Days #245-247

The last few days have been looking up! On Saturday a few friends and I took a trip to the Schwetzingen Palace, which happens to be only about 5 miles away and on my semester ticket, which means that transportation was free! The Schwetzingen Palace is like a very small version of Versailles, with extremely large and expansive gardens, a mosque, lakes, fountains, birds, the whole shebang. 

The front of the palace

The pink mosque 

A ceiling in the mosque 

Some gardens with some A+ trees and flowers

We also saw about ten million wedding photo shoots (by which I mean about 5). 

After our day out, we spent the night watching this god-awful tv show called Eurovision, which is a singing competition between European countries. Each of them enters a song that ends up being very bad, and the least bad song wins the competition! It was highly entertaining. Spoiler alert: Sweden won! Congrats on entering the least bad song, Sweden! 

Sunday and Monday have been spent doing homework, laundry, cleaning, organizing, and other various household activities. Last night I went to see a play called "God Sees Dog", which is supposed to be about the Peanuts all grown up and in high school. It pretty much ruined my childhood, and I'm still deciding whether or not it was worth seeing. But all of the actors did a good job and it was a well produced play! And in English!

My family decided to go to my Papa's house without me, but it resulted in this snap chat of my dog, which is pretty darn adorable.

Days #232-244

So, it's been quite the few weeks. Here are a few updates:

Monday May 11-Tuesday May 19 I have been varying degrees of sick, starting with a fever, then progressing to a sinus infection and then to tonsillitis. I am still a little bit congested but I am done with my antibiotics and (hopefully) in the clear!

Tuesday, May 12 I was printing in the university library for a presentation later that day, and my phone was stolen while I was retrieving the copies. My presentation was cancelled later that day.

I spent Wednesday, May 13 - Sunday May 17 in solitary confinement trying to get better, with the exception of leaving to go to the doctor.

I was supposed to go to Zurich, Switzerland on the weekend of May 15-17, but because of my illness I wasn't able to go.

I spent most of Monday-Wednesday the 18-20 doing homework and catching up on what I missed while I was sick. My main assignment was a presentation with a partner that ended up taking much longer than we thought. When I arrived at my 9am class after a 25 minute tram ride, I found out that class was cancelled and our presentations would take place the next week.

I was supposed to leave for Athens, Greece on Thursday, May 21 to meet one of my best friends for her 21st birthday. My flight left from Stuttgart at 8:25am. The day before I left (Wednesday), I left my language class at 6pm when I heard that there was a German Bahn (transportation) strike. I went straight to the central rail station to check on my train to the airport the next morning, and they told me that there were no transportation options to get me to the airport on time. I went straight home to find alternate options, but because I didn't cancel my flight more than 24 hours in advance I couldn't get a refund, and without a refund I couldn't afford to buy replacement tickets. Long story short: no Greece.

Yesterday my friends and I tried to plan a trip to Salzburg, Austria to see the hills alive with the sound of music, but, alas, that didn't end up panning out either. 

It's been quite the few weeks.

On the up side, my fabulous mother helped a LOT and picked up and shipped me a new phone in time for me to go to Greece, so I do in fact now have a phone again. 

And these few weeks can go nowhere but up from here!

Have a picture of Nolan imitation a statue, aka:

OH AND I now officially have a flight home! August 4, see ya, America! 

Days #217-231

So I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd updated my blog until three of my family members all contacted me on the same day to ask if I was ever going to update it again. I suppose that's when you know.

Since it's been roughly two weeks (EEK, SORRY), I'm going to give you a play-by-play, real quick rundown of a few highlights because it's been JAM-PACKED, NON-STOP FUN, YEAH!

Friday, April 24:
This was a momentous occasion indeed. The Heidelberg ESN (Erasmus Students Network) arranged an international dinner where everyone brings food from his or her own country, and you vote on the best food. Fittingly, Tom and I made Swedish meatballs to represent our Swedish heritage. You know, since we're cousins. AND WHO WOULDA THUNK- WE WON THE PRIZE FOR BEST SAVORY DISH! Granted, we did alter the original recipe a little bit by adding some taco seasoning... but it all worked out in the end.

Saturday, April 25 - Sunday, April 26
SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT, WOO HOO!!!!! My friend Heidi (who is from California and part of my program here in Heidelberg) and I accompanied the Heidelberg softball team to an overnight tournament about an hour away where we played 7 games, camped outside in tents on the grass, and pet at least 6 dogs. 

I got to play left field, second base, and catcher, and here's the thing about German softball slash German sports in general: No. One. Cheers. At all. Everyone is silent. So of course, Heidi and I were the loudest ones on the team (she played softball in high school as well). 

We played against lots of american teams that were mostly comprised of people who were stationed in Heidelberg and decided to stay in the surrounding areas. But these teams were... well.... very American. I'm talking pink and american flag camo, culturally insensitive team names, talking about how America is the best country in the world, didn't-ever-bother-to-learn-any-German Americans. No wonder we get a bad reputation abroad.

