Home - er, well...

Okay, so it's safe to say that everyone (for the most part) is back at their respective homes by now. At least I would hope so, seeing as we left Germany last Thursday (everyone except Chris, who would probably be content to stay there forever).

I felt pretty dreadful at how I left everyone - we arrived at the airport around 6-ish and everyone was moving so quickly. I was obviously not going with Air Canada, but Lufthansa, to England. I watched as the group pulled on ahead, past the Lufthansa check in, so I really had to choice but to stop. Megan said she would let everyone know I said farewell. It was unfortunate I could not do it myself, but I had a feeling that we would not stop until the Air Canada check in.

I guess this is the last blog, to sum things up about the month I spent in Deutschland.

1. How can I go back to regular bread after living here? Honestly. Every morning, Nutella on stone oven baked, or sixteen grain, or French baguettes.

2. Clothes do not have to be washed after every wear. Or even after four wears. Clothing can last a very long time if you have very very limited laundry services available.

3. Living without a phone is not as difficult as it seems. Phones are usually the first thing that people set up when they move. Most people are semi - to permanently - attached to their cell phones. You can definitely live without one should the situation require you to. Or if the country you are in does not have the type of electrical plug you need.

4. Germany is ten times more romantic than Canada. I don't just mean the romantic atmosphere, what with the castles and beautiful forests, and such. I mean the people - definitely not the place to go if PDAs are not your thing. Even the eldery people aren't ashamed to grope each other, or at the very least, hold hands.

5. When in doubt, use your hands. You are in Germany and you speak mediocre German at best. I think 8 times out of 10, if you can't say what you are trying to, mime what you mean to say. It was almost always work.

6. European money is not monopoly money - it's just not as real as your actual currency. It's pretty easy to spend money when it's not your usual currency. That's usually how you start to accumulate brightly coloured flashlights, and hurricane cocktail glasses. €5 here ... €10 there ... it doesn't seem to matter that much once you've learned to stop converting.

7. There's no point converting. No, you probably wouldn't spend $6.00 on a pitiful glass of orange juice in a restaurant in Newfoundland. But the price says €3.10. So when the shelf price on your generic pot noodles says €1.10, and you're thinking 'I would never, never pay almost $2.00 for a pack oif pot noodles at Sobeys or Dominion', it's your best bet to put that thought out of your mind... or you don't eat.

8. Buses that run on time, at regular intervals of 10 minutes can only be truly appreciated by people in Newfoundland. Karen and I were waiting for the bus near out house one afternoon (another plus: a bus stop down to street from where we resided), and our bus was perhaps five or six minutes late. An eldery woman sitting beside us commented to us that the Number 23 was never on time. This is true, for te Germans, who, as a whole, are a very timely and punctual people. I think if you were waiting at the Avalon Mall and your bus bus arrived five minutes late, you would wonder why it was on time. Then we decided that Germans should spend a significant amount of time in St. John's to truly appreciate their own public transportation system.

9. A month is just long enough to get used to a certain temperature, even if you don't realize it at the time. I got into England and now I'm freezing at normal Newfoundland temperatures. Germany, you have destroyed my sense of hot and cold.

10. Having people who know the area and know what they are doing who can help you are absolutely invaluable. I think having Dr. W, Peter, Sandra, even little Mark along made a world of difference for everyone. We so appreciated having our own guides who could lend their expertise and time to us. :)

We've got Great Big Sea on in the background.

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we've all had a wonderful time in Heidelberg, but it will be nice to get to our respective homes. Some will be getting there sooner than others (I know that Chris Ryan will be remaining in Germany for another week or two, and I will be in the UK until the 28th).

We've begun the packing process, and Karen and I are slowly discovering that perhaps a trip to the local travel stop may be in order for us, with the intention to purchase a new backpack to use as a second carry on, or even checked luggage. Funny how one begins to accumulate so much without even realizing ...

