Saturday we all drove to Chemnity to give the van back to Pam and Larry. I forget how beautiful Germany is when you get out of the cities. Rolling green hills and some woods...beautiful even though it is winter. The windmills are gorgeous too...presiding over the land like shining sentiniels. What a contrast to today's rainy gray Leipzig. Leipzig is a great city but it is a city and an east German city too--lots of concrete and metal, little green and grass. Spring will come soon but in the meantime it is a little dreary.
We did have a great day Saturday though. We stayed just long enough in Chemnitz to talk with Pam a little and then we got a ticket back to Leipzig. Dwane had to be back at the house by 1 to meet the owner who was coming from Stuttgart to look at the house and give him his deposit back. Dwane was a little worried that she wouldn't give him all of his deposit back because of some damage...but for 5 years of living in the place with 7 kids the damage was really minimal. She was completely happy and everything went really well. I felt very much like a German carrying the last bit of stuff back to their apartment on the public transportation...a cleaning bucket with odds and ends, a bag of electronics and cords, and a mop handle, as well as a box of other stuff between Dwane, Johnmark and I.
Saturday night Carolin invited me to a party. I had no idea what kind of party it was going to be but to get to know her better I figured I would go. She explained to me that the tenants of 3 apartments on the same level in this building have a big party every year and that there would be about 150 people there...sounded like fun except for the fact that my German is still a work in progress. *interuption* I have to tell this first: I met her at Augustusplatz and we waited for the tram. We met a guy from Israel while we waited...which was a little surprising to me but I figured I probably shouldn't be so surprised...it got even better. We happened to be taking the same tram and when we got on, there was a disturbance in the back of the wagon...which in America might not be unexpected but in Germany things like that just don't happen very often. To top it off, some of the delinquents were making some comments that Carolin said were neo-nazi in connotation. We didn't talk about it but I can imagine that the guy from Israel was a little uncomfortable. I keep saying "the guy from Israel" because his name is unspellable...something like Rol but not. Back to the party...it was, according to Carolin, a "typical German party" with people sitting around in small groups talking...I was a little apprehensive at first but I could actually understand most of what people were saying and respond adequately to any questions put to me...I was proud of myself. All in all it was a good night and I learned a lot about Carolin and had some delicious chili...with meat rather than tofu which were the choices =)
Yesterday a guy from Dresden, Karl, came to speak at our worship and after we went to the soup place in the train station for lunch...that is such a good place to know about and their soups are delicious. I washed clothes yesterday afternoon...let me tell you, German washing machines will get your clothes CLEAN!! just make sure you don't put them in there too often or you won't have any clothes left ;)
I'm sitting in this internet cafe and it was nice and warm but now the guy has propped the door open and the freezing cold air is coming in...blah...
til next time, love ya'll!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
containers and trash
Oh boy...yesterday was such a good day for Dwane. The container came that he had to pack all of his stuff into to ship it back to the states and everything fit! This and the fact that we packed it all in 2.5 hours was due in great part to a guy named Randy who lives in Dresden right now. He used to work for UPS and he did a great job organizing. Dwane had actually put ME in charge of that which is great because I do like to tell people what to do but organizing like that is HARD!! Randy took care of it all and it worked out great. There were 2 other Americans there--Clint and Steve and a German girl named Sara. We had a great time packing and afterwards we went to Burger King to eat...yum.
The guy driving the truck carrying the container had a very strong Saxon accent...which here in Leipzig is pretty prevalent. It is REALLY hard to understand and they use idioms that no one else uses...so he was trying to give us some advice a couple times and even though some of them had lived here 5 years and spoke German really well...couldn't understand him. The guy laughed about it and we all had a good time.
There's still some cleaning to do at the house and some trash to get out but for the most part now Dwane, Annalisa and Johnmark can just enjoy their last time here in Leipzig.
