that also. I almost feel like he's my brother, but we hang out more than Derek and I do (sadly). So I really like hanging out with him. I just chilled for awhile when we got back and then Julia whipped up a little rice with carrots. I thought it tasted great, but she wasn't so sure. Granted, it did look a little like pourage! I had bought a mike's hard lemonade-like drink at the store today so I had that with dinner. I'm not so sure about it. I've noticed that I get really hot when I drink alcohol (tonight was only the 2nd time!) and I really don't like that. I even had a little bit of a headache. I probably have no tolerance against alcohol, but I still don't think we'll be seeing a lot of each other!

Awhile after dinner Keith and I tried to go see a movie. He wanted to see The Bourne Ultimatum. I knew the movie would be in German, but he was convinced that it hadn't been out long enough for it to be dubbed. It was in German and he didn't want to see it because he didn't think he'd be able to understand it. So we opted for a walk instead. A cheper option! We didn't walk too far because of his ankle, but we did stop at a coffe place and I got an iced chai. LOVE that. Love, love, love it!

This Much Homework? Really?

We had two classes of grammar today that were filled with complicated structures and concepts. During our break between classes, some of us went outside and found out that it was bread day! There were tons of bakeries that had set up shop in the Universitaetsplatz. They had all kinds of yumminess and I bought a delicious muffin. Some of the bakeries were even baking bread on the site! How cool!! This whole thing felt so German!

After class I ran back home to shower and have lunch before I met with my group at 1:30. I lost track of time and got to the meeting a little bit late. Others were running late too, so it really didn't matter. I was a little frustrated because since I lost track of time, I had to quickly put stuff in my hair so that I could wear it curly. I was going to dry and straighten it for today, but didn't even have time to put makeup on. We were meeting to work on our project since Heidi is going out of town this weekend, but we ended up deciding that we would interview people about what they think is typically German and then take pictures of what they say. I was happy with our decision because then I could go back home and finish getting ready. I washed my hair again and then straightened it. I was doing anything I could to put off doing my homework!! We have sooo much! I answered emails, uploaded pictures, and talked to a few people on AIM.

I did a good amount of homework before I decided to take a break and go for a walk. I was meeting Keith at 7 at the grocery store. I walked to some shops near the grocery store and browsed around while I waited for him. He was playing soccer until 7 and was going to call me when he was leaving the field. When I looked at my phone, I had three missed calls, all from him. So I called him back and he said that he was already at the grocery store and was almost ready to check out. I was kinda annoyed since I had just been killing time and it wasn't even 7 yet. He said he'd wait for me and since I was just around the corner, I got there within a few minutes. When I saw him, he told me that he left early because a guy had stepped on his already hurt ankle (while wearing cleats). He was in a lot of pain, so I really couldn't be mad at him. Since I felt bad about making him wait, I only bought a few things on my list. Since I was shopping so quickly, I bought the most random things: bread, peach tea, bananes, tomatoes and chocolate milk.

It was major homework time when I got home. I chose to stay in and do my homework, even though Keith really wanted me to go out with him and his friends. It was the best thing to do since I have a little quiz tomorrow and really need to be sure I learn all of this stuff. Apparantly the test we take at the end of the month is insanely hard so I need all the prep. i can get!!! Frau Heckmann told us that starting today until the end of our class we will have a lot of homework to prep for the test. The test is called the DSH (don't remember exactly what it stands for right now!) The German tests are really difficult and we have to learn both the material and how to take them. FUN STUFF. After I finished my work I read a little bit from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I'm really excited because I can understand the majority of what I'm reading! The book is huge though, so it could take awhile to read it all...especially at the pace I'm going!

So I Went to France Today...

I couldn't remember whether we had to be at AJY by 7:30 or 8:30 this morning for our trip to France, so I got there at 7:30 just to be safe. I woke up at 7 and quickly got ready and packed some snacks. I had a feeling that the meeting time was 8:30 and of course, that was right. So I went and bought a little something to have for lunch since I decided to throw away the lunch meet and cheese I had bought last week. We have two fridges, but have only cleaned one of them out. I put my meat/cheese in the other one and when I got them out a few days later, they tasted like the fridge. Not so yummy! So this morning I bought this cheese and red pepper pizza-like thing to take with me.

