Die Eltern sind jetzt da!

My parents made it safely. I went with Felicitas to the airport to pick them up, and they were pretty tired but managed to stay awake until the evening so that they could sleep better during the night.
Today we went on some adventures to Bad Godesberg, the city nearby, and then went to Bonn. A cool note for those who don't know: Germany seems to be the land of abundance of good bread. There are so many bakeries here--real bakeries that sell bread and not just sweets, although many have sweets as well. We were standing in a city square in Bonn and could see 6 bakeries at once...wonderful. I'll have to take a picture sometime.
Note: When I hear Germans complaining about the ineffeciency of the transportation system, it makes me chuckle inside...(they obviously haven't experienced the most beloved and appreciated Pullman Transit!) You can practically set your watch by the trains (actually, you can)...and when the bus is 5 minutes late it's like the biggest deal ever. Someone said something to me once like, "No, seriously, the system is getting really bad...sometimes the trains are even 4...5 minutes late!"--and I thought, 'lady, you have no idea!'
But to be completely fair, there are times when the trains are delayed--but that is announced and posted as well...
I'll post some more pictures when I get the chance...

Where I'm living...

My parents are coming tomorrow, yay! And here are some pictures of my house and room....

This is taken from the sidewalk...

This is the back yard. My window is the one with the wooden bench in front of it...

Here's my wonderful little room. See where the computer is? Yeah, well right now I'm only getting an internet signal if I place it on the window sill (where those colourful round things are) and sideways. I can move it like 3cm and the signal will be gone...

And this is taken from my bed looking the other direction. There is another bed in my room, Felicitas said, so that I can have a guests whenever I want. Cool, ne?

Run pictures

Last night, when I was at Insa's house, I got to look at a map of the area, and saw that there were several paths/small roads that connect all the villages in the area. So this morning I decided to discover them and went for a run. It was marvelous...here are some pictures of the paths..

This hill, which doesn't look like much in the picture, wound around quite a bit, but led to this really cool plateau area near the village of Gimmelsdorf...

Here's the plateau and Gimmelsdorf off in the distance on the left...

More pictures

Here are a few more photos...

Here is Leonard, sitting in the chair in my room, looking through my music folder. He's a really nice kid, and he's got curly hair--a kindred spirit for sure.

Here we are playing badminton in the front yard. Amelie against Leonard, and Andrea--a girl from church who is super wonderful--is being the line guard.

This is a four-year-old's self-photo. I have many interesting pictures on my camera from Amadeus...

Here's the Köln Hauptbahnhof, which means central station. The prefix 'haupt'-means central, main, or head or something like that (For example: 'Hauptstadt' means 'capital' because 'haupt' means 'main' and 'Stadt' means 'city'). 'Bahn' is the word for the collective rail transportation (tram, subway, train...it's all the Bahn), and 'hof' is where something takes place or is. Maybe that's too much information, but there you have it.

And right across the way from the Hauptbahnhof is the Köln Cathedral. It's gigantic.

More to come when I can...blessings to all.

kneeling und so weiter

Today in the zwischenzeit from when my train arrived in Bonn to when my tram came (on Sunday the public transportation doesn't come so often) I was able to wander around the city center of Bonn for a bit. I wanted to get a map of the area so that I could better orientate myself with the villages, and also see how far away everything is.


Anyway, I walked by the local ancient catholic church and realized that it was Sunday and would be open etc. I think it's probably usually open, but I thought maybe that there would be something special on Sunday. I was cold too, and since basically no shops are open on Sunday, except Starbucks--and I didn't want to buy coffee--I went into the church.


I guess I just don't understand where it has gone or why the practice of kneeling has been virtually forgotten in churches. It's such a good idea, so humbling; a good outward reflection of our smallness and lowly state before God. It's also very opening. To sumbit visually not only before God but to be seen by others as someone in need of help is humbling. There is much truth in saying that it is the heart that counts, but I must add that I think the act of bending the knee is also powerful as well as symbolic. True, it is possible to kneel and not have a submissive heart, but it's also hard to kneel and not feel small, vulnerable, and needy. "Come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our God our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of pasture, and sheep of His hand." -Ps. 95:6 also made into a song.


"Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" ~verse made into song.



Anyway...here are some pictures of what I've been doing and such. I'll have to take more, I know, but I'm trying to get over my dislike of taking pictures in public or of people or with people watching me. It's ridiculous, I'm aware of this...

















