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)!

More visitors, and life around HD

Last we spoke, I told you about my parents visiting, and subsequently, leaving. Sad, yes, but the very next day, my friend Jen Sacklin came for a visit! She's a Linfield graduate working for the Spanish government teaching English in Mallorca, Spain! Fancy! (I can't say that without imagining my little -she's six-sister saying "fancay dancay!" like she used to a few years ago) Anyway, Jen was taking a little jaunt around Germany visiting friends, and I got to show her around Heidelberg for about a day.

She got in Monday afternoon, and after meeting her at the train station and walking her back to my place, we went for a walk around HD- I showed her the Alte Brücke, and the view of the Schloss from it, the Neckar River

and some of the Altstadt. We chose a perfect time to go, because we got to see the gorgeous sunset right as

wewere on the Alte Brücke, which meant we got some great pictures! We drank the (free!) beer I told you about last time-it was delicious-and talked a lot, which was really nice. I enjoyed hearing her perspective on the Linfield study abroad experience, and also on life after college

in general.

While I went to class on Tuesday morning, she explored the castle, and after I was done, we decided to go visit the Heiliggeistkirche, which is in the middle of the Altstadt, and one of my favorite places to visit, especially because it is only €,70 to climb to the top (which, of course, we did). After we spent a little while up there, and got to watch a couple boats go through the lock in the river, she decided to go back to Mainz a little early, in order to see the Gutenberg museum (something I have done twice now, and would highly recommend, if you ever find yourself in Mainz, Germany), so we headed back to my place to grab her stuff, and booked it to the train station. Luckily we got there in time, and she made it to Mainz safely. Next time we see each other, it will be in Spain! ¡Viva España!

A week later, so last week, it was the end of the Fasching (Karnival, Mardi Gras, etc.) season, so on Sunday, Haleigh and I decided to go to Mannheim to watch their Fasnacht parade and soak up some culture.

Unfortunately, apart from some very delicious Turkish food I got for lunch, it was kind of a disappointment. We waited around a while before anything really happened (although we did get to hear our favorite song), and then the parade was kind of a letdown. Some of what we saw is on the right.

Tuesday, the official last day of the season, there was another parade, and this time it was in Heidelberg, and it was way fun! Haleigh and her language partner Eva and I all met up and watched it together. Having Eva there was helpful, because she helped explain some of the intricacies to us. For example, in each

city, there is a different term that the people of that town use at Fasnacht to greet one another. In Mannheim, it is ahoi, said "ahoy" (don`t really know why Mannheim has such nautical tendencies), but in Heidelberg, the term sounds something like "heyo." At the Umzug, or parade, there were different groups of people dressed up in ridiculous costumes, or floats of people, each affiliated with a club or organization or business, who throw candy, boxes of matches, pocket packs of tissues, hair clips, Capri-Suns or schnapps. It is a strange amalgamation of free things one can receive at this parade. The parade lasted an hour or so, and then we headed to an after party, and then home. It seemed strange that it was a Tuesday afternoon, because everyone was partying like it was a Friday night.

Next blog: A friend from high school comes to Germany to hang out with me!

Adventures with Family!

Hello everyone!

So the past few weeks or so have been pretty busy, but in a good way! My mom, stepdad and brother came to visit me about a week and a half ago, and stayed until last Sunday. We bought German Rail Passes and traveled a ton. It was seriously crazy- Saturday they got here, Sunday we stayed in Heidelberg, Monday we went to Köln (Cologne), Tuesday we went to Basel, Wednesday we took a much-needed break and stayed in Heidelberg, Thursday we went to Stuttgart and Ulm, Friday we went to Mainz, and Saturday was a day of packing and last things in Heidelberg.

It was great to see them all, and I had so much fun showing them around this city that I love so much. I took them to Yufka's, the döner place friends and I eat at like at least twice a week (we're basically regulars which is fun. The people recognize us by now), and we got to try out delicious typical German food restaurants that I never got around to going to because I didn't have the excuse/need/money to do so. We ate some delicious food, let me tell you.

Traveling so much meant long days, but I got to circle more cities on my map of Germany, so it was totally worth it. Köln is somewhere I've been wanting to visit, but had been saving it as a place we could visit for the first time together. Unfortunately, because it was a Monday, the other things we wanted to do: visit the German-Roman Museum, visit the Chocolate Museum and the Mustard Museum, were all closed. We were super bummed, but the Dom was so incredible, I'm not sorry we went, I just wish we had known and had decided to go a different day. Oh well, life is for learning, right?

I had been to Basel before, with Brian, and I liked it enough to bring my family there- we even got off at the "wrong" stop again so I could walk them through the (in my opinion, at least) prettier part of the city. The last time I was there, it was a beautiful, sunny day, but this time it was, unfortunately, not, so we were pretty cold. We found warmth, though, in a pretty church, a museum that we ended up not actually touring, and a coffee shop.