I waited inside AJY for about 45 minutes and even took a little nap! We got our passports back this morning and now I have a student visa in mine! Its so cool! What a great keepsake! I am so thankful that I'm studying here with AJY because they really take care of everything for us. Keith has to do so much on his own (insurance and other student things to name a few). We took a big charter bus for our trip today and I got my own seat near the front. Sweet little Charis sat down next to me, but I wanted to do some homework/take a little nap so she moved to another seat. After we had been on the bus for about 10 minutes I decided to eat my breakfast. When I opened my backpack, I saw that my yogurt had opened a little and got on some of my books. UGH!! Luckily Katie had a napkin (that she was relectant to share, may I add) and I got it all cleaned up. I talked/slept most of the way to France. Herr Doerr was the only teacher on the trip and every now and then he'd come on the loud speaker and tell us things about what we were driving by. We learned that logging is a very large industry in the Alsace region. It is also wine country, but logging is even bigger.

Our first stop was the Struthoff Concentration Camp. It is the only concentration camp in France and the one that the majority of the Jews from Heidelberg went to. This was a working camp and it was built by the deportees. They also worked tough jobs in the quarry. The first to be sent there were common German criminals whose religion had nothing to do with them being there. The camp was built on a steep slope that used to be used for skiing. There were a lot of steps and walking around required a bit of climbing. I did not feel as much of a connection with this camp as I did with Dachau a few years ago. Maybe it was because it was in such a beautiful location and had an amazing view. You could only think that for so long though, before remembering what actually went on there. Everything was very powerful, but a lot had been torn down/burned by the NeoNazis in the '60s (I think!). I just couldn't bring myself to take pictures of the gas chambers or ovens that we saw. Experimentation was also done at this camp and there were still rooms set up for such procedures. How horrific. Even though this was a sad place, it is applied history (which I thoroughly enjoy). I was able to do a lot of thinking on this tour and the silence was nice. As I walked out the gate and stared at the briars on the fences, my heart filled with sadness knowing that those who came in never had the option of walking back out that gate, only in.

Understandably, we were all somewhat depressed after visiting Struthoff. Our next stop was a monastary that is still being used today. It brought up our spirits because the views we saw were GORGEOUS. We ate our lunches and walked around for about an hour. The pictures I took don't even do the view justice! Thankfully the region we were visiting speaks German and French. Some girls in our group bought something at one of the shops and said "Merci!" The woman working thought they spoke French and continued to talk to them! Too bad they didn't actually know French! We decided we could stay there forever, but then remembered that it would likely result in us becoming nuns. No thanks!

We had a bit of a ride until we got to Strasbourg. Pretty much everyone fell asleep on the ride and the bus was silent. Herr Doerr woke us up by saying "Wakey-Wakey!" on the loud speaker. Oh that Herr Doerr. He said that after we walked around a bit we could "chill out" in the city. As soon as we walked off the bus, men came up to us and were trying to sell these ridiculous umbrella hats, watches and belts. On the bus Herr Doerr had told us to not make eye contact and to completely igorne them. I thought it was funny to watch them approach people who actually responded. Just keep walking!!!

It was so cool to see everything in French, even though I hardly know four words! We walked around the main part of the town a little bit until we got to this insanely large church. We took a lot of pictures and went inside where there were tons of tourists. I thought it was weird that there were so many people there on a random Wednesday afternoon. As my mom would say, I like playing tourist!!

We saw some "cool" kids dancing outside the church. I'll try to post a video of it because it was just so funny to see!!

