Down to the Wire

We went to the Schwarzwald like a month and half ago, and I just forgot to tell you all about it. It was really pretty- I'm really glad we got to go with all of AJY (meaning I'm glad Herr Dörr was there because he's awesome)

This is Brian and Anske (or, as Krista and I call them, Branske) and they both has birthday's about a month ago. To commemorate the anniversary of their births which are coincidentally 2 days apart, Krista and I made a true American meal: stuffing (Brian's favorite food), home made hamburgers with real cheddar cheese and bacon and American buns (the package had an American flag on it. They were serious.) and then homemade brownies for dessert. It was a lot of fun!

We did a murder mystery party! It was 20's themed and a ton of fun! Except I was the murderer :(

Haleigh and I went on a trip to the Ostsee (the Baltic Sea) for four days. We saw like a billion cities (by "a billion" I obviously mean like 5: Lübeck, Rostock, Warnemünde, Stralsund, Kap Arkona, Vitt and Wismar) and it was really cold and windy, but it was also so cool to see all these places. We also stayed in like the nicest hostel ever.

Then the next week we went to Konstanz on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) with Krista and Monika and we camped! It was cramped, as we only had a 2 person tent for us 4. But look at the sunset we saw from our camping place! Lake Constance is gorgeous, and the night after we slept so terribly cramped up in the tent, we went to the beach and slept on the shore for a while in the warmth of the sun. I, of course, got terribly sunburned, but it was very worth it. The top picture is of Haleigh and me on the Konstanzer Münster (a cathedral in Konstanz).

I had a ton to do on the 4th, but did manage to make it to the 4th of July barbecue we all had, I was just like 5 hours late (night classes, blech) so there aren't any pictures of my obnoxious American behavior, but be assured: I wore a headband that had, in sparkly letters and with pieces of shiny plastic sticking out if that looked like fireworks "USA" brandished across it. Anyway, I looked pretty much like Hulk Hogan above, who comes up when you type something like "typical American" into Google Image Search.

This week was also the last Karaoke night at our favorite bar in Heidelberg, so we came out in droves and sang for hours. I am still horse from scream-singing so much. In case you can't tell, we had a blast. We swayed, we sang, we laughed, we rocked that place. Highlight songs of the evening: Baby Got Back, Land Down Under, Lose Yourself, Baby and Don't Stop Believin'.

Now, I'm spending the first Saturday I haven't been away from Heidelberg in a month writing papers so I can enjoy next week without worrying about them too much since they're all due Friday. Next week is also notable because HARRY POTTER comes out and we are all going to see parts 1 and 2 at the midnight showing in Mannheim on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It's going to be a great 6 hours of HP love. I also have a final on Wednesday and then things are pretty much over by Friday. Classes still happen for another week, but I'll be able to enjoy the rest of my time hanging out with people, doing fun stuff like going out to brunch and such instead of doing homework.

I'm having a really hard time believing that I only have 18 more days here, because it just doesn't seem possible, but that's the unbelievable truth. I'm going to get very emotional as it starts to sink in and I have to say really sad goodbyes. But that's not for another 2 weeks, so I'm putting it out of my mind and enjoying the rest of the things that are to come here in Heidelberg. Home sweet Heidelberg!

Life in pictures and words (more traveling)

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile, and for that I apologize- I've been pretty busy lately. I've been working on writing my final papers, traveling, and embracing opportunities that come to me. Some of those things are more fun than others (one of these things is not like the other...). May and June are Feiertag-central, we're always having days off for some holiday or another, which is fantastic! On Monday, since it was a holiday (Pfingstmontag or Whit Monday), and we still have our German Rail Passes which allow us free travel on the Deutsche Bahn, a few friends and I decided to go to Trier, the oldest city in Germany.

