Last day in Freiburg

It doesn't seem possible that it's already time to head to Klagenfurt! Katharina and I will leave tomorrow morning between 8 and 9 and will get to Klagenfurt around 7:15 tomorrow evening. It'll be a little interesting with all the luggage I have on the train.. but I'm sure between the two of us, it'll be fine! I really don't know how people can get by for 4 months with less.. but it's kind of a pain in the...!!

We didn't end up going to the Black Forest today. We were afraid we'd run out of time, so we had a pretty relaxing day in Freiburg. We rode our bikes across town and looked at a section of town that is really eco-friendly. Everything is built in a way that is supposed to cut down waste, etc. The houses are insulated really well and built.. well, I don't know but in ways that's hopefully better for the environment. Apparently, Freiburg is very well known for its efforts in solar energy and eco-friendly buildings.

I'm not sure if any of you caught it or not, but I did say that we rode across town on bikes. Yes... me on a bike. Well, we tried it out the other day and, they say you never forget how to ride a bike... and fine, I'll give them that! But you sure do get rusty at it!! Not to mention that there are soo many people riding around on bikes in Freiburg! Plus pedestrians and cars! It didn't take long for me to be able to ride but I'm certainly not a GOOD bike rider!! Haha. I do enjoy it though. Sadly, I don't have any video or pictures of me flailing around on a bike to share with you all!!

So then after we saw the eco-friendly buildings, we walked up a hill, small mountain?, something and stopped at the Jesuitenschloss, which has a restaurant and we had some delicious homemade ice cream!! Mmm! I had Schwarzwaelder Kirsch ice cream. Chocolate and vanilla with cherries and a little Kirschwasser (cherry liquor). I assumed they'd barely put any Kirschwasser but was I wrong! I had to make sure not to try to get too much in eat bite! But it was very good! We sat there and just looked down on the city for quite a while. It was so relaxing and the weather was perfect today! We got pretty hot on the hike up but once we got there, the wind was blowing and it felt great to just sit there.

I'm really happy to say that I've not been homesick yet. I've only been here 4 or 5 days, I know, but I really feel fine. I'm trying to take one day at a time and I think that helps. Of course, being with Katharina who I know definitely helps!! I hope that I continue to be able to just take each day as it comes, not think ahead to December when my family is here and not think about how long it's been since I've seen them too much, as well. And I'm still really excited to meet people in Austria, to see how I perform on my German proficiency exam, and to get acquainted with the city of Klagenfurt! Really, I just have to much to do to sit around being homesick! :)

Lots of love! Enjoy some pictures from today: