Week 22! - Parimah Comes to Freiburg!

Hello again everyone! I hope you had a great week and I’m so happy to give you all another update about another great week! Also I’d like to give a huge thank you to all of you who read my blogs every week! It means a lot!

Monday was a very average day. I had my normal classes, and after school I didn’t do much. Tuesday was like this as well. However, on Tuesday, we had a Physics test that I didn’t take with the rest of the class which meant I got to work on my summer homework for next year! Then on Wednesday I went to school as normal, and then when I came home from school I ate lunch just as always. But then later that evening, Parimah came to the train station and I went to pick her up! I was so excited to see her again and it was so awesome seeing her again! Some of you might remember that I went to visit her in Hannover a few months ago. So I picked her up from the train station and then we took the tram back to her AirB&B. When we got there, she put her stuff down, and then we went over to my apartment so she could meet my host family and eat dinner! I’m super happy that they got to meet each other and everyone enjoyed Renate’s amazing meal that she had prepared. Then, it was getting late so she headed back her AirB&B and we went to bed. 

On Thursday we ate breakfast and then met up with each other. We decided that it would be fun to bike into the city and spend the day there. I needed to buy some things like a new pair of shoes and I wanted a new T-Shirt, but we also just went into a bunch of stores to look around and so I could show her around Freiburg! We walked around for a while and eventually we stopped for lunch. We had packed a lunch so we sat next to a beautiful fountain and ate and talked. Some of you might be wondering if we spoke German or English, and the answer is both. We would just go back and forth, though we mostly spoke English. It was a lot of fun to speak German with Parimah because now my German is much better and I can understand much more than I could’ve when I visited her last. Anyways, after lunch we continued to walk around the city. Eventually when we had had our fill, we headed back to my apartment. When we got there we decided it would be fun to watch all of the home videos that my mom made while we were living together in the US. It was really nice to reminisce about our time together and also see all the photos from all the trips we’ve been on together. We also watched videos from when I was a little kid which was a lot of fun. Then we wanted to do something fun for dinner so we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant called Vapiano. We stayed there for hours just talking and laughing about exchange student things. It was so much fun but eventually we got tired and so we went back to our apartments and went to bed. 

A photo of us in the city!

The next day, on Friday, we slept in and had a relaxing morning. Then when we were both ready for the day, we met up and went for a little walk. We walked up to a place where we could see a lot of Freiburg and there we just sat and talked and ate some trail mix. We stayed their for a while just talking and listening to music before we headed back down for lunch. Then after lunch we went to the stable with Rahel and Anna. We took a walk with the horses and I took photos with my camera. It was very hot, but of course fun. Then when we were done, we headed back with our bikes and Parimah and I stopped at a grocery store to get some things we needed for dinner. I had bought some fancy pasta when I was on my Italy vacation, but I never got a chance to eat it with my mom so Parimah and I ate it! It was so yummy and we found a spicy tomato sauce to go with it and it was amazing! We also made the perfect amount for two people. We ate every bite, but we were full and didn’t have room for anything else. We made the dinner at Parimah’s AirB&B so when we were done I headed back to my apartment and went to bed. 

Relaxing on a bench together 

Parimah with La China the horse

This is Anna with Tessa

Parimah while we were walking the horses

Eating our AMAZING dinner!

Yummy yummy yummy!

The next day on Saturday Parimah and I woke up early to head to Schauinsland which is a gondola ride you can take to a high mountain in Freiburg which leads to a lot of hikes and has a very pretty view. When we arrived at the top we did a short hike (just a little over a kilometer) to a viewing tower. Then we walked up the viewing tower and stayed there for a while looking at the pretty view. We were also taking photos of each other and a man offered to take a photo of us which was very nice, except the photo turned out SO BAD it was so funny haha. Then we walked back to the “main building” and found some cool benches to sit on while we looked at the amazing view. After sitting for a while we were getting hungry so we went to the restaurant they have there and ate a yummy lunch. We both got the potato leek soup with french fries and it was so delicious. When we went back down we had our own gondola which was a lot of fun because we go to play music and we had a little dance party. It was a lot of fun! When we got back to Freiburg we had a little bit of time left, but not enough to really do anything so we just watched some YouTube before it was time to leave. I had dance class, but Parimah had to leave for the train station so we left at the same time. It was sad to say goodbye, but I know for sure we will see each other again. So it was more of a see you later! Dance class was a lot of fun, and right after dance class I headed back to the apartment for about an hour before it was time to leave again. I was going to my first dance party! I was very excited and it was a lot of fun! It was a party to get everybody ready for the ball in two weeks! So I wore the shoes that I’m going to wear to the ball to make sure they worked well and we practiced the dances that we should know for the ball. Overall the party was just a lot of fun because I got to experiment with different dances and hang out with my friends. My favorite part was at the end when all the REALLY good dancers made a circle and they were all dancing with each other. It was really impressive and made me wish that I could continue with this sort of dance class in the US, but unfortunately we don’t have anything like it. The party ended at 11:30 so then Andy picked us up, and when we got back I went straight to bed. 

The view from the top!

Parimah took this photo of me!

This is a video of the party so you can get a feel of what it was like!

The next morning on Sunday, I slept in and relaxed. I was tired from the night before, and it was the weekend! So I woke up around 8 AM (which is pretty late for me) and watched some videos and things on my laptop. I also showered and got ready for the day. After lunch, Renate, Timo, Noah, and I went to a duck race! This duck race was a fundraiser for clowns who work at the hospital clinic to cheer people up. The way it worked is that they put a bunch of ducks in a river, and there were prizes for whichever duck got first place. Stores and companies donated prizes and people could buy the ducks for 2.50 Euros a piece. There were over 18,000 ducks, and they said that they raised over 22,000 Euros! That’s pretty incredible! It was a to of fun to watch and very entertaining even though I didn’t win. After the duck race, we biked back and I talked to my family and then wrote my blog! What a great way to end a truly awesome week! 

This is a video of the ducks being poured into the river! It's pretty crazy!

I hope you all enjoyed and I’ll talk to you next week! Bye!