We all decided to hike up to the top of the church so we could take pictures of the city. Oh. My. Gosh. I have never walked up so many stairs in my life. At least not in a tiny little staircase that is spiraly! My asthma started to kick in and it was hard for me to breathe. That really sucked, but the people I was walking with waited for me and kept telling me that I could stop when I needed to. Thankfully I brought water and made it to the top!! I think there were between 300 and 400 stairs, but we didn't count (or ask). It was totally worth it though because the view was amazing. Absolutely gorgeous. Strasbourg is situated with the Vosges Mountains to the east and the Black Forest to the west. The city is also one of three capitals of the European Union (legislative and democratic). We had fun taking pictures and such (Maressa and Charis even danced) at the top of the church and then decided to walk back down. Davor, one guy in our group, thinks an elevator would be a good investment for the city/church. I would have to agree, but taking the stairs was totally part of the whole experience. I thought going down the stairs was even more difficult that going up because walking down a spiral staircase that was completely enclosed got a little tricky after awhile! If you focused too much on the steps, you would fall, if you looked out the window, you would feel sick, if you looked straight ahead, you risked missing a step! My left leg was shaking a lot after we got to the bottom and continued to do so for about 15 minutes! Despite that, I'm still so happy that we went to the top!

Maressa, Heidi, Charis, Katie Wolfe, John Love and I all went in search of crepes. There was a place right outside the church that was selling them, but we figured they'd be really expensive so we kept walking. We saw this man on the street who was asking for money to buy vaccines for his puppy. The puppy was so cute we all put a little spare change in (Trinkgeld). We asked him to guide us in the direction of a crepe shop, but we never ended up finding it. To get back to the place by the church, we had to walk past this man again and he pointed us back in the direction of the other crepe place. We looked again, but to no avail. So this time when we walked back, we went on the other side of the street. I think he saw us because I glanced over and he was looking in our direction and laughing. Ohhh well! It was really hectic at the crepe place we went to. We wanted ours to go so we had to go inside, but it was really small. I got a chocolate crepe. I was expecting it to be a little better, but I'd say it was pretty good. I'm no crepe expert, but Katha's mom made some last time I was here and they were DELICIOUS! We ate these pretty quickly and then walked back to where we were meeting our bus. We had to be there when he arrived because he couldn't park at the bus place for very long.

Our bus ride back was pretty long and I took another little nap, read some Sisterhood of the Traveling pants and wrote some postcards. When I got back home it was homework time. Lots to do for tomorrow and Friday. I made grilled cheese (again) for dinner and cut up an apple. Pretty tasty if I say so myself!

Relaxing

This morning I woke up so annoyed. The cleaning ladies who come here every morning are driving me insane. They come everyday between 6 and 6:30 AM and stay until around 7. They are so obnoxiously loud and I don't even think they do anything. I mean, I really don't know what they clean! My bathroom looks the same as it does when I go to bed! One time I saw a woman mopping, but she was just throwing around a wet mop not really doing much. Grossed me out more than it made me feel like I had a clean bathroom! They leave our front door open when the come so all of this cold air comes in and then I'm freezing when I get out of bed. It's a pain because if they're here, I can't take a shower. From what I can hear, they go to other apartments and clean them and then come and dump water in my toilet. I just don't understand! On the mornings when they're especially loud, Keith and I talk about how annoyed we are. Today we decided that they can just skip "cleaning" our apartment and we'll do it ourselves.

Their being here prevented me from showering this morning so I just slept until around 8 again. In class I talked about the interview I had with Katharina the other night. It was really short, but so was everyone else's. After we finished with that, off we went to grammar class! It wasn't quite as exciting as the day before, but it was shorter since we had the presentations. Every day we have a break in between our class periods and today I just hung out in the study center. We aren't allowed to get on the computers at that time so I just watched some TV and talked with the others. I really like that little break.

My group met today about our project after class. I think its going to turn out pretty cool! We are all going to ask our Sprachpartners "Was ist typisch Deutsch?" and then bring our answers back on Thursday. Depending on what they say, we will try to find pictures to put on our powerpoint. One guy in my group, Eric lives in an actual house and is going to ask his host mother. I will ask Katharina and the others will ask their friends. Heidi is in my group! I forgot to mention that! Things just work out so well sometimes! I think we all sat around and talked for about an hour. My favorite John is in my group so of course that made it interesting. He ALWAYS has something to say!

Heidi and I decided to give the Hauptbahnhof another try. We got in the right line but then after we waited in line forever, found out that we had to have a student ID with us to get the pass we wanted. UGH! Then they told me that I couldn't even get that pass because I'm not staying the full semester (until February). That makes no sense! They would still get my money and I wouldn't be using the pass! We have to talk to AJY tomorrow to figure out what was up with all of that. Burger King was at the Hauptbahnhof so we went there for lunch. Mmm! Yum Yum! Probably not the healthiest thing I could have chosen, but we totally deserved it after all of that mess.