Stuttgart and Ulm were unintended visits. We had planned on going to the Bodensee, Lake Constance, but after realizing it took at least 3, if not 4 hours to get there from Heidelberg, we decided to stay a little closer to home. Stuttgart is the most industrial city of the places we visited- it was a totally different feel than provincial Heidelberg, or historically famous Cologne. I felt like it was more businessey despite the fact that there were residences of dukes and kings in the middle of the city. We only saw the Ulmer Münster in Ulm, the cathedral which is really

pretty (and cold!). It's famous for being super tall, but I actually didn't climb it because we didn't

have a ton of time, and it was also so cold we didn't really feel like it. I'd like to go back, though.

We decided to go to Mainz and check out the Gutenberg Museum We decided to go to Mainz and check out the Gutenberg Museum, just because I enjoyed it so much the last time I went, while visiting a friend who, incidentally, I happened to run into while at the museum. It was quite the fortuitous event- she was able to guide us to a good place for lunch where something pretty cool

happened.

At this restaurant, the Eisgrub-Bräu, our waitress heard me speak in English to my family, but order in German, and so knew that I spoke both languages. A few minutes after she had taken our orders, and we had gotten out drinks, she comes over and asks me to follow her, because they needed my help. I was a little confused, but I got up and followed her into the kitchen,where a group of concerned-looking people promptly handed me a phone. “Hello?” I

asked. “Yeah, hi! I’m trying to make reservations for tomorrow, I was wondering if there were any openings…” I quickly realize that she speaks no German, and was having trouble making these reservations, so I follow the manager to a back room where she opens a book of reservations, and proceed to translate reservations for a group of 11 at this restaurant. It was one of the coolest feelings I’ve ever had, let me tell you. I felt so useful, and happy at being able to help…it was wonderful. I felt even cooler when the waitress came over to our table a few

minutes later and asked if we liked beer, to which I responded (obviously) “yes!” and then gave me a liter Fläsche of their house brew as a thank you. It was pretty neat.

I took approximately a thousand pictures of everywhere we went, a few of which you have the pleasure of viewing here on this very blog! Lucky you.

From the top: the Kölner Dom, my brother kicking it at the Heidelberg Castle, a view of Köln, the Rhein and part of the tower from the top, a cool bench (it says "Gutenberg" in case you can't tell) outside the Gutenberg Museum, and a mosaic inside the Ulmer Münster in Ulm.

Now that it's February...I'll tell you about New Years!

Hey-yo!

So let's talk about last month! I spent the first few days of the new year in Berlin with my bffl Katie chilling, exploring, cooking, and enjoying ourselves. Our friend Courtney came to visit the night before I left for Amsterdam, and we enjoyed some real Californian Mexican food courtesy of Katie's mom. Basically, it was just a few days of nothing which was welcome- I got to enjoy Berlin, as well as the company of one of my favorite people!

On the 5th, I woke up early and headed to

Amsterdam via train-about a 6 hour train ride. It ended up being really nice, it was almost empty, and I was able to sleep for a while, so the fact that I had to get up at 4 was mitigated. In Amsterdam, I met up with Haleigh, Anne, and two of Haleigh's friends from her college in the States-Harry and Chris. We were in Berlin together, but they went to Prague while I stayed with Katie, and then we just re-met up in Amsterdam.

We stayed at a hotel(!) in Amsterdam, because with all of us, it ended up being cheaper than a hostel, something we were okay with. Having a hotel was like living in the lap of luxury- we felt really classy and rich. While in Amsterdam, we went on a city tour, went to the Heineken Experience (read: brewery), the van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and walked around a lot. We took a walk to try to get to the Rijksmuseum at

one point, because riding the public transportation was something like 2.70 per one-way ride, and we thought we'd be clever and just walk. We followed the maps (well, we

thought we followed the maps) but ended up on the direct opposite part of the city than we wanted to be. After that, we decided next time we'd take a tram.

As you can see, we eventually found it, and also found the Iamsterdam sign that is in front of it.

We stopped and took a few pictures. Amsterdam is a beautiful city. I loved all the canals and row houses. I think it would be a cool city to live in.

Haleigh and I returned to Heidelberg on Sunday (Anne left on Friday because she had orchestra stuff to do) and then school started on Monday. The semester is now over: it finished on the 4th, and now there is a two month break until the next semester starts in the second week of April. In that time, I'm going to be hanging out with people coming to visit (people like some of my family!!) and then in March I'll be taking a German class.

The picture of the castle is in Heidelberg, just to be clear. My friend Krista and I took a walk one night, and probably spent 20 minutes trying to capture the beauty of the moon and the castle- I'm definitely pleased with the result!