Saturday 1 September 2012

School's Out for Sylvia


It’s been more than two weeks since I last posted, and I’ve experienced so much and been so busy it may take a couple of posts to catch-up.

As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, I’ve completed my courses at the University of Heidelburg, but unlike the Alice Cooper song it references, it’s not forever. I have now officially completed two full years of courses towards my B.A., and after taking courses continuously for the last 16 months with the on-campus and study abroad programs, it’s definitely time for a break.

The program was more challenging than I ever anticipated, but I learned a lot. I wrote the final exam on Wednesday and stressed about it like I usually due before any exam. Marks are yet to come (eek!) I met some great people from all over the globe, learned about the day-to-day German culture away from the big cities like Berlin, went on day trips to Schwetzingen, Strassburg, Tübingen, and Worms, walked kilometers every day down cobble-stone streets in the blazing sun, and ate food like Oma used to make. It all went by incredibly quickly! On the one hand it’s hard to believe that I left The Rock a month ago, on the other it seems like forever because of all I’ve seen and done. In the next little while I’ll post more detailed blogs of the trips and once T gets here to help (please and thanx Weeds) I’ll try to post a music/slide show of the pictures I took in Heidelberg.

I am now ensconced in what will be our home for the next five months in Berlin, Germany. I say I not we, because as I’m writing this Erwin is actually back on The Rock for the next couple of days. I have one of my MUN classmates with me for a day and a half (thankfully, because she’s helped me figure out the various switches, knobs, dials in this very modern German apartment) T comes on Sunday for a few days, and Erwin joins me on Tuesday. That’s when our yearlong adventure will truly begin.

The pictures for this post are:

-one of me with a little boy a like to call my replacement grand-child. His father and Erwin met many years ago while we were at Univeristy of Waterloo, and have been out to visit us in NL a couple of times. They live close to Heidelberg and came by one afternoon for a visit.



-this next one of us was taken at what is called the “Thinkstätte”. It is a large (8000 seat) amphitheater build in 1934/35 as a place to conduct propaganda meetings for the third Reich. Situated in the hills high above Heidelberg it sits in ruins though often used for now more appropriate cultural activities. The hike up was hot and exhausting, but worth the view, sitting in the “seats” and imaging the original purpose of the place gives one a creepy eerie feeling, but it’s very peaceful and quiet.

 
-one the way down from the “Thinkstätte” I and the classmate that is with me right now discovered the most fun teeter-totter/bouncy thing at a playground. Erwin and the two other guys with us couldn’t believe we actually would dare try this. I think they were just jealous of all the fun we were having.


No comments:

Post a Comment