Erika sent me the recipe for her mom's southern white chili. I absolutely love that stuff and want to try to make it since its a recipe that doesn't require an oven! Heidi and I checked out that grocery store (it's called Rewe by the way) that I found last week to see if they had the ingredients. I think they have the majority of them, but the names of the foods were different so I needed more time to process it all. I bought some apples, bananas, a bag of tortelloni, yogurt, cheese and bread and then we headed to PennyMarkt. There I bought plastic baggies, sponges for the kitchen and dish rags. I love how cheap that place is!

When we got back I got a message from Katharina saying she arrived in Heidelberg! She got here about 15 minutes later and had a bday gift for me! She gave me a pass to Holiday Park (the amusement park we went to last time I was here) and a new duvet cover for my bed! She's also going to bring another light for my room so that it wont be so dark. I'm just so happy that she lives nearby! I love that we already know each other so well and that she is willing to help me with things around here! What a nice comfort to have!

I was really confused about how to do laundry here so she helped me figure that out. I had to select a temperature and cycle, but didn't know what to do. She called her mom and we figured it all out. We talked a lot (mostly in English) and then walked to Subway because she was starving. When we got back we put my clothes in the dryer and hoped that they wouldn't shrink! There is only one washer and one dryer for this whole building. I thought the set up in the dorms at Elon was a little frustrating! Hopefully it won't be too bad here with waiting for others to wash. The washer and dryer are also a lot smaller here. Katharina said that they were pretty old and most are larger now. I was able to wash the clothes that I wanted to, so I have no complaints, really!

Katharina mentioned that today is 9/11. I realized that this morning when I went to write my homework down, but other than that had completely forgotten. Since I don't watch much TV here or don't really read the newspaper, there was nothing to remind me of it. I really need to at least read a few articles from the paper each day. It would really help build my vocab among other things. 9/11 is just so different here than in the States, but understandably so.

I need to start talking to Katharina in German. We're just so used to speaking in English to each other, it's hard to break the habit. She's my best resource right now and I really need to take advantage of that!! I'll try to make it a point to speak mostly German next time I see her!

After she left I didn't really do too much. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and also had an apple. It was so great! I made two sandwiches because the bread I bought is quite small. Delicious! Then I put my clean, unshrunken clothes away and answered emails for awhile. It was so nice to just bum around this afternoon and not have anywhere I needed to be.

Back to School...

After the great weekend, I really didn't want to go back to class! I decided not to shower this morning so that I could sleep as much as possible. I slept so well and think I ended up getting out of bed around 8. A little later than I should have, but it wasn't a big deal. Today was the first day of school for children. I walk past a Grundschule (elementary school) on my way to AJY. There were kids outside singing as I walked by and it just made me smile. Little German kids are just so adorable to me! I can't wait to start working with them at the Kindergarten!!

When I got to AJY I went in to talk to my teacher about switching. The other teacher, Frau Heckmann, was in there too so she knew that I would be changing to her class. I thought it might be slightly awkward, but it wasn't at all. We are doing these projects and the first group presented today. They talked about English in and around Heidelberg. They went around and took pictures of English they saw on signs and such. It was pretty interesting! My group presents next Monday and our topic is "Was ist typisch Deutsch?" What is typically German? I think that's a pretty good topic with lots of possibiliites to explore.

After the presentations, we moved on to our grammar class. It was weird leaving to go with the other group, especially since none of the other students knew I would be doing that. Who cares. The other class was excited that I was coming there! So that was nice! I followed the class really well and everything seems like it will be much smoother. I think I'll still be challenged because its the same material, just at a slower pace. I'll let you know how it goes! We only have three more weeks of this class and then we take the DSH test to study at the university. Yikes!

We had to come back to the study center after lunch because a guy from our health insurance was coming to talk to us and we needed to sign papers. It only took a few minutes and then Dr. Tracy led us in a discussion about culture shock and we talked about a lot of the differences we've seen since being here. I love talking about things like that! I'm going to post a list with all of the different things because I think it's so interesting. I'll try to explain some of the things so that it is all clear!

