The Neckarwiese

Lucky for you, Volleyball was canceled on Friday night, which left time to write.  I biked 15 minutes through the pouring rain (it wasn’t really pouring, but it felt that way because I’m so quick) (so quick) and entered the building dripping wet and the area was oddly quiet.  Well, that’s because all the sports were canceled on account of a holiday week or something.  Thank you, Hochschulsport, for the very abrupt heads up. Oh well.  That left time for me to go to the grocery store and buy three bottles of wine (because any less is just a waste, as my mom would probably say) and then come home.  We were supposed to party with the Germans that night, but on account of the rain and tiredness, we decided to stay home and meet up with them another time.  When I say the Germans, I mean my speaking partner, Verena, and her friends.

Which reminds me, two weekends ago, Verena and I went to a play together, put on by the university’s English Department.  We got some dinner first, then went and saw it (strangest play ever) and then had a “cocktail” afterward.  It’s funny that you don’t just go out for a drink; you go out for a cocktail.  The cocktail was more expensive than the ticket to the play, but worth it because we just chatted for a few hours and had a nice time.

Another thing that’s great is walking dogs.  Sam and I had gone to the animal shelter within the first few weeks of being here and signed up for a class to get certified to walk dogs and then promptly forgot about it. Two months later they called and said there was finally an open class that Thursday! So there was a group of about 20 people there and we all learned how to walk a dog.  Sam and I got stuck with Tommy, an old spaniel-type with one eye and a humping problem.  I guess it wasn’t so much of a problem for him, rather, a lifestyle.  Anyway, we received our “Doggy Drivers Licenses” afterward and can now go in and walk dogs during the week if we want.  I’ve gone twice since then.  First, I walked Paul.  He was some kind of black shepherd and he was afraid of a lot of things, like buildings, greenhouses, cars that weren’t moving, you know, the typical things.  He was a joy.  Then there was Koro the next week.  He was a German Shepherd and liked to pull on his leash in no certain direction, unless he heard the crinkling of the treat bag in my pocket.  In that case, he walked directly on my left side with his head tilted up, cheek pressed against my stomach, and nose pointed at my right hand coat pocket (where the treats were).  Smart dog.  We worked on his tricks, too.  He laid down a few times.  Sam was walking his cage mate, Asta.  She was a little bit skiddish and at one point randomly thought Sam and I were the type of people that were bad, so tried to bite at us.  Oh Asta, she was a fearful one.  But then we started giving her treats and she detected that we were the type of people that were good.  Must be some kind of 6^th sense for dogs.  Even if they’re not my dogs, it’s nice to have the option to go walk around with some canines when I need a break from all of the humans.

Speaking of walking, I no longer have to do that, because of Franzl.  He is the best thing decision I have made in Heidelberg.  I get everywhere faster, don’t have to take public transportation, sometimes get adrenaline rushes because city biking is like a video game of dodging things, and also, it’s good for me!  Yes, Franzl has improved my life a lot this month.  We are very happy together. I even got him a new wheel when one of his went flat the other day.

Another new thing I have discovered this month is that I can bake things in my toaster oven.  Since then I have been baking breads and pastries and that has also improved my life and is fun.  Sometimes I just have to do several different batches of things or figure out how to fit it in the little oven, kind of like Easy Bake, but it’s still great.  And I get fresh baked bread whenever I want it.  What’s better than that?

For the past two weeks Sam and I have had the wonderful task of teaching Shakespeare to 12^th graders at our internship.  The 12^th graders are great and fun, but the Shakespeare is boring.  Mostly just because you could literally talk about one monologue for a year and still not have covered all of the different interpretations/themes/symbols/what-have-yous and that is something I find to be very boring.  So no matter what we try to make it fun and interesting for them, it just ends up in discussions, discussions, and more discussions.  Discussing things is good, but sometimes you just end up pulling at threads for two hours and before you know it, your stupid blanket is a pile of garbage.

