Juanita's chips aka why Annika is awesome

So my friend Annika is from Oregon, and her parents came and visited this week. We had talked before about how delicious these Juanita's chips are (they're made in Hood River and available only in Oregon) and how it's such a bummer they're not available anywhere else. I told her that I would pay big bucks if her parents were able to get a bag here, but due to luggage space, she said they wouldn't be able to. I was just like "oh, okay, I understand, it's not important anyway."

On Tuesday her parents arrived, and we made dinner at her apartment- a potluck that was fun- Haleigh and I made a great salad, Anne made this delicious apple dessert, Melissa brought grapes and cookies, and Annika made these mini-pizzas on bread (Megchen was sick). We got to her apartment, and I walked in, and saw a bag of Juanita's on the table! I started hyperventilating and got really excited! I may not have actually hyperventilated, but I was quite happy.

I am going to ration them out so I can enjoy them as much as possible!

Dreams come true!

End of the preperation course, a goose, and the DSH Test

Well when we left off last week, I was having a pretty terrible time, but I'm glad to be able to say I'm doing much better! I got my package on Friday, and got my Giants umbrella, some shoes and shirts my mom sent. It ended up being down this alley behind a group of buildings at the service entrance down half a block in what used to be a freight yard. How I missed it, I'll never know.

Last week pretty much consisted of Frau Said and Herr Dörr imparting as much knowledge on us as possible, and a trip to Schwetzingen! Schwetzingen is city a couple miles out from Heidelberg, so we were able to get there with a street car and a bus. We didn't see much of the city itself, just the castle, but the castle grounds were so pretty! It was actually just the summer residence of Karl III, but we all agreed we wouldn't mind spending winters, falls or springs there. We didn't really go inside many of the buildings, rather we just explored the gardens. They were gorgeous, and we had a very nice picnic next to some water which was relaxing and pretty, and then a goose decided he'd like to join. Good thing we had Herr Dörr:

It was possibly one of the funniest things I experienced that day. Props to Annika for getting this sweet action shot of him!

We spent most of Thursday there at the castle seeing the grounds, the temples (there were a few: one to Athena, Apollo, Mercury, as well as a mosque and some fake ruins. yes, they built ruins) and the wedding pictures of an American couple.

The weekend was spent cramming German grammar into my Gehirn (brain) and celebrating at the Heidelberger Herbst (Heidelberg Fall) which is a festival that happens every year on the last weekend of September- it overruns the entire Altstadt, but in a good way. There were multiple stages for concerts, tons of tents for food and beer, and a renaissance fair-type area with delicious smelling cooked something, and a building that sold Met (Mead, which ended up tasting pretty gross) but also Glühwein which is mulled wine and tastes like Christmas in your mouth. It was delicious. I also ate a delicious falafel and it almost made up for the fact that I can't get these delicious chips anywhere except Oregon.

It was a good group of us that wandered around Heidelberger Herbst on Saturday night: Megan, Haleigh, Anne, Annika, Melissa, me and Aaron. We drank some good Pilsner and enjoyed just seeing what HH is all about. Eventually we got down to Bismarkplatz but realized we wanted to be back down at Uniplatz, which is halfway down Hauptstrasse, the main place HH was happening. Because there were so many people and we were impatient, I learned the (intense) art of crowd weaving, thank's to Aaron's coaching. Three of us, Aaron, Megan and I crowd-wove through those people like crazy, and while we made great time and had a blast, we lost Anne, Haleigh and Melissa (Annika ended up crowd weaving on her own and made it to us a few minutes after the three of us crossed the finish line together) who weren't really happy we had decided to charge down Hauptstrasse. C'est la vie.

We ended up, later that night, seeing the greatest cover band ever created. EVER. They did a metal cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire with actual fire there to make it so much more legit! Also, they were terrible. It was a great end to the night!

