Nederland!

As my last big trip (and by big, I mean overnight), I visited my friend Michelle in the Netherlands!  She studies as an international student in Utrecht, which is the 4th largest city in the country...which doesn't really say much.  I took the ICE to Utrecht and it was so pretty riding through northern Germany during the first snow of the season!  When I arrived in Utrecht, I took the bus on my own to Michelle's campus and we had some lunch before heading to Amsterdam for the afternoon!  Amsterdam was really cool with all the canals and whatnot, but it was SO cold!  I got some really delicious Dutch pancake thing covered in butter and powdered sugar called poffertjes!  Then we got some pizza for dinner and headed back to Utrecht.  I know, LAME, but it was so freezing!  That night we went to an awesome party on her campus with free drinks and 4 rooms of dancing!  Because of that, we may have slept in until 11 the next day (that's really late for me, but I guess it's not actually late for a Saturday)!  We walked through the countryside and saw some sheep and farms!  That was cool, but once again freezing and I couldn't even think!  We got some lunch and then toured downtown Utrecht for a bit, which was really cool...and cold!  It was pretty much like a mini-Amsterdam :]  It was rather interesting to visit during the Christmas season, since the Dutch kind of invented Santa Claus; however their traditions are WAY different!  Sinterklaas, as he is called, comes to the Netherlands every Christmas on a steamboat from Spain with his little African slaves called Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters).  He gives good children presents and the bad children get thrown into burlap sacks and get kidnapped back to Spain by the Zwarte Pieten.  It's somewhat scarier than our American traditions.  Also during this time, there are people dressed up as Zwarte Pieten who run around the cities with sacks of candy that they just throw everywhere.  It's rather racist though (and incredibly frightening) to have Dutch people in full blackface running around in public!  Anyhow, we went to a cafe and talked for a while and then walked back to campus, where we had dinner with Michelle's roommates, who were all really cool.  Then we just crashed on the couches and watched Ratatouille on on the English TV channel since it was too cold and tiring to do anything else.  So basically, I didn't do too much in the Netherlands, but it was still fun to see and experience the culture, if only for a little while!

De Dam - the main square in Amsterdam

A typical canal in Amsterdam!

The streets of Utrecht!

Sheep!

Everything was so pretty...and flat!

I loved the little Dutch gables (not to be confused with a Dutch Gable, which looks rather different)!

The Dom Tower in Utrecht!

A canal in Utrecht!

Zwarte Pieten were everywhere...even if they had absolutely nothing to do with the display!

PARIS!

When I found out I was going to be studying in Germany, I knew one place that I was definitely going to visit:  PARIS!  It took a while to actually find the time to fit the trip into my schedule, but my friend Krista and I traveled there from November 12-14!  The train ride from Heidelberg lasted only 3 and a half hours!  How amazing is that?  We left early in the morning, slept on the train, and arrived in Paris Gare de l'Est at around 10:45am!  We immediately locked up our bags at the train station and took another train to Versailles, the 17th century palace of the French royal family!  It was incredible!  Everything everywhere was just ornate and over the top, but it was still beautiful without being gaudy.  My favorite room was definitely the hall of mirrors, in which we spent a half an hour or so!  The gardens were unfortunately not in season, so I would definitely love to go back in the summer or something since they are massive and worth seeing at their peak!  When we got back to Paris later that day, we got our stuff and headed to the 11th arrondissement to our ho(s)tel...which was interesting.  It was definitely not the plush accommodations I've associated with Paris, but it was good enough for the price, I suppose!  We had dinner in the 10th arrondissement and I had escargot and duck in honey sauce!  It was incredibly delicious!!!  Probably one of the best meals I've had in Europe!  Then we walked to the Seine and I had my first view of the Eiffel Tower!  We walked to Notre-Dame and enjoyed the city lit up by night before taking the metro back to our ho(s)tel.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early at 9am and headed to the Louvre!  We had planned to spend 3 hours there, but we were there for 4 - and even that was not enough time!  We saw so much!  From Greek and medieval European sculpture to Italian, French and Spanish paintings to Mesopotamian and Egyptian artifacts!  It was pretty amazing!  I of course made my way around to the famous must-sees, like the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Code of Hammurabi, but I think I found more pleasure in discovering paintings and works I had never seen before!  There is so much beautiful art that is not "famous" but should be!  I really enjoyed myself there, though I was a bit weary after walking around there for so long.  After grabbing lunch, we headed to Notre-Dame!  The interior was nice, but definitely not the best cathedral I've been to (if that doesn't sound too snobby!).  I really wanted to climb up to the bell tower and look for Quasimodo and his gargoyle pals, but it was raining and late and the line was SO long.  So that will have to wait, I suppose :/  Instead we decided to walk along the Seine, which was rather cold and windy actually!  We then continued through the Jardin des Tuileries and Place de la Concorde before heading down the famed Champs-Elysees!  It really reminded me of Michigan Avenue in Chicago with all of the stores and people out and about, but at this point the weather had really taken a turn for the worse with strong winds and rain.  The Champs-Elysees ended at the Arc de Triomphe, which was cool to see all lit up with all the traffic in front of it.  I oddly found the Parisian traffic to be charming - I know, that makes absolutely NO sense!  After another delicious dinner not far from the Eiffel Tower, we finally we made our way over to see it!  It was simply magnificent!  Seeing the tower lit up for the night was so incredible that it made me forget about all the frustrations with the weather and whatnot.  It easily became my favorite thing in Paris (aside from the duck in honey sauce!).  To end the fun day, we went to a bar not far from our ho(s)tel!