Heidi and I went to the Hauptbahnhof after the culture shock talk (haha that rhymes!) to get semester bus passes. We took the bus to get there and then waited in line for about a half an hour before finding out we had been standing in the wrong line. We were so annoyed that we decided to leave and come back tomorrow. What a bummer!! She was meeting with her Sprachpartner (language partner) at 5:30 so we stopped at a bakery to get a snack and then went our separate ways.

Keith was playing soccer tonight with some friends and stopped by a grocery store to buy something for dinner. We ended up making pasta with a tomato sauce and then salad. Living with someone who has lived in Italy comes in handy when cooking pasta. Julia gave us little tips and the pasta turned out just right! We sauteed some onions (Keith did!) and I made the salad. Super yummy!! I think Julia had already eaten dinner, but she still sat and talked with us. It was the first time the three of us had actually sat down together and talked. It was so nice! We talked about what we want to do after we graduate and about having families and all that good stuff. It's so intersting to hear about how other cultures see those kinds of things. I also found out that Julia is 26! She really doesn't look like it! People keep surprsing me with their ages though! Last night I found out that Heidi is 22. Never would have ever guessed that!

I talked to Jess on IM, worked on homework and wrote on my blog before crashing around 12:30. Nothing too exciting today, but I guess every day can't be action-packed!

Lovely Sunday!

I slept in until about 1 today! It was so great! I woke up before then, but decided to fall back asleep because I could! The only thing I had planned was to talk to mom and dad at 1:30 my time. Dad sent me an email when they got online and shortly after we were talking on Skype! I think we talked for about 45 mins-1 hour. It was so nice to hear their voices and just talk about random things.

I hung out in my PJs until about 3:30. I rearranged my room and cleaned a little bit. I looked at my homework and did some, but put it off until later. Then Keith popped his head in and we talked for a few minutes. He was having a blah day. I knew how he felt and tried to help him out. So after about 20 minutes I figured I needed to get out of my PJs and he needed to get out of our apartment, so I asked if he wanted to go for a walk. Thankfully he did and we just went out and started walking down our street. it was nice because we had nowhere in particular we had to go. I showed him where the nice grocery store is (the one I found on my adventure the other day) and then we decided to walk down by the river. It was such a gorgeous day! We couldn't believe we had been sitting inside for so long! FINALLY! A beautiful and sunny day! We walked right by the river all the way to the Alte Brücke (old bridge) and then up a small touristy street. It was so much fun just walking, talking, laughing and having fun.







We also saw a guy on the river who was wind surfing in a thong. That was just too funny!


We stopped at a little cafe and sat outside. I ordered hot chocolate and it was so good! The street we were on was pretty shady so it was colder. It made the hot chocolate taste even better! Keith bought my drink and said that it was for my birthday since he didn't get me anything the day before. He also said that he'd buy me something else if I would tell him what I wanedt. I won't be doing that, but thought it was a nice offer. Actually, I could really go for a nice Swatch watch! haha After our little cafe stop, we walked down the Hauptstrasse and saw two people playing instruments on the street. We stopped and watched for awhile and Keith put some money in their basket. He missed the first time he threw it in, so of course I had to give him a hard time bout that! Then we were talking about Christmas and how we can't wait for the Christmas markets. I took him into this store that has a million Christmas ornaments. I had gone there with Katharina and her mom a few years back. He absolutely loved it. He also thanked me for suggesting the walk and that it really made him feel a lot better. The time went so fast and by the time we got back, it was already a little after 6! We were going to eat with Heidi and some of his friends at this American diner at 7.