So the trash...yes, let's talk about that. They loaded a couch and a mattress into the van to take to the dump. The dump in German cities is not just a pile of trash somewhere like a junkyard or something. There are several different containers for different types of trash and there are people there who tell you where to put things and whether you can even leave them there or not...sometimes they just tell you that you can't throw it away...bizarre i know. Well, so yesterday Dwane, Johnmark and I were going to the dump with the couch and mattress and Dwane decided to see if they would let us throw a bunch of other things away from the house. You also have to have special stamps that people get with their "how to throw trash away properly" booklet =) So we got some extra stamps for people...they correspond to .1 square meter of trash each...and went to the dump. Dwane has been there a couple times and so he knows the head guy there--Bern---who is from the Ukraine originally. Bern is probably 60 years old and has gray hair on his head in an Einstein-like do, and a similarly gray beard that covers most of his face. Great personality too! So we drove up and Dwane said hello and Bern enthusiastically greeted him and Johnmark and then asked if I was his daughter...No, said Dwane and then immediately Bern said "oh! girlfriend!" ....No, said Dwane as we all laughed...just a friend. So...we backed the van up to the trash containers and opened up the back and started to bring out the stuff that we hoped they would let us throw away. Turns out Dwane made a good decision to bring me along because Bern thought I was so great that he didn't really care what we had to throw away...he sorted some of it, taking out electronics and metal things and wooden things...but then just saying "sparmull" which is the kind of everything else plastic trash. He gave me a piece of candy and a great big hug as we were leaving...apparently it was just SO great to meet me! Dwane didn't even have to use all of his stamps to throw everything away =) such is life
Last night Brielle and Annalisa and I had a nice little devo/chat at the bakery about what we pray for...for example if we pray for patience, being prepared to have God allow us to demonstrate that patience in many situations. Just thinking about how life's struggles are maturing us and that's why James tells us to rejoicing in tribulation. Profound, I know =)
I can't believe I've been here for 10 days already...and been away from all of ya'll for that long! I do miss so many people but I know that I will see you sooner than I think. Love you!
The guy driving the truck carrying the container had a very strong Saxon accent...which here in Leipzig is pretty prevalent. It is REALLY hard to understand and they use idioms that no one else uses...so he was trying to give us some advice a couple times and even though some of them had lived here 5 years and spoke German really well...couldn't understand him. The guy laughed about it and we all had a good time.
There's still some cleaning to do at the house and some trash to get out but for the most part now Dwane, Annalisa and Johnmark can just enjoy their last time here in Leipzig.
So the trash...yes, let's talk about that. They loaded a couch and a mattress into the van to take to the dump. The dump in German cities is not just a pile of trash somewhere like a junkyard or something. There are several different containers for different types of trash and there are people there who tell you where to put things and whether you can even leave them there or not...sometimes they just tell you that you can't throw it away...bizarre i know. Well, so yesterday Dwane, Johnmark and I were going to the dump with the couch and mattress and Dwane decided to see if they would let us throw a bunch of other things away from the house. You also have to have special stamps that people get with their "how to throw trash away properly" booklet =) So we got some extra stamps for people...they correspond to .1 square meter of trash each...and went to the dump. Dwane has been there a couple times and so he knows the head guy there--Bern---who is from the Ukraine originally. Bern is probably 60 years old and has gray hair on his head in an Einstein-like do, and a similarly gray beard that covers most of his face. Great personality too! So we drove up and Dwane said hello and Bern enthusiastically greeted him and Johnmark and then asked if I was his daughter...No, said Dwane and then immediately Bern said "oh! girlfriend!" ....No, said Dwane as we all laughed...just a friend. So...we backed the van up to the trash containers and opened up the back and started to bring out the stuff that we hoped they would let us throw away. Turns out Dwane made a good decision to bring me along because Bern thought I was so great that he didn't really care what we had to throw away...he sorted some of it, taking out electronics and metal things and wooden things...but then just saying "sparmull" which is the kind of everything else plastic trash. He gave me a piece of candy and a great big hug as we were leaving...apparently it was just SO great to meet me! Dwane didn't even have to use all of his stamps to throw everything away =) such is life
Last night Brielle and Annalisa and I had a nice little devo/chat at the bakery about what we pray for...for example if we pray for patience, being prepared to have God allow us to demonstrate that patience in many situations. Just thinking about how life's struggles are maturing us and that's why James tells us to rejoicing in tribulation. Profound, I know =)
I can't believe I've been here for 10 days already...and been away from all of ya'll for that long! I do miss so many people but I know that I will see you sooner than I think. Love you!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
moving along
Last night Brielle and I went over to Carolin's apartment and spent a couple hours with her. She has one of the sweetest hearts of anyone I've ever met. She is very genuine. This is the girl that is married to Sasha from Moldova. He's in Chemnitz with her family right now trying to sort out a few things with his sister who is staying with Carolin's mom...yes, it's a little complicated but that is pretty normal here. I hope that Brielle and I helped her be a little less lonely while he's gone. She made us a salad and we had German and Russian chocolate for desert...the german was better of course but it was fun reading the Russian on the wrappers =) I wish that I had more time to get to know Carolin because she is so wonderful but she will be living in Chemnitz the month of March to teach English for a little bit. That is a great opportunity for her though.