I somehow have managed to fill up most of my suitcase, and I still have toiletries, and silly gifts to pack. However will I manage to fit my Joan Armatrading record or my Hard Rock Cafe glass in my bag without breaking them? Or the Goodbye Lenin! poster that I simply HAD to have because you cannot get them in Canada? Let's not even start on the fifteen or so books... they were the first thing I packed. So far I have thrown out all my socks, a pair of pants (they had a hole in them anyways), and I will leave my towel (looks like you're not getting it back, Mom).

We had our BIG TEST today. You know, the one that validates the hard work we've done over the last three weeks. I can't really speak for anyone else, but I found my test to be okay. I'm not sure. There were parts that I think I nailed, but at the same time, I could have been off the mark completely. I know that Jackie, Megan and Adam had problems with their listening component, and they felt that they were underprepared in class for that section.

I didn't have those issues - my main issue was the lack of studying I'd done last night, primarily due to the fact that I got violently ill yesterday evening. I consumed some pineapple that did not mix well with me and, I'll spare you all the details that I related to the others this morning (except Karen, who saw the state I was in after the fact), just saying that I spent a short while vomiting. The rest of the night was spent worrying what would happen if I was this sick during this test.

I suppose all travel experiences (at least, all my travel experiences) are marred by a short, but semi serious illness at some point. I'm sure I have not contracted any deadly viruses.

Yesterday, I did the bulk of my souvenir shopping. I spent a significant amount of time in one of the Gummi Bear shops. These places are wonderful, with so many types of candies, in beautiful displays. I bought some of the Heidelberg beer mugs with gold coloured bears on bottom, and white at the top, so they resemble beer. Also, flags were bought, a watercolour of the Alte Brücke, etc. 

Sunday, I spent most of the day knitting, actually. We decided that a nice "Thank You" gift for Peter and Sandra would be to knit baby hats for Marc, as he continues to lose his. They are quite adorable, although two different sizes. Provided Marc's head is not as big as the biggest hat, he should be able to grow into it. Jackie is making a card, which we hope to give to them tomorrow. Will hopefully update on how that goes.

I'm probably going to go back to packing. That, and finishing the Cranford mini-series that we have been watching. One might think it odd that we are watching a series based on a nineteenth century British novel while in Germany, but I think one can never have too much nineteenth century British fiction.

Tomorrow, we have our last day of class. I find this prospect slightly torturous, as we have already completed the exam, and now we are forced to go over it. The rest of the time will be spent playing games or something like that. I would not mind sleeping in, personally. It has been a month since I have slept in properly, disregarding any sort of time keeping devices. It will be nice to say farewell to our classmates though. I will miss them very much, as we always seemed to have a great time and there was laughter in our classroom every day.

Attack of the bridal parties!

The week is drawing to a close. 

Thursday, Ellen and Robert came to hang out with us for the second day. It was the first time I actually saw her this trip. We took them to the Student Karzer (the prison) where students would be thrown into prison for little misdeeds and bad behaviour, like pranks. It has loads of wicked graffiti. Too bad it officially closed in 1914. I should have like to have been thrown in prison once in my life. Especially one that where I could still go to school, and people could bring me meals. We also visited the Old University Museum. It was interesting to learn about the Universität, especially in the thirties, when the Nazis would rally there.

Thursday night, we once again had CLASSABEND! I quite enjoy Classabend for the most part. Except where we are also always forced to speak in German, but we speak quietly and sometimes get away with speaking English. That evening, my class, and G III C took the train to Handschuhheim (Home of the Glove) and we ate and drank in this beautiful little restaurant. 

Our Lehrerin, Barbara, gave up back out brief letters that we had written, practice for the test we would write Friday morning. Mine was not too bad, as all my mistakes were simple ones (although sometimes that is worse!). 

Philip, who is from the Netherlands, attempted to teach us Niederlandisch (or Dutch). I am now successfully able to say "foot stool" in Dutch. (It's "Fuß Bahn-ki-er" - that's the phonetical way Adam and I learned it.)