Sunday I spent going to church and studying for the DSH, the huge test I took yesterday that determines what sort of classes I can take as well as what my level of German is. If I pass, I will get a certificate saying that I know German. Studying was difficult because there’s just so much to learn, but with a bunch of us, we were able to get a little done. I went to bed super early on Sunday night and woke up early (not exactly on purpose) yesterday. Once we got to the building where we would be taking the test, we were divided into two groups by last name, and then told what floor to go to, and there, we were divided into two groups again. Thankfully, there were 3 other AJY students in my room: Dan, Aaron and Marcus. Dan and I sat together, and Marcus and Aaron sat together, and we began. The first part of the test was fairly straightforward: read an article, answer a page or two of questions, then a page of grammar about the article. That section was an hour and a half and afterwards we had a brief break. Then we had the listening understanding, which was, I think, universally agreed upon as being the hardest part. After the listening there was a writing section, which was fairly easy as well. The listening part is an enigma to me. I answered the questions, yes, but correctly remains to be seen!

Whatever my grade, I’m done with that part. We have a Mündliche (oral) Prufüng on Thursday, but I’m not too worried about that. I’m just enjoying my day off today, getting some things done I can’t on the weekend, and relaxing. A couple of us are going over to Annika’s to make dinner, and I am very excited- we’re all bringing something, and I think it will be a nice change of pace to make food again ( I miss cooking!). Tomorrow we’re headed to Speyer, of which I know nothing about, so I'm sure I'll have fun facts to share with you next time!

A note on culture shock

I know I just posted something yesterday, but my day today required a new post.

I got a notification in my mailbox at the center on Friday letting me know I had gotten a package, but that due to regulations, it couldn't be delivered, and I would need to pick it up myself. The assistant director of our program, Frau Schoeberl, printed out a googlemaps map of it and wrote down which train/bus I could take and where the place was, but of course due to the hours on Friday there was only a half hour window where I would be able to go. No big deal, I thought, I'll get it on Monday. I was so busy yesterday that I forgot about getting it, and decided I would make it happen today, so after lunch I headed to Bismarkplatz to catch a train or bus to one of the stations nearest the office.

The bus was fine, I got on the right one (shockingly), got to where I needed to be, knew where I was, saw where I needed to go on the map, and started walking. As I walked, I looked around, expecting it to be fairly obvious where I needed to go, but that was an unfounded expectation, as it turned out. After wandering up and down the street for a while, I came to the conclusion that I must be confused, or reading the map wrong, or overlooking something, so I decided to call someone nearby and ask if I could come over and borrow their computer to double check. Luckily, I know three people who live in a building in the area, so I called Annika. Of course, she said, come on over.

So I walked back, all the way back past where my bus had dropped me off, to her building. I told her what I had done, and how I couldn't find anything, and we double checked the instructions I had been sent by the post office and saw there was another address on the paper, plugged that into googlemaps, and saw I had been near it while wandering around.

I left her, went back to where I had been, and eventually saw the bright golden yellow of the Deutsche Post. Thank goodness, I thought, I've made it. I walked in, gathered my copy of the customs paper, my passport and wallet, and stood in line...only to be told by a man, in German, that "green paper collections are across the street" where? I asked "across the street." No way. I thought. I thanked him, sighing as I put my papers back in my bag, and started back up the hill to get across the street, and that's where it hit me.

All of a sudden my frustration and confusion and tiredness got to me and then I was crying on the side of the road that people use to get to this out-of-the-way post office, gasping and sobbing, hoping no one would come by as I let it out. A couple times I thought I had it together, and would get ready to keep moving, but each time another wave would come over me and I would find myself crying again, wishing I could just do something right for once, like something as simple as picking up a package from the post office. I hate you, Germany, I thought bitterly.

Eventually I did get it together enough to cross the street, and look around a little more for the other post office, but decided that I was being culture shocked, and that getting my package could wait. I walked back to the station, caught a bus back to Bismarkplatz, and walked home.

Now, 4 hours past this event, I have calmed down, and looked at googlemaps again, this time just looking for the street I need to be on. I have found that it was a mere block past the street I was originally on. I have time, I could go back, but I'm tired, mentally and physically. I have homework to do, dinner to eat, choir practice to attend, and a volunteering to learn about. I'll deal with this tomorrow.

We're good, Germany. No worries.