This morning I helped Dwane, Annalisa and Johnmark move to their apartment in town at Nordplatz 2. It was really funny because although they don't have a lot of stuff because they can only bring to the apartment what they can take on the plane or what they will leave here, their place is on the 5th floor. Really Germans would say it's the 4th floor because here you don't count the ground floor. If you live on the 2nd story of a house you live on the 1st floor...just a bit of trivia =) ok, back to my story. So I get there and we are getting stuff out of their van to take it into the place and thank goodness, there happens to be an elevator in this building! you would think that this would be a great blessing and that because of this there would be no problems getting their stuff up to the apartment. You haven't seen this elevator. While it wasn't as scary as the one in Prague (for those of you who don't know about that, email me) it was approximately 2x3ft in dimension. This is pretty normal for an elevator in Europe. So we put about 5 suitcases into the elevator and I opted to go up the stairs with the couple of pillows I was carrying...i've got a little phobia of getting stuck in an elevator =) Plus, Dwane being the adventursome soul that he is, encouraged Annalisa and Johnmark to jump in the elevator with him. All total in the elevator were 3 people, albeit not 3 adults, and 5 large suitcases. Even with this load the elevator beat me to the top but I could hear it clanking all the way. Those Perry's are brave. When they were exiting the elevator with all their stuff though, it had one last laugh...about halfway through the unloading process it jerked down about 3-4 inches and scared us all a bit. But we got everything off and into the apartment and i really should have taken pictures of them stuffed into that space now that i think of it but...well, i didn't.
The final stages of packing are going on at the Perry's house right now and the container comes tomorrow at 10. I'm the "Packmeister" and therefore in charge of organizing everything into the container. For those of you who have accused me of being bossy in the past...you haven't seen anything yet ;)
I will tell you how it goes...have a great day!!
This morning I helped Dwane, Annalisa and Johnmark move to their apartment in town at Nordplatz 2. It was really funny because although they don't have a lot of stuff because they can only bring to the apartment what they can take on the plane or what they will leave here, their place is on the 5th floor. Really Germans would say it's the 4th floor because here you don't count the ground floor. If you live on the 2nd story of a house you live on the 1st floor...just a bit of trivia =) ok, back to my story. So I get there and we are getting stuff out of their van to take it into the place and thank goodness, there happens to be an elevator in this building! you would think that this would be a great blessing and that because of this there would be no problems getting their stuff up to the apartment. You haven't seen this elevator. While it wasn't as scary as the one in Prague (for those of you who don't know about that, email me) it was approximately 2x3ft in dimension. This is pretty normal for an elevator in Europe. So we put about 5 suitcases into the elevator and I opted to go up the stairs with the couple of pillows I was carrying...i've got a little phobia of getting stuck in an elevator =) Plus, Dwane being the adventursome soul that he is, encouraged Annalisa and Johnmark to jump in the elevator with him. All total in the elevator were 3 people, albeit not 3 adults, and 5 large suitcases. Even with this load the elevator beat me to the top but I could hear it clanking all the way. Those Perry's are brave. When they were exiting the elevator with all their stuff though, it had one last laugh...about halfway through the unloading process it jerked down about 3-4 inches and scared us all a bit. But we got everything off and into the apartment and i really should have taken pictures of them stuffed into that space now that i think of it but...well, i didn't.
The final stages of packing are going on at the Perry's house right now and the container comes tomorrow at 10. I'm the "Packmeister" and therefore in charge of organizing everything into the container. For those of you who have accused me of being bossy in the past...you haven't seen anything yet ;)
I will tell you how it goes...have a great day!!
Monday, February 19, 2007
video cameras
Even though the title suggests that i'm going to talk about a camera, that will have to come later because i like to do things in chronological order and that didn't happen til today and i have to talk about yesterday first...so bear with me =)
So...yesterday was my first Sunday here and it was overall a good day. Worshiping with just 6 people, Josh, the only German, and 5 americans in a German city was eye-opening. I know you're thinking that I was discouraged by this but only for a bit...just because i missed the singing and fellowship that i've been so used to. But it's that exact fact that makes me realize that I've been a little spoiled. Worship with so many christians is awesome and it honors God in such great ways but worship is not about being with friends or social time. It's about God! and that is why yesterday made me happy. I saw that worship with God can be done with so few people in a spirit of humility and it also affirmed my purpose here and the fact that God wants me here and that there are people here just as wonderful and loving and in need of God's grace as in the states.
