Spargel

So I still haven't gotten around to updating about Vienna, but that'll get done eventually... wanted to talk about the last few days though!

I don't have classes on Fridays so I've been using that as an opportunity to do lots of traveling-- two weeks ago to Austria, and last week to Munich with mom. So this is the first Friday in a while that I've been able to just enjoy Heidelberg!

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo which obviously means nothing to Germans, but it's a holiday American always like to celebrate. We all gathered at Dan's for a fiesta, and he made guacamole...kind of...Krista made delicious salsa, Matt bought six liters of sangria, we ate burritos with meat and rice and peppers and hot sauce, drank tequila shots, and listened to some samba music. All around, a great time had by all! Since we've started normal classes, we all don't see each other four hours every day, and usually at least a few people are traveling every weekend, so it was really nice to gather as a group and hang out! My camera got passed around and here are the results:

Dan and I hard at work at the stove...(but really all I did was make sure the meat got cooked)


Quincy, Jenny, and Brock--actually got a smile out of Quincy in a photo!


And someone took this one...just the whole really crowded kitchen


Made it home safe despite a tipsy bike ride, and woke up this morning to a beautiful day! It had been kind of cold this past week but we're in for some warm weather. Katherine, Jinah, Brock, and I met at 10:30 to climb the Koenigsstuhl--a mountain in Heidelberg. You must climb up the Himmelsleiter to get there, translation: "Heaven's Ladder." Correctly named because it's 1,200 steps--no joke.


The other three had climbed it once before, but this was my first time, and damn was it a tough climb! It probably took us around thirty minutes to get up there (Matt's record is something like 14 minutes!) and the view from the top was incredible.


And the three of us BC girls are still trying to get a picture on Webmail, so here was our shot for that:


Took a little breather at the top, then practically fell back down the mountain cause it's so steep. Once back in town, we stopped at the supermarket to grab some Lebensmittels (groceries) and then Katherine, Jinah, and I headed to the Neckarwiese to soak in some rays. It actually wasn't as warm as we had thought, but we still had a very pleasant two-hour siesta laying on the grass by the river. We all parked our bikes right next to each other--


It's approaching that time of the year when it's time to get tan, so today was my first try. It was quite hazy out today, but I think I may have gotten a little color! I came home to find horses in my backyard! That was weird. My roommate said there's a riding school right next to our apartment, but I had never seen the horses over here before...but they were literally just, right in the backyard! I actually had a nice conversation with my roommate though-- she's from Duesseldorf, so I told her how we went there and tried to find "die komische Gebaude" and what not, and I finally know for certain that there actually are only three of us living here this semester. The other girl who was here last semester is taking a semester off for some personal reasons, so it's just me, Dayana, and Alexander. Also--turns out that the American guy who lived in my room last semester ended up dating Dayana, so I thought that was kind of funny.

After our chat, I went for a short run, making the most of the great weather, and then cooked a nice dinner with...SPARGEL! Alright, Spargel is the German word for asparagus. Germans LOVE Spargel. Except...the spargel here is really fat and white...and quite phallic looking actually, but they LOOOOVE it. I think it looks disgusting so I've been too afraid to eat it and have since switched to green beans. I couldn't find green beans in the grocery store all week though, so I figured I would just try the white spargel--it tasted like it looked--gross. But when we went to the supermarket today, they had GREEN SPARGEL! I'm a big lover of asparagus back home, so that was like the highlight of my day. So I made some marinated chicken and green spargel for my dinner and watched some Curb.

All in all--a GREAT day! Tonight we're supposed to be going to this party in the Feld, so we'll see what happens with that. Tomorrow the plan is to go to Stuttgart for a Spring Festival/Fair, so that should be fun--hopefully some good rides!

Today was an example of me loving being abroad, but overall, it's a huge emotional roller-coaster. Sometimes I hate it and just want to be back at BC, and sometimes I love it and never want to leave and cannot believe this is actually my life. Sometimes I'm just neutral about the whole thing. When I'm exhausted and biking the two miles home with twenty pounds of groceries on me and I'm swallowing too many bugs to count, I really hate it. Like, why can't I just have my car? And my air conditioning? But on days like today, especially with no class and no traveling and I've just gotten to take advantage of the beautiful city, being abroad is pretty fantastic.