Jolene's Heidelberg Semester

Hello, Big Ben :)

2009-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

So last month we took a trip to London, and it was fantastic. Let me tell you about it! First of all, we left Thursday afternoon after our German History course and made our way to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport to fly with Ryanair (this was October 15th). The only shuttle that would take us there on time got us there about 5 hours before our plane was going to leave, and two or three hours before we could even get into our gate! We spent some quality time in the shops and ate some yummy snacks. Then finally, around 10:20 PM we boarded our plane. At 10:40 we left and enjoyed the hour and twenty-minute long flight to the London-Stansted airport, arriving at midnight our time and 11:00 local time. Once we got to the airport and went through customs, we took the Terravision bus to Victoria Coach Station, in the middle of London. Our plans became a little bit more complicated, because I'd researched the bus schedules to our hostel from the other bus station option we had, but I hadn't planned on us arriving at Victoria station. Let me just say, we met a few really helpful people, and a few mean people... and after a long night of waiting for buses and drinking hot chocolate to get correct change for bus tickets, we FINALLY made it to our hostel at 3:30 AM. We'd told them that we would arrive by at least 2:00, so we were so surprised when the manager was still awake and waiting for us to get there safely! That was just amazing.

Anyway, let me give you a basic layout of our weekend. We slept in Friday morning and took the bus to Kensington Park. We spent all afternoon walking through the beautiful trees and gardens and fountains. Then we found our way into Hyde Park, which was just a bit smaller. We walked around the perimeter of it along the river and this took us to Buckingham Palace. After walking around there for a bit we headed back to Victoria Coach station, ate some yummy dinner along the way, and after yet some more bus complications we made it back to our hostel again! Then Saturday morning we checked out of our first hostel and made our way to our second one, which was actually much closer to the part of London we'd spend much of our day at. We actually met up with my friend Sarah there, who is an APU student studying abroad in Oxford. So then the five of us left the second hostel and went back to the center of the city! We saw Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye. We got in a lot of walking that evening, and it was wonderful to see Big Ben lit up at night. Anyway, that was our last night in London! That night actually had some amazing complications, though... Jess's ticket had been changed by Ryanair to a flight that left at 6 or 7 in the morning, while the other three of us still had a flight at 3 pm that day. I was actually really sick that night, with chills and a slight fever and a headache, so I stayed in bed when Jekka and Tavia embarked on a journey to get Jess to Victoria coach station. They left at about 3:00 with the bus schedules written down and directions on how to get to Victoria. However, everything went wrong, and none of the right buses were going where they needed to go. So Jekka and Tavia didn't return to our hostel until 6:30 Sunday morning! London was full of complications, and was downright stressful at times. But we all got home safe and we definitely learned some lessons!

Overall... London was beautiful, and the accents were to die for. So none of us would trade this trip for anything.

Anyway, here are pictures!

The next morning we slept until about 10 and then found an amazing breakfast at a little cafe down the street. The food was just so yummy!

This is us on our first bus on Friday, going to Kensington Park and Hyde Park!

Me and a London street. They're driving on the wrong side of the road! So trippy.

Kensington gardens. We spent all day here!

Fountains at the Kensington Garden palace.

A huge lake with a lot of birds, especially gigantic swans.

Beautiful gazebo!

The peter pan statue :)

So beautiful. No wonder we spent all day here.

Us in Kensington Park. Some really nice people from North Carolina took the picture for us.

Westminister Abbey!

Another view of the Abbey.

You should all know what this is.

The London Eye <3

Another view of Parliament and Big Ben.

Our last night in London, and this is what we said goodbye to. We love you, big ben!

More to come about my next trip after London... which was to three cities in East Germany: Eisenach, Leipzig, and Weimar!

Stranded in Vienna?

2009-11-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

This is the story of how I got left behind on our Austria trip! To start off with, we woke up on a wonderful Sunday morning (October 4th to give you a timeline), ate breakfast, checked out of our hostel, and made our way to the Vienna Hauptbahnhof. Our train was scheduled to leave about 20 minutes after we arrived, so we had a few minutes to walk around and find food. Basically, I was at our train ten minutes before anyone else was, our train ended up not being delayed anymore, and I couldn't find my group, so I didn't get on the train because I didn't have my own ticket. I watched the train speed out of the station away from me, and I figured that since I hadn't seen anyone get on the train and I hadn't seen anyone actually on the train (I looked inside!) that everyone else must still be at the station. Turned out I was wrong.

The first thing I did was get out my laptop (which I thankfully had with me) and write down Tim's cell phone number. I found a working pay phone after a couple out of order ones, and was able to all Tim. Then I continued on to run up four flights of stairs, talk to the ticket booker, run back down the stairs and use up the rest of my change to call Tim again, then run back up and talk with the ticket booker again. It was difficult because I didn't even have my ticket with me! All I had was our itinerary with the information on which train my group was currently on. Until the very end, the lady was insistent that I would simply have to buy another ticket to get back to Heidelberg. Then she went and talked with her boss, came back, and told me a different plan! She printed out another ticket itenerary for me, and told me to find the conductor for each train I had to board and tell them my situation. Usually what would happen is that they would phone ahead to the other conductor and make sure that my group really had my ticket, and that everything was valid and all that.

