Home Again, Home Again

I have been home one day more than a week. After the semester ended, I had 10 days more in Europe with my parents, and then two flights to get back to California. In my last post I may have alluded to the fact that I was anticipating a rather difficult return home. I definitely fell in love with Heidelberg and Germany, as I expected I would, which didn't make leaving easy. I thought that still being in Europe for a while with my parents would help me ease my way back into American culture, but I found that wasn't the case. The fact that I was in Europe, but away from Heidelberg and away from the dear people I developed friendships with over the past three and a half months made it so much harder. My parents and I went to Salzburg the second half of our time together, and that was so weird, because I had been there a month or so earlier with Tim and all of the other students. My last night in Germany I was alone in my hotel room (my parents had flown home that day), and it felt wrong to me to leave and explore by myself, so I didn't.

The flights home were good, but not nearly uneventful. At the airport I was unable to check in to my flight using the kiosks available, so I had to check in when I checked my bag. I saw that my bag was overweight when I put it up on the scale, something that I had been worried about since I left Heidelberg, but I think the lady noticed I was a bit flustered from being unable to check in, so she was gracious and didn't charge me a fee. I requested to have aisle seats on both of my flights, which I did get, and after that I went through security quite easily and gathered myself in the time I had before boarding. It was 55º and raining in Frankfurt that morning. Boarding started at 7:55, and by that time I had already been awake for three hours. I had an hour-ish flight to London, and then an eleven hour flight direct to LAX. My layover in London was about an hour and a half, provided we land on time, and I had been warned by Chris (who had the same exact flight 10 days earlier), that I had to be time-efficient if I was to get through security and to my gate on time. I was a bit anxious about that, especially when we took off about 20 minutes late. I became more anxious when I looked at my watch when we were nearing London, and my watch said that the time was nearly 11AM. My flight was supposed to leave from London at 10:30 (or something like that)!! I was probably pretty close to a panic-attack when I remembered that London's time is an hour behind Germany's time. Whew!! It still left me very little time to catch my connection, but I hadn't yet missed it completely, thank God.

As we were flying into London, I could see the Tower Bridge through the window. I sighed. I had planned on spending my final weekend in London, but things didn't work out and I wasn't able to. The Tower Bridge was one of the many things I wanted to see. At least I did get to see it from the plane though.

So, I landed in London, late. Then I had to get through security. Again. I wasn't too thrilled about that. I was less thrilled by the pace at which the line was moving. When I got through security (thankfully I didn't have to take off my shoes) I grabbed my backpack, computer, and coat, and then ran through the airport like a crazy person to catch my flight. I saw on a digital board on my way three flights listed: one had departed, one was boarding, and one was waiting to board. Mine was boarding. So I kept running. My gate ended up being the one farthest from the security checkpoint in that terminal. Of course. Why would it be closer!? By the time I got there, pretty much everyone else had boarded, save the one person ahead of me and the family behind me that was dragging their two-year old son behind them. I had to get a new boarding pass, but I did make it on my plane, hot, thirsty, and out of breath. I didn't have any water or time to fill my water bottle, because I had to drink the whole thing while I was standing in line for the security checkpoint. That's ok. I made it. I slept some on my flight, but not much. I ate every time food was offered to me. I watched Get Smart and series one of Sherlock, and I read several chapters of The Return of the King. When I flew to Germany, I fasted for something like 18 hours, and didn't eat on the plane, in order to avoid jetlag. It worked. I had learned that was for going forward in time, but I hadn't heard that for going back. Plus, I honestly didn't care if I was jetlagged coming home. I didn't yet have any responsibilities, so I could take all the time I needed to readjust.

My friend Krystal picked me up from the airport, and that night I stayed up until 9PM, to try to force my body to readjust to California time faster. It seemed to work. By the time I went to bed that night, I had been awake for 25 hours. No wonder it worked. I had no problem sleeping through the night. I was tired during the day most of last week, but I think that's pretty normal with travel like that. Now I'm readjusting, and dealing as best I can with the reverse culture shock that I have encountered so far.

