Hallo von Deutschland!
Wednesday/ Thursday- ( Aug 25-26)I flew3.5 hours to Chicago, had a 7.5 hour layover, and then flew 8 hoursto Germany. Being alone all day in an airport is not fun by the way... at least I have a blackberry! Plus flying stand by my whole life has taught me how to tolerate being stuck in airports...forever. I stayed in Heidelberg with Bianca, my nanny I had when I was a baby, and her two kids. They own the Hotel Heidelberg and live next door to it. Bianca picked me up (her husband Arnd is in San Francisco for a few days with a friend) and we went back to the hotel for pizza Hawaii mmmm.
Friday- (8/27) Bianca's 8 year old daughter Hannah went to a birthday party for her friend Helene. They went to a farm and milked cows and played with kittens, something I would have loved to do if I was 8. I can barely communicate with Bianca's kids, but I know that Hannah loves kittens. I opened a new magical world for her... I introduced her to youtube- you can find videos of cats doing whatever you want. First we looked at funny cats laughing, and sleeping cats. 
the plaything and ate chicken nuggets. The menu was exactly
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Bianca loves that I showed this to Hannah because she even found a video of a cat using the toilette and flushing it. She probably watched cat videos for two hours. Just like an American girl, Hannah loves toy horses, has toys all over her room, and is a bundle of fun.
While Hannah was at her birthday party, I went into downtown Heidelberg andwalked around their main pedestriancenter. I took the tram there all by myself and did not get lost :) This is where I first realized that Europe is 100x different from the US. Next to the main shopping center in Heidelberg, behind the H&M, there is a 1,000 year old castle. Der Heidelberger Schlosser. You just can't find this in southern Orange County. The stores are all lined up Beauty and the Beast fashion with apartments on top of them and narrow cobblestone streets in between. They have every kind of store we have,just put the merchandise into a fairytale neighborhood and you have Bismarkplatz!
I HATE EXCHANGE RATES!!! I watched my hard earned money disappear over the counter. As I walked around shopping, I realized the only things I wanted to buy were from H&M which is sad because we havethat at home. Besides some post cards, I came home empty handed.
The pig's trough full of flowers outside
Maria's.
Maria has lived in her apartment for over 50 years,
This arch is historic and can't be moved!
Saturday- (8/27)Every Saturday afternoon, Bianca, Arnd, Hannah and Valentin go to their great Aunt Maria's house for lunch. Maria is probably 83 and is the classic German Oma with her
dresses and aprons galore. The whole extended family meets up and visits for the afternoon
. Maria only speaks German. She came up to me and said "Guten Tag", I said "Hallo", she said "Guten Tag" again, and thinking she didn't hear me the first time, I repeated "Hallo", angrily she said "Guten Tag" again and getting the memo I finally said "Guten Tag" really loud. She then wacked me about five times on the arm to show me where the forks were. She made what tasted like my grandma's Sweedish meetballsand noodles with a cucumber salad on the side. Das essen war sehr gut! Little Maria refuses to move to an apartment that features the modern commodities of running water, central heating,and her own bathroom- I could never imagine living without these things!
Maria washed and folded my laundry. I am eternally greatful :)
Valentin is Bianca's 9 yearold son.
He is a very sweet boy and I know a
ll the girls are going to love him when he g
ets older. Valentin and I bonded over playing pool that Saturday at Marias. A pool ball is called ein Kugel! He is very good and played me again on an internet website and beat me repetedly. Valentin is der beste!
That night Hannah's friend Helene came over and we all went to "The American
Restaurant" ... Burger King. Bianca's kids love it. They crawled around in
the plaything and ate chicken nuggets. The menu was exactlythe same and everything was in English. They even had the California Burger and California wrap- complete with guacamole! I got a chicken wrap mm. We went home and watched Night at the Museum in German. Ben Stiller's dubbed voice is funny.
Being silly little ones, Bianca's kidsdid not want to go to bed and kept sneaking downstairs to say hi to me. Bianca would tell them that they needed to go to bed but they would run down 
understand what the other is saying. They ran up to their rooms and colored these massive
black velvet coloring pages I gave them with castles a
nd unicorns. Then they drew Star Wars faces on eachother's faces with markers. I love those kids, I wished they lived closer.
Sunday- (8/28)-Sunday morning the kids left with their grandparents for a week at the family's lake house on the Boden Sea. It is on the border of Austria. They take sailing lessons in the summer and skiing lessons in the winter. I went tubing with them in January there and have never been colder in my life. I heard Hannah ask when I am coming back and we are both looking forward to December.
Now Bianca and I started having our big kid fun. Sunday went to Speyer to see the Speyer Dome. It is a 1,000 year old cathedral where the kaisers, kings, queens, and bishops
of Germany are buried. We got to go into the krypt and see the graves which was really neat. The church is extremely ornate and has statues all around it. It is so weird to think of people living there so long ago. 
After looking around, we went into the museum next to it where there was an "IDOLS" exhibit, with pictures and stories of James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, and Daniel Radcliff. It was interesting to also learn a bit about German pop kultur. Did I mention it rained three days in a row? This was one of the days... After the museum we went into the pedestrian zone and went to an adorable little cafe called Triumphs. Bianca likes to have an afternoon coffee and cake. I like my heisse shokolade!
Bianca and I went for sushi for dinner. I had a few california rolls, which looked like the ones we have here. After eating a few I asked her what the orange sprinkles on the outside were.... I ate caviar for the first time and I didn't even know it! Although thinking about it, I feel a little sick.
Monday (8/29), Bianca had to work so we went to a cafe for coffee and hot chocolate. Then she dropped me off in Schwetzingen to look at the Schwetzingen Schloss Gartens. This is one of the many other massive castles in Germany. The garden was probably a square mile with large fountains and a huge pond. There were mazes of trees and swans with statues in the corners and benches along numerous rows of trees. There was also every type of flower you could imagine! I walked around for over an hour in the garden and didn't even make it all the way through. Bianca picked me up after two hours and we watched Notting Hill. I wish my mom was here with us! We had more sushi and got to eat fries from the hotel restaurant, also had ice cream and candy :)
< << Tuesday (8/30)- my last full day in Germany. I slept in until 12:30 and then Bianca and I went back into town. We walked around downtown Heidelberg and I picked up a few things for my mom and grandma. Yay for souvenirs! We had turkish tacos at Ginos and an afternoon coffee at Starbucks. Today was the first day it hasn't rained. I finally got to wear some summer clothes! One of Bianca's friend's sons came over. He is 17 and studied a year in the U.S. His name is Nikolas and he wants to be an international business man, he will soon study languages in different countries for 3 months in LA, 3 months in China, and I think the other three months in Indonesia? I can't remember but he seems really cool. A boy named Jean-Pierre is also staying with Bianca. I haven't hung out with him that much because he works a lot at the hotel but he is from Switzerland and we watched "Verliebt in Berlin" yesterday. he he he. It is a soap opera about love in Berlin. Super cheesy. With cheesy music too.
These are some flowers in Bianca's backyard on a sunny day.
