The Beginning of the End

Today is the last Sunday of our semester. In a week, three of the other students, Chris, Nattie, and Phillip, will already be back home in the United States. The rest of us will still be in Europe, but we will be scattered throughout Europe rather than together in Heidelberg. I cannot believe the semester is coming to a close. In preparation for coming to Germany I heard so many times that I would change and learn a lot about myself. Looking back at the semester and everything I have experienced, I cannot honestly say that I have learned anything new about myself or God, and I don't feel that I have changed, which is a bit frustrating. I was talking to my roommate about this, and she said that with experiences like this, you don't usually realize changes or new things about yourself until you get back to your own culture and normal context. It makes going home that much more anxiety-ridden. I'm already nervous about the adjust back to small-town American culture. I don't expect it will be very easy for me to quickly readjust after being in Europe for almost four months.

Today we had the first of our final farewells. There is a restaurant that we discovered on our first Sunday here called La Boheme, and that night we met Niko, one of the waiters, who has become a friend over the course of the semester. La Boheme became our Sunday night choice for dinner, since that is the night Niko works, and we got to know him pretty well. Tonight was our last Sunday night at La Boheme, and our final farewell to Niko. He came to our concert last night, and told us that tonight he would be working, but then is going to Hamburg for a few days, so tonight would be our last chance to see him. When we were getting ready to leave, he gave us a hopeful farewell, saying, "And now I will leave you not with the American way of saying good-bye, because it is a bit negative, but instead I will say 'auf wiedersehen,' because it means we will see each other again in the future." I much prefer farewells this way. I know that in the coming week we will have several more auf wiedersehens, as we say goodbye to other people we have grown accustomed to seeing regularly.

Peace and Blessings,
Suzannah

Photobook

The APU Study Abroad office is doing a photobook competition, and I have decided to enter some of my photos! Unfortunately it's not working very well with email, so I have decided to send them in this way. Here they are!

View of Old Heidelberg and the castle ruins from the North side of the Neckar River

Heidelberg University library

The Market Square in the snow. This was the first snow of our stay here.

We went sledding in the hills above Heidelberg. It was beautiful.

Same sledding trip.

In the Fasching Parade (which is the last celebration before Lent), this float was a final farewell to all of the American troops that were getting station elsewhere because of the closing of the base in Heidelberg.

The Kaiserdom in Speyer, Germany. This is the oldest Roman-Catholic church in Germany.

Votive candles inside the Kaiserdom.

The Swiss Alps in the snow.

Hike through the Swiss Alps in the snow.

Palace in Mannheim, Germany.

First signs of Spring in Ladenburg, Germany.

Ferris wheel in Schriesheim, Germany

View of old and new Heidelberg from the hills.

The Neckar River at night.

Love-locks on the Old Bridge.

Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany. It was at this castle that Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in 10 weeks.

Our group outside the Wartburg Castle. This semester there were 3 students from Westmont College, 2 students from Biola, and 2 students from APU.

Copy of the Bible (book of Joshua) with Martin Luther's handwriting in it.

Piece of the Berlin Wall in Leipzig, Germany.

Memorial of the Battle of Verdun (World War I) in Verdun, France. Nearly a million died in the Battle of Verdun.

Panorama of the memorial graves at Verdun.

The Salzburg Cathedral. The architect built it in such a way that the angels holding the crown (which are mounted on the building) would crown the virgin Mary (which is a statue in front of the building) as you walk towards it.

Inside of the dome of the Salzburg Cathedral.

The house used in the movie "The Sound of Music" for the Von Trapp family's house.

The Imperial Palace in Vienna, Austria.

On Easter we went to a mass in which the Vienna Boys Choir sang. 

 So there they are, a few photos so far of my time in Heidelberg, Germany.

Grace and Peace!
Suzannah

Sounds of Spring

I know the weather forecast for Heidelberg (and looks like most of Europe right now) is rain, but based on the feeling outside, I can't help but think that Spring has finally arrived. This morning when I stepped outside to go to my conducting class bright and early, it just felt like Spring. You know what I mean? I know it rained last night and there is still rain in the forecast for today, but the air feels different than it did even yesterday. The ground is still wet from the rain we had last night, but the sun is shining and there are birds singing! I don't know how long it has been since I've heard birds singing, and I have honestly missed it. I didn't know I was missing it until this morning. So I don't want to be hasty and say that we are past the worst and Winter has finally changed into Spring, although it is about time, but I think that we could be moving in that direction. Finally. Praise Jesus. I am so ready for Spring.

Have a wonderful Spring-y day!
Grace and Peace,
Suz :)

I Was Going to Blog Tonight...

I realize it has been a MONTH since I have blogged. I am so very sorry about that. The past 3 weekends have been consumed with traveling (which means I have a lot to blog about!), and the past three weeks have been consumed with school (weird, I know). This weekend has been the first in a month that we haven't had a trip planned, so it has been spent doing next to nothing, save the two papers I had to write. Sometimes you just need to do nothing, you know?

So I did have every good intention of blogging tonight to start to get caught up. I finally was able to Skype one of my roommates, and I even told her of my plans. Unfortunately there was one small thing standing in my way that has now turned into a huge thing... I am in process of auditioning for UCO (University Choir and Orchestra) at APU right now, which is turning into a longer process than I expected. Today I borrowed Phillip's camera to record a vocal audition (since his camera has a fun video mode and mine does not) and that was easy enough. I tried to email the video to Dr. Sutton a couple of hours ago, and even the compressed file was way too big. I tried to compress it more with an online program, but that didn't work either because our internet here at the Pension is quite bad. At one point it was telling me that it would take 835 hours to finish, and I decided I had had enough of that. I finally decided to try iMovie again, and it appears that I may yet get that to work. Fingers crossed!

This week I have a reduced class schedule because one of our professors is on spring break with his daughter. Hopefully that will give me more time to get caught up.

Until then, I have posted more photos on Facebook, so you can have the links to those albums (if you don't have access to them)

Photos from our trip to Eisenach and Leipzig:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200898860137589.1073741828.1347655831&type=1&l=244b93e993

Photos from our trip to France with our World Civilizations professor:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200946176080458.1073741829.1347655831&type=1&l=5c1b10c061

Photos from our extended trip to Salzburg and Vienna:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200985418781501.1073741831.1347655831&type=1&l=280d05dec0

Grace and Peace,

Suz