Trier was really pretty- the day was less than ideal, as it swung erratically from near-raining to the sunshiniest day, meaning we were always hot from putting our jackets on when it became suddenly sunny or freezing when the arctic winds blew- but Trier was pretty. The first thing we saw was the Porta Nigra, a Roman gate dating back to 186-200 A.D., when it was built. It's the largest Roman gate north of the Alps and it is gorgeous, in my opinion:

We also saw some ruins of Roman baths which were pretty neat as well; they're also the largest Roman baths ruins north of the Alps. The whole time I was in Trier, I just kept thinking how much my dad would love all the Roman history. We didn't actually go in, because you could see pretty well from outside what was inside, but I'm sure there was more history to be learned, had we paid an entrance fee.

The oldest church, built by Constantine, in Germany is also in Trier, and of course we visited it. Herr Dörr taught us well-we always visit the church! It was, I think, the most unique church I've been to so far in Europe. I think it's the most unique because although it's pretty standard in respect to the architecture and the details inside,usually the two styles we

saw of the simple sturdy stone building and the gilded, over-the-top intricate styles of the organ and pulpit aren't something I usually see together in the same building. I'm not an art history major or anything, so maybe this is really normal, but it didn't seem to go together to me. It was still pretty, though.

Unfortunately, since we went to Trier without a clear idea of what we were going to do there, we just visited things we saw signs for and walked to. We followed these signs to a Roman bridge for such a long time until eventually there were no more signs but there was also no bridge in sight. I found out later that it's the oldest bridge over which cars are allowed to drive. Also I think it's the biggest/oldest Roman bridge north of the Alps (that's a common theme for things in Trier).

Trier was a success, but it definitely deserves some planning, just in case you're ever thinking of visiting it.

Salzburg, das Abenteuer

I know this post is for a very small audience, but if you happen to know German, and haven't see this before, I'm posting an essay I wrote for a class a few weeks ago.

It's great because it tells the story of when I took that adventurous trip to Salzburg, and because I'm just really proud of how it turned out in German. It was hard to get in as much about the beginning of the trip as possible within just a page, but I tried my best. I guess it's sort of shameless to post this so you all know how well I did on this paper, but apparently I'm not too bothered by that, as proven by the fact that I'm posting it. So without further ado, I bring you Salzburg, das Abenteuer:

Letzten Oktober entschieden Anne, Haleigh, Annika und ich uns für eine Reise nach Salzburg mit unseren German-Rail-Pässen. Wir machten eine Reservierung mit einer Jugendherberge und wählten die Züge. Obwohl wir gut vorausgeplant hatten, hatten wir eine Zugverspätung in Stuttgart. Wegen dieser Verspätung verpassten wir einen Zug von München nach Salzburg. Als wir ankamen, mussten wir schnell einen neuen Zug nach Salzburg finden. Der einzige Zug, den wir wollten, benötigte eine Reservierung. Es war ein bisschen problematisch, den Fahrkartenautomat zu benutzen, da wir nur Kleingeld hatten. Wir brauchten zwei Versuche, bevor wir die Fahrkarten bekamen.

Wir hatten eine angenehme Reise und erreichten um Mitternacht Salzburg. Wir blickten an unsere Stück Papier von GoogleMaps und plötzlich erkannten wir, dass unsere Jugendherberge über eine Stunde vom Hauptbahnhof entfernt war. Wir begannen zu Fuß zu gehen aber wir hatten keine richtige Landkarte nur eine Kleine von GoogleMaps. Es war nicht überraschend, dass wir uns verliefen!

Nach drei Stunden im strömenden Regen fanden wir unsere Jugendherberge. Glücklicherweise war die Tür schon geöffnet, weil jemand gerade vor uns eingetreten war und wir konnten schnell hineingehen. Es gab aber ein kleines Problem: da es 3 Uhr früh war, war die Rezeption geschlossen und wir konnten niemanden finden, der uns einchecken konnte. Wir probierten alle Telefonnummern, die wir finden konnten, aber keine funktionierte. Eine Stunde später entschieden uns, dass wir schlafen mussten, also mussten wir in unseren nassen Kleidern auf dem kalten Marmorboden eines Ganges schlafen. Weil es nicht besonders bequem war, schliefen wir kaum eine Stunde. Wir saßen da bis morgen und schließlich kam die Rezeptionistin an. Wir erzählten ihr unsere Geschichte und sie fragte uns etwas, was wir uns nie vorstellten könnten: „Warum haben Sie die Glocken nicht geklingelt?“

Cross Spain off the List!

