Das Ausrufen für Emmy

I haven’t written in six days, so here’s a shout out to Em, Lindz, Derek, and Bay.  Continents apart, but we still have to keep our promises.  There’s a lesson for everyone.

I can barely remember what I did all week because I was too busy thinking about Kevin finally getting here.  I also don’t think I ever mentioned that we went to Frankfurt together as a group last week.  It was really cold and snowy and we took a tour through Goethe’s house, although the tour guide made sure to tell us a hundred times that none of the rooms look like they used to when he lived there, it was just a guess, really.  Table there, chair there, hang a painting, collect a toll, boom.  And the floor was really, really creaky, so even if I could pay attention on a tour, I couldn’t hear what the woman was saying half of the time anyway.  I’m sorry everyone who will think I am annoying for saying this, but tours and museums are the worst!  What a terrible way to try to learn things. 

Anyway, our excursion this week was also a tour, but a bit more interesting.  We got to go into a local TV studio and see how they produced everything and all of their equipment.  Then we got to sit in on a live news show and as a special treat, I have included a link to our episode (http://www.rnf.de/video-portal/sendung/videos/show/rnf-life-die-sendung-vom-19032013.html?no_cache=1&cHash=6eaca99db377af26b7fc659ad629ba64).  First of all, I didn’t know we’d be the only ones in the studio, along with the reporter and two camera guys and one guy whose only job was to make sure the cable connected to the camera did not get damaged in any way. Second of all, I didn’t know we’d actually be on TV, but then they told us to clap in the beginning and all of a sudden the camera was on us.  And then after the first news story they panned back over to us for a while and introduced us as visiting American students.  You can tell by the looks on our faces that we didn’t know it was coming, nor did any of us know what to do.  So it’s a fun watch.

They also have an in-studio kitchen that they use when they film cooking shows, and because of the way the air is filtered out of the studio and throughout the rest of the building to keep it cool, all of the surrounding offices can smell whatever is being cooked that day and apparently everyone comes trickling in one by one to see if they can get a taste.  Someone should make a reality TV show about a TV studio.

We finally got our student ID’s, so now we are official Universität Heidelberg students and can check out books from the library and everything.  Real classes start halfway through April and right now we’re still in the planning phase of it all.  It think I am going to take a German writing course with Herr Dörr, a class about migration into Germany taught by Adam and another visiting American professor, a class about German pronunciation, and also a class about teaching a foreign language.  Plus the internship.  I’m excited for it, but now I’m okay with one more week of German class and then our big test and then spring break. We are learning more German grammar than I ever even knew was possible to learn.  It is exhausting every single day, but it is so, so cool to be able to listen to and read German and finally understand why they say things a certain way, or what exactly it means—I love it. 

Sam and I went to a P.E. class with our 7^th grade boys from English class and we played soccer with them all period and it was so fun.  Sam’s team definitely won, but I blame it on my tiny, wimpy goalie.  He was so precious.  And of course in P.E. class we speak German, so it was a good way for us to incorporate more German into a technically English speaking internship.  Hopefully we can continue doing that.

So finally Friday came around and I got to get on a train to Frankfurt and meet Kevin there.  And just so everyone officially knows, he grew a beard.  Yes, it’s true.  We spent a few hours in Frankfurt with one of Kevin’s friends from Salzburg and then headed back down to Heidelberg.  Then we only had Saturday together before he had to head on to Salzburg and do some business-like stuff.  Sam and I showed him around a little bit of the city and then took him up Philosophenweg and then we all headed right, toward Klosterhof.  We sat down in the restaurant when we finally got there and all enjoyed the best beer in the world (not true, according to Kevin, but we just have different taste buds! he says).  And fear not German professors of Redlands, we spoke in German the entire day.  Which was actually strange, because of course, Kevin and I speak English to each other normally.  It’s a little like trying to get to know someone all over again when you speak in a different language with them.  But it was fun, and it’s nice to be able to finally do that.  Then Kevin and I went and saw Die Croods.  Kids movies are my favorite in English, and naturally, auf Deutsch, they are even better, because I get so excited when I can understand most of what they are saying.  It was definitely a good movie, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny without the grown man sitting a few rows behind us and dying of laughter after every joke.  Welcome to Germany, where you can get a bag of popcorn and a beer from the refreshment counter.  And what the heck is it actually called, because I know it’s not the refreshment counter. 

