Deutschland

My week has been absolutely fabulous. To start off, last Wednesday through Saturday was the best weekend I've had here--no doubt. As a little present for my bartender friends I bought some batteries for their little dancing witch they have displayed. Obviously it started moving and singing and we all had a good laugh...and then someone stole it! So I felt bad and have spent all day searching for a replacement. The one I bought has glowing red eyes so I'll give it to them tomorrow. Anyway, the weekend was so great and on Sunday I got up bright and early (11am) to go to the train station.

I was a little nervous because I realized the exact time my plane LANDS in Germany (8:30pm) is the exact time my bus LEAVES the airport, so I felt a little panicky because planes hardly ever arrive EARLY much less on time, and transportation in Europe is very exact. Well, just another mini-testimony about God looking out for me. The plane landed TWENTY minutes early. And believe me, I needed every bit of those twenty minutes. So just by the plane being early, I saved the trouble of missing the bus and waiting 3 hours at an abandoned airport in the middle of the night. Oh, and another traveling testimony: it is a good thing I emailed the hostel after my credit card was declined b/c if I hadn't, then I wouldn't have remembered the name "Sudpfanne." When I got to Heidelberg, I had NO clue where I was going--not the address or even the part of town--except that name. If I hadn't emailed them I would never have remembered.

So here's something that most of you didn't know: I went alone. My friend who wanted to come bailed out towards the end, but I was still determined to go. Except for my horrible travel plans, it ended up being exactly what I had hoped for. The only problem was, I knew I wanted to go to Heidelberg (it being a quaint, romantic town as opposed to a bustling, cramped city) but I didn't make actual plans on what to see; which would have been fine if I had a map--but I didn't. I had no idea what I was doing except I knew there was a castle there.

And off we go: I grabbed my camera and hiked up to the castle (not a bad walk but my shoes broke halfway through the day). I took a megaload of photos (and I just made up a word) and not even all of them were on facebook. The castle was damaged in 1693 (I think) during the Palatine War of Succession and abandoned a few years after that. The castle grounds are absolutely amazing, being situated on a mountain (or rather a big hill). I spent a good 3 or 4 hours there just walking around and exploring every single part of it. Unfortunately, apart from the castle...there really isn't anything else to see.

Thankfully, from the ever helpful website e-heidelberg.com I got a good tip to take the Philosopher's Walk (Philosophenweg). I thought it was just a little view point of the castle from the next mountain over, but it ended up being a splendid hike through the woods. Now, imagine me. Now imagine me willingly hiking. Now imagine me willingly hiking ALONE. Until then I've never gone into the wilderness by my own suggestion, but let me tell you--it was amazing. What exactly made it amazing, you ask?

Being in Alicante is great; I love it. But I look around and see palm trees and buildings. Sure there's a beach. Great; whatever. And outside of the city there are some shrubs...and some dirt...and some hills. No trees, no green, no ants, no bees, no nasty flies, no mosquitos. Which on one hand I love because I absolutely hate bugs. But it's just brown and gray.

I come to Heidelberg, Spring had just come. No really, JUST come, so it has that lofty, bouncy bright green that you only see in April. The flowers had just bloomed so that the smell was fresh and strong. The sun, all 3 days, was powerful and warm and its rays streamed through the branches...

Okay, okay, enough of that. The point is, if I had just arrived in Germany from North Carolina, I wouldn't have been nearly as impressed. But coming from Alicante, where as you recall I was seriously yearning for some trees last month, it was stepping into a world I used to know but had forgotten.
The best part was that, since I was alone, I got to reflect and contemplate and pray and sing. I sang every worship song I knew that had the word "creation" or "tree" in it. Haha. It was wonderful.

However, it didn't last that long because, to be honest, I got a little bored XD. I made my way down the hill but instead of going down the way I came, I tried another path which led me past some little cottages with people gardening on the side of the mountain. And somehow I wound up on the other side of the mountain than I wanted to be on. Go me and my navigation skills, eh? Anyway, no worries, I just walked back and snapped a bunch of photos on the way.

