Welcome back to me! Tomorrow marks one week that I've been back stateside, but I'm leaving for the beach (sorry, SHORE) tomorrow at the crack of dawn and will be gone for three nights, so I thought it'd be best to update before I left.
Just one week ago, I was living up my very last night abroad in Heidelberg, but honestly, the way I feel now, that same night could've been months ago. As everyone said when they returned, absolutely nothing has changed. I'm back into my same old routine, driving places every day, seeing the same people, bummin' around the same house, eating the same food, etc. My five amazing months could have honestly been one big dream-- it's a pretty weird feeling.
The first few days I was home I was staying fairly busy-- out every night (including a night out in DC with Kelly and Kelsey and another for Mollie's 21st!) I was also keeping myself busy by seeing lots of people, buying alcohol just because I can, and unpacking. The last few days have been very uneventful though-- errands, pool, chilling around the house (literally chilling though, gotta stay in the house because it is SO HOT outside... I'm not complaining though...I'd take this heat over the incessant gray skies through which we were suffering in Heidelberg for the last few weeks!)
All this down time has given me a lot of time to think and reflect, though. I am very happy to be home, and to just have a solid few weeks to relax and see the people I missed so much, but the transition to life back here has just been so sudden. Mollie and I went for a walk tonight (one of the things I miss most is just being outside all the time!) and we had a really good talk. She's been back almost six weeks now, but she is still going through the same things that I am now starting to feel.
Basically, life abroad was just a constant going-going-going. We were always on the move, always shopping, biking, exploring new towns, traveling on the weekends, going out to dinner or to bars after classes, grilling on the Wiese... just always being around each other and always taking advantage of everything the city and life abroad had to offer! Now I'm back in my home, where I've lived for nearly all my life, and that going-going-going mentality has escaped me. Mollie and I talked about wanting to bring that back to school with us, though...and reallllly trying to do so. I feel that abroad, we all just saw the bigger picture in every aspect of life and never let any moments pass us by (especially for risk of fomo!!!) The petty drama that so often consumes my life at BC didn't follow me to Heidelberg. Our AJY group realized that we had a deadline on our time, and instead of letting drama be created, we all lived in the moment and were all friendly to each other and were just, as corny as it sounds, one big happy family. Even on lazy days, instead of just sitting around our rooms looking at Facebook, someone would propose an excursion or activity on the group page and people would just show up. Despite doing so much, life was just so simple! As Mollie said she realized after she spent a week in Morocco, happiness is just so simple. Don't let petty acts or occurrences get you down and just take advantage of everything you have.
Now I'm not trying to say that I am just going to go crazy with this whole 'carpe diem' approach to life, because obviously one still has to consider repercussions for actions and demands back at BC are immensely greater than those I had abroad, but I just want to take the same mind set back to school and even try to keep it for life. Being abroad taught me to go for what I want and just enjoy life! People ask me "how was Germany?" Well, I can't really answer that. My abroad experience as a whole was amazing-- as I said, I'm happy to be home but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. The mixture of Heidelberg, the people in AJY, and being immersed in the European way of life all combined to make one incredible semester. It's too soon to say what I learned about myself, but I definitely learned a whole lot about life and how to enjoy it, which I think really says a lot considering I was enjoying life a hell of a lot before I left-- so much that I didn't even want to go! I think the key to enjoyment is pushing yourself into new experiences, even if it's just getting into the city a few times a month to get a change of scenery. I'm going to make a real effort to not get stuck in the BC bubble when I get back and just really capitalize on the opportunities I have for my last year of college.
So there are my thoughts right now. Most of them pertain to going back to school, because that's now where I spend the majority of my time and I view being home for three weeks more as just a little break between abroad and my home in Boston. Now if anyone reading this has interacted with me since I've been home or does interact with me in the next couple weeks, please realize that I am not sad, I am simply reflective. This was a long-ass post, so as you can see, I've had a hell of a lot upon which to reflect!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Back to America Part 2
I got my rant out about American politics out in the previous post, so here's a more personal one...
The anxiety about going back to America has been a lot more pronounced than leaving America. I guess I would attribute this to the fact that for the four days before I left for Germany, I had the flu and was bedridden with a 100+ temp...soooo I wasn't exactly thinking about going to Germany, I was just focused on making it there in once piece.
Leaving here is a different story though. I've been done with schoolwork for over a week now, and I've been saying goodbye to my friends one by one. The bulk of us are leaving tomorrow, but I had to say bye to Becca yesterday which was pretty hard. For the last week, everyone from home has been asking me how I feel about leaving, and I just kept telling them that it hadn't hit me yet, which was true, until yesterday. I started packing on Sunday--it's so depressing to pack away a life you made into three bags. It really is. But when I said bye to Becca at the train station yesterday, it actually hit me that I was leaving in less than two days. I'm obviously very sad to be leaving, but I'm not denying it or anything, or even upset about it. I talked to Brock about this and realized that when I left BC after fall semester, I was not ready to go abroad. I didn't want to leave my friends or Boston. I knew I would have an amazing semester, but I was worried what I would miss back home (hence the title of my blog!)
Well, the semester has now come to an end, I had an absolutely amazing time. I couldn't have asked for more-- better trips, better friends, a better city. And so when I got upset about leaving, I remembered the fantastic life that I left-- everyone I know that's gone abroad is since back and they have all said that absolutely nothing has changed. It's as if they never left. I know it'll be the same for me-- I'm going to return to my amazing and fantastic life that I love, to my friends from home whom I'm so excited to see, and then to a school that I couldn't love more as well as friends there that I miss dearly. I'll be very interested to see how I've changed. I don't know how I've changed, and it hasn't been in any drastic way, but I'll be interested to discover it when I get home. I've been in Boston for five semesters at college, but the semesters were never as long as five months, and I would come home once a semester for breaks. Although I saw my mom halfway through my time here, this is still the longest I've ever been away from my home, and of course the longest I've ever been away from my country! I've created a temporary life for myself here, and unlike my dorm at BC, when I said "home" or "my house" here, I was referring to my home here in Heidelberg. My friends in my program were truly my family and we all grew so close and I honestly could not have imagined a better group of people to spend five months with.
I'm going to miss Heidelberg dearly, but I have to return to the real world sooner or later! My life her has been kind of a surreal blur and it's time to step back into reality. And as promised, here's part 3/3: the things making me excited about going back to America.
-big supermarkets that are always stocked: capitalism is truly alive and well in Germany because in just the city center, there are literally 6 different grocery stores to choose from. Unfortunately, they are all small and it's a game of chance as to whether they have what you want. When I would do big grocery shopping, I'd sometimes have to go to three different stores in one trip just to complete my list. It'll be very nice just to go to Giant and have everything I could ever need in one space.
-being 21 in America: as most know, I turned 21 abroad, so I'll be entering a whole new part of life when I return-- the world of bars! It'll be funny though because I will never know how much I'm ordering. I only know alcohol content in terms of liters, so that'll be interesting when it actually comes time to order something.
-$: in my last post I talked about how the dollar is falling, falling, falling. Well, I'm getting out of Europe just in time, because my bank account is severely low (it was all worth it though) and it'll be really nice to take out $50 from the ATM and have $50 drawn from my account, rather than the exchange rate making 50 euro more like $72. Speaking of ATMs, it'll be SO NICE to be able to use my debit card for everything again!
-my bed: mentioned this in 2/3, my bed here is broken and squeaks like crazy. I can't wait to collapse on my puffy, fluffy, full size bed tomorrow night.
-my car: I know I said how much I loved my bike, and it's very convenient in a city to travel via bike, and there are no DUIs for bike riding, but I'll be so happy to have a car again! When spontaneous outbursts of rain start, I won't get soaked, and I won't be sweating balls when I get to my destination. Actually that's not true. Whenever I would drive to work last summer in the DC heat, the car was a sauna and I would arrive at work sweating balls. Actually now that I think about it, I've burned so many calories by riding my bike everywhere...and my legs have gotten more muscular... okay maybe I'm going to miss the bike more than I want my car back...
-AC: (not Anderson Cooper, but yeah, I miss him too!) bit air conditioning. I already talked about how summer apparently doesn't exist in Heidelberg, but the air conditioning will be nice. Except when stores make it an ice box.
-EST: I'll be in the same time zone as nearly all of my friends! the six hour time difference honestly has not been that bad, but it'll be nice not to have to think about it anymore.
-COFFEE: OMG I have missed coffee SO MUCH. They have coffee to-go here, but it's never really on my way and it's just not that good. There's a coffee maker in the center, and about once both of the last weeks and I made some and drank a few cups at one time, and my caffeine tolerance has gone down so much that I was just freaking out and shaking. I've got a water heater in my apartment, and tried doing the instant coffee for a while but it was just not the same so I stopped drinking coffee altogether. I don't miss coffee for the caffeine though, I just miss drinking it! Cannot wait to wake up every morning and make a fresh pot of some DD vanilla bean coffee!
-cold fridges: Nothing in Germany is kept cold, and I never really understood why. When you go grocery shopping, the eggs and the milk are just kept in the normal area. And then you come home, and the fridge is just barely cold and the freezer could fit maybe one frozen meal in it. Yes, everything is fresher and has less preservatives, but sometimes it's nice to have a cold drink!
-milk: the milk here is so gross. It's just so...milky. (Again, fresher...but...) I love milk so much and I haven't had a glass in five months now. I would put it in my muesli in the morning, but other than that, no milk. I made sure to tell my mom to have a gallon of cold skim milk waiting for me in the fridge when I arrived home :D
-wheat thins: what can I say? There is just no suitable replacement.
-carpet: I mentioned that my room has a hard linoleum floor. I'm excited to return to nice fluffy carpet.
-working out: I've been working out at a gym, either at home or at the plex at school, for a solid two years now, and I just went five months without touching any weights. I ran a good 4-5 times a week and did squats and sit-ups and stretches in my room, and I'm sure my legs have gotten stronger with all the biking, but I honestly just miss going to the gym and working out.
-SUMMER WEATHER: I'll end my list here because it'll be the first thing that hits me. It hasn't hit above 70 here in weeks, and the forecast for tomorrow in DC is a high of 91. I know that summer in DC is oppressively hot and humid, but after not having it for this long, I miss it. I feel like I've been robbed of my summer and I want it back!
Alright, there it is. My last list, and all three parts of the saga (again, I realize it's not a saga per se, but just humor me.) I apologize for the extreme dearth of photos for the last seven weeks, but I got lazy and busy with other things. I land at Dulles tomorrow at 3:45 EST so if you're my friend and I like you, feel free to send me a welcome home text that I'll receive when I turn my phone on after landing! I'm sure I'll keep posting throughout the summer about the reverse culture shock and how boring my life is going to get when I'm not jetting off on European vacation weekends twice a month, but I'd like to think that I'll still be able to find interesting things to do and then write about. It's been an absolutely amazing semester, as I said, I couldn't have asked for more. I'm off to my last German dinner, going to drink my last German beers, watch my last Heidelberg sunset, and live out the rest of my hours abroad in Heidelberg!
The anxiety about going back to America has been a lot more pronounced than leaving America. I guess I would attribute this to the fact that for the four days before I left for Germany, I had the flu and was bedridden with a 100+ temp...soooo I wasn't exactly thinking about going to Germany, I was just focused on making it there in once piece.
Leaving here is a different story though. I've been done with schoolwork for over a week now, and I've been saying goodbye to my friends one by one. The bulk of us are leaving tomorrow, but I had to say bye to Becca yesterday which was pretty hard. For the last week, everyone from home has been asking me how I feel about leaving, and I just kept telling them that it hadn't hit me yet, which was true, until yesterday. I started packing on Sunday--it's so depressing to pack away a life you made into three bags. It really is. But when I said bye to Becca at the train station yesterday, it actually hit me that I was leaving in less than two days. I'm obviously very sad to be leaving, but I'm not denying it or anything, or even upset about it. I talked to Brock about this and realized that when I left BC after fall semester, I was not ready to go abroad. I didn't want to leave my friends or Boston. I knew I would have an amazing semester, but I was worried what I would miss back home (hence the title of my blog!)
Well, the semester has now come to an end, I had an absolutely amazing time. I couldn't have asked for more-- better trips, better friends, a better city. And so when I got upset about leaving, I remembered the fantastic life that I left-- everyone I know that's gone abroad is since back and they have all said that absolutely nothing has changed. It's as if they never left. I know it'll be the same for me-- I'm going to return to my amazing and fantastic life that I love, to my friends from home whom I'm so excited to see, and then to a school that I couldn't love more as well as friends there that I miss dearly. I'll be very interested to see how I've changed. I don't know how I've changed, and it hasn't been in any drastic way, but I'll be interested to discover it when I get home. I've been in Boston for five semesters at college, but the semesters were never as long as five months, and I would come home once a semester for breaks. Although I saw my mom halfway through my time here, this is still the longest I've ever been away from my home, and of course the longest I've ever been away from my country! I've created a temporary life for myself here, and unlike my dorm at BC, when I said "home" or "my house" here, I was referring to my home here in Heidelberg. My friends in my program were truly my family and we all grew so close and I honestly could not have imagined a better group of people to spend five months with.
I'm going to miss Heidelberg dearly, but I have to return to the real world sooner or later! My life her has been kind of a surreal blur and it's time to step back into reality. And as promised, here's part 3/3: the things making me excited about going back to America.
-big supermarkets that are always stocked: capitalism is truly alive and well in Germany because in just the city center, there are literally 6 different grocery stores to choose from. Unfortunately, they are all small and it's a game of chance as to whether they have what you want. When I would do big grocery shopping, I'd sometimes have to go to three different stores in one trip just to complete my list. It'll be very nice just to go to Giant and have everything I could ever need in one space.
-being 21 in America: as most know, I turned 21 abroad, so I'll be entering a whole new part of life when I return-- the world of bars! It'll be funny though because I will never know how much I'm ordering. I only know alcohol content in terms of liters, so that'll be interesting when it actually comes time to order something.
-$: in my last post I talked about how the dollar is falling, falling, falling. Well, I'm getting out of Europe just in time, because my bank account is severely low (it was all worth it though) and it'll be really nice to take out $50 from the ATM and have $50 drawn from my account, rather than the exchange rate making 50 euro more like $72. Speaking of ATMs, it'll be SO NICE to be able to use my debit card for everything again!
-my bed: mentioned this in 2/3, my bed here is broken and squeaks like crazy. I can't wait to collapse on my puffy, fluffy, full size bed tomorrow night.
-my car: I know I said how much I loved my bike, and it's very convenient in a city to travel via bike, and there are no DUIs for bike riding, but I'll be so happy to have a car again! When spontaneous outbursts of rain start, I won't get soaked, and I won't be sweating balls when I get to my destination. Actually that's not true. Whenever I would drive to work last summer in the DC heat, the car was a sauna and I would arrive at work sweating balls. Actually now that I think about it, I've burned so many calories by riding my bike everywhere...and my legs have gotten more muscular... okay maybe I'm going to miss the bike more than I want my car back...
-AC: (not Anderson Cooper, but yeah, I miss him too!) bit air conditioning. I already talked about how summer apparently doesn't exist in Heidelberg, but the air conditioning will be nice. Except when stores make it an ice box.
-EST: I'll be in the same time zone as nearly all of my friends! the six hour time difference honestly has not been that bad, but it'll be nice not to have to think about it anymore.
-COFFEE: OMG I have missed coffee SO MUCH. They have coffee to-go here, but it's never really on my way and it's just not that good. There's a coffee maker in the center, and about once both of the last weeks and I made some and drank a few cups at one time, and my caffeine tolerance has gone down so much that I was just freaking out and shaking. I've got a water heater in my apartment, and tried doing the instant coffee for a while but it was just not the same so I stopped drinking coffee altogether. I don't miss coffee for the caffeine though, I just miss drinking it! Cannot wait to wake up every morning and make a fresh pot of some DD vanilla bean coffee!
-cold fridges: Nothing in Germany is kept cold, and I never really understood why. When you go grocery shopping, the eggs and the milk are just kept in the normal area. And then you come home, and the fridge is just barely cold and the freezer could fit maybe one frozen meal in it. Yes, everything is fresher and has less preservatives, but sometimes it's nice to have a cold drink!
-milk: the milk here is so gross. It's just so...milky. (Again, fresher...but...) I love milk so much and I haven't had a glass in five months now. I would put it in my muesli in the morning, but other than that, no milk. I made sure to tell my mom to have a gallon of cold skim milk waiting for me in the fridge when I arrived home :D
-wheat thins: what can I say? There is just no suitable replacement.
-carpet: I mentioned that my room has a hard linoleum floor. I'm excited to return to nice fluffy carpet.
-working out: I've been working out at a gym, either at home or at the plex at school, for a solid two years now, and I just went five months without touching any weights. I ran a good 4-5 times a week and did squats and sit-ups and stretches in my room, and I'm sure my legs have gotten stronger with all the biking, but I honestly just miss going to the gym and working out.