Anyway, the next morning, as in this morning, Kevin took off to Salzburg.  We had taken all of his luggage with us to the train station of course and we said goodbye and he got on the train and I stood there and could kind of see him through the window as he put all of his bags away and then all of a sudden I hear “Schatz!” from the open train door and look up and he’s standing there with his head poked out, and goes, “Rucksack!”—whoops! I still had his backpack on; the train almost pulled away without it!  Good call, Kev, nicely done.  Also I should say, in addition to Sofie spelling my name like this “Heli” she also spelled Kevin’s like this “Kefin”.  So I shall refer to him as Kef, from now on. 

This week is our last week of grammar class.  On Thursday I get to go join Kefin in Salzburg for Easter weekend, which I think will be the closest thing I’ve had to spending Easter with family in four years.  I’m excited about it.  Then we both come back to Heidelberg that Monday and he gets ready to begin a month long intensive German course in Mannheim, and I spring break for a week or so.  I’ll have to find something to pass my time.  Maybe I’ll write a novel.  My dad sent me a note that said a novel takes 475 hours to write.  I think I’ll have time for that.  

Do it now, not somewhen

Herr Dörr is a baller and also my German professor.  He will drill you until you come up with a grammatically correct answer in class and it usually involves him threatening to jump out the window, go home and console himself by laying and/or withering away in bed, or throw something at you, if you say one more wrong thing.  He once asked me if I was a Maus or a Frau in class because I answered something in a quiet, not sure at all voice, so I had to tell him I was just a Mausfrau.  Mouse Woman.  It’s like Batman or Cat Girl, but inevitably better at German and also just cooler in general. 

We have German grammar class on Monday-Friday from 9 to 12.  I have never learned so much and so intensively in my life.  It is the best and also most exhausting thing in the world.  I feel like Leo after he has closed every single drawer, cabinet, stove, microwave, and dishwasher in the house. And yet I am so much smarter for it and can finally understand all of the things I once couldn’t (not something Leo can say for himself).  The class goes for the next two weeks and then we have to take the DSH, which is the German language test that tells you if you’re actually good enough to take classes at a German university.  Too bad Universität Heidelberg, I am already here, and I am taking your classes whether you like it or not. On the test, you can get a 1 (not good enough), 2 (good enough), or 3 (significantly smaller chance of being thrown out of a window by Herr Dörr).

Today Herr Dörr said this in class: „Ich glaube an das Lesen.  Beim Lesen sortiert man seine Gedanken.“ Which I loved.  It means, I believe in reading.  When you read, you can sort out your thoughts.  Or something like that.  I like it.  I like it all.

Last Tuesday we visited the Popakademie of Mannheim, which is exactly what it sounds like, a college for pop music.  That was an interesting thing, but also exactly what it sounds like, so I won’t go into too much detail.  The best part was when we all had to give presentations about our visit and Sam and I made a PowerPoint (well Sam made it, I just looked at pictures of Adam Levine on google) with collages from the past three eras of pop music.  The other coolest part was that for the first time ever, I wasn’t nervous to give a speech in German and could just talk naturally (mistakes and all).  Personal growth, currently in progress.