So...on to the happenings after worship. The Perrys, Brielle (a girl from Ohio...i'll tell her story later) went to eat soup at the train station and it was delicious! Dwane brought another mattress for me and so we took it to Elfi's place and put it in my room...now i feel like the princess and the pea! My bed is already about 6.5 feet high and now i have 2 mattresses on top of that...so yea, i'll look down on you from my perch ;)
I had a pleasant afternoon reading and talking to Elfi a little bit and then at 4 Elfi and I took her car to Dwane's because she was cooking dinner for them...schnitzel! Carla, I have to say that yours tasted just about the same and it was just as good! We ate and had a great time here and Dwane and I had a good talk with Brielle about her situation...so for her story now. She came here back in August to take a job teaching English. Dwane found out about this job through a priest he knows and he thought it would be a great opportunity for Brielle. The job was described to the priest, dwane, and therefore Brielle as a definite teaching job. That is not what it has been. She is basically a babysitter for young children and while she is not allowed to speak German to them, she feels they aren't learning through this method. There is a lot of other circumstances surrounding this and for a long time Dwane has been telling her that it's ok to say that she was misled and to quit. So she decided to talk to her boss today and last night we really encouraged her to do this because she was miserable. So today she talked to her boss and her boss was very understanding and so Brielle's last day will be March 19th. We're very excited for her because this is such a weight off her shoulders. She has stuck it out for a very long time.
This morning I met with Dwane and Carolin. She is a very sweet, good hearted person and she and I had a really good conversation after our short Bible study. She's married to a Russian guy from Moldova named Sasha. She invited me to her place tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to getting to know her a lot more.
Dwane met with Werner, another friend of his while Carolin and I were talking and he is a character. I really want to talk with him about how Leipzig was before the wall came down because he's lived here his whole life and he's in his late 60s. He still does gymnastics! he reminds me of those Alpen people you see on commercials...he'd look really authentic in lederhosen ;) spry...a very good word to describe him.
Werner and I and dwane went to look at the apartment that the perry's are moving into and werner did something so German it was hilarious. We were looking around the place and Werner was opening the oven, and he opened a drawer and there was some stuff in it and a stain on the bottom and he licked his finger and rubbed on it and it started to come off so he said to he lady showing us the apartment: "this is dirty! aren't you going to clean it?" and it seems so rude but here that is completely normal =)
Ok, to the title =) funny story: this afternoon dwane asked me if I could run an errand. He has video on a tape of his wrecked car. If he can get this video on a CD, he can turn it in to his insurance and maybe get quite a bit of money back. There were a couple problems: he's not sure exactly which tape, and we can't look at them with the video camera because the battery is dead and they accidentally left the plug-in cord in Stuttgart. So, our mission was complicated. Annalisa and I set off to try to find a place that would let us use their plug in, or buy an inexpensive one. Find the place on the tape where the video of the wrecked car was, and have them transfer it to a CD. Dwane also does not have the cord to plug the camera into his computer. So, we went one place and they said no, they couldn't do it (by the way, my german is definitely not good enough to be talking about electronics!) so we went to another place and through some german/english communication discovered that a new power cord was 100 euros! yes, and would take 2 weeks to get, and a new battery was 50 euros. on top of that, recording the tape onto a cd can't be done in parts, it has to be the whole thing...and they have to send it off to a lab for 3 days. How ridiculous. You would think that in such an efficient country things could be a bit easier. Well...so that was pretty funny but we decided not to do any of it. A friend of Dwane's is coming on Thursday and hopefully we can do it on Dwane's computer without any tech support. Cause that call could surpass the "longest one in the history of the world" ;) that's an inside joke, sorry.
ok, this thing is way too long already but i hope you've enjoyed the escapades. have a great week!