We walked to AJY to meet Heidi and then back down to Bismarckplatz where a lot of the bus stops are. We met up with his friends and then hopped on the train and headed to the diner. It was pretty American! Heidelberg has a big Army base and I think that place is where a lot of them go. I ordered a grilled cheese with tomato and a strawberry milkshake. It was pretty good, but not really what it would have tasted like in the States. I liked this restaurant, but hated the fact that we spoke English the entire time and that even our waitress spoke English to us. It didn't even feel like we were in Germany. Anyway, we had fun talking and such and then went back home after dinner. On the walk back to our apartment, Heidi and I walked together and laughed the whole way. I absolutely love her. We have so much fun together. Back at home I did some more homework and talked to Katharina online. I had to interview her for a homework assignment. I knew the answers to a lot of her questions, but we still had fun. I also learned some new things, about her and about how to say certain things in German. One of the questions I asked was what she planned on doing after graduation. She responded like almost every American student I know: "Oh no! Not THAT question!!" She said she thinks she might want to work at a big marketing firm, but realy isn't sure yet. After I finished my homework and wrote some on my blog I called it a night and went to bed. Such a relaxing and enjoyable day!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I had such a good night sleep last night! The bed was so comfortable and the blanket was so fluffy and warm! I got up around 6:45 to shower and get ready. Even though I slept well, I think I could have slept so much longer! Heidi jumped on my bed after I woke up and sang a little happy birthday tune. She's so great!!

Breakfast reminded me of eating at Katharina's house. There were croissants, deli meats, cheeses, yogurt, juices, hard boiled eggs and more. It was so delicious! Everyone remembered that it was my birthday too! I got hugs left and right and the directors of the program even gave me a gift! It was a sweet little card with a nice notebook. How thoughtful! I just love this program. I ate with Heidi, Charis, Maressa, Katie and Dr. Tracy. While we were eating, one of the people on the catering team came up to Frau Heckmann and told her that the napkin she was using was not the right one. She also took her coffee cup! She wanted to know if anyone else had used one of the "special napkins" and one of the John's had also. She got so mad! She said that those were her napkins and cups and that the ones we were supposed to use were somewhere else. It was the strangest thing! She also told us that we were not allowed to take any food out of the breakfast room. If we wanted to eat it, we had to eat it while we were there. Apparantly people who stay there like to take a piece of bread for later in the day, but it is against the rules. Well then! So after that she took her napkins and cups and left. We all kind of looked at each other with smiles and confused faces!

When we finished breakfast we headed back upstairs (nach oben) to pack our bags and hit the road! We went back to the little train stop and waited for our train that would take us to Würzburg. We had to take a train to get to another train station and then waited there for a little while. I got a small bar of chocolate and some gum for the tracks (I say tracks b/c we weren't on the road!) Everyone was just super nice to me. Even at 9 in the morning they were asking me about how my day was and what I wanted to do and on and on. The people in my group couldn't be better!!







You wouldn't believe how excited Heidi was to go to Würzburg simply because it is in Bayern (Bavaria). She lights up everytime someone says Bayern. It's so cute! When we got to the train station we headed to the lockers. There was this bum there who was yelling at us in German and trying to tell us how we should be doing things differently. He said that we couldn't put our things in the small lockers but we had to use the big ones. It was so frustrating/annoying! I was a little nervous about leaving my things there with him hanging around, but I knew nothing would really happen. After we started walking Frau Heckmann told us that if people are like that to ignore them and continue on your way. Don't respond to them or argue. Sounds easy, but this guy was so adamant! So after that strange and interesting encounter, we walked around the gorgeous city for a little while and learned that there are a lot of churches in Bayern in general and that it is a very Catholic state. We had to walk through the main part of the city (Stadt) in order to get to the Residenz. This place was huge!! If I understood correctly, royalty lived there. It was damaged heavily during WWII and they have been renovating and restoring it since. We took a tour with a humongous group. We weren't allowed to have our cameras inside, so I don't really have many pictures to share. The paintings on the ceilings were absolutely breathtaking and the stories they told were very interesting. The paiting above the main (humongous) stairwell depicted four continents: North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Europe was really bright compared to the other nations and that was to signify that Europe in general was brighter than the rest. That was a complicated thing to understand in German, but with the help of Frau Heckmann, I was able to put it all together! I thought that little story it told was really funny because it shows how egotistical Europeans can be/are. Love it. In one of the other rooms our tour guide showed us the oven that was in the room. There were no doors on the oven (that we could see) but she said that there was a secret hallway where the waitstaff could go behind the wall and open the oven from that side and fill it with wood to warm the room. How clever! There was another room that was nothing but mirrors everywhere. I can't imagine sleeping in there! You would feel like you were being watched! I really liked this tour because it was interesting, but not too long. I stopped in the gift shop to buy a few post cards and then we headed out to walk through the gardens. My camera died just as we got out there, so some of the pictures are from my friends cameras. The gardens were so beautiful and expansive! There was a wedding party off to the side and people were taking pictures. They were doing the picture where they hold an empty frame in front of their faces. it was super cute! We took some pictures, walked around for awhile and then left for lunch because we were STARVING!









