I had every intention of catching everyone up on the latest of my lovely European adventures, but wound up chatting with my dad and sister on skype instead! Yay! So the update will have to wait. But here is what you have to look forward too:
1.) the last 2 days of Paris
2.) one incredible action packed adventure
on snowboarding in the German Alps!
3.) our class trip to Amsterdam and Rotterdam
(we leave tomorrow and get back friday night)
So look forward to one massive update in the near future. And by near, I mean Friday or Saturday. =) I hope everyone has an awesome week!!
Ohh and thank you to everyone who has sent letters! Mail is fun! =)
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Paris adventures continued....
Here is the lovely video I promised you a few posts back. This was created by Savs, Jacob, and I during our camera workshop. It is just a collage of some footage we captured during the week. Hope you enjoy...
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A little over 3 weeks in this lovely city and the transportation system and I still have a rocky relationship. Apparently I just don't know how to check times correctly. Walking to the bus this morning I had this sickening feeling that my timing was off. Today we were going on a class trip to Bonn and had to meet at the Hauptbahnhof at 8:40 so I had to catch a train earlier than normal to get there. As I rounded the corner to where the stop was just in sight, I noticed my train quickly approaching. Ohh no! I think my theme for Germany is "Run, catch that train!!" Unfortunately a red light postponed my sprint and I got there just in time for the doors to shut right as I stepped in front of them. All worked out in the end though, Savs (who get on the train a stop before me) missed that same train so we arrived at the same time and just barely made it to our 8:40 meeting spot. One day we will conquer this German public transportation system and all will be great.
The Bonn trip was a blast. It only took us an hour by train to get there and then we had a full day of activities. To start off we met with a small animation agency that does advertising, medical animations, and whatever other small projects they are approached with. It was neat. They showed us some of their work and talked about what they do. After that we went on a tour of the Post Tower. That was such a neat building. It is this huge 40 story all glass skyscraper. The floors are glass, the sides are glass, and many of the walls were glass. It was neat and the views were awesome! There we were taken on a private tour and shown some films about the building and company. We got to sit in this awesome conference room with the most comfortable chairs! As we watched the short films we enjoyed the comfy chairs while snacking on these tasty fruit gummy bears with cold refreshments. They even had real apple juice, not the bubbly kind. I was happy =)
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A little over 3 weeks in this lovely city and the transportation system and I still have a rocky relationship. Apparently I just don't know how to check times correctly. Walking to the bus this morning I had this sickening feeling that my timing was off. Today we were going on a class trip to Bonn and had to meet at the Hauptbahnhof at 8:40 so I had to catch a train earlier than normal to get there. As I rounded the corner to where the stop was just in sight, I noticed my train quickly approaching. Ohh no! I think my theme for Germany is "Run, catch that train!!" Unfortunately a red light postponed my sprint and I got there just in time for the doors to shut right as I stepped in front of them. All worked out in the end though, Savs (who get on the train a stop before me) missed that same train so we arrived at the same time and just barely made it to our 8:40 meeting spot. One day we will conquer this German public transportation system and all will be great.
The Bonn trip was a blast. It only took us an hour by train to get there and then we had a full day of activities. To start off we met with a small animation agency that does advertising, medical animations, and whatever other small projects they are approached with. It was neat. They showed us some of their work and talked about what they do. After that we went on a tour of the Post Tower. That was such a neat building. It is this huge 40 story all glass skyscraper. The floors are glass, the sides are glass, and many of the walls were glass. It was neat and the views were awesome! There we were taken on a private tour and shown some films about the building and company. We got to sit in this awesome conference room with the most comfortable chairs! As we watched the short films we enjoyed the comfy chairs while snacking on these tasty fruit gummy bears with cold refreshments. They even had real apple juice, not the bubbly kind. I was happy =)
Some pics of the Post Tower...
those are mail boxes from every country. it was pretty cool.
those are mail boxes from every country. it was pretty cool.
view off the 30th floor...
another view
Later we met with a man who took us on a walking tour of the city and told us about its history. The weather was amazing! Blue skies and fresh air made for a lovely time.
