Is it Monday yet?

Sandra gingerly placed her hand on the old door knob and pushed the door open just enough for her head to peek through. "This isn't the place!" She turned around and quickly ushered me out of the entryway in the old building.

"Well, then where is it?"

"Around the corner?"

"I thought you knew where we were going!" I whispered fiercely. Even though we were outside, I felt the need to keep my voice hushed in case any locals were hanging around the corner where we were creeping. 

"She said it was on the top floor. And this is definitely the right building. Let's try this door."

We entered a side door and tiptoed up two flights of creaky stairs; the second set was certainly less used than the first. Cobwebs cluttered to corners of the steps, and when we reached the landing all we found was dusty broken furniture and an old coat rack blocking the only door. Sandra tried to move it. "Maybe it's in here."

"This can't be right," I argued, "This doesn't look like anyone's been up here in a long time."

We retreated down a flight and found a woman on the second floor. 

Sandra addressed her, and the woman responded affirmatively, gesturing us through the door next to her. I followed Sandra and saw around thirty wooden chairs set up around a piano. It wasn't too long before the first woman entered after us. She greeted us warmly and asked a question. Sandra and I had agreed we'd both say we were second soprano; I caught that in Sandra's response. 

"Middle?" The German woman asked us enthusiastically. 

"Ya," I replied, thankful for a chance to demonstrate that I wasn't a mute who had shown up for choir practice. 

Nothing could have prepared me for the bear hug from the woman who didn't yet know my name, but I knew in that moment that I wanted to be a part of this choir just so I could become friends with this welcoming woman. More women trickled in, and our new friend introduced Sandra and I to the other choir members, emphasizing that we were mezzos. We quickly picked up that this was the smallest section; Sandra and I comprised half of it. The other women were still eager to talk to us, or rather talk to Sandra while I smiled and nodded. I was so excited to understand snippets, and I listened to one woman describe her recent trip to America. I heard, "Something, something, something, Denver, something." 

I gasped in excitement and turned to Sandra to translate my enthusiasm. "My family!" I couldn't really figure out how to express more, but I wanted her to know that's where my family lives. The conversation blazed past me again, but I kept listening for other clues as to what they were talking about. 

I was thankful when the rehearsal started because I felt I could contribute something despite my lack of comprehension of the language. Vowel sounds in warm ups are still the same. It is much harder, however, to sight read music in a language you don't know. I struggle to sound out words in German when there isn't a note to match them to and a fast tempo to keep up with, so this was extra difficult for me. The practice felt like it went on forever, but it loved every second of it because I was completely immersed in my new culture. Sandra was only able to whisper snippets of translations to me, but I was able to follow along with most of the conductor's facial expressions and hand motions. My sight reading isn't the best, but I was certainly thankful for those years of lessons from Jen that taught me how to use my voice. I'm a little out of practice, but I can't wait to go back to rehearsal next week. 

Mondays were already a joy for me because I get to see my students after a two day break from their beautiful faces, and now I have yet another reason to look forward to Mondays. My weeks here run by in a blink, so I'm learning to cherish the things that make each different day wonderful. Monday is my day to celebrate my students again as well as my opportunity to build relationships and break down a language barrier as I learn German and sing with my Kandern neighbors. 

Tale as Old as Time

Germany celebrates their unification as a country on October third each year which means students don't go to school and teachers go to France.

Well, maybe not all teachers do, but three of my housemates, a neighbor, and I chose to adventure over the border while everything in our resident country was closed. We piled in a car and stopped off at the bank to get cash for any groceries or goodies we might find in France. As we tried to pull out of the parking lot in town, we discovered a flat tire was preventing us from going very far. Sandra and I sat aside as the other two Garni girls took charge. It was a humbling experience for me to have nothing to offer the situation. I'm used to being a fairly productive member of society, but I found that stranded in the middle of town, I could do nothing other than sit on the curb and provide moral support for the two girls changing the flat for a spare.

Even once we got home, all I could do was play music on my phone for the same two girls as they changed the front tires to winter tires that we could use to drive over 80kph to actually get to Colmar in a reasonable amount of time. I cheered them on to the best of my ability while pondering my usefulness as a member of society in a country where I don't have a clue what to do in a vehicular crisis. What occurred to me was that my value as a person is not related to my utility by my personality.

