And So The Rest Of The Story Begins

My trusty bicycle and I. One last ride.

I need to write a very important post...a post that needs to be written right now while the feelings I am feeling are still fresh within me. You have been officially warned. What I am about to write is worthy of the Lifetime channel and I am about to get a little "Oprah" on you. I am gonna be sappy and emotional and if you don't like it then YOU should probably live in Germany for a year and see how you feel when you are about to leave. A post like this can never really be written after the fact; the feelings one experiences are almost indescribable at the time and almost fully impossible to describe afterwards. I am, of course, talking about the fact that it is my last day here in Magdeburg and my second last day in Germany. Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday I was in Radolfzell thinking to myself, "Wow, only one month into this journey. I still have almost 11 more months to enjoy in Germany. That is so much time!" Well one month turned into two, two into four, four into ten, and ten into almost twelve. Now I am writing one of my last blog posts in my almost empty room in Magdeburg. All of my things are packed up, save my trusty computer.

When I first arrived in Magdeburg, it seemed I would never reach this place of feeling sadness when leaving it. At the time, that thought was unthinkable. As soon as I arrived in Magdeburg, the weather started to turn cold and all the friends I had made in Radolfzell had somehow been removed from my daily life. I thought that Magdeburg had nothing to offer me...when really it had more to offer me than I could ever imagine. Let me explain...

When I lived in Radolfzell, I lived in an absolute paradise. I lived in a picturesque little town nestled right on the largest lake in Germany. On a clear day, you could see the Alps and in 30 minutes I could set foot in Switzerland. This was the Germany I had dreamt about and wanted to experience. In those two months, I had gotten everything I had expected. When I moved to Magdeburg, I experienced a huge reality check. Magdeburg is a part of former East Germany. It was almost completely destroyed in WWII and was rebuilt under Soviet influence. Because of being rebuilt under Soviet influence, the buildings are all very plain, flat, and industrial looking. The streets are wider than you ever thought a street should be and the land itself is very flat which makes the plain buildings the only thing you can see when you are standing in the city. I found myself almost immediately opposed to living in Magdeburg but told myself, "Clayton, are you really that shallow? Just because Magdeburg isn't 'pretty' it doesn't mean it is a bad place to live." I tried to suck it up and prosper but I always found this sadness creeping into me...at times I even felt envy. I felt envy towards the other people in my program who were placed in, what I considered, attractive, lively places to live like Berlin, Munich, Cologne, or anywhere else really. The one thing Magdeburg had going for it was my awesome host family and my good friend Joe. Magdeburg doesn't have much to do and I found myself getting pretty darn bored. It turns out, however, that I am not the only person in Magdeburg who feels this way. Many of the students who study at the University in Magdeburg leave when they are finished with their studies because they do not want to live in Magdbeurg or Sachsen-Anhalt (the state that Magdeburg is in) for that matter. This is creating a serious problem for Magdeburg. The city has a decreasing population and all those smart, educated kids that get their education in Magdeburg leave and take all of their bright, new ideas with them and benefit other cities in the West. Magdeburg, and most of former East Germany are still recovering from DDR times. Time stood still during DDR time and former East Germany was not able to grow with the rest of Germany when it was separated for all of those years. They need those kids to stay with their education and new ideas. I hope, in time, this difference between East and West Germany will diminish and ALL of Germany can move towards the same future.

So there I was, feeling sorry for myself because I didn't get the Germany that I wanted. I traveled on the weekends to visit other program participants and that made things a little bit better. Traveling reminded me, however, that, even though I was not in my ideal city, I was still in Germany and had so many wonderful things to see. This was probably the beginning of the turning point for me. I started to realize that Magdeburg was not my favorite place in the world but that it was still a part of Germany. Before I left the states I thought to myself, "Get to know Germany Clayton. Experience as much of Germany as you can and embrace it." Well guess what? To embrace something wholeheartedly, you have to embrace the good and the bad. I love Germany and to truly love and embrace this country, I had to embrace all parts of it. The cities I do like and the cities I don't like; it's wonderful present and future but also its dark past. These things all make up Germany and I was beginning to realize that.