I also attempted to learn Serbian, and Hebrew, but decided that Italian would be too difficult. Go figure. 

Yesterday was pretty relaxing. I did nothing, for the most part. I went to class, obviously, had lunch and bought a souvenir or two from the Gummi Bear Shop (yes, GUMMI BEAR SHOP). I just spooked around our house for a bit, cleaning up, throwing away some things I don't need anymore, sorting garbage, etc. Around seven thirty, I went over to Megan's with Adam and Chris to watch Taken. 

Let me just say, I don't remember the last time I actually screamed at a computer screen. But I did last night. Liam Neeson could definitely give Jack Bauer a run for his money, and that means a lot coming from me. It did sort of freak me out though, the thought of walking home alone... until Chris told me that Heidelberg has a lower crime rate than St. John's. So I felt okay.

Today, we went to Schwetzingen again (well, it was the first time for a few people). It was ten times better today because Peter was our guide and sometimes spoke to us in German and English. He also stuck to the shade, and it wasn't 30 degrees outside, like last time. Marc(k?) and Sandra joined us at the Mosque, where Marc turned into the Dread Pirate Marc (he lost his hat and therefore used a towel as a makeshift bandana).

In case you had not realized yet at this point, I completely adore this little boy. I will miss him greatly when we leave. He has stolen all our hearts.

Before the castle, we went for brunch. Apparently the Germans don't have a word for brunch, so I have been calling it frühmittagsessen (early lunch). I didn't really have anything - the combinations of food did not look so appealing to me, as I can't eat egg and egg seemed to be a big part of anything I could read and might have found appealing. Also, reading a menu in German is hard when you are kind of hungry. 

We also got to visit the castle, which is very very nice. I love old houses and castles. They really do it for me. Some people want to see theme parks, I want castles and old houses. Although, the little girl who was screaming, and running around and scratching the floorboards... definitely could have done without.

I think Peter may have said "We are pointing" and therefore Karen and I followed his lead with the pointing. Adam and Curtis did not join in on our fun.

We stopped for ice cream, and I passed the store that thought I was stealing last time. This time I picked up my purchase, walked straight in and just gave them the money. 

This evening, Adam, Karen, Megan and I went on a walking tour of the old city, and heard a bunch of vampire/ werewolf/ ghost tales. I picked up the brochure at the Student Karzer. I didn't understand much, the man had a very strange dialect (Bavarian, perhaps?) It was pretty fun, and Karen translated some of the tales for us: Girls falling out of windows and becoming vampires, dead wives being hauled out of graves, trolls under the Alte Brücke... you know, standard stuff really. We may or may not have made up some stuff we didn't understand. It is the Canadian way. I thought it was pretty good that we immersed ourselves in the language, even if we didn't make much sense of it (well, I didn't).

Walking home, we ran into approximately 11 different bachelor/ bachelorette (stag/hen) parties on the Hauptstraße. Some of them are quite outrageous. They all seem to dress up, usually with the same t0 shirts, although we passed a bachelor party today and all the men were dressed as police men, and the groom to be was dressed as a prisoner. Sometimes they sing to you, sometimes they harass you, and then sometimes, they give you underwear. I tend to run away when I see any of them - I don't like being a feature player in "Attack of the Brides!"

It won't be long, yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah)

I'm beginning to feel to consequences of uninhibited shopping sprees. Most notably, books.

Books are my ultimate weakness. Here, I have found so many cheap English books. Books that cost three times the price at home. I came with ten (one of which seems to be missing) and have now in my possession a total of 26 books (German and English of all shapes and sizes!) The problem is, how can you pass up such a good deal - 5 for €10! or €3.99 for one that would cost $15.00 in St. John's.
Now the problem remains - I only have so much suitcase space. And presumably a weight limit. I had this problem as well when I lived in Harlow. I literally filled my entire bookshelf with books that I had accumulated from other people, second hand stores, und so wieder. In the end, I ended up throwing out shoes, socks, underwear, and filled my smaller second suitcase completely with books.
Now I face a similar dilemma (you would think I had learned my lesson, huh?) What's a bibliophile to do?
I think this calls for an emergency mock-packing.