France for a day, and the end of my teenage years

Well, this week was a good'un. I mean, I went to class every day (except class included a trip to France on Thursday) and that wasn't so much fun because grammar makes me sad, but there were so many more good things that outweighed the pain of doing grammar.

Like I said, on Thursday we went to France as a class, and although it sounds really neat and exotic, it wasn't for fun. We went to a concentration camp in Schirmeck- Natzweiler-Struthof, which was beyond words. It was very appropriately cold in the mountains of France/Germany (give or take a war), the wind whipped through my North Face fleece; the whole effect was very sobering, as I thought of how it . Thankfully, as it was a Thursday morning, there were not many people, and we were able to take it in in silence, punctured by the information Herr Doerr gave us about it. It's something I can't even really articulate, so I'm going to leave it at it being a quiet, sad, morning.

The afternoon was a nice one, although I nearly had a Herz (heart) attack from walking up approximately 1000000 (it was literally A number of stairs) stairs in Stras(s)bourg, France. We saw a cool church, cool in that it was very ornate, and had some gorgeous stained glass windows, and then climbed up to the top. Yeah, yeah, the view was awesome, but seriously, those stairs. I mean, we could see the Black Forest, and it was really neat, so it was definitely worth it, but it was a struggle! Afterwards, we stumbled around the city, our legs wobbly with exhaustion, and after perusing post cards, sat down and rehydrated (but not really) with Monacos (beer and soda and grenadine syrup) which are delicious. I wrote two postcards, one to Lian, and one to Lauren, and sent them then so they could be sent from France, which took forever, and then we headed back, with a quick stop at a French bakery for food for the way back. And by food I mean a pastry (I actually got meringues). We ended up getting back later than anticipated which was a bummer because we all had presentations due the next day, but we lived.

My presentation was about the Interkulturelle Begegnungen (IBs- it means intercultural experiences, basically) I went to that week. Each week we're divided into the same three groups and each group goes somewhere locally (ish- groups also go to Mannheim a lot) and learn about something cultural- The presidential library of the first democratic president of Germany (last week), for example, or a police station, or this really cool cultural center in Mannheim, or a local church to find out about music (that last one was mine this week). My group and I got to go to a local church in Handschuhsheim, an area of Heidelberg, and talk to the man in charge of all the music- it was very interesting! He explained how he became an organist, and how an organ works, the differences between how an organ and how a piano are played, interesting things like that. I had a great time- not only was he nice and interesting, but I had a really easy time understanding him (always a plus).

Going to school Friday was a bummer, because Thursday kind of felt like the weekend, but it went by fairly quickly because I had something really exciting to look forward to: Katie coming! I did a lot of my homework in the afternoon, anticipating that an exciting birthday wouldn't include learning Passiv- boy was I wrong! (haha, just kidding!) Haleigh and I met Katie at the station, dropped her stuff off at my place and then introduced her to the Mensa rated #1 in all of Germany (and also ran into Melissa and Anne). We then walked around Heidelberg, and ended up getting drinks at a cafe and just hanging out and talking. We stayed up until midnight, where Katie lit a candle of mine for me, sang happy birthday and then gave me an apple she brought with me, which we immediately adopted as birthday tradition. I got a call from my dad, miss maddy and margaret who sang to me, which was awesome, and then I headed to bed.

We got up on Saturday and after breakfast with Haleigh, and a delicious Heidelberg dessert treat, we decided to climb the Heiligenberg (holy mountain). It was way fun! From the mountain is an awesome view of the city, and literally hundreds of things to do, like trails to explore, spots to stop and chill and the world's coolest see-saw in a park! We hiked and wandered for like four hours and then headed down to get ready for my birthday dinner.

We ten (Me, Katie, Haleigh, Anne, Annika, Melissa, Kaia, Dan, and Brian) gathered in my room, drank some champagne that I got for my birthday, and after Kaia got there, left to go to Indian food. Funny story...we wandered around (it was very cold), and discovered that it was closed, tried to go to about 4 places, and ended up at a place next to the Heiliggeistkirche in the Altstadt. Unfortunately, though, we had to sit outside (cold, cold, cold!) in order for there to be enough room. Although it was cold and things didn't go exactly as I had planned, I had a great night. We had a lot of fun, and I was so glad to be able to share my birthday with Katie again!