-SUMMER WEATHER: I'll end my list here because it'll be the first thing that hits me. It hasn't hit above 70 here in weeks, and the forecast for tomorrow in DC is a high of 91. I know that summer in DC is oppressively hot and humid, but after not having it for this long, I miss it. I feel like I've been robbed of my summer and I want it back!
Alright, there it is. My last list, and all three parts of the saga (again, I realize it's not a saga per se, but just humor me.) I apologize for the extreme dearth of photos for the last seven weeks, but I got lazy and busy with other things. I land at Dulles tomorrow at 3:45 EST so if you're my friend and I like you, feel free to send me a welcome home text that I'll receive when I turn my phone on after landing! I'm sure I'll keep posting throughout the summer about the reverse culture shock and how boring my life is going to get when I'm not jetting off on European vacation weekends twice a month, but I'd like to think that I'll still be able to find interesting things to do and then write about. It's been an absolutely amazing semester, as I said, I couldn't have asked for more. I'm off to my last German dinner, going to drink my last German beers, watch my last Heidelberg sunset, and live out the rest of my hours abroad in Heidelberg!
Returning to what kind of America?
Anxiety:
1 a. A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties.
b. A cause of anxiety: For some people, air travel is a real anxiety.
2. Psychiatry A state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation of a realistic or fantasized threatening event or situation, often impairing physical and psychological functioning.
3. Eager, often agitated desire
That's the only word that can completely describe how I feel right now. I don't know if I would add anxious-excited, or anxious-nervous, really just a bit of both. I went to bed around 2 last night and woke up at 7 unable to go back to sleep. I'm just too restless. I'm basically done packing and cleaning-- got my big suitcase to 22,9kg (limit is 23), got rid of all my food, have bags and bags of trash to throw out (bags of trash holding 4 pairs of shoes with which I'm going to have to part), I've dusted, and all I've really got left is vacuuming. I get checked out at 7am tomorrow, I'll take the 8am shuttle to the airport, get there around 9, sit at the airport for a good four hours, and in less than 24 hours, I will be sitting in my seat en route back to America. Living abroad for the past nearly half year has actually made me tune out the rest of the world. Considering I'm an International Studies major, that probably wasn't the best decision, but I felt relieved to not have to keep up with American politics. I knew what was going on in Germany, but all I really knew otherwise was what I saw every time I opened my internet browser on my CNN homepage-- I keep it like that so I at least know what's going on before I check my email or Facebook. I had heard about the debt crisis and such, but now I just started actually reading about it, and watched the first video of Obama speaking since I got to Germany- and I'm pretty nervous. Our country has just become so partisan, despite Obama's hope, and it's just disgusting. I was a big Obama supporter and then about a year later I just gave up on American politics because I honestly think that nothing is ever going to get accomplished, because the far rights and the far lefts would rather stop each other from accomplishing anything rather than working together. I just watched a short video where Obama basically pleaded to the American people for compromise. He talked about how the debt crisis cannot be solved solely by cutting spending. He begged the millionaires and billionaires of the country to help. Germany is by no means socialist, but it does have a very extensive and beneficial social-welfare system, which I studied in depth in one of my classes. Over my last five months here I have noticed how much more equal everyone is. I'm not saying that America should adopt the exact system, because it does have its cons-- especially in university, students aren't pushed to excel in the same way that they are in American universities, and they stay in school for many years longer because it's virtually free. In general, the population isn't working as creatively, because there's not as much opportunity to become rich and powerful. That statement was honestly not meant to be mean, it's just something I've noticed while here. Germany is the powerhouse of Europe and has one of the strongest economies in the world-- it just lent Libyan rebels $144 million and is bailing (perhaps not willfully...) out Greece-- it's obviously doing something right. But America has this as its motto, really. We learn from a young age to do our very best and are pushed and pushed and pushed to be the best in everything, and if we succeed, we'll earn the rewards. But honestly, the top 1% of the US population could give away so much of their money via taxes and these debt sealings and never even notice a difference. What good is their money just sitting in a bank? It's really disheartening to think that our country just can't even come together to fix itself, and would rather stay partisan. Both the Canadian and Australian dollars have passed ours, and it's probably I'm good I'm leaving the Euro-zone when I am, because the dollar is only going to get worse against the Euro if the US can't solve this problem.
1 a. A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties.
b. A cause of anxiety: For some people, air travel is a real anxiety.
2. Psychiatry A state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation of a realistic or fantasized threatening event or situation, often impairing physical and psychological functioning.
3. Eager, often agitated desire
That's the only word that can completely describe how I feel right now. I don't know if I would add anxious-excited, or anxious-nervous, really just a bit of both. I went to bed around 2 last night and woke up at 7 unable to go back to sleep. I'm just too restless. I'm basically done packing and cleaning-- got my big suitcase to 22,9kg (limit is 23), got rid of all my food, have bags and bags of trash to throw out (bags of trash holding 4 pairs of shoes with which I'm going to have to part), I've dusted, and all I've really got left is vacuuming. I get checked out at 7am tomorrow, I'll take the 8am shuttle to the airport, get there around 9, sit at the airport for a good four hours, and in less than 24 hours, I will be sitting in my seat en route back to America. Living abroad for the past nearly half year has actually made me tune out the rest of the world. Considering I'm an International Studies major, that probably wasn't the best decision, but I felt relieved to not have to keep up with American politics. I knew what was going on in Germany, but all I really knew otherwise was what I saw every time I opened my internet browser on my CNN homepage-- I keep it like that so I at least know what's going on before I check my email or Facebook. I had heard about the debt crisis and such, but now I just started actually reading about it, and watched the first video of Obama speaking since I got to Germany- and I'm pretty nervous. Our country has just become so partisan, despite Obama's hope, and it's just disgusting. I was a big Obama supporter and then about a year later I just gave up on American politics because I honestly think that nothing is ever going to get accomplished, because the far rights and the far lefts would rather stop each other from accomplishing anything rather than working together. I just watched a short video where Obama basically pleaded to the American people for compromise. He talked about how the debt crisis cannot be solved solely by cutting spending. He begged the millionaires and billionaires of the country to help. Germany is by no means socialist, but it does have a very extensive and beneficial social-welfare system, which I studied in depth in one of my classes. Over my last five months here I have noticed how much more equal everyone is. I'm not saying that America should adopt the exact system, because it does have its cons-- especially in university, students aren't pushed to excel in the same way that they are in American universities, and they stay in school for many years longer because it's virtually free. In general, the population isn't working as creatively, because there's not as much opportunity to become rich and powerful. That statement was honestly not meant to be mean, it's just something I've noticed while here. Germany is the powerhouse of Europe and has one of the strongest economies in the world-- it just lent Libyan rebels $144 million and is bailing (perhaps not willfully...) out Greece-- it's obviously doing something right. But America has this as its motto, really. We learn from a young age to do our very best and are pushed and pushed and pushed to be the best in everything, and if we succeed, we'll earn the rewards. But honestly, the top 1% of the US population could give away so much of their money via taxes and these debt sealings and never even notice a difference. What good is their money just sitting in a bank? It's really disheartening to think that our country just can't even come together to fix itself, and would rather stay partisan. Both the Canadian and Australian dollars have passed ours, and it's probably I'm good I'm leaving the Euro-zone when I am, because the dollar is only going to get worse against the Euro if the US can't solve this problem.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
2/3
The saga continues! Not that me making lists of things I'm going to miss and not miss is a saga... moving on.
Part 1 involved all of the things I'm really going to miss about Germany, and Part 2 will now be about all the things I'm not going to miss about Germany. Unfortunately, the list is quite a bit shorter (but I guess fortunate for any readers!)
Sundays: I like Sundays, don't get me wrong-- a lazy day. Maybe go for a run, do some laundry, some homework, and whatnot. Germans really like Sundays as well and they crowd Hauptstrasse and die Alte Bruecke eating their ice cream and sitting on the Wiese. Now here's the sucky part about Sundays-- EVERYTHING IS CLOSED. Shops, grocery stores, a lot of restaurants, pharmacies, basically everything. Germany is a lot less European than a lot of Europe, but it's still stuck with the closed-on-Sundays-thing. I'll be happy to get back and not have to plan my schedule making sure I'll have enough food through the weekend.
gnats: I live right next to the river and therefore it's reallllly buggy. Not any gross bugs fortunately (except for that beetle attack we had on the Neckar one night, and the past few weeks have given us a lot of bees...) but it's just these little tiny gnats. They fly around in swarms, and during sunset, if you're outside, they just swarm in on you and attack. By attack I mean... just get stuck on your face and arms and neck, they're harmless but so freakin' annoying. Also, there are no screens on an windows so if you leave your window open with the light on, after maybe 20 minutes you've got a bug-infested room. There are bugs everywhere, but these gnats are seriously one of the most annoying parts of Heidelberg.
no AC: I feel kind of stupid writing about this one considering it hasn't hit above 70 degrees in the last three weeks and America and Canada are currently facing record-breaking heat... but it was annoying a couple months ago! Although there are no high temps right now, May and June gave us a lot of 90+ degree days, and combined with the awful humidity, made it nearly impossible to function. The heat would get trapped in my room, and I literally couldn't do anything except lay on my bed, because it was just so damn hot. Sometimes the American use of AC can be obnoxious-- in the summer, I shouldn't need to bring a jacket somewhere because I know that with the AC, it's going to be 50 degrees inside, but maybe a little bit of air would be nice once in a while on this side of the Atlantic.
awkward encounters with mitbewohneren: At BC, we always have to have roommates because we all live on campus, so having my own single room here has been great. I can do whatever I want, come home whenever I want, go to bed whenever I want, and not have to worry about being respectful to a roommate. Buttttt, I do dearly miss living with my best friends. I share my apartment here with two other Germans, and I honestly NEVER see them. We all share two bathrooms and the kitchen, and I think we basically do our best to avoid each other, and when that doesn't work, we both have to suffer through an awkward conversation...I don't even know the last names of these people I've been sharing living facilities with for the last five months. It's just real awkward, and as much as I love the freedom of sleeping in my underwear, I wouldn't trade it for my roommates, at least during my college years. I'm excited to get back to BC and live with my best friends again.
screaming children outside: I live on the edge of the city, on the new campus with all of the hospitals and research facilities and such. I get a big room and a wall-sized window and a big balcony all to myself, but I also have the pleasure of waking up to screaming children every morning playing outside at the day-care facility next door. I realize this isn't the fault of Heidelberg or Germany, but I had to mention it, because it's just something I'm really not.going.to.miss. I don't like children in the first place, and just don't like them even more when they're screaming outside my room all morning and day.
rude Germans: okay yes I realize this is a very broad statement. But honestly, I think Germans as a whole are just kind of rude, but I also probably just consider their actions rude because I'm an American and BOOM. cultural difference. (the whole point of being abroad, right?) It just gets really tiring after a while when they stare at you, and bump into you without ever saying excuse me, never make room for you to pass, and always cut you and shove you in lines, and whatnot. It'll be a welcome return to a land of hospitality, albeit fake hospitality, it's still pretty nice.
my room: as I've said, I'm a big fan of my room--I get a big balcony, it's very spacious, and it's mine. But because my dorm is fairly new (newer than the ones I live in at BC!), it's very echo-y and just not at all homey. You have to work to not make the doors slam, lest a loud noise echo through the entire hall. The white brick walls and blue, hard linoleum floor didn't add much either. I also will not miss my bed which has been broken for a while now, and if I lay in the wrong spot, the bottom beans supporting the mattress pop out which usually results in me sticking the mattress on the floor and sleeping there. And if I so much as turn over, it squeaks like crazy and usually wakes me up. Can't wait for giant bed at home :D
attire: most people have heard that Europeans would never ever wear sweats to class or out in public, and while that's very true--I've never seen anyone but Americans in sweats in class, the opposite is also true for Germans-- they never dress very nicely. This is really just a Heidelberg thing, because it's a university city, and therefore not super cosmopolitan and urban, and 25% of the inhabitants are students. But Germans my age basically have one level of dress-- jeans, sneakers (always stylish sneakers, but sneakers nonetheless), some kind of nice tee, scarf, jacket. ALWAYS. Usually no matter the temperature as well. Even when we went out to the club one night, all the people there were still wearing jeans and sneakers and I felt like such a tool for dressing up. It's something that has always bothered me while being here, and I had to dress down my wardrobe when I got here, and I'm really excited to wear something besides a v-neck tee and jeans. The bright pink sneakers I bought here will not even be returning home with me (not out of spite, but they are literally falling apart.)
pfand: this odd word means a deposit you pay on a bottle. and it's really annoying. when you buy most bottles of drinks, you pay extra for them, as a deposit, and then when you bring the bottle back into this pfand machine located in grocery stores, you get that money back. it's usually 8 cents for glass and 25 cents for plastic. this is the way germany encourages recycling, but honestly it's a pain in the butt. i'm going to recycle anyways, but making me keep all my bottles and then lugging them to to grocery store is really annoying.
Alright that's all! Well, all I cared to write about, but that really was all that was on my list. Stay tuned for Part 3-- what I'll be excited to return to!
Part 1 involved all of the things I'm really going to miss about Germany, and Part 2 will now be about all the things I'm not going to miss about Germany. Unfortunately, the list is quite a bit shorter (but I guess fortunate for any readers!)
Sundays: I like Sundays, don't get me wrong-- a lazy day. Maybe go for a run, do some laundry, some homework, and whatnot. Germans really like Sundays as well and they crowd Hauptstrasse and die Alte Bruecke eating their ice cream and sitting on the Wiese. Now here's the sucky part about Sundays-- EVERYTHING IS CLOSED. Shops, grocery stores, a lot of restaurants, pharmacies, basically everything. Germany is a lot less European than a lot of Europe, but it's still stuck with the closed-on-Sundays-thing. I'll be happy to get back and not have to plan my schedule making sure I'll have enough food through the weekend.
gnats: I live right next to the river and therefore it's reallllly buggy. Not any gross bugs fortunately (except for that beetle attack we had on the Neckar one night, and the past few weeks have given us a lot of bees...) but it's just these little tiny gnats. They fly around in swarms, and during sunset, if you're outside, they just swarm in on you and attack. By attack I mean... just get stuck on your face and arms and neck, they're harmless but so freakin' annoying. Also, there are no screens on an windows so if you leave your window open with the light on, after maybe 20 minutes you've got a bug-infested room. There are bugs everywhere, but these gnats are seriously one of the most annoying parts of Heidelberg.
no AC: I feel kind of stupid writing about this one considering it hasn't hit above 70 degrees in the last three weeks and America and Canada are currently facing record-breaking heat... but it was annoying a couple months ago! Although there are no high temps right now, May and June gave us a lot of 90+ degree days, and combined with the awful humidity, made it nearly impossible to function. The heat would get trapped in my room, and I literally couldn't do anything except lay on my bed, because it was just so damn hot. Sometimes the American use of AC can be obnoxious-- in the summer, I shouldn't need to bring a jacket somewhere because I know that with the AC, it's going to be 50 degrees inside, but maybe a little bit of air would be nice once in a while on this side of the Atlantic.
awkward encounters with mitbewohneren: At BC, we always have to have roommates because we all live on campus, so having my own single room here has been great. I can do whatever I want, come home whenever I want, go to bed whenever I want, and not have to worry about being respectful to a roommate. Buttttt, I do dearly miss living with my best friends. I share my apartment here with two other Germans, and I honestly NEVER see them. We all share two bathrooms and the kitchen, and I think we basically do our best to avoid each other, and when that doesn't work, we both have to suffer through an awkward conversation...I don't even know the last names of these people I've been sharing living facilities with for the last five months. It's just real awkward, and as much as I love the freedom of sleeping in my underwear, I wouldn't trade it for my roommates, at least during my college years. I'm excited to get back to BC and live with my best friends again.
screaming children outside: I live on the edge of the city, on the new campus with all of the hospitals and research facilities and such. I get a big room and a wall-sized window and a big balcony all to myself, but I also have the pleasure of waking up to screaming children every morning playing outside at the day-care facility next door. I realize this isn't the fault of Heidelberg or Germany, but I had to mention it, because it's just something I'm really not.going.to.miss. I don't like children in the first place, and just don't like them even more when they're screaming outside my room all morning and day.
rude Germans: okay yes I realize this is a very broad statement. But honestly, I think Germans as a whole are just kind of rude, but I also probably just consider their actions rude because I'm an American and BOOM. cultural difference. (the whole point of being abroad, right?) It just gets really tiring after a while when they stare at you, and bump into you without ever saying excuse me, never make room for you to pass, and always cut you and shove you in lines, and whatnot. It'll be a welcome return to a land of hospitality, albeit fake hospitality, it's still pretty nice.
my room: as I've said, I'm a big fan of my room--I get a big balcony, it's very spacious, and it's mine. But because my dorm is fairly new (newer than the ones I live in at BC!), it's very echo-y and just not at all homey. You have to work to not make the doors slam, lest a loud noise echo through the entire hall. The white brick walls and blue, hard linoleum floor didn't add much either. I also will not miss my bed which has been broken for a while now, and if I lay in the wrong spot, the bottom beans supporting the mattress pop out which usually results in me sticking the mattress on the floor and sleeping there. And if I so much as turn over, it squeaks like crazy and usually wakes me up. Can't wait for giant bed at home :D
attire: most people have heard that Europeans would never ever wear sweats to class or out in public, and while that's very true--I've never seen anyone but Americans in sweats in class, the opposite is also true for Germans-- they never dress very nicely. This is really just a Heidelberg thing, because it's a university city, and therefore not super cosmopolitan and urban, and 25% of the inhabitants are students. But Germans my age basically have one level of dress-- jeans, sneakers (always stylish sneakers, but sneakers nonetheless), some kind of nice tee, scarf, jacket. ALWAYS. Usually no matter the temperature as well. Even when we went out to the club one night, all the people there were still wearing jeans and sneakers and I felt like such a tool for dressing up. It's something that has always bothered me while being here, and I had to dress down my wardrobe when I got here, and I'm really excited to wear something besides a v-neck tee and jeans. The bright pink sneakers I bought here will not even be returning home with me (not out of spite, but they are literally falling apart.)
pfand: this odd word means a deposit you pay on a bottle. and it's really annoying. when you buy most bottles of drinks, you pay extra for them, as a deposit, and then when you bring the bottle back into this pfand machine located in grocery stores, you get that money back. it's usually 8 cents for glass and 25 cents for plastic. this is the way germany encourages recycling, but honestly it's a pain in the butt. i'm going to recycle anyways, but making me keep all my bottles and then lugging them to to grocery store is really annoying.
