So today, I cooked, bought a sleeping bag, and met the rest of our team. Busy? Not really. It's currently 14.49, so the day is still in swing.
I got up around nine-ish, made breakfast, and was, yet again, confronted by my visiting-German-speaking friend. Thankfully, Hanne (pronounced as 'Hanna') came downstairs and she stayed with me (and didn't leave me) so that I didn't have to think crazy much during the wee hours of the morning.
After Breakfast the lady left for home, so then…we didn't really do anything. It was only Simon, Hanne, and I at the house, so I vacuumed our room (Christian, Johannes, and I share a room), and then I read for a bit and then went to the store with Simon to buy some groceries so he could make a cake.
Now, after a pause of two hours (due to Hanna fetching me to have an afternoon Pause with the others) I have successfully met the rest of the team (Three girls: Jana, Michal, and Bexx), eaten Cherry-Cake and Ice cream, and spent some time in the sun.
We sat outside and it was nice to get acquainted with the rest of the team. My German is really improving because I can almost catch the gist of every conversation and a lot of the times I actually know what's going on/being said! How sweet! It's nice to finally make some of those connections; now I have so much more sympathy for those who are learning English. It's hard work to learn a new language!
So that's been my day thus far; the other Juengs (guys) come home around six; they've been making a Test all day for entrance to a Medical Training School. The test is about nine hours long and it's crazy stuff dealing with perceptions, logic--they showed me the study guide--it's nuts!
So that is today! So far, so good!
May 8, 2010
May 7, 2010
Please Don't Get Up and Leave Me with a Crazy German
Today was a busy day! We got to sleep in today too! I woke up around 8.30, and then did some chores around the room, ate breakfast, showered, etc. We all had Coffee Break together as a staff at 10.00 and then the craziness began! We were supposed to be having about 17 kids and their parents here tonight for some kind of event (lost in translation), but the weather hasn't been great (read: rainy). So the event was cancelled. The reason we got up later today was so that we could clean the entire house, so we still planned on doing that, but took care of other things first.
Christian had his "Vortrag" that he needed to present so we filmed that, go all the stuff together for that and did that. That took most of the day (until about 4p). He also interviewed me, which was nuts because it was in German and very difficult because I had to memorize the stuff so as not to mess up during the filming of it. It's for the Youth Alpha program here in Germany. The program lasts for ten weeks and each week they cover a different topic, so they are going to use these videos to sent to the churches so that, if they don't have anyone willing/available to lead the lessons, they can watch the videos. So that's kind of cool. Our work will be sent to the masses of Germany.
Afterwards we cleaned the house! And by clean, I mean clean! We vacuumed all the carpets, destained them, mopped the floors, cleaned all the chairs, cleaned all the tables, cleaned all the salt/pepper/sugar shakers, dusted, cleaned windows. It was a good few hours of work, but we had a big team so we got it all done fairly quickly. Most everyone is out right now running errands or doing stuff, so it's me and Simeon here at the house, and he's studying so I'm writing this.
So that's been today. Busy with cleaning and making videos, but it's been good. Tomorrow we can get up whenever we want to and then we have a few chores to do and the rest of the team comes home, so it will be an exciting day.
Internally, things are good. I'm being challenged in a lot of ways linguistically and mentally, but I don't feel that I'm being challenged yet spiritually. I know it's coming, but I don't feel it yet. And that's ok, I guess, I just need to give it some time and take each moment for what it is.
So…as I was writing the above journal, a lady came into the JFC house and asked where we were; of course, Simeon and I were there and then she told me that she was there for dinner. Dinner? What? I saw her earlier with Olly (the young lady who works Project Serve) and she told me that we were supposed to eat with her tonight because she is our guest. Guest? So that was a little bit crazy. So I got Simeon and was like 'Dude, this lady is here, she speaks basically only German, and we're supposed to eat dinner with her, but…it's only you and me because the others are out, so…let's go."
So we prepared some kind of dinner--cereal, salads, and bread with meat and cheese and then we sat and dined with her. She mostly spoke to Simeon but her but she asked me a few questions too. I had told her previously not to mind my German because I was American and I was bound to make mistakes, so she understood that my German, as I say, saugt.