We have one more lesson with the 12^th graders, so that we can finish up Hamlet, but after that they are pretty much done with school.  Our favorites are the 7^th graders because they’re precious and not only do we get to do English lessons with them, we get to do PE with them too.  They are just nice and fun and cool.  The 8^th graders are all of those things, but less so.  Yesterday we had a free period with the 7^th graders, so we had a spelling bee.  Winner got a chocolate bar.  They were so cute and for the most part, pretttttty good at spelling.  Then we played soccer with them for PE.  At one point, one of the boys was upset because his team kept making him be goalie and basically was saying that he wasn’t good enough to play on the field.  So he was on the sidelines and may have even been crying, and the four boys from my team all went up to him separately to talk to him and make sure he was okay.  Two of the boys, I would expect it from, but the other two seemed “too cool” for the other one, and they still went up to him and tried to make him feel better! It was the best.  And then also Max, my newest Asian friend, gave me a fist bump after the game, because he was on my team, and I was great. And then there’s Felix, who I have a crush on.  If only he wasn’t 12.  He is adorable and always participates in class and has a hint of smart ass to him and also is amazing at soccer.  His little 12 year old feet move so quickly that when I was defending him the other day, he made me trip over my own feet.  12, 21….I barely see a difference.

Then there’s Albrecht Shorck, our mentor teacher.  I said before that he needed his own post, and he surely does, because he’s that great.  We have just seen in about a thousand different ways that he is the most caring, gracious, mindful, understanding, and genuine individual that has ever existed.  The other day he gave us both hugs.  Right after gym class.  All of us were sweaty.  I realize I’m not framing this very well.  He is somewhere around 60 years old, teaches PE and English, actually really cares about his students and about us, and we are waiting for the day when he invites us to dinner at his house to meet his family.  He’s retiring halfway through next year to spend more time with his two year old son.  He also starts off emails to us like, “Hello wonderful team!”.  He’s the best.  We are learning a lot from him.

We do have a two week long break from teaching though, which is very nice. The teaching isn’t usually the bad part, but making lesson plans takes foreeeevvvvverrr and is boring unless we get to do something fun with them.  So two weeks without will maybe give us time to catch up on all of our other homework and just life in general.

Saturday, though, was not a day for catching up.  It was a day for celebration.  Why? We made reasons.  Sebastian, also known as “Basti”, had a birthday 2 weeks ago.  Also it was a really nice day.  So we took a bunch of blankets, beer, balls, and snacks, and headed out onto the Neckarwiese for an afternoon of sunshine and fun.  The Neckar is the river that runs through Heidelberg, and the “wiese” is the grassy space on either side of the Neckar.  We passed around Rugby and Soccer balls, listened to Sam’s favorite band, Hanson, puke, ate snacks, basked in the sunlight, and then some obnoxious Americans that were grilling next to us gave us their leftover food.  Awesome.

Then, after about 5 hours of the Neckarwiese, we headed into the Altstadt and parted ways.  I met up with Verena and two visitors she had in town and we went into Marstallcafe (the student café) to watch Eurovision, the annual singing competition between all the European countries.  Fun fact, Cascada, the girl that sings “Every Time We Touch” from the early 2000’s, is German.  I had no idea. She was the performer that Germany had competing in this competition.  Denmark ended up winning, although Italy and Malta were far better. Then some were just really weird, like Romania and Azerbaijan.  Azerbaijan is a country, by the way.  Did anyone else know that? I just learned about it last night.  The competition lasted for a good four hours, so by the time I biked home, it was about 1 am and I was exhausted.  Now another week is about to start, of which there are only ten until I come home.  Mixed feelings on that topic.  On the one hand, I have the greatest family and friends and pets in the world, on the other hand, I don't want to leave. So that's that. Life is conflictual.

No idea

Neckarwiese

Welcome to May

The end of April in no certain order, here goes.

