Days 1 and 2

September 2nd
In the valley of the Neckar river, between the Königstuhl (King's Seat) mountain and the Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain), lies the Altstadt (Old Town) of the city. This is Heidelberg, a spectacular university town of 150,000 inhabitants.

Located 90 Km (56 miles) south of Frankfurt am Main and 90 Km northwest of Stuttgart, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, it's simple to take a plane from any country and get here. However the other foreign exchange students might not be too fond of my use of the word "simple", why?

Because of day one. September 1st, having just touched the tarmac after an eight hour flight, with no knowledge of the functioning of the rail system known as "Deutsche Bahn" (two words you will come to hate), German skills in need of a good polishing, weighed down by two 23 Kg (50 lb) suitcases, there was a lot of stress. But my mom's cousin, who lives an hour north of Frankfurt am Main, picked me up from Frankfurt international airport and drove me to my new home, which definitely made for a better first day. But without a German phone number or Wifi, there was no one to talk to and nothing for me to do but sleep at 6 in the afternoon...

Having gotten about 14 hours of sleep tired me physically but I was excited too excited to care and productivity was on my mind the next day. I needed to go back into town to pick up paperwork and info packets, but I was not yet familiar with the public transport system so I decided to walk from my dorm in the Neuenheim (new home) district. Being guided only by the map I was given the day before, it felt like I was living in the 1990s again and in no way was this a nostalgic feeling. But after 50 minutes and having gotten lost only once (no I still didn't ask for directions) I made it to Universitätsplatz (University Square). As I walked down the cobblestone path of Hauptstraße (Main street), from the bustle of the pedestrians to the baroque conjoined buildings, from the flapping wings of the daring pigeons inches away from taking out an eyeball to the sounds and sights of the street performer and of course the most iconic of which was the Gothic Heiliggeistkirche (Church of the Holy Spirit) in Marktplatz (Market Square); all of which i was too distracted to notice the day before. Finally, I was back in Europe and even though it had only been my second day in Heidelberg, I already knew I was going to miss this place when I left 363 days later.