So that's what I did! I ran to catch my first train (which I had five minutes to get to) and found the first conductor. It went off without a hitch. And actually, in my hour and twenty minute stop in Salzburg, I did some sightseeing! I visited Mirabell Gardens and found many more sights from the Sound of Music movie. The gardens are just beautiful! After my sightseeing, I ran back to the train station, and caught two more trains and a bus and made it home safely. Here are some pictures!

You all better know what that is!

Those are the Sound of Music steps.

I love the gardens!

The Mirabell Gardens are gorgeous. Walking around them I just fell in love! It was totally worth traveling on my own. I actually met some cool people, was able to practice my German a lot, and got home flawlessly from one country to another without even having a train ticket in my possession. I'd say that's an awesome adventure :)

Vienna, Austria! (Austria travels part 2)

2009-10-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

If you haven't yet, scroll down a bit and read my first blog about our first two days of traveling in Austria, which were spent in the great city of Salzburg. And now that you've read it, please continue reading about our visit to Vienna!

Well, Vienna was also a fantastic place to visit. We had so many experiences and wonderful nights spent walking around the city and sitting in cafes drinking yummy hot chocolate and eating delicious pastas and schnitzel. Our first night in Vienna we saw a performance of the Vienna Boys Choir, which was amazing! We filled our next couple days with more visits to residences of those famous composers we all know and love (especially Mozart). Both cities, Vienna and Salzburg, were ALL about Mozart. There were literally the famous Mozart balls (chocolate candies) for sale on every corner! Anyway, we also visited the Cemetary where many of the composers are actually buried. That was amazing. And we visited this little theme park, St. Stephan's Cathedral, and we went to the event the "Long Night of the Museums". This was where we paid the price for one ticket and got admission to over 90 museums located all throughout Vienna! We took advantage of that event, which only happens once or twice a year, and visited about five to ten museums total. And by the way, our trip to Austria was from September 30th to October 4th, so a significantly long time ago, but I'm just trying to give you a timeline here of my trips, once I get everything updated! Anyway, here are pictures of everything!

Our first lunch in Vienna. SO MUCH SCHNITZEL! I only ate about half of what was on my plate!

An awkward angle, but that was the Vienna Boys Choir!

St. Stephan's Cathedral at night.

And the Cathedral during the day!

We got to go inside, and it was gorgeous.

Another Mozart residence!

A shot of the Vienna streets.

Schubert's grave.

Brahms!

Me, Tavia, Jessica, and Vivi (Tim's daughter) by Mozarts memorial. His actual grave is unmarked, so no one knows where he really is.

Then this is me with Beethoven's actual grave. How crazy is that?

We then made our way to the Schloss Schonbrun, but it turns out that it was closed that night!

This was the huge palace in Vienna, one that Mozart even visited once for a couple months at one time.

We snuck a peek inside through the windows... and it was amazing.

Last look at the castle before we had to move on to other things. Someday I'll go back and actually tour it! There was also a labyrinth in the courtyards we wanted to see, too.

This was our room in the hostel in Vienna! Super comfy, and we had our own shower this time. Loved it.

Sooo... that was Vienna for you! I hope you got a great taste for the capital city of Austria. Both Salzburg and Vienna had so much history, especially where music is concerned. I actually have a crazy story of my last day in Austria that Sunday... alone... and stranded. When I get a chance I'll post another blog and tell you that story :) Now you have something to look forward to!

Salzburg, Austria!

2009-10-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

I am very far behind in my blogging! It has been way too long, and I have two entire trips to update you all on and I'm leaving for another one tomorrow morning really early. So let me tell you what I've been up to! On Wednesday, September 30th, the Heidelberg group left for Austria. We planned to visit Salzburg and Vienna, and our first stop was in Salzburg for two days. We hopped off the train and arrived at our hostel at about 2:30 in the afternoon with plenty to do that day! Throughout our stay there, we visited three of Mozart's residences, the Schloss Hellbrun, saw the Salzburg Opera perform the Marriage of Figaro, and saw many of the Sound of Music sights! I was really excited about those! And now I'll show you pictures of it all :)

This is Mozart's Birthplace. We toured and got to see in most of the rooms where he actually lived!

This is at the Schloss Hellbrun (Castle Hellbrun). This place was built for the purpose of entertainment, and the King who built it had trick fountains installed to trick his guests that would visit him. This is a picture of some people from our group sitting at one of the original tables, with fountains coming up through every seat!

Me and one of the beautiful sights on the palace grounds.

Big lake in the palace gardens!

We found the Sound of Music gazebo on the palace grounds!!

I just love the green fields of Salzburg.

We took a horse-drawn carriage ride through old town Salzburg. Yes, it was beautiful!

Famous arches in the old town.

This is one of the fantastic fountains in one of the city squares, and it's actually in the Sound of Music as well!

I had a few minutes to hike up a little bit and get a view of the city rooftops :)

This is me in the Opera House! Not the best quality, but I was still there!

Salzburg's fortress at night. I didn't have a chance to go up and tour it, but that's for my next trip there, I guess!

