Hey there, everyone!

Now I get to tell you all about the last few weeks- including when my very good friend Morgan Steele came all the way from New York to visit me! It was awesome, especially because we haven't seen each other in over a year- not since New Years Eve 2009. It's because she's really smart and is always learning things at NYU. Anyway, after a little bit of a mix-up, she got to me here in Heidelberg, and we got to hang out for a few days. I took her to the castle, we ate

delicious food at Yufka's with Haleigh's friend, Casey, who came to visit the same weekend, we climbed the Heiligenberg and got to see the Thingstätte, a giant amphitheater the Nazis built, as well as Michaelskloster, St. Michael`s Monastery, which is in

an area that has been occupied since the time of the Celts, which is pretty darn neat.

(EDIT: Morgan's right, I was not nearly dramatic enough about climbing the mountain. The 10 hour long marathon event nearly claimed both our lives, as we created our own shelter out of leaves to protect us from the tornalizzarunami -tornado/blizzard/tsunami, duh-that swept through Heidelberg suddenly. Then we rescued kittens from a fiery inferno and took care of that pesky energy crisis and deficit the US is facing. You're welcome, world.)

A picture of the ruins of the Monastery are on the left.

Actually, though, we did meet some very sweet old men who thought we were lost (I was really just pausing to take a picture), and talked with us-by "us" I mean "me" because it was in

German-for a little while, asking where we were trying to go, where we were from, why Morgan wasn't talking as well, and when I said it was because she spoke only English, they didn't believe me that she was American because she didn't look American...whatever American looks like. They spoke a little English, and told Morgan that "ze German boys are very nice," which was very kind of them.

Morgan left on Monday afternoon, and headed to Berlin, where she stayed for the rest of the week. It was so great for her to visit- I was really glad she came! Like I said before, Casey, a friend of Haleigh`s was also in Heidelberg for the week, so I got to hang out with her a little- we cooked some delicious food. On Saturday when she left, Haleigh and I dropped her off at the airport, and headed to Köln (Cologne) to see the Chocolate Museum that I had missed last time I was there. It was pretty neat, I`m definitely glad I took the opportunity to check it out! There was even a cocoa tree they had growing in a greenhouse area, which I had never seen before, that`s for sure.

When we were in Cologne, we got to see this cool fence where couples lock padlocks onto it to symbolize their love- it`s really neat. It goes for the entire length of the bridge which crosses the Rhein. There are some really neat locks, some with the names of the couple, some with sweet messages to each other. The red one, in German, below, says "because we love each other, Claudia and Dieter" which I think is just so sweet (and what typical German names)!