As many of you know, my program consists of studying at a Germany University for 5 months and then interning at a German company after the semester portion. During the semester portion, I kind of just went to class and didn't really take much in because I was sad about where I was living. I would travel on the weekends and slowly started to realize that I was still in Germany and that I could still see and experience lots of things while I was in Germany. By the end of my semester at the university I was not quite fully there to totally embracing Magdeburg and still did not like it. My internship search in Magdeburg was turning out little results. In my defense, former East Germany has less dynamic, interesting jobs than the West (for now at least) because of all the kids running away from it. So I was unable to find an ideal internship match for me in Magdeburg. I had met someone whose father was a professor in a city called Aachen some time before my internship search. When I couldn't find anything in Magdeburg, I contacted her and asked if her father had any internship spots available. Long story short, I ended up getting an internship offer in Aachen working with a Biology workgroup at the University in Aachen. After some emails and conversations with some supervisors in my program, I was approved to move to Aachen. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited to experience a new part of Germany. Aachen is as far West as you can get in Germany. It is literally on both the borders of Belgium and Holland. I was of course sad to be leaving Magdeburg, my host family, and Joe but happy to have gotten a good internship in an exciting new city.

Aachen was great. It was hilly with little streets to explore and the city is a University city. 50,000 people out of 250,000 were students. It was a cool vibe and I really liked it. I lived in an apartment with two other guys. They were really cool and it was neat to be able to speak German with them on a daily basis. They were my age so we had some of the same interests. We even made Bloody Marys one night. My internship in Aachen was okay...a bit boring at times. They set me up making Excel spreadsheets of information a lot of times but it was okay. Once, I got to go into the woods for 10 hours and helped look for woodpeckers with a radio that played woodpecker noises. Aachen was great but I did miss my host family and Joe back in Magdeburg and I had this overwhelming feeling that I didn't "belong" in Aachen. I kept thinking to myself, "Clayton, you were placed in Magdeburg not Aachen."

One day in Aachen, I checked my email to see an email from a professor at the University in Magdeburg. Something had panned out with an internship there that didn't pan out before I left for Aachen. I was offered an internship in Magdeburg at the University. It was an internship that was comparable to the one I already had in Aachen. What was I to do? I now lived in a German city that was exactly like the German cities I had envisioned but now had a good internship offer in Magdeburg when the only reason I left Magdeburg in the first place was because I couldn't find a good internship. I could just not tell my program about it and stay in ignorant bliss in Aachen. However, ever since I left Magdeburg, I kept feeling like I had given up on something...that I had ended something too soon. The going got tough so I got going...I quit Magdeburg when I never really gave it a chance. Not to mention that I had a host family back in Magdeburg that signed up for this program just like I did and wanted to experience another culture through me just how I wanted to experience another culture through them. I did not want to cut that experience short for them. I have never considered myself a quitter before and finally realized that Magdeburg was the right place for me to be even if it wasn't the easiest place for me to be. So, after living in Aachen for almost exactly one month, I packed up all of my belongings once more and headed back to Magdeburg to finish what I started.

In the following months, I realized that was the best thing for me to do. My internship was really good for me. I got lots of lab experience. I worked in a lab that studies cow samples (cow poo) and worked towards making methane production more efficient. Methane is a renewable source of energy and can be used to power things instead of using coal or gasoline. Not the most glamorous job I have ever had but working towards a goal like that, that could help the planet, made me feel really good. I gained lots of practical lab skills. I am now a master at using micropipettes and can label even the smallest plastic tube with my hand tied behind my back.