Sharing the city with Katie, being the one "in the know" was such a fun experience, and it made me see the city in a whole new way. Not that I had ever thought of Heidelberg as ugly, but she kept saying how adorable it was, and it is! I had kind of forgotten! "oh that thousand year old building? that's nothing..."

The view of the Altstadt from the Heiligenberg, and us on the mountain, taken by Katie:

This below is a Schlosskugel: chocolate-hazelnut mousse, surrounded by pound cake surrounded by marzipan, surrounded by chocolate. Already we've had to limit ourselves to going and getting these only bi-monthly!

This is a seesaw that is on the mountain, in the coolest park ever! We felt really silly for using it, as it is obviously meant for kids about 15 years younger, but were not going to let that stop us- it is so much fun! Also, later, we saw a German couple play on it and we knew we were just acting like locals!

Group shot, before the bed broke...L-R: Anne, Me, Kaia, Brian, Haleigh, Annika, Melissa, Dan

Don't worry, Brian and Haleigh fixed it, these beds break a lot, actually...the planks just kind of fall, only normally it's not because 8 people are sitting on one bed!

I'd better go, because it's late and goodness knows I need as much sleep as I can get! One more week of the preliminary course left- next Monday is the DSH, the huge test everyone needs to take before they can attend University classes- AP Test 2.0 I dubbed it today.

My motto for the week: "must relearn Zustandspassiv! Must relearn Konjunktiv II! Must..."

The Romantic Road, joy, and Kalifornien

It seems like every time I try to write another blog post, I completely forget anything and everything I did during the past week-good thing a lot happened this weekend!

We went to a monastery this weekend in Bronnbach, which isn't that far, and we can travel to for free with our semester passes, which was cool! Another really funny experience was being on the train with this group of German men on their way to a soccer game that they all get together a couple times a year to play. They were drinking wine and sparkling wine, and talking to us, and when they got out a new bottle, they got out cups to share with Annika, who was sitting with the three in the picture (she's the arm on the green bag) and Brian, Haleigh and I who were sitting with Tony, a member of their group. Keep in mind that this is at 9am or so. Only in Europe.

The monastery is literally one of three things in the town. There is also a restaurant/bar

and a hotel. There are probably a few houses for the people who work at these places, but there is nothing else. We saw about six cars in the parking lot of the monastery and were joking that this was the high season, and when we saw a car driving, that it was rush hour. Poor Bronnbach, all we did was joke about how little it is! But really, if you don't wave the train down at the station, it doesn't stop because no one goes there, and you have to tell them to stop for Bronnback when on the train. It is very pretty though! The monastery is, naturally, very old and very beautiful. Out tour guide took us through the monastery and although we didn't see any real monks (or fake monks, for that matter), we learned about what their lives looked like back in the day. Very simple, as one might imagine, and very interesting. I thought it was a great tour, probably the best of the trip, but that's not saying much, really (we'll get into Wuertzburg later).

After our tour, we went to Wertheim, which is a(nother) beautiful city on a river (the Tauber) where we walked through the city, saw the beautiful church to the right, and then divided up into groups- one went to the castle/mountain, one went to the glass museum, and one went to a Jewish memorial. I know, you're all expecting me to have gone to the Jewish memorial but I'm zigging when you think I'm going to zag! I went to the glass museum! See how spontaneous I am. Not that I didn't want to go to the Jewish memorial, but the glass museum was also super interesting-sounding, and I was really glad I went. The guy there was really funny, and spoke in German but threw in English when he could (he was explaining it had been a while since he had been in school learning English so he was rusty, which was funny). We were able to watch him, and Mike, a guy in our group, got to make a glass pig! It was really interesting.

Three of us, after the tour of the museum, decided to climb to to the top of the Berg where there was a pretty view, and although it was steep, it was totally worth it- it was so quiet on the top! We laid down on some benches/the grass, and had quiet time. We didn't speak, it didn't need to be spoiled with words, and eventually, lulled by the faint sounds of the city below, and the whisper of a breeze in the trees, fell asleep for a short time. It was a wonderful time, with no hustling of getting to trains or trying to get all I can out of a city, but just enjoying it.