To be honest, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I don't think. I could be wrong, because I don't know what all of the signs are. I'm trying not to be too angry about American culture. I definitely see things in German culture that I prefer over American. One of the hardest parts about that is keeping it to myself. I definitely don't want to complain to everyone around me about something that isn't really changeable. Last night I went to dinner and the the movies (to see the new Star Trek movie!!!) with some friends, and after dinner I couldn't remember how tip in America. My total was $7.52, and all I could think was, "Ok, $7.52, so I pay $8." I had to check myself and I remembered that, no, tipping isn't already included in the bill in America, so I need to do the math and actually figure it out. It was a frustrating realization. Another thing that is hard is that I'm not completely sure how to relate to people. I could go all day and all night talking about the semester to the right person. But I can't do that. I can tell little stories here and there, but I have to be present here and now, with the friends I have here and now. I have to keep inside jokes to myself, because no one here will get them. There are lots of things that remind me of some funny joke that we had, but I've gotta keep it to myself. I am still figuring out how to relate to people my experience. I don't know where to start or what to tell people. The hardest part about that is with some people, I don't know how much they care to know, or if they are just asking me, "How was it?" out of social obligation to ask, not because they are genuinely interested. It was recommended by APU's Study Abroad office to have a 30 second response to that question, but I don't even know where to start with that.

The most common comment I got when I told people (before I left) that I was going to be studying abroad was, "Wow! You're gonna learn so much about yourself!" Now that I'm back, I'm still trying to reconcile with my experience and figure out what I have learned and how I have changed. That's hard. I think only one person has asked me what I learned about myself, but I still feel overwhelming pressure to quickly figure it out, not from any specific person, but I think from myself. It's like I know that I should have learned so much, so because of that I am getting frustrated that I still don't know what I learned. I discovered today that it could take a year or more to fully understand what happened to me in Germany, and I was realizing for myself (at the time of my discovery) that it may take me at least more than the summer to figure it out.

Perhaps I will share that process, perhaps I won't. Time will tell.

Grace and Peace,
Suzannah

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

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

Ladenburg

Last Friday, March 8, we took a day trip to Ladenburg, which is about a 15 minute train ride from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in Heidelberg. Andrea met us at the train station in Ladenburg, and from there we walked two minutes to a path along the river.

Panorama of the river

Ladenburg is where Carl Benz, the inventor of the car, is from. Andrea told us that he built a car and he and his wife then improved upon the design. He partnered with someone else (whose daughter's name was Mercedes), and created the Mercedes-Benz. Because they were the first, there was no one else (initially) who knew anything about automobiles, so Benz had to get a loan from someone completely unrelated to automobiles (like a baker or something like that). I don't remember exactly who he got a loan from. Anywho, we saw the first car-garage ever...

Our great-looking group, in front of the first car-garage.

...And we saw (through glass) a model of the first car.

Funny story about this photo. As you can see, I took the photo through glass. It sits inside the Carl Benz Haus, behind glass and a gate (which you cannot see). One would think that because of it being the first car, the beginning of something we all rely so heavily on, that the museum would have normal operating hours. Not so my friends! The Carl-Benz Haus in Ladenburg is open for three hours on Sunday afternoons. So if you ever are in the Mannheim-Heidelberg area on a Sunday afternoon with nothing to do, you could hop over to Ladenburg and see the Carl-Benz Haus and the first car.

After the Car Benz Haus, we went to the library and a museum (which we didn't enter, we just looked at). Ladenburg has been around since forever, and there are Roman ruins all over the place. Rather than tear the ruins down, present-day Ladenburg has been built up around the ruins, often incorporating the ruins into building structures. We walked around a bit, seeing ruins and signs of spring everywhere.