Outside of work, I was beginning to see Magdeburg transform. The weather was getting nicer and Magdeburg was really turning into a beautiful city. The parks in Magdeburg are really great and Magdeburg is a cyclist's paradise. The flat terrain allows you to bike easily through the city and the wide streets allowed for plenty of room for bicycle lanes. I started to ride my bike to and from work everyday and the fresh air and green landscape helped me appreciate Magdeburg. By the near end of my time in Magdbeurg, I actually played hookie at work so that I could ride my bike around the city and take pictures all day. I was also beginning to realize that Magdeburg really had given me everything I wanted to get out of this experience. I wanted to learn more about German culture and I wanted to improve my German. I accomplished both of those things by living in Magdeburg. In fact, I would almost say that my German was better than it would have been had I lived in another city. Since Magdeburg was not what you would call a "tourist hotspot" not that many people know amazing English and there are very very few native English speakers in the city.

During my time in Magdeburg, I got to hear some very interesting stories about how things were in former East Germany and got to have a truly unique experience. There are very few Americans in Magdeburg. It is just not the place that people consider when they decide to study abroad. Because of that, I got to have a German experience that very few people will ever have. I am truly grateful for that. I always considered myself a pretty strong, resilient person before this program but Magdeburg really put that to the test. I experienced untold personal growth during this year. I am still not 100% sure of all the things Magdeburg has taught me that I will be able to use in the future but I am pretty sure even 20 years down the road I will be using what Magdeburg has taught me without even really realizing it. What's really special about Magdeburg is that it is ugly...on the outside. Now hear me out on this one. If you look really closely though and I mean really closely, you realize just how beautiful Magdeburg is. In fact, in order to appreciate Magdeburg's beauty you have to look so closely at and so deeply into it that you end up looking deep inside yourself and discovering things about yourself. I mean honestly. Really what makes you happy? It's not having mountains, old churches, or a beautiful city to look at is it? If it is, then you are a pretty darn shallow person...I must say, however, that I was that person at the beginning of my time in Magdeburg. I was so torn up about what Magdeburg did not have that I did not appreciate what it did have to offer me; a great friend, a wonderful host family, and a truly unique German experience. My first week in Magdeburg, I went on a very small, very short city tour. We came across the statue in the center of the city that basically represents the city. I was not able to fully appreciate it at the time but now can fully appreciate it and even relate to it. The statue is of two horses pulling one ball in opposite directions. The ball is actually a vacuum and the statue represents the experiment that Otto-Von-Guerricke (the university is named after him) conducted during which he discovered and proved the existence of the vacuum. Yes, the vacuum was allegedly discovered in Magdeburg. What is special about this statue is that one side looks like a traditional statue and the other side is open so that you can see the framework inside that supports the statue. This statue represents that  everything has a purpose and that even beneath a seemingly beautiful outer shell, there lies a less beautiful support system but, without this support system, the statue would most likely fall or be quickly damaged. Functionality is not always beautiful but it is needed. You need function AND beauty. In Magdeburg, the functional part is way more apparent than the beauty (wide streets, plain industrial buildings, and a flat landscape that lends itself well to agriculture and wind energy production) BUT the beauty is still there. You just have to look!

The pretty side of the statue.

Other side that shows the functionality.

So, is Magdeburg my favorite city in the world? I would probably say no...BUUUUT because of all the things that Magdeburg represents to me and has given me, it is very special to me. I learned so much about myself and about Germany in Magdeburg and I got to live with the best host family anyone could ever ask for and I got to experience the crazy city of Magdeburg with my very good friend Joe. I think it is safe to say that our 9 months together in Magdeburg has made an unbreakable bond that only people who have lived in Magdeburg can really ever understand. The city makes you go a little crazy...in a good way.