When we finally arrived in Colmar, I wasn't a frivolous member of the excursion; all of us were integral to contributing to an amazing day. We stepped out of the parking garage into a street that looked nearly identical to the village Belle wanders in Beauty and the Beast, and we sang and danced through town. It likely looked so similar to the cartoon because Colmar is rumored to be the inspiration for Belle's village in the Disney production.

This was literally right outside the parking garage door.

My long weekend also gave me an opportunity to see some of a closer city to my home over a different international border. My organization's member care team planned an excursion to teach us the local bus system, and a few friends and I journeyed into Switzerland to wander around the streets of Basel for an afternoon.  

The bus dropped us off just outside of a Starbucks, and I enjoyed my first Starbucks in nearly two months. (I did get a shot of espresso at a Starbucks in Freiburg back in August, but that hardly counts.) After savoring my massive mocha, I window shopped through Basel with my friends and had another opportunity to be thankful for the relationships I'm building in this new home. 

One of the unique things about my service here as a missionary in Germany is that I'm not always (often... ever...) interacting with local German (or French) speakers. I'm limited to who I can interact with right now because of the language barrier, but that doesn't limit me from growing in my faith and living on mission with the people I do interact with. These weekend adventures were opportunities for me to spend time with the people I live and work with in an environment different than our daily routine. We don't have distinct lines between work, church, or other friends here. Instead, I get to adventure with these amazing individuals in Colmar, Basel, and the halls of BFA in Kandern. We get the privilege of sharing life with each other and growing in relationship with Christ in our adventurous lives - a tale as old as time.

Moment of Impact

Hey, look, it's my students! (More specifically, mine are blurry in the back.) Sometimes I have a hard time remembering I've only been their teacher for three weeks because I love these students so much already. I've learned all their names, and have read fascinating letters of introduction from each of them. I have students who have come from so many different backgrounds, and I get the opportunity to teach them about story mountain all in one room. For the most part, these kids are excited to learn, and I'm delighted to teach them. The highlights of my days come after the last bell rings and one of my seventh period students wants to continue our conversation about the motives of murder in a short story or the conclusions we draw based on indirect characterization in a cliffhanger.

The learning environment at BFA is incredible. The value for education is not all that impresses me about these students; they are also eager to grow in maturity and be world changers. This week was Spiritual Emphasis Week, and we took ten minutes out of every class period to start each day with chapel. A swell Irishman flew all the way from Arkansas to talk to these kids this week about how they can partner with God to write their own stories.

Anticipation ran high through the school Monday and Tuesday as the students prepared for the first ever Impact Day at Black Forest Academy. Similar to my experience as a student at Multnomah, the school took a day off of instruction to reach out to the community on Wednesday, and I had the privilege of serving alongside a group of my students as we weeded a patio at a local church and mission office.

We were back in class on Thursday a little sore from serving but filled with joy from impacting our community. Friday night, the chaplains closed out Spiritual Emphasis Week with a special worship night where students were given the opportunity to take a stake of wood to write moments of their past on as physical representations of significant markers in their lives. At the end of the service, students and staff filed up to grab one more stake of wood as a reminder that they could partner with God as authors of their own stories and write something new on it that they would work towards accomplishing in their lives.

I'm so excited about the story God and I are writing with my life.

What will your story be?

Milestones Matter

Just before I graduated from the MAT program at Multnomah, the program director made a point to tell all the graduates that milestones matter. Graduation was a significant moment in my life.

Today was another huge milestone for me: I survived my first day teaching.

In some ways I feel like it doesn't really count because I only had eight minute class periods, barely enough time to take roll and hear each kid tell me an interesting fact about themselves. However, I'm sure I'll never forget my first opening ceremony at BFA. It was incredible to hear the parents and students cheer as the flags of the nations represented at the school were walked into the auditorium. Part of the morning gathering included a "roll call" of the nations as a staff member listed off the names of passport countries and parents' countries of service while students stood at the mention of their country. Students at BFA this year come from nearly sixty different countries around the world. 