Last night, we caught the final film to be showed at the Universität. It was titled 'Am Ende kommen Touristen', or 'In The End, The Tourists Come', about this young guy who does his civil service at Auschwitz. He works at a youth hostel, and helps out an 85 year old Polish Holocaust survivor. Like every German movie I have seen (with possbily one or two exceptions), the movie ends on a strange note, where you kind of think 'is that it? really?okaaaaaay.' The film itself was good though. I felt really sympathetic towards the old man, because the way most of the other characters acted towards him was just completely fake and they obviously didn't understand, just did not get it.

After the movie, Karen, Adam, Megan and I, along with Philip, Sean, and two people whose names are lost to me went to a little bar for a drink. It was a good time, filled with Denglish (as our teacher, Barbara, called it) and even a little Spanish, French, and my own false British accent. I've been told it's quite good (by a real Briton, no less!)

Today, our friend Ellen arrived. Alas, I have no yet seen her, as I was in the process of checking out some details about possibly visiting a friend while in the UK, and making sure that my flight from Frankfurt is the same time as the group's flight to Halifax (?)

I woke up yesterday morning and I felt like my body had been slammed repeatedly with a purse full of bricks. Except I didn't attempt to mug any old ladies, so where this feeling came from exactly, I have no idea. All I know is that my chest, my left shoulder, and the left side of my neck were virtually immobile. I also ended up with awful leg cramps which awoke me no less than four times during the course of Saturday night, sunday morning. All these things resulted in limited mobility for me for most of yesterday. I did make it to church though. Church for me is a little like a cookie jar for a toddler. I can be displaced in another country, with limited resources, but somehow, I will find out where it is. 

Today we started what I have assumed is the last week of classes. I really have nothing to go on here, other than the fact that we are leaving next Thursday, and we have an actual examination type test on Tuesday. Whether there will be class on Monday, I have no idea. Time seems to be closing in on us, there's really only nine or so days left. We've been here for just about three weeks already. Sometimes it seems like we arrived in Germany lifetime ago, sometimes time seems to be flying by so quickly that I can't imagine how I'm going to do everything I want to do.

Today, a group of us (Chris, Chris, Jackie, Megan, Adam, Karen, Chris's friend Michael, and I decided to go up the BergBahn  to Königstuhl, which is at the top of a mountain in Heidelberg.The Bergbahn is a train that goes straight up the mountain, and it's a little bit terrifying when it stars goes very slowly. Suddenly, all the things that could possibly go wrong in this situation were running rampant through my head and I found myself thinking, "In case of an emergency, the best place for me to be situated would be in the back of the train, underneath the seat. That way, I won't actually go that far, and I'll be packed tightly in a compartment, so I'm less likely to sustain life threatening injuries and/ or death." Despite my slightly morbid thoughts about certain impending doom, Königstuhl is really quite beautiful. It's basically this little Fairy Tale village, with an amusement park, mostly for kids. but Jackie, Chris, Chris and Michael indulged in as much fun as they possibly could in then twenty minutes we arrived before they closed. The rest of us decided to come back one afternoon after classes so that we could optimize our time and money. We do have some awesome photos and videos taken, but if you read this and they are not posted, they will be posted very very soon, so check back.

Adam, Karen, Megan and I decided to go to dinner, and due to the torrential rains, lightning and thunder which suddenly came upon us, we darted into The Dubliner. The Dubliner is an Irish pub that sits nicely on the Hauptstraße. I like eating there - there is something comforting to most Newfoundlanders, I think, about an Irish pub. Tonight, especially, we were treated to the sounds of REAL LIVE IRISH MUSIC, by REAL LIVE IRISH MUSICIANS. Holy heavenly, the sounds of the Irish accent, penetrating our ears! They were a duo, one of whom had a CD for sale, which I purchased. They played "I'm a man you don't meet everyday" by The Pogues.