Soonafter, the others also came to us, so we had a full table, and the conversations carried on for a while and she asked a lot of questions to the others. People began to get up to leave, and the next thing I know, it's just me and this German lady and I have basically no idea what's going on. So, I do what I normally do when I'm nervous and have nothing else to do: I talk. But this isn't English, this is German and my German is rather horrid. Anyways, we ended up talking for about an hour or so about a lot of stuff--the price of university, Bush, Obama, trips to other countries. I told her about my studies in Lithuania and my trip to Russia and she told me about a trip she took to Turkey and they had done some memorial services for fallen soldiers during WWII (kind of confusing to me what all she was saying). She said a lot about Australians in Turkey, but I don't know what they had to do with it. Perhaps they like to eat Turkey.
Anyways, after an hour, by throat was sore from talking and my head was spinning, so I pulled the awkward, "well I better be going, I have some work to do (writing this)," and then she told me that, oh yeah, she is staying here tonight. No wonder she stayed and talked so long, she's our guest (as in, real guest--staying-the-night-over guest)!! That makes so much more sense. I came up and yelled at my roommates for leaving me alone with her and my poor German, but it was actually really good to use that much German and it helps me to think on my feet more, which I'm not so good at. So yeah, kind of crazy.
And last night I had my first dream in German--it was a mix of German and English, but it was pretty cool that I'm starting to pick up the language better. It's tough work for sure, but hey, it's good for me.
So that was Friday. Kinda crazy, but definitely a good time.
Christian had his "Vortrag" that he needed to present so we filmed that, go all the stuff together for that and did that. That took most of the day (until about 4p). He also interviewed me, which was nuts because it was in German and very difficult because I had to memorize the stuff so as not to mess up during the filming of it. It's for the Youth Alpha program here in Germany. The program lasts for ten weeks and each week they cover a different topic, so they are going to use these videos to sent to the churches so that, if they don't have anyone willing/available to lead the lessons, they can watch the videos. So that's kind of cool. Our work will be sent to the masses of Germany.
Afterwards we cleaned the house! And by clean, I mean clean! We vacuumed all the carpets, destained them, mopped the floors, cleaned all the chairs, cleaned all the tables, cleaned all the salt/pepper/sugar shakers, dusted, cleaned windows. It was a good few hours of work, but we had a big team so we got it all done fairly quickly. Most everyone is out right now running errands or doing stuff, so it's me and Simeon here at the house, and he's studying so I'm writing this.
So that's been today. Busy with cleaning and making videos, but it's been good. Tomorrow we can get up whenever we want to and then we have a few chores to do and the rest of the team comes home, so it will be an exciting day.
Internally, things are good. I'm being challenged in a lot of ways linguistically and mentally, but I don't feel that I'm being challenged yet spiritually. I know it's coming, but I don't feel it yet. And that's ok, I guess, I just need to give it some time and take each moment for what it is.
So…as I was writing the above journal, a lady came into the JFC house and asked where we were; of course, Simeon and I were there and then she told me that she was there for dinner. Dinner? What? I saw her earlier with Olly (the young lady who works Project Serve) and she told me that we were supposed to eat with her tonight because she is our guest. Guest? So that was a little bit crazy. So I got Simeon and was like 'Dude, this lady is here, she speaks basically only German, and we're supposed to eat dinner with her, but…it's only you and me because the others are out, so…let's go."
So we prepared some kind of dinner--cereal, salads, and bread with meat and cheese and then we sat and dined with her. She mostly spoke to Simeon but her but she asked me a few questions too. I had told her previously not to mind my German because I was American and I was bound to make mistakes, so she understood that my German, as I say, saugt.