During my eight minute class periods with my freshmen, I asked them to share their names and an interesting fact about themselves. A large number of them could just share their country of birth and it was different than anyone else in the room. It was barely a taste of English class, but I was so happy to finally put faces to the students I've been longing to teach. I'm equally as excited to teach my Spiritual Formation class as these students and I figure out what the title of the course means over the next couple of days and create a curriculum to meet their needs.

The Garni Girls got together for a picture at school on our first day!

One of the best things about today is that it did not stop being wonderful after I met my students. I was exhausted from those long teaching sessions, but Christine and I went to the grocery store and hauled up a load of goodies to make dinner for the rest of the house. Not only did I have the joy of meeting my students today, but I got to enjoy real Mexican food in Germany made with taco seasoning from America!

We paid a little extra for jalapenos, refried beans, and salsa from the American section of Hieber's, but Christine made the guac from scratch - and she rocked it.

I can't help but laugh at what an accomplishment our taco night was when that's perhaps one of the easiest meals to make in America. However, I was quite thankful for the opportunity to eat a food that's such a comfort at home. I'm so blessed that today was such a great milestone that I'll never forget, and even the little details of the day were perfect from my Longbottom coffee in the morning to the Trader Joe's soft baked snicker-doodles my Granny sent me this week.

I made it to BFA!

For those of you who aren't on Facebook and didn't get a chance to see this video already, I want to extend my thanks for all your prayers and support. I am so thankful to be here!

Gamma Gamma Garni

I arrived in Kandern two weeks ago today and just got home internet this afternoon. What a strange feeling to be dropped in a foreign country without immediate access to the news and updates from my friends, particularly those back in the states. Several generous new friends opened their doors for me and my housemates to come over and use their wifi, but it was always weighed against the realization we had to hike back up our hill after checking our email... Sometimes it just wasn't worth the walk; I read instead.

I've always loved reading and choose to spend a lot of my time reading, but in the last two weeks, I finished six books in all the free time I had without the internet. While I definitely had moments of longing to message or Skype friends back home, the last two weeks gave me a chance to really be present where I am in every moment. I want to preserve that liberating feeling of not being tied to a device (other than my e-reader).

There have been hours for me to hang out in my fabulous reading nook and recharge through reading, and I've had opportunity to spend time getting to know my amazing housemates.

You may not have a chance to meet them all face to face, but I promise you, these are some of the most amazing women I've ever met. It's going to be quite an experience living with seven busy teachers; so far we've had plenty of laughter as we figure out living habits and how to share one kitchen (well, plus a mini kitchen on the garden floor). Were you to walk into our home on a lazy afternoon, you might find Sandra and Christine on the garden floor in our second living room laughing loudly at something hysterical one or the other has said. Or they could be up on the main floor in our spacious living room with Hanna or Julie (our temporary tenant). In fact, the three of them might be on "Hanna duty" making sure our one true extrovert is never by herself for too long. Ahna would already have been on a run through the Kandern hiking trails with our neighbor Jessie, but she might be joining in the fun as well. Johanna and Dayla will be around, possibly practicing violin or viola upstairs in their rooms. Were you to venture up to that top floor, you'd likely find me tucked in the reading nook where a couple housemates abandoned comfy chairs for me to plop into with a book. Well, I'd likely be there if I wasn't downstairs enjoying quality time with the Garni girls.

Between the seven year long residents of the Garni, we teach in five departments, cover all three campuses of BFA (actually, Christine covers all three by herself), and are brought together by one passion of serving TCKs here in Germany.

We're halfway through our new teacher orientation, and all of us are getting a little antsy for school to start. I've already registered at the Rathaus as a resident of Kandern, opened my German bank account (almost set up the online banking part), met with the English department head, saw my classroom, and set up my desk. All I need now is some students to fill my classroom! Okay, I still have a long way to go - especially considering I just found out this afternoon that I'll be teaching one section of Spiritual Formation. I've got to set up the desks in the classroom (they're all stacked in the back), I've got to submit my lesson plans for English 9, I've got to meet the Bible department head, and I've got to figure out what the curriculum for Spiritual Formation is.