A neat chuch. We didn't get to go inside =(
here's the group with our lovely tour guide =)
Statue of Beethoven. He was born there...
so back to Paris....
Day 2:
Our day started with a lovely visit to the nearest bakery where we enjoyed a sweet breakfast. It was some sugary goodness! I could really get used to fresh pastries for breakfast. Everything was amazing! Probably really bad for you too, but who cares....we were in Paris enjoying the fresh goodies from a bakery!
The weather was anything but welcoming. The skies were gloomy, the air was crisp, and a light rain showered the streets. It looked like it was going to be a pretty yucky day! What a perfect time to stay indoors. The Louvre turned out to be the perfect destination! We spent the whole day wondering around this massive collection of history (8 hours to be exact!) It was amazing. We covered all but one floor and one little section. I would say we did well! I loved everything about this place. Wait, scratch that…I loved most everything about this place. I could have done without the naked people sculptures and paintings. But luckily there were lots of clothed objects to occupy my amazement.
We started our journey in the sculpture gardens. Wow! I mean, wow! Simply incredible. A room filled with life size marble sculptures of various men and women could only be described as "wow." The detail each masterpiece contained was unbelievable. I kept waiting for one of them to blink as I looked at their faces, or get up and move around. They were so life like. Of course then there was the whole missing arms thing going on for some of them. That tends to put them back to stone. But still, the artists did a spectacular job of capturing life. As I stood there marveling at the craftsmanship of these glorious statues I couldn't help thinking about the time it took to do one of these. Incredible!
The paintings where a sight too! We are talking huge paintings. Like 15 to 30 feet across! I was blown away. It was funny to me that with all these amazing paintings covering the walls, and all these sculptures and other ancient art, the only thing that had signs leading the way to its resting place was the famous Mona Lisa. I just do not understand this painting. It is the only painting in the entire Louvre that gets its own wall, is displayed behind bullet proof glass, and is blocked off so that you cannot come within 15 feet of it. I had always heard that she was basically the smallest painting there so I envisioned her to be smaller than a piece of printer paper. Surprisingly she was much bigger. Of course when you compare it to the 15+ ft paintings I can see what they meant. I still do not understand her popularity though. She is actually quite ugly, looks just like the pictures you see of her, and has no story, just rumors. Perhaps that is what draws people in, the mystery of it all. Who knows! I have even had to do a short research paper over this painting and I still can't figure out her fame. All I know is that there was a swarm of people all crowding around to see this "priceless" piece by Leonardo da Vinci. What makes his ugly woman painting more popular than all the other ugly women paintings. I mean seriously!
For dinner we decided that being in Pairs for a once in a lifetime adventure we should splurge and go to a fancy restaurant. Savs mom did some amazing behind the scenes work and found us a nice little restaurant called Ratatouille (just like the Pixar movie! Except a rat did not fix our meal. At least as far as we know...). It was neat. I have never paid so much for one meal in my life!!! The experience was cool and the food was great but holy cow was it pricey. I had the cheapest meal and mine was 20 euro. That just included my chicken plate and water! Personally I feel that these restaurants are highly overrated, but I guess for a once in a lifetime deal, it was fun. Savs mom did a great job finding that restaurant for us.
To finish up the day, we ventured to the Arc De Triomphe. For some reason it was a lot bigger than I was expecting. We learned about it in our architectural history class a few semesters ago, but I never expected it to be that massive! It was great! To get there you have to follow a tunnel under the road. Once there we decided to climb the slender spiral stair case all the way to the top. The way up wasn't bad, but coming down we went faster so I got pretty dizzy. You've gotta love spiral stair cases =) Once at the top we were able to look out over the city. It was nighttime by now so the city transformed into a beautiful sea of light and color. The Eiffel Tower beautifully lit to one side, a few cathedrals scattered here and there, it was beautiful. It turned out to be the perfect way to end the day.
