Farewell Heidelberg

My parents arrived in Heidelberg on Tuesday this week, and stayed at the Pension while I finished up with classes and final semester things. Friday night was our last night in Heidelberg, and the night of our final dinner with Tim and Andrea. It was pretty emotional for a few of us. Nattie had one last get-together with her friends from choir after dinner, and shortly after dinner Andrew left to stay with his parents in their hotel at the other end of Alt Stadt.

Before he left, Andrew, Phillip, Chris, Kristen, and I went to Raja Rani (the Indian food restaurant on the corner of our street) one last time to say goodbye to Dev, the man who owns it. We went there to eat almost everyday, so he got pretty used to seeing us. As soon as we walked in he told us that he had been missing us, and that we were like children to him. It made the whole thing so bittersweet, because he had no idea we were coming to say goodbye one final time. When we did tell him, he was so sad, and told us again and again how much he was going to miss us. He said that he has never had another group come that he has liked so much in the 17 years he has had his restaurant, and that as long as he is open our picture will be on his wall. He then had his cook come out and take a picture of us with him, and Andrew is going to print it and take it to him, since he is not leaving Heidelberg until Monday with his parents. He made sure we all had menus with his address on it so we can send him letters, and then he gave us all a 2 pound can of mango puree as a gift. Mango puree? Yes. Dev makes a drink called mango lassi, which we get quite frequently, and the mango puree is what he uses to make it. He told us how to make it, that way we can still enjoy mango lassi in the US. He was so sad to see us go, and we were sad to leave. He is definitely one of my favorite people that I met in Heidelberg.

Andrew, me, Phillip, Dev, Kristen, and Chris

After that Andrew left, and Kristen and I went upstairs to pack for a bit, and then went back downstairs to spend some more time with Phillip and Chris before they went to bed. Phillip wanted to be in bed by midnight (Chris I'm sure did too, since he had to leave Heidelberg at 5:45 the next morning), so that left us about an hour to hang out. Midnight came and went, and he decided he wanted to wait for Nattie to get back from Mannheim to make sure of last minute details, since they were on the same flight the following morning. Nattie didn't end up getting back until about 2 because of the S-Bahn that runs from Mannheim to Heidelberg. We didn't do much while waiting for her, but that's fine with me. It's more being together that was what we wanted. After Nattie got back she and Phillip figured out final things for the next morning, and then we said goodnight and goodbye to Chris. I think I went to bed at about 2:45, and then got up at 6:45 to see Phillip and Nattie off. They were supposed to walk to the location where the shuttle would pick them up, which would take about 30 minutes, but it was pouring, so they took the bus instead (thank goodness!). I expected I would have a harder time saying goodbye to them, but I was so exhausted that none of my emotions had caught up with me yet. It wasn't until about two hours later when I was sitting outside the boys' room waiting for someone to come pick up the cello that my emotions caught up and I lost it. I don't think that I'm necessarily sad that I had to say goodbye to everybody, but more sad that our experience in Heidelberg together is over. I don't know for sure if I will ever get to go back to Heidelberg, and even if I do, it won't be the same. I know also that the friendships we have formed won't be the same once we are all thrown back into the craziness of school and our own individual contexts. I'm positive we will stay in contact, but I don't think it will be quite the same.

Kristen and I left Heidelberg about the same time, and Megan was waiting for her sister to come, and then she would have a few more hours in Heidelberg with her sister. We had about two hours more to spend, so we got some breakfast and then some last minute souvenirs for people. We were able to store our luggage at the Pension, so we didn't have to haul it with us everywhere we went. We actually all went to the train station together, because Megan's sister was coming in shortly after Kristen and I left. The goodbye to Megan wasn't so bad, although I do think I teared up a bit. The goodbye to Kristen inside the train station was much harder, and I was pretty much bawling in the train station. Oh well. I don't care. We had an amazing semester together, and I definitely couldn't have asked for a better roommate this semester. I managed to sort of pull myself together before we went down to our track, but then I lost it again on the track. Again, oh well. People probably thought I was crazy, because I was with my parents and they were fine, but I probably looked like I was reacting to someone's death. Ok maybe not someone's death, but still... I was crying again.

We managed to find seats on the train, which was direct to Ulm. I thought we were changing in Mannheim, since most trains out of Heidelberg do, but we didn't. It was only about two hours to Ulm, and my dad's friend Jacobo, who we are staying with, met us on the track. After refreshing at his house a bit, he and Michele showed us some of the old part of Ulm. Most of Ulm (about 85%) was destroyed in the war, so a lot of the Alt Stadt has been rebuilt, but it is very nice. I really like Ulm. It's a pretty small city, which I am glad for. Jacobo made us a Spanish dish for dinner last night, which was DELICIOUS, and then I went to bed at 10:15. It was marvelous. I think I got about 10 hours of sleep, which I definitely needed. This afternoon we will go see the cathedral, and until then we are just relaxing around the house. The weather is finally warming back up, so hopefully by the time we head out it will be warm enough to go without a coat.

Grace and Peace,
Suzannah