This is my last picture in Salzburg at the train station, leaving for Vienna!

So to sum this up, I really enjoyed my time in Salzburg. Out of the two cities, this one was my absolute favorite. I was a little disappointed that I still had so much left to see in the city by the time I left, but hopefully that means I will get to return one day! Salzburg is a fantastic city, and if you ever have the opportunity, go to it!!

Switzerland Adventures!

2009-09-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

I want a cottage. With cows and a goat and green fields in the Swiss mountains. Let me explain why :)

This past weekend I went to Switzerland! My friend Jessica and I left early early Friday morning and arrived in Zurich at about 11:30. My cousin made us a delicious lunch: cheeseburgers. Then we had a wonderful tour of the city! That night, Anja made us a traditional Swiss meal that consists of melted cheese (that you melt on your own with a hot pan type thing) over cooked potatoes. YUM! And Saturday, we went on a beautiful hike. Our trail wrapped around the beautiful lake and there were mountains surrounding us on every side. It was wonderful! I also just loved being with family. Peter and Anja also have the cutest little girl, named Priscilla Jolene. Love her! Anyway, even though I took over 200 pictures, I picked these 20 or so just to give you an idea of what it was all like :) Enjoy!

On our second train to Zurich!

Me in front of the Zurich HB (Main Train Station)

Me outside the Swiss Country Museum!

The Zurich river

Another view of the beautiful river!

Beautiful church in Zurich

The Walen-See lake, about an hour from Zurich.

The trail that we took for the hike took us right along the lake!

The first of two tunnels along our trail! :)

Me taking my first walking picture!

The amazing Swiss mountains.

My favorite part: cows with cow bells.

I want to live there!

One of my options for cottages ;)

Me in the fields!

The church I fell in love with.

Waterfall!

The town across the lake.

Bridge in b&w

Me and the mountains.

I loved Switzerland!! Thanks Peter and Anja for a fantastic weekend!

Travel Schedule!

2009-09-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

After the request of my mother, I thought I'd let everyone know the exact places that I'm going and when. By the end of the semester, I will have visited 8 countries total. Here you go :)

Switzerland- Zurich
Friday, September 25th- Sunday, September 27

Austria- Vienna & Salzburg
Wednesday, September 30th- Sunday, October 4th

England- London
Thursday, October 15th-Sunday, October 18th

N. Germany- Eisenach & Weimar & Leipzig
Thursday, October 29th- Sunday, November 1st

France- Paris
Thursday, November 5th- Sunday, November 8th

Greece- Athens
Thursday, November 12th- Sunday, November 15th

Spain- Barcelona
Sunday, December 7th- Thursday, December 10th

Italy- Rome
Thursday, December 10th- Sunday, December 13th

My trip to Barcelona and Rome is after the semester ends, since we have our finals from Monday, November 30th until Thursday, December 3rd. And on the 13th, we fly from Rome back to Frankfurt, and the next day (the 14th) we fly home to America!! Looks like a pretty fun semester.. what do you think? :)

Neckarsteinach's Castles

2009-09-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we took a day trip to Neckarsteinach to tour three of the castles there! You can see my pictures below of the breathtaking castle that is still in use, and the second castle that's in ruins now, but still has a complete tower you can climb up to. Looking at these castles, I can't help but wonder what they looked like when they were first built and being lived in. Where were the bedrooms? Where was the kitchen? The dining halls? I've been looking online and so far I haven't found anything about these castles.. but I'll keep you posted. I just think that everything about these castles is so fascinating! I wish I could live in a castle. My roommate said that one of her friends actually inherited a castle in Ireland and wants to live there someday... ahh, jealousy! Anyway, we got to the third castle and my camera died. So I stole a few pictures from my fellow Heidelberg-ians for you.

Enjoy!!

This is the first castle we saw, and it is actually still lived in. I wanna live in a castle!

You can see the second castle in the far background.

The second and third castle from a distance. We walked to both!

Beautiful shot of one of the corners of the castle wall.

On the walk to the second castle.

The second castle!! A musician lived here in 1100 or so.

Looking down onto the river and the town of Neckarsteinach.

A view from inside the second castle :) I like to imagine that it had been a banquet hall of sorts.

Looking down into the courtyards of the front of the castle.

Another corridor!

So when we climbed these stairs it was completely dark, but we got to the top of the tower!

The view of the right side of the river from the top of the tower.

This is the third castle. A little bigger than the second one and more intact.

Me, Tavia and Heidi in one of the towers in the third castle!

So those were the three castles of Neckarsteinach. Hope you found them as beautiful as I did!

Andre Rieu!

2009-09-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, the 17th, I chose to pick up a couple grocery items at the City Markt, down the Hauptstraße a little ways, and then return home for a relaxing night. I had only had one class that day, and had none the next day, so everything was looking pretty nice! As I was about to turn down my street to return to the Pension I noticed the construction in the next square over. It had been in process for about three days by the time, but only then did I connect it with the Andre Rieu performances that I knew were going to take place in Heidelberg on the 18th and 19th!