On Sunday morning, we awoke at 9am again, checked out of the ho(s)tel -thankfully - and locked up our bags at the train station again.  We then took the metro to Sacre Coeur, the hilltop cathedral in Montmartre.  It was really nice, but again...just another cathedral at this point!  It actually was pretty cool since we were there during mass!  I was shocked that tourists were just allowed to walk around the cathedral during mass, but it was very cool to admire the inside while listening to nuns and the congregation singing in French!  It was a unique experience!!  Afterwards, Krista and I went our separate ways.  I really wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower (obviously, I mean who wouldn't? ...besides Krista...) and Krista went to the Musee d'Orsay to see the impressionist art.  The Eiffel Tower was just as incredible by day as it was by night!  I walked up the steps to the 2nd floor (670 steps) and then took the elevator all the way up to the top!  The view from the top was not good due to the intense wind, rain and clouds, but the 360 degree views from the other floors were perfect!  I could see everything!  It was definitely worth it and was an experience I will always remember!  I then bought a crepe (just because I felt like I should) and walked along the Seine.  Crepes on the Seine...what a surreal moment for me!  It's then that it actually sunk in that I was in Paris and the dream was a reality!  I pretty much walked from the Eiffel Tower to the Musee d'Orsay, stopping at interesting things along the way, like the beautiful Pont Alexandre III and Place de la Concorde, where I saw where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded by guillotine in 1793!  Krista and I met up at the museum and then walked to Montparnasse, an artsy southern neighborhood of Paris.  We visited the famous cemetery, which was cool to see all the old gravestones and rusting mausoleums!  Unfortunately the catacombs were closed, so we ended up just walking around the area, stopping for macaroons and whatnot before finally heading back to the train station to catch our train at 7pm, which ended up being delayed and hour!!!

Overall, Paris was a great city.  The weather really kind of ruined it for me while I was there, but looking back on it, I saw and experienced so much in so little time and I'm really grateful for those experiences.  There's just SO much that was still left unexperienced there!

Palace of Versailles!

Hall of Mirrors

Gardens of Versialles!

Louvre

Mona Lisa - not THAT great!

Murillo - a new favorite Spanish painter!

I love portraits!

Catedrale de Notre-Dame

Rose window in Notre-Dame

Walking down Champs-Elysees in the rain!

Le Tour Eiffel :]

It sparkles for 5 minutes every hour!

Sacre Coeur!

The famous Parisian Metro stops!

Still gorgeous by day!

View of Paris from the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower!

My beloved tower and Pont Alexandre III

A look down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe!  Isn't that traffic lovely? ...seriously!

Place de le Concorde - former site of revolutionary bloodbaths!

Trees along the Seine

Getting artsy in Montparnasse...how fitting...

Gare de l'Est - the cool train station!

A Reunion with Friends!

