Week 21! - Hiking to Feldburg!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog! I hope you’ve all had a good week! My week was great! It started out on Monday. We only had German and Math because our other 2 classes were canceled, which meant we were done with school at 11:00. Our school is very close to the center of town, so as soon as school got out, my friends (Rahel, Leonie, and Larisa) and I, went into the city. We have a ball coming up, and we all needed dresses so we went into the city to look. This was great because I don’t know which stores would be good stores to go to, so it was great that they could help me. It was so much fun trying on dresses. We tried on actual possibilities, and also really ugly dresses just for fun. And we all picked out dresses for each other too. It was so much fun! We walked around and tried on dresses for a really long time, and I even found one that I really like, but it was a bit too small. Then after we’d had our fill of trying on dresses, we got lunch. We went to a pizza place that sold 12 inch margarita pizzas for 3.50 Euro! What a steal! It was cheap and delicious! After lunch we rode our bikes home and as soon as I got home I went online and ordered the dress I like in a bigger size! I was so excited!

On Tuesday, the last class of the day was gym class. We had a new teacher because our other one is pregnant, and I really like the new teacher. We’re playing soccer right now, and it was a lot of fun. But because there’s no air conditioning at our school, it was very hot. So after school, Rahel, Leonie and I went out for ice cream. But not just any ice cream, spaghetti ice cream. I don’t know why they don’t have spaghetti ice cream in the US, but here it’s in every ice cream shop, however, I haven’t yet tried it. If you don’t know what it is, basically they press vanilla ice cream through a press so it looks like spaghetti. Then they put a yummy strawberry sauce on top, and little pieces of shredded white chocolate so it looks like spaghetti! It was very yummy! And a fun treat!

On Thursday, after school, some friends from school and I went into the city again. None of us bought anything, but school ended early and we just wanted to hang out. Then after we got back from our outing, we came home and ate lunch. After a little while, Renate’s parents came and we went to an auditorium where Noah had a concert. In his school they have a choir class, and this was their performance. It was very cute. They made little remixes to popular songs. For example, they used the song, “We Will Rock You” and changed the lyrics so that they were saying things that they wanted. For example, we want a snow day, or we want no school on our birthday. It made more sense when it was in German haha. Nevertheless, it was very cute, and I really enjoyed watching it. Because my brother and I are roughly the same age, I haven’t gone to a elementary school choir concert in ages.

On Friday we had a Chemistry test. I didn’t take it because it was a little too complicated for me, but I did get to relax in a very quiet room which was nice. Friday was also Renate’s birthday! So right when school ended Rahel and I rode our bikes home from school. But when we got back, we realized no one was home, and we were really confused. So we checked our phones and realized there was a text message saying to meet everyone in the city for pizza. This was very exciting, but we didn’t want to ride our bikes all the way back to the city after we had just gotten home from school. Thankfully, just then, Renate’s parents came and picked us up and drove us there. When we got to the pizzeria, we all picked out what we wanted. It was funny trying to figure out what everyone wanted because there were so many of us and we were so hungry! When we were finally ready to order, we ordered, and then waited what felt like a lifetime for our food to come. But it was okay because we all just talked and hung out with each other while we waited. When the food came, everything looked so good, and we just dived right in! We ate until we were beyond full! It was a wonderful meal and I enjoyed every bite. This was also our first time going out to eat as a family which was a lot of fun. Then when we were all done, we headed back to the apartment. When we got back, Renate opened her presents. It was fun to watch her open everything and also fun to see what everyone gave her. I gave her a kaleidoscope because Renate has changed the way I SEE the world. A little cheesy but I’m glad she liked it. After she’d opened her presents, we ate some yummy cake. Renate made cheese cake and chocolate cake. Both were (as always) delicious. After cake, we all hung out for a bit, and then Renate, her parents, and Rahel went for a walk. I was very tired so I just stayed home. But overall it was a very fun day!

On Saturday I had a very relaxing day. I slept in, and woke up and had a nice breakfast. The dress I ordered came, and I cut some jeans to make myself the perfect pair of jean shorts. This is very exciting because I don’t have many pairs of shorts, but now I have one more! A dress I love and a new pair of shorts all in one day! Then I did some homework, cleaned up, and relaxed during the day until I got to go to dance class. It was a small group that day, but fun nonetheless. When I got home we got ready for the Germany soccer game! We were playing against Sweden. The boys got really into it and they let Rahel paint their faces with the German flag. We all crowed around the family computer and watched it live. I didn’t watch everything, but it was a very exciting game. Germany scored the winning goal in the last 8 seconds! When the game ended it was late, so we all went to bed.

The next morning on Sunday, Rahel, Renate, and I headed out somewhat early for a big hike! We went to Feldburg which is the highest point in Freiburg. We took the tram to the bus station, and then a bus to the trail head. It was the perfect day for hiking. It wasn’t too sunny so it wasn’t very hot, but it wasn’t so cloudy that it messed up the views. We walked for a long time, but the time went fast because we just talked and talked. My German is good enough now that I’m able to understand a lot of German in long conversation. I’m able to actually participate in the conversation without needing translations. This is exciting for me because before my head would just get too tired to listen to long conversations for a long time and be able to understand, but now I’m building up a very long tolerance! I really enjoy being able to participate in conversations, and being able to understand everything. It was a very fun hike and also very pretty. There were many pretty flowers and there was also a nice lake on the way up.

This is Feldsee, a lake we passed on the way up. We had been hiking for a few hours at that point, but our final destination was sat the top of the mountain in the background!