More coming later....
Day 2:
Our day started with a lovely visit to the nearest bakery where we enjoyed a sweet breakfast. It was some sugary goodness! I could really get used to fresh pastries for breakfast. Everything was amazing! Probably really bad for you too, but who cares....we were in Paris enjoying the fresh goodies from a bakery!
The weather was anything but welcoming. The skies were gloomy, the air was crisp, and a light rain showered the streets. It looked like it was going to be a pretty yucky day! What a perfect time to stay indoors. The Louvre turned out to be the perfect destination! We spent the whole day wondering around this massive collection of history (8 hours to be exact!) It was amazing. We covered all but one floor and one little section. I would say we did well! I loved everything about this place. Wait, scratch that…I loved most everything about this place. I could have done without the naked people sculptures and paintings. But luckily there were lots of clothed objects to occupy my amazement.
We started our journey in the sculpture gardens. Wow! I mean, wow! Simply incredible. A room filled with life size marble sculptures of various men and women could only be described as "wow." The detail each masterpiece contained was unbelievable. I kept waiting for one of them to blink as I looked at their faces, or get up and move around. They were so life like. Of course then there was the whole missing arms thing going on for some of them. That tends to put them back to stone. But still, the artists did a spectacular job of capturing life. As I stood there marveling at the craftsmanship of these glorious statues I couldn't help thinking about the time it took to do one of these. Incredible!
The paintings where a sight too! We are talking huge paintings. Like 15 to 30 feet across! I was blown away. It was funny to me that with all these amazing paintings covering the walls, and all these sculptures and other ancient art, the only thing that had signs leading the way to its resting place was the famous Mona Lisa. I just do not understand this painting. It is the only painting in the entire Louvre that gets its own wall, is displayed behind bullet proof glass, and is blocked off so that you cannot come within 15 feet of it. I had always heard that she was basically the smallest painting there so I envisioned her to be smaller than a piece of printer paper. Surprisingly she was much bigger. Of course when you compare it to the 15+ ft paintings I can see what they meant. I still do not understand her popularity though. She is actually quite ugly, looks just like the pictures you see of her, and has no story, just rumors. Perhaps that is what draws people in, the mystery of it all. Who knows! I have even had to do a short research paper over this painting and I still can't figure out her fame. All I know is that there was a swarm of people all crowding around to see this "priceless" piece by Leonardo da Vinci. What makes his ugly woman painting more popular than all the other ugly women paintings. I mean seriously!
For dinner we decided that being in Pairs for a once in a lifetime adventure we should splurge and go to a fancy restaurant. Savs mom did some amazing behind the scenes work and found us a nice little restaurant called Ratatouille (just like the Pixar movie! Except a rat did not fix our meal. At least as far as we know...). It was neat. I have never paid so much for one meal in my life!!! The experience was cool and the food was great but holy cow was it pricey. I had the cheapest meal and mine was 20 euro. That just included my chicken plate and water! Personally I feel that these restaurants are highly overrated, but I guess for a once in a lifetime deal, it was fun. Savs mom did a great job finding that restaurant for us.
To finish up the day, we ventured to the Arc De Triomphe. For some reason it was a lot bigger than I was expecting. We learned about it in our architectural history class a few semesters ago, but I never expected it to be that massive! It was great! To get there you have to follow a tunnel under the road. Once there we decided to climb the slender spiral stair case all the way to the top. The way up wasn't bad, but coming down we went faster so I got pretty dizzy. You've gotta love spiral stair cases =) Once at the top we were able to look out over the city. It was nighttime by now so the city transformed into a beautiful sea of light and color. The Eiffel Tower beautifully lit to one side, a few cathedrals scattered here and there, it was beautiful. It turned out to be the perfect way to end the day.
More coming later....
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Adventures in Paris....
