Day #289

The day of Tom and Tina's birthday party slash Martin's going away party! Exclamation point for the extreme happiness and sadness! 

To celebrate all of these things, a ton of people came out to the bank of the Neckar during the day. Throughout the last few days, I had been collecting signatures for Tom's birthday card, which was a fabulous compilation of weird pictures of him doing weird things or making weird faces. I put this card inside a mug that said "#1 Dad" in german, wrapped around a stick. Because, as you may have heard, good friends STICK together. 

Oh yes, Internet, that is the holiday card I gave out to my friends during my sophomore year of high school. World, meet 15 year old Kim and Tom. In perfect friend fashion, Tom kept it and showed me this picture before he came backpacking with me. In also perfect friend fashion (if I do say so myself), I replicated that card for his 21st birthday. 

On the sad side of things, my friends and I took a picture with Martin who deserted us early; this is still the background for the lock screen of my phone:

Sorry I ruined the picture with my lack of sunglasses, everyone.

We headed back to Mensa and our friend Alex played some sad songs to set the mood, ending with a classic rendition of Closing Time. As we've learned from that song, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Day #288

As was the norm for most Monday's, my morning was probably very slow. I may have done some laundry; I may have eaten at Mensa. I definitely went to my German class, and I remember it being very warm, and thus we were in the larger room. They may have been the time I successfully told my german professor, auf Deutsch, that my housemeister spelled my last name "Braun" (the german spelling) on my mailbox, so I didn't get my mail for about a week (which thankfully didn't really matter because I didn't get a whole lot of mail there anyway).

I definitely went to a cafe to do some homework, and I definitely freaked out a little about how much stuff I still had left to do before leaving. I know this because I have a picture. It is not a picture of me. Instead of saying hello to each other, my friends and I take pictures of the people in our group message and send those creepy pictures to said group message when we spot them from afar. Example A:

This is what I shall call an Inception Picture. I was spotted while I spotted my friend. Double picture. Though I will assure you, I posted mine to our group message first.

But what we knew definitely happened was celebrating my friend's second to last day AND we stayed up until midnight because the next day was Tom's birthday! 

Day #287

Ah, Sunday's- the days nothing is open, the trams don't run frequently, and my wifi was out. I walked to town to receive messages about getting lunch at my friend's house, then proceeded to head back in the direction of my own house (since that's the direction in which my friend lived). She made us delicious käse spatzle (a kind of german macaroni and cheese dish, but with heartier, denser noodles and real cheese), for which we were all eternally greatful. 

Later that night, since everything was closed, a few friends and I hung out on the balcony near Tom's apartment for a few hours since it was one of the only public-ish places open. We even took a fabulous selfie to commemorate it.

We're pretty darn cute.

Day #286

This day is a shoutout to my dear friend Sasha. We spent the entire day cafe-ing and talking and planning and laughing and covering everything from something to nothing plus some here and there in between. To commemorate our day together, we decided to get married. Here's the Instagram post about it so you know it's legit:

And the completely convincing caption:

Funnily enough, Sasha started getting follows and likes from engagement photographers. I guess that #engaged hashtag is more powerful than we could have ever imagined.

We spent the night watching America's National Treasure (which is, of course, the movie National Treasure) and marveling at Nick Cage's acting. Or something like that.

Day #285

One of my friends left about a month before everyone else, and his parting wish was for everyone to have a super duper fancy dinner picnic in the gardens of Heidelberg Castle. My friends and I readily obliged. 

Three of my friends and I got ready together, then took the bus to his apartment. On the bus ride there, we were being extremely funny (as we are wont to do), and noticed someone take out his earphones to listen to our jokes and smile or chuckle every once in a while. I don't mean to alarm anyone... But we are incredibly hilarious. Thank you, stranger, for letting us make your day.

After getting to our friend Martin's apartment, we and some more friends headed up to the castle, and saw this sight:

 It came as a surprise to literally no one that Good Guy Tom had been waiting for us up on the mountain for 45 minutes, unable to contact anyone because of lack of wifi, with a cake of Swedish pancakes he had spent a few hours making from scratch. Classic.

We had a delicious picnic and beautiful toast (that involved something touching about friendship that none of us could quote back to you, no matter how hard we try), then documented our dapper outfits with a few photos.

...and then a different location for more photos with the actual castle setting instead of just grass and a tree!

And, of course, Tom and I had to snap a quick mom & dad pic:

An interesting fact about the castle: apparently the inside is free after a certain time. And gosh darnit, we were after that certain time! We got to explore the courtyard and real balcony overlooking Heidelberg all to ourselves as the sun set over the mountains and the Neckar. We put our salsa moves to the test (remember that one salsa class we took at the rec center before classes even started?) 

Oh Heidelberg. What an incredibly magical place.

Day #280-284

I was inspired to try to finish this blog by seeing my Grammy, Uncle, and my uncle's now fiancée (YAY CONGRATS TO YOU TWO GAH) who all mentioned my blog to me. Also I need to delete the blogger app on my phone to make space for other things, and I can't delete it until I'm done. It's about time. *takes deep breath and prepares to finish this darned thing*

The days after Copenhagen were filled with lots of studying. You know, the kind that wasn't done in Copenhagen. My friends and I hung around Mensa a lot, as  it had free wifi, food, good company, and caffeine. We played a game with the rules "everyone in the game is named Sasha" and "no pointing", which resulted in very confusing conversation consisting of such phrases as, "Could the Sasha in the red shirt please pass the butter." 

By this time, I'd also been the sole source of my 16 year old cousin's Harry Potter knowledge. Not having read the books himself, he would watch the movies and message me with questions about all the things the writers and directors left out. Spoiler alert: there was a lot. For example:

...and so on. 

Day #279

Monday, June 22

Unfortunately, this was the day we left Copenhagen. We brought our bags with us and ventured to (wait for it....) THE POST AND TELEGRAPH MUSEUM! That's right people, Copenhagen has a museum entirely for mail and phones. It had sheep made of telephones. Weird, but cool? I guess?

Also there was a boat?

On our way out of the museum, some lady asked us to watch her baby. I guess the Danes think that only responsible people visit the Post and Telegraph Museum on a Monday before noon? 

We headed to the airport and, thankfully, had an uneventful flight and bus ride back to Heidelberg. Peace for now, Copenhagen.