Later that day...I dunno what I did. Just walked around, I guess. Like I said, besides the castle there's nothing else to see. I went back to the hostel. Okay, so this hostel is SO much nicer than the one in Paris. For one, it was all girls room so none of that naughty-Argentinian-under-my-bed junk, and plus they had clean, comfy sheets & clean bathrooms. Anyway, so I met 2 girls who had just come. One is from New Zealand and she's traveling around Europe for a whole YEAR, spending 4 months working in Greece. She's visiting her grandparents in Germany and actually went to the concentration camp in which her great-grandfather died 2 weeks before the war ended. Whew! Another girl is from China but I didn't talk to her that much.

Real quick: culture shock = German. I know Spanish, duh, so being in Spain is easy living. Going to Paris was fine because I was with friends and we didn't really eat out at all. But in Germany I looked at the menu and thought "What the heck am I eating?" At least in French I can pick out some words close to Spanish. I just pointed at something and said "I'll have some of this" or saw a picture and ordered that. On another point, I look more or less German but when they would greet me with "Hallo", and I would respond with "Hello", somehow they knew immediately that I spoke English. I can't even say "Hallo" right, goodness gracious!

And the last German thing is that they have the biggest, most beautiful dogs I've ever seen. None of those scrawny-hairy-yappy-toy dogs of Spain. No--these dogs were sleek and tall and downright adorable.

Alright, anyway, the next day I intended to rent a bike and go to a nearby town but since I didn't have a map and I got a late start, I didn't think it was worth it. I actually got up early, took a short tour of a museum about some political figure who revolutionized the social atmosphere of Germany in the 1920s, and went to wait for my hostelmate who was supposed to be finishing up a meeting and then we would walk around together or something, but she ended up being busy the entire day so I lingered in the town square for awhile, eating lunch, reading a book and waiting. At around 2:30, I just started walking and didn't get back until 6. Where did I walk?? I have no idea. I did the 'suggested tour' of downtown, but it was nothing special. I laid (lay?) in the grass by the river for about 20 minutes and then got paranoid about bugs in my hair (b/c as opposed to Alicante, there ARE ants and flies, etc).

When I got back, I met another hostelmate from Canada who's traveling Germany for an entire month, so we all went out to eat together and I ate LARDSPREAD, which is an appetizer, as we found out later.
I pretty much just wanted to eat something exotic sounding. It was pretty good, actually. So we had a grand old time and shared camera tips (we all had the exact same camera) and exchanged pictures, etc.

Next morning, got up, hopped on the bus, and the rest is history. The weather was absolutely lovely and actually better than Alicante. Today I got up and spent a couple hours at the beach but then the clouds came and the wind followed. It's calling for rain. Sigh...

All in all, the trip was refreshing. Although I spent more money than I should have. The day was so pleasant and I was at such a loss of what to do, and my feet were aching so bad, that I just kept on choosing random cafes in which to sit, read, drink some coffee (or kaffi) and soak in the sun. Probably had about 6+ cups of coffee on Monday! But really, it was amazing and gorgeous and I'm so glad I went, even if I was by myself.

Semana Santa & Homework!

Alrighty then: due to popular demand I will update all you fans out there (all 4 of you) as to what I've been doing. And let me tell you: it's not much. After being enchanted by Paris, I returned to Alicante and the daily drudge. The weather was beautiful but I wasn't able to enjoy it because I had a 6 page paper due that Thursday. According to my facebook statuses for those days, it did not go too well. Anyway, Thursday rolled around and I fell short by almost 1000 words but I turned it in.

Actually, that day I saw my buddy Miquel, (remember the silly boy I bought drinks for) and we studied together in the library. His girlfriend came and hung out for a while and then Miquel drove me home and we arranged to meet the next day to study together again. Well, the next day he IMs me to tell me we can't study together anymore because his girlfriend saw us together and doesn't want me around him. Whoa. Well, sorry for writing my paper in the presence of your boyfriend. Controlling much? Apparently she doesn't have too tight a reign on him because the following Tuesday we met up again to study because once again I had to write another 6 page paper about a book (but don't worry--that paper went fast once I actually sat down to do it). So basically my past 2 weeks have been a little stressful. And every night I would go to bed with the panicky feeling that I have so much to do and so little time to do it. But there was no need to stress, after all.

Now that that's over with, we have Spring Break until April 26th! I'm leaving for Germany on Sunday, so I'll have some stories (hopefully good ones) when I come back. Last Thursday I met 3 Americans from Clemson that are studying here, and one is from Raleigh!! So I actually have another person here that knows what I-40 and Cookout are. Last Saturday I went to the concert of my lovely Alicante band and it was quite good, although less people than I would have imagined with their talent. Although, maybe I'm just being a proud mother saying "My son is the absolute BEST CHILD EVER!!" By the way, the picture is really big because I think it's just so funny.

