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!