Heidelberg IV

Well. It's the last day we're here.

It has been, quite, an amazing journey.

Not only did we come to learn German,

we made many, many new friends,

and had many, many new experiences.


Berlin,

the place where we all met.

Funny thing is, we never really knew each other before coming here.

We knew some German, sure.

Some of us knew each other, yeah.

And all of us, knows the existence of each other,

but not personally.


4 months later,

here we are again,

only this time, in another state, in another city,

having dinner altogether.

Has our German improve?

Most definitely.

Did we meet lots of people?

Wait till you hear all the stories from your own creation, and not from a person behind a keyboard.

I can summarise, I can share,

but that's just my story.


The Heidelberg Program, was a no brainer.

Germany is awesome.

Thanks guys!

Heidelberg III

  So, why the Heidelberg program? What's so great about Heidelberg anyway? Well, I'm here to tell you.

  I'm gonna list out the one bad thing that I hate about Heidelberg first, which is: they have NO bubble tea shop! Like, zero! How could you not have a bubble tea shop in such a huge city! Now that that's out of the way....

HEIDELBERG

  I've actually talked about, and also showed you pictures of the beautiful Altstadt. If you've forgotten already, click here and here to check them out again! 

  What is an "Altstadt"? It literally translates to "old city". Most of the major cities in Germany has an "Altstadt". It is usually a recreation of German architecture of the olden days, usually located in the centre of the city. It is also usually a tourist destination, therefore you'll see plenty of tourist in that area, and pretty much every German that works in that area speaks English, for reasons.

  But what about outside the Altstadt? Our campus is located in the Altstadt, so usually there's no reason for us to leave that area. Those who lives next to campus, lives in Altstadt (lucky them). I, though, live a whopping 70 min walk away from the Altstadt, so welp, I'll show you guys the Heidelberg that most tourist don't go to.

  The first place I want to show you is the University's campus. No, not the Altstadt one, the other, newer one, built after World War II. This one is bigger, more modern, and is also where I live, so it's pretty far from everything. But because it's pretty far from usual places (except the zoo), the campus itself, I would say, has all the basic facilities. A laundromat, some cafes, a Mensa, etc. It even has a huge park inside the campus, just in case you're tired of the crowd, and decided you want some alone time with nature.

There's even a guy eating his lunch

  Not just that, Heidelberg itself has a variety of wildlife residing in it. There was once a parakeet, perched onto a tree outside my window. I wanted to take a picture of it, but unfortunately, it flew away when I finally got my camera out. However, I did successfully grabbed a picture of a rabbit/hare. I also took a lot of insect photos, but I don't think you want to see them, so rabbit it is.

Don't go!

  The new campus, which is located in Neuenheimer Feld instead of the Altstadt, are where all the facilities are. The swimming pool, the tracks, even the University's botanical garden. The Altstadt has been transformed into a tourist destination (like every other cities in Germany), and therefore, I guess they had to move their campus elsewhere, somewhere where there's more space.

  The next place that I wanna show you guys is called.... hmm.... 

  I couldn't find the name of the area, and google isn't helping either. Let's just call it, "That Area, West of Bergheim Heidelberg". I don't want to flood this post with pictures, so I will try my best with words. Imagine a plain, and it's seperated by a river (the Neckar river). On the South East of the plain would be the Altstadt. On the South of that plain would be Bergheim, and Neuenheimer Feld would be at the North West of the plain, across the river. Right now, where I went, is at the South West of this figurative plain.

  The road to that area was extremely quiet. There were a few trails and parks, but at most there's one guy sunbathing over there. It's an excellent place for you if you want to leave the busy atmosphere of the city.

There's like, 1 guy sunbathing

  Upon finally reaching that little town on the West, many shops were closed (as it was a Sunday). The town itself is indeed really small. The roads were narrow and there weren't many people on the streets. It has a village-y feel to it, as at most you can see 2 people on the street.

2 old ladies, chit-chatting in front of the butcher shop

  There was a small little church, a small park where a family was playing football. There was of course, the butcher shop, and I could only find 1 bar in the entire town. The houses were colourful and full of greens. The place felt like a fairy-tale, but with automobiles. They had banners which represent the different type of artisans in front of their park, and they had a public bookshelf right outside their Red Cross building, where you are allowed to take books for free. It also depends on your generosity to keep the bookshelf filled, so it has a "take 1, replace 1" system to the bookshelf. Not a really tourist-y place, but it was indeed worth it as a day trip. You get to see the smaller towns in Germany, and how much it differs from the bustling lifestyle of the Altstadt.

SOME PICTURES

One of the walkways in the new Uni campus

The little church in the little town

The park, with the church at the back

The bookshelf

A bridge for pedestrian and cyclist only

This is a children's art lesson building

A skate park

The banners

Heidelberg II.V: Bierwanderung

THE BEER HIKE

  Is what the name of this post means. When the Bierwanderung was announced, everyone was excited. What we do, was that we were going to visit a brewery, and do some beer tasting things. For only 8 Euros, we can have free flow of beer, anytime, in the brewery. Sounds good enough, and so we went.