This past Wednesday I went to chorus and then afterwards, since it was the start of Spring Break, everyone was invited to go out to dinner, so about 7 of us
(and 2 friends of a friend) went out to a Chinese restaurant (pretty much the same as American Chinese, of course) and afterwards went on a Spring Break Celebration party. Before, I only knew Maria the German girl in my class, but over the night I got to know some of the others and they're great. I ended up walking with them to their bus stop at 5am and said goodbye. They asked me about the drinking age in the U.S. and were absolutely appalled that it was 21 years of age. They kept asking me if I owned a gun, saying "If you can own a gun and kill someone, you should be able to drink!" Haha. Oh, and one of them had a mullet. Yuck. It was actually really fun and I wouldn't mind hanging with them again.

The next morning I got up at 2pm and my madre said "Paco came in at 7:30am and got up at 12:30pm. And you got in at 5:30 and got up at 2. I just don't understand." So it seems that no matter how late I stay up I am obligated to rise by noon. Wonderful. Then they said "Did you dance last night?" and I replied that I did....apparently it's a sin to go dancing on the morning of Maundy Thursday when Jesus died. My padres couldn't believe that I danced. I don't know how I feel about that...

Soooo Holy Week in Spain. First of all with the pile of homework I had, I couldn't go out and see the processionals at all this week, but I watched a little on TV and...well I just don't understand because I'm from a different culture. Aside from the pointy hats from which the KKK got their idea, they also play dirges and walk really slowly through the city, while a hoard of people hoist on their shoulders a huge platform that has either Jesus, Mary, or one of the saints on it.

I mean, first of all, it's nice that you have a little funeral procession in honor of Jesus, but why do you have to have 6 of them each day, and all of them with the same theme? And second of all, as far as I'm concerned, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ does not involve the saints, and hardly involves Mary (only when Jesus says, "hey look, John is your new son"). It only involves the people in the world, God, and Satan. But anyway, I guess it's just part of Spanish culture, and church history. It's just odd--and I suppose their are devout catholics who really do reflect on Jesus' sacrifice by watching the processionals (I called them parades and my madre got mad at me), but I feel like most of the people are there just to take pictures or out of tradition. But that is a topic for a blog in which I talk and talk without caring what I'm saying.

I'm gonna get off that subject and complain that it's raining and cold...but in Germany it's supposed to be 70's all week! So story: the first time that a creepy old man approached me (I was sitting on a bench at the port), I was a little disconcerted but when he asked me about myself, I responded truthfully. "I'm Laura, 20 years old, studying at the University until May, I live that way, etc." and then immediately afterwards, I figured that was not the best idea. So now when creepy guys start following me around, "I'm Stephanie, 22, have a boyfriend, I'm from England, and I'm here on vacation,but leaving tomorrow." The other day a guy told me I spoke Spanish very well, so I think next time I'll dumb myself up and talk with a more American accent. Haha. Don't get me wrong: this doesn't happen all the time. Only maybe 3 or 4 guys, and always during the day, and always close to the beach. Earlier this week I had this guy in his 40's follow me out of the coffee shop, down the road, into the alley, and then stopped when I stopped, etc. Unfortunately a processional was going on, so everybody was gathered in one place and I was limited in places to go. I ended up squeezing through the crowd and joining a group of tourists.

Speaking of tourists: holy cow! I went to Playa Postiguet--the beach near my house--and it was a disaster!! So many people and for the tourism they've placed umbrellas and chairs out for rent. So I hopped on a tram and visited San Juan, the next city over. Their beach is longer and wider, and better in general and contains more Spaniards than tourists. The sun was shining when I left and right as I got there, the wind picked up and the clouds came. And well, it was freezing cold. So I went home and it just poured down rain for 20 minutes. Although, Krissi's mom, Wendy, reminded me that today is Good Friday and "all the earth weeps" so then I felt bad for complaining and started to think more on what Good Friday really means...

Happy Good Friday everyone :-)

Well, no, I have to leave off on a bad note: My eyeliner chose the day when all the shops are closed to run out so now I am cold, wet, and have naked eyes. Haha.