When we were leaving to go eat, they asked what my birthday wish was and I said that we would all eat lunch together. So everyone that was already with us (about 12 people) went to find somewhere to eat. They said that I could pick where I wanted to eat since it was my birthday, but I had no clue about what restaurants there were or where to go or anything! So we walked around and found a cute little cafe in the center of town. Walking around with my group was so much fun. I just love when we are all together and can hang out and laugh. Jenny, the program assistant, also came with us. She's so nice!! I love listening to her speak German. To think just a few years ago she was in my position is amazing. I hope that I can speak German as well as she can someday! For lunch I got one of my favorite German foods - Kase Spaetzle. It's like a potato pasta dish, but not. I really don't know how to explain it. But it is delicious! We hung out and talked at the cafe for quite awhile. I sat across from Alexander which was nice because I hadn't really talked to him too much before this. His speaks German very well and rarely do you ever hear him speak English. I think the most I've heard him talk in English is asking how to say certain words. But even then, he only says the word he wants to know in English. Pretty impressive! I felt bad because my German isn't as good as his, but he didn't seem to mind. He's probably the most intellectual guy I know. He's just so interesting! So it was fun getting to know him and talking with Jenny and the others in my group.

We had some free time until we had to meet at the train station at 6ish so some of us went to look at a church and go through the museum. Alex, John Love, Heidi, Charis, Maressa and I walked through the church first and then paid the small price for the tour. This church was probably one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I just couldn't believe it! The tour was self-guided, which was nice since most of the things were artwork. It was nice and relaxing.

We came to Würzburg on the right weekend because there was all kinds of music all over town. We saw a one-man-band, a group of women singing and playing accordions and a bunch of other people singing and playing their instruments on the streets. It was just so beautiful and authentic. I could have stayed all day and listened to the women playing their accordions. They looked like they were having so much fun!

On our walk back to the train station, we stopped and got ice cream for my birthday. I got the mocha flavor and it was delicious! Heidi was confused about my choice because a few days before we talked about how I don't like coffee. I forgot to explain that I like coffee flavored things, just not straight coffee yet. Outside the train station we saw people salsa dancing! There were three girls and five guys and they were all dressed alike (the girls in red dresses and the guys in all black). We probably stood there and watched for about 20 minutes! It was so cool! Then we went back inside and got our things out of the lockers. The guy was still there, but this time there were two policemen. He didn't talk to us as much, but still some. John Kornfeld (one of my favorites) couldn't help but talk to him. He just loves to talk to people in general. I told him not to make eye contact, but he did anyway. Oh John...I think he even gave him money earlier so that he would leave us alone, but that really didn't work too well!! When he speaks German, he sounds like a German, even though he isn't always right. I just love it.

Our train ride was pretty long to get back to Heidelberg. I sat with Sarah Hale, Patrick and Eric on our first train. I slept pretty much the entire way. We got to the other train station just in time to make our next train. We walked quickly to get on and then after we sat down it started to leave! Whew! I sat next to Charis and John on this train. I mostly looked out the window and talked some. Charis went around and made sure that everyone could come out to celebrate my birthday that night. We made plans to meet at AJY at 9:45. How sweet!!

I decided during this trip that I definitely want to switch classes. I just love Frau Heckmann and feel more comfortable with her and her teaching style. Also, I don't want to be so stressed about a grammar class. The challenge is important, but not to the point where I'm so frustrated and can't understand it at the pace we're learning.