So...yesterday was my first Sunday here and it was overall a good day. Worshiping with just 6 people, Josh, the only German, and 5 americans in a German city was eye-opening. I know you're thinking that I was discouraged by this but only for a bit...just because i missed the singing and fellowship that i've been so used to. But it's that exact fact that makes me realize that I've been a little spoiled. Worship with so many christians is awesome and it honors God in such great ways but worship is not about being with friends or social time. It's about God! and that is why yesterday made me happy. I saw that worship with God can be done with so few people in a spirit of humility and it also affirmed my purpose here and the fact that God wants me here and that there are people here just as wonderful and loving and in need of God's grace as in the states.
So...on to the happenings after worship. The Perrys, Brielle (a girl from Ohio...i'll tell her story later) went to eat soup at the train station and it was delicious! Dwane brought another mattress for me and so we took it to Elfi's place and put it in my room...now i feel like the princess and the pea! My bed is already about 6.5 feet high and now i have 2 mattresses on top of that...so yea, i'll look down on you from my perch ;)
I had a pleasant afternoon reading and talking to Elfi a little bit and then at 4 Elfi and I took her car to Dwane's because she was cooking dinner for them...schnitzel! Carla, I have to say that yours tasted just about the same and it was just as good! We ate and had a great time here and Dwane and I had a good talk with Brielle about her situation...so for her story now. She came here back in August to take a job teaching English. Dwane found out about this job through a priest he knows and he thought it would be a great opportunity for Brielle. The job was described to the priest, dwane, and therefore Brielle as a definite teaching job. That is not what it has been. She is basically a babysitter for young children and while she is not allowed to speak German to them, she feels they aren't learning through this method. There is a lot of other circumstances surrounding this and for a long time Dwane has been telling her that it's ok to say that she was misled and to quit. So she decided to talk to her boss today and last night we really encouraged her to do this because she was miserable. So today she talked to her boss and her boss was very understanding and so Brielle's last day will be March 19th. We're very excited for her because this is such a weight off her shoulders. She has stuck it out for a very long time.
This morning I met with Dwane and Carolin. She is a very sweet, good hearted person and she and I had a really good conversation after our short Bible study. She's married to a Russian guy from Moldova named Sasha. She invited me to her place tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to getting to know her a lot more.
Dwane met with Werner, another friend of his while Carolin and I were talking and he is a character. I really want to talk with him about how Leipzig was before the wall came down because he's lived here his whole life and he's in his late 60s. He still does gymnastics! he reminds me of those Alpen people you see on commercials...he'd look really authentic in lederhosen ;) spry...a very good word to describe him.
Werner and I and dwane went to look at the apartment that the perry's are moving into and werner did something so German it was hilarious. We were looking around the place and Werner was opening the oven, and he opened a drawer and there was some stuff in it and a stain on the bottom and he licked his finger and rubbed on it and it started to come off so he said to he lady showing us the apartment: "this is dirty! aren't you going to clean it?" and it seems so rude but here that is completely normal =)
Ok, to the title =) funny story: this afternoon dwane asked me if I could run an errand. He has video on a tape of his wrecked car. If he can get this video on a CD, he can turn it in to his insurance and maybe get quite a bit of money back. There were a couple problems: he's not sure exactly which tape, and we can't look at them with the video camera because the battery is dead and they accidentally left the plug-in cord in Stuttgart. So, our mission was complicated. Annalisa and I set off to try to find a place that would let us use their plug in, or buy an inexpensive one. Find the place on the tape where the video of the wrecked car was, and have them transfer it to a CD. Dwane also does not have the cord to plug the camera into his computer. So, we went one place and they said no, they couldn't do it (by the way, my german is definitely not good enough to be talking about electronics!) so we went to another place and through some german/english communication discovered that a new power cord was 100 euros! yes, and would take 2 weeks to get, and a new battery was 50 euros. on top of that, recording the tape onto a cd can't be done in parts, it has to be the whole thing...and they have to send it off to a lab for 3 days. How ridiculous. You would think that in such an efficient country things could be a bit easier. Well...so that was pretty funny but we decided not to do any of it. A friend of Dwane's is coming on Thursday and hopefully we can do it on Dwane's computer without any tech support. Cause that call could surpass the "longest one in the history of the world" ;) that's an inside joke, sorry.
ok, this thing is way too long already but i hope you've enjoyed the escapades. have a great week!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
new things
This morning Elfi, the girl that rented me one of her rooms, and I went running in a little park just down the street. It is cold here and I don't have any running pants but at least my shorts are long =) but my knees were red. It felt really good to do some exercising and i plan on running there as much as i can.