Soonafter, the others also came to us, so we had a full table, and the conversations carried on for a while and she asked a lot of questions to the others. People began to get up to leave, and the next thing I know, it's just me and this German lady and I have basically no idea what's going on. So, I do what I normally do when I'm nervous and have nothing else to do: I talk. But this isn't English, this is German and my German is rather horrid. Anyways, we ended up talking for about an hour or so about a lot of stuff--the price of university, Bush, Obama, trips to other countries. I told her about my studies in Lithuania and my trip to Russia and she told me about a trip she took to Turkey and they had done some memorial services for fallen soldiers during WWII (kind of confusing to me what all she was saying). She said a lot about Australians in Turkey, but I don't know what they had to do with it. Perhaps they like to eat Turkey.
Anyways, after an hour, by throat was sore from talking and my head was spinning, so I pulled the awkward, "well I better be going, I have some work to do (writing this)," and then she told me that, oh yeah, she is staying here tonight. No wonder she stayed and talked so long, she's our guest (as in, real guest--staying-the-night-over guest)!! That makes so much more sense. I came up and yelled at my roommates for leaving me alone with her and my poor German, but it was actually really good to use that much German and it helps me to think on my feet more, which I'm not so good at. So yeah, kind of crazy.
And last night I had my first dream in German--it was a mix of German and English, but it was pretty cool that I'm starting to pick up the language better. It's tough work for sure, but hey, it's good for me.
So that was Friday. Kinda crazy, but definitely a good time.
May 6, 2010
Vortrag
I opened my computer today for the first time in three days. Crazy, huh? Things are going great so far in Germany--I started working officially yesterday and today was the 2nd day of work. The work isn't crazy hard, and it's fun to do it with friends. Ok, here is the situations.
We live in Muehltal in the YFC Center. It's like a house, but not. It's like offices, but not. It's both. Kind of. It has a very big dining area, and then when you enter, directly to the right are stairs upstairs to dorms, if you don't take the stairs you walk into the office section where there are about six offices. If you go straight you end up in the dining room. Off the dining room is the kitchen, which is pretty big. If you take the long hallway to the left, you run into the public computer and if you take a right after that then you are on the hallway into the other wing of the house/office. This wing contains stairs going upstairs to the second wing of dorms (the first wing is rooms 1-10, the second is 11-15). If you stay on the groundfloor, then you will walk into the conference room.
So first off, dorms. Each dorm section is divided into three rooms--so there is section 1&2, section 3&4, and so on. Each section then has two rooms and a full bathroom. The rooms house between two and three people each, perhaps four. In the other wing of dorms, they house about two people and the rooms are bigger (more like hotel rooms).
Ok, so next is our team/house inhabitants. The Buzz team (my team) lives here. We have about nine people on our team. Also, there are I-Themba teams from South Africa who live here when they are not doing outreaches (each I-Themba team stays for about eight months). There are three I-Themba teams, but they are all currently on the road (the last one left today). Then, during the day, about ten or so people come here to work; they work in the offices and are the full time staff. So this means that we eat breakfast as a team, lunch as a full YFC staff, and then we fend for ourselves for dinner. After about 5pm, its just us in-housers who are left, so we hang out, drive into Darmstadt to pick things up, play games, or watch movies and such. We work during the day until about 5p. That's the gameplan for when we are here, although, coming this Sunday, we'll only be here for two more days for the whole month of May.
Ok, so the next thing is work. We get up about 6.30 everyday, prepare breakfast for all the teams (us and the I-Themba teams). We eat breakfast at 7.00, have quiet time at 7.30, pray as a group at 8.00, and at 8.30 we start working. We work from 8.30 until 10.00 and then we have a half-hour break where all the staff comes together for a break and eats fruit/coffee. We then work again until 12.30 and then we have a lunch break until 13.30. From 13.30 until 17.00, we keep working.
So what exactly do we do? Everything I guess. In the mornings we do housework, so that means that we vacuum around the house, clean out empty rooms, change the sheets, bring laundry downstairs, work outside in the garden collecting wood or stacking it in the fireshed, clean bathrooms, mop the floors. Basically, we do janitorial/house work. It's pretty cool and I enjoy it, it's fun and there's no stress, it's very chill so it makes all the work fun. Nothing is too crazy. After lunch, we usually do work for YFC or our team. Yesterday they gave me the run though on YFC and YouthAlpha, Project Serve, and RockSolid (the different programs of YFC). Afterwards, Simeon, Christian, and I edited/proofread a programm for RockSolid for the summer. Basically, we read through the games and the lesson and made sure that it made sense and that it was doable (not too difficult to do or that the kids would find it fun).