So... Heidi, Brice and I decided to watch them set up the stage for the Andre Rieu. Then we saw many ladies and gents in dresses and tuxedos with their instruments, so we realized that they were having a dress rehearsal. We ended up sitting fourth row center for the entire thing! Here are some pictures and videos! :)

Us being excited :)

The stage from far away.

As soon as we sat down in the fourth row and they started tuning!

Andre Rieu with the three tenors that performed for a couple songs!

This guy at the piano looking instrument? He was playing those bells in the back!

The quintet. They were hilarious :)

The Heidelberg diva! She was from Australia, actually.

All the soloists and the orchestra bowing at the end!

So afterward we kind of stalked him a little ways... and I got a picture standing next to him.

Here are some videos!

This is the opening song that they played for us, entitled "I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg"

Andre Rieu with three tenors. Pretty fantastic!

One of my FAVORITE moments of the night! The competing xylophone and bells song! They did amazing!

The quintet! The second from the left is the most hilarious.

The Heidelberg diva singing about her two men. You can see the bass player and violin player fighting over her throughout the entire song! Haha.

The end of the finale :)

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures and videos!! It was an amazing experience :)
I think in October this performance is being shown on European TV, then the DVDs will be out of it. Exciting!

Ladenburg Alstadtfest Pictures- finally!

2009-09-23T10:08:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted a blog in a very long time. So here is my start to catching you all up on what I've done lately! First off, I think I already mentioned this in one of my previous blogs, but last Saturday we went to the Alstadtfest festival in Ladenburg. It was fun, and these are some pictures of the city all decorated and looking pretty :)

They put up flags everywhere!

Ladenburg is full of old, beautiful buildings.

They had about three stages set up around the town with different types of music playing. This one was a community band that played super catchy songs!

Some of the band members up close.

In the courtyard inside the old Roman wall, they had four older couples dancing to American folk songs! Interesting.

3 Euro cotton candy :) So yummy!

Tim's kids! Adam and Vivian.

The Luft's amazing old house! I think it used to be an orphanage, and it's right in the middle of old town Ladenburg. Yvonne Luft is our German mother (I've mentioned her before) and her husband, Herbert Luft, is our German History professor. Love them both!

My Bedroom!

2009-09-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

So I finally took pictures of my humble abode here in Heidelberg. It's pretty cozy!

This is my bed. We just got new comforters when our sheets were changed! Actually so comfy.

My bed, and the windows that look out onto the street, and our table- to give you an idea of where everything is.

This is my table, more up close. It's actually organized, even though you can't tell!

The roommate's bed!

Our storage space behind the door. We definitely need the extra space! Otherwise we'd still be living out of our suitcases.

The closet! So pretty, but not much storage space. Half of it is two tall shelves, and the other half is for our coats.

My little nightstand at the end of my bed, which I love!

The tiny bathroom that we share between 7 people. Yep, we make it work.

The little kitchen area, with a fridge and microwave.

The stairs that lead to the floor below us, and then the main floor.

My neighbors! The room with the open door is Naomi and Many, and then the other door that you can't quite see is Tavia and Jessica K. Then the partial staircase that you see goes up to the tiny room where our RD lives!

So that's a little taste of my home, sweet home in the Pension Jeske in the middle of Old Town Heidelberg. Yeah, I love it :)

First week of classes, done!

2009-09-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I apologize for the huge gap in blog posts. However, besides yesterday, there wasn't much to talk about this past week. I survived my first full week of classes! But it isn't as if I have a packed schedule or anything... I actually am taking 17 units of classes, but I have the most open schedule I've had yet in college! Here is my class schedule to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Monday:
9-11 AM, German Language
4-6 PM, Baroque Music History

Tuesday:
8:45-10:45 AM, Introduction to Conducting
5-6:30 PM, German History

Wednesday:
9-11 AM, German Language
12-1:30 PM, Baroque Music History

Thursday:
12-1:30 PM, German History

And on top of that load of classes, throughout the semester we will be attending concerts and performances here and there, we'll be traveling, and every week I will be having a private violin lesson with the concertmaster of the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra. So you can see how I didn't have much to blog about after Tuesday, right? Also, my Baroque Music History class didn't meet this past week, so my schedule was even less packed than this!

But we did do something yesterday. We spent the day in the old city of Ladenburg, which is about 45 minutes to an hour away from here. There was an all city festival which takes place once a year, and it was amazing to be a part of! In a certain part of the old town, it's like a maze of streets with vendors after vendors. Everyone from the community comes out to celebrate! People set up their own tables with things to sell; some treat it like a garage sale with old books and musical instruments and clothes, but then others sell handmade things like bags, purses, and jewelry. Anything you could think of is there somewhere! It just takes a little digging. Also, there are marching bands that play on one stage, and rock bands that play on another, and then here and there we saw street musicians. Then everywhere there were tents with great food! It was so yummy. They had everything from bratwurst to Döners to chocolate candy, sour candy, and Gelato.

One sad thing is that I forgot my camera (of course, yet again). You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now, right? But nope! So tomorrow I'll go through everyone else's pictures and steal them to post for you all.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone! I hope it's as relaxing as mine was :)

Classes and birthdays!