Rugby:  Last night I went to Rugby practice with Sam because she was too chicken to go alone even though she’s played for seven years which doesn’t seem to fit the stereotype because Rugby players are either scary or they have nice butts, but are never chickens.  Too bad she is.  But not too bad, because I really enjoyed it.  I felt that my background with golf might have hindered me from being a good rugby player, but having an older brother my whole life evened that out I think, so starting, I was just like any other normal person. There were boys and girls at this practice and at one point we played co-ed touch and that was at the same point in which I still did not know how to play rugby so I found this to be extremely difficult.  Luckily most of the people were very nice and there were some other first-timers there and they all helped me figure it out.  Above all else, STAY IN A LINE, they said to me.  Okay, but then what?  Whatever.  I think we made friends.  The best part was when Sam tackled me before we even started playing just so that I could know how it felt in case it happened in real life.  Then I was ready.  We ended by playing girls on girls, a game of 5 vs. 4 and who was on the team with 4? Me. Also there was an obnoxious girl on my team who had obviously been playing rugby for a while and was taking it waaaaaay too seriously, considering most of us were just beginning and it’s not a real club team or anything like that, just people who want to hang out and play rugby.  So she constantly yelled at everyone and then told us she couldn’t do it all on her own and kept saying it’s not that hard and you would have thought it was the Rugby World Championship game, if there is such thing, and that she was the world’s best rugby player.  So that was annoying enough, but then, at the end of practice, we all found out that she was 14.  I should have cussed her out in English because she probably doesn’t know how to speak it very well yet, unlike all of the other university students we were playing with…if only I’d known.

Verena:  She is my speaking partner.  We meet once a week or so and speak English and German together.  She is German, of course.  She’s also the nicest person and I actually haven’t spoken any English with her yet because she has obviously evaluated that her English is better off than my German and so she’s giving me more practice.  See? Isn’t she the nicest?  She was an Au Pair in Washington DC for a year and also just got back from a road trip through the west coast and Route 66.  She is studying to be a teacher right now and the other day we had an interesting discussion about propaganda from the Third Reich that she collects so she can later use it for teaching purposes, things such as newspapers or posters. And otherwise, having these items is illegal in Germany.  It was interesting and I thought she had some good thoughts about WWII, such as, “People always say the others should have stood up and done something, but of course, once it got to a certain point, if you stood up against Hitler, you and your family would have been killed, so I understand why some people did what they did.  What people could have done though, was 10 years before the war actually began, to keep playing with their Jewish friends down the street or keep shopping at the Jewish stores and not completely shut them out of society, because all of those small, daily decisions are what made the Holocaust possible.  It was a slow change of mindset.” Yes, that, I thought, was a good way of putting it. 

Isabel:  This is Sam’s speaking partner, who I just met today.  She is also the nicest and one of the most real people I think I’ve ever met.  She just doesn’t apologize for being herself.  Like the fact that she writes Eminem and Twilight fan fiction stories (coincidently, two of her characters in these stories are named Hayley and Samantha, booyah) and a multitude of other things.  She is also blind and currently writing her Bachelors thesis about eco-location for blind people, which is just about the coolest thing ever.  She can make a clicking noise with her tongue and then judge the space around her based on what she hears back, such as how far away a wall is, etc., just like a bat!  I can’t even imagine.  

My and Niklas and Freiburg:  Two weekends ago, Kevin and I went to visit our friends My and Niklas in Freiburg.  They are the same ones that had been in Heidelberg the weekend before.  We got to stay at their apartment with them and their four roommates, which was really cool, it was like a big family of students who all wanted to become teachers and who dined together.  I liked it a lot.  My took us for some tours of the city and we tried out the local beer and had a lot of fun exploring and speaking German.  We learned the Freiburger myth, that if you are a foreigner, and you step in the Bächlein, which are like foot-wide streams of water going through the streets, then you will have to marry a Freiburger.  I did not step in one, thank god.