Helping the Perrys pack is definitely a lesson in German culture. Germans don't move much...and i can see why. you can't throw things away here like you can in the states...and i don't just mean you aren't supposed to, i mean that you will be fined mucho dinero if you throw things away in the wrong receptacles or without the proper stickers or on the wrong days...etc. it is insane the rules surrounding trash here! in a persons house there are at least 5 different trash receptacles...plastic, glass (sometimes broken down into different colors), paper, newspaper, and bio (food trash). Yea, inconvienient but they are all about reducing our impact on the earth here...in fact, instead of the very benign, p.c. kind of label Global Warming, in german it is called the "climate catastrophe" how fitting.
today I went with Dwane and Annalisa and Johnmark to Walmart...yes, it is even here. for some plastic bottles, you can get money back if you recycle them...there's even a special machine for that purpose where you put the bottle in and it adds up your total, gives you a reciept and you can go to the cashier and get money or have that amout taken off your total bill.
efficiency.
There is something to be said for their methods though...for example...the Perrys have given away a good percentage of their stuff because it is easier to find someone to take it than to figure out how to dispose of it or to pay for it to be disposed of. I think sometimes we just throw things away in the states because it's easy...easier than trying to find someone who wants it or transporting it to the nearest secondhand store or something like that. I know when I moved in october there were somethings like that. We did give a lot away, but sometimes it's just easier to toss it.
Funny thing happened: today i went shopping but right when i'd gone down the 4 flights of stairs and out the building door i remembered that I'd forgotten bags (you have to pay for bags at the store if you don't have your own) so i turned around and a post man was putting mail in our boxes. He asked me If I lived here and I said I was just renting for a couple months and he said ok so i went upstairs. Elfi was taking a shower and just when i walked in the door of our apartment the doorbell from downstairs rang (you have to ring to get the building door open and there's a speaker and a button to opend the door) so Elfi comes out in her towel and answers it and it's the postman..apparently he was looking for her because there was some mail that was too big for her mailbox and so she has to pay a euro for it. so she asks me to pay him since she's in her towel and the postman comes up and...it's me! =) he thought this was the funniest thing and i had to tell him that i was renting from Elfi and she was in the shower. And then he had to help me with the money because i still can't ever seem to get the right coins...he laughed and laughed...so that is just one example of german humor...komisch!
ok, my arms are tired and i've got to catch the train back into the city
love ya'll,
Helping the Perrys pack is definitely a lesson in German culture. Germans don't move much...and i can see why. you can't throw things away here like you can in the states...and i don't just mean you aren't supposed to, i mean that you will be fined mucho dinero if you throw things away in the wrong receptacles or without the proper stickers or on the wrong days...etc. it is insane the rules surrounding trash here! in a persons house there are at least 5 different trash receptacles...plastic, glass (sometimes broken down into different colors), paper, newspaper, and bio (food trash). Yea, inconvienient but they are all about reducing our impact on the earth here...in fact, instead of the very benign, p.c. kind of label Global Warming, in german it is called the "climate catastrophe" how fitting.
today I went with Dwane and Annalisa and Johnmark to Walmart...yes, it is even here. for some plastic bottles, you can get money back if you recycle them...there's even a special machine for that purpose where you put the bottle in and it adds up your total, gives you a reciept and you can go to the cashier and get money or have that amout taken off your total bill.
efficiency.
There is something to be said for their methods though...for example...the Perrys have given away a good percentage of their stuff because it is easier to find someone to take it than to figure out how to dispose of it or to pay for it to be disposed of. I think sometimes we just throw things away in the states because it's easy...easier than trying to find someone who wants it or transporting it to the nearest secondhand store or something like that. I know when I moved in october there were somethings like that. We did give a lot away, but sometimes it's just easier to toss it.