2009-09-08T14:20:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! The past few days have been pretty relaxing, and uneventful in a good way. We had one class yesterday, German language, and two classes today: introduction to conducting and German history! We have homework already, but I feel like I've been really proactive with it so far. Both yesterday and today I finished my homework before dinner time, and it felt amazing to just go to bed at night when I got tired, without having to worry about what is due the next day. Plus, it has all been kinda fun so far! Why wouldn't you want to do German homework to learn the language better? Maybe it's just a contagious type of thing here where when you're living in this old part of Heidelberg, you want to learn everything you can about it. I have even become a morning person so far this semester. But... ask me how much this has all changed in a couple months. I'm sure I'll get lazy and more like a real college student by then :)

Anyway, we are also celebrating birthdays here! Today was Jessica Kremer's birthday, and tomorrow is Naomi's birthday. That's been fun :)

Now it's bedtime. When something more eventful happens... you all know I'll keep you posted.

Relaxing Sunday

2009-09-06T11:33:00.001-07:00

Today was a pretty relaxing day! We met up at 10 to get to church, and there were 4 of us who were going to ride the bus. However, after arriving at the bus stop at 10:15, we found out that the bus won't actually arrive until 10:40. So we walked 2 miles to church and arrived at 11:00, even though service started at 10:30! I got blisters from walking in bad shoes.. I'd worn them because I had thought that we were just taking the bus and weren't going to be walking a lot. Definitely didn't turn out that way.

The church service was interesting. It was a Calvary Chapel church in the other side of Heidelberg. The songs were mainly sung in English, which was cool! And the pastor spoke in English first, then the interpreter spoke in German. It's interesting because usually, in the churches around here, they would speak in German first then interpret it into English.

Anyway, thankfully we took the bus back after church! Then I took a three hour nap, which was very refreshing. Since then I've been uploading pictures and figuring out my classes and homework and such. We actually just finished watching the Goonies in Naomi and Mandy's room. And that is how I am going to spend the rest of my night!

Miss you all!

More Pictures!

2009-09-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from the scavenger hunt that we did yesterday! Wellington was my partner, and these are some great moments from our two hours of running around the town.

Scavenger hunt. 20 points: Take pictures with at least two people that you don't know.

"Excuse me... can we take pictures with you?"

10 points: Take a picture laying on the grass of the university cafe.

15 points: Take a picture with two cooks at the Donner Kebab place.

10 points: Take a picture with one of the vendors in front of the church.

15 points: Take a picture in front of Cave 54, one of the oldest Jazz Clubs in Heidelberg.

15 points: Take a picture with the state on the old bridge.

15 points: Have someone take a picture of your group under the arch on the old bridge.

Then this is from the fireworks event last night. I could get any good pictures of the castle all lit up, but I got this one of the beautiful moon and city lights!

Here is a video of some of the fireworks that they lit off the Old Bridge.
Sorry it's sideways! :)

Schwetzinger Castle- pictures

2009-09-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from when we went to Schwetzinger Castle for the day! If you look at the map that I posted right here, you can see how extensive the gardens are. We walked around for about an hour and only covered half of it.

Then here are some fun pictures, starting when Jessica, Jon and I arrived in town and had a while to walk around before everyone else showed up.

This is Jon with a "clapping monks" statue we found while wandering around in Schwetzingen.

Just a pretty church I saw!

Here is the story... it started raining really hard, so Jessica, Jon and I were scurrying around the city trying to find a cafe to sit in for half an hour until the rest of our group arrived on their bikes. From a block away, we saw this billboard in the parking lot that was hopefully right next to a cafe! But as we got closer, our only ray of hope was actually just a sign on top of a van. However, we were saved by the map you see next to the sign, and found our way to a cafe where we drank apple juice in the dry indoors :)

I think this was a sign for the classic car show that was going on!

Part of the entrance to the Schwetzingen Castle.

The entrance to the castle and gardens.

The gardens were beautiful! You can see a little bit of how far they extend back.

Such a cute little bridge!

Pretty foliage!

The original statues from the 18th century that were put in a room to preserve them. So there are copies of all of them outside in the weather.

When it started raining, we hid in these fake Roman ruins for cover! They're fake because they were built in the 17th century to look really old, just like when you buy already faded jeans.

Naomi with Adam, Tim's little boy, who is so cute!

A beautiful view from the top of the ruins! It was raining hard by this point.

A view of the town from the bus stop! It was still raining, and this was after we had run through the gardens to make it to the bus stop on time so we could get back to Heidelberg.

So, at the end of the day, it turned out to be a good one. Even though we got soaked, and two days later my jeans still aren't dry, it was a pretty priceless experience :)

Group picutres at Heidelberg Castle

2009-09-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures that I stole from other people in my group! This is from a couple days ago when we walked up to Heidelberg castle and I forgot my camera. Enjoy!

Our group jumping picture. We had to take one!

And then our band picture.

And this is me and Yvonne!