Alright that's all! Well, all I cared to write about, but that really was all that was on my list. Stay tuned for Part 3-- what I'll be excited to return to!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Single Digits
As Cory so beautifully pointed out yesterday, I am now into single digits with my time left in Heidelberg/Germany/Europe/abroad. All the AJYers have started to get really emotional and I keep trying to figure out how I'm feeling. Honestly, it just hasn't really hit me yet. Yesterday I had my last final which means I am officially done with all my work for the semester... I still have to attend the final classes on Wednesday and Thursday, but I don't have to do anything for them except show up. So I am officially free to just enjoy the rest of my time without worrying about any school work (not that I was worrying too much about it in the first place...)
But as I said, it just hasn't really hit me yet that in eight days, I will be back in the US, back in Virginia, back in my house, back in my bed... I'll be driving, I'll be seeing my friends whom I haven't seen in months, I'll be seeing my mom, I'll be speaking and hearing English everywhere I go... it's just going to be so weird that I'm just not really thinking about it. Though I guess I do have to start packing....hmmm...
A few weeks ago I began making a list to help me get excited about coming home but also to realize what I've enjoyed during my time here. I guess I'll share it now.
Things I'll miss most about Germany:
-Eckstein: I don't know how much I've talked about this bar on my blog, but I am honestly going to miss it SO MUCH. Because I turned 21 overseas, the bar scene in Heidelberg was the first I really knew. I just love this bar--the atmosphere, the crazy rock metal they play, karaoke Wednesdays, Monday specials, the bartenders, Koelsch Kranz Wednesdays, just everything. We go to this bar usually at least twice a week, the bartenders know us, we never have to pay until the end of the night, we made it onto the menu...it's our version of Cheers--where everyone knows your name! We went last night to celebrate the end of work, and the bartender gave us all free shots because it's our last week, and Wednesday is "ganz kranz Mittwoch" where we are all going to attempt to drink an entire kranz. Get ready.
-German Beer: As many of you know, I've hated beer for basically all of my college life and refused to drink it, but last semester I realized that if I was going to Germany for half a year, I had to learn to drink it. When I came to Germany, I tolerated beer, but I still didn't know much about it. After a few weeks, I fell in love with German beer. I love it! Every kind of Pils and Helles... I'll have to sample every American beer when I get home and figure out what I like now!
-Mass Biers in Beerhalls: (I promise this whole list doesn't revolve around beer!) When people think of Germany, they think of beer and Oktoberfest. I honestly love getting a giant liter glass of beer and sitting in an old beer hall for an hour drinking that beer. I had liter beers in Munich and at Springfest, but we've also found a place to get them in Heidelberg, and I am really going to miss that. Also, since I didn't start ordering alcohol until I got to Europe this year, I only know sizes based on the metric system (liters, etc.) so when I see measurements of drinks at a bar in the states, I am not going to have any idea how much it is.
-Sunsets at 10pm: Heidelberg is on the same latitude as Nova Scotia basically, I had no idea it was so far north. As a result, the sun doesn't set until about 10pm which has been pretty cool. Sometimes we have no sense of time because of it, but it's always nice to start a Neckarwiese potluck at 8 and then have another two hours of daylight.
-Döner: If you've been to Germany, or if you visited me, you've had this wonderful lamb kebab sandwich, originally from Berlin. They are best in Germany and they just don't exist in the US. The perfect late night drunk food and even the perfect food anytime. 2,50 euro for a filling, delicious, greasy sandwich! I limited myself to one a week during the semester, and actually didn't even eat them that often, but I'm going all out this week.
-My Bike: It's been a love/hate relationship with my piece of crap bike. I had to get both wheels replaced in the beginning, it broke all the time, and currently the basket is being fastened to the bike with a plastic bag, but I love this thing. There's just something so romantic about riding a bike I think. When it's raining or hot or buggy (which it almost always is) I hate having to ride it, but it burns those extra calories and is infinitely better than taking the bus. I still don't know what I'm going to do with it... I'll either try to sell it back from where I bought it, or sell it to AJY, though they might not accept it cause of the plastic bag basket... It'll definitely be weird to get home and drive a mile to the grocery store or to someone's house... because I've been riding my bike to get anywhere and everywhere for five months now! We're even riding bikes to a little medieval town about 15 kilometers away this afternoon!
-Doppelkeks: Doppelkeks are a German style cookie-- two butter cookies with chocolate filling on the inside. A whole roll of these cookies runs about 80-90 cents and we just scarf them down at every AJY gathering. Basically all German cookies and chocolate I'm going to have a tough withdrawal from.
-German chocolate: okay of course this had to make the list. I've tried to limit myself over the course of the semester, but there are no rules this week. And no doubt I'm bringing home like 20 packs of Ritter Sport in my suitcase.
-Extra Blatt Buffet: Extra Blatt is a German cafe chain, and there's a big one on Hauptstrasse that has the most amazing breakfast buffet. We've made an event out of our meals there-- a marathon event. All you can eat of fresh warm rolls, croissants, cereal, yogurt, eggs, sausage, fruit, juice, cheese, and more. Our next one is planned for this Thursday.
-Running in Heidelberg: Heidelberg is a fairly small city, so there's a lot of great places to run. I frequented the Neckarwiese a lot, and could decide how far I wanted to go by picking which bridge to turn around on, but away from the city behind my dorm are kilometers and kilometers of farmland before you get to Mannheim, and these barren lands have been great to run through because there's no one around and it's just so peaceful looking at giant mountains on either side of you and little towns nestled in these hills. I haven't been to a gym/worked out in months, but I am happy to say that I've still been running 4-5 times a week (except when I'm traveling) so hopefully my marathon dreams can live on!
-Bridge Drinking: Being Europe, there are no open container laws, so it's typical of German culture to walk down the street, honestly at any time of the day, and enjoy a nice beer. Before we go out to the bars, if it's a nice night, we like to grab a couple cheap beers from the convenient store, and go out to our little nook on the old bridge and enjoy some beers. All while looking at the beautiful Neckar, the castle, and the Altstadt.
-Muesli: this is a special granola/oats concoction with raisins and nuts, mix it with milk or yogurt and boom, breakfast! For the last several months I've switched daily between an omelet and a bowl of Muesli for breakfast. They don't really have such cereal in the US, schade...
-AJY people: This has honestly been the best part of my whole abroad experience, and I realize that the point of going abroad is definitely not to make a bunch of great new American friends, but my time in Heidelberg would not have been as amazing without these people. I've talked to people who have done this program during other semesters, and nearly everyone has not had as great a group as we've had. From day 1, everyone clicked, everyone was friends, there's no drama, everyone loves each other! Nearly every weekend we have cookouts or parties together. AJY is starting to get crazy and emotional so it'll be interesting to see how people start acting as we start leaving one by one...
-Gouda cheese: yes yes yes, i KNOW there is gouda in America...BUTTTT, not as much as in Germany. Gouda is to Germany, what Cheddar is to America. It's just the cheese of choice, and I like it better than cheddar. Just cheese in Europe in general...and bread.
-Going out on weeknights: As everyone knows, school abroad is simply not as taxing as in the states. I had no class on Tuesdays, and on Thursdays class didn't start for me until 4:15, and then no class Friday either, so going out on weeknights was a regular occurrence. I honestly went out more on weeknights than on weekends-- the specials were better and the bars weren't uncomfortably packed, plus a lot of weekends I was traveling. Back at BC, if I had class the next day, I would never even think to go out that night. That may change a bit next year, considering I'll be a senior and will be 21, and my only class on Fridays is at 2pm... but definitely not as frequently as I've done in Heidelberg.
Heidelberg: Of course, I'm obviously going to miss Heidelberg itself. It's the perfect size city to live in, you can walk from one end to the other in 40-45 minutes, and I truly know it. I've never lived directly in a city (suburbs of DC and suburbs of Boston) so I don't know all the areas of those cities, but here, I know all the areas (Altstadt, Weststadt, Neuenheim, INF, Schlierbach, usw.) and I can give people directions to anything, I know all the buses and trains, I just know the city! And it is a BEAUTIFUL city. It's got the perfect balance between natural beauty and architectural beauty, perfect mix of new and old. And every day biking to class or downtown, when I ride across the Bismarkplatz bridge to cross the river, that view of the Old Bridge nestled between the two mountains on either side, just gets me every time.
-Eating outside: This is a European thing in general which just has not caught on in the states. Europeans just do EVERYTHING outside. Even when it's early Spring and still freezing outside, they still eat outside! They eat outside and people watch, enjoy the beautiful surroundings, and just take time to enjoy their meals and life! Even on Sundays when EVERYTHING is closed, the entire city is outside either on the Neckarwiese, or just walking down Hauptstrasse window shopping and enjoying some gelato. No one ever eats outside back home and I've never really understood why, and that's something I'm really going to miss.
-Bakeries: BREADDDDDDD. Fresh bread! Bakeries on every corner. Bread bread bread bread bread. I honestly didn't take enough advantage of bakeries being everywhere during my time here, because I was frequently trying not to eat bread to make up for the beer and chocolate I was consuming. One more week to eat all the bread I can!
-Train Drinking: This is similar to bridge drinking, but a different mentality. As said, no open container laws in Germany, and train travel is EXTREMELY popular. What do you do when you're going to be stuck on a train for the next few hours? Enjoy some beers of course! And honestly, this is not just a thing that American students do because we're all alcoholics. Go on any German train at any time of day, morning or night, and you will see many many Germans on trains enjoying a beer...or two or three. It's a great way to socialize with friends, especially because you're not worrying about being behind the wheel. I'd say we've all become pretty German in that regard, and love to enjoy a nice beer on a long train ride.
ALRIGHT. WOW. That was so long, but I just felt the need to explain everything I listed. I'll make this list in parts... I'll just keep the best things about being abroad up here for now, and as the date of my return looms closer, I'll follow up with things I'm not going to miss about Germany, and probably the last or penultimate night, I'll post things I'm most looking forward to coming back to. Stay tuned!
But as I said, it just hasn't really hit me yet that in eight days, I will be back in the US, back in Virginia, back in my house, back in my bed... I'll be driving, I'll be seeing my friends whom I haven't seen in months, I'll be seeing my mom, I'll be speaking and hearing English everywhere I go... it's just going to be so weird that I'm just not really thinking about it. Though I guess I do have to start packing....hmmm...
A few weeks ago I began making a list to help me get excited about coming home but also to realize what I've enjoyed during my time here. I guess I'll share it now.
Things I'll miss most about Germany:
-Eckstein: I don't know how much I've talked about this bar on my blog, but I am honestly going to miss it SO MUCH. Because I turned 21 overseas, the bar scene in Heidelberg was the first I really knew. I just love this bar--the atmosphere, the crazy rock metal they play, karaoke Wednesdays, Monday specials, the bartenders, Koelsch Kranz Wednesdays, just everything. We go to this bar usually at least twice a week, the bartenders know us, we never have to pay until the end of the night, we made it onto the menu...it's our version of Cheers--where everyone knows your name! We went last night to celebrate the end of work, and the bartender gave us all free shots because it's our last week, and Wednesday is "ganz kranz Mittwoch" where we are all going to attempt to drink an entire kranz. Get ready.
-German Beer: As many of you know, I've hated beer for basically all of my college life and refused to drink it, but last semester I realized that if I was going to Germany for half a year, I had to learn to drink it. When I came to Germany, I tolerated beer, but I still didn't know much about it. After a few weeks, I fell in love with German beer. I love it! Every kind of Pils and Helles... I'll have to sample every American beer when I get home and figure out what I like now!
-Mass Biers in Beerhalls: (I promise this whole list doesn't revolve around beer!) When people think of Germany, they think of beer and Oktoberfest. I honestly love getting a giant liter glass of beer and sitting in an old beer hall for an hour drinking that beer. I had liter beers in Munich and at Springfest, but we've also found a place to get them in Heidelberg, and I am really going to miss that. Also, since I didn't start ordering alcohol until I got to Europe this year, I only know sizes based on the metric system (liters, etc.) so when I see measurements of drinks at a bar in the states, I am not going to have any idea how much it is.
-Sunsets at 10pm: Heidelberg is on the same latitude as Nova Scotia basically, I had no idea it was so far north. As a result, the sun doesn't set until about 10pm which has been pretty cool. Sometimes we have no sense of time because of it, but it's always nice to start a Neckarwiese potluck at 8 and then have another two hours of daylight.
-Döner: If you've been to Germany, or if you visited me, you've had this wonderful lamb kebab sandwich, originally from Berlin. They are best in Germany and they just don't exist in the US. The perfect late night drunk food and even the perfect food anytime. 2,50 euro for a filling, delicious, greasy sandwich! I limited myself to one a week during the semester, and actually didn't even eat them that often, but I'm going all out this week.
-My Bike: It's been a love/hate relationship with my piece of crap bike. I had to get both wheels replaced in the beginning, it broke all the time, and currently the basket is being fastened to the bike with a plastic bag, but I love this thing. There's just something so romantic about riding a bike I think. When it's raining or hot or buggy (which it almost always is) I hate having to ride it, but it burns those extra calories and is infinitely better than taking the bus. I still don't know what I'm going to do with it... I'll either try to sell it back from where I bought it, or sell it to AJY, though they might not accept it cause of the plastic bag basket... It'll definitely be weird to get home and drive a mile to the grocery store or to someone's house... because I've been riding my bike to get anywhere and everywhere for five months now! We're even riding bikes to a little medieval town about 15 kilometers away this afternoon!
-Doppelkeks: Doppelkeks are a German style cookie-- two butter cookies with chocolate filling on the inside. A whole roll of these cookies runs about 80-90 cents and we just scarf them down at every AJY gathering. Basically all German cookies and chocolate I'm going to have a tough withdrawal from.
-German chocolate: okay of course this had to make the list. I've tried to limit myself over the course of the semester, but there are no rules this week. And no doubt I'm bringing home like 20 packs of Ritter Sport in my suitcase.
-Extra Blatt Buffet: Extra Blatt is a German cafe chain, and there's a big one on Hauptstrasse that has the most amazing breakfast buffet. We've made an event out of our meals there-- a marathon event. All you can eat of fresh warm rolls, croissants, cereal, yogurt, eggs, sausage, fruit, juice, cheese, and more. Our next one is planned for this Thursday.
-Running in Heidelberg: Heidelberg is a fairly small city, so there's a lot of great places to run. I frequented the Neckarwiese a lot, and could decide how far I wanted to go by picking which bridge to turn around on, but away from the city behind my dorm are kilometers and kilometers of farmland before you get to Mannheim, and these barren lands have been great to run through because there's no one around and it's just so peaceful looking at giant mountains on either side of you and little towns nestled in these hills. I haven't been to a gym/worked out in months, but I am happy to say that I've still been running 4-5 times a week (except when I'm traveling) so hopefully my marathon dreams can live on!
-Bridge Drinking: Being Europe, there are no open container laws, so it's typical of German culture to walk down the street, honestly at any time of the day, and enjoy a nice beer. Before we go out to the bars, if it's a nice night, we like to grab a couple cheap beers from the convenient store, and go out to our little nook on the old bridge and enjoy some beers. All while looking at the beautiful Neckar, the castle, and the Altstadt.