Because it was so warm, but wasn't quite lunchtime yet, we got ice-cream! (Of course! What else would one get!?) The funny part was that each school got nearly the same flavor. I got chocolate, and then Kristen got the same. Phillip and Chris (from Biola) got cookie, and Nattie and Andrew got raspberry(?) (from Westmont). The only exception was Megan (who is also from Westmont), who got citrus. It wasn't planned at all. We simply got what we wanted and then realized that each school had the same flavor.

After that we walked over to St. Martin's Gate and the Witches Tower. The Tower is where women who were believed to be witches were put until they either died or were executed. Martin's Gate is the gate under another tower on the same building, under which St. Martin walked once, so now the tower bears his name. I don't remember who St. Martin is, or what he did, but he was there. This gate used to be the outside of the wall of the city.

St. Martin's Gate

We had lunch in Ladenburg, half of us at a Chinese buffet and the other half at an Italian cafe. I went to the Chinese buffet, which was quite delicious. After lunch we were done in Ladenburg, and Andrea encouraged us to use the train tickets we had to explore the area. The tickets we had were day-tickets, which were purchased based on the zone we were traveling to. On those tickets, you can travel anywhere within the tariff you purchase, using any of the buses, streetcars, or slow trains. We wanted to go to Weinheim, but Andrea was pretty sure Weinheim was outside of the tariff we had, so she suggested we go to Schriesheim instead, because there was a ferris wheel there that we could ride. We decided to do that instead.

It was easy to get to Schriesheim, although once we got there we were a bit confused. Andrea said that we would see the ferris wheel from the streetcar stop, but we didn't see it when we got off. We picked a direction and went that way to cross the street. Nattie had to be back at the Heidelberg train station, so she ran down the track to figure out what times the streetcar left from there to go back to Heidelberg. While we were waiting for her, we looked around at our surroundings, and in the direction opposite that which we were about to go, we saw the ferris wheel past the rooftops. After Nattie figured out the streetcar schedule, we headed off in that direction, and before too long we found the ferris wheel. We discovered it wasn't just a ferris wheel, but a full-on street carnival. There were lots of other rides as well, and vendors on the streets. We headed straight to the ferris wheel before deciding on anything else and purchased tickets. 

This ferris wheel was quite different from any other ferris wheel I have ever been on. On a ferris wheel in the US, the gate locks and the sides are usually pretty high. At Disneyland, it is completely enclosed. Not here. Here the door opens easily and doesn't lock, and the sides were not very high. The first go-around, that was quite alarming. The view from the top was amazing. Since the sides weren't incredibly high, you could see all around from the very top, instead of only from one side. And we didn't just go around twice and then get off. Oh no. We went around five or six times, leaving plenty of opportunities to take photos of the surrounding area. 

Megan Andrew, Chris, and Kristen on the ferris wheel.

 After that adventure was over, Nattie, Phillip, and Kristen went on Der Burner, which we walked past on our way to the ferris wheel. It was like a big hammer that spun up and over, like the ones that can be found at carnivals in the US, but its base spun and the seats spun too. Plus, it wasn't one of those whimpy 30-second rides like in the US. No no. This was a solid 3-4 minute ride that just kept going. Halfway through it looked like it was slowing down, and then it picked back up for another round. Nattie, Phillip, and Kristen had a great time, and were pretty excited when they got off.

Kristen, Nattie, and Phillip. Phillip could see me, so he waved.

After the rides, we walked the streets for a while, looking at what the vendors had to offer. Nattie and Chris left shortly after that, and then the rest of us followed about 40 minutes later. We were so tired on the way back to Heidelberg, and I think most of us had a hard time staying awake. It was a fun day though. We plan on going back to Ladenburg in one of the coming weekends, because it is a beautiful small town. Andrea said that it is a do-able bike ride from Heidelberg, so we will bike out and have a picnic or something.

Grace and Peace!