With all that said, I think you can understand why I am sad to be leaving Magdeburg. It has been the definition of a passionate experience. The lows were really low and the highs were pretty darn high. I can safely say that Magdeburg has become a home for me so leaving it will not be easy. Leaving Magdeburg and Germany is almost harder than when I left the states. When I left the states, I knew that in one year's time I would be returning. Sure some things will have changed by the time I return but, for the most part, the life I left in Wisconsin is waiting for me. Leaving Magdeburg is harder because I do not know when I will be able to return and, if I do, it will probably not be for very long. Magdeburg is a dear friend of mine that will probably never again be a part of my everyday life even though it is so meaningful to me. Sure, Magdeburg and I will share the occasional letter or phone call and even the not so occasional visit but it will never again be a part of my daily life as it was for the past 9 months. It is really something that only someone who has sudied abroad for an extended period of time can understand. I have tried to explain it the best I could but I know a website that can do it much better. Recently I saw a Thought Catalog entry going around on the internet that pretty much perfectly explains what it is like. It would be silly for me to try and replicate these thoughts in my own words when they are already explained so well. The entry was written by a woman named Chelsea Fagan who is a writer living in Paris. Here is the link to her entry:
Thought Catalog What Happens When You Live Abroad

Once you have lived away from your home for as long as I have, you can search and search the house you are leaving abroad looking for things you may have forgotten to pack. This attempt is futile...you will never ever be able to pack up all of the things you have in your home away from home. I am not talking about tangible objects or even things you can ascribe a name to...you will always leave something behind that you can't quite put your finger on...a feeling...a piece of your heart...a memory. This is not to say I will walk through the rest of my life feeling like half a person. I will will have many moments of 100% fulfillment, but, as Chelsea's article mentions, with every accomplishment, celebration, or memory I will have in the United States, I will forever wonder what I am missing back in my second home in Germany because a piece of me will always reside there...the piece of me that I looked desperately for while packing but also the piece that was never meant to return home with me. It would have been really easy to title this last post "The End" but that is so out of fashion and entirely too final for me. At the risk of sounding wayyyyy too predictable, I really do need to say that the end of this year is not an end but only the beginning of the rest of my story. When I started this program I thought to myself, "This is 'it' Clayton. This is the most important year of your life. Live it up since you probably won't have a another year like this. Make it count." I realize now that I was partially right. This year will probably remain one of the most important years of my life but this is not "it" whatever that even means. This will not be my last time in Germany and this year has really only opened countless doors for me. The only issue for me now is deciding which one of the wonderful paths before me I want to take.

Zu Familie Dulz, (Sonja, Konrad, Christian, Andreas, Katrin, und Oma Ruth) herzlichen Dank für eure Gastfreundshaft und für die Offnung eures Hauses zu mir. Meine Zeit in Magdeburg war etwas ganz besonderes für mich. Es ist meine deutsche Heimat. Ich bin echt ein Magdeburger Kind.

Euere Spatz,
-Clayton-

To my family back home (Michael, Brooke, Dad, Danni, Lilly, Jolene, Nana, and all the others that are too long to name), thank you for being so supportive of this journey of mine...or should I say ours. You guys have been with me the entire time and thank you for patiently awaiting for my return. It is almost here. Love you guys.

-Clayton-

Birthday in Germany!

As many of you know, I recently celebrated the big 2-4. My birthday in Germany was wonderful. It was one of those days where so many little wonderful things happened that the day just ended up being spectacular. The weather was perfect and every walk signal turned green as I approached it on my bike ride to and from work. Work was great as well. Yes, I worked because I honestly did not see a reason not to. I didn't tell my coworkers that it was my birthday until the day of because I didn't want any commotion. Once they found out it was my birthday though, they dashed off to the university cafeteria and bought me a chocolate muffin as a makeshift birthday cake. That was so nice of them and I really appreciated it. Work was very relaxed that day and I got out early and enjoyed the weather. When I returned home from work, I found a birthday card waiting for me. It was from my grandmother. I don't know how she does it but as long as I can remember, she has always mailed my birthday cards on the exact right day so that I end up getting them on my birthday...and this year was no exception. I don't know how she does it but at over 90 years old, she somehow knew when to send my birthday card so that I would receive it exactly on my birthday even though I am over 4,000 miles away from home. That night my host family and I had Greek food and ate outside because the weather was perfect. My friend Joe also came over and ate with us. My host family got me a German breakfast set as my gift. I got 4 egg cups (to place your egg in while you eat it out of the shell), 4 egg spoons (little spoons to eat your soft-boiled egg out of the shell with), 4 small breakfast boards (these are literally small plastic boards that you eat your breakfast off of), and an egg cracker (a fun device that perfectly cracks the top of the egg shell off). My friend Joe also got me a little something that included my favorite flavored beer in Germany; Birne-Ingwer Schöfferhofer. It's beer that tastes like ginger and pear. The stuff is only 2.5% alcohol so calling it beer is kind of a stretch. I also got to fit in a Skype session with my dad and got other messages from friends and family. As I said, it was just a wonderful day filled with many things that I am still thankful for.