  The Bierwanderung was actually an experiment, to show how far someone would go, to achieve free flow of beer.

All pumped for unlimited beer

  What they didn't explain, was how much we had to hike, to get to the brewery. Don't get me wrong, it was excellent exercise, and making our goal of reaching the brewery all the much tastier, but boy oh boy, was it a test to our thighs. 

  It's called a beer hike for a reason. To think, we, all from Newfoundland, would have no problem with the Philosophenweg (Philosopher's Path? As many great philosophers, artist, writers, has walked this path), as we are already accustomed to the various trails on our lovely Rock. What the trails of the Rock doesn't have are: steep stairs and sunny sunny sun.

  The beginning of the trail is almost as steep as that road (you know, that one) in Downtown. The road with Wing'in It and that Mexican restaurant? Yeah, it's that steep, maybe even steep-ier, and rock steps to make your legs work more. 

  It was a gruelling 20 minute hike, and the rest of the trail was rather flat (except the end, but it's not as bad as the start). After about an hour of walking, we finally reached to the brewery. The man giving the tour, was super passionate about his work, and was explaining to us about German beer history, the difference of hops, malt, etc., and how beer is made, the usual brewery spiel. What he did wrong, however, was offering us free flow of beer from the start, which caused pretty much everyone to not pay attention to him, as everyone was just downing Maß after Maß of beer.

Beer and bread

   That was the story about the Bierwanderung. As you can see, this post is pretty short, because its not a proper post. I labelled it 2.5 for a reason, as the main blog post will be uploaded right after this.

Viele Dank!

Heidelberg II

  So, class has started, as you all know, I expect your child to tell you this already, I certainly did told my parents. And because class have started (mind you, we were all forcefully separated), there is very little time to do "touristy" things.

This is how a classroom looks like

  However, the university does organize plenty of activities, so I'll start with that.

  The activities truly starts on Wednesday, where there was a boat party. A riverboat shuffle if you must. You might not get the reference now, but fret not, as it will be explained later. It's not even a very smart pun or reference, I just say it just cause. What the riverboat shuffle is, is a boat party. Clean and simple. There was even a live band on the boat, performing. It went along the Neckar river, out of Heidelberg, then it U-turns back into Heidelberg, all in the span of 4 hours. The party was amazing. It was lively, it was interesting, and most of all, one of us sang alongside with the live band ;)

  I have the video with me, but I don't think I'm allowed to upload it here, so just ask your child to show it you, as we ALL have the video. 

  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: due to the drinking and party nature of most of these events, our photographer did not bring the camera with him, as he feels carrying an extra piece of quadrilateral electronic block around people under influence, undermines the security of the camera, and his fun on such events. 

  

The events

  On Thursday night, there was a classical concert. It was an hour long, comprise of a violinist, and a pianist. It was held in one of the University buildings. Nothing much to say about that. We all sat on our seats, and watched the dynamic duo perform. It was slow, it was fast, it was sad, it was happy, and most importantly, it was a performance of true skill, finesse, and entertainment. Pretty cool stuff. The 6 year old girl sitting behind me doesn't share the same sentiment as me though, as she constantly bugs her mom to leave the area because it's "too booorrriinggg".

  Friday night is Disco night.

  Disco night, disco night.

  People danced all night long,

  people partied all night long.

  The dance floor was on fire,

  as though there was an electric lyre.

  

  It was a disco night, disco night,

  we disco-ed all the way past midnight.

  Feet had worked fancily,

  as though they were the centre of the galaxy.

  And when the disco night ends,

  fooled you, disco night never ends.

  

  Right after disco night ends, it was the weekends. There were supposed to be excursions to other places in Europe such as: Cologne, Lake Constance, Trier, and other places. However, the line to purchase such tickets for these excursions, I believe none of us actually went for any excursions, so we all stayed in Heidelberg.

  We all did many things in Heidelberg, all of us did different things, but mostly we were just sightseeing, as we hadn't properly visit the city yet. Our photographer certainly did his fair share of sightseeing, so here are his collections of photos.

SOME PICTURES

  

A dog and her owner

Heidelberg I

   Sorry for the sudden absence. I, the writer of this fantastische blog, have went full German for a few days, and forgot about all his/her earthly Canadian responsibilities. I'm glad to inform you, that the b'y is back. I also do not have internet connection in my room in the first few days, that may have contribute to my disappearing act too.

  Well, I gotta start at the beginning, shan't I? It all started on a beautiful Saturday, where we all have to wake up dead early in the morning. We lugged our luggage through the streets, and a train, and a few flights of stairs, in order to reach the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station). Over there, we had our breakfast. It was....7:30am. Our train leaves at 8:47am.