Suzannah

Photos

I have been taking lots of photos while I have been here (obviously), but the number I am able to post here on the blog is limited. I have been posting a good majority of them on Facebook though, which I think fixes the dilema I have found myself in. I know there are some of you who aren't on my Facebook, but I have found a way to post the links here so that the photos can be seen, even though we aren't connected through Facebook.

So, here goes...

Here is the link for my first album:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200467785881002.205217.1347655831&type=1&l=f784df2631

Here is the link for my second album:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200658488088438.206569.1347655831&type=1&l=bd25e391f9

Here is the album for the weekend I spent in Kandern:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200730009596431.207406.1347655831&type=1&l=8890ad6489

Here is the link for yesterday's trip to Ladenburg (Which I have yet to blog about. That's coming, I promise):
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200828076448041.1073741826.1347655831&type=1&l=7d3337e676

And finally, here is the newest album, starting with a hike we took today up Philosopher's Way:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200828534619495.1073741827.1347655831&type=1&l=e1818c30f4

I know it's a lot of photos to look at. I wish I had thought of this sooner. Have fun!

Grace and Peace,
Suz :)

Mannheim

On March 1, we went to Mannheim. The train ride was quite short, about 15 minutes from the old train station close to our Pension to the main station in Mannheim. The night before I developed a migraine at the joint where the neck meets the skull, so I took some medication before bed. It helped a bit, but in the morning I woke up with a different headache that quickly developed into a migraine before too long. There were sounds on the train that would cause a sharp pain that lasted several seconds each time it happened. I did take medication that morning before we left (not migraine medication though, because that causes drowsiness), but it took several hours to start working.

In spite of my migraine I tried as hard as I could to have a positive mood and a good time. I fear I may have had a short temper at times, but I hope not. I was trying not to let it affect my attitude towards everyone else. I didn't want to make them suffer just because I was, because I hate it when people do that.

When we arrived in Mannheim we took a street car to the Mannheim Palace, which was built in () by Karl Philip. He moved from Heidelberg to Mannheim and built himself a palace there. His successor was Karl Theodor, whose children Mozart taught while in Mannheim. Karl Theodor had several children, but they weren't the children of his wife, so he built another house for them next to the palace, and had Mozart teach them. Mozart went to Mannheim to try to get appointed as a court musician, but by the time he got there, the court had been moved to Munich. While in Mannheim, Mozart met his wife, Constanze Weber, who he married several years later.

Panorama of the Mannheim Palace

Chapel at the Palace

Inside the chapel

Mural on the ceiling of the chapel

This is the house where Karl Theodor's children lived

We were supposed to go to the art museum in Mannheim, but it ended up being closed. Instead, we had time to explore the area a bit. We ended up splitting into two groups: the girls, and Tim, Andrea, and the boys. We girls went to a restaurant to have smoothies and warm up, which is contradictory, but it was nice to sit for a while.

Mannheim water tower

 After our free time, we went to an early dinner at a nice restaurant called Kleine Rosen Garten, which was quite delicious. I had crème brûlée for dessert, which was the biggest crème brûlée I have ever seen...

It wasn't only a wide dish, but it was also pretty deep, so it was bigger than perhaps it looks.

After dinner we went to the Mannheim opera to see Lucia de Lammermoor. It is a tragic opera Gaetano Donizetti about a woman who falls in love with someone from a rival family, has to marry someone else, and then goes crazy and kills her new husband. The performers were amazing. After the opera we were all exhausted, but luckily Mannheim is close to Heidelberg, so it didn't take long to get back home.

Grace and Peace,

Suzannah

Weekend in Kandern

February 22 to 24 was our first free travel weekend. A group went to Munich and Füssen to see Neuschwanstein, one other student went to County Cork, Ireland, and I went to Kandern, a small town in the Black Forest, to the house of my roommate's parents.