Another great, wonderful, amazing thing, is that Sam and I both got the internship at Hölderlingymnasium, the middle/highschool here, and are now going to be tandem teaching English this semester.  We met with Herr Doktor Schork (who later told us we could just call him Albrecht!!) who is one of 15 English teachers at Hölderlin, and he was basically just like okay, go teach.  We watched him teach two separate classes (7^th and 8^th graders) and then sat down and had coffee with him to discuss the run of the internship and how it would go.  He was super German and upfront and direct and that is the greatest thing ever, because we have no idea what we’re doing half the time.  So after that morning, he asked us if we wanted to come back the next morning and teach a lesson.  Ummmm…can we do that? Apparently.  He sat in the back of the class and we led the kids through a few dumb worksheets and tried to act like we knew what we were doing, which at times was awkward, but other times great.  And today we taught our second lesson, which went a little bit better, and Albrecht even told us we were natural born teachers and that it went great. And he's German, if we sucked, he'd tell us.  So we’re on our way.  Albrecht is an all-around nice guy and a really good teacher of English, so I think we have a lot to learn from him.  He is also a P.E. teacher, so tomorrow we get to go play soccer or basketball with the 8^th graders in the afternoon.  Life perfected.  We think the students will probably love us much more once they realize we play to play.

And hey, remember that time when Sam got locked out of her room all weekend so we had a slumber party for two nights? Yep, that happened.  Poor her, had to sleep on my hard floor with my deflated pillow.  But lucky her, because she got to be with me always.  We made our usual trip to Klosterhof for beer refills on Saturday and also decided to climb the mountain upon which the Heidelberger Schloss sits.  So we started off up to the Schloss and then tried to find our way up to Königsstuhl, which was the destination for the hike.  Other people said there were about 2 thousand million stairs you could take to get to the top, but our curiosity just kept getting the best of us and we basically played a game called, “Hey, I wonder if we can get up this way?” the whole hike.  There was no such thing as a beaten path.  Except when we finally found the beaten path almost at the top and said, okay, but just this once.

It was gorgeous when we got to the top and we were so excited, but then it was already 5 pm and the last trammy thing down was leaving and so we hopped on and rode ten minutes or so back down into Heidelberg.  Slightly disappointing, but we can always go back up and explore on top again.  Plenty of time for that. I didn’t realize there would be so much cool hiking in Heidelberg and I am pleasantly surprised by all of the things we discover.

On Sunday we went for a walk around our neighborhood because we hadn’t really done that yet.  It was cool to find a few markets, bakeries, and bars around the area, and there were some of the prettiest houses just around the corner from us.  Ringstrasse 37 (my building) is not that glamorous.  We also ended up walking through a cemetery, which was really strange, but also really cool just because it was so peaceful and there were graves from people born in the 1700’s, old professors from Universität Heidelberg, and then the other people who should just be remembered because they were people too. 

Which reminds me (not chronologically) that we watched Vielleicht lieber nicht (or Perks of Being a Wallflower) in German the other night.  Sam had just loaned me the book in German and I had started reading it and could actually understand all of it and then we decided to watch the movie, of which I could understand less, and it was an emotional thing.  After it was over, I think I just turned to Sam and said, There are so many feelings inside of me right now! And that was the only way I could describe it. It was overwhelming and I was and am still so struck by all of the things I felt.  Maybe because I couldn’t understand the language as well, I focused more on the things I could understand, which were all of the emotions, and it just left me in a strange, cinematically vulnerable state.  But I loved it.  Maybe I should never watch it in English, it would ruin my connection with Charlie.

A quote from the book which resonated with me: “Ich schwöre, in diesem Moment waren wir undendlich.“ I swear, in that moment we were infinite/boundless/endless.”  I don’t even think any of those English words can do it justice in the same way.  I wonder what the original sentence is, in English.  I don’t really want to know. It just encompasses so much in one small sentence and makes me think.  Unendlich. In that moment.  Words are the best.

On another translation note, Adam, the program assistant gave us a really good one for some graffiti while we were visiting the Popakademie.  It said something like, “Jetzt was tun, nicht irgendwann Baby.“  And when we asked him what it might mean exactly, he goes, “Do it now, not some…when?” So ever since then, that has been a memorable quote.  He is a native Polish speaker, but now teaches German, and has also studied English (and is only 26! Gee-whiz!).  He’s really interested in the slang and idioms in each language, so he knows all sorts of English phrases that he shouldn’t.  It’s the best.  And I am no longer waiting for somewhen to do it.

