We landed in Frankfurt last Saturday at 8AM here, and we were all incredibly jet lagged and groggy. So what was the first thing we did when we got there? We went on a walking tour of our beautiful town of Heidelberg. This would have been fine, except I was feeling horrible. Either something I ate or just an upset stomach from traveling. The next day, Sunday, we went on a bike tour to Ladenburg, a city a few miles away from Heidelberg. It is a pretty little town with lots of cobblestones, so my butt really hurt riding my bike through it. But something that was really cool was that we were lucky enough to be there on the only day of the week that the Benz museum is open. We went in the actual garage where Karl Benz invented the first automobile. It was amazing to be there! And the story of how the first car was driven was funny. Karl Benz was asleep, and his wife wanted to go into town to get milk, and she didn't want to wait for him to wake up, so she took the car.

The next few days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, September 1-4) we all got acquainted with our surroundings and living area by going on tours and starting our German class in which we also talk about the cultural differences and what we need to be careful of. We were not able to unpack all the way because last Thursday we left for our first study trip.

On Thursday we took a train from Heidelberg to Eisenach, the city where Bach was born and lived in most of his life. We went to the famous Bachause (Bach House) where for 200 years people thought he lived there, but now they are doubting it. Then we went to Weimar, where Bach also worked and we went on a tour of Liszthause (Liszt's house) which was in the exact and original way he left it, including all the stuff in it. Amazing. We then went to Leipzig, another place where Bach lived/worked/played and we also went on a tour of Mendelssohnhause, which was pretty cool. We went to one of our required concerts in THE "Bach Church," AKA Thomas Kirche church, and the concert was a boy's choir. Amazing. Last night, (Saturday night) we went to see a free outdoor concert of the Leipzig symphony orchestra, but it was raining really hard so everyone got to go in their concert hall for free!!! It was almost the same as Disney hall, but bigger I am told. It was INCREDIBLE!! And free. Amazing.