I left on Friday morning from the train station in Heidelberg. We rode the train as a group the weekend before, but that was fairly easy. This trip, I had 2 train changes, and the trains arrived and left usually about 5 minutes apart. I was a tad nervous about making all of my changes. The first change was in Mannheim, which is about a 9 minute train ride from Heidelberg (on the line that I took). In Mannheim I changed to a train going to Basel, and when I arrived in Mannheim, that train had already arrived and was boarding. Oh, and another thing... none of my trains, on both journeys, were on the same platform. I had to change platforms every time, which only made it more stressful. Also, a note on German train-riding: You can reserve a seat on the train, but you don't have to, and to do so you have to pay extra. I didn't reserve a seat, so I had to find one when I got on the train. But the thing is, a lot of seats are reserved. Which is fine. You can sit in a seat that is reserved until the person that did reserve it comes along and tells you to move. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Unless you don't like confrontation. Then, this whole process makes you pretty nervous. So not only was I trying to catch the right train at the right time, I was also nervous that I would get asked to move by an impatient German. But don't worry, I caught all of my trains, I wasn't asked to move, and Diane Kraines was waiting for me on the platform when I arrived in Schliengen.

Diane took me to a cafe for tea and scones for lunch, since it was quite cold and snowing a little bit when I arrived. The cafe had a gift shop and rose gardens that are beautiful in the summer. The scones and jam were delicious. I'm pretty sure the jam was homemade. I couldn't get enough of it on my scones.

After we finished our tea/coffee and had warmed up a bit, we went the rest of the way to Kandern, which is about 20 minutes from the train station in Schliengen. Diane pointed things out along the way and asked me what I thought so far of Germany. Even though it was cloudy and sort of snowy, it was beautiful. Kandern is nestled right on the south side of the Schwarzwald, so it is in the country-side, away from big cities. It is beautiful. There are hiking trails everywhere. Diane took me to Black Forest Academy, where her husband teaches a World Views class. Their son Carl is a junior there now and Hannah (my roommate at APU) graduated from there. We got to BFA near the end of Russ's free period, so he was able to walk me around a bit and show me the school. I met the string teacher and the principal, and was told several times that when I graduate I should go teach there. I can't imagine how much fun that would be. It would be a wonderful reason to live in Germany :)

During our tour I saw a girl that I met at home over the summer, Melodie. She goes to BFA, but during the summer her dad somehow got a job in Ridgecrest and while they were there, they went to our church. When I first met her and asked her where she was from, we soon discovered that we had people in common, which was funny to both of us. Anyways, I was walking past the ceramics classroom and looked inside, and there she was, so I went in and said hello.

After the tour Russ went back to class and Diane and I went to Penny Mart and then to their apartment. Diane checked some work emails, and I did some reading for a class. I had intended to start studying for a World Civ test, but silly me forgot to take the study guide with me, so I couldn't study very effectively. Instead I read for World Civ, which was a dangerous endeavor, because I nearly fell asleep on the couch. After Russ got home, when it was about 9:10 AM California time, we Skyped with Hannah, which was so wonderful. I haven't yet Skyped with my roommates since being here, so I was so happy to see her lovely face. For dinner we had homemade lasagna that Russ made. It was so good. It was wonderful to have a homemade meal and not have to worry about finishing my drink (because in German restaurants, you don't get free refills). Dinner conversation revolved around Germany, Hannah, and families. Carl and I are both taking German 3 right now, so we talked about learning German for a bit. Spending time with the Kraines' at dinner that night and the next night put Hannah in a bit more of context for me, because I was able to pick up on where bits and pieces of her personality come from. After dinner we decided that on Saturday morning we would check on the weather and then decide where we would go, because we had several options. After that we watched a movie and then headed to bed.