When we got back to the train station Katie and I got on the bus back to the Universitätsplatz (University Place). We call it Uniplatz for short and I like that! It's right outside AJY. I walked back to my apartment and unloaded my bags. I was so excited to show off my new wine glass! Julia thought it was pretty cool. Then Keith got home and asked if I wanted to eat dinner with him. I showered before dinner and then sat down to eat after I had done my makeup and stuff. He ended up making chicken and potatoes. That was better than I had planned for my birthday dinner of bread with Nutella! I didn't think I'd be eating with anyone since we had all been together all day and then were going to be hanging out again at night. So that was a nice surprise. He's just such a sweet guy and I really like hanging out with him.

About 20 minutes before we left, Keith asked me if it'd be ok if he didn't come out with us. I told him that it was fine, but that I would love for him to come. He was really tired from the night before, but changed his mind and decided to come. I was really happy because #1 I wanted him to come and #2 I didn't want to walk home alone! Katie stopped by our place and we all walked over to AJY together. We were fashionably late. I mean, I had to be late to my own party, right!? I was so surprised because almost everyone in my program was there!!! It made me feel so special and really happy. Patrick and some of the other guys have gone out a lot since we've been here so they know the best places to go. We decided to go bar hopping and I let him pick the fist place. He found this place with two huge tables inside where we all could sit. It was perfect!! Everyone was so excited for me to have my first alcoholic drink EVER! It took a lot of deliberation to decide what I should have to drink, but then when the waitress came, she said that I needed to have my ID since I was ordering something other than beer. She didn't even believe that Heidi was 18 (She's 22) and would only let her order soda! Heidi was so mad! So John and I walked back to my apartment to get my ID. It was kind of nice that she wanted to see my ID though because it was like I was celebrating at home! When we got back and showed her my ID she looked at it really skeptically like she didn't believe it was real! But she let the guys order a shot of Vodka for me. I can't believe that I actually agreed to that, but I figured that I might as well have something out of the ordinary since I've waited so long to drink! Let me tell you that this was the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever done! Before I took the shot, they all sang happy birthday to me and were cheering me on. I was so hot and was sweating and kept fanning myself. I had no clue how to do a shot! They told me that I needed to have Heidi's soda as a chaser, so we got that all situated. Then they started counting down from 10 in German and at EINS (1) I took the shot! I wanted someone to get a video of it to put on here, but that didn't work out. But I can only imagine how funny it was to see. I loved it though (not the taste at all, but everyone's excitement!) This group just makes me SO happy! We all support one another and its just all around great. So after everyone else finished their drinks (and paid for mine!) we headed to this bar called T-Punkt. There we ordered this huge 5 liter drink that cost 39 Euros! It came with about 10 straws and was super yummy!!! That was so much fun!!! Since there were so many of us, it didn't take too long to finish it. I think the best part of this drink was the ice in it! It was my favorite ice!!!! In case you don't know, my favorite ice is that pellet-like ice that they have at Sonic. Oh yummy-ness!!!!

The next bar we went to didn't have too many people in it. There was a light-up dance floor and we sat in a room with huge wrap-around couches. It was pretty cool. I decided not to get anything to drink, but had a taste of Patrick's beer. I think that's an aquired taste! We stayed there for awhile and talked and danced and had a lot of fun. At about 1, some people decided to leave (Keith and I included). We were all so tired from this weekend! Keith told me that tonight was the most fun he's had since he's been in Heidelberg and that he thinks he's found a group of people he wants to hang out with. That made me so happy, especially since he wasn't even going to come!! We walked home and talked for a bit and then went to bed. I thought I would just sign online really quick and then get ready for bed, but instead talked to April from Scrap Shack for about an hour. I showed her pictures from the night and we had a good time talking. Then Jessica and Brittanie signed on! So we decided to get on Skype and ended up talking until about 4 AM!!! That worked out fine though because I didn't have any plans for Sunday morning. It was so great to talk to them and to see them too!

This was by far one of the best birthdays ever. I had such a great time with great friends. Before coming to Germany, I was worried about celebrating my birthday here. I just didn't know how it would be. But I couldn't have pictured it any better!!! Oh and thanks to those who wrote on my Facebook wall! It was so great to hear from you and it made my day that you remembered my bday! Yay for officially being 21!!!!