Happenings`

Right.I was a little late taking this picture because the leaves are already starting to poke through, but this is the "Old City" (Altstadt). The streets are lined with these Japanese Cherries. It's so beautiful, smells wonderful, everything. It's hard to imagine that people live their normal every-day lives along these streets. I love spring.

And....it's chaco weather. Notice the shadow as well...it was sunny! Yesterday was wet and rainy and today was blustery. (this picture is from last week).

I always have lots to say except when I post, it seems like. Well, Sarah got here safely. I got to pick her up at the airport and was early and her plane was early and everything. I like driving in Germany, it's pretty amazing--especially the von Bibra's VW van. yeah man.

Today I had another really, really less than interesting time in my Vorlesungs. I should try to pay attention but it's just long and German and after a while it's like my brain kind of turns off. But it's good for me to hear German. I think that German is becoming more of a part of me...slowly and surely. The other night I'm pretty sure my thoughts never turned to English. It's getting to the point where I hear German without realizing that I'm hearing German, you know? Where I'm not processing the language but actually just processing what's being said. It's cool to realize that that happens, even though it doesn't happen all the time yet. And I can't help understanding German anymore. Like the bathroom stalls at the University (there are public ones that are open to all the bums and stuff. There are blue lights in there so that people can't see their veins easily, if you know what I mean) and there is tons of bad stuff written all over the walls and it's hard not to just take it in. The positive aspect of that is that the language is becoming automatic.

I think I'm in a new phase of language acquisition right now, at least a new phase of bravery. Thank the Lord.



Last night while Sarah and I were at the Navigators bbq Vincens apparently gashed his arm open on some broken glass table--I don't really know the story--but I know that he was taken to the hospital and had surgery last night until pretty late. Felicitas stayed last night and Christoph is staying tonight and he's going to be coming home tomorrow. He's doing well, but everyone was a little traumatized. Mengni told me that she cried for three hours. She was gone to Maihow's house when sarah and I got home last night. Maihow (I don't know how to spell it, but it's pronounced May-How) is a nice chinese lady from church.

And tonight Felicita's brother-in-law is coming with his daughter late and I'm waiting up for them. He is going to help Christoph finish the room upstairs.



I also want to thank Annie for the ipod...and mom for wonderful accessories to go with it like speakers and sport headphones and a cable. And annie and mom and I don't know who else bought me crocs, which are wonderful! And sarah brought me the violin books that I needed and the CD for teaching. It's like a mid-year Christmas! Thank you so much!

Oh yeah, mom sent me more hand and feet warmers, thanks mom! You're awesome. Oh yeah, Annie, I sent you an email.

Mother dearest, I appreciate you're cooking skills more and more each day. You're amazing. Thanks for having us eat meals together while I was growing up, I really appreciate that.

My hair was super curly today.

Oh yeah! I faced my fear of the spider-bathroom and took a shower downstairs. I survived.

And here is, finally, a picture with Mengni...not very descriptive of what she normall looks like, however. She looks so demure and shy here...not to say that she's not wonderful and nice, but she's totally lively. She has beautiful long, silky, black hair and calls me often 'liebe Hilary'. God is working in her, which is exciting to see.

Sarah was not delirious, just half-blinking, no worries. We had to take a picture of this Brötchen (bread roll) that we bought yesterday. It wasn't very big, but seriously check out that hunk of cheese! It was amazing cheese. Sarah bought a plain bread roll and I bought the one with cheese and then we split the cheese and it was still a lot of cheese. Sarah's hair was really cool and curly yesterday, probably because of the high levels of humidity.

We had coffee with two Japanese students from my Textproduktion class. The girl was named Yuko and the guy was Shataro. They speak quite good German and I'm hoping to have them over some time next week. (Although I told them Monday for tea, but then remembered that I take Amelie to Ballet on Mondays! so I'm going to have to get that figured out). Anyway, someone gave Yuko a Bible to read in German, which was cool. She's not Christan...she said she's Buddhist. She's really nice. Please pray for her and for Shataro if you think of it.

Mengni taught me how to write 1-10 in Chinese characters, that was cool.

I hope that Sarah and I can rent a Smart Car. That would be awesome, but I don't know if there is somewhere around here that rents them. I really want to drive a smart car....

