Familie und Fruende:
I am so sorry I have not had time to update my blog. I have gone pretty much two weeks without doing so! However I am here to update you. Let's get started with my first week in Heidelberg and Neckargemünd.
We left off on the last post on the weekend of the 22nd and the 23rd. Here is a day by day story:
Monday, February 24th:
On this day, we went to the University of Heidelberg to the building where they teach all of the language classes. We went into a conference room and discussed Dantons Tod, which is a play we were reading for class. After we discussed this, a professor from the University of Heidelberg came and showed us a video about Heidelberg. The video was in German so I tried to follow as much as I could! After this, we went on a tour of Heidelberg. All of the students, Professor Arens, and the other professor all went to the student bar thing and we all had a drink. It was quite odd to be drinking with my teachers! That night I went out with the rest of the Americans to explore Heidelberg. It was awesome! One of the places we went to was an Irish Pub, who had live Irish music. It kind of made me homesick!
Tuesday, February 25th:
On this day, we went to the Heidelberg Castle, which was AMAZING. The thing I love about Germany is the history, it goes back so so far! We took a tour of the castle with an amazing tour guide. I learned that the grandparents of all the current English royalty used to live in this castle. The earrings worn by Kate Middleton at her wedding were also worn by the princess who lived at the Heidelberg Castle. I also learned that one of Shakespeare's last plays was debuted at this castle. Here is an album of castle pictures. That night, I was sitting in my room and my little host brother Max asked if I wanted to watch TV. He and Hanna came in my room and we watched Family Guy and South Park in German. That was awesome because I had seen the shows before so I actually knew what was going on!
Wednesday, February 26th:
On this day, we went to the Gymnasium. As an American you are probably thinking I went to a gym, but in Germany the Gymnasium is actually what they call the school. The German school system is very different from the USA's. The Gymnasium is the school you go to if you want to eventually go to University. The students range from ages 11 to 18. The pressure to figure out what you want to do with your life in Germany is a lot bigger than it is in the US. You have to start getting good grades at a very young age. For kids who do not go to the Gymnasium, they go to something called Realschule which is kind of like a trade school.
So anyways, back to the story, we went to the Gymnasium. When we were back in Missoula, we prepared presentations for some of the kids. We went to different classes and presented our presentations. Another American and I did ours on Glacier National Park. The kids had questions about America and what our stereotypes of Germans were. It was pretty cool. After we gave our presentations, we at lunch at the school cafeteria (which surprisingly was not bad) and then we all rode a bus to a place called Dilsburg. One of the other American's host father, Erik, showed us around the old castle there and the town. We were all incredibly exhausted and tried very hard to keep up with him. After he showed us around, we all went to his house for coffee and cake. It was awesome! I had tea and probably 5 different types of cake. Erik's wife, I unfortunately can't remember her name, she reminded me of my gramma Joanne. She was very sweet and liked to laugh a lot! I kept asking if she wanted help and she wouldn't let me. That made me miss my gramma a lot!
Thursday, February 27th:
On this day, the group went to a place called Mannheim. I think I heard that about 90% of Mannheim was destroyed in World War II. We went to an art museum there. I am not much of a painting type person so I just wandered around and looked at everything. After this, all of us went to a place to eat döner kebabs. They were the best kebabs I have had on the trip, and they also had french fries in them which made me laugh. After eating, we all met up once again to go to the play Dantons Tod. Before this, we went to a couple different places to get drinks, which was fun. The play was interesting. It was in German, but since I had read it in English I could tell mostly what was happening. That night we went out some more, and then I went home and went to bed!
Friday, February 28th:
On this day we went to Berlin! We rode on a train and I think the trip took 5 hours. It was very sad to say goodbye to my host family, I had just started to become closer with them. However I was excited to leave for Berlin. Read the next post for the Berlin story!
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