We completed the major projects that the missionary had for us a bit early, so on Saturday, we went out for another day of sightseeing. We went to Heidelberg and ate lunch there (I think – we may have had lunch at the house, I can’t quite remember.) and then walked the streets and bought treats and souvenirs and ice cream. (I also bought some macaroons that were AMAZING. They weren’t dry and tasteless like others I’ve had. They were cold and moist and just wonderful.)

We ordered some ice cream (I got vanilla and chocolate in a bowl) that tasted really good. When we had finished, we walked up that street. A friend and I walked into a really hipster-looking bookstore with a winding staircase that went four floors up, but all the books were in German. My friend found some neat music books and suggested I try to find a book I like in English and get it in German as a souvenir, but all we could find was Artemis Fowl and I haven’t read that yet.

We then went to a candy store and I bought some more gummy bears. As I was waiting for the rest of the group to buy their things, I noticed a woman trying to give away samples of something. No one talked to her (Germans aren’t nice like Americans are) and so I thought I would walk over and talk to her, assuming she could speak English as most Germans around her age could. As I crossed the street, though, someone else from the store replaced her, a guy who seemed less talkative. So I decided to awkwardly stand nearby and keep an eye on the candy store for my group. The guy soon asked me if I wanted what was on the plate, but this was all in German, so I didn’t know what it was. I took one to be polite, even though they didn’t look very appetizing. I just held it in my hand, until the man said something more about it. He made the mistake of using the word “essen,” which I knew was German for food. So, I took this to mean that he wanted me to eat it. Well, apparently he was saying “it’s not something you eat,” because as soon as it neared my mouth, he went nuts. He switched to English and told me it was soap. Yup. This story embarrasses me a lot so this is the end.

After that, we went into a neat store called Butler that had lots of home things and some books. I found some knobs for my roll-top desk and decided to buy those, then I found a German colouring book and decided to get that too, even though all the pictures were in German and I have to translate the flowers and leaves through something to be able to colour them.

We also went into a huge bookstore that looked like a Barnes and Noble-type place, and I found a book by our President, Donald Trump! It was super neat; the title was in English but the words in the book were in German.

That evening, we went to a really neat but odd restaurant and got “doners” for our last meal in Germany. They’re like huge beef tacos with an interesting sauce. I (surprisingly) LOVED it. It was huge, but I ate the whole thing fairly quickly.

That night, we did some talking and played some games, then everyone slowly went to bed. It was bittersweet, but mostly bitter, at least for me. Going home to the USA would be nice, but I loved Germany and I was not ready to leave yet. I could have stayed there a few more weeks and probably still not felt homesick.

I finally walked up the three flights of stairs to the attic bedroom and started packing all my things. Quite surprisingly, I didn’t forget anything, on the way there or coming back! I half-wish I’d forgotten my passport and had to stay there a few more days, but that would have made it stressful on everyone else, so it wasn’t a valid option.

After all of my gummy bears and chocolate and my colouring book and my leftover euros were packed up, I went to bed at around 2 am.