In other news, guess who is coming to visit on Friday? No big deal, just Kevin Bailey who I haven’t seen in 3 months.  There is only one feeling for that, and it is excitement.  If I don’t write again for a month, you know why.  But also stop complaining already because I will write, gosh. I think my next blog will just have to be a photo tour of all of the things I see in a day.  Coming soon.

The Klosterhof Bier

Adventures are nonstop.  I will try to get to all of it.

1.  Romanian Roommate.  When I first got to my room, everything was a mess.  Things in the kitchen were sticky.  Pots and pans everywhere. We have separate rooms, but we share a kitchen and bathroom. I have been cleaning one thing per day and now everything is almost clean.  My roommate also doesn't speak German, only English, which is a bummer, but I don't see her that much anyway.  She also made me tiramisu and so I'll keep her.

2. Klosterhof.  I found the best beer in the world, IN THE WORLD.  Sam, who is one of the girls from my group that I get along with really well (awkward because she might be reading this now....hey Sam...), and I went on an adventure day about a week ago.  We decided to try to find the Monk Brewery up in the hills surrounding Heidelberg.  First you have to climb up the steepest steps/walkway ever, called Philospher's Way, and then you turn right, and then you just keep going about 20 or 30 minutes until you get there.  At least that's what Adam said.  He's one of the Program Assistants and has been giving us tours every so often.  Well, Sam and I turned right, thinking it would just be a short walk along the hillside.  We stopped and drank a beer along the way, just philosophizing.  Then we kept walking. And we kept walking.  Through a forest type atmosphere.  It was beautiful, but we just started to wonder where the heck we were. We had been walking for over an hour by the time we finally found a rock that declared it the end of Philosopher's Way.  Then called Adam, who told us a vitally important detail that he had left out before, that we had to turn right somewhere. So we turned right and followed a stream and ended up with this view, of the farm.

And then we found the coolest Hofladen ever and I talked (in German, of course) to the owner who explained to me which products they actually make on their own, and I understood everything because I am now a farmer. I felt like I was at home there.  Then of course, we went into the restaraunt where they were serving the monk's brew on tap.  So we sat down, tired, confused, but happy we finally made it, and drank the best beer I've ever had in my life.  It had that amazingly smooth and buttery aftertaste and I wanted it to never end.  Which, of course, meant that it ended very quickly.  Luckily, we can buy six packs at the Hofladen, and I think that's the only place it's sold so far.  Except one of the student cafeterias.  Point, Germany.

Hofladen :)

Restaraunt

Best beer in the world award, also! It's organic!

Inside the restaurant

3. Schlossome!  We went up to the Heidelberger Schloss as a group on Wednesday.  Herr Dörr, who will be my teacher for the intensive german course (starting on MONDAY!), took us on a tour.  It was cool to listen to him explain how and when everything was built.  Definitely provided great views.  We also weren't there for very long, so I need to go back and do an unguided tour. Try and sneak into some roped off areas.

This is like 5 times as tall as a person in real life! Used to store wine. That would last me about a week.

E+H

Thought that was a great tree

4. Soccer Practice? So since I'm trying to get away from my American groupmates, I decided to look into finding a soccer team to play with while I'm here.  I found one online and sent them an email on Wednesday to see what they were all about.  I got an email back saying that practices were on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 pm if I wanted to come by and play with them.  I emailed back and said I'd come that Friday, and then got a response saying, "Ich bin ein Mann, nicht eine Frau."  Luckily it was followed by a smiley face.  I just assumed the person I was emailing was a girl, but it was a guy, the trainer of the women's team.  Whoooooops. That's embarassing.  Anyway, I showed up to practice on Friday evening having no idea what to expect as far as skill level or drills or me being completely out of shape.

