for the non-planners.

i've got a few stories to catch you up on.  in no particular order.

moritz is back in town, and i've seen him a few times this week.  he and max are super excited about playing soccer.  tom will occasionally play, but he is still more interested in searching for spiders.  max has worn his hoffenheim jersey, the local soccer team, everyday for nearly a week now.  nils just returned from the states and brought goalie gloves and shinguards for the boys.  max always wants to be the goalie, timo hildebrand.  he starts chanting hoffenheim, and on friday he was talking to all of the older boys at the playground/soccerfield and showing them his jersey.  they let him play for a while, but then they started a game and he sat to watch for a long while.

they boys are super creative lately, and when they tell outlandish, unbelievable tales, it typically ends with..it happened at my greatgrandmother's house.  and they say she lives in böse england.  böse means nasty/cross/wicked/angry.  

it has been a busy week actually.  i took rachel to the train station on thursday morning so she could catch her train to the airport.  then i moved downstairs to her room/my old room.  on thursday evening i went rowing.  the weather was gross and raining off and on, and i was entirely soaked by the time i even made it to the rowing club.  i rowed with two germans who both learned how to row in english speaking countries, so we were mixing the two languages.  despite being rained on and rowing terribly, it was a lot of fun to be back on the river in heidelberg.  

for all of you who wonder what i do all of the time, i've been working on some school stuff as well.  some scholarship applications and getting stuff in order for a directed research next semester.  tom and i played in the sandbox for hours one afternoon.  i met my friend ricardo and julie on friday night.  i've seen some rowing friends.  

sabine and nils have interesting friends, and yesterday i went with sabine and the boys to visit some friends in bensheim.  the mum from the family is a designer, and the house looked like it was out of a storybook.  they have a pet pig!  they also have a little pony, two ducks, and some rabbits.  tom and i were lying on an outdoor sofa watching the bees work while max played soccer with the other kids.  we jumped on the trampoline, and we cooked pizza in an outdoor pizza oven! 

i'm going to köln/cologne on tuesday.  i want to see a photography exhibit. long story short. on one website, i read something about the photographer being represented by a place in köln.  i looked at the website of this place, found out he currently has an exhibit and booked a train ticket since it is only abut 2 hours.  well, it turns out that the place is actually in berlin.  that is my own fault.  i looked up the opening hours, but didn't pay much attention to the exact location because i just thought it was in köln and figured i would look at the exact address later.  the good news is my friend ahmet is home in köln for the week, and we can meet and do something.  but really, what an idiot. i really wanted to see the exhibit   - not to mention i've already visited köln, and i could just see ahmet when he gets back to heidelberg on thursday.  guess i should check köln's website and see if anything good is going on.

tomorrow is once again a holiday.  i think the month of may in germany has more long weekends than regular 2-day ones.  

for the planners.

here is something that is interesting for those of you who are into the city planning sort of stuff.

heidelberg is in the neckar river valley.  the neckar river runs through the middle of the city, and on either side of the river there are two major streets.  along one side of the river there is a lawn and a place for people to access the river.  however, along the other side, the street is directly adjacent to the river.  heidelberg is proposing to build the neckarufertunnel.  (neckar shore/bank tunnel)  it would bury the street below ground and allow to city to have a promenade along the city.  an older man from rowing told me a little bit about this at the end of last year, but i had forgotten about it.  during the regatta last weekend, i noticed some signs advertising a website concerning the project. 

here is the side of the river where the tunnel would be located.

you can see images and read about it the project on the city's website. elections are coming up on 7 june, and it seems that one party wants to get the opinion of the public on this project that will supposedly cost 100 million euros.  they have been locating themselves around the city to ask the public what they would do with 100 million euros other than build a tunnel and the videos are displayed on heidelberg:mitmachen!  it is an interesting way of involving the public in the project; however, i've asked sabine about this tunnel, and she is fairly certain that it has already been decided upon and will indeed be built.

regatta time.

today is the first day that the weather has been anything other than gorgeous, which means the weather managed to stay nice for the whole first week of my arrival.  now it is gray and keeps raining on and off.  this morning i talked to rachel, the current aupair, to keep her company as she packs for a visit to the states to attend a wedding.  