This past weekend Barrett, Jacob, Gavin, Geoff, Savannah, and I set out to conquer the land known as Paris. Since we had a five day weekend we figured it was the perfect opportunity for our Paris trip.
Day 1:
To get the most out of our experience we decided to leave Wednesday night so that we could arrive in Paris early Thursday to begin our adventures. Geoff was the mastermind behind our travel arrangements/reservations and let us blindly believe that when we got on the train we would sleep until we got off in Paris. Um, next time I am asking questions before I board the train =) Our journey began in the train station at 8:20pm where we loaded up and took our seats. At 11pm we got off in some city (I can't remember the name) where we were to wait for our next train that would arrive 2 hours later. One thing you must know about the different train stations is that they are mostly open to the outside air and are not heated. It was rather chilly. But we took this opportunity to goof around, take silly pictures, and chat. 12:55am rolls around and its time to continue to our final destination. It was a very long night. Most of us have not yet perfected the art of sleeping in the sitting position. With stiff necks and sleepless bodies, we arrived in Paris 6 long hours latter at 6:50am. Paris provided us with a whole new level of freezing. It was very COLD!! Being so early, the sun had not yet begun it's journey over the horizon to take off the chill and prepare for the glorious day complete with blue skies.
My first impression of Paris was not what I expected. Everything I had ever heard was that it was not as great as you would think. The main description given was that it was trashy and stunk. Maybe the air didn't smell as bad because of the cold? The only smells we encountered where those of the subway systems. Yikes! Every once in a while you were hit with the aroma of soured urine. Other than that, I did not notice a thing. When the sun finally spilled over the horizon and painted the buildings with a golden glow, Paris suddenly came alive. Walking out of the subway we were greeted with the sight of some big Gothic Cathedral. It was beautiful. We never learned the name of it, but in the light of the morning sun, it was absolutely beautiful. As we took pictures and walked around something in the distance caught our eye. It was the Pompidou center! You see we have all had 4 semesters of architectural history so we have studied all these different buildings and where excited about the opportunity to see them in person!!! It was amazing! Then we spotted what looked like the bell towers of Notre Dame so we set out in that direction. I am pretty sure we spent an hour or two in there taking pictures. It was beautiful. I am in love with stained glass so I basically just sat there and starred at the beautiful windows and the light that painted the columns and walls with beautiful arrangements of color.
Our next adventure was to find the famous Eiffel Tower! At this point we had not seen any signs of it yet. As we walked we kept searching to see who could get the first glimpse of this famous icon. I was very excited as we wondered around. I just couldn't believe we were actually there. In fact it still doesn't feel like I spent the last 4 days and 3 nights in Paris! Then suddenly Jacob spotted it. We were finally there! After taking numerous pictures and paying 3,10 euros to climb the six hundred and eighty stairs to the highest point we were allowed to go, we found ourselves looking out over the beautiful city of Paris on top of the Eiffel Tower. The view was breathtaking!! Talk about a big city. The city reached as far as the eye could see. It was amazing! What a wonderful experience!
to be continued...
Day 1:
To get the most out of our experience we decided to leave Wednesday night so that we could arrive in Paris early Thursday to begin our adventures. Geoff was the mastermind behind our travel arrangements/reservations and let us blindly believe that when we got on the train we would sleep until we got off in Paris. Um, next time I am asking questions before I board the train =) Our journey began in the train station at 8:20pm where we loaded up and took our seats. At 11pm we got off in some city (I can't remember the name) where we were to wait for our next train that would arrive 2 hours later. One thing you must know about the different train stations is that they are mostly open to the outside air and are not heated. It was rather chilly. But we took this opportunity to goof around, take silly pictures, and chat. 12:55am rolls around and its time to continue to our final destination. It was a very long night. Most of us have not yet perfected the art of sleeping in the sitting position. With stiff necks and sleepless bodies, we arrived in Paris 6 long hours latter at 6:50am. Paris provided us with a whole new level of freezing. It was very COLD!! Being so early, the sun had not yet begun it's journey over the horizon to take off the chill and prepare for the glorious day complete with blue skies.