Weekend

I rode my bike home from Bad-Godesberg tonight and the light worked the whole way.
I went to the Navis thing this weekend: it was really good!
I talked a lot of German today and my brain is tired.
Sarah is on her way, so please pray for her.
I really love my family.
My mom is the best.
Greetings.
Sleep.

The sun is shining...

I have a few more pictures for ya'll...This past week has been enjoyable, but crowned by the really warm weather we've had for the past few days...

On Sunday we had a fest celebrating the 1 year anniversary of the Chinese pastor's ordination. It was really a fest and we even had duck meat.... This is our house.

Here's the view from the university main building--where I have all of my classes. The language departments are in this building as well as philosophy and something else, I think... It's really beautiful and on warm days like today there are tons of people sitting out on the grass or playing futball...

And here's the view from the other side. The picture above was taken pretty much smack dab in the middle of that building. It used to be a castle but has been rebuilt many times. There was a guy eating his lunch behind me when I was taking this but I decided not to care and take the picture anyway.

Oh yeah. I thought this was kind of cool. They have little blocker thingys (like for roads when the trains come) also for the bike/foot path. The blockers here are heavy duty...

And on the way to Amelie's Ballet there is this stoplight for bikes. It's pretty small (the light is about the size of the palm of my hand...). A lot of people ride bikes in Germany.

Ok, so this will be my second post for the day...but I have pictures. Yeah. Right.
First, I'm really stoked about Sarah coming to visit! Lord willing she will arrive next Sunday in a week! Wonderful, wonderful!
I'm staying awake until Christoph and Felicitas come home...Oh sleep, sleep, sleep.
Today was like a roller coaster. I woke up and talked to Meng ni in English, which she didn't understand, and which I don't normally do.
Then I accompanied Amelie to school on our bikes at like 7:20am. She rode the bike because her friend for some reason couldn't take her. And then I rode back home. And then I rode Felicitas' bike to lecture in Bonn because I loaned my bike-lock to Amelie because she didn't have one. Hm...yeah, I rode a different way: along the railroad tracks. I'll have to time it, but I think it's faster....
I had a nice afternoon. We had noodles and frikadellen--which are like meatballs that you don't eat with sauce--for lunch. And then waffles and fruit for Tee, and salad and bread and butter for dinner...and then some little cookies or chocolate or prezel sticks for dessert/snack.
My eyes are so heavy right now. You know that feeling where they are still heavy-feeling after they are closed? I can't keep...kee...ke..................ep....

Ok, wake up.

Yeah, um. Yeah. um...I could sleep on my keyboard, it looks pretty soft.

Yeah, by the end of the day I was speaking better German. I brought the kids to bed, and someone usually reads something out of the Bible, then Amelie reads some kid story aloud, and then we sing. It's a nice time.

This is the bus-stop in front of the Bad-Godesberg Bahnhof where I usually catch the bus when I ride it. (In German they would say: Where I usually catch the bus when I drive with him.--it still makes me chuckle when I think about their usage of personal pronouns for objects...)

On the path that goes along the tracks I drove by the Mercedes Benz building. There is a spinning Mercedes logo-thingy on top.

There are these little gardens scattered all over. They are called Schrebergärten (plural) and are a little allotment of land that you rent (or maybe own, I'm not sure). Anyway, I don't think you're officially allowed to build on them, but you can have like non-permanent structures. So people have these little plots and turn them into like getaways. It's really interesting. Some of them are totally elaborate. I've heard that people will like grill and hang out at their garden plot, and some people even sleep over in their little non-permanent structures...

Here's the CLW (Centrum Lebendiges Wort) where I go to church. It's about 5k away from my house. There is a pre-school that is in the side-building of the church during week days. the kids are playing in the sand here...

Here is another picture of my bike...with the Rhine in the background.

This is a beautiful simple song, with a lovely melody....

Jesus, Du allein bist genug;
Du bist alles für mich.
Jesus, öffne mein Herz
lass mich sehen und verstehen,
dass Du mich liebst.

Komm und fülle mein Herz.
Gib mir neu deinen Geist.
Du bist unser Gott, der Heilung bringt,
Licht des Lebens, dass das Dunkel durchdringt....