-Muesli: this is a special granola/oats concoction with raisins and nuts, mix it with milk or yogurt and boom, breakfast! For the last several months I've switched daily between an omelet and a bowl of Muesli for breakfast. They don't really have such cereal in the US, schade...
-AJY people: This has honestly been the best part of my whole abroad experience, and I realize that the point of going abroad is definitely not to make a bunch of great new American friends, but my time in Heidelberg would not have been as amazing without these people. I've talked to people who have done this program during other semesters, and nearly everyone has not had as great a group as we've had. From day 1, everyone clicked, everyone was friends, there's no drama, everyone loves each other! Nearly every weekend we have cookouts or parties together. AJY is starting to get crazy and emotional so it'll be interesting to see how people start acting as we start leaving one by one...
-Gouda cheese: yes yes yes, i KNOW there is gouda in America...BUTTTT, not as much as in Germany. Gouda is to Germany, what Cheddar is to America. It's just the cheese of choice, and I like it better than cheddar. Just cheese in Europe in general...and bread.
-Going out on weeknights: As everyone knows, school abroad is simply not as taxing as in the states. I had no class on Tuesdays, and on Thursdays class didn't start for me until 4:15, and then no class Friday either, so going out on weeknights was a regular occurrence. I honestly went out more on weeknights than on weekends-- the specials were better and the bars weren't uncomfortably packed, plus a lot of weekends I was traveling. Back at BC, if I had class the next day, I would never even think to go out that night. That may change a bit next year, considering I'll be a senior and will be 21, and my only class on Fridays is at 2pm... but definitely not as frequently as I've done in Heidelberg.
Heidelberg: Of course, I'm obviously going to miss Heidelberg itself. It's the perfect size city to live in, you can walk from one end to the other in 40-45 minutes, and I truly know it. I've never lived directly in a city (suburbs of DC and suburbs of Boston) so I don't know all the areas of those cities, but here, I know all the areas (Altstadt, Weststadt, Neuenheim, INF, Schlierbach, usw.) and I can give people directions to anything, I know all the buses and trains, I just know the city! And it is a BEAUTIFUL city. It's got the perfect balance between natural beauty and architectural beauty, perfect mix of new and old. And every day biking to class or downtown, when I ride across the Bismarkplatz bridge to cross the river, that view of the Old Bridge nestled between the two mountains on either side, just gets me every time.
-Eating outside: This is a European thing in general which just has not caught on in the states. Europeans just do EVERYTHING outside. Even when it's early Spring and still freezing outside, they still eat outside! They eat outside and people watch, enjoy the beautiful surroundings, and just take time to enjoy their meals and life! Even on Sundays when EVERYTHING is closed, the entire city is outside either on the Neckarwiese, or just walking down Hauptstrasse window shopping and enjoying some gelato. No one ever eats outside back home and I've never really understood why, and that's something I'm really going to miss.
-Bakeries: BREADDDDDDD. Fresh bread! Bakeries on every corner. Bread bread bread bread bread. I honestly didn't take enough advantage of bakeries being everywhere during my time here, because I was frequently trying not to eat bread to make up for the beer and chocolate I was consuming. One more week to eat all the bread I can!
-Train Drinking: This is similar to bridge drinking, but a different mentality. As said, no open container laws in Germany, and train travel is EXTREMELY popular. What do you do when you're going to be stuck on a train for the next few hours? Enjoy some beers of course! And honestly, this is not just a thing that American students do because we're all alcoholics. Go on any German train at any time of day, morning or night, and you will see many many Germans on trains enjoying a beer...or two or three. It's a great way to socialize with friends, especially because you're not worrying about being behind the wheel. I'd say we've all become pretty German in that regard, and love to enjoy a nice beer on a long train ride.
ALRIGHT. WOW. That was so long, but I just felt the need to explain everything I listed. I'll make this list in parts... I'll just keep the best things about being abroad up here for now, and as the date of my return looms closer, I'll follow up with things I'm not going to miss about Germany, and probably the last or penultimate night, I'll post things I'm most looking forward to coming back to. Stay tuned!
Monday, July 11, 2011
ich hab mein herz in heidelberg verloren
this blog post title, also the title of my second heidelberg facebook album, is the title of a famous song translated as "i lost my heart in heidelberg"
well, this evening, i realized how true that is. after tonight, i've got basically two weeks and one day left in germany. i just had one of the most amazing weekends of my life in interlaken, switzerland with becca (uploading pics to facebook right now, hopefully i can get an update about it on the blog this week...) we didn't get back until almost midnight last night, and i had class and internship all day, so unfortunately i spent most of the day inside, but it was another GORGEOUS day. i've gotten into such a routine-- wake up, breakfast/run/do some homework, bike along the neckar to altstadt to either class or internship, grab some food maybe, bar in the evening maybe, maybe someone's house for dinner, bike home along the neckar, usw.
today after frau said's class ended at 8, becca and i went to grab some doener along hauptstrasse and then sat in the platz that is overlooked by the castle with the big jesus and mary statue and it hit me-- I LOVE THIS CITY. sometimes i get annoyed by all the tourists clogging the streets, or by the random downpours of rain, or the bikes and bikes and bikes that crowd ploeck (i'm one of them!) and other things, but when i just took half an hour this evening after my busy day to take a nice leisurely spazieren and walk down the smaller cobblestone streets that run perpendicular to hauptstrasse, and then sit outside in the platz on the loveliest of evenings being watched by a castle that people travel from all over the world to see, it's pretty spectacular.
with the exception of a day trip to strasbourg on saturday, i'm in heidelberg until i leave, and after a whole lot of traveling over the last month, i am completely ready for that time left here in this city.
well, this evening, i realized how true that is. after tonight, i've got basically two weeks and one day left in germany. i just had one of the most amazing weekends of my life in interlaken, switzerland with becca (uploading pics to facebook right now, hopefully i can get an update about it on the blog this week...) we didn't get back until almost midnight last night, and i had class and internship all day, so unfortunately i spent most of the day inside, but it was another GORGEOUS day. i've gotten into such a routine-- wake up, breakfast/run/do some homework, bike along the neckar to altstadt to either class or internship, grab some food maybe, bar in the evening maybe, maybe someone's house for dinner, bike home along the neckar, usw.
today after frau said's class ended at 8, becca and i went to grab some doener along hauptstrasse and then sat in the platz that is overlooked by the castle with the big jesus and mary statue and it hit me-- I LOVE THIS CITY. sometimes i get annoyed by all the tourists clogging the streets, or by the random downpours of rain, or the bikes and bikes and bikes that crowd ploeck (i'm one of them!) and other things, but when i just took half an hour this evening after my busy day to take a nice leisurely spazieren and walk down the smaller cobblestone streets that run perpendicular to hauptstrasse, and then sit outside in the platz on the loveliest of evenings being watched by a castle that people travel from all over the world to see, it's pretty spectacular.
with the exception of a day trip to strasbourg on saturday, i'm in heidelberg until i leave, and after a whole lot of traveling over the last month, i am completely ready for that time left here in this city.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
crunch time
I HAVE LESS THAN THREE WEEKS LEFT IN GERMANY. I just have absolutely no idea where the time went. I can tell we're all realizing it as well, because everyone has just been so loving to one another...think of the end of summer camp...with finals.
Oh yeah! FINALS! Cause remember, I'm still in school? Finals here are a little different than they are back home. I have my finals spread out throughout the whole month... but I'm also in classes the whole month. For example, for my German Poli Sci class, we had our final paper due Monday and took our final on Monday as well... but we've still got two more classes. Now personally, once I've turned in my final paper (Hausarbeit) and taken my final (Klausur/Abschlusspruefung), I don't want to go to class anymore. Oh well...
For my conversation class, Dan and I had our big presentation yesterday which actually went really well. That was the last session for that class, but I don't have to turn in the paper until next week. For my Popmusik class, we've got our Klausur next Thursday, and then we have the final class on the 21st (my last class of the semester). And finally, for my Goethe und Schiller class, my final paper is due tomorrow and our final is on the 18th. I've got one week left of my internship...so things are basically winding down.
I've been working day and night this last week on my final paper for my lit class and I'm happy to say I've got it done! Well... I sent it to a German friend so she can fix all the mistake I made, but otherwise it's done! It only had to be 3-5 pages, but in German university, that's actually like...5-7 pages because they use A4 style paper which is longer, and your papers here are 1.5 spaced rather than double spaced. My paper was on Goethe and the French Revolution, and I'm pretty impressed with myself. It's not the best paper ever and a lot of it probably sounds pretty stupid since it's in German, but I really feel as if it's a culmination of my semester abroad here in terms of school work. When I arrived here in February, I definitely would not have been able to produce a legit paper, using scholarly sources, auf deutsch. So that's pretty cool. Whenever I talk to people from home, they're always interested to know how my language skills are going. Honestly, my speaking is still pretty terrible. I just don't practice enough, and that's my own fault but I'm not obsessing about it. I hang out with usually only Americans, and it's human nature to speak in the language you know and in which you can express yourself. We've all kind of created our own Denglisch language, and we just randomly throw in German words every once in a while, because sometimes they just express what we want to say better than an English word. I'll definitely miss that when I get home, and I'll probably continue to do it until I realize people don't understand me.
Since all of my classes are in German, my comprehension level has greatly increased. My professors use a lot of giant words in class so sometimes what they're saying honestly goes over my head, but in general, I can understand people a lot better and don't have to think about every word. But there are on and off days. Some days I'll go to class and understand everything and be so in tune, and other days that part of my brain decided to sleep in and I don't take away anything from class and have to ask someone else. I am definitely going to miss hearing German all the time though. On the streets, on the bus, in the dorms, everywhere. Last Saturday Jennie and I went to the USA v. Colombia Women's World Cup Game and there were SO MANY Americans there! I was literally going through small-scale culture shock hearing that many people speaking English, and just hearing someone talking and being able to understand everything they're saying. It's going to be so weird being in English world again.
Monday was our 4th of July picnic/celebration on the Neckarwiese. Most everyone came out and we grilled burgers and hot dogs, ate Kraft mac and cheese (direct from America!), and tons of cookies and made s'mores! We also played a few rousing rounds of flunky ball, a wonderful outdoor drinking game involving running and chugging. A solid night. Last night was our last Eckstein karaoke session ever :( But it was honestly the best one we've ever had. Again, most everyone made an appearance, and we went through no one even knows how many Koelsch wheels.
I don't know what's on the agenda tonight, but I do have to start packing for Switzerland! Becca and I have got to catch the bus at 6:48am tomorrow morning, yikes. Then we've got a nearly five hour train ride to Interlaken, and we'll be there until Sunday evening. Right now the weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms which is extremely unfortunate considering I don't think you can bungee jump off high things when it's lightning... schade :/
Okay blog post has now turned into ramble about nothing, but at least I'm updating! Sorry about the lack of the pictures... they are all on Facebook though!
Oh yeah! FINALS! Cause remember, I'm still in school? Finals here are a little different than they are back home. I have my finals spread out throughout the whole month... but I'm also in classes the whole month. For example, for my German Poli Sci class, we had our final paper due Monday and took our final on Monday as well... but we've still got two more classes. Now personally, once I've turned in my final paper (Hausarbeit) and taken my final (Klausur/Abschlusspruefung), I don't want to go to class anymore. Oh well...
For my conversation class, Dan and I had our big presentation yesterday which actually went really well. That was the last session for that class, but I don't have to turn in the paper until next week. For my Popmusik class, we've got our Klausur next Thursday, and then we have the final class on the 21st (my last class of the semester). And finally, for my Goethe und Schiller class, my final paper is due tomorrow and our final is on the 18th. I've got one week left of my internship...so things are basically winding down.
I've been working day and night this last week on my final paper for my lit class and I'm happy to say I've got it done! Well... I sent it to a German friend so she can fix all the mistake I made, but otherwise it's done! It only had to be 3-5 pages, but in German university, that's actually like...5-7 pages because they use A4 style paper which is longer, and your papers here are 1.5 spaced rather than double spaced. My paper was on Goethe and the French Revolution, and I'm pretty impressed with myself. It's not the best paper ever and a lot of it probably sounds pretty stupid since it's in German, but I really feel as if it's a culmination of my semester abroad here in terms of school work. When I arrived here in February, I definitely would not have been able to produce a legit paper, using scholarly sources, auf deutsch. So that's pretty cool. Whenever I talk to people from home, they're always interested to know how my language skills are going. Honestly, my speaking is still pretty terrible. I just don't practice enough, and that's my own fault but I'm not obsessing about it. I hang out with usually only Americans, and it's human nature to speak in the language you know and in which you can express yourself. We've all kind of created our own Denglisch language, and we just randomly throw in German words every once in a while, because sometimes they just express what we want to say better than an English word. I'll definitely miss that when I get home, and I'll probably continue to do it until I realize people don't understand me.
Since all of my classes are in German, my comprehension level has greatly increased. My professors use a lot of giant words in class so sometimes what they're saying honestly goes over my head, but in general, I can understand people a lot better and don't have to think about every word. But there are on and off days. Some days I'll go to class and understand everything and be so in tune, and other days that part of my brain decided to sleep in and I don't take away anything from class and have to ask someone else. I am definitely going to miss hearing German all the time though. On the streets, on the bus, in the dorms, everywhere. Last Saturday Jennie and I went to the USA v. Colombia Women's World Cup Game and there were SO MANY Americans there! I was literally going through small-scale culture shock hearing that many people speaking English, and just hearing someone talking and being able to understand everything they're saying. It's going to be so weird being in English world again.
Monday was our 4th of July picnic/celebration on the Neckarwiese. Most everyone came out and we grilled burgers and hot dogs, ate Kraft mac and cheese (direct from America!), and tons of cookies and made s'mores! We also played a few rousing rounds of flunky ball, a wonderful outdoor drinking game involving running and chugging. A solid night. Last night was our last Eckstein karaoke session ever :( But it was honestly the best one we've ever had. Again, most everyone made an appearance, and we went through no one even knows how many Koelsch wheels.
I don't know what's on the agenda tonight, but I do have to start packing for Switzerland! Becca and I have got to catch the bus at 6:48am tomorrow morning, yikes. Then we've got a nearly five hour train ride to Interlaken, and we'll be there until Sunday evening. Right now the weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms which is extremely unfortunate considering I don't think you can bungee jump off high things when it's lightning... schade :/
Okay blog post has now turned into ramble about nothing, but at least I'm updating! Sorry about the lack of the pictures... they are all on Facebook though!
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Final Month
Alright, it's July 1st and I've got less than four weeks left in Germany. I'll be home on Wednesday July 27th. WOW.
I also am quite aware that I haven't updated my blog in a month...oops. I had a WONDERFUL trip to Lyon for YAYA in Europe-- stayed five nights in Mollie's apartment with my best friends from home, made lots of new friends, and loved seeing her life in France! We took a wonderful day trip to Annecy and went paddleboating on the lake--it was the most gorgeous day.
I got back to Heidelberg and had less than a week before I left for six nights to Portugal with six other friends in my program. We flew Ryanair--not at all as terrible as I had expected. We got to the beautiful old town of Faro on Tuesday evening, spent Wednesday all day at the beach, took a bus up to Lisbon on Thursday, stayed the night, back down to Faro on Friday, went to a beach on a desert island on Saturday, and spent Sunday at the regular Faro beach, and left early Monday morning to get back to Germany in time for class. It was an absolutely amazing vacation-- I love the beach and the sea and didn't realize how much I missed it until I was there! It truly was a vacation though because we got back and were immediately swamped with work (well, we did have time for a big celebration Monday night for Dan's 21st birthday...) but this next week is hell week for me.
Yes, hell week actually does exist abroad as well. I had a presentation yesterday, I've got a final on Monday, a giant presentation and paper due Wednesday, and then my final paper for my Lit class due Friday...whiiiich I haven't started. One step at a time and fortunately my grades hear don't transfer into my GPA back at BC :D Next Friday though, Becca and I will be spending the weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland doing some high adventure activities-- hopefully some bungee jumping! Tomorrow, Jennie and I are going to the Women's World Cup to see USA take on Colombia.
It's been a fantastic month with two weeks in other countries and just friends and happiness and merriment! With less than four weeks left I really won't be updating this blog too much because it honestly takes a lot of time to detail all of my trips-- but I did just want to write a quick catch-up post! Now back to some work...
I also am quite aware that I haven't updated my blog in a month...oops. I had a WONDERFUL trip to Lyon for YAYA in Europe-- stayed five nights in Mollie's apartment with my best friends from home, made lots of new friends, and loved seeing her life in France! We took a wonderful day trip to Annecy and went paddleboating on the lake--it was the most gorgeous day.
