beauty and gray

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!