I was secretly hoping they might play "Galway Girl" or "Fairytale of New York" because they are my two Lieblingsleider (favourite songs), but they felt like we had loitered long enough and left. We did take a video, so we will also post that.

It is late and I still have Hausaufgabe (homework) to complete.

Bis später!

I just changed the settings on the blog so it will allow comments by anyone who wants to, as opposed to just people who have certain accounts. If anyone wants to comment on something, feel free.
I kind of just assume that people are reading this, and that I'm not just sending this out into cyberspace.

I think, for the first time in my life, I'm actually feeling a little bit homesick. I've done the living in another country for a while thing before (some man just told me to be quiet because apparently speaking in a low voice in the library is not quite whispering), but I think the language barrier is finally getting to me.
I'm glad that I am here with people from home. I think I would be batty by now if I didn't. Apparently I#m already having hallucinations of things that aren't there. Too much sun, perhaps. I love the German language, however, it's moreso the little things that are started to make me long for the comforts of my first language.

Zum Beispiel (for example):

1) My brain is always on. If I need to interact with people, I have to always be thinking about what they are saying, and thinking about how to respond, how to properly form a sentence, und so wieter (and so on). Relaxing anywhere but in the safety of my own room is usually not an option. Even just being surrounded by it is reassuring.

2) I'm nervous to talk for the first time in my life. For the same reason as above, and also because my German is by no means fantastic. A man sat next to me on the tram one day and said something to me and I had no idea what he said, so all I could do was smile and look away quickly. Or when a woman said something to me at mass one Sunday, all I could do was shake my head and say, 'Ich verstehe nicht (I don't understand).'

3) Communicating with everyone at home is a lot more difficult. The first time I tried to use a German phone, I was ready to commit phone-icide. First of all, actually finding a phone was one of the biggest problems. When I finally did, I was unable to call collect to home as I had been able to in the Berlin Airport. Then I was not able to find the button which switched the language to English. Now I have use specific phones because they are the only ones that work for me. Seriously, I have to take a six minute bus ride, or walk for 15 - 20 minutes to call my parents, my grandmother, and my friends (when I remember their numbers). When I lived in Harlow, I had my laptop with me, I bought a cheap cellphone because it was an investment, and I was able to talk to someone if I needed/wanted to.

4) I miss chicken! Sometimes I wonder if chicken exists here. Whenever we go out to eat, there is nothing chicken on the menu. I consume as little red meat as possible, but most of the meat dishes are red meat dishes. I ordered ribs the first night in Heidelberg, but I'd never order ribs if chicken was available. I also feel like a moron if I go to ask a waiter or waitress if they have chicken dishes.

Now, I'm not by any means saying that I want to go home (not yet anyways), I just feel like I've been writing about all the wonderful and weird things that have been going on, and I ought to note some of the other realities of being here as well.

I finally have internet access in the library at die Universität (I have also become prone to combining English and German to form Deutschlish sentences. I'll try to prevent this as much as possible, or at least explain the words as I write them. I think Universität is pretty straight forward though.)

Most evenings, the school has some activity planned for anyone who wants to take part. Mostly there seem to be themes - Tuesday are film nights, on Wednesday afternoons there are mini excursions in and around the area, Fridays are more social with dancing and partying.

Last night, in one of the giant lecture halls, they showed 'One Day In Europe', a film about four people in four cities. It takes place during the football (European Football, also known as soccer) championships. These five people all somehow end up getting involved with the local police (they're not in their homelands) because they have either been robbed, or are pretending to have been robbed. It's a comedy, mostly because of all the cultural and language misunderstandings. The movie ends on kind of a weird note - I felt it was somewhat unresolved, but I guess that's the type of filmmaking the director wass going for. End of review.
I managed to find an English trailer (I don't know what the sound is like though, I'm listening to Manic Street Preachers instead).



