Exchanging Umbrellas

The weekend before last saw me and my fellow Heidenheim exchange students casually boarding a train like we'd lived in Germany all our lives. Well, sort of. We were jabbering excitedly in English, German and Spanish, carrying suitcases, and wearing Rotary blazers. But I liked to think we looked casual.
We were headed to the town of Göppingen, to meet the Rotex of 1830 and fellow inbounds for your average exchange student get together. The program included a damp and delightful day in the town of Schwäbisch Gmünd...

...where we did a quiz about the town's history, although we never did figure out why the town's animal is a unicorn...

...and, because it was raining, we retreated into this beautiful cathedral after almost every question...

...especially after this episode, where we were a bit lost, and then I thought this figure in a tower was a real person.

Luckily, we recovered from this shock by taking photos in the town square.

From left: Michigan, Illinois, Arkansas, France, Ohio, Kansas, California, and Maine! 

That evening, despite the heavy drizzle, we took the lanterns we had created the night before and wandered the streets of Göppingen, singing loudly in a variety of languages (repertoire included the 'Wicked' soundtrack, 'The Ants Go Marching,' and many others), and seeing whose candle stayed lit the longest. 

It was a truly lovely weekend, and I even recovered my umbrella at the end of it!