My first impression of Paris was not what I expected. Everything I had ever heard was that it was not as great as you would think. The main description given was that it was trashy and stunk. Maybe the air didn't smell as bad because of the cold? The only smells we encountered where those of the subway systems. Yikes! Every once in a while you were hit with the aroma of soured urine. Other than that, I did not notice a thing. When the sun finally spilled over the horizon and painted the buildings with a golden glow, Paris suddenly came alive. Walking out of the subway we were greeted with the sight of some big Gothic Cathedral. It was beautiful. We never learned the name of it, but in the light of the morning sun, it was absolutely beautiful. As we took pictures and walked around something in the distance caught our eye. It was the Pompidou center! You see we have all had 4 semesters of architectural history so we have studied all these different buildings and where excited about the opportunity to see them in person!!! It was amazing! Then we spotted what looked like the bell towers of Notre Dame so we set out in that direction. I am pretty sure we spent an hour or two in there taking pictures. It was beautiful. I am in love with stained glass so I basically just sat there and starred at the beautiful windows and the light that painted the columns and walls with beautiful arrangements of color.
Our next adventure was to find the famous Eiffel Tower! At this point we had not seen any signs of it yet. As we walked we kept searching to see who could get the first glimpse of this famous icon. I was very excited as we wondered around. I just couldn't believe we were actually there. In fact it still doesn't feel like I spent the last 4 days and 3 nights in Paris! Then suddenly Jacob spotted it. We were finally there! After taking numerous pictures and paying 3,10 euros to climb the six hundred and eighty stairs to the highest point we were allowed to go, we found ourselves looking out over the beautiful city of Paris on top of the Eiffel Tower. The view was breathtaking!! Talk about a big city. The city reached as far as the eye could see. It was amazing! What a wonderful experience!
to be continued...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again......
Well I don't have time to give you a wonderful update on the happenings in Germany because I leave for Paris in a little over 45 minutes! Yikes! I'm kinda running late =) I am leaving my computer behind so you will have to wait until Monday for another update! Please pray for the safety of our group (there are 6 of us) as we roam the streets of Paris! Yay! I'm pretty excited! =) Have a wonderful weekend!!! I hope everyone is having an awesome day. Don't forget to praise the Lord in all that you do!!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Fourth times a charm...
Today was a monumental day! I had the most amazing reunion with an item that is very dear to me. I thought they were lost forever.....
Check it out!
That is right! They are back! After returning to Kaufhof (the site of their disappearance) on three separate occasions in the past week to check the lost and found only to come up empty, I thought all hope was lost. Let me set the stage for you. This afternoon, a group of us went to check out the one euro stores to try and find some supplies for our studio project. After gaining a few fun items half of the group went home while the other half checked out the Kaufhof to see if it had anything to offer. Right as we were about to leave I half heartedly made the comment that I wanted to check the lost and found one more time. I felt like the little kid who let the family bird fly out the window. Although you know it's gone for good, you find yourself checking the window with such innocent hopes in that one day it will fly home. I almost didn't go, I didn't want the group waiting on me. Well I chose to check just one last time. If they weren't there, I figured I would consider them gone forever. So I ventured back to the service desk and tried my best to get the lady to understand what I was saying. Finally many hand motions later and with the help of some other customers, she figured out what I was saying and pulled a big bag out from behind the counter. As she poured out the contents of the bag it was as if the world moved in slow motion! There they were. The only gloves in the whole bag that were not black or brown. My gloves! My amazing multi-color striped mittens with removable flap for ultimate finger dexterity plus bonus exposable thumb flap sitting right there in front of me!!! I could not believe it. As soon as I saw them I gasped and laughed out "That's them!!" Everyone around laughed. It was great!!!
So now I have my gloves back. I'm sure I had some other lovely stories to tell but all I can think about right now is the beautiful return of my mittens. Life is good...
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Weekend wonderings...