Today, we finished the work in the yard outside that we didn't finish yesterday, Christian and I cleaned out a few rooms, and in the afternoon Christian and I prepared for his 'Vortrag' (presentation). He's giving a presentation for Youth Alpha and we need to film it, so we were coming up with ideas for what that would look like and how it would be interesting. He gave the presentation before at a Youth Alpha course that was here at YFC, so we were basically figuring out how to turn that from a presentation into a video.
Sounds pretty basic, and it is, but it's much harder when it's in German. I've come a long way in the four days I've been here. I understand a lot of it now and the team speaks to me in German (although they all speak English) so that I can understand better. Today Christian explained his entire Vortrag to me and we translated it so that I understood it all. They speak in English sometimes, but it's mostly to clarify or if they are goofing around. So my German is coming along pretty well; I'm surprised at how quickly I'm learning (and I'm not complaining about that!)
So, that's been my life! I still haven't met half the team because they are still on the road. In fact, some came back simply to do tests, so I happened to come at the right time I guess.
Also, internet isn't really a go here. They don’t want the students to be on the internet all the time, so we all get one hour of free internet a month, otherwise, we pay for .03 a minute. Not expensive, true, but it's all good. It's nice to have a break from the internet. I don't know how often these updates will make it online but hopefully they make it online before I get home! That'd be sad if they didn't!
So that's my life! Day 4 in Germany! It's so great, or as we say in German, "Meine Zeit hier ist ziemlich gut." (My time here is really great).
My translations are colloquial by the way, so if you read German and see my translations…use your imagination a bit. Egal, right?
We live in Muehltal in the YFC Center. It's like a house, but not. It's like offices, but not. It's both. Kind of. It has a very big dining area, and then when you enter, directly to the right are stairs upstairs to dorms, if you don't take the stairs you walk into the office section where there are about six offices. If you go straight you end up in the dining room. Off the dining room is the kitchen, which is pretty big. If you take the long hallway to the left, you run into the public computer and if you take a right after that then you are on the hallway into the other wing of the house/office. This wing contains stairs going upstairs to the second wing of dorms (the first wing is rooms 1-10, the second is 11-15). If you stay on the groundfloor, then you will walk into the conference room.
So first off, dorms. Each dorm section is divided into three rooms--so there is section 1&2, section 3&4, and so on. Each section then has two rooms and a full bathroom. The rooms house between two and three people each, perhaps four. In the other wing of dorms, they house about two people and the rooms are bigger (more like hotel rooms).
Ok, so next is our team/house inhabitants. The Buzz team (my team) lives here. We have about nine people on our team. Also, there are I-Themba teams from South Africa who live here when they are not doing outreaches (each I-Themba team stays for about eight months). There are three I-Themba teams, but they are all currently on the road (the last one left today). Then, during the day, about ten or so people come here to work; they work in the offices and are the full time staff. So this means that we eat breakfast as a team, lunch as a full YFC staff, and then we fend for ourselves for dinner. After about 5pm, its just us in-housers who are left, so we hang out, drive into Darmstadt to pick things up, play games, or watch movies and such. We work during the day until about 5p. That's the gameplan for when we are here, although, coming this Sunday, we'll only be here for two more days for the whole month of May.
Ok, so the next thing is work. We get up about 6.30 everyday, prepare breakfast for all the teams (us and the I-Themba teams). We eat breakfast at 7.00, have quiet time at 7.30, pray as a group at 8.00, and at 8.30 we start working. We work from 8.30 until 10.00 and then we have a half-hour break where all the staff comes together for a break and eats fruit/coffee. We then work again until 12.30 and then we have a lunch break until 13.30. From 13.30 until 17.00, we keep working.
