After spending two weeks with my parents, I was behind on quite a few things, one of which was painting birthday gifts for my floormates. The two floormates whose birthdays I missed are both Schafkopf lovers. I painted the highest card for one of them...
… and for the other, I painted his name with the four Schafkopf suits.
I was able to Facetime and catch up with a few friends during the week, one of whom was Abby! While I’ve been loving my German life, I do miss my family and friends back home.
The lake where the reception was had a little beach area with chairs and candles and nice blue water. At one point there were numerous wind surfers on the water, and we enjoyed watching them perform their tricks.
The dining area, buffet, photo booth, bar, and dance floor were spread among a few tents and a small building. The decorations were all made by the groom’s sister and embraced the natural beauty of the location.
We had a wonderful time!
On our way to drop his brother off at the train station, we made a quick stop at this lookout over Karlsruhe.
I spent a lot of time working on my laptop this week, some of which was dedicated to catching up on blog posts beginning with my parents visit. I caught up with a few friends via Facetime, did some yoga, and watched a bit of the Olympics (namely women’s soccer). Friday evening a few of us had drinks on the rooftop of a university building and ate falafel wraps for dinner. 

The real excitement began on the weekend. Kacper had been invited to a family friend’s wedding, and I got to go as his plus one! I woke up early Saturday morning to do my hair and make-up and get dressed before we (Kacper, his brother, his brother’s girlfriend, and I) picked up a rental car and drove to Heidelberg, where the ceremony was. Before we got to Heidelberg, we swung by the Karlsruhe train station to pick up Kacper’s other brother who rode in from Berlin. We then had to stop by the bride’s house to pick up the wedding rings so that Kacper’s oldest brother could present them at the appropriate time during Mass. 

We then grabbed a quick bratwurst for lunch before heading into Heidelberg’s Altstadt for the ceremony in the Jesuit church. After the lovely Mass, we drove to Eppelsee, a small lake outside of Karlsruhe for the reception, which was an enchanting outdoor celebration on the water. The bride is Polish and the groom is German, so most of the guests spoke some combination of Polish, German, and English. There were also many young guests, so after the dinner and organized festivities, the party started and we danced into the early hours of the morning when we then “slept,” although if I am being honest, it was more of a nap.

After waking up the next morning, we ate breakfast and helped clean and pack things up before we hit the road back to Munich. Unfortunately we hit traffic near Stuttgart so our trip took an hour longer than expected, but once we made it home, it wasn’t long before our tired selves went to bed.

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