Nobody really talked to me at first, and I think they didn't really know that I didn't speak German very well.  I talked to the trainer that I'd emailed and also the co-trainer, who was a younger girl, and they were just like, okay, join in.  So at first we were dribbling around and the co-trainer would call out a number or letter that corresponded with some kind of move, which I only remembered half of the time.  I was trying really hard to understand what she was saying, but the soccer vocab is new to me.  So we're still dribbling all together, maybe 20 of us, and then all of a sudden, some chick comes and steals my ball.  Well then I think, okay, maybe we're playing a game where one person goes around trying to take the others balls, but at the same time I wasn't really sure, so I awkwardly looked around and saw that I was the only one without a ball.  I half-heartedly tried to steal balls away, but also was afraid I wasn't supposed to be doing that and maybe they were just wondering what the heck I was doing, which resulted in me kind of chasing them all around for three full minutes, total awkwardness.  Turns out I was right about being a ball stealer, and finally some girl just let me have her ball and went to be the shark.  Off to a good start.

It took so much concentration to understand the drills, but I was definitely keeping up and not too terrible.  Some girls were pretty good, others were worse than me, only two asked me my name and offered theirs, which was to be expected.  There wasn't much time for talking.  I was happy when we scrimmaged at the end and I got a high five for scoring a goal.  I think I'll go back on Monday, and slowly but surely, they will start to love me.  Or just figure out that I can't understand them most of the time.  One girl was trying to make up rules all on her own for a drill and impose them on me and was just getting mad at me because I didn't understand.  I wanted to kick her.  Body language crosses cultures.

5. Klosterhof Refill.  Today (yes, we finally made it to present time), Sam and I needed to go back to the Klosterhof and stock up on our favorite beer.  I'm pretty positive it will become a weekly thing.  We met up with one of her friends that's studying abroad in Freiburg right now and some other girls and we took a bus to the Kloster.  We went into the Hofladen and Sam and I both hauled three liters each out of there in our back packs.  I also asked the woman at the cash register if they every needed help, and she said that they might need help in the restaraunt once the weather gets consistently nicer, so I may take her up on that.

Anyway, we wanted to hike up the whole mountain because we heard there was a Kneipe on top and some ruins to check out.  To make a long story short, we hiked up millions of miles and had the best adventure and finally found our destination, along with lots of great views along the way.  We stopped and had some food and drink at the Kneipe, and also explored the ruins of a monastery which were from year 1057, or somewhere around that.  Amazing.  It was absolutely insane to walk through the hallways and try to imagine what life could have possibly been like a thousand years ago.  There was also a huge amphitheater which was only built in the 1930's and specifically used for Nazi propaganda and ralleys.  Slightly depressing, but it was quite a cool place to explore.

Needless to say, we were tired after coming back down the mountain. My body hurts.  But it was an amazing day, gorgeous weather, and good picture taking opportunities.  We felt like pretty cool tour guides to be able to take the Freiburgers on such an adventure in what is now our beautiful city.

These pictures are allll out of order, but that's fine. Here's Heidelberg!

Am Neckar, as the sun was setting.

ME

Standing at the bottom of the amphitheater

Sammy Wammy

From the top of the monastery tower

1000 A.D. and still standing? 

Amazing

Top of the amphitheater

Lookout area, castle is to the left of our heads way out there

Exhausted and happy

Hiking millions of miles

So far those are the biggest events that have been happening.  On Monday, it is time to get down to business with school and hopefully the German learning kick back up again.  I am going to apply for an internship to work as an English Assistant at a high school here, so we'll see how that goes.  There is always something going on, always something to do.  And now the thing to do is sleep.

