At last, the trees in Heidelberg are revealing the vibrant and cheerful colors of the fall season. Surrounding Moore House are hundreds of shades of red, yellow, and orange. The festive colors are bringing coziness to the chilly weather of Heidelberg in November.
Each morning, the task of climbing out of bed and embarking on the daily commute to class becomes a bit more difficult for us students here in Germany. After greeting each other at breakfast over pastries, granola, and coffee, we all briskly walk through the frosty weather. Lately, we have been passing by the construction of the annual Christmas markets, which open on the 21st of November. We also pass bikers, Heidelberg University students, and adorable German children that are also scurrying to class. We can see our breath in the morning and our noses are usually red by the time we reach the classrooms, but the walk is so refreshing that we tend to enjoy every minute of it.
While the city of Heidelberg is certainly charming in this fall season, we have certainly been taking advantage of our travel abilities on weekends. For our long-weekend break, a period of 5 days that we had off from class, a group of us traveled to Paris, France. We were in awe of the the beauty of this city, starting at the train station! The Gare de Lyon railway station greeted us with it’s Art Noveau huge rounded arches and a majestic clock tower. As we meandered to our hotel, we repeatedly stopped to observe unique buildings, which ranged from having a Gothic architectural style to Art-Deco style. What we had learned about in our Fine Arts class was right there before us, in this world of pure architectural beauty.
On Halloween, we realized that although no Parisians seemed to be sporting wacky costumes, it was our duty as American teenagers to dress up. Therefore, we were laughed at during our first night in Paris, as we wore face paint and flowers while enjoying a traditional French meal. Even my simple cat ears received the most disapproving looks from passers by!
In our time in Paris, we completed our checklist. We enjoyed Chipotle almost every day (we were obviously missing the classic burrito), tried Escargot, bought fresh baguettes, and sampled Laduree’s delicious macaroons. We celebrated our friend’s birthday in front of the sparkling Eiffel Tower at midnight, ran through Marie Antoinette’s palace at Versailles, moseyed through the Louvre, and absorbed the rich culture of France. We did it all while being drenched in rain, which is close to inevitable in Paris.
After we returned, many of use realized that although trips are incredibly exciting, many of the members of Moore House are beginning to miss their families as the holidays begin. Thankfully, we were served a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Pepperdine’s favorite German restaurant, Essighaus. The German chefs were kind enough to serve the classics- green beans, mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy, corn on the cob, and even sweet potatoes with marshmallows. As the restaurant staff unveiled the sweet potato dish, the chef stated that he was confused as to why we enjoyed such a random and unsophisticated food pairing. We found his reaction to our excitement to be hilarious. We realize that many American-home traditions are deemed to be “strange” here in Germany, while 
dishes like Spaetzle would look out of place on our dinner table at home. The restaurant’s special dishes made us feel a bit closer to home, so we were extremely thankful for their consideration.
Now that our German-American Thanksgiving celebration is over, it is time to decorate for Christmas. We have discovered the boxes of lights, wreaths, and garland. It’s time to bring Christmas to Moore House.