Ever since high school, a bunch of my friends and I had dreamed of studying abroad in college and meeting up in Europe for a fun weekend!  This finally became a reality, though not everyone was present :(  I had already visited my friends Jessica and Heather in Copenhagen and London respectively on my fall break, but they both came to visit me in early November along with my other friend Michelle, who studies permanently in Utrecht in the Netherlands!  There's a certain amount of pride in being able to show people around the home you live in and share the knowledge you have about it; but there is also a certain amount of stress in hosting 3 people at once in one room and giving up a week of studying!  But, it was so much fun!

I kind of used this reunion as a chance to get some last minute touristy stuff done, since I never really have the time anymore to just enjoy Heidelberg as a visitor, since I'm basically a resident.  When Heather arrived, we took the train to Worms to see the cathedral and site of the famed Diet of Worms in which Martin Luther defended his beliefs!  It was a fun afternoon, despite some train fiascoes.  We also hiked up Heiligenberg, one of the "mountains" in Heidelberg.  It was an incredible hike through the beautiful fall colors up to the abandoned Nazi amphitheater from the 1930s and the ruins of St. Michael's Basilica from the 12th century!  Once Michelle arrived, I gave them a tour of the city and we climbed up to the castle at night to see it all lit up before having flammkuchen and crepes for dinner!  The next day, we took the funicular up to the castle to explore it and the gardens by day!  It was so cool to get much more up close and personal to the castle, which I had not yet done!  We toured the German Apothecary Museum and the giant wine barrel inside the castle and then just played in leaves and admire the ruins!  Later that night, Jessica arrived and we were finally all together and enjoyed a traditional German meal and played cards!!  On our last day together, we went to the Heidelberg Zoo, which never fails to be . . . interesting.  After we took Heather to her bus to head to the airport, the three of us remaining went up to Philosophenweg to have beautiful look out over the city!  Then it was time for Michelle to take her train back to Holland!  So Jess and I still had one more day together, in which I gave her a tour of the castle and city - which I had just done 2 days before for Heather and Michelle, but it was still fun to experience it with another friend!  We ended the day drinking beers up at the castle at night!  It was a really fun 6 days having some of my best friends staying with me!  But it kind of made me miss all of my other friends that couldn't be there with us - you all know who you are!

21 DAYS TIL I'M HOME!!!!

Me in Worms at the Luther Monument!

Wormser Dom

Hike up the Heiligenberg!

St. Michael's Basilica

Nazi Amphitheater

View of Heidelberg from the top of Heiliggeist Kirche

Michelle, me, and Heather at the castle!

View of the Altstadt and Heiligenberg from the castle

Me and Jessica at the castle!

Homestay in the Pfalz!

About 3 weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited to stay with some family friends, Helmut & Gisela Weidle, at their home in Pirmasens, Germany!  It was a very fun and interesting experience!  I took the train to Landau, where they picked me up and took me to the Weingut Voegeli where we sampled local wines - and I actually really like one and I don't even like wine!  I also got a tour of the small winery by Frau Voegeli and saw how schnapps are brewed and how the grapes are harvested!  We then collected chestnuts as we hiked through the forest up to the ruins of Madenburg, a huge fortress on a hill overlooking the German wine valleys!  It was beautiful, especially with all the fall colors!  Then we drove along the German Wine Route through the beautiful vineyards and into France, where we visited the cute, little town of Wissembourg!  They then drove me through the Pfaelzerwald to their home in Pirmasens.  Gisela cooked a delicious meal and then we had the chestnuts we had collected for dessert!  

The following day, they took me out to see where my great-aunt Hanni lived and then we toured the city, which was really nice.  Unfortunately, most of Pirmasens was destroyed in WWII, but it's still a nice city!  There were a lot of statues having to do with shoes since Pirmasens was once home to hundreds of shoe factories, which allowed it to grow and prosper!  After our city tour, we went to the cemetery to see my Hanni-Tante's grave and then came home for lunch.  Their daughter Evi came home and had lunch with us and then we all went to Bitche, France to see the citadel that was a stronghold for the French in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.  It was really interesting to go there and learn about all that history, because I had never learned anything about that war before!  We came home and had another delicious meal and then played Rummikub!