Presents! Side note, "Gift" in German means poison...my host family did not get me any poison.

My host family and I were treated to a beautiful evening sky.

My favorite Bier!

Does Hair Go To Heaven?

I am not one of those lucky people who can let their hair get too long. My hair is not, in the least, thick or voluminous. On the contrary, it is thin and lifeless and it is blond, which means, when I get even a little sun, it bleaches itself to the point where it sort of disappears on my head. The extremely hard water here in Radolzell coupled with no water softener is also not helping the dull and lifeless situation. It also does not grow uniformly whatsoever which means even when it gets to be about 2 inches long, it looks very scraggly. Yes, you heard me correct. I said "scraggly". So I reached the point over here in Germany where I needed a haircut. My first haircut in Germany. I was fearing it for a while. I was hoping I could have waited longer for my German to get better but desperate times call for desperate measures. I had a good enough vocabulary but decided I was not leaving anything to chance since, if my hair was ruined, and I ended up getting a buzz cut to hide it, I would have to keep that buzz-cut for months since my hair grows so slowly. So I ended up finding a photo online to bring with me. Let's call the guy in it Herr Schmidt...cuz he looks like one okay. See the picture below.

Herr Schmidt??????

I had to go to my language school, CDC (Carl-Duisberg Centren) to get it printed since my host family does not have a printer. Even simple things like printing something off has become more difficult over here. All is well, however, since there are others things that are great (like having Nutella everyday and not gaining weight since you are walking everywhere). Es ist toll! So I go to the Sekretäriat to print off this photo and I also asked them where I can get beide ein billiger und sehr guter Haarschnitt (both a cheap and very good haircut). They refer me to this place call "Hair Killer." I say "come again?" And they reiterate that this place is indeed called Hair Killer and that it is located just down the road. Yes, a lot of food labels and even business names here in Germany use English. Hmmmmmmm...I definitely would not get my dog groomed at a place called "Dog Killer" but I don't care for my hair as much as I would for a dog so I said "When in Rome" and headed for Hair Killer. The entire process proved to be fairly quick and Herr Schmidt came in handy. I was in the chair for no more 7 minutes and ended up paying 13€ for my haircut which is pretty preiswert (inexpensive) for Germany. I was overall satisfied with the cut but nothing can compare to Roffler Styling in West Bend. I have been going there since I was like 5 and have never gotten a better haircut. That is the first place I am going when I get off the plane home.

A hair slaughter house???????

Right before the hair killing. Ich habe Angst (I am afraid)!

Me, after my hair has been thoroughly murdered. Who thought killing hair could be so much fun?

Stuttgart

This post is gonna be a short one kids. I didn't really get to do much in Stuttgart. Me and some other CBYXers went on Saturday but still wanted to sleep in a little so we didn't leave Radolfzell until 10:55 am. The train ride lasted about 2 hours so we ended up wandering around Stuttgart for about 5 hours and leaving around 6 pm. I didn't get to see enough history or beautiful buildings but there were plenty of shops. The main street is like one big mall. I didn't buy anything. When you have to fit your life into 3 suitcases, you question every purchase and acquire as little as possible. I bought one shirt since I have been in Germany and the deciding factor was that it was only 5€ at H&M. I do love, however, looking through all the different clothes and other things that stores have to offer. The everyday fashion is a bit different but, I feel, when you venture into the more expensive brands and styles, the fashion is very similar to the US. So I basically saw a bunch of stores and one pretty cool church that was locked so we couldn't even go in. Stuttgart is beautiful though so just walking around the town was nice. I did a little research and discovered that the church is called Johannes Church. Pretty cool.