It's Friday and tomorrow's Saturday. Amelie and I are going to go early to the Bakery and pick up fresh bread rolls for breakfast. I love fresh bread rolls for breakfast...
Maybe I'll get to go to bed early tonight, that would be wonderful.
I'm feeling better these days because my schedule is taking more form and I feel like I have some sort of an idea how things go with all my class and everything.
I will be taking oral tests at the end of the semester over my 4 Vorlesungs (Vor-in front of les-stem that means it has to do with reading ung-noun ending). Yep, just like it sounds...someone goes up there and reads something out. Did I already mention that? It can be really boring. But my phonology professor is really cool and interesting, plus I like phonology.
We've now fixed a tea time into life here at the von Bibra house, which I'm kind of excited about for two reasons 1) I really like having tea and tea time makes me really happy, and 2) I have some sort of concrete idea where and when my next food is going to come. Sounds silly, but I am a happier, more relaxed person when I don't stress about food. We've been getting better about having dinner every night, which is good for another two reasons: 1) Food is important, and 2) I really like eating all together and having a sort of collective time with the family.
Ok, I'm going to go make waffles for tea time!

Ok, so. I took some pictures yesterday. I was brave, I took them in public; I took them with people around. I know. Brave, huh. Yesterday was Tuesday, that's right...my late day. I have lecture until 6pm...which means until about 5:45...I'll talk about that in a minute...
First of all,Ladies and Gentlemen, du-du-dunnnnn...My Bike

Isn't that picturesque with flowers in the background. It's purplish, has 21 gears, and got me back from Bonn to Bad-Godesberg in 22 minutes yesterday.

I rode through a few back streets and they were so beautiful! All the trees are bluming, which makes you think that it should be like spring.

But the weather here is capricious. I rode part of the way along the Rhine and hod to take a picture of this lady because 1) she was a running wearing running shoes 2) she's in Germany doing it. The Bonn Marathon is on Sunday, so there are a few more people to be seen running for sport, but it's still more rare than in P-town. She's blowing a snot-rocket in the picture. It's a little gross, yes, but anyone who's run long distances in cold and blustery weather understands.

I had the realization yesterday that I live in Germany. That was kind of cool. I took this picture of the Rhine. There is a beautiful promenade along the Rhine that's several kilometers long...then the path narrows, but I can ride it all the way to Bad-Godesberg...

Ok, I'm not particularly fond of this picture of myself, but it shows two things....1)I'm not tired and depressed, and 2) I'm dry.

And this is the street by the internatinoal office. You can see the trees are beginning to leaf (blume?, sprout?)...I took it while riding my bike.

And...my typical lunch. The sandwich on the right is fresh cheese and the one on the left is quark and jam. Usually though, I have a gouda sandwich, but we were out. Oh desperation! I survived...

This was the highlight of my ride home. This little guy was right in the middle of the bike path between Pech and Bonn. I thought of the French and how they eat snails. I don't think I would like to eat this snail. This is a snail, right? It looks like a slug with a shell.

And my ride home yesterday...About 1.5 kilometers from home it stopped raining...I was totally soaked. Soaked. It was pouring, pouring, pouring rain and I didn't want to wait for the train. And then when I got to Bad-Godesberg I didn't want to stand around in my soaking garments and wait for the bus. That wasn't a nice ride home.

Today it was cold but not raining. I went to the British Lit. and Culture class at 8am and sat in the back and read my book. The friend I was going to meet there sent me a text that she wouldn't be there but I didn't check my phone until way later.

I'm reading this book (in German) about American airforce guys who went down in the south pacific during WWII and were stranded for like I think 3 weeks. It's interesting.

I'm really blocky. I think I'm going to try to sleep. The Wiegel family is playing at the synagogue this evening. They are an extremely musically talented family...like professional level. The parents, 2 daughters, and 1 son all play together.

August Macke

This painting is by August Macke, and is one of the ones that is in the Art Museum Bonn. I really like the colours. This print shows the purple-ish tones, but I think it's more purple in real life. Ok, I'll try to take some pictures soon!

Rain

Alright, So I haven't really taken any new pictures, but because I've been so dilatory in posting any, I put up this one of Amadeus and me on Easter.
Speaking of Amadeus: He's been doing so well lately!
I went to the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde (e-free church, but the 'free' part here actually means that they don't receive tax money...) It was more traditional than my e-free at home and I was sad that we didn't sing more, but I think I'm going to go again to get a better feel for what the church is like.




