On Monday I spent the morning being a housewife doing the cleaning and the laundry. I did not plan ahead this past week and the clothes started to pile up so that meant the whole apartment had sheets, towels, and clothes hanging from just about everywhere to dry. I definitely miss having a clothes dryer. In the afternoon I headed to a friend's for a haircut. It has been a few months and I was due for a cut but not super excited to go to a German salon so the Bosch wife who is a hair stylist in the US gave me a trim. She has been cutting the hair for all the guy trainees here the past few months and was really happy to have women's longer hair to cut. She did a great job and I am happy with my trim.
So I have to take a 50 minute train ride to their apartment and had my first very awkward train experience. Usually I take the train at 6:15 am and most people are sleeping or reading. It is usually very quiet and no one talks. On Monday I took the train at 1:00 pm or 13:00 here and the train was packed with people of all ages. The schools were getting out so there were kids and teenagers, young adults, families, and senior citizens. I was not reading my book Snow, a somewhat controversial book about religious and political revolution in Turkey, for five minutes when this 40ish year old Polish man missing most of his teeth asked me in German what I was reading. Unfortunately he also spoke English so I showed him the back and he continued to make conversation in very slow broken English. We talked about the book, banned German books, and the USA. He went on to tell me that I have a face for modeling and should be a model for pictures only in black and white. WHAT?? By this time my train car was packed with male students probably in their late teens and early twenties. When the man asked me if I wanted to listen to his headphones with him and I said "Nein Danke", the young men around me started laughing. I'm sure I turned bright red as I was counting the seconds until my stop.
After my haircut and some delicious gelato I went downtown Stuttgart to do a bit of shopping and then met Rebecca, the only female trainee here, for dinner. We shared a delicious bottle of local sweet white wine and enjoyed conversation.
On Tuesday, the sun came out for a little while and I soaked up as much Vitamin D as possible during my walk from downtown Stuttgart to Dobelstrasse where I babysit. When the weather cooperates sometimes it is really nice to walk 25 minutes instead of taking a 5 minute train, even though the entire walk is uphill. I found new stores and restaurants on my way.
So today (Wednesday) was definitely the most exciting day. I planned a Ladies Day Trip to Heidelberg with Courtney, Lauren, Molly, and myself (all the spouses or girlfriends of Bosch trainees here right now). Here are the highlights:
- I drove 102 mph on the Autobahn in an area with no speed limit in our luxury Volvo hatchback. This was my first time ever driving faster than 85 mph so it is a big deal for me.
- We ate Schnee balls or (Snow Balls) that were delicious but I have no idea what is in them. They are kind of like waffle cone cake in ball form rolled in chocolate and other toppings with a creme or fudge in the middle. Awesome but very messy and a challenge to eat!
- We accidentally walked into the Studentenkarzer for free and enjoyed looking at the "art" on the walls and seeing where university students went to prison between 1778 and 1914 for excessive drinking and misbehaving.
- We walked around Altstadt (old city) and marveled at the old buildings, city square, bridge, and churches.
- We touched the Heidelberg Bridge Monkey but not in the right places. You are supposed to touch the fingers to ensure your return to Heidelberg, the mirror for wealth, and the accompanying mice for fertility.
- I had potato pancakes served with feta cheese, tomatoes, peppers, and onions for lunch with a Heidelberger beer. Delicious!
- We went up 400 or so stairs (they were numbered in white paint) to the Heidelberg Castle for pictures and a great view of the city.
- We explored a homemade liqueur and spirit shop downtown that sold interesting sweet bottled liqueur usually sipped gently. They had bottles of both red and green absinthe and we all took free sample shots of a green melon liqueur that is very popular among the university students in town.
- We tried to go wine shopping for cheap wine in Speyer, the town West known for the vineyards and local wine. Despite my two efforts to ask locals of Speyer in German where a great wine store was, we were unsuccessful in finding cheap local wine. I did find a bottle of Schwarzriesling (dark reisling) that is red and trocken (dry) from the region. I am excited to give it a try later this week.
- We were stuck in stopped traffic on the Autobahn for more than 40 minutes on our way back to Stuttgart. Congested traffic is a pain no matter what country you are in.
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