So what exactly do we do? Everything I guess. In the mornings we do housework, so that means that we vacuum around the house, clean out empty rooms, change the sheets, bring laundry downstairs, work outside in the garden collecting wood or stacking it in the fireshed, clean bathrooms, mop the floors. Basically, we do janitorial/house work. It's pretty cool and I enjoy it, it's fun and there's no stress, it's very chill so it makes all the work fun. Nothing is too crazy. After lunch, we usually do work for YFC or our team. Yesterday they gave me the run though on YFC and YouthAlpha, Project Serve, and RockSolid (the different programs of YFC). Afterwards, Simeon, Christian, and I edited/proofread a programm for RockSolid for the summer. Basically, we read through the games and the lesson and made sure that it made sense and that it was doable (not too difficult to do or that the kids would find it fun).
Today, we finished the work in the yard outside that we didn't finish yesterday, Christian and I cleaned out a few rooms, and in the afternoon Christian and I prepared for his 'Vortrag' (presentation). He's giving a presentation for Youth Alpha and we need to film it, so we were coming up with ideas for what that would look like and how it would be interesting. He gave the presentation before at a Youth Alpha course that was here at YFC, so we were basically figuring out how to turn that from a presentation into a video.
Sounds pretty basic, and it is, but it's much harder when it's in German. I've come a long way in the four days I've been here. I understand a lot of it now and the team speaks to me in German (although they all speak English) so that I can understand better. Today Christian explained his entire Vortrag to me and we translated it so that I understood it all. They speak in English sometimes, but it's mostly to clarify or if they are goofing around. So my German is coming along pretty well; I'm surprised at how quickly I'm learning (and I'm not complaining about that!)
So, that's been my life! I still haven't met half the team because they are still on the road. In fact, some came back simply to do tests, so I happened to come at the right time I guess.
Also, internet isn't really a go here. They don’t want the students to be on the internet all the time, so we all get one hour of free internet a month, otherwise, we pay for .03 a minute. Not expensive, true, but it's all good. It's nice to have a break from the internet. I don't know how often these updates will make it online but hopefully they make it online before I get home! That'd be sad if they didn't!
So that's my life! Day 4 in Germany! It's so great, or as we say in German, "Meine Zeit hier ist ziemlich gut." (My time here is really great).
My translations are colloquial by the way, so if you read German and see my translations…use your imagination a bit. Egal, right?
May 3, 2010
Germany: Landing!!
Germany. I've made it to Germany. It's hard to believe I'm finally here--I'm in Muehtal, fairly close to the city of Darmstadt at the YFC house. I arrived yesterday around 10pm and I was taken here and met the YFC staff that is here already and got moved into my room. I'm still unsure about a lot of things, such as, if this will be my home for the entire summer, but otherwise, things here are good. I'm also unsure as to how much internet connection I have. From what I've been told, the volunteers pay something like 3 cents a minute for internet, because they don't want the works to be on the internet all day, which is very understandable. So, in all honesty, by the time this update gets public, it will already be somewhat old news.
So here is the news as of late: I arrived yesterday from Lithuania. It was very hard to say goodbyes to my friends from Lithuania, and there were definitely some tears shed. I didn't go to Lithuania expecting to make such good friendships, so the friendships that I made stand out to me as some of the best relationships that I've had with people. The amount of growth and honesty that I have shared with them is something that means more to me than I'm able to write about. I'm extremely thankful for t hose relationships.
It was also hard to say goodbye to Lithuania, knowing that it will be a long time (most likely) before I return there. It has a really big place in my life and it's hard to simply say goodbye to a place like that.
But, as for Germany--this is my life for the next three months. A lot of it is still pretty unclear to me, but this is what I've gathered so far. Our 'home base' is here in Muehltal and every day we have a schedule (unless it's our day off, which I have today since I arrived yesterday). Normally, we eat breakfast at 7a, have group meetings and devotions at 7:30, small group and prayer at 8, and then from 8:30un til ten we do chores and such around the house (laundry, cleaning, etc.) After that, we prepare for the day and the next outreaches. Basically, I'm stoked for this opportunity--it's going to be very stretching, but also very challenging.