Me, Kevin, and My at Feierling Brewery

The Farm: The next weekend, Kevin and I traveled down to Burghausen together and stayed with the Stadler family on the farm.  We arrived late Friday night and Oma picked us up from the train station and gave us big hugs and then took us on a night tour through Burghausen so that we could see the castle all lit up, something I hadn’t even seen before! I realize that I have been using a lot of run-on sentences, but I will not apologize for it because there is simply too much to write about all the time.  Anyway, we sat and had some food with Oma and Opa and I concluded that Kevin had acquired a new favorite woman in his life and it wasn’t me.  But that is okay, I understand.  We woke up the next morning and went to breakfast at Bettina and Georg’s apartment and Kevin finally got to meet everyone and the girls.  There were also two 15 year old girls there, who were interns for three weeks, and one wwoofer from Munich who was our age.  So the farm was full.  Anna and Marlene, the two oldest daughters, were having an open house at school that day and Kevin and I got to go to it.  We first went to Anna’s Latin class presentation, which was a bunch of old Roman food that they had all made and it was the most delicious thing in the world.  8^th graders know how to cook. 

Then we watched Marlene play the trumpet and Anna sing in her choir and just so everyone knows, this is how an auditorium looks at a German school.  They don’t have concerts in school gyms, oh no. 

Anna on the very right!

What was also really funny was that Anna kept introducing me to all of her little friends, and Kevin would be standing right next to me, but she never introduced him, and after a few times of it happening, Kevin finally goes, “She hates me! She hates me!”.  And then every time she did it after that was just ten times more funny than the last.  But we got free lunch from the school cafeteria in the end and that was delicious, so maybe it was still worth it for him.  Afterwards we walked around Burghausen a bit, set foot in Austria, and climbed up to the castle and explored that area for a while.  Bettina came and picked us up and brought us back to the house and we got ready to go milk the cows.  But before we could do that, we enjoyed some tea with the grandparents and then coffee with Bettina and her friend, oh the European lifestyle, time is just a figure of speech.  Milking the cows was wonderful and came back to me easier than riding a bike.  Kevin also got a few good squirts out once he got the hang of it! It was really fun to have him with me while we did all the farm work.  Feeding the pigs, the goats, putting down new hay, petting the calves, letting them suck your finger.  All in a days work.  That night we all had dinner together and then wine and beer and then there was singing and laughter and instrument playing and it was a very enjoyable thing.  The next day we woke up early for milking again and afterwards got to go on a family bike ride through the forest nearby with Georg, Bettina, Sofie, and the dog, Beni.  It was such a beautiful day and it made me think of going for bike rides with my family as a kid.  After we got back, we sat down outside for a short lunch, and then we rushed to the train station to get back to Heidelberg.  All in all, a very enjoyable weekend with amazing food. 

Cute...

My parents initials carved into the window!

Sofie and Kevin petting the newest calf

Kevin makes a friend

Sofie found this thing...

and she liked it so much she wanted to put it in Kevin's basket for the rest of the bike ride

Fish border! 

Classes:  This is currently my third week of classes and so far they are awesome.  One is about teaching a foreign language, which is so interesting and also taught very practically, as in, here are good strategies to correct written or spoken work from your students and here is how you should work through a text book.  The difference between my classes in America and Germany is probably just the fact that the classes here are much more practical, whereas all of my classes in the states seemed to be very meta(insert subject), as if we were learning how to think about subjects, instead of just learning the stupid subjects! So annoying.  My other class is with Herr Dörr and we turn in essays every week to be corrected and hopefully at the end we will be the best of writers, so I like that one, naturally.  Then on Fridays for three hours I take a Swedish class! It’s strange and fascinating to learn a new foreign language through another foreign language.  I like it.  And since my last name is Peterson, I am the best in the class.  And I’m working on making a German friend, the girl that sits next to me in class.  She’s used my eraser approximately 4 times now and also shared one of her papers with me.  It’s happening. Besides that, Sam and I are still doing our internship at the German school and teaching English to 7^th and 8^th graders.  Our 7^th graders are the best.  We are starting to get more comfortable in the classroom and it’s a lot of fun.  We are also teaching 7^th grade boys how to play rugby in PE class and that is the best.  Good thing I just learned how to play rugby myself.  Also someday I will write about the amazing person that is Albrecht Shorck, our mentor teacher for our internship, but he needs a post all of his own and I just don’t have time for it right now. 