Operation find hidden church on the other side of the town was a success! Geoff, Allen, and I set out early this morning to try and conquer the bus system and make it to this destination that only existed in my head as a memory from the week before. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to get all the way out there. We live in the southern part of Dusseldorf and this church is the furthest north you can go before your in another town! Fun times. But the service was great. The pastor is a fellow Texan. We got there a little early so we were able to meet him. During the welcome he gave the typical "If you are a visitor..." speech while handing us visitors cards. Note: we were the only ones he did this for. Haha. And then he went on to explain how there were some college students all the way from Texas (talking about us). It was awesome. I am so glad we got hooked up with this church! I can't wait to go back!!!
To get there you have to take a lovely hike through a trail in the woods. It's kinda fun.
.....
Then afterwards Geoff and I went to the Alstadt to find some lunch and ran into some interesting characters. Apparently they were about to have a parade so there were all these people dressed up in blue and red uniforms with instruments and such. I was sooo glad we stumbled across them because it was hilarious.
I took a picture of one of the boys as they were walking by and he got so excited that he grabbed his two friends and posed for me to take another one =)
He was really tall!!! We went to eat at the Döner place and he walked in for a sandwich. Haha! Priceless....
During our adventures Geoff stumbles across Dr. Pepper!! He has been looking for one since we got here and was convinced they didn't have them here. So he bought 3! =)
On another note...
I have decided that I am in love! With filming that is =) All week we learned about filming and all that goes with it. It has been a blast! Friday each group took all their footage collected over the week and made a collage of their favorite/best shots. Then our favorite mullet sporting camera workshop leader, Jens (pronounced yens), put the films together and added some music. I have yet to see the finished product but from what I saw it should be pretty neat! Hopefully I can get a hold of it and post it on here for your enjoyment =)
Yesterday Geoff, Savannah, and I set out to find the nearest Toys "R" Us. Can you believe they have those here? It was appropriately placed right next to a McDonalds. For a moment I felt like I was back in the states. Then after failing to decipher the letters of gibberish on the banners and signs the American soil feeling quickly vanished. It's like hearing a choir of heavenly voices and then the record player suddenly crashes and a loud screeching overtakes the moment of triumph as the voices slow and deepen until silence fills the air. Yup. Still in Germany =)
This excursion was part of our search for project materials. Our first studio project involves us making some sort of model that can function underwater. Toys "r" Us was our attempt at finding toy water crafts that we could take apart and use the motors. But our search failed. All the toys were either really expensive or really cheap(meaning, not useable). The journey getting there and back, however, made up for the failure to gain items. Savs brought along her really nice camera for the first time and I got to play with it a bit! Ohh it was amazing! I have to stop playing with all this expensive equipment though because I'm slowly realizing all that I am missing out on. Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is discontentment in the area of technology.
Last night I got to hang out at Julie's(my new missionary friend who is completely awesome) apartment and it was absolutely amazing! We had hot dogs and played guitar =) What a night. We just played the guitar and worshiped for hours. I got to listen to a bunch of German worship songs and it was neat! Sometimes I would recognize the tune and sing along in English. Or when I was singing an English song she would sing a verse through in German. It was awesome! My goal before I leave is to learn at least one song in German. Julie explained that to sing the songs in German they aren't the exact words as the English version because the words have to fit. I thought that was interesting. It was also neat to hear her translate the German worship songs. They have such a neat way of expressing their love for the Lord. I love it!
To get there you have to take a lovely hike through a trail in the woods. It's kinda fun.
.....
Then afterwards Geoff and I went to the Alstadt to find some lunch and ran into some interesting characters. Apparently they were about to have a parade so there were all these people dressed up in blue and red uniforms with instruments and such. I was sooo glad we stumbled across them because it was hilarious.
I took a picture of one of the boys as they were walking by and he got so excited that he grabbed his two friends and posed for me to take another one =)
He was really tall!!! We went to eat at the Döner place and he walked in for a sandwich. Haha! Priceless....