Hey guys!

I went to Spain last weekend! Seriously, I did. I left Heidelberg Friday morning around 9, headed to the Frankfurt am Main airport, and after a small bomb scare, I checked right in, waited for a little while, and then got on an Iberia flight to Madrid. The seats were so small, I had bruises on my knees when I got to Caceres. Cheap flight, though.

So I got to Caceres at 11 at night with NO problems! Now, for any of you who know me, this is a big deal. On previous trips I have...missed flights and had to buy extraordinarily expensive flights home on the day of in a foreign currency doing a lot better than the US dollar, wandered around a city between 1 and 3 in the morning in rain and ended up sleeping on the floor of a hostel, not to mention when my hostel reservation got deleted when Katie and I went to Prague. All this to say, as Brian asked me when I got back "does it feel like you didn't travel at all?" Except that it was a good thing that everything went well.

Let me share something with you: Spain is really, really cool. First of all, it's beautiful. The architecture is beautiful, the weather is beautiful, the landscape is beautiful- it's all just so pretty. Which was kind of surprising to me, just because I never really wanted to go to Spain, I never had this deep desire to visit it, it was always just kind of there (Sorry, Spain. We're totally cool now, though!). Now, though, I've added it to a mental list I have of places to go back to.

With Becca, I visited the old town, experienced tapas as well as a(n atypical) Spanish bar, siested (is that a verb?), took lots of walks, took a million pictures, caught up, read, got a little sunburned (sorry, mom, I forgot my sunscreen. if it helps, I heard your chastising sigh when I caught a look at myself in the mirror the next day) and just enjoyed Spanish life. There was a protest in the Plaza Mayor in the center of town about the elections that were on Sunday, which was pretty cool to see, and I met a ton of Spanish people to whom I spoke my very sad (wha-? No, I mean, I'm completely fluent in Espanol) Spanish and cheek-kiss-greeted (encantada!).

After a great two days in Caceres with Becca, on Monday morning, I took a bus at 1.45 am to Madrid, where I had plenty of time to find churros y chocolate before heading to the airport and waiting there for a few hours before my plane left (although my RyanAir flight was, surprisingly, delayed. Sit down, I know you're all shocked). I will be honest, I laid down on some chairs in the waiting area and I legitimately fell asleep for a few hours, just because I was so exhausted. Those people waiting to go places with RyanAir got to see me at my best.

My trip to the Madrid airport was because I also went to Mallorca! Holla! Got to see me some

ocean and visit another friend! The Mallorca leg of my journey was not very well planned out, and I ended up being there only 12 hours, but what a great 12 hours they were! I got to see the Mediterranean Sea! Jen packed in as much as she possibly could with such a short visit- we rode bikes to la playa (the beach, for those of you less familiar with the Spanish tongue than me), saw the town at night, went to the store to get stuff for (a delicious) dinner, and drank Spanish wine while eating Spanish cheese. It was a fantastic-if way too short- trip.

Some stories from the North

Hello, everyone! I'm taking a break from some homework, so I’ll share some of my experiences with my host family now.

My host family is from northern Germany, in a little village called Vielist, which is in the vicinity of a bigger town named Waren which is on the lake of the Müritz. The Müritz is the biggest (and, according to residents, most beautiful) lake that belongs completely to Germany. The Bodensee, Lake Constance, is bigger, but it is shared by Switzerland and Austria, so it doesn’t count totally.