The Miscommunication

We'll start with goodbyes and end with hellos.  I had a great last night at the farm.  We drank wine and talked a lot and laughed a lot and then hugged each other goodbye early the next morning.  They sent me off with a care package so I wouldn't go hungry my first night in Heidelberg.  I wasn't expecting that and it was really sweet.  Bettina also gave me a German cookbook that features the Schacherbauerhof and some of her own recipes.  She was on a TV show two years ago that was basically a competition for the best Bavarian "Landfrau".  Anyway they compiled the recipes and stories of each of the fourteen women and made a very nice cookbook, available in stores today!

My trip to Salzburg was great.  I arrived at about eleven in the morning and strolled along the Salzach until I got to the Altstadt, where I had breakfast and just smiled forever.  Then I found the Universität Salzburg Student Services Center (or something like that) and had a full-on conversation with a guy about studying at the University for 20 minutes or so.  I was really proud of myself, but also, didn't find out much more than I could have read on the website.  It was helpful to physically talk to someone though.

After that I walked up the familiar way to the Mönchsberg and found the ole' Markentenderschloßl, just like I left it.  I spent the afternoon with Christina, one of the Program Assistants (and also from Portland!).  We talked and walked and drank coffee and then a beer at the Aug.  It was definitely nice to have some American time.  I joined the students for dinner, but had to run after 20 minutes or so and catch my train.  I got back into Burghausen at 9:30 that evening, hopped on my bike, and rode home! Definitely sang Taylor Swift as loud as possible when I was riding past the highway.  I'll never know if I sounded good.

All of that feels like ancient history now! I've been in Heidelberg for almost a full week and I'm actually starting to get the hang of it all. I arrived on Friday at noon.  I locked up my suitcases in a locker so that I could go exploring until 2 pm, when I was supposed to meet some of the group at the main train station. I walked around trying to find the Altstadt, but could not figure it out, so I ended up going in circles and all sorts of shapes until I finally got back to the train station and sat and waited the last fifteen minutes until people were supposed to meet.  So it's 2:00 and I'm looking around...nobody.  2:15. Nothing. 2:30, nope.  Call the American Junior Year (AJY, from now on) center, nobody answers.  2:45, getting cold. 3:00, phone vibrates.  It was Frau Doktor Heckmann, the director of the program.  She told me about some mystical letter I was supposed to have recieved, telling me that we were supposed to meet outside of the McDonald's at 2:00, just to the left of where I had been waiting, but a bit out of view.  Yes, they had been there at two, where had I been? Oh Frau Doktor, what are you talking about? Well Irena, one of the Program Assistants, came to the train station and took me to my apartment, about a 5 minute walk from the train station.  Later I found out I had not received any of the emails sent to the group about the impending semester because they had written my email haley_peterson@redlands.edu.  I wonder what other kinds of important information I missed out on?

The most important part is that I made it.  The group met up at the AJY Center in the center of the city for a pizza dinner and to get to know each other that night.  In the AJY Center is the director and assistant's offices, a classroom, computer room, TV room, student kitchen, and a bathroom, of course.  We all sat around and awkwardly talked in German together and ate pizza.  There are 13 new students this semester and 9 that are there for the full year, so this is their second semester in Heidelberg. The rule is that German must be spoken in the AJY Center at all times, otherwise you get kicked out for the rest of the day! I think they're being lax about it right now, because most every time the students are alone, it's all English, all the time.  It'll get better.

They also always want to do everything as a group, which is never good, because then everyone is really loud and obnoxious and that's just not how the Germans groove. Gotta get outta there.  I have heard so much English in the past week, I think my German will go straight downhill. During this week, we have just had orientation.  That means, paperwork, tours, going through handbooks, all sorts of fun things. Today we took a German placement test to decide which preliminary course we would be in.  Made it into the better group, felt good about it.

I am going to have to finish this post tomorrow because there's too much to write about and I'm sleepy! It's been a really busy week, as I'm sure you can imagine. Coming next time...Philosopher's Way, best beer in the world, exploring the castle, and my roommate.  Look forward to it.  Pictures will come too.  There are a lot of good ones.