Today, after class, we had a mini excursion! It is Wednesday, of course. We (Adam, Karen, and I) went to Schwetzingen Schlossgarten (Castle gardens). Today is brutally hot out. It was a little chilly this morning when I got dressed, so I figured it might be okay to wear jeans and a regular tee shirt outside. I've been coming down with a cold (DON'T WORRY MOM), as is usual for me in the summer time. Especially in hot weather. I think it's mostly because I run around in tank tops all the time, and never wear anything on my feet or dry my hair, and just act like a bit of a child of nature. I guess I'm practicall begging my immune system to go kaputt! Anyway, it turned about 30 degrees when we went to go to Schwetzingen. I had to give up on our tour half an hour in. It was in German by my Lehrerlin (female teacher), and I have getting a sun headache, and couldn't focus on what she was saying at any rate. I was also feeling pretty stomach sick from the lack of food intake at lunch. We all had to meet at the Uni Platz at 1:15 and we get of class at 12:45, and what with our daily meeting with Peter.
I ended buying this delicious orange juice popsicle and just spooking around the gardens by myself for an hour. I found a nice little bench, and as all these elderly people walked by, they all smiled at me, and I felt better. I was making notes on a few things:
While I was still with the tour, we passed by a temple to the Greek goddess Minerva. It was beautiful, with carvings of Medusa (at least, I think it was Medusa. I assume Medusa sounds the same in English und Deutsch) on the top of it. Also, as you enter the gardens, there are two foundations - the first one is far bigger than the second, and has three four statues of children and one of a man riding some animal in the center, all spouting water. The spray managed to reach us and cooled us for a brief moment.
I had a kind of awkward encounter with the owner of a small shop selling drinks. I wanted to buy a Coke because my skin was on fire (figuratively), and this shop had a small cooler for drinks outside. So I picked up one of them out of the cooler and then the owner came out and looked at me with a weird look, and said something to me in German. Adam, and one of my classmates, Philip, were with me, and no one seemed to understand what he said. I said 'Sorry?', and it took him a moment to realize we were English. Then he said 'Are you going to pay for that?' or something very similar along those lines. I was a little bit baffled that he was implying that we were stealing, but it was obvious that's what he thought. I managed to say 'Yes, but I have to actually pick it up first.' I'm not sure he understood me. Then he said something to the woman inside the counter about the three of us being English (I had a mind to tell them that I could understand and speak some German, but I held my tongue). It was the first time anything like that has happened to me, not only here, but ever. I mean, I thought the point of having a cooler outside was so that you lure customers in to pick one up, not so that you could angrily accuse them of stealing them. We've done that a load of times since being here, with fruit, especially.
At home, I work in a grocery store, in customer service, and I'm fairly sure that's like the third thing they teach you about customer service.
It makes me wonder if I look a lot like a homeless person who might steall stuff. I don't dress that badly. I hope.

Chris's view

When I started writing this blog, I felt a little bit overwhelmed. Last year, three girls wrote about their experiences and therefore, the dutiful readers had three perspectives to see Heidelberg from. This year, it's me. Only me. I felt like Atlas or something, with the world on my shoulders (suddenly, a vision of Kevin Sorbo as Hercules popped into my head, in the episode where he gives Atlas a break for a bit). I feel like I want to include everyone, at least a little bit of everyone, but a lot of time it's so difficult to do, especially if you don't see them much. This is unforunate, but unavoidable.

However, there is another way you can see Chris McCrowe's p.o.v. He's our photographer, and he's been doing a great job. I really should have posted this link earlier, however, I give it to you now, so that you can see his journey through Berlin und H-Berg.

http://picasaweb.google.com/2009Heidelberg

Check it out!