I got back to Heidelberg and had less than a week before I left for six nights to Portugal with six other friends in my program. We flew Ryanair--not at all as terrible as I had expected. We got to the beautiful old town of Faro on Tuesday evening, spent Wednesday all day at the beach, took a bus up to Lisbon on Thursday, stayed the night, back down to Faro on Friday, went to a beach on a desert island on Saturday, and spent Sunday at the regular Faro beach, and left early Monday morning to get back to Germany in time for class. It was an absolutely amazing vacation-- I love the beach and the sea and didn't realize how much I missed it until I was there! It truly was a vacation though because we got back and were immediately swamped with work (well, we did have time for a big celebration Monday night for Dan's 21st birthday...) but this next week is hell week for me.
Yes, hell week actually does exist abroad as well. I had a presentation yesterday, I've got a final on Monday, a giant presentation and paper due Wednesday, and then my final paper for my Lit class due Friday...whiiiich I haven't started. One step at a time and fortunately my grades hear don't transfer into my GPA back at BC :D Next Friday though, Becca and I will be spending the weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland doing some high adventure activities-- hopefully some bungee jumping! Tomorrow, Jennie and I are going to the Women's World Cup to see USA take on Colombia.
It's been a fantastic month with two weeks in other countries and just friends and happiness and merriment! With less than four weeks left I really won't be updating this blog too much because it honestly takes a lot of time to detail all of my trips-- but I did just want to write a quick catch-up post! Now back to some work...
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Schwarzwald and Fireworks (and lack of a witty title)
Yesterday we took a program study trip to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest.) When you imagine a location for all the old German fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel and the like, you're probably picturing the black forest. It's located in the southwest of the country, all in the southern part of Baden-Wuertemburg. Met at the train station bright and early at 8:30, boarded the bus, and made the two hour trip down on the autobahn. We always travel via train, so this was only the second time since being in Germany that I had ridden on a big charter bus on the highway. We were all pretty tired, but had an enjoyable bus ride. There was a clear division between our program all sitting in the back of the bus, and the summer students all in the front of the bus... yes, apparently we are still in middle school.
Arrived at the Schwarzwald Museum or whatever it was called... it was strange because Herr Doerr did our tour in English, the first time anyone in AJY has spoken English to us in over three months. Almost all the summer students know at least a good bit of German, so they went with their instructor on the German tour, but five of the kids don't know any German, so they came with us and Herr Doerr, which is why he did the tour in English. Not gonna lie, it was SO WEIRD listening to him speak English, and I can honestly understand him better when he speaks German. My spoken German has definitely improved just by me being here, but it's not something I've really been practicing... my written German is probably honestly at the same level because I haven't been writing a lot of German except a few notes in class that we usually copy off the powerpoint, but my comprehension has definitely improved. It's still not that great, but I definitely noticed during Herr Doerr's tour, when he would slip into German anyways and I wasn't even realizing that he was speaking another language because I was still comprehending it all.
So we saw the giant farms and farmhouses and huts of the old people that used to inhabit the Black Forest...they were all much smaller than people today so the ceilings and doorways were very small! The straw roofs were built to as low as possible in order to better insulate the house during the very cold winters.
After our little tour, we were free to walk around the premises. Will and I split a piece of freshly baked bread-- baked in the outdoor oven mmmmm.
Got bored with walking around, so we stopped at the little cafe/biergarten with Krista and Monika and ordered a piece of the famous black forest cake-- made with cherry filling, because cherries grow really well in the region.
Back on the bus and drove for another hour or so-- this time we were all wide awake and laughing our heads off at random stuff in the back of the bus. Yeah, we were the cool kids in the back of the bus. Those kids.
Finally arrived at our picnic site-- a SPECTACULAR view, but just random really tall grass to sit in while eating. We found a rock to sit on and eat, and I surprisingly enjoyed my weird curry spicy pasta salad I had made to eat, as well as some nice carrot sticks and cookies and an apple!
Back on the bus and drove to an area of the forest where the kloster ruins and waterfall are. All of that was pretty cool-- the waterfall was very pretty and it was a gorgeous day to walk all around nature, though we were all sweaty and gross on the bus ride home. As I've said, I got a new camera and this one has a "vivid colors" setting, which captures photos in...VIVID COLORS! Seriously, it makes the photos so beautiful and bright, and I don't think I'll be able to switch back to the normal setting again...
Just check out the colors:
Left the waterfall, back on the bus, and I think every one of us fell asleep and were really groggy and sweaty when we got back to HD. We all stopped at Kaufland afterwards to pick up some beer, went home to shower, and met on the Wiese for pincincing and snacking and drinking for a couple hours waiting for the fireworks! On a few summer nights, Heidelberg puts on summer fireworks right next to the castle, so the Wiese and bridges were packed with people eagerly awaiting. Jolly and buzzed with some cups of cheer, we were all just enjoying the night (except for the GIANT beetles that were attacking us...) and the company of one another.
After relocating to escape the plague of beetles and forever losing a beloved shoe in the process, we awaited the fireworks. It doesn't get completely dark in HD until about 10pm so they didn't start until 10:15. Gotta say...unimpressive. And I think it's because we're all Americans and were expecting something along the lines of July 4th fireworks (especially me having seen them in DC so many times...) They were still cool, but very unimpressive. Stayed out on the Wiese for another hour or so...I think at some point we broke into choruses of Disney songs.
Made our way to the bridge and crossed the river into the Altstadt which was a SHIT SHOW. A combination of a Saturday at midnight and the fireworks shortly before had created a madhouse on Unterestrasse and Hauptstrasse, all along every bar. And here I am with only one shoe. Luckily I was careful though and avoided any broken glass! All of our usual bars were PACKED (I rarely go into the Altstadt on Saturday nights specifically because it is just too crowded to be fun unless you get there early enough to snag a table) so we made our way farther down Hauptstrasse and visited teh Dubliner--one of two Irish pubs in HD. I've always wanted to go, and it was only comfortably crowded-- we ordered a liter of beer:
It got really late and we called it a night. Borrowed a pair of Krista's shoes so I was able to successfully make it home. It was a pretty lazy Sunday today-- made some actual progress on my work and had a good, long run. I just had a four day weekend, but with two full-day trips, it went by so quickly and I am exhausted! Leaving for Lyon on Thursday, so soon before YAYA in Europe!!
Arrived at the Schwarzwald Museum or whatever it was called... it was strange because Herr Doerr did our tour in English, the first time anyone in AJY has spoken English to us in over three months. Almost all the summer students know at least a good bit of German, so they went with their instructor on the German tour, but five of the kids don't know any German, so they came with us and Herr Doerr, which is why he did the tour in English. Not gonna lie, it was SO WEIRD listening to him speak English, and I can honestly understand him better when he speaks German. My spoken German has definitely improved just by me being here, but it's not something I've really been practicing... my written German is probably honestly at the same level because I haven't been writing a lot of German except a few notes in class that we usually copy off the powerpoint, but my comprehension has definitely improved. It's still not that great, but I definitely noticed during Herr Doerr's tour, when he would slip into German anyways and I wasn't even realizing that he was speaking another language because I was still comprehending it all.
So we saw the giant farms and farmhouses and huts of the old people that used to inhabit the Black Forest...they were all much smaller than people today so the ceilings and doorways were very small! The straw roofs were built to as low as possible in order to better insulate the house during the very cold winters.
After our little tour, we were free to walk around the premises. Will and I split a piece of freshly baked bread-- baked in the outdoor oven mmmmm.
Got bored with walking around, so we stopped at the little cafe/biergarten with Krista and Monika and ordered a piece of the famous black forest cake-- made with cherry filling, because cherries grow really well in the region.
Back on the bus and drove for another hour or so-- this time we were all wide awake and laughing our heads off at random stuff in the back of the bus. Yeah, we were the cool kids in the back of the bus. Those kids.
Finally arrived at our picnic site-- a SPECTACULAR view, but just random really tall grass to sit in while eating. We found a rock to sit on and eat, and I surprisingly enjoyed my weird curry spicy pasta salad I had made to eat, as well as some nice carrot sticks and cookies and an apple!
Back on the bus and drove to an area of the forest where the kloster ruins and waterfall are. All of that was pretty cool-- the waterfall was very pretty and it was a gorgeous day to walk all around nature, though we were all sweaty and gross on the bus ride home. As I've said, I got a new camera and this one has a "vivid colors" setting, which captures photos in...VIVID COLORS! Seriously, it makes the photos so beautiful and bright, and I don't think I'll be able to switch back to the normal setting again...
Just check out the colors:
Left the waterfall, back on the bus, and I think every one of us fell asleep and were really groggy and sweaty when we got back to HD. We all stopped at Kaufland afterwards to pick up some beer, went home to shower, and met on the Wiese for pincincing and snacking and drinking for a couple hours waiting for the fireworks! On a few summer nights, Heidelberg puts on summer fireworks right next to the castle, so the Wiese and bridges were packed with people eagerly awaiting. Jolly and buzzed with some cups of cheer, we were all just enjoying the night (except for the GIANT beetles that were attacking us...) and the company of one another.
After relocating to escape the plague of beetles and forever losing a beloved shoe in the process, we awaited the fireworks. It doesn't get completely dark in HD until about 10pm so they didn't start until 10:15. Gotta say...unimpressive. And I think it's because we're all Americans and were expecting something along the lines of July 4th fireworks (especially me having seen them in DC so many times...) They were still cool, but very unimpressive. Stayed out on the Wiese for another hour or so...I think at some point we broke into choruses of Disney songs.
Made our way to the bridge and crossed the river into the Altstadt which was a SHIT SHOW. A combination of a Saturday at midnight and the fireworks shortly before had created a madhouse on Unterestrasse and Hauptstrasse, all along every bar. And here I am with only one shoe. Luckily I was careful though and avoided any broken glass! All of our usual bars were PACKED (I rarely go into the Altstadt on Saturday nights specifically because it is just too crowded to be fun unless you get there early enough to snag a table) so we made our way farther down Hauptstrasse and visited teh Dubliner--one of two Irish pubs in HD. I've always wanted to go, and it was only comfortably crowded-- we ordered a liter of beer:
It got really late and we called it a night. Borrowed a pair of Krista's shoes so I was able to successfully make it home. It was a pretty lazy Sunday today-- made some actual progress on my work and had a good, long run. I just had a four day weekend, but with two full-day trips, it went by so quickly and I am exhausted! Leaving for Lyon on Thursday, so soon before YAYA in Europe!!
Friday, June 3, 2011
FINALLY GOT A NEW CAMERA!!
I will admit that part of the reason contributing to my lack of blogging was the fact that I had gone more than two weeks without my camera. It ended up being only 15 euro more to buy a completely new one, so I just decided to do that. I finally bought it two days ago, and have since been taking photos galore, after going through a basic withdrawal. I LOVE taking pictures and just documenting life, because I'm one of those people that loves going through old photos and just remembering great memories with great people :)
Yesterday was a Catholic holiday-- Feast of the Ascension or something... so this being Europe, EVERYTHING was closed, and EVERYONE was out and about. With no class, a group of us took a day trip to Würzburg, a city maybe a little bigger than Heidelberg, but in Bavaria, about a two-three hour train ride away. We've been wanting to take a trip here for a while because it's free to take the train there with our semester passes, so this random holiday seemed a perfect day to do so!
Boarded the train with snacks (and beer...) galore at 8:55am. I love the fact that I get up earlier on holidays than I would on a normal school day... The previous day being Wednesday, our Stammtisch day, I was a bit hungover, so did not participate in the train drinking until the way back to Heidelberg, but we've got some champs in AJY, and they were going strong when we boarded that first train. Sometimes it's really nice to have your buddy doing his internship at a brewery where he can get all the free beer he can carry!
Of course these being regional trains and this being a holiday, our second train came really late, and then kept breaking down (German trains are not always so punctual as everyone believes...) and it was very crowded and we all got stuck sitting in the section between the compartments next to the bathroom for two hours... it wasn't too terrible though. Finally arrived in the city! None of us had looked up anything about it really-- Becca and I met a girl in our hostel in Istanbul actually from there, so she had told us some things to do, but other than that, we were just winging it.
Will, Krista, and Monika decided to do some city exploring and went off to see the fortress and Residenz and such. We were left with...wait for it...BANANA CLUB. That's what we refer to our group that went to Amsterdam: Brock, Dan, Matt, Becca, and me. I'm always trying to get us to hang out more, and here we were in a new city without us even realizing! So we started walking around and such, I was taking photos galore, just happy to have a way to document my life again!
We decided that Wuerzburg is basically the Heidelberg of Bavaria. It had the old fortress up on the hill, the old bridge with statues, a main river separating the Altstadt and the more residential areas, with the train station randomly at the edge of the city.
Banana Club together again!
Of course I needed a picture in front of the river and fortress
And what's a day without some statue imitation??
Walked and walked and walked, until we finally found our destination-- the Stadtstrand! Our friend Steffi had told us about this when we told her wanted to go to Wuerzburg. It's a little strand along the river set up like a beach-- beach chairs and sand and tables and a bar and umbrellas. All of us except Dan are going to Portugal in a few weeks, so we knew we had to start on our tans ;) We got into our swimsuits, and were ready to soak in the rays for a couple hours with some drinks... little did we know though, that the cocktail of the week was non-alcoholic, but boy was it DELICIOUS! We felt pretty dumb about that one, though haha
After a couple hours and a few drinks and few sunburns (Becca and I are in the champs league of tanning so we came out unharmed I'd like to note) we said goodbye to the Stadtstrand and went on a quest for food. Came upon a playground though, and us being members of AJY, we had to explore it! We coined the Krampus of Wuerzburg-- a merry-go-round ride that made me so dizzy I thought I was going to die.
After that little detour, kept searching for food-- harder than you'd think because everything was closed due to the Feiertag. Made our way to the Altstadt and found some churches (what's a trip to a European city without seeing some churches?!) I don't know what the first was called but it was very pretty on the inside, and the second was the Wuerzburger Dom, much more impressive on the outside than the inside.
Still starving... we continued our quest. Matt and Dan resorted to McDonalds and I was about to resort to Pizza Hut until we came across a wine festival! Becca, Brock, and I got our Bavarian wurst und kartoffeln specialties, and when Becca tried to order a beer and was told they didn't have beer, we learned that we were at the Wuersburg wine festival! So, when in Rome... I ordered a nice glass, and it was delicious! Honestly, all wine that is not 2 or 3 euro from the grocery store is delicious-- but really, it was a very good halbtrocken weiswein. Also managed to steal the glass for my collection!
It was approaching 6 and we called up the others and decided to take the 6:36 train to get back to Heidelberg around 9 (of course all the trains were late though, so we didn't get back until 10... and Becca not until midnight which is a whole other story on its own hahah) so we started making our way to the train station but had some time to kill, so we stopped at a Biergarten and had some afternoon holiday beers before our long journey back home...
Met up with the others at the station, grabbed some sustinents (aka beer and chocolate) and did a long journey home. Got back to my room and watched a movie, skyped with Mollie while she was doing last minute preparations before YAYA in Europe in Italy, and then went to sleep!
Today was BEAUTIFUL. I had planned to spend the day getting some work done (it's legit all starting to creep up on me and I don't like it at all!)...got a little done, but then I had to go grocery shopping for the picnic tomorrow, and by the time I got home after biking, I was sooo sweaty. I called up Becca and we went to the Schwimmbad which is a 10 minute walk from our house. It's 2,60 euro to go for as long as you want during the day-- they've got a biergarten inside, and a snackbar, and volleyball courts, and two GIANT pools, with a giant slide, and giant diving boards, and students galore. Definitely worth the price. We sun a lot on the Neckar, but the great thing about the pool is that when you get too hot, you can go swim around a bit and cool off!
I'm realizing that this being-in-school-until-July thing is going to be very hard because I set out days to do work...but if it's a beautiful sunny hot day, all I want to do is be outside soaking in those rays and Vitamin D! Hmmmm....
Went for a run after the pool, and then prepared some kind of weird concoction for the picnic tomorrow, who knows how it'll taste, and then preceded to do some more work. I think all of AJY was doing work tonight, despite the fact that it's a Friday night. We've got a program trip to the Schwarzwald tomorrow and gotta catch the bus at 8:30am, so no one was up for going out. We'll be traveling with all the students in the summer program, and we're all wary to meet them, because we all feel as if HD is our turf...and they're encroaching. We'll see what happens though.
Yesterday was a Catholic holiday-- Feast of the Ascension or something... so this being Europe, EVERYTHING was closed, and EVERYONE was out and about. With no class, a group of us took a day trip to Würzburg, a city maybe a little bigger than Heidelberg, but in Bavaria, about a two-three hour train ride away. We've been wanting to take a trip here for a while because it's free to take the train there with our semester passes, so this random holiday seemed a perfect day to do so!