During our adventures Geoff stumbles across Dr. Pepper!! He has been looking for one since we got here and was convinced they didn't have them here. So he bought 3! =)
On another note...
I have decided that I am in love! With filming that is =) All week we learned about filming and all that goes with it. It has been a blast! Friday each group took all their footage collected over the week and made a collage of their favorite/best shots. Then our favorite mullet sporting camera workshop leader, Jens (pronounced yens), put the films together and added some music. I have yet to see the finished product but from what I saw it should be pretty neat! Hopefully I can get a hold of it and post it on here for your enjoyment =)
Yesterday Geoff, Savannah, and I set out to find the nearest Toys "R" Us. Can you believe they have those here? It was appropriately placed right next to a McDonalds. For a moment I felt like I was back in the states. Then after failing to decipher the letters of gibberish on the banners and signs the American soil feeling quickly vanished. It's like hearing a choir of heavenly voices and then the record player suddenly crashes and a loud screeching overtakes the moment of triumph as the voices slow and deepen until silence fills the air. Yup. Still in Germany =)
This excursion was part of our search for project materials. Our first studio project involves us making some sort of model that can function underwater. Toys "r" Us was our attempt at finding toy water crafts that we could take apart and use the motors. But our search failed. All the toys were either really expensive or really cheap(meaning, not useable). The journey getting there and back, however, made up for the failure to gain items. Savs brought along her really nice camera for the first time and I got to play with it a bit! Ohh it was amazing! I have to stop playing with all this expensive equipment though because I'm slowly realizing all that I am missing out on. Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is discontentment in the area of technology.
Last night I got to hang out at Julie's(my new missionary friend who is completely awesome) apartment and it was absolutely amazing! We had hot dogs and played guitar =) What a night. We just played the guitar and worshiped for hours. I got to listen to a bunch of German worship songs and it was neat! Sometimes I would recognize the tune and sing along in English. Or when I was singing an English song she would sing a verse through in German. It was awesome! My goal before I leave is to learn at least one song in German. Julie explained that to sing the songs in German they aren't the exact words as the English version because the words have to fit. I thought that was interesting. It was also neat to hear her translate the German worship songs. They have such a neat way of expressing their love for the Lord. I love it!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Working out German Style...
Mission dispose of chocolate cake was a success!!! She will never know!!! =)
Have you ever underestimated the time it would take for you to travel from point A to point B and then back? Well that is exactly what happened today! During our lunch Jacob, Savannah, and I decided to make the most of our time by spending our hour and 15 minute lunch break getting art supplies at Düsseldorf University’s art supply store. We knew we were going to be cutting it close but the only time this little shop opened was on Mondays - Thursdays from 1pm to 2pm. We hoped that since this shop was part of the university, the prices would be lower than that of the ones in town. When we finally got to the bus stop closest to the University we realized time was quickly running out so we ran. Literally! Un-tied shoes and all =) We finally got there only to find that the shop did not meet our expectations. It was really small and contained only a few items, all which were more expensive than the places in town. We quickly make our exit and started heading back to the train stop when suddenly we saw our train quickly approaching from behind! Our jog quickly turned into an all out sprint. It was go time! Thankfully we made it just in the nick of time! In the end, and possible only because of all our running, we were about 20 minutes late to class =) Our camera workshop leader just laughed at our story and gave us his approval. This supply "run" really lived up to its name. What a work out!