Funny thing happened: today i went shopping but right when i'd gone down the 4 flights of stairs and out the building door i remembered that I'd forgotten bags (you have to pay for bags at the store if you don't have your own) so i turned around and a post man was putting mail in our boxes. He asked me If I lived here and I said I was just renting for a couple months and he said ok so i went upstairs. Elfi was taking a shower and just when i walked in the door of our apartment the doorbell from downstairs rang (you have to ring to get the building door open and there's a speaker and a button to opend the door) so Elfi comes out in her towel and answers it and it's the postman..apparently he was looking for her because there was some mail that was too big for her mailbox and so she has to pay a euro for it. so she asks me to pay him since she's in her towel and the postman comes up and...it's me! =) he thought this was the funniest thing and i had to tell him that i was renting from Elfi and she was in the shower. And then he had to help me with the money because i still can't ever seem to get the right coins...he laughed and laughed...so that is just one example of german humor...komisch!
ok, my arms are tired and i've got to catch the train back into the city
love ya'll,
Friday, February 16, 2007
Freitag
Well, I woke up late again...this time because I forgot to turn my alarm "on" if I don't start getting up early I'm never going to get my bio clock onto German time! I'm still helping the Perry's pack and get ready for thier container which is coming on Thursday. It will be interesting. Last night I met Josh and Carolin. Josh has such a difficult decision before him right now...please be praying for him! He and his wife did not want children when they married but now they do...but she can't get pregnant. They have been driving to Prague for some kind of treatment for her. Josh just got a new job, but with his schedule he will not be able to go with his wife for the last one of her treatments. He is very torn about this and cannot see God in the situation.
Carolin is very sweet. She has a russian boyfriend, Sasha and I hope to talk to her more about russia and learn a little german and russian from her.
Alright, I don't have much time...back to packing and Ingo, one of Dwane's friends is here as well. I will post more later
Carolin is very sweet. She has a russian boyfriend, Sasha and I hope to talk to her more about russia and learn a little german and russian from her.
Alright, I don't have much time...back to packing and Ingo, one of Dwane's friends is here as well. I will post more later
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Kurzinfos
Just a little update...
I had a fine flight inbetween an overweight but kindly gentleman and a partially deaf but definitely not mute special olympics contestant from Slovenia or Croatia or somewhere. My bag was one of the first onto the conveyor which i though was auspicious and i got to my train platform on time. Due to the circumstances of my flight, i didn't sleep much as you might imagine and by this time (about 1230 in the afternoon in Germany, 530 in Arkansas) i was quite tired. German trains are punktlich. they are ontime to the tee. Mine was supposed to leave at 13:01. so, when a train pulled up at 12:52, i assumed that it was the right one and got on, passing obliviously by the signs on track, train, and inside the train that proclaimed this Zug bound for Munich. How dumb did I feel when I realized that the moving train I was on was not bound for Leipzig? Very. However, the beauty of the Germany train system is that there is always another train. So, all I had to do was get off at Mannheim, take the next train back to the Frankfurt airport, and get on the 14:11 train to Leipzig.
I also forgot to write down Dwane's number so I was hoping that I would recognize Annalisa, who was going to be at the train to get me. I didn't, but again, everything worked fine because I got to email everyone at home that I was safe while retrieving dwane's number from my email. Annalisa and Johnmark found me after I called Dwane and then Dwane arrived and we went to Elfi's which is where I'm staying. My bed is a loft =) I slept forever last night and now I'm at the Perry's house. I am revelling in the bread, public transportation and German language.
Bis später,
Megan
I had a fine flight inbetween an overweight but kindly gentleman and a partially deaf but definitely not mute special olympics contestant from Slovenia or Croatia or somewhere. My bag was one of the first onto the conveyor which i though was auspicious and i got to my train platform on time. Due to the circumstances of my flight, i didn't sleep much as you might imagine and by this time (about 1230 in the afternoon in Germany, 530 in Arkansas) i was quite tired. German trains are punktlich. they are ontime to the tee. Mine was supposed to leave at 13:01. so, when a train pulled up at 12:52, i assumed that it was the right one and got on, passing obliviously by the signs on track, train, and inside the train that proclaimed this Zug bound for Munich. How dumb did I feel when I realized that the moving train I was on was not bound for Leipzig? Very. However, the beauty of the Germany train system is that there is always another train. So, all I had to do was get off at Mannheim, take the next train back to the Frankfurt airport, and get on the 14:11 train to Leipzig.
I also forgot to write down Dwane's number so I was hoping that I would recognize Annalisa, who was going to be at the train to get me. I didn't, but again, everything worked fine because I got to email everyone at home that I was safe while retrieving dwane's number from my email. Annalisa and Johnmark found me after I called Dwane and then Dwane arrived and we went to Elfi's which is where I'm staying. My bed is a loft =) I slept forever last night and now I'm at the Perry's house. I am revelling in the bread, public transportation and German language.
Bis später,
Megan
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