On Sunday, Helmut drove me around the city and showed me where he used to teach metalwork at a trade school (and he's really talented - their whole is full of his art!) and then we walked through a really nice park.  Gisela then prepared another delicious meal for us and it was time to leave.  Their daughter Evi drove me to Schwetzingen, since she lives close by, and then I took the bus back to Heidelberg!  It was a really fun weekend and I am incredibly appreciative of the generosity and hospitality of the Weidles!  VIELEN DANK!

Hiking of to Madenburg

View from Madenburg!!!

Church in Wissembourg, France

My wonderful hosts - Gisela & Helmut!

Downtown Pirmasens

Saturday market in Exezierplatz

Happy pumpkin at the Bitche Citadel

View of the Pfaelzerwald

Bitche Citadel

My final month abroad!

I feel like all my posts tend to be about my weekend excursions, so I thought I'd switch things up this time.  In exactly one month, I will be spending my last night here in Heidelberg, which will be bitter-sweet.  There are many things I love about being here, but also many things I love about home, so I thought I'd share with you the things I will miss about Germany (and some things that I really won't!) as well as the things I'll be looking forward to about going home!

I will miss...

...being surrounded by German!

Although German can sometimes be frustrating, it is such a feeling of accomplishment to understand what signs mean, to eavesdrop on German people and know what their talking about, to be understood by German people.  At this point, I feel so well-immersed that being in Germany is comfortable and not a hassle!

...traveling!

When else am I going to be able to spend every weekend traveling Europe?  I feel like I've done and seen so much in what really has been such a short time!  It's definitely been my favorite part of this experience!

...EUROPE!

Now that I feel like I live here, I think I really take for granted where I actually am!  It's no big deal to me anymore that I ride the bus through a beautiful, hilly valley everyday, or that I can just see a castle up on a hill as I walk to class, or that I have class in a 300 year old building.  But these things should be a big deal and I should enjoy them and appreciate them while I can!

...my new friends!

I really can't believe that I've only known my friends here for 3 months!  And it's even harder to believe that in 1 month I won't be seeing any of them!  We've shared so many experiences together and I really hope we can all link up again someday despite being scattered all over the US!

I am really looking forward to...

...my car!

Riding the bus everywhere everyday is a real drag.  I feel like I have to live my life on the bus's schedule and not on mine, and that lack of control is really frustrating when you need to get around.  I mean it is nice that such public transportation is available here, unlike in the US, but it's a lot less convenient than I expected it to be!

...internet!

I've been living the past 3 months without internet in my apartment and it is incredibly frustrating!  It's slightly pathetic how dependent I am on it, but it's just such a convenience to have right at my fingertips whenever I need it!  If I realize I forgot to send an email to a professor at 9pm in my room, it will just have to wait the next day...if I remember.  I actually have to make lists of things to look up and check! 

...the American school system!

As I've complained about here before, school here kinda sucks.  Classes meet so infrequently that you hardly feel like you're learning anything.  And the basis of grades is ridiculous.  I will be so happy to not have to worry about one paper making or breaking a grade.  I get stressed about school in the US too, but here it's just so much more extreme - especially because there's things I'd rather being doing!

...my family and friends!

For about the first month of my adventure here, I felt kind of bad because I was never really that homesick.  But just being home with my family and friends is what I want most and what I'm most excited about.  I know it's really cliche, but being so far away from everyone that really matters to me makes me realize how much they really do matter to me.  I can't just call home and vent whenever I'm stressed or have a problem or even when something exciting happens!  I don't have my closest friends around to cheer me up or always be around to hang out.  I really have taken them all for granted and I love them all...a lot!  I can't wait to be home for Christmas!  ...and to have a home-cooked meal!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure there's more that I'll miss or look forward to, but this is the main stuff!

And here are some pictures from my trip to Freiburg and the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).  The excursion wasn't really worth writing about, but the pictures are pretty :]

Baechler in Freiburg - they're just like street gutters that children play in

Square next to the Freiburger Muenster

Freiburger Muenster, which has the "most beautiful church tower of all Christianity" - I can't confirm this since it was covered in scaffolding!

View of the Black Forest in Gutach!

Traditional Black Forest farmhouse

Beautiful scenery!