My train left on the morning of the16th, and after 7 hours of traveling (and a mad dash in Berlin to catch the regional train to Waren- due to a delay, I had negative time to get to my train, but thankfully I made it), I got there. My host father, Rüdiger, was waiting for me at the train station, and he drove me to their home, which is huge. Built in 1776 (yes, the same year my country was founded), it’s the oldest house in town. At home, it was quiet because 4 of the 5 kids were with their mom at a judo tournament, but I drank some coffee with Rüdiger and his father in law (I think one of the kids later told me his name was Peter, but I just called him Opa like everyone else). We later met up with the rest of the family at McDonalds, where they go after tournaments as a reward. It was very confusing at first, because there were 3 extra kids there that weren’t a part of the family, but were friends, and it took me a little while to figure out who was who. I’ll give you the rundown: Johann, almost 11; the twins Noah and Paula, 10; Manuel, 5; Kilian, 2. Johann, Noah and Paula are from a previous marriage of Evelyn, my host mom, and Manuel and Kilian are from Rüdiger and Evelyn.

Sunday was: the kids doing chores they didn’t want to, tears, playing, excited shouting, running and hurt feelings- much like a day you’d expect from a family with 5 kids. I was woken up in the morning by Manuel who tiptoed into my room and announced “aufwachen! (get up!)” and then hung out in my room, riding the rocking chair and climbing all over my bed as I got ready. This became pretty normal: one (or more) kids would come wake me up in the morning by calling out “aufwachen!” and then waiting for me to be ready so we could go upstairs together. Once Manuel got me up pretty early, and took me upstairs to the kitchen, where there were some toys in the corner that we started playing with. Evelyn comes in, and is a little surprised to see me. “Manuel,” she says, “I expected you to be up, but I’m surprised to see Sarah up.” His reply? “Well I wanted to play with her.” I was a hot commodity, let me tell you.

The first week I spent with Paula at their church helping with a kids Easter musical. It was basically an excuse for me to play with kids a bunch and do crafts-a lot of fun, and I got to talk

with a lot of kids in German, which was always interesting. The rest of the time we did a lot of other things: barbequed with friends, went to the village Easter fire, had our own Easter fire, hunted for Easter eggs, went to the Müritzeum (a museum about the Müritz Lake) and I visited the schools of the kids and playing with them a lot.

Coming back was bittersweet- it was delightful to be a part of a family for two weeks, and I had such a good time with them, but I also was glad to

get back and start catching up on the work I missed while there. Plus coming back to Heidelberg is always a wonderful feeling of familiarity and comfort. As Haleigh once said “Pulling into the HDhbf is the best feeling in the whole world, no matter where you are pulling in from.” Genau.

Back at home

I'm back at home. And by "home" I mean "in the Wartburg in Heidelberg", which feels like home to me, even though I still also think of three other places (Linfield, Fayetteville and Folsom) as home. I think that's what happens when you live life, home comes to mean much more than one place. It represents a lot of things like family or comfort or a place where you have at least some space to yourself, where you know how it's arranged, or where you have your control (except for when you can't find your keys, and you find them, twenty minutes later, when you check the pockets of your coat again and find them patiently sitting there, waiting for you to figure it out yourself). All this to say, I was gone for two weeks with a host family, and now I am back.

Walking in the door of the Wartburg, the name of the building where I live was like walking in the first day I moved in. It had the same smell, which sounds strange, but it's true, outside was warm like it was last August, and I had been away for a while, so it was as if I were experiencing

it again for the first time.

I had a wonderful time with my host family, and I can't wait to regale you all with adorable pictures and stories about my time there, but right now I have two weeks of classes to make up, 3 hours of class videos to watch, a documentary on the falling of the Berlin Wall to watch, Faust to read, and a paper to write. And that's why the real stories will come in the following weeks, because I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed right now. Just know that all the stress I'm feeling is seriously outweighed by the two weeks I spent away. It was completely worth it.

To the right are 4 of the 7 people I spent the last two weeks living with. Just so you know, they're awesome.

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)!