Saturday morning Russ made sausage and French toast for breakfast, which was delicious. I think I had Müsli in addition to that :) We check the weather for the different places that we could go, and found that the town in the Alps they had been thinking of was supposed to have sunny weather, so we decided to go there. Carl had a middle-school drama rehearsal all day, so we dropped him off at BFA on our way out of town and then drove to Adelboden, Switzerland. It was, of course, beautiful. It was about an hour drive to get there, and when we got there the sky was clear and sunny, and the snow glittered all around. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect a town in the Swiss Alps to look like. It was freezing, but it was beautiful. I didn't take my boots with me to Kandern because I wasn't sure what I would be doing and I didn't have room in my backpack, but luckily for me Diane had an extra pair that I was able to borrow. We ate lunch outside of a church with a painting on the outside wall that predated Christopher Columbus. We had simple sandwiches on ciabatta bread, but it was delicious. I had the best pear I've ever tasted. After we finished eating we decided to take a hike up a trail that led up the mountain, behind the city, and then back down. They view of the Alps from there was amazing.

First panorama on the way up the mountain.

Second panorama, up a bit further. That, my friends, is the Swiss Alps.

The hike took about two hours start to finish, mostly because we stopped several times to take photos (how could we not!?). It was pretty cold. My feet went through numb and un-numb phases. When we got all the way up above the town it started to gently snow, like we were in a snow globe.

Russ and Diane Kraines. Their beautiful marriage inspires me.

The ski gondola heading back down the mountain

It was honestly a winter wonderland

By the time we got back down into Adelboden, we were quite chilled and very ready to be back in the warm car. On our way back to Germany we stopped at a gas station so I could buy a CH sticker. I decided before I came to Germany that for every country I go to, I want an abbreviation sticker to put on my cello case when I get back. I already got a sticker for Germany (D), and we found a Swiss sticker too. Before we left Switzerland we stopped in the town of Spiez, where there is a small castle on a lake. This area was very pretty too. There is a vineyard on the hillside next to the castle, and I can only imagine how beautiful it is in the spring.

Vineyards on the hillside. You can see the lake to the right.

The chapel at the castle was originally built in the year 700, and additions were made to it in 1000. I think so far, this is the oldest building I have visited.

Inside was small, but well lit with natural light.

The surrounding town of Spiez

 That night when we got back to Kandern we fixed cheese fondue for dinner, which was so good, and had a cherry pie/tart for dessert. We watched another movie that night, but headed to bed pretty soon after that because we were so tired from our hike. The next morning Carl wasn't feeling very well, so we went to church without him so that he could recuperate. My train back to Heidelberg left Schliengen at 1:16, so after church we ate lunch and then headed out.

The trip back to Heidelberg was similar to the trip to Kandern. I had 3 trains, and each time the trains arrived and left from different platforms. On the first change, the stairs going down under the tracks to switch platforms were slippery, and I nearly fell. Luckily I caught myself and there was no fall, but it was a moment of fear. That train hadn't yet arrived when I got to the track, so I had a minute to compose myself. At the next exchange, the train came in on time, and I got to the correct track to find a train there, but it wasn't my train. I figured I had a bit of time, since that train wasn't yet leaving, and my train was supposed to arrive there. I read the screen that gave the information for that train, and it said that that train was running 45 minutes late. I wondered how that was possible, since my train was supposed to be leaving from that track in 10 minutes, so I waited a couple minutes to see what would happen. When I looked back at the next screen, it had changed to say that my train was to be leaving from a different track, which of course was not on the same platform as I was. At this point I had about 2 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, so I quickly (but carefully, I didn't want a repeat of earlier) made my way down the stairs to get over to the platform, and got on the train that was waiting there, hoping it was the correct train. It was, and about 30 seconds after I got on, it pulled away from the platform. That was my last train, about 10 minutes from Mannheim to Heidelberg. I was so glad to finally be done worrying about connections. The only thing left to do was catch the bus from the train station to the nearest bus stop to the Pension, which was much easier. When I arrived, the big group that travelled to Munich wasn't back yet, so I had time to relax from my trip.

I had a wonderful weekend with the Kraines, and I was so glad that I made the trip. I feel now that I have conquered the train system, and that I can do anything! Hopefully for the remainder of my stay here I don't have trips with such hectic connections!

Grace and Peace,
Suzannah