Boarded the train with snacks (and beer...) galore at 8:55am. I love the fact that I get up earlier on holidays than I would on a normal school day... The previous day being Wednesday, our Stammtisch day, I was a bit hungover, so did not participate in the train drinking until the way back to Heidelberg, but we've got some champs in AJY, and they were going strong when we boarded that first train. Sometimes it's really nice to have your buddy doing his internship at a brewery where he can get all the free beer he can carry!
Of course these being regional trains and this being a holiday, our second train came really late, and then kept breaking down (German trains are not always so punctual as everyone believes...) and it was very crowded and we all got stuck sitting in the section between the compartments next to the bathroom for two hours... it wasn't too terrible though. Finally arrived in the city! None of us had looked up anything about it really-- Becca and I met a girl in our hostel in Istanbul actually from there, so she had told us some things to do, but other than that, we were just winging it.
Will, Krista, and Monika decided to do some city exploring and went off to see the fortress and Residenz and such. We were left with...wait for it...BANANA CLUB. That's what we refer to our group that went to Amsterdam: Brock, Dan, Matt, Becca, and me. I'm always trying to get us to hang out more, and here we were in a new city without us even realizing! So we started walking around and such, I was taking photos galore, just happy to have a way to document my life again!
We decided that Wuerzburg is basically the Heidelberg of Bavaria. It had the old fortress up on the hill, the old bridge with statues, a main river separating the Altstadt and the more residential areas, with the train station randomly at the edge of the city.
Banana Club together again!
Of course I needed a picture in front of the river and fortress
And what's a day without some statue imitation??
Walked and walked and walked, until we finally found our destination-- the Stadtstrand! Our friend Steffi had told us about this when we told her wanted to go to Wuerzburg. It's a little strand along the river set up like a beach-- beach chairs and sand and tables and a bar and umbrellas. All of us except Dan are going to Portugal in a few weeks, so we knew we had to start on our tans ;) We got into our swimsuits, and were ready to soak in the rays for a couple hours with some drinks... little did we know though, that the cocktail of the week was non-alcoholic, but boy was it DELICIOUS! We felt pretty dumb about that one, though haha
After a couple hours and a few drinks and few sunburns (Becca and I are in the champs league of tanning so we came out unharmed I'd like to note) we said goodbye to the Stadtstrand and went on a quest for food. Came upon a playground though, and us being members of AJY, we had to explore it! We coined the Krampus of Wuerzburg-- a merry-go-round ride that made me so dizzy I thought I was going to die.
After that little detour, kept searching for food-- harder than you'd think because everything was closed due to the Feiertag. Made our way to the Altstadt and found some churches (what's a trip to a European city without seeing some churches?!) I don't know what the first was called but it was very pretty on the inside, and the second was the Wuerzburger Dom, much more impressive on the outside than the inside.
Still starving... we continued our quest. Matt and Dan resorted to McDonalds and I was about to resort to Pizza Hut until we came across a wine festival! Becca, Brock, and I got our Bavarian wurst und kartoffeln specialties, and when Becca tried to order a beer and was told they didn't have beer, we learned that we were at the Wuersburg wine festival! So, when in Rome... I ordered a nice glass, and it was delicious! Honestly, all wine that is not 2 or 3 euro from the grocery store is delicious-- but really, it was a very good halbtrocken weiswein. Also managed to steal the glass for my collection!
It was approaching 6 and we called up the others and decided to take the 6:36 train to get back to Heidelberg around 9 (of course all the trains were late though, so we didn't get back until 10... and Becca not until midnight which is a whole other story on its own hahah) so we started making our way to the train station but had some time to kill, so we stopped at a Biergarten and had some afternoon holiday beers before our long journey back home...
Met up with the others at the station, grabbed some sustinents (aka beer and chocolate) and did a long journey home. Got back to my room and watched a movie, skyped with Mollie while she was doing last minute preparations before YAYA in Europe in Italy, and then went to sleep!
Today was BEAUTIFUL. I had planned to spend the day getting some work done (it's legit all starting to creep up on me and I don't like it at all!)...got a little done, but then I had to go grocery shopping for the picnic tomorrow, and by the time I got home after biking, I was sooo sweaty. I called up Becca and we went to the Schwimmbad which is a 10 minute walk from our house. It's 2,60 euro to go for as long as you want during the day-- they've got a biergarten inside, and a snackbar, and volleyball courts, and two GIANT pools, with a giant slide, and giant diving boards, and students galore. Definitely worth the price. We sun a lot on the Neckar, but the great thing about the pool is that when you get too hot, you can go swim around a bit and cool off!
I'm realizing that this being-in-school-until-July thing is going to be very hard because I set out days to do work...but if it's a beautiful sunny hot day, all I want to do is be outside soaking in those rays and Vitamin D! Hmmmm....
Went for a run after the pool, and then prepared some kind of weird concoction for the picnic tomorrow, who knows how it'll taste, and then preceded to do some more work. I think all of AJY was doing work tonight, despite the fact that it's a Friday night. We've got a program trip to the Schwarzwald tomorrow and gotta catch the bus at 8:30am, so no one was up for going out. We'll be traveling with all the students in the summer program, and we're all wary to meet them, because we all feel as if HD is our turf...and they're encroaching. We'll see what happens though.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Less than two months left...
I haven't posted in a couple weeks, but there honestly hasn't been much to write about. I am awaiting my new camera (may my old one RIP) so I don't even have any fun pictures to post. I've been here in Heidelberg the last couple weeks though, just relaxing and enjoying the city and life abroad. The weather here leaves little to complain about and many of my days consist of just relaxing on the Neckar soaking in the sun. Life these last two weeks has just been class and friends pretty much!
Friday night I went to a rave party on a freakin' mountain! Definitely one of the craziest nights of my life-- how many times have you been at a party...on a mountain?! On Saturday, Jennie came and visited! I hadn't seen her since November so it was so nice to see her! We watched the Champs League Final at Marstall and spent the rest of our Saturday night skyping with Mollie, just finalizing YAYA in Europe plans. Sunday consisted of climbing the Heiligenberg and eating at all the best Heidelberg eateries-- Kebabhaus, Back-Factory, Eis, Scheeballs, and just food galore. It was just the most gorgeous day, and Jennie and I just strolled down Hauptstrasse eating our ice cream and just enjoying life. And that's when it hit me: I have less than two months left here! I've loved being here but I've admitted how much I've missed BC and home and such, but it hit me now that I really do love it here! I love all the friends I've made, I love this city, I would even go as far to say that I love the few pounds I've gained from all the chocolate and kebab and beer.
YAYA in Europe has officially begun-- Marianne and Liz are spending a quick night here on their way to Munich, and I'll be with all of them next weekend. Thursday is a holiday and our group here is planning a day trip to Wuerzburg, a city in Bavaria, and we've got an AJY trip to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) on Saturday. We're all pretty excited about that because all of AJY will be together again! I think everyone's starting to notice the elephant in the room that our time is waning! These last two weeks have gone by so quickly and tomorrow will be June!
I apologize for the extremely mundane post and my inability to express what I'm feeling right now-- I was talking to Mollie and trying to understand how she loves study abroad SO MUCH that she doesn't even want to go home, and she talked about how everyday is something new, and while she misses school sometimes, she knows that it'll be exactly the same when she gets back. And maybe her statements subconsciously hit something within me-- just how right she is. I was looking at the pictures of everyone that just graduated, and I realized that when I get back home and to school, that will be my life. Just living every moment of senior year before it ends. And that kind of scares me a lot and made me realize just the surreality of my life here--the amazing surreality. And now I don't want it to end! I don't understand why these kinds of feelings can't show themselves after one month or even two, but now after over three and I'm freaking out!
Okay okay okay... a little turn from my normal mostly unemotional posting-- but there had been a blog hiatus and I figured I'd just let it be known my current thoughts. As I said, I should get my new camera tomorrow and will finally be able to post some pics!
Friday night I went to a rave party on a freakin' mountain! Definitely one of the craziest nights of my life-- how many times have you been at a party...on a mountain?! On Saturday, Jennie came and visited! I hadn't seen her since November so it was so nice to see her! We watched the Champs League Final at Marstall and spent the rest of our Saturday night skyping with Mollie, just finalizing YAYA in Europe plans. Sunday consisted of climbing the Heiligenberg and eating at all the best Heidelberg eateries-- Kebabhaus, Back-Factory, Eis, Scheeballs, and just food galore. It was just the most gorgeous day, and Jennie and I just strolled down Hauptstrasse eating our ice cream and just enjoying life. And that's when it hit me: I have less than two months left here! I've loved being here but I've admitted how much I've missed BC and home and such, but it hit me now that I really do love it here! I love all the friends I've made, I love this city, I would even go as far to say that I love the few pounds I've gained from all the chocolate and kebab and beer.
YAYA in Europe has officially begun-- Marianne and Liz are spending a quick night here on their way to Munich, and I'll be with all of them next weekend. Thursday is a holiday and our group here is planning a day trip to Wuerzburg, a city in Bavaria, and we've got an AJY trip to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) on Saturday. We're all pretty excited about that because all of AJY will be together again! I think everyone's starting to notice the elephant in the room that our time is waning! These last two weeks have gone by so quickly and tomorrow will be June!
I apologize for the extremely mundane post and my inability to express what I'm feeling right now-- I was talking to Mollie and trying to understand how she loves study abroad SO MUCH that she doesn't even want to go home, and she talked about how everyday is something new, and while she misses school sometimes, she knows that it'll be exactly the same when she gets back. And maybe her statements subconsciously hit something within me-- just how right she is. I was looking at the pictures of everyone that just graduated, and I realized that when I get back home and to school, that will be my life. Just living every moment of senior year before it ends. And that kind of scares me a lot and made me realize just the surreality of my life here--the amazing surreality. And now I don't want it to end! I don't understand why these kinds of feelings can't show themselves after one month or even two, but now after over three and I'm freaking out!
Okay okay okay... a little turn from my normal mostly unemotional posting-- but there had been a blog hiatus and I figured I'd just let it be known my current thoughts. As I said, I should get my new camera tomorrow and will finally be able to post some pics!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
I -heart- Heidelberg
We all know those famous t-shirts that say "I -heart- NY" and how the trend has continued to many other cities, including Heidelberg. Well this week, the saying was absolutely true. This past week was just all about Heidelberg and Heidelberg was fantastic.
Katherine and I got back Sunday night and basically just crashed after a long day of traveling. Up the next morning, introduced Katherine to Hauptstrasse while I went to my first class. German classes are all about "Referats" (powerpoint presentations) and I had my first one of those with Robert. We did fine... but the group that went before us were total over-achievers and made us look really bad, but hey, what're ya gonna do? This always surprises people, but I've got a minor phobia of public speaking. So combine that with a presentation in German, a language where I can't just speak on the fly, I was pretty nervous, but it was all fine.
Met Katherine after class and we went up to the castle. My third time up there, and I'm sure not my last. Walked a little more around the city afterwards, I showed her the Alte Bruecke, and took her to a typical German Bakery (Back-Factory!). We also had lunch at Kebab-Haus--the best doeners in Heidelberg (and probably Germany...) and she was instantly converted. A lot of my friends in various places abroad have kebab places, but they're not the same as actually in Germany! Class again, and afterwards rallied some people to come out on a Monday to Eckstein. Gotta show visitors my favorite bar! Katherine got to meet some of my good friends on the trip and we had some drinks and some laughs and then made our way out, with a little late night kebab stop on the way home. She, Becca, and I all walked back along the Neckar back to the Feld, which is a very long walk but the time really flies after you've left a bar!
We were FINALLY able to sleep in Tuesday morning, after getting up early for four straight days. I had wanted to have a picnic on the Wiese but the weather unfortunately wasn't that great when Katherine was here-- big shame because HD is GORGEOUS on a beautiful day. Introduced her to the Mensa for lunch (one of my favorites!) and then I had a quick meeting for our program, and then we went and hiked up the Heiligenberg. I haven't climbed that mountain in more than two months and luckily I remembered the way to get up! Explored the Nazi Amphitheater and the monastery ruins. The cooler weather was actually quite welcomed during our hike, so I guess that was nice. We were the only ones on the trail and it was very peaceful just being in the quiet of nature, after spending all weekend in a busy city. Katherine studied abroad in Rome, one of Europe's biggest cities, which is a HUGE difference from Heidelberg.
Hiked back down the mountain, took some schlafchens, and then went out to Tiger Dragon for some Chinese. Brock and Dan had been raving about this place for weeks so I figured we'd all go--we ended up having a group of like 10 of us! But Brock and Dan were right--so cheap, so much food, and so delicious! After dinner we went to a shishah bar, because I wanted Katherine to experience how strong it is when it's at an actual Turkish place. Called it a night and caught the bus back home.
Woke up SUPER EARLY on Wednesday (aka, 6am) to get Katherine to the train station so she could get to the airport to fly back to America! I can't believe that she and Cassie are already home, and so many of my friends are packing their bags to fly back, and I've still got over two months! Since I was up so early I figured I'd be productive, so I did some necessary grocery shopping, went on a run, and then made my way to my internship and class. Of course the day Katherine left it was finally gorgeous weather again!
A little digression-- after class, the Portugal crew met up to book our flights. Meaning...I'm going to Portugal! Pretty random, I know. We had wanted to go to Mallorca, but the flights were a little too expensive, so we decided on Faro, Portugal (please just do a Google Image search for that city and be excited for me) which is a small town on the very tip of the Iberian peninsula. We've got a random Thursday off that weekend, so I'll be going for SIX NIGHTS and only missing one class! We figured out the hostels a few days ago as well: it'll be Brock, Monika, Becca, and I leaving on Tuesday June 21, Krista will meet us there on Wednesday, and then Will's gonna get there Friday, and then we all leave Monday morning. Krista and Monika are also working on a one-night stay in Lisbon, because if we're going to be in Portugal for six nights, we might as well see the capital. I'm SUPER excited. I've never been to Portugal, it's cheap, and it's just somewhere kind of cool that not many people go!
Alright so after Portugal planning, Brock, Becca, and I hit up the Mensa for dinner. Brock left to go do some homework before Eckstein, but I didn't have any work so Becca and I bought some beers and did a little bridge drinking enjoying the sunset over the river. Hit up Eckstein as per usual on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday at karaoke, the bartender took our picture and said we'll be on the menu in the next couple weeks so we're anxiously awaiting the day when all of Eckstein's menus will be gone because we stole them all. After over two months, I think the finally remember us and we've got our official Stammtisch.
Thursday was a BEAUTIFUL day! I was finally able to go lay on the Neckarwiese and start tanning with actual sun! Was out for a couple hours, then class, and then met Jinah so we could set up for Katherine's surprise birthday picnic! We've all been wanting to Neckar-picnic for a while so we figured surprising her on her birthday would be a great opportunity. Most of AJY is in a class until 7:30 on Thursdays, so Jinah and I got Brock's grill, and a ton of food and party favors and made our way across the Wiese to set up. We looked like huge idiots carrying this grill, and of course every German stared at us -.-;;
Right when we got to the Wiese it got really cloudy, but luckily it only rained for like 2 minutes and then stopped. Set everything up, and then Katherine and the other AJY-ers made their way to us and Katherine was very surprised and absolutely loved it! We grilled wurst and spargel, drank beer and wine and sangria (our new favorite after Cinco de Mayo!), ate ice cream cone cupcakes that Monika, Krista, and Matt had made, and there were chips and nuts and pretzels and just food galore! We also all got dressed up really nicely which I think always just brightens the mood of everyone :) As I said, my camera broke but I'll just steal some pics from some others...
Cory and me in our preppy best
The beautiful and delicious cupcakes!!
Obligatory BC pic with the birthday girl in the middle!
We took up a lot of space...and if you click to enlarge this pic, you can see me obnoxiously waving at the camera as I tend to do
It finally got dark at 9:30 and we made our way back to the Altstadt for bar hopping! (It's a 21st birthday!) First stop was Eckstein of course--got some drinks but the place was empty which was kind of weird, so we left and walked down Unterestrasse and found a new bar! I don't even remember what it was called, but it was awesome and we think it'll be our new Thursday place. We still had a good half of the group out past midnight, and it being Katherine's 21st we just kept buying her shots and drinks until she could barely stand (as I've said, just because we're not IN America, doesn't mean we AREN'T American!)
We had all of Portugal crew out late and we could not stop dancing over the fact that we're going to Portugal next month. Finally called it a night around 2 I think, managed to get home fine, and boom bed! Had a relaxing Friday with no obligations-- tanned on the Neckar again with Becca for probably a solid three hours. The color is sinking in, and it's only May! Then I was planning to go out with everyone, but I was late leaving to catch the bus and then it started thunder storming and the bus wasn't coming for 28 minutes and then it started raining harder and after four nights out in a row, I was beat. So I ended up just staying in for the night, but I did get to skype with Mark for over an hour! I hadn't talked to him in over a week so that was nice.