We went back to Bronnbach later that day and ate dinner at the one (you think I'm kidding) restaurant in the town, and ate a sub-par meal, but in great company, so it was definitely worth it. The best part of being on trips like these is the laughter. Our language professor, a fairly proper German man, on a school sponsored trip, in a different language, told us this joke at the train stop that had us cracking up for a long time. He started off by telling us that he knew a joke, but that it wasn't necessarily appropriate, but being the 20-somethings (well, almost) that we are, we encouraged him to tell it anyway: "A little boy comes home from school and complains that cigarette prices have gone up, and, a little worried, his mother inquires about when he began smoking "oh, around the first time I had sex" he replies. "When did you start having sex?!" asks his mother "oh I don't remember, I was really drunk". "

While this joke alone might not strike you as hilarious, our graduate student assistant, Eric, piped up and said "that wasn't a joke, that was Herr Doerr's childhood" and that made it all the funnier to us. Maybe you had to be there...

The next day we headed to Wuertzburg, and got the worst tour perhaps ever of some castle. Okay, by "some castle

" I mean the Residence, which is very pretty, but we had a terrible tour and thus, were unable to fully appreciate the beauty and history of it. After, we had some free time and decided to get some lunch, then wandered around the city, appreciating the music festival happening. We stopped on the main bridge for a while and then decided to climb to the top of the Festung

Marienberg- the Marienberg Fortress, which Herr Doerr had said we wouldn't have enough time for, but being the way we are, we decided to try it anyway. We totally dominated that fortress! It was a beautiful view of the river and the city, and we sat there and looked, and absorbed, and talked and looked for a while, which was very enjoyable. My friend Annika snapped this picture

of all of us watching below, and it just might be my favorite picture of the trip. From L-R: Anne, Me, Brian, Haleigh, Dan, Melissa, Megan. I swear this isn't green screen, although it looks fake!

My friend Becca asked me the other day "what has been joyful about your experience so far?" and I thought I'd share my answer here. The answer is a lot. Joy comes in the small experiences for me: meeting new people; being able to communicate with a real live German successfully, navigating a foreign place with no knowledge of public transportation; walking through the city on my way to class in the morning before the hustle and bustle, watching the sky, smelling the fresh air and listening to my iPod; seeing beautiful places; climbing a monstrosity of a big hill and then relaxing in the quiet and spending some time with God; travelling with friends on trains; taking walks with no destination.

I am so thankful to be here, and to be able to experience this.

Today, as in a few minutes ago, I went to the grocery store (German-style, I only got 5 things and will be back in two days) and as I walked back, down Hauptstrasse alone, I saw a bookstore I have seen before but never have gone into. I stepped in, and took a look around, breathing in the smell of a bookstore, and after taking a few minutes to look at the "foreign" books, wandered deeper in and found myself in the travel section. As I was about to turn away, a book caught my eye. The picture caught my eye really: a picture of poppies. Poppies. It was a travel book on California, and being me, I picked it up, flipped through it and was about to put it down when Sacramento caught my eye. Reading through their recommended places to eat, visit and see made me smile (and want some Tower cornmeal pancakes). I left the bookstore and continued down Hauptstrasse, and what should I hear as I was about to turn down my street? A German street musician, foot tapping out the tambourine, playing the guitar and singing his heart out. What was he singing? Hotel California.

California was calling me today!

The week where I explore Mannheim, go to a wine festival, and watch a castle get (fake) burned down.

<- I visited the castle for class! This is me with my friends Megan, Haleigh and Anne.

Well, I've had a good past week (I know this week has already started but let me have this), I explored the area some, which was very enjoyable. On Friday, we (5 of us: my friends Anne, Haleigh, Megan, and Melissa) took the streetcar to Mannheim for dinner and just to wander around. Mannheim is just a 40 minute ride on the streetcar, although it's a mere 18 km away (googled it. I don't actually know the metric system). We had a pretty fun night, although I think only the 6 of us thought so.