Dr Buffinga, watchful as always.

  Unfortunately, some of us missed the whole pack. They missed the train, and they unfortunately had to get their own tickets (on their own expense), to reach Heidelberg.

  The train ride to Mannheim (which is another 20min train ride to Heidelberg) was 6 hours long. 6 lovely hours. The food on the train was expensive, so none of us got proper food around lunch time. Most of us just ate snacks that we already have in our bags, such as nuts, pistachios, and chocolate bananas (yeap, you read that right).

  Once we finally reach Heidelberg (which was around 3pm), we had to go through the registration process. First, we go to the cashier to pay whatever outstanding fee we hadn't pay, then we go to the Büro (Bureau) to get a quick debrief, and a Ferienkurs goodie-bag. After that, we had to take a Sprachtest (speaking test), which totally caught us by surprise. We all taught the test will be on Sunday (which was that day's tomorrow).

  The speaking test was the easiest challenge ever. The true challenge, was the accommodation line up. How it works is that, you wait in the foyer for your named to be called, then you bring all your bags and luggage, and they'll fetch you to the place personally. They = the volunteer/staff members.

  Why was this a challenge? Well, well, well. I would say ask your child about it, but some of us were really really lucky. Some of us, well, not so much. So, that means I would say: ask your child about it. It's something I can't express through the power of text. Especially to those who were affected by it, they were really passionate and full of emotions. It is the only way to truly understand the story. Ask your child. 

  I, the writer, wasn't the luckiest, nor the unluckiest. I got a room which was a 75 minute walk away from our campus, and it does not have internet (at that time). So, while I was complaining about the distance and the lack of internet of the room that was given to me (albeit it is HUGE), our photographer was just out making new friends, having fun.

Our photographer is the guy with the round sunglasses.

  He kept on sending me all these photos of the ever so beautiful Heidelberg (which can be seen in the SOME PICTURES section later). 

  We all took the written test, then were all assigned to classrooms. From then on now, we all split up, and am now no longer always in a group. I will not be updating everyday, as class has officially started, so stay tuned!

  Also, some of us took a dance workshop, where we learned how to dance the waltz, and the chacha. If you suspect your child danced (or is in the picture), feel free to pester them about it ;). 

Dancing Queen, feel the beat, FROM THE TAMBOURINE (oh yeahh)

SOME PICTURES

The dance instructors

Say It with Berlin: Day 6

  Day 6, a.k.a. the final day in Berlin (not counting the day we leave). Today's itinerary was very chill and relaxed. We only had 1 spot to go, which was the Jewish Museum. 

It was a strange, zig-zaggy building

  Designed by American-Polish architect Daniel Libeskind, it's facade and its strange interior design all have its own meaning, but its too long to describe it here, so I'm just going to link it righttttt.... hereeee.....

  We not only learned about the history of the Jews during the Nazi regime, we literally learned about its ENTIRE history, all the way back to the 10th century, and beyond. In the first part of the museum, which includes the 3 axes (see the link above if you don't know what I'm talking about), the entire design of it and its exhibition was meant to bring out something out of you. It could be sorrow (mostly sorrow), hate, joy (if you're that kind of person), relief, or any other emotions in your lexicon. 

  Following that, was the "Jewish museum" museum (the zig-zaggy building), the part where it functions like any other museums. It has artefacts, history lessons, all those kind of shindigs. 

  Unfortunately, the museum was TOO big for us to finish touring (no wonder they sold a 3-day ticket!). So, we all left for lunch, and then we separate and do our own thing. Some of us went to the zoo, some of us went to do their hidden agenda, some of us got ice-cream. The photographer personally decides to take the bus, and then a stroll around town, before heading back to the hostel. So if you're wondering why are there lots of irrelevant photos, well, blame him. He claimed: "It's our last day in Berlin, gonna take some final shots of the city."

Yeah, sure.

SOME PICTURES

exterior of the Jewish museum

Interior of the Jewish museum

...at their imminent "journey". Ruth Prager wrote:
"My dear children, Ich don't know what to tell you because my heart is so full and words say so little. I had always hoped that we would be reunited, but we're probably at a fateful juncture (Schicksalswende). We're packing four our journey and awaiting our future."
Gift from Stefan Prager (child of Ruth Prager) 

Rooftop of the Holocaust tower. Do ask your child about it.

The corridor pillars of the Garden of Exile. The pillars are the only proper squares in the entire exhibition.

Memory Void/Shalaket a.k.a. Fallen Leaves. Ask your child about this too.

The Zodiac Wheel. Notice how the twins of Gemini are wearing traditional Jewish hats.

The new church, with the old ruined church at the background. Each individual squares of the new church is actually a piece of glass.

Humboldt University I (Unter den Linden)

Humboldt University II (Unter den Linden)

BEER OF THE DAY?: No beer! We have to wake up at 6am the next morning!

Here's a picture of a banana train, as compensation.