BUT despite all this, we had a fabulous time- our coach brought his guitar and we sang along before going to bed Saturday night. Even though we left Heidelberg at 6am Saturday morning, slept on the ground, and played 7 games before getting home at 6pm Sunday night, I was extremely happy (and exhausted) when I got back.

Monday, April 27 - Wednesday, April 29
Classes.
Also, I realized on Wednesday that I had a presentation due Thursday LOL but it was on a play that I had already read, and it was a super interesting topic, so I didn't mind staying up all night to work on it!

Thursday, April 30
My presentation went off without a hitch! I even included a Harry Potter slide, which made everyone laugh and now maybe the Germans in my class will accept me and think I am funny, which would be totally brill (an abbreviation for "brilliant" that my adorable British friend uses). There was also some kind of festival up on a mountain, but as it was raining and kinda cold and I hadn't slept the night before I decided to forgo that idea and, instead, sleep forever.

Friday, May 1
Yay for no classes on Friday! Two of my friends and I did a day trip to Stuttgart, which is a little over an hour southeast of Heidelberg by train. We got to explore Stuttgart's Fruhlingsfest, and it was actually very lucky that it was raining because a) since we spent most of our time inside it didn't affect us anyway and b) because the inside parts were MUCH less crowded, and therefore we could breathe and see and not get run over! We explored the city a bit, and even got a rose from a man dressed in lederhosen, which apparently is a big deal. Other exciting things: we saw roughly a billion bachelorette parties, and Stuttgart had a Dunkin Donuts in their train station.

Saturday, May 2
HOLI! Holi is an Indian festival, which is the celebration of color. A group of friends and I went to Mannheim, the next town over from Heidelberg, so attend the celebration where basically you throw color at each other and dance and are happy all day long. We took some pretty awesome before and after photos. And during photos. And just awesome photos in general.

We're a 90's hip hop band called "Those Kids Your Parents Warned You About"

We found some flowers

This is how the color happened

And this is what we looked like after aka when we were all smurfs.

Sunday, May 3 - Friday, May 8

Homework. And classes. May 4th was obviously a great day because it was STAR WARS DAY! (Get it? May the 4th be with you?). And, of course, the next day is Revenge of the 5th. We got to sit out on the banks of the Neckar and we're almost attacked by geese, so that was also a very interesting experience. Yesterday (Friday) my friend and I planned a (hopefully!) trip to Poland, and this morning I got to skype with Kayla where we planned a (hopefully!) trip to Brussels and Düsseldorf. It's been an action-packed few weeks, my avid readers, and don't forget that tomorrow is Mother's Day! 

Happy now, Uncle Mark? :)

Days #212-216

Better a combined post than no post... Right? Hopefully? 

So! Monday!

Oh yeah. Let me tell you all a little story about the famous "German Efficiency".  My friends and I were signed up for the later German language class, which was supposed to run from 6:15-8pm on Mondays and Wednesday's. This Monday, the first Monday of class, they were going to post a sheet of paper in Max Weber Haus (an academic building in Heidelberg) saying where each language class would be taking place. I got to Max Weber Haus around 4:30, figuring that almost two hours would be an ample amount of time to get wherever I needed to be for 6:15. BUT ALAS! The school had other plans. Apparently they had cancelled the later language class without telling anyone, and my friends and I were now I a language class that started at (you guessed it) 4:30. In another academic building about a 45 minute commute walking/busing away. I panicked. We emailed people. We met with people. We emailed some more. Eventually it was all okay, but MAN was that scary. 

...and that was my Monday! Also I went for a run in the morning and took more beautiful pics of Heidelberg:

Tuesday!

I finally had my class Slavery in the Medieval Mediterranean! There are not one, not two, but SEVEN Americans from my group of friends who all decided to take this class independent of each other which is pretty funny. After class I went to a hipster coffee shop and drank some coffee and did some homework and avoided the paparazzi, as per usual.

I got some noms with friends at this delicious restaurant where I got noodles with sautéed veggies in a spicy sauce and I think died and went to heaven. More homework when I got home, and I called it a night.

Wednesday!

MARATHON CLASS DAY! My first class was Anthropology of Violence from 9-11, then American Fictions of Violence from 11-1, then German language class from 4:30-6. All good, all interesting, and I made it to all of them (though the bus ride between both violence classes was super scary because it took FOREVER and I thought I would be so late)! 

After my German language class, my friends and I had a family dinner in our lovely graveyard home. I made banana bread and, since it was our friend Carlos's birthday, we turned it into his cake!

All of the food was so. Delicious.

Thursday!

LAUNDRY TIME! Then I had my American Fictions of Violence class and learned a lot about German reeducation. I also was apparently the sole voice of America in my class so I should probably brush up on my American history. I went straight to softball practice which was exciting because we had scrimmage and I batted third in my team's lineup (whoop whoop!). We went out for a bit, and Tom drank his beer with all of his friends.