However, that schedule is what a normal day looks like…when we happen to be in Muehltal. Basically, I'll be here until the end of the week, and then I won't be back around here until the end of May for two days (Days of Prayer) and then I'll be gone again until late June where we'll have about 10 days here. From what I can gather, I have about six days off for "vacation" as well as the weekends off (when we're actually here in Muehtal) so I think I'll be able to travel around Germany during those ten days off and visit some friends of mine in Dresden and perhaps in Berlin. I'm still not 100% if that's what is going down, but that seems to be the general gist of it all.
People and Language: Well, so far I've met about six members of the team. Everyone speaks English, but they've been speaking German with me so that I can practice and learn more, and, although it's only been about twelve hours, I can already tell that my German is improving. I can understand a lot of what is going on, although they often speak way too quickly and I have to ask them to slow down, but it's all good. Three more months of this every day and I know I'll be well on the road to improvement. For now, since I have the whole day free and most of the others my age are gone, I have had my nose in my German dictionary practicing and memorizing words.
Most of the people here are Germans, but here are also groups from iThemba, which are from South Africa. They are here doing outreaches and events. There are also two guys, though, who are part of the team who are German speaking South Africans--both of them have German parents and went to a German speaking school in Cape Town, but they are from South Africa and have been here since December. It's really cool to meet all these people and to have all these different things in common.
It's going to be a very challenging three months, but hey, this is life. Oh, and TIG….
So here is the news as of late: I arrived yesterday from Lithuania. It was very hard to say goodbyes to my friends from Lithuania, and there were definitely some tears shed. I didn't go to Lithuania expecting to make such good friendships, so the friendships that I made stand out to me as some of the best relationships that I've had with people. The amount of growth and honesty that I have shared with them is something that means more to me than I'm able to write about. I'm extremely thankful for t hose relationships.
It was also hard to say goodbye to Lithuania, knowing that it will be a long time (most likely) before I return there. It has a really big place in my life and it's hard to simply say goodbye to a place like that.
But, as for Germany--this is my life for the next three months. A lot of it is still pretty unclear to me, but this is what I've gathered so far. Our 'home base' is here in Muehltal and every day we have a schedule (unless it's our day off, which I have today since I arrived yesterday). Normally, we eat breakfast at 7a, have group meetings and devotions at 7:30, small group and prayer at 8, and then from 8:30un til ten we do chores and such around the house (laundry, cleaning, etc.) After that, we prepare for the day and the next outreaches. Basically, I'm stoked for this opportunity--it's going to be very stretching, but also very challenging.
However, that schedule is what a normal day looks like…when we happen to be in Muehltal. Basically, I'll be here until the end of the week, and then I won't be back around here until the end of May for two days (Days of Prayer) and then I'll be gone again until late June where we'll have about 10 days here. From what I can gather, I have about six days off for "vacation" as well as the weekends off (when we're actually here in Muehtal) so I think I'll be able to travel around Germany during those ten days off and visit some friends of mine in Dresden and perhaps in Berlin. I'm still not 100% if that's what is going down, but that seems to be the general gist of it all.
People and Language: Well, so far I've met about six members of the team. Everyone speaks English, but they've been speaking German with me so that I can practice and learn more, and, although it's only been about twelve hours, I can already tell that my German is improving. I can understand a lot of what is going on, although they often speak way too quickly and I have to ask them to slow down, but it's all good. Three more months of this every day and I know I'll be well on the road to improvement. For now, since I have the whole day free and most of the others my age are gone, I have had my nose in my German dictionary practicing and memorizing words.
Most of the people here are Germans, but here are also groups from iThemba, which are from South Africa. They are here doing outreaches and events. There are also two guys, though, who are part of the team who are German speaking South Africans--both of them have German parents and went to a German speaking school in Cape Town, but they are from South Africa and have been here since December. It's really cool to meet all these people and to have all these different things in common.
It's going to be a very challenging three months, but hey, this is life. Oh, and TIG….
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