So of course when I go out, I get up at 9 the next morning, and then when I don't go out and go to bed pretty early, I sleep until 11:30 -.-;; But I just had a slow start--made some eggs, updated my blog, watched some Curb... around 5 I met up with Brock, Cory, Katherine, and her friend Rachel and we got some blankets and sat on the Neckar drinking some burrrs for a couple hours--just a very relaxing afternoon. Last night a bunch of us went out to Halle 02 (main club in HD) which was a good time as always. THEY PLAYED DYNAMITE!!!! OMG, I can't say how much I miss hearing good old American top 40 songs in clubs. German House techno is great and stuff, but sometimes you just want something you know! Got pretty tired quickly though (it was the afternoon Neckar beers!) and left right after 2.
And finally caught up to today! Went to service at Peterskirche at 10am to see Will and Jenny's choir group perform some songs for the service. Peterskirche is Protestant so we weren't exactly sure what to do...the service ended up lasting 90 minutes because it was a special one that was also half in English because they had people visiting from all over the world or something...it was pretty cool, and the choir sounded BEAUTIFUL, but it was a litttttle long. Biked home with Quincy afterwards along the crowded Neckar, then went for a run--along a new route around all the farms which I talked about in my earlier post...Had to go to a DAI event this afternoon, and now I've just been taking it easy.
About to start a new week... no big travel plans for this weekend so it'll be just more low-key relaxing enjoyment of beautiful Heidelberg. We were talking about this on the Neckar yesterday afternoon-- it's nice to visit big cities, but we all really just love little old Heidelberg. I mean, it's definitely a city, but it's just very small. But it's just so charming and beautiful and mountainous, and ahhh as I began my post, I -heart- Heidelberg!
Katherine and I got back Sunday night and basically just crashed after a long day of traveling. Up the next morning, introduced Katherine to Hauptstrasse while I went to my first class. German classes are all about "Referats" (powerpoint presentations) and I had my first one of those with Robert. We did fine... but the group that went before us were total over-achievers and made us look really bad, but hey, what're ya gonna do? This always surprises people, but I've got a minor phobia of public speaking. So combine that with a presentation in German, a language where I can't just speak on the fly, I was pretty nervous, but it was all fine.
Met Katherine after class and we went up to the castle. My third time up there, and I'm sure not my last. Walked a little more around the city afterwards, I showed her the Alte Bruecke, and took her to a typical German Bakery (Back-Factory!). We also had lunch at Kebab-Haus--the best doeners in Heidelberg (and probably Germany...) and she was instantly converted. A lot of my friends in various places abroad have kebab places, but they're not the same as actually in Germany! Class again, and afterwards rallied some people to come out on a Monday to Eckstein. Gotta show visitors my favorite bar! Katherine got to meet some of my good friends on the trip and we had some drinks and some laughs and then made our way out, with a little late night kebab stop on the way home. She, Becca, and I all walked back along the Neckar back to the Feld, which is a very long walk but the time really flies after you've left a bar!
We were FINALLY able to sleep in Tuesday morning, after getting up early for four straight days. I had wanted to have a picnic on the Wiese but the weather unfortunately wasn't that great when Katherine was here-- big shame because HD is GORGEOUS on a beautiful day. Introduced her to the Mensa for lunch (one of my favorites!) and then I had a quick meeting for our program, and then we went and hiked up the Heiligenberg. I haven't climbed that mountain in more than two months and luckily I remembered the way to get up! Explored the Nazi Amphitheater and the monastery ruins. The cooler weather was actually quite welcomed during our hike, so I guess that was nice. We were the only ones on the trail and it was very peaceful just being in the quiet of nature, after spending all weekend in a busy city. Katherine studied abroad in Rome, one of Europe's biggest cities, which is a HUGE difference from Heidelberg.
Hiked back down the mountain, took some schlafchens, and then went out to Tiger Dragon for some Chinese. Brock and Dan had been raving about this place for weeks so I figured we'd all go--we ended up having a group of like 10 of us! But Brock and Dan were right--so cheap, so much food, and so delicious! After dinner we went to a shishah bar, because I wanted Katherine to experience how strong it is when it's at an actual Turkish place. Called it a night and caught the bus back home.
Woke up SUPER EARLY on Wednesday (aka, 6am) to get Katherine to the train station so she could get to the airport to fly back to America! I can't believe that she and Cassie are already home, and so many of my friends are packing their bags to fly back, and I've still got over two months! Since I was up so early I figured I'd be productive, so I did some necessary grocery shopping, went on a run, and then made my way to my internship and class. Of course the day Katherine left it was finally gorgeous weather again!
A little digression-- after class, the Portugal crew met up to book our flights. Meaning...I'm going to Portugal! Pretty random, I know. We had wanted to go to Mallorca, but the flights were a little too expensive, so we decided on Faro, Portugal (please just do a Google Image search for that city and be excited for me) which is a small town on the very tip of the Iberian peninsula. We've got a random Thursday off that weekend, so I'll be going for SIX NIGHTS and only missing one class! We figured out the hostels a few days ago as well: it'll be Brock, Monika, Becca, and I leaving on Tuesday June 21, Krista will meet us there on Wednesday, and then Will's gonna get there Friday, and then we all leave Monday morning. Krista and Monika are also working on a one-night stay in Lisbon, because if we're going to be in Portugal for six nights, we might as well see the capital. I'm SUPER excited. I've never been to Portugal, it's cheap, and it's just somewhere kind of cool that not many people go!
Alright so after Portugal planning, Brock, Becca, and I hit up the Mensa for dinner. Brock left to go do some homework before Eckstein, but I didn't have any work so Becca and I bought some beers and did a little bridge drinking enjoying the sunset over the river. Hit up Eckstein as per usual on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday at karaoke, the bartender took our picture and said we'll be on the menu in the next couple weeks so we're anxiously awaiting the day when all of Eckstein's menus will be gone because we stole them all. After over two months, I think the finally remember us and we've got our official Stammtisch.
Thursday was a BEAUTIFUL day! I was finally able to go lay on the Neckarwiese and start tanning with actual sun! Was out for a couple hours, then class, and then met Jinah so we could set up for Katherine's surprise birthday picnic! We've all been wanting to Neckar-picnic for a while so we figured surprising her on her birthday would be a great opportunity. Most of AJY is in a class until 7:30 on Thursdays, so Jinah and I got Brock's grill, and a ton of food and party favors and made our way across the Wiese to set up. We looked like huge idiots carrying this grill, and of course every German stared at us -.-;;
Right when we got to the Wiese it got really cloudy, but luckily it only rained for like 2 minutes and then stopped. Set everything up, and then Katherine and the other AJY-ers made their way to us and Katherine was very surprised and absolutely loved it! We grilled wurst and spargel, drank beer and wine and sangria (our new favorite after Cinco de Mayo!), ate ice cream cone cupcakes that Monika, Krista, and Matt had made, and there were chips and nuts and pretzels and just food galore! We also all got dressed up really nicely which I think always just brightens the mood of everyone :) As I said, my camera broke but I'll just steal some pics from some others...
Cory and me in our preppy best
The beautiful and delicious cupcakes!!
Obligatory BC pic with the birthday girl in the middle!
We took up a lot of space...and if you click to enlarge this pic, you can see me obnoxiously waving at the camera as I tend to do
It finally got dark at 9:30 and we made our way back to the Altstadt for bar hopping! (It's a 21st birthday!) First stop was Eckstein of course--got some drinks but the place was empty which was kind of weird, so we left and walked down Unterestrasse and found a new bar! I don't even remember what it was called, but it was awesome and we think it'll be our new Thursday place. We still had a good half of the group out past midnight, and it being Katherine's 21st we just kept buying her shots and drinks until she could barely stand (as I've said, just because we're not IN America, doesn't mean we AREN'T American!)
We had all of Portugal crew out late and we could not stop dancing over the fact that we're going to Portugal next month. Finally called it a night around 2 I think, managed to get home fine, and boom bed! Had a relaxing Friday with no obligations-- tanned on the Neckar again with Becca for probably a solid three hours. The color is sinking in, and it's only May! Then I was planning to go out with everyone, but I was late leaving to catch the bus and then it started thunder storming and the bus wasn't coming for 28 minutes and then it started raining harder and after four nights out in a row, I was beat. So I ended up just staying in for the night, but I did get to skype with Mark for over an hour! I hadn't talked to him in over a week so that was nice.
So of course when I go out, I get up at 9 the next morning, and then when I don't go out and go to bed pretty early, I sleep until 11:30 -.-;; But I just had a slow start--made some eggs, updated my blog, watched some Curb... around 5 I met up with Brock, Cory, Katherine, and her friend Rachel and we got some blankets and sat on the Neckar drinking some burrrs for a couple hours--just a very relaxing afternoon. Last night a bunch of us went out to Halle 02 (main club in HD) which was a good time as always. THEY PLAYED DYNAMITE!!!! OMG, I can't say how much I miss hearing good old American top 40 songs in clubs. German House techno is great and stuff, but sometimes you just want something you know! Got pretty tired quickly though (it was the afternoon Neckar beers!) and left right after 2.
And finally caught up to today! Went to service at Peterskirche at 10am to see Will and Jenny's choir group perform some songs for the service. Peterskirche is Protestant so we weren't exactly sure what to do...the service ended up lasting 90 minutes because it was a special one that was also half in English because they had people visiting from all over the world or something...it was pretty cool, and the choir sounded BEAUTIFUL, but it was a litttttle long. Biked home with Quincy afterwards along the crowded Neckar, then went for a run--along a new route around all the farms which I talked about in my earlier post...Had to go to a DAI event this afternoon, and now I've just been taking it easy.
About to start a new week... no big travel plans for this weekend so it'll be just more low-key relaxing enjoyment of beautiful Heidelberg. We were talking about this on the Neckar yesterday afternoon-- it's nice to visit big cities, but we all really just love little old Heidelberg. I mean, it's definitely a city, but it's just very small. But it's just so charming and beautiful and mountainous, and ahhh as I began my post, I -heart- Heidelberg!
IT'S FINALLY STRAWBERRY SEASON!!!!
There are few things in the world I love more than some good strawbs. I know I go on and on about my love of chocolate in this blog, but strawbs are back. Yes you can still get them in the winter and early spring months, but they're just not the same. I decided to run a different route today and went the opposite direction than I usually go, because on weekends the Wiese is PACKED, and the regatta was still going on and there was a cross country race today as well. So I ran the other way, through all of Neuenheimer Feld, past the zoo and swimming pool and dorms and came across FARMS! Like legit, acres and acres of farmland, and a whole other town not too far, and just more beautiful mountains. The paths were peaceful and quiet, and it was such a nice change from my Neckar route, which I've been growing tired of. As I was running back I saw a little strawberry stand right outside the zoo--I ran back home, grabbed my purse, hopped on my bike and rushed back to the zoo just to buy the fresh strawbs. They were fresh from one of those farms I had just passed. This was seriously the highlight of my weekend--I jolted back home and just ate probably half the carton because they were so delicious and fresh and sweet and amazing.
Now this is only one instance of strawbs season...but there's more! On Thursday Jinah and I stopped at Rewe to get last minute food items for Katherine's birthday picnic, and I walk in and there are fresh strawbs galore. Like...EVERYWHERE. All sitting in their fresh cartons--not covered which is how you know they're fresh. So of course I couldn't resist buying a carton (even though I had a carton sitting in my fridge at home...) and on our walk to the Neckar, I ate the entire carton. There are absolutely worse things to be binging on which is why this blog post has not one ounce of a complaint in it. I'm just so elated that it's strawbs season and that they're so easy to get, and that all of this means that it's almost summer!!!! :D
Now this is only one instance of strawbs season...but there's more! On Thursday Jinah and I stopped at Rewe to get last minute food items for Katherine's birthday picnic, and I walk in and there are fresh strawbs galore. Like...EVERYWHERE. All sitting in their fresh cartons--not covered which is how you know they're fresh. So of course I couldn't resist buying a carton (even though I had a carton sitting in my fridge at home...) and on our walk to the Neckar, I ate the entire carton. There are absolutely worse things to be binging on which is why this blog post has not one ounce of a complaint in it. I'm just so elated that it's strawbs season and that they're so easy to get, and that all of this means that it's almost summer!!!! :D
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Bruxelles!
Okay finally updating about Brussels...which in French, is Bruxelles. I was there last weekend but I've only now just got to updating about it--it's been a busy week in Heidelberg! I was skyping with someone last night and he said that he had been checking my blog awaiting a post about the weekend, and that meant so much to me! So, if you are actually reading this post and have been following my blog, I really thank you! I do the blog somewhat for myself, so I'll have a collection of all my thoughts from these five months living abroad, but also for all my friends and family-- you all know that I love to share every aspect of my life with everyone I know, so hopefully this is a way you can all still get to know about my life here! :)
Moving on! I got up at 6:30am on Friday morning to catch my train to Brussels. Had a layover in Koeln, and then direct to Brussels from there. I wanted to get to Central Station which meant that I had to get off at North Station and then take a different train to Central (though it turns out that my hostel was closer to North Station in the first place...oops.) So the train was a few minutes late arriving, so I missed the connection, so just waited for the next one. Unfortunately, I got on the train going the opposite direction... I really should've realized this when all the people waiting at the platform didn't get on...
So I'm sitting on this train, and it's only supposed to take three minutes to get to Central and it's been about ten...and we are not in a city anymore. So I asked a lady next to me and she told me I was going the wrong way, but luckily the train stopped after about 15 minutes, so I just got back on the next one going back into the city--so all in all I was only about thirty minutes of unnecessary travel. Got on the right train and asked some people if it was going to the city just to make sure, and they said I was good to go. I was sitting next to a guy from Brussels who started talking to me and asking where I was from and he said he had a few hours before his work appointment so he could show me around if I wanted. Now I knowwwwww, this scenario sounds super sketchy, but despite what people who know me think, my street smarts are actually pretty good, and I had good instincts about whether or not people are sketchy, and this guy seemed pretty genuine. He just really loved his city and wanted to show me it! So he showed me where my hostel was (which was very fortunate because I don't think I would've found it otherwise) and then we walked to the city center and he pointed out all the main sights and such. Kelsey was abroad in Brussels last semester so she had made me a list of things to see, so I basically read the list to him and he showed me how to get to everything, so when Katherine arrived, I already knew how to get to everywhere we wanted to go!
Here's a picture of Grand Place--Friday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous! Rest of the weekend, not as nice...
My new Belgian friend gave me a little history and tour of everything we saw which was really cool. (I honestly don't remember his name which is why I have avoided naming him haha) As everyone knows, Belgium is famous for its chocolate, waffles, and beer. There were chocolate shops EVERYWHERE. Chocolate shops to Brussels are as coffee shops to Amsterdam, I'd say...or Starbucks to D.C. As a local of the city, he knew of a good chocolate shop, so we went there first. The chocolates are on a giant display and you tell the salesperson what kind you like and they suggest ones and explain about what they have and such. I picked out a few, and then we sat outside and I ordered some hot chocolate--it was AMAZING. None of this powder crap you get from the grocery store, this was pure hot chocolate from Madagascar.
YUMMMMM. And of course being a European man, the afternoon cafe was his treat :D Afterwards, we walked around the city some more...Kelsey had told me to go to Marcolini Chocolatier (we had some chocolates from there on Christmas which she had brought back...so good!) So we walked in, and this place was the equivalent of Tiffany's, but for chocolate--not even joking. All the chocolate was behind glass cases, and the workers were all in black and looking chique, and the whole store was very minimalist. ALL FOR CHOCOLATE!!!!
Walked around some more, and then Katherine texted me and said she was on her way to the city, and my Belgian friend had to leave for his appointment. We said goodbye and I graciously thanked him for all his help and went back to the hostel. Waited around awkwardly for Katherine to tell me she was at the metro stop. Played pool with this Turkish guy staying in the hostel. Now, I am terrible at pool, but for some reason, I was playing amazingly in those couple games! Maybe this will be a new chronicle in my life as a pool player.
Went and picked up Katherine from the metro station--I haven't seen her since December so it was really cool to see her again, and in Europe! She checked in, we changed into some Friday night appropriate clothing, and then left for dinner. The Turkish guy kind of awkwardly invited himself to come eat with us, and he didn't speak English very well so the whole walk there was pretty amusing. It was like he was trying to talk about American stereotypes, but he was mixing them all up.
Walked around the city center area and we were so hungry that we just picked the first restaurant that looked good. It was so charming on the inside! We sat down and ordered, and then the Turkish guy kept complaining about the food--Katherine and I thought the food was good, honestly. And then in the middle of eating, he just abruptly got up and was like, I must go! And he left.
So Katherine and I finish our meals, and are just awkwardly sitting there wondering what to do about the check. The waiters kept walking around and smiling at us, they took our plates, but never gave us a check or anything. So we just slowwwwly walked out, and said goodbye to all the waiters and they all smiled back at us wishing us good nights (one even asked for my number! It's nice to take a break from Germany sometimes and actually have men flirt with you...because that's a big no-no in Germany) and yeah, we just walked out of the restaurant. So I guess the Turkish guy paid for the entire meal--nice!
