Bike Rides and Rain!

Today was a pretty long day, but thankfully at 8 we were able to get the rest of the night free! This morning we went to the student cafeteria for the University of Heidelberg for breakfast. We learned how to use our meal cards- they are basic cards like student ID cards, and we just put euros on it and then throughout the week use up our balance, and then deposit more money into it! The food was pretty good. Something interesting is that there are places here where you can return your bottles- glass or plastic- and get 25 euro cents back for each of them. So at the cafeteria, I got a glass bottle of apple juice and it was about 44 cents, and since I got 25 cents back because I returned it after my meal, I only paid 19 euro cents.

Side note: I am definitely becoming addicted to the Heidelbeere flavor of Gelato ice cream. There is this ice cream stand that gives you a single scoop ice cream cone for 1 euro, and it is the most delicious ice cream I have ever had.. This is going to just be trouble for me, but the deliciousness is worth it!!

We did a lot of walking today. After the cafeteria, we went to the post office. There we learned how to buy stamps and send postcards and letters. Next, we went to the bank and exchanged money and learned how to work the ATM and stuff. Then we went grocery shopping for breakfast foods for ourselves, which was nice. Also, we visited a couple stores to get some necessities. My favorite trip was the one to the German Home Depot store! We were able to buy some more storage bins, because all of us are struggling to find a place for all our clothes and belongings. We will leave them here for the next semester of students, because they will come in very handy for them as well! So yeah, a lot of walking! We took the bus back to the Pension, and from there we got our bikes! And we rode to the music school here in Heidelberg to see where the practice rooms are that are for our use this semester. I did okay, but didn't like some of the tight spaces- like one way streets with cars coming straight at me. Eek! Tomorrow we are going to learn the road rules from Yvonne, so after that things might get better for me where that is concerned.

After the bike ride, we came back and had about half an hour to chill and relax, and then we went to eat dinner at another part of the university cafeteria. It's a couple blocks away and works a little differently and has some other food varieties. We finished our meal and sat on the grass so Brice could talk to us about living rules and stuff, and we definitely played a short game of Duck Duck Goose for all the students to see. Pretty sure they thought we were crazy!

For the remainder of the evening, Jessica from Biola and I walked around looking in a couple shops and at the street vendors outside the church. Then it started raining (our first Heidelberg rain!!) and we walked around with umbrellas for about an hour. It's pretty amazing, because if we are bored, restless, or anything.. we can just walk out one block to the street Hauptstraße (hop-strauss), and walk down it for just about a mile or so and visit all the shops. Even window shopping is fantastic! There are just people everywhere who just buy a cup of coffee and sit outside. And there are usually no cars allowed on that street, so it's just an amazing vibe that you get. If I haven't mentioned this yet, the Pension that I am staying in is in the middle of Old Town Heidelberg. Here is a picture for a visual:



So the blue X is where my Pension is, on Mittelbadgasse street. The green rectangle is one of the city squares. You can see the big church that chimes on every hour and half hour, and then right outside in the rest of the square are tables and tables and tables. Most of them have umbrellas and during the day there will be many people sitting there, relaxing. Sometimes we'll have street performers that provide just such a relaxing atmosphere. I love it! And then outside the church are some vendors who make little souvenirs, such as magnets, key chains, mugs, shirts, postcards... you get the picture. Anyway, when you walk down a little further, the red line is the stretch of the Hauptstraße street with the many shops and coffee places. It seems to be the main street of the downtown part of Heidelberg that I have seen so far.

Anyway, that picture just shows you a little bit of where I am living. Tonight was pretty relaxing, just walking in the rain and window shopping. But everything actually closed soon after we started. Almost all the shops in town close at 8:00 PM at night, which was interesting to see happen so early in the evening, or so it seemed to us. Then we came back again and still had free time, so the rest of the night was spent with our laptops and a lot of laughter.

I'll hopefully be posting a picture blog soon! Stick around!