Ok, so I'm going to go for a run. It's pouring rain so here are the steps:
1) Walk down stairs
2) Put on running pants, shoes, rain jacket
3) Put house key in pocket
4) Walk upstairs and exit house
5) Get to the street

Once I get to step 5 I'm usually ok, but the other steps are sometimes mechanical. I always (almost) love it once I'm out on the run...oh oh oh oh. Okay, I can do this.

Jane, remember that run we took back on the Old Moscow Hwy? It was probably the most cold and miserable run of my life. I had to pee the whole way back and I don't think there was a single bush. I'm glad you were with me. I'm glad it's not that cold right now.

In Honor of Jane

"smoochity smooch smooch,
lovity love love LOVE,
ka-wanga-shwang fo shizzle ga-hoola nicker nicker"

Everybody, jane schools.

Geburtstag

Today was Amelie's birthday, she's now 11. Actually to be honest I wasn't exactly looking forward to her birthday because she had said that all she wanted to do was play badminton all day, but it turned out to be fun and good...
We had breakfast....my favourite German breakfast...bread and all kinds of toppings that you choose yourself. And then I played badminton with Amelie for about an hour and then she started getting phone calls and the post came and there was stuff for her and everything so I got to shower and move on with my day. Then she read emails and by that time we all went for a walk...because the sun was out today! I can barely explain in words how absolutely wonderful it was to finally have some sunshine. Then we had like birthday cake...and it was ok. I mean, I'm not a huge cake fan to start out with but there was no frosting, so I was like, ok, I can deal. But I will point out here that they don't salt things like cake and cookies or cream of wheat or you name it...salt is really under-appreciated in this country. But I refrained from getting the salt and salting it, I just ate my portion and thought of how wonderful salt is and how if I ever am around while sweets are being made I'll put salt into the batter. (Really, seriously the food is good here, like I've said...but they don't eat spicy stuff...at least the stuff that they are like 'whoa this is spicy" I can't even taste any sort of spicy, so I miss spicy and I miss salt as a flavour enhancer--and I really wish I could spell. Please read that word phonetically, or is that correct?

Anyway, Amelie and I then went for a bike ride to the Rhine River and crossed over on the bad Godesberg ferry. We rode along to Königswinter and ate icecream, which was wonderful. Then we crossed back over at Mehlem on the ferry and rode back to Godesberg and then home. It was a nice enjoyable afternoon.
And....I had cheese fondu for the first time and I was totally disappointed. Like, I thought that cheese fondu would taste like cheese but I had no idea that there was wine in it. Ok, wine has it's time and place, but that certainly isn't to be messing with my cheese. I choked down enough to fill me so that I wouldn't starve and I made nice comments but I will never choose to eat that stuff again. Pwechhhhh, it's on my green bean list. I'll make my own fondu some day and it will not taste like wine. It will taste like cheese and I will dip my bread in it and it will be good, and I shall call it my cheesey goodness...(ok, jane I hope you read this).
Anybody know anything about this vegetable called Fenchel, maybe fennel in English? Well, anyway, they eat a lot of it here, it's like a common thing...and Kohlrabi? it's like a wonder-vegetable. It can be related to broccoli stock, I guess...so good.
And then we sat around and played games and tired kids tried to figure out what to do, but it was a successful day and God is good.
Meng ni is the young lady from China who is living with us. I'm glad she's here. I can't speak Chinese.
Today is the first day that I felt like I live in Germany.

"Just as I am, and waithing not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee Whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come."

Hymn: Just as I am by Charlotte Elliot verse 2

Jesus sagt: Ich bin das Licht der Welt...

Epic for the day: I got kicked off the bus and pretty much had an emotional break down. It wasn't because I did anything wrong, as far as I know; but after such a long day I simply didn't have the constitution to handle it. The bus driver absolutely insisted that my bike and I get off the bus when two baby strollers got on--even though there was enough room and the nice father told the bus driver that it was no problem. Stranded...well not completely...but I felt like it nonetheless. So, weeping, tired, and hungry I rode home...
Jesus said: "you have heard that it was said 'love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..."
I'm so glad that there was warm dinner when I got home...potatoes and waziki sauce, or whatever the turkish people put on things...yogurty, cucumbery, garlicky...very good on potatoes.
More interesting: the German students, instead of clapping, knock on their desks when a professor is finished with the lecture or something like that. I think it's pretty clever...