A very tiny door. Nutrition has done wonders for present day people's height.

Fürstenberg Brauerei

Bier! Yes, that means beer! Now, I cannot tell a lie. I am not much of a drinker which is very shameful since I was born and raised in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is known for two things...cheese and beer. Beer is especially something that does not often touch my lips. I know, I'm an embarrassment to my state. Even though, I am not a drinker, I was still very excited to go to the Fürstenberg Bier brewery in the town of Donaueschingen on a trip that the Carl-Duisberg Centren organized (yes, our school organized the trip). I have lived in Wisconsin my entire life and have never been to the Miller Brewing Company brewery and now I find myself having gone to a brewery in Germany halfway across the world before I visited one that was 40 minutes away from my home in Wisconsin.

Apparently the statue is of Diana.

So, before we got to go into the brewery, we got these awesome neon orange vests! We all had so much fun with them. We were fighting the urge to sing "YMCA".

Stylin'

Me and Joe being crazy in a dark hallway.

Adam, me, and Liz.

That's a lot of beer! 

Beer is so educational!

Of course, when the tour ended, we got to try beer. Now, Germans take their beer seriously and we sat in the sitting room for over two hours sipping our drinks. They savor their beer. We conversed and enjoyed ourselves. I had this drink called Qowaz that Fürstenberg Bier makes. It is a cola-beer mix with lemongrass. The perfect drink for someone like me who needs to be eased into the beer world. The sweetness of the cola and lemongrass cuts the bitterness of the beer just enough for me to enjoy it.

Me enjoying my Qowaz. I had to edit the picture a bit because SOMEONE decided to make a very strange face behind me.

This gives new meaning to Beer Goggles.

They have this brew called Bären Pils. Hence the bear. "Bär" means "bear".

Affenberg

To the untrained eye, the word "Affenberg" can seem pretty normal...but to someone who knows a little bit of German it means Monkey Mountain! What a wonderful place this is. I currently live in Radolfzell. It takes about an hour by train to get to this little town called Salem. It is a quiet little town and, seemingly, uninteresting. If you hop on a bus, however, you are taken to the country side and to the entrance of a little nature park. You pay 7 € as a student for admission. The park is full of all kinds of wildlife like swans, storks, deer, and some very large fish in the pond.

Once you walk through the first part of the park, you come to another gate. Once through this gate you walk a hill a ways and are greeted by staff with a basket full of popcorn and you grab a handful. I'm not gonna lie. I had some. It tasted pretty good. You walk a little more and then you see them. Monkeys! The path is lined by a wooden rail and they come up to the rail, sit on it, and wait for you to give them popcorn. That's probably why the park chooses to use popcorn. It is mostly air and probably doesn't fill the monkeys up too much. They are not aggressive but the employees do tell you not to bother babies (so as not to incur the wrath of momma). I got some awesome pictures!

They got a little rowdy here!

This one was so docile.

He's so excited!

Neuschwanstein

Last Sunday me and the other CBYXers went to the Neuschwanstein castle. The language school, CDC, organized a trip last Saturday but the CBYXers didn't want to go as a big group and we wanted to stretch our little travel wings a bit and venture out on our own so we decided to go on Sunday as a much smaller group. We all went in on what is called a "Schönes Wochenende" train ticket. It is this really neat thing you can do on the weekends in Germany. You buy a 40 Euro (or around that) ticket and up to five people can ride all around the Bundesland all day. It is really great and a super inexpensive way to travel around Germany as each person only ends up paying around 8 Euros. One of our stop overs was in a city called Lindau. It was very pretty and worthy of its own trip. The train station in Lindau had a one legged pigeon in it that basically lived in the train station and was fed by travelers. Super cute.