By the time we got of dinner it was after 9, and still light out! It doesn't get dark here until literally 9:30pm. It's so strange! So we walked around, took some pics...
Kelsey had told me I had to go to Delirium bar, which was also listed in my student guidebook as having 2005 different types of beer with like, 25 different ones on tap. The Belgian guy had showed me where it was earlier that day but I had forgotten (it was down a bunch of side streets) but after walking around for thirty minutes, finally found it! It was almost 10 and the place was already packed, so we grabbed an open table, and took turns getting the beer. We started off with a Charles Quint--8,5 percent! And it came in GOBLETS!
Next we got the Delirium Tremens, voted best beer in the world, according to this sign!
That one was 9 percent I think. I really liked Belgian beer--it had a very distinct kind of sweet flavor to it. I'm turning into a beer lover btw. All through college I could never stand to drink it, and then last semester, knowing I was going to Germany, I started forcing myself to get used to it, and after three months here, I can't go back! It's just so refreshing, and it's now usually my drink of choice over wine or mixed drinks (also doesn't help that it's cheaper than water...!)
So we were at the bar for a good four hours I think, met a group of hilarious and rowdy Danish guys. I feel it's a lot more acceptable to be drunk and rowdy when you're 30 in Europe than it is in America...
Back to the hostel, etc. etc. Saturday! Walked to the center, found the famous Mannkein Pis! And then got Belgian waffles at the place Kelsey had told me to go. The rest of these pictures I post will be complements of Katherine, because my camera broke--I think it's because it got a bit wet--and it stopped taking pictures. It is currently at some Canon Shop, who knows where, but I just pray it'll be okay and that it won't be an insane amount of euros to fix. All I can think is that it broke at a good time (if it had to break) because I'm not really traveling anywhere for next few weeks.
Of course I got the waffle covered in chocolate and strawberries :) Walked around some more, took lots of pictures, found the little tourist-info place and checked some email, went up to the parking garage to view the Atomium, and then made our way back to the hostel. It had been a late night so we were exhausted but the hostel had a lockout from 10am-2pm, so we had to be out of there during that time. Came back and showered and took a nice nap until around 5:30.
Saturday was the big Gay-Pride day in Brussels, they had a giant parade and a Mr. Gay Contest, and then just a giant rave basically all throughout the city that went on all night. Katherine and I both remarked how nice it was to be in a city that seemed to be so supportive of gay rights! We made our way to dinner, walking through all the craziness...
And found ourselves at dinner at a cute little restaurant called Publico. It was mainly a Mediterranean restaurant, but it also had typical Belgian dishes. We figured that since we didn't pay for dinner the night before, we would splurge on a nice dinner, and it was absolutely amazing! (I know I know, I say that about EVERYTHING!) We both got some red wine, and they served us some bread, and then Katherine ordered a spicy tomato sauce potato appetizer thing, and then I got the lamb tenderloin with an amazing sauce and garlic roasted potatoes and ratatouille-- AHHHH!!!
My camera rallied for one last picture of the food. Our waiter was also so sweet and charming, and it was just such a nice dinner! I had been on a no-starch and no meat diet for the past week and a half which I think made the dinner that much better. After dinner we went to the Irish pub called Celtica, which has 1-euro beers every night until midnight. Had a couple, and then by 11 we were still so tired so we just went back to the hostel and got a good night's sleep.
Our train back to Heidelberg wasn't until 6:30pm, so we had the whole day Sunday to see the rest of the sights. Bought a metro pass and made our way down to see the giant arch...
And we explored the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History...only because it was free. But it was actually pretty cool-- kind of reminded me of the Air and Space Museum back home. We were then able to go up to the top of the arch and get some nice panoramic views. In one of these photos, you can see the crazy Atomium structure.
Next went to the Palace of Justice, which was the biggest building in Europe when it was built. The outside is all under scaffolding so wasn't that cool, but we could walk around the inside atrium part which was very impressive. Next to the buidling, you can also very clearly see the elevation difference between Lower and Upper Brussels, and can actually take an elevator to get to Lower Brussels--that's how big the difference is!
By the time we had done all of this, we were very hungry, so we made our way back to the city center to eat at one of the famous frittes-places. Everyone raves about Belgian fries, but honestly, they are not that different from American ones. Quite different from the fast food ones, yes, but not from the ones you'd get a sit-down restaurant. Nevertheless, we were able to pick fun sauces (Katherine got curry-ketchup, and I was daring and tried the samurai sauce) and of course, they were delicious.
With our bellies full of fries, we went to the grocery store to buy some cheap Belgian chocolate. I bought one pack to take home, and not even gonna lie--I ate the rest. I just cannot resist chocolate, it's terrible. Then we went to Marcolini, and I bought a nice pack to bring home to mom, and then I took Katherine to that first chocolate place I had gone to with the Belgian guy, and she loved the hot chocolate just as much as I did. Went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, went to the train station, and made our way to Germany!
I'll talk about Katherine's visit to Heidelberg in another post, because I just wanted this one to focus on Brussels. Overall, I absolutely LOVED the city! I've already told Kelsey this, but I am so jealous she got to spend her whole semester there! It's basically like a smaller, friendlier, and more manageable Paris. Everyone was so friendly, the food was amazing, the city is beautiful, the public transit is easy to figure out. I guess the only downside was the weather-- as I said it was beautiful on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were pretty chilly and windy and grey, and I heard that that's kind of the norm for the city. Like Montreal, it's a bilingual city, so everything is in French and Dutch/Flemish. My knowledge of French is extremely minimal, and I was actually able to get by more by looking at the Dutch, because it;s so close to German. I really enjoyed traveling with Katherine as well-- she is also very city savvy and can successfully read a map and figure out public transport so we were able to share the burden of finding everything, because on a lot of my trips so far, I've been the one to organize everything, and it gets exhausting! Katherine is collecting original little paintings from all the cities she has visited, so she bought a pretty one in Grand Place, and I am so jealous that I never thought of something like that to do! Collect at least SOMETHING from everywhere I've gone. I always send postcards from places I go, but those aren't for me... so i was kind of sad that I'm more than halfway through and had only just now had this idea presented to me.
But as I said, it was a lovely weekend in a lovely city! Brussels is definitely one of my favorite places I've visited this semester!
Moving on! I got up at 6:30am on Friday morning to catch my train to Brussels. Had a layover in Koeln, and then direct to Brussels from there. I wanted to get to Central Station which meant that I had to get off at North Station and then take a different train to Central (though it turns out that my hostel was closer to North Station in the first place...oops.) So the train was a few minutes late arriving, so I missed the connection, so just waited for the next one. Unfortunately, I got on the train going the opposite direction... I really should've realized this when all the people waiting at the platform didn't get on...
So I'm sitting on this train, and it's only supposed to take three minutes to get to Central and it's been about ten...and we are not in a city anymore. So I asked a lady next to me and she told me I was going the wrong way, but luckily the train stopped after about 15 minutes, so I just got back on the next one going back into the city--so all in all I was only about thirty minutes of unnecessary travel. Got on the right train and asked some people if it was going to the city just to make sure, and they said I was good to go. I was sitting next to a guy from Brussels who started talking to me and asking where I was from and he said he had a few hours before his work appointment so he could show me around if I wanted. Now I knowwwwww, this scenario sounds super sketchy, but despite what people who know me think, my street smarts are actually pretty good, and I had good instincts about whether or not people are sketchy, and this guy seemed pretty genuine. He just really loved his city and wanted to show me it! So he showed me where my hostel was (which was very fortunate because I don't think I would've found it otherwise) and then we walked to the city center and he pointed out all the main sights and such. Kelsey was abroad in Brussels last semester so she had made me a list of things to see, so I basically read the list to him and he showed me how to get to everything, so when Katherine arrived, I already knew how to get to everywhere we wanted to go!
Here's a picture of Grand Place--Friday afternoon was absolutely gorgeous! Rest of the weekend, not as nice...
My new Belgian friend gave me a little history and tour of everything we saw which was really cool. (I honestly don't remember his name which is why I have avoided naming him haha) As everyone knows, Belgium is famous for its chocolate, waffles, and beer. There were chocolate shops EVERYWHERE. Chocolate shops to Brussels are as coffee shops to Amsterdam, I'd say...or Starbucks to D.C. As a local of the city, he knew of a good chocolate shop, so we went there first. The chocolates are on a giant display and you tell the salesperson what kind you like and they suggest ones and explain about what they have and such. I picked out a few, and then we sat outside and I ordered some hot chocolate--it was AMAZING. None of this powder crap you get from the grocery store, this was pure hot chocolate from Madagascar.
YUMMMMM. And of course being a European man, the afternoon cafe was his treat :D Afterwards, we walked around the city some more...Kelsey had told me to go to Marcolini Chocolatier (we had some chocolates from there on Christmas which she had brought back...so good!) So we walked in, and this place was the equivalent of Tiffany's, but for chocolate--not even joking. All the chocolate was behind glass cases, and the workers were all in black and looking chique, and the whole store was very minimalist. ALL FOR CHOCOLATE!!!!
Walked around some more, and then Katherine texted me and said she was on her way to the city, and my Belgian friend had to leave for his appointment. We said goodbye and I graciously thanked him for all his help and went back to the hostel. Waited around awkwardly for Katherine to tell me she was at the metro stop. Played pool with this Turkish guy staying in the hostel. Now, I am terrible at pool, but for some reason, I was playing amazingly in those couple games! Maybe this will be a new chronicle in my life as a pool player.
Went and picked up Katherine from the metro station--I haven't seen her since December so it was really cool to see her again, and in Europe! She checked in, we changed into some Friday night appropriate clothing, and then left for dinner. The Turkish guy kind of awkwardly invited himself to come eat with us, and he didn't speak English very well so the whole walk there was pretty amusing. It was like he was trying to talk about American stereotypes, but he was mixing them all up.
Walked around the city center area and we were so hungry that we just picked the first restaurant that looked good. It was so charming on the inside! We sat down and ordered, and then the Turkish guy kept complaining about the food--Katherine and I thought the food was good, honestly. And then in the middle of eating, he just abruptly got up and was like, I must go! And he left.
So Katherine and I finish our meals, and are just awkwardly sitting there wondering what to do about the check. The waiters kept walking around and smiling at us, they took our plates, but never gave us a check or anything. So we just slowwwwly walked out, and said goodbye to all the waiters and they all smiled back at us wishing us good nights (one even asked for my number! It's nice to take a break from Germany sometimes and actually have men flirt with you...because that's a big no-no in Germany) and yeah, we just walked out of the restaurant. So I guess the Turkish guy paid for the entire meal--nice!
By the time we got of dinner it was after 9, and still light out! It doesn't get dark here until literally 9:30pm. It's so strange! So we walked around, took some pics...
Kelsey had told me I had to go to Delirium bar, which was also listed in my student guidebook as having 2005 different types of beer with like, 25 different ones on tap. The Belgian guy had showed me where it was earlier that day but I had forgotten (it was down a bunch of side streets) but after walking around for thirty minutes, finally found it! It was almost 10 and the place was already packed, so we grabbed an open table, and took turns getting the beer. We started off with a Charles Quint--8,5 percent! And it came in GOBLETS!
Next we got the Delirium Tremens, voted best beer in the world, according to this sign!
That one was 9 percent I think. I really liked Belgian beer--it had a very distinct kind of sweet flavor to it. I'm turning into a beer lover btw. All through college I could never stand to drink it, and then last semester, knowing I was going to Germany, I started forcing myself to get used to it, and after three months here, I can't go back! It's just so refreshing, and it's now usually my drink of choice over wine or mixed drinks (also doesn't help that it's cheaper than water...!)
So we were at the bar for a good four hours I think, met a group of hilarious and rowdy Danish guys. I feel it's a lot more acceptable to be drunk and rowdy when you're 30 in Europe than it is in America...
Back to the hostel, etc. etc. Saturday! Walked to the center, found the famous Mannkein Pis! And then got Belgian waffles at the place Kelsey had told me to go. The rest of these pictures I post will be complements of Katherine, because my camera broke--I think it's because it got a bit wet--and it stopped taking pictures. It is currently at some Canon Shop, who knows where, but I just pray it'll be okay and that it won't be an insane amount of euros to fix. All I can think is that it broke at a good time (if it had to break) because I'm not really traveling anywhere for next few weeks.
Of course I got the waffle covered in chocolate and strawberries :) Walked around some more, took lots of pictures, found the little tourist-info place and checked some email, went up to the parking garage to view the Atomium, and then made our way back to the hostel. It had been a late night so we were exhausted but the hostel had a lockout from 10am-2pm, so we had to be out of there during that time. Came back and showered and took a nice nap until around 5:30.
Saturday was the big Gay-Pride day in Brussels, they had a giant parade and a Mr. Gay Contest, and then just a giant rave basically all throughout the city that went on all night. Katherine and I both remarked how nice it was to be in a city that seemed to be so supportive of gay rights! We made our way to dinner, walking through all the craziness...
And found ourselves at dinner at a cute little restaurant called Publico. It was mainly a Mediterranean restaurant, but it also had typical Belgian dishes. We figured that since we didn't pay for dinner the night before, we would splurge on a nice dinner, and it was absolutely amazing! (I know I know, I say that about EVERYTHING!) We both got some red wine, and they served us some bread, and then Katherine ordered a spicy tomato sauce potato appetizer thing, and then I got the lamb tenderloin with an amazing sauce and garlic roasted potatoes and ratatouille-- AHHHH!!!
My camera rallied for one last picture of the food. Our waiter was also so sweet and charming, and it was just such a nice dinner! I had been on a no-starch and no meat diet for the past week and a half which I think made the dinner that much better. After dinner we went to the Irish pub called Celtica, which has 1-euro beers every night until midnight. Had a couple, and then by 11 we were still so tired so we just went back to the hostel and got a good night's sleep.
Our train back to Heidelberg wasn't until 6:30pm, so we had the whole day Sunday to see the rest of the sights. Bought a metro pass and made our way down to see the giant arch...
And we explored the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History...only because it was free. But it was actually pretty cool-- kind of reminded me of the Air and Space Museum back home. We were then able to go up to the top of the arch and get some nice panoramic views. In one of these photos, you can see the crazy Atomium structure.
Next went to the Palace of Justice, which was the biggest building in Europe when it was built. The outside is all under scaffolding so wasn't that cool, but we could walk around the inside atrium part which was very impressive. Next to the buidling, you can also very clearly see the elevation difference between Lower and Upper Brussels, and can actually take an elevator to get to Lower Brussels--that's how big the difference is!
By the time we had done all of this, we were very hungry, so we made our way back to the city center to eat at one of the famous frittes-places. Everyone raves about Belgian fries, but honestly, they are not that different from American ones. Quite different from the fast food ones, yes, but not from the ones you'd get a sit-down restaurant. Nevertheless, we were able to pick fun sauces (Katherine got curry-ketchup, and I was daring and tried the samurai sauce) and of course, they were delicious.
With our bellies full of fries, we went to the grocery store to buy some cheap Belgian chocolate. I bought one pack to take home, and not even gonna lie--I ate the rest. I just cannot resist chocolate, it's terrible. Then we went to Marcolini, and I bought a nice pack to bring home to mom, and then I took Katherine to that first chocolate place I had gone to with the Belgian guy, and she loved the hot chocolate just as much as I did. Went back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, went to the train station, and made our way to Germany!
I'll talk about Katherine's visit to Heidelberg in another post, because I just wanted this one to focus on Brussels. Overall, I absolutely LOVED the city! I've already told Kelsey this, but I am so jealous she got to spend her whole semester there! It's basically like a smaller, friendlier, and more manageable Paris. Everyone was so friendly, the food was amazing, the city is beautiful, the public transit is easy to figure out. I guess the only downside was the weather-- as I said it was beautiful on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were pretty chilly and windy and grey, and I heard that that's kind of the norm for the city. Like Montreal, it's a bilingual city, so everything is in French and Dutch/Flemish. My knowledge of French is extremely minimal, and I was actually able to get by more by looking at the Dutch, because it;s so close to German. I really enjoyed traveling with Katherine as well-- she is also very city savvy and can successfully read a map and figure out public transport so we were able to share the burden of finding everything, because on a lot of my trips so far, I've been the one to organize everything, and it gets exhausting! Katherine is collecting original little paintings from all the cities she has visited, so she bought a pretty one in Grand Place, and I am so jealous that I never thought of something like that to do! Collect at least SOMETHING from everywhere I've gone. I always send postcards from places I go, but those aren't for me... so i was kind of sad that I'm more than halfway through and had only just now had this idea presented to me.
But as I said, it was a lovely weekend in a lovely city! Brussels is definitely one of my favorite places I've visited this semester!
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