Scavenger hunt, and then fireworks :)

2009-09-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I finally got to sleep in after a very busy week of orientation! :) I got up at 10:30 or so, and believe me, it felt wonderful. At noon, we all gathered for a scavenger hunt around the city! We had a list of about 30 things to find in the city within a one mile radius or so. My partner for the hunt was Wellington, and at 12:15 we headed out to the city! There were many different things to find. One was to take pictures with two cooks from a Kabob restaurant, another was to take pictures with at least two people you didn't know. Then we had to take a picture of the town from up on the castle, or take a picture of a bicycle traffic sign or a 5 story tall department store or a bus station. Wellington and I found everything on the list except for 8 things! We ended up tying for second place out of six teams, which was pretty awesome. After all that running and walking, though, I was definitely pretty tired.

Then after we received our prizes (I got a Heidelberg keychain which I've actually been wanting!) we hopped on the bus and went to another part of town where Tim and Andrea live. After walking some more from the bus stop to their house, we had a wonderful home cooked meal from them and had some great entertainment from their kids, who are just adorable. I ate some delicious pork that had just the right amount of seasonings and everything, and some corn on the cob and garlic bread and a little bit of potato salad. Then for desert we had ice cream with a variety of toppings! Tim and Andrea definitely knew what we would all be craving to eat by now :)

After a couple hours of socializing, we headed back to the Pension to rest for a couple hours. Then we walked across the river to see the castle illumination ceremony! What happens is they light up the castle in red lights and light off a couple fireworks from it. Then they smoke it out so you can't see any of the castle, and they light off a fireworks show from the Old Bridge. It was beautiful to see the night sky with the moon and stars, and the castle all lit up, with fireworks going off every couple of seconds. This is a ceremony that they only do twice a year, so it was an awesome thing to experience!

I recorded some videos of the fireworks tonight, and also have some pictures of the scavenger hunt, but those I will all upload tomorrow along with some pictures that I have from Schwetzingen the other day. The only thing that we have going on tomorrow is we are visiting the Calvary Chapel church, then the rest of the day is free! So I will finally have enough time on my hands to catch up on pictures. Ah, except yes, I do already have homework, which I will also have to do tomorrow. Crazy!

Night everyone :)
I will post more tomorrow!

Schwetzingen and lots of rain!

2009-09-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

Today, we got soaked. Let me tell you the story of our soaking-ness.

First, this morning we had our conducting class and concert music orientation. That went pretty well! I was a little tired from only getting 7 hours of sleep last night instead of 8, which is pretty ridiculous since 7 hours of sleep should be plenty. But anyway, after classes were over all of us met and tried to figure out how we were going to get to Schwetzingen. The original plan was for everyone to bike there, but three of us decided to take the bus: Jonathan, Jessica G. and I. Mostly, we decided that we weren't up for the hour long bike ride in possible rainy weather! Anyway, we found out that we had to make the trip on our own (without Andrea or Yvonne, our native Germans who know their way around!) So we walked to our first bus stop from the Pension, and made it off the right stop, then ran to catch our next bus that would take us from the outside of Heidelberg to the city Schwetzingen. Then when we got to the city we got off at the right place, and quickly found our restaurant! However, the rest of our group wasn't going to arrive for about another 40 minutes.

Then it started raining, quite hard. And we couldn't find any cover! We were looking for a cafe of some sort, because we knew that we could go inside and just order a cup of coffee or something. We flipped a coin and decided to go left, but didn't find anything in that direction. On our return path, we noticed something that looked like a small billboard in the middle of a parking lot, so we went to go investigate! Turned out that it was just a sign on top of a van that had a map on top of it. So we did find the coffee shop after another minute or two! We sat for about 20 minutes; Jessica and I both ordered Afaelsaftshorle. This is a drink that is half apple juice and half sparkling water. So delicious! And Jon ordered a coke. The best part was that the waiters didn't speak any English, so we ordered and asked for our bill all in German. It was pretty awesome!

When the bikers arrived, we had dinner at a nice restaurant called something like Baus Louf.. not sure on the name. Anyway, it was absolutely delicious. We all had the classic schnitzel dish that came with a yummy salad and some french fries. Then after we all had a really bad case of food coma we toured the nearby castle that was the summer residence for an elector of something with the government. It was beautiful, except when it was time to head home, it started pouring rain. We got completely soaked! Jon, Jessica G and I decided that we were going to run to the bus stop, and ended up taking Jessica K and Drea with us, too. The five of us made it home to the Pension after suffering through bitter cold, lots of rain, and buses that wouldn't stop at our stops. In fact, it was raining so hard that everyone else who biked to Schwetzingen ended up leaving their bikes there and taking the bus back. And they are planning on retrieving the bikes tomorrow!

So when we all finally returned home, it was a cozy night. I and a few others didn't even step outside again, which was so nice! Almost all of us took warm showers and attempted to dry all of our clothes out. I changed into comfy sweats and a sweater. And the best part is that we get to sleep in tomorrow! Then we have a scavenger hunt at 12, and a barbeque at 5 or so.

I did take pictures today, but I will post them sometime this weekend :)
Bed time once again!

Heidelberg Castle! (sadly without pictures..)