Lindau

So we went to Neuschwanstein which is located in a city called Allgäu. Allgäu is within walking distance of a city called Füssen. So we took a train into Füssen and took a short bus ride into Allgäu. The city is pretty small and very touristy. We heard a ton of people speaking English (as well as other languages that were definitely not German).

Allgäu with a view of Neuschwanstein (The little white specks in the sky are hang gliders!)

If you don't know anything about the Neuschwastein castle I will give you a crash course. It was built for King Ludwig II of Bavaria but he barely got to live in it as he mysteriously died in 1886 when only a couple rooms in the castle were finished. The name "Neuschwanstein" roughly translates to "new swan stone" and was probably named so because King Ludwig II was obsessed with swans. They were depicted everywhere in the castle. Also, I think that, if ever a castle could look like a swan, Neuschwanstein does a pretty good job at it. The castle is known to some as the Disney castle as it served as the inspiration for the castle in Disney's Sleeping Beauty and also bares a striking resemblance to the castle seen at the beginning of almost every Disney film. You be the judge, look at the pictures below.

The castle, by comparison, is fairly new having been built in the 19th century. The castle is absolutely stunning. Even though it is a touristy thing to see while in Germany, it is worthwhile to see if you are ever in Germany. Better than the pictures of the actual castle are the photos from out of the windows of the castle. The views are breathtaking!

I want to live in this castle!

Looks like paradise.

You do have to walk up a monstrous hill to get to the castle but it is really not that bad and totally worth it. So me and the other CBYXers took a 10 hour round-trip train ride to see Neuschwanstein for about an hour and see Allgäu for about 6 hours. Again, totally worth it!

Heaven?

The overhang you can see in this picture is the same one I am standing on in the photo above this one. It's like you are standing over eternity!

I'm wearing my Paradise Dental shirt!

Heidelberg

Weird metal horse-thingy in Heidelberg

So one of the girls in my program has been to Germany before. It turns out that she studied abroad in Heidelberg. She decided to take us there on Saturday the 27th of August. It took about 5 or so hours by train to get there from Radolfzell. So we spent 10 hours on a train (roundtrip) to walk around the city of Heidelberg for 6 hours...totally worth it! The city's really beautiful and has a castle at the top of one of its hills that you can walk through. One of the main streets in the city is really touristy. We ran into a bunch of english speaking people and there are two Starbucks on this one street! They had a lot of cool little shops with candy, clothes, steins, and the like. So before we went to the castle, we treated ourselves to a little picnic. We all bought food at the local Aldi (yes Aldi originated in Germany) and sat in the town square and ate before we trotted up the hill to the castle.

Me after a picnic in the square in Heidelberg

The incline of the hill to the castle had to be something like 47 degrees. It was so steep!

A very steep hill to the castle

The castle grounds are pretty big. There is this really nice park situated at the top of the hill where you can just sit in the shade of all the trees and relax. It was pretty awesome.

View of the castle from the foot of the hill

View out of one of the castle's windows

Just beautiful

Me in front of the entire city 

Mote-like park area surrounding the castle

View of all of Heidelberg

Best fountain ever

Heidelberg

So once we were done running around the top of the world, we ventured back down into the city found something to eat and, most of us, went back home on the train. But before we left we saw this awesome baboon-monkey looking statue that you could put your head into and be a part of it.

Me as a monkey 

This is what it looked like from the side

So that was my trip to Heidelberg. I hope I get to go back again because 6 hours did not do it justice. I can't believe how much stuff I have gotten to do so far and today (August 31st) is the one month mark for my arrival in Germany. I have been so blessed with so many unforgettable experiences so far and I can't believe I get to have 11 more months of this!