Tonight my goal was to somehow make my way to the absolute opposite side of town so I could attend this bible study at the English speaking Baptist Church that I learned about last Sunday. I was so pumped and couldn't wait to go. I was extremely worried about where in the heck this thing was! All I had was a mint tin with the name of a train stop that I had written down as we passed by on the way to church last Sunday, and a mental picture of the how to get from the stop to the church. That should be enough to get me there right? HAHA! Well actually if I could have gotten to the stop I am pretty confident I could have found my way from there. Getting to the stop proved harder that I thought! First of all I almost missed every train I had to catch so I had some lovely sprints worked into the journey. From the Hauptbahnhof I carefully studied the maps to see which train would take me to my destination. I found the number and got on. The stop was going to be at least 30 minutes away so I just turned up my ipod and relaxed. Time was ticking away and I was starting to get worried that I would be late. Forty minutes pass by and suddenly I hear the bus speakers say Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. But why? That is where I just came from! Apparently there are 2 different trains for 719. One that goes all the way to my stop and one that goes halfway and then goes back to the Hauptbahnhof! Of course if I could actually read German I would have been able to figure this out BEFORE I missed my bible study! Tonight I spent 2 1/2 hours traveling to and from a destination I never reached =( Sunday I think I am going to take a different route that involves changing trains 3 or 4 times. This one should work for sure!!! I guess I will have to leave at 8am to allow for mistakes so I can be there by 11 o’clock. =) Traveling to the other side of town is way more complicated than it looks!
So today was full of very interesting train rides! On the up side, dinner was amazing! My host lady prepared an awesome salad, some home made fries, and chicken cordon blu. It was delicious! And best of all...there was no chocolate for dessert!!!!!!!!
Have you ever underestimated the time it would take for you to travel from point A to point B and then back? Well that is exactly what happened today! During our lunch Jacob, Savannah, and I decided to make the most of our time by spending our hour and 15 minute lunch break getting art supplies at Düsseldorf University’s art supply store. We knew we were going to be cutting it close but the only time this little shop opened was on Mondays - Thursdays from 1pm to 2pm. We hoped that since this shop was part of the university, the prices would be lower than that of the ones in town. When we finally got to the bus stop closest to the University we realized time was quickly running out so we ran. Literally! Un-tied shoes and all =) We finally got there only to find that the shop did not meet our expectations. It was really small and contained only a few items, all which were more expensive than the places in town. We quickly make our exit and started heading back to the train stop when suddenly we saw our train quickly approaching from behind! Our jog quickly turned into an all out sprint. It was go time! Thankfully we made it just in the nick of time! In the end, and possible only because of all our running, we were about 20 minutes late to class =) Our camera workshop leader just laughed at our story and gave us his approval. This supply "run" really lived up to its name. What a work out!
Tonight my goal was to somehow make my way to the absolute opposite side of town so I could attend this bible study at the English speaking Baptist Church that I learned about last Sunday. I was so pumped and couldn't wait to go. I was extremely worried about where in the heck this thing was! All I had was a mint tin with the name of a train stop that I had written down as we passed by on the way to church last Sunday, and a mental picture of the how to get from the stop to the church. That should be enough to get me there right? HAHA! Well actually if I could have gotten to the stop I am pretty confident I could have found my way from there. Getting to the stop proved harder that I thought! First of all I almost missed every train I had to catch so I had some lovely sprints worked into the journey. From the Hauptbahnhof I carefully studied the maps to see which train would take me to my destination. I found the number and got on. The stop was going to be at least 30 minutes away so I just turned up my ipod and relaxed. Time was ticking away and I was starting to get worried that I would be late. Forty minutes pass by and suddenly I hear the bus speakers say Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. But why? That is where I just came from! Apparently there are 2 different trains for 719. One that goes all the way to my stop and one that goes halfway and then goes back to the Hauptbahnhof! Of course if I could actually read German I would have been able to figure this out BEFORE I missed my bible study! Tonight I spent 2 1/2 hours traveling to and from a destination I never reached =( Sunday I think I am going to take a different route that involves changing trains 3 or 4 times. This one should work for sure!!! I guess I will have to leave at 8am to allow for mistakes so I can be there by 11 o’clock. =) Traveling to the other side of town is way more complicated than it looks!
So today was full of very interesting train rides! On the up side, dinner was amazing! My host lady prepared an awesome salad, some home made fries, and chicken cordon blu. It was delicious! And best of all...there was no chocolate for dessert!!!!!!!!
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