2009-09-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

Today we started two of our classes. At 9:00 we had our German class with Andrea Schwartz in the cello shop, which is literally a 20 second walk away. Very convenient. It was nice to learn some phrases and get a little bit better understanding of some basic German phrases. I don't remember much yet... but I know that I will have to practice a lot for it to get really natural for me! Then we had a half hour break, and then our first session of our German history class with Dr. Herbert Luft. He's married to Yvonne Luft, our German mother here. Hopefully by now some of these names are ringing a bell with you! The class seems like it will be so interesting. I have heard that Dr. Luft really brings German history to life. We will be studying history from 1648 to the present through German eyes, which I think will be so fascinating to learn! I have heard that it will be one of the hardest classes of my life... lots of studying. But I am up for the challenge.

Next, we met a German doctor whose office is just about a quarter of a mile away. We got a tour of his office because it would be the place we'd go if we needed a doctor. So it was really good for us to get a feel for all of it! And then after that we ate at the Mensa once again, and then headed up to the Heidelberg Castle!

Sadly... I forgot my camera when we went to the castle.. But it is the most breathtaking thing you will see.

http://www.visit-heidelberg.com/tours/castle.htm

From up there you can see a view of the entire city. And just think, my Pension is just half of a mile away from it! I'm going to go up there soon again, and this time I won't forget my camera. I think that this is going to be one of my favorite spots in Heidelberg, for sure, because you can just go up and sit in one of the beautiful courtyards and read a book or something. Or watch the sunset! I'm excited for many adventures up there.

The rest of the night was free for us, and pretty relaxing. After a ten minute power nap we all went to go find dinner and ended up splitting up to go to different places once we had walked around for a little bit. Then Jeyka (Jessica from Biola) and went to a couple stores so she could buy a camera. Yep! So that was my night. Tomorrow we have another class orientation in the morning, and then a bike ride or a bus ride to Schwetzingen, a really good lunch there, and then the journey home. It's supposed to be rainy and cold tomorrow, so chances are we are taking the half hour long bus ride. But if not, we might have to ride our bikes there! Which will be intense for sure, but we'll make it.

Now sleep time!
:)

Jet lag and half of a bike ride.

2009-09-03T02:08:00.000-07:00

This morning, Wednesday morning, we started off with a lecture of sorts from Tim Schwarz’s wife, Andrea. She is full German and has lived here all her life, even though Tim is American. Andrea will actually be our German professor this semester, so that is going to be exciting! Today’s lesson, though, was more of an introductory course about German culture and differences in cultures around the world. All the students had to sit in on this one, even though not all of us will be taking the class. By the way, almost all of our classes are going to be held in a small cello shop just around the corner. It’s pretty cozy and close! I have a feeling it’s going to work out really well.

After a short break, we met up again at the cello shop so Yvonne could go over some traffic rules and signs with us. Next, we went on a short bike ride across town to another cafeteria for the University where we could also use our Mensa cards (rechargeable meal cards). When we arrived, though, I wasn’t feeling too good. I had felt a little nautious in the morning, probably a combination of jet lag and not having anything for breakfast but a muffin. I felt like I had pulled an all nighter of sorts… you know how afterwards you can’t really eat and you feel really tired? That’s how I felt! My stomach was just a little weird, and everything, even though I had gotten a full 8 hours of sleep last night. I got some water and sat outside in the shade where there was a cool breeze blowing, so after a while I felt a little better. But I didn’t feel like riding my bike all the way back home. Anyway, I pushed on, and Tim had shown up to meet with us briefly. Then we decided to ride around the corner to peek in at some bears in the zoo, and I was in the back of the group with Brice when his bike pedal came off! It was crazy. So we decided that I would ride with Tim in his car, and we would take Brice’s bike back to the Pension while everyone else rode their bikes home and made a couple stops on the way. I returned to the Pension after a little bit of traffic on the roads, and I drank some Apfel Saft (apple juice) and an hour nap.

It was nice, because after my nap we just all met downstairs to go over the living logistics with our Pension landlord, and go over the details of our lessons and practicing and classes with Tim. Since then I was pretty productive! I finished some organizing in my room and replaced my violin strings. I can’t wait to practice on them!

Now I am actually heading to bed a little early. Tomorrow is a long day, mostly because we start two classes in the morning: German and German History. So I had better rest up! I hope you enjoyed the pictures that I put up for you. There are definitely more to come!

PS. I'm posting this Thursday morning my time because we lost internet for last night and early this morning. It's good to have it back :)

Pictures of our first few days!

2009-09-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

Well here are the pictures. I haven't taken as many as some, but that's because if we're riding our bikes somewhere or not taking purses wherever we are going, a camera can kind of get in the way :) especially when you have no where to put it! But I'm sure that throughout these three months, I will take plenty and plenty of pictures to satisfy all of you.

So...

This me standing at the end of our street looking at the beginning of the Hauptstraße, the street with all the shops.

This is me standing at the end of my street looking to the right this time, down some more of the old Heidelberg streets.

This is the church outside in the square.

This is me looking back onto the street where I live. We live in the building a couple down, with the flags hanging off the three windows on the second story. I love our street! You can see bikes here and there parked that belong to the people who work in the shops or live in the apartments across from us.

This is the street sign for the street we live on: Mittelbadgasse! :)

This is Jessica, Naomi and Mandy on one of our first walks down the Hauptstraße. So beautiful! There is so much to see.

Another view of Hauptstraße.