All in all, a successful four days.

Day #212

Today was the day. Sunday, that is. And also the day I got to see my former high school choir perform all the way over here in Germany! So, basically, the single reason I came to Munich.

They did not disappoint. I woke up early to catch a train and then walk a bit through suburban Munich to find Herz-Jesu-Kirche, the church in which Lyrics was performing. It's an incredible space, and, according to Mr. Fontes, only about 15 years old. It's made from lots of glass squares that let in natural light all around the church, and wooden panels that filter that light towards the alter so that the most illuminated part of the church is right up front, the light streaming in from all corners of the church. I got there early and was able to listen to Lyrics warm up, which brought nostalgic thoughts to mind and perhaps maybe even possibly a tear to my eye. Or maybe it was just something in my eye. Something very much like a memory.

I listened to the mass in German (and understood some of it!!!), interspersed with their beautiful voices. I have absolutely no idea if this blog will let me add audio, but I recorded four of their songs and will try desperately to include them in this post.

I missed these people and the music we make together.

This also means that my Lyrics trip to Italy was over 4 years ago HAHAHAHAHHA WHAT.

I walked back through little suburbia, found some Frühstück, and walked around some gardens before heading back to our hostel to pack up and get on our 5:30 train home. Even though we miscalculated juuuuust a little and took the tram back to Heidelberg from Mannheim (that leg of the journey took us over an hour, even though Mannheim is the next town over, because it stopped at every. Single. Stop.), we got to listen to some great Freakonomics episodes and bond over the ridiculousness of eating bread and cheese and salami and grapes on a train and finishing our leftovers at 10pm because, like normal people, we got hungry again. BUT we got back safe and sound, and Heidelberg feels like coming home.

Day #211

Saturday was all about the brunch. So much brunch. Brunch for miles and miles. I think the song 500 Miles was written about brunch. I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the person who walked 1000 miles to have brunch. Those are the lyrics, right?

Just take a gander at this sweet piece of edible artistry:

Yeah. That's what I thought. We were München on heaven. (GET IT LIKE MUNCHING)

It was a little Italian place and the shop owner told us about how he grew up near Venice and lived in Cleveland Ohio for a year and just came to Germany last year. On the plate, you'll notice four types of meat, two of which are sausages and two of which are ham, four types of cheese, butter, homemade honey and jam, freshly squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs with cheese, and a garden salad with carrots, cherry tomatoes, and balsamic dressing. Not pictured: the basket of fresh bread. In the very appropriately themed words of Lizzie McGuire, "hey now, hey now, this is what dreams are made of." (Get it? Because in the movie she goes to Italy and sings this song and this was an Italian bakery? I figured I'd include this tidbit of clarity on the slight off chance that someone reading this is unfamiliar with the Lizzie McGuire Movie and all of its nuances.)

Our other less important adventures (though still extremely important; it's just that brunch is always the most inportant, see?) included Marienplatz, which is in the altstadt (literally "old town" in german), where there was, of course, incredible architecture, including this cathedral:

And the Deutsche Museum, which is a science museum that has literally everything- from glass blowing to motor-powered Lego cities to old fashioned musical instruments to creepy 3D pictures to pendulums to cross sections of airplanes to engines to hominid caves to paper making... We're talking everything. 

After lots of walking (both around the altstadt and the museum and Munich in general), we headed back to our hostel before meeting up with our friends again. I sampled some kaese spaetzle (these things that are like teeny tiny dumplings and it usually has cheese and this particular one had a kind of hot sauce and veggies and caramelized onions so UM YUM FOREVER), plus some sausage in a baguette. Life was good. 

I headed back relatively early so that I could wake up early to see MY OLD CHOIR PERFORM ON SUNDAY!!! 

~*~[stay tuned for next time]~*~

Day #210

Friday! No classes means MÜNCHEN! (That's "Munich" in German for all of those who don't speak German or didn't recognize how close the letting is). My friend Ali and I boarded our bus around 1pm and readied ourselves for the 5 hour bus ride, complete with Freakonomics Radio and TEDtalks. (I highly recommend the TEDtalk "Love Poem for Lonely Prime Numbers" for anyone who likes puns or slam poetry or humor or british accents or just general happiness.)

5 hours and a nap and a rain storm later (which we got to watch cozily from the comfort of our bus seats), we had reached Munich! We made our way to our hostel by around 8pm and readied ourselves for dinner and Fruhlingsfest, which is basically a big spring carnival in Munich. Rides, food, costumes, all th wonderful things. Ali and I met up with two of our friends from Heidelberg at Fruhlingsfest, one of whom is actually Mary Poppins.

Tired from our long day of travel, we settled into our hostel for more fun exploring Munich the next day!