Here is Amadeus. He's four and not shy at all. He talks a lot, but his German is surprisingly clear and fairly easy to understand...sometimes I haven't a clue what he's thinking though, and he often talks in phrases and exclamations of joy or dismay. He loves taking pictures with my camera and smiling with all his teeth.

This is Amelie. She's bright and fun. It was so warm on Saturday that we were outside with only or sweaters on, playing badminton together. 'Twas great.

This is the farm where Leonard and I picked went and got the milk. It's not quite a kilometer away. The village is so near the city, but retains so much village-ness. It's really cool.

Germany

So I'm at an internet cafe and don't have much time. This is going to be brief.
I made it safely to Germany! The Von Bibra's are wonderful, and I am surviving. My brain is filled with so much German that I am processing rather slowly at the moment, but all is well.
My comment of the day is:
Commenting (In conversation, I mean) in and of itself is an art. I don't think I ever realized or appreciated it as much as I do now. The ability to make comments and interject is something that I've taken for granted and now realize is a very difficult thing to do... My ability to understand far outshines my speaking ability (which I hear is normal) so a lot of the time I think of a comment in my head and then promptly think, 'nope, better to just remain silent'....most of my comments, by the way, spring into my brain in English. I'll get better at it...

I with Leonard to get milk yesterday evening. The family buys there milk straight from the farm, and it's quite wonderful, actually. The village where they live isn't far from civilization but far enough for there to be a small dairy. It's very picturesque, lovely.

Another linguistic issue that I've encountered (and anyone who has spoken a language with different levels of formality will understand...) I seem to have a difficulty remembering, spur of the moment, which formality to use...and unfortunately what usually pops into my head is the informal, which could potentially be quite insulting... But everything seems to be going well. The family owns a guitar and a piano, and I was able to bring my violin, which is great!

Greetings to all...

Psalm 139:9 "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hadn will guide me, your right hadn will hold me fast."

My family

Since I've been spending time with my wonderful family, I'm putting up some pictures of them....

Here's Trudy, Sarah, and Anne. The light was beautiful (just like the 3 of them).

This is the gorgeous sunset that was casting a pinkish glow on everything...

Kate and I...

This is a common sight at our house--children doing homework. Mercy (left) and Charity have been doing super in school.

Mom is helping Christiana with her spelling. Mom invest a lot of time helping young ones with homework. (She's a patient woman!)

Emily was so generous and shared her chocolate with everyone by making these treats for Valentine's day. She made them herself...

Sarah has been reading the gospel of John to the kids in anticipation of Easter. They look forward to doing it each evening (they have a secret society). Every night someone win's a prize. It's great...

This is Noah, he's quite a character and a bright part of everyone's day...I took a series of photos of my family wearing these glasses. It's quite spectacular actually...

dentist, coffee, normal life

Here's Annie, mom, and me at Starbucks today. Annie got her driver's liscense today (yay!), so she was out of school and we were able to hang out.

Annie, Mom, and me (still feeling the anesthesia from the dentist)

Here's the sunset from last night. That's Mt. Adams in the distance.

Mercy and Noah

Salad Dressing

I didn't realize how much salad dressing has the ability to affect one's functionality in life...until today at lunch when I asked my sister for the pretty pink dressing and the words, "I couldn't find it", were left echoing in my ears.

I instinctively rose from my place at the table, made a dash for the fridge, and began systematically scanning the it's door. My head began to spin as I realized that it really wasn't to be seen--it seemed like the world was whirling around me...all my past salad eating life flashed before me, and I contemplated whether eating a salad was even worth the effort without it--the dressing of pink goodness. Then, mere milliseconds before utter culinary despair, I caught a glimpse of pink from behind the milk. Indeed, the pink-goodness had been found. Extatic, I triumphantly marched back into the dining room, anouncing that I had found it. I enjoyed my salad today with a renewed appreciation for the pink-goodness...and for the wonderful Marston's who introduced me to it.

Breakfast

I realized today that breakfast incapsulates (yes, in and of itself) both one of my favourite and one of my least favourite parts of the day.

1) I really, really like breakfast.

2) I really, really don't like when breakfast is over.

Here are some pictures of where I'm staying right now. These pictures do not do the spectacular view justice, at all.

View from the dining room.

Black Horse Band

Things being as they are, yesterday was my last day at E-free before I leave for Yakima/Germany. God has been tremendously good to me through his people at the E-free church (especially through these beautiful flannel-clad musicians, aka Black Horse Band).