The best German students! Reading German books on the train

Franzl Fahrrad: I got a bike! He is great and wonderful and his name is Franzl and I can now go for bike rides as well as bike to my classes and it’s so wonderful.  Sam also got a bike.  We biked alllllll over Heidelberg a few nights ago.  Summer 2013, you’re looking pretty good so far. 

Kevin’s Goodbye Dinner:  We went to Klosterhof on Wednesday night and celebrated Kevin’s birthday and his going awayness.  It was just about the most beautiful day ever. So here are a few pictures.

Klosterfhof....the most beautiful part of Heidelberg

Haircuts:  Kevin and I got them a few weeks ago.

Königstuhl: Sam and Kevin and I hiked up a mountain by way of stairs called "Heaven's Ladder".  Whew.  Worth the view, but someone counted/spray painted the number of steps along the way and it's about 2,000.

Here's the top

Kevin Goes Home:  A terrible thing.  We had a lovely last few weeks, but unfortunately, on Sunday he had to fly home.  We spent our last weekend in Frankfurt together, with his Austrian friend, Philipp.  On Friday evening, after we got into Frankfurt and made our way to Philipp’s apartment, which is harder than it sounds, we made some dinner and then headed out on the town.  Kevin and I were so tired at this point, but we rallied, and thank god we did.  We went to a jazz bar downtown because Philipp’s friend, Martina, works there and apparently on this specific night it was bound to be fun because usually an older crowd shows up, for a reason unknown to me.  So we walk in and everyone is in their 30s or 40s, except a few people.  The first great thing that happened, was that about 30 minutes after being there, I hear a song come on that I recognize, but I’m not sure why I recognize it, and then I realize, it’s a song from High School Musical.  Playing at a German bar.  I don’t know who should be more embarrassed, me for knowing it, or Germany for playing it. At a bar. Or maybe the people that were dancing to it unaware.  I don’t know, but it made my night.  Another one of Philipp’s friends came and hung out with us too.  She is a break dancer and currently lives in Spain and I appreciated her being there because she would speak German with me and also danced with my boyfriend while a 35+ French guy swept me onto the dance floor and tried to teach me things about rhythm and also love.  What an experience.  We ended up staying out till 3 am and once Martina got off work, we went back to Philipp’s apartment and stayed up talking and laughing till 5.  I took a really embarrassing video of Kevin once the clock hit 5:08, but I will not upload it because I think everyone should have the chance to keep their jobs.  No, it’s not that bad, but it’s hilarious and provided most of our entertainment for the next day.  We spent half of Saturday in bed and the other half walking around Frankfurt.  The next morning was a sad one.  We took Kevin to the airport nice and early, had time to sit and enjoy a coffee together, and then walked him to security and said our goodbyes.  The month went by way too fast, probably on account of all of the fun we were having, but now it’s back to regular life for us, for a few months more anyway.  Luckily, Philipp hung out with me until I had to catch my bus back to Heidelberg, so I had a distraction for the first few hours.  I did definitely come back to Heidelberg and lay in my bed for a few hours though.  And then Sam and I went for that bike ride.  But it was still a sad day.

Frankfurt Opera House

Philipp, Kevin, ME

Saying goodbye at the airport

3 Months Left:  It’s strange to think I’ve been here for almost 4 months already and 3 months seems like hardly anything at all looking forward.  What’s most stressful is wondering what I’m going to do with my life once the three months are up, but I’m sure things will just fall into place, or something.  I’m excited to see what Heidelberg has in store for me. 

Graduation:  Hey, I graduated two Saturdays ago! It's a little anti-climatic knowing that I still have 3 months of school left in reality, but still, I think it's pretty cool.  Here's to four years of not being able to make up my mind, eh!? I should add that Kevin also graduated from his Masters Program! Except he missed the graduation as well. And still has one term left.  So we're pretty much twins. But we celebrated together, don't worry. 

Celebration beer/radler!

Plants: Also, I have plants.  One is named Basil, another Rosemary, the other tomatoes, and also yellow flowers guy.  I water them and positive talk them every day and they are wonderful and tasty. This is how they look.

And on account of how many times I've used the words wonderful, amazing, or great in this blog post, it's safe to say Heidelberg is treating me right.