The set-up: we were all tired and hungry by the time we got to Mannheim, so we walked around the downtown area in order to find somewhere to eat. We eventually decided to just go to the next cafe/restaurant we saw, which ended up being a tapas (as well as "real" food) restaurant/cafe/ bar. We ordered drinks and our entrees, and then Anne realized she'd like to try a cocktail, so she ordered the one that a) was the cheapest and b) sounded really good: a B-52.

The problem: Anne didn't know it would be lit on fire, so when we discovered this fact, we decided to commemorate it by snapping a few photos of it (although in the light, the flame is barely visible). Unfortunately, we took too long, and the glass had had enough of being on fire, so it broke.

The proof:.

The decision: between peals of laughter and quickly blowing out the flame, we wondered aloud what we should do, how we could possibly explain our ineptitude to our very German waitress, so we decided to hide the piece from

her until we could formulate a sentence. It was a great plan until she appeared and, very confused (and maybe mad? It's hard to tell. Die spinnen, die Deutschen!), asked "was ist passiert?" (what happened?). Unable to really explain that we didn't know how this drink was meant to be imbibed, we just floundered for a while in broken German and laughter until she sort of nodded, shrugged and frowned her way away.

The lesson: Americans are very noticeable.

We were the only people laughing anywhere within the 4 blocks we walked, and our approach to what happened clearly baffled our waitress. it was definitely an experience, and I have to say, I don't mind reacting the way I did, because we, at least, enjoyed ourselves.

(Note: we later googled how to drink a B-52 and discovered it should be drunk very quickly while lit. or something like that.)

Saturday we (pretty much the same people as before, Megan was sick and, Annika came) went to Wiesloch for a wine festival one of the professors told us about on Friday (yeah, they tell us where to go to party- there were lists up of bars, clubs, discos to go to on the weekend up in our Center. Pretty strange!), and it was a ton of fun! We were a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people in the streets and the sheer lack of room through which to move around the people, but we persevered, and made our way to a tent where we were able to nab a tall table. We bought a delicious pizza-like item, and glasses of Neuer Wein, which was delicious.

As we wandered, we found a church having a Flohmarkt, a flea market, and stopped in to see what gems we could find. And what gems we found! I purchased about 10 postcards and a very well preserved poster (circa 1997) of Leonardo DiCaprio that had clearly been torn out of a magazine by a young German, many years ago, for a mere €1.5

0. It now graces the wall over my bed, and I will most likely leave it as a welcome present to the lucky person to inhabit my room next year.

Saturday night was a pretty big deal: there was the Schlossbeleuchtung (the lighting of the castle) which commemorates when the castle was burned down (at some point in history, I don't know when exactly, but it's celebrated three times a year). To celebrate, or remind, I'm not sure which, people gather around Heidelberg, in the Altst

adt, and watch the castle. The lights are turned off in the city and the castle is lit up with orange, yellow and red lights that

makes it look like it's on fire. The castle lighting itself was less than exciting, but the fireworks show was the best I've eve

r seen. Some friends and I stood near the Altbruecke, which was where the fireworks were shot off from, making the show that more amazing. Even though I was super cold, because of my proximity to the river and the fact that it's Germany in September, I had a great time talking to my friends and watching. My mouth was literally hanging open during parts of it. Fireworks shot out of the water and into the air. OUT OF THE WATER! I was amazed! I did not take the photo on the right, I found it on google images. Check it out if you want some neat pictures!

I'm headed to a monastery this weekend with my group- should be fun, we get to spend the night!

Ineptitude update: bought some cotton balls today: don't know how the package is opened. Sweet.

My birthday is a pretty big deal in Germany: there's going to be a party on my birthday put on by the transportation agency in the Heidelberg area...no big deal.

I hope you're all having a good week!

Hey guys, I just put this on facebook, but I've just gotten myself a german phone number (believe you me, it was a struggle, just like everything I do here)! I just wanted to make sure everyone knows so no one tries to call me or something and, due to my not answering, believes me to be dead in the streets somewhere.

Also, I got my first piece of mail today! It was very exciting!