Doesn't really need an explanation, but I loved the bikes parked against a pole on the Hauptstraße.

Klein! That really does mean small in German :) I had to take a picture.

A random statue. Dis ist gut, ja? (This is good, yeah?)

Part of a University, with all the letters from the name out front in the square. It was so awesome!

Martin Luther studied here!

An evening view of the Hauptstraße.

A cute Irish place. Love it!

Walking some more. Another evening shot.

Statue of Bunson, the guy who invented the Bunson burner.

The plaque for Bunson. Pretty interesting!

A street vendor with vegetables!

Another Klein picture!

Some of us on our first bus ride in Heidelberg. Heading back to the Pension with a lot of groceries in tow.

Some of our group showing off the entrance to our Pension.

And this is Tavia and the street we live on, Mittelbadgasse, looking into the square with the church! I hope by now you can kind of have a visual of where we live.

So I hope you enjoyed those! As soon as we get more hangers, I'll put pictures up of my room, because as of right now I have a huge pile of clothes by my bed that won't fit anywhere. So yep! And now it's time for German class :)

Bike Rides and Rain!

2009-09-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

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!

The Arrival

2009-08-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

We arrived safely into the Frankfurt International Airport right on time as scheduled. We were met by Tim Schwartz (our director), his little son Adam (who is one of the cutest kids ever), Brice Myers (our RA for the semester), and Yvonne Luft (the wife of one of our professors, and our German mother during our stay here). They loaded us and our luggage into a bus, and we started the hour long drive to Heidelberg. On the road, we did basic introductions with everyone, and then they orientated us on what they day and the rest of the week was going to hold for us (is orientated even a word?). We received our food money for the week, so we got to hold some Euro bills in our hands! And a couple of us also figured out the hard way that in some public restrooms, you have to tip the restroom attendant in whatever small Euro coin you have with you.

Then finally, our bus reached Heidelberg! The city is absolutely beautiful. The Neckar river runs right through the city, and there is beautiful lush greenery all around! There is a beautiful old bridge that we walked across that goes across the river, and on the other side there are peaceful meadows on the shoreline and many houses just up a level. The best thing is the castle up a little ways on the hill. You can see it from just about any spot in the city. I haven't hiked up there yet, but I can't wait until I can!

The place I'm staying in is called the Jeske Pension. I am in a room located on the third floor, and it takes about three locked doors to get to my actual room. I think after today I'm finally getting used to putting the keys in upside-down! That took a while, I'll admit. After we had a couple more meetings and orientations, we had about 2 to 3 hours of free time, which was so very nice. I always love to unpack when I go somewhere new, so I was about to go crazy if I still had to go with not knowing where anything was in my suitcases. So I used my free time to un-pack. There isn't much storage in my room, even though it's pretty big. We have a small wardrobe to share, two night stands, two beds, and a nice table with two chairs. But the issue is finding where to fit all our clothes... so we are working on that. We are definitely going to have to use our suitcases to store some stuff for the everyday living, but we're still figuring all that out.

For dinner tonight, we had pizza. It was a little different tasting, not too bad. Then after dinner some of us watched a group of four or five teenage girls perform on the street, all playing saxophone. They were amazing! And none of us were surprised that they were as good as they were. And after dinner, we headed down to the main street again, this time a bit more awake than the last time we went, earlier in the day with our city tour. Just walking around the city is so peaceful and exciting!

And I think this is it for tonight. I need to get to bed so I can get up tomorrow, and hopefully the jet lag will leave soon!

Getting There

2009-08-31T09:40:00.000-07:00

So I am on the plane, about an hour away from landing in Frankfurt! I’ts been kind of a crazy day so far. The Heidelberg students met at APU at 4:30 this morning, and we left for the airport in two different shuttles at around 5. Then we got to LAX with all of our luggage and belongings, checked in, went through security, and then boarded our first plane to Newark, NJ. We left at 9:25 or something, and arrived in Newark at 4:52 local time, which is 1:52 our time. We had a 2 hour layover there and then finally boarded our next plane at 6:30 and left at 7:25 PM. Anyway, on the first plane I slept for the first three hours, and then watched two episodes of House. I was pretty excited that both my planes today had personal TVs with free entertainment. Traveling abroad in airplanes really spoils you! The flight I’m on now is about a seven hour one, and so far I’ve probably slept for four to five hours out of the seven. I have never had trouble sleeping on planes, which is something I am so thankful for. But now it is 11:20 PM California time, 2:10 New Jersey time, and 8:20 AM Germany time. It doesn’t even feel like almost midnight to me, although that might just be because I just woke up from a long nap and the sun rose outside my window not too long ago. We are expected to arrive at 9:25 AM local time into the Frankfurt airport.

I’m getting pretty excited to be there already! I’ve always been a settler kind of person. I love to get to a new place, unpack, find a place for everything, and make it a new home. Today is a busy day, I think... I’m actually not sure, because our schedule is on our online calendar and no one has had a chance to use the internet today. But Tim Schwartz, our director in Heidelberg, is supposed to be meeting us there at the airport, so I guess we’ll find out when we land! Anyway, we’re preparing for our descent soon. Woo!