tom picked a flower after kindergarten yesterday and told me all about how bees eat the sugar inside.  then he said the flower was for me because i am a girl.  (...weil du ein girl bist.)

yesterday was over 90* and really sunny, so we made the first trip of the season to the outdoor pool.  it turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than we intended.  tom managed to slip on the bottom of the kid pool and split his chin, which meant there was an unscheduled visit to dr. duelli.  it was a happy coincidence that nils is out of town but his car is home, so we were able to leave rachel and max at the pool while sabine, tom, and i drove home.  sabine then took tom and i headed back to the pool with the other car for a bit more playtime.  an ice cream and a bandage later, he seems to be as good as new.

over the weekend i managed to get a bit of sun, watch rowing, and see quite a few friends from last year at the heidelberger regatta.  it was a good chance to use some german.  photos are better than words, so have a look. 

i'm heeeeere!

i'm here :)

and it is so very nice to be back in heidelberg.  i must say the first week of my visit this time around is causing much fewer headaches since i've finally managed to learn a bit of german.

both my flights were delayed, but i made it germany around noon on monday.  max, tom, and sabine picked me up at the airport and the boys were waiting with flowers.  they acted shy for a few minutes, but by the time we were driving home max was telling me about all the new toys he has acquired since i left, which of his friends are wild, and telling me all about the bundesliga soccer game they went to on saturday.  once back in heidelberg, we ate lunch outside on the neuenheimer marktplatz, market plaza, which is fitting as it is also the first place i visited in august 2007.  in the afternoon we went swimming.  the boys have made great advances, and it is easy to see they are becoming independent big boys.  max asked if i was getting a child, i told him no to which he said that i'm a little fat.  oh, how charmingly blunt four year olds can be.  

on tuesday, i went walking with the sabine and the neighbor britta (you may remember stories about her children, 7 year old twins named hannah and sophie).  i picked the boys up at kindergarten and tom came running up to give me a hug.  ...and...the teachers remembered me and let me leave with them :).  my friend stefan from rowing also came for dinner that evening.  his english is nearly perfect which means we became fast friends last july or so; however, that isn't so good for my german.

wednesday, i decided it was finally time that i unpack.  then i borrowed rachel's bike and rode into town - into the old city.  it is definitely just as charming as i remember.  i took some promised photos for my friend braden, ordered a book, and organized a cell phone.  all matters handled exclusively in german!  woo hoo.  i felt proud of myself, then remembered that my job this summer is all in german, and simply being able to order a book isn't going to impress any university professors.  in the afternoon, i stopped by rowing to say hi to a few people, and then headed home to play with the boys in the garden before picking up rachel, this year's aupair, at the train station.  so, after a year or so of talking with her by phone and email, it was very nice to meet her!  brigitte, the sister of sabine, also came for dinner.

yesterday, rachel and i spent some time running and walking through town.  it was a nice day as i got to spend some time playing soccer with just max, who was then so tired he fell asleep at 7pm, which also allowed me some one-on-one time with tom. these days max is soccer obsessed and tom is much better informed on spiders and bees and other disgusting insects than i am.

the concept of time seems to still be eluding me at the age of 23 years old.  it feels as if i was here only yesterday, and at the same time much has happened in my life since last august.  this time around, i'm staying in the guest room across the hall from max and tom, who are also having a bit of difficulty understanding why i no longer live downstairs and why rachel and i are both there.  both of the boys are speaking so much more which is extremely entertaining, and they (especially tom) are beginning to use much more english.  

this weekend is the heidelberger regatta and i'm excited to watch that and see all my friends from rowing.  many of my friends from my german course last year are still in heidelberg, so hopefully i will see them this weekend as well! 

i'm off.

in a few short hours, i'm off to the airport.  i'll be leaving charlotte this evening and arriving to frankfurt at 11am tomorrow.  max and tom and sabine will be picking me up at the airport.  

when i left heidelberg last august, i didn't envision that nine months and my first year of grad school would speed by so quickly and lead me right back to germany.  

i'm so excited!