Friday

Yeah, no new pictures...sorry. But I was in the Bonn Art Museum today, which was pretty amazing. First of all, the building is super cule (ok, I left that error on purpose, because I seriously cannot believe that I wrote the word 'cool' as 'cule'. Unglaublich.) just the way that it is put together is kind of like a well-lighted, cheery labrynth, if there could be such a thing. We saw the August Macke section. He's an impressionist from Bonn...really cool. I love all the bright colours.
I'm amazed, secondly, that I actually went to and enjoyed the museum. Usually when someone says museum my first reaction is some sort of mix between: "Oh no! somebody get me out of here! Help! Don't make me! no, no, I'll do anything, pleeeaaaase...how long?" then a brief time where I feel like I'm suffocating and totally restrained. And then (this all takes place in a matter of seconds) comes the : "I should probably see this stuff, because it's important. Duty."
BUT, this was really cool. I had a good time. I love all the bright colours and mixes of colours that the impressionists use.

No Class Today!

I have no class to day! The orientation class is over and the university classes begin next Monday.
Just some interesting observations:

Firstly, it's pretty awesome how (at least in the places that I've been) safe it is to walk around even at night here. Last night after the navigators meeting they just said goodbye to me and let me walk out to find my way home by myself at 10:30 pm with no worries--and they needn't worry because it is seriously safe. I don't feel particularly fearful standing by myself at night at a deserted tram-stop...I mean, it's kind of like Pullman feeling but the city here is bigger than Spokane. Anyway, I was a little too late last night and didn't realize that the last bus to Pech left Bad-godesberg at 10:20. So I peddled home last night at about 11pm with my generator light. Maybe it's just me, but I think that light--rubbing up agains my tire and extracting energy from it--really makes it more difficult to peddle...

Secondly, yesterday afternoon while I was waiting for a train I saw a lady there who was eating a whole, unpealed carrot. She looked like a married grad-student. It made me smile.

Interesting: Two days ago I was trying to get some stamps out of the machine, but didn't want to pay with my card so I ended up not buying any (good story, eh?) no that's just a little background.... The interesting thing is that a lady came after me that looked nice and everything, but she addressed me in the 'du' informal 'you' and asked me if I was done with the machine. Of course, because everyone in English uses only 1 'you' it doesn't really mean that much to me if someone uses 'du' with me...I mean, mentally I'm like ?what? but it doesn't seem really rude or strike me deeply...Usually anyone who you are unaquainted with over 18 you use the formal 'Sie' form of 'you'...(except among students and believers, it's always 'du'). So, she used 'du' on me, that was strange...

And 3 days ago an old man used 'du' on me. And people here seem to assume that I'm still in high school. Felicitas said that she thinks people are making honest mistakes...it doesn't bother me.

And yesterday an old lady at the post office told me that I looked like the angel from something...I didn't catch what she said...

Amadeus is being cute today.....keeps asking me what the fan on my computer is...and then keeps saying, 'heute muss ich wieder zu meiner blöden Uni' or something to that effect..."today I have to go back to my stupid university"
Ok, I said I'd make him a hot cocoa in five minutes...it's been longer!

quick observation

Ok, it's late. I need to sleep, but I was just thinking...

Best 50 dollars I ever spent?: My awesome running tights.
Best gift I ever received?: my chacos (yay Annie and other contributors: namely Ana, Kate, and Ray...although many people helped!) and perhaps...no definitely every stocking or easter basket that my mom has ever given me. They are filled with the most creative and cool gifts and normally include those Japanese rice candies (you can eat the wrapper). Wow, I could go on and on, but I won't right now. My family gives amazing gifts...I have to tell this one. A couple of Christmas' ago I received a 6 pound...yes 6 pounds...block of swiss cheese. Isn't that incredible?
Favourite Food?: um...right now I'd have to say good, dark, whole-grainy, hearty German bread and gouda cheese, and kohlrabi. Quark.