#12 - Leipzig & Handball

April 3, 2025 - Leipzig

Sofia writes:

Today was honestly amazing and a great way to start bringing our trip to an end! My morning started off with an hour and a half long city tour of Leipzig. I was very excited when I saw a double decker bus! Although, my excitement was not necessarily about the novelty, but more about the roof on the bus. The wind in Leipzig is no joke. We got to learn a lot of fun little facts about the city, and it was cool to see it from a different perspective. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and fun, and knew a lot about the history and traditions of the city. 

After the tour, I went to our first class of the day which was history. While I couldn’t understand much of the language from this class, it was interesting to hear history taught from a different perspective. The class was going over the post World War Two era in Germany. Of course I have learned about this era in American school, but we mostly examine it from an American perspective so it was interesting to hear facts about the era from a European viewpoint. 

Next, we had lunch. The lunch here is very different from school lunch in America, considering this was an actual meal, ravioli with cherry tomatoes. Next, we went to two supermarkets that were close by to find my favorite chocolate. I am obsessed with this chocolate that is filled with mousse but it’s hard to find because it’s such a specific flavor only sold by one German brand. 

After this break, everyone in GAPP went to go learn handball in the school gym. I was extremely apprehensive while going into this, but I actually had a lot of fun. While I was beyond terrible at the sport, my group members can attest to this, it was a learning experience for me, and I definitely was a lot better at the end.

While Emmy and my partners were taking an important test, we went and bought some Spaghettieis (vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce) from the supermarket. John joined us and we quickly concluded that it does not taste the same as real Spaghettieis. John was our navigator and took us to the ice cream shop by the Thomaskirche. Here we ate even more Spaghettieis that was a lot better. Ordering was quite funny as the waitress misunderstood John and gave him the wrong drink. Emmy and I were surprised as John and the waitress started speaking Spanish to clear up the confusion. We should all strive to be trilingual like John. 

Eating an amazing sweet treat while sitting in such a beautiful city was such a nice moment for me. We took the opportunity to recreate one of Herr Strecker's many pictures. 

Emmy and I met back up with our partners and relaxed a bit in the Starbucks in Leipzig. Starbucks is very similar here, except with a much shorter menu. After finishing our drinks, we said goodbye to Emmy and Luise. Mali and I then went to even more supermarkets to try to find more of my favorite chocolate. I found a couple months worth of supplies to take home and some amazing ketchup flavored chips. 

Later in the day, we had Döner, a German staple, for dinner. I also got to try Dubai chocolate which is apparently a huge trend here in Germany. After dinner, I got a tour of my host family’s garden. They grow a lot of their own fruits and vegetables which is very different from America. I even got to try some of their own homemade plum jam yesterday. Now, I am having a relaxing movie night with Mali. What I have concluded from this trip is that two weeks is definitely not enough time here!

Hello! Mariana here again for the blog.

Right off the bat, I want to point out again how COOL and ultra useful the public transportation system is here in Germany. Definitely going to miss it. Helena and I take the S-Bahn daily to get to school and it lets me have more freedom after school — especially since Helena is a student athlete — there is less stress about how to get home and things along those lines. 

Today our class had the opportunity to take a city tour via bus! The city is gorgeous, as I’ve already known, and I’m happy I got to see more of it in its entirety. Thank you to our tour guide. 

The most notable part of my day is 100% Handball 🤾🏽‍♀️. I wasn’t exactly dreading it, but I wasn’t particularly excited to try it out either. I am BEYOND happy I did though because I loved, loved it. It’s relatively similar to basketball, but no pivoting and a net replaces the hoop. I think my team and I demolished wooop wooop! We started off telling each other that it’s not about winning, but about heart. We ending up changing our minds and getting into it, haha. At least I definitely got into it. It was very fun and made me sweat a ton. Can’t complain at all. Thank you to the coaches again. 

After handball, we all got dressed and headed our separate ways. Helena wanted to show me Polar & Bear, which is a clothing department store. I definitely spent a good amount of coin😅, but absolutely no regrets. Admittedly, Luay and I were shocked by the kiosk system because it automatically scans your items when you simply put it inside a bin?! It was very modern and I want to go back just for that lol.  After some more window shopping, Helena and I headed back home before going to her acrobatics practice. It’s exactly what you might think. It was so, so cool and I was just so impressed the entire time. The girls really are so dedicated to their sport and are insanely strong with the moves they were pulling. Lots of flips and turns. It was simply amazing. You had to have been there to see it for yourself. 

All in all, I had yet again another amazing day and I’m so grateful to have such a phenomenal host partner :) Shoutout Helena <3

For more photos, click here.

Only two more days in Leipzig! Tomorrow we will read English children's books to elementary school kids and tour the Völkerschlachtdenkmal (including a spelling quiz of the name afterwards). Gute Nacht und bis morgen!