But on the students note, I have had the blessing of meeting three of my freshman girls already. It was so much fun to get to put a couple faces to the previously nameless void of my English class. The first student I met is the daughter of my BFA "host" who's helped me transition to living here in Kandern. I had dinner with their family my first week here, and heard about how she's grown up in Germany as her parents serve on the leadership for GEM.

The second student I met is new to BFA this year. Her parents are going to be dorm parents at the school, and they've just moved from Thailand. She came along to our picnic on the Rhine this afternoon. While walking home from orientation after a full day today, a returning BFA teacher stopped to introduce me to some students; one of them happened to be yet another freshman. She's just come here with her parents from Ireland and will be the last of seven kids in her family to attend BFA.

And now that you've read through another action filled post, I'll reward you with some photos of my recent adventures.

Outside my bedroom window looks a lot like home.

I told you the living room was amazing - we can see the whole town!

My host took me and some of the Garni girls to Kaysersberg the first weekend I was here.

It was an amazing view from the top of the tower - and I inspected the stones on my way down after I enjoyed the view as per Tolkien's advice.

Walking through this French town felt a little like going through Disneyland; it was surreal to think I was actually in France.

I'm so glad to know I can get Pop-Tarts at the local grocery store if I'm willing to pay $8.68 US dollars.

This is my first ice cream cone in years! The ice cream store owner's wife has food allergies; he gets me.

Johanna invited me to sleep out on her balcony one night.

This is what I woke up to in the morning. Can you see the sun lighting up the trees rimming the town?

This is my very own desk - complete with Wyatt's smiling face and a Tina doodle to remind me of home.

And now, as thankful as I am for internet, I'll be heading to bed soon, ready for another full day of orientation tomorrow.

A Long Way from Longbottom

There's a fantastic coffeeshop in Hillsboro called Longbottom Coffee. It's my favorite coffeeshop not just because it's name comes from a Tolkien novel, and not just because they make amazing coffee, but also because they have an amazing view of Hillsboro from their small store seating area. I love sitting on the comfy couch with my giant mocha looking out on the green hills of my small town (or behind me at the employees lounging around seen through the window from the store to the warehouse).
Longbottom is a fantastic place to relax and take in the beauty of creation; it's the best place I know of in Hillsboro.

My new living room is even better. The past two mornings my body has decided to get me wake me up around 4:30am because surely that's no time for sleeping soundly. Unable to fall asleep, I've grabbed a Trader Joe's instant coffee pack and made my way down the marble staircase from my top floor bedroom to the kitchen on the floor below to boil some water for my coffee. I took the coffee into the spacious living room with large windows overlooking the town and watched as the sunlight reached over the hills in the east to lighten up the brightly painted houses in the valley.
For now you'll just have to take my word for it on how beautiful the view really is because I haven't had the sense of mind to actually take a picture of it to post. I haven't really taken any pictures yet, and I do apologize, but, in my defense, it's been a whirlwind of a week getting here.

After my farewell open house on Friday night, I spent my last Saturday in the states the same way I spent every Saturday from when I was four through when I was twenty - I went to breakfast with my dad. I thought I was composed enough to make it through church on Sunday, but all my plans of not crying fell out the window when I parked. I started tearing up in the parking lot realizing that seven years ago Westport didn't exist, but I was part of the team that helped launch it. Now we have a building - I didn't have to get there two hours early to set up my Port classroom, and I didn't have to stay late to pack everything back into the Grover's car. Instead I showed up early to catch a few more friends before they left from the first service and stayed late to give one last hug to one of the few people who's stuck around as long as me. (He's also the person who made me cry most that day - thanks a lot, Jamie.)
I went to lunch with a group of my students, and enjoyed the time laughing with those kids one more time. Next, I hunted down Jen and Dave who had to bolt from service without seeing me and spent time with them before running home for a final LAD meeting where Amanda and Desiree helped me weed out a few of my books from my three stuff suitcases. Okay, so it was like a banker's box full that they got me to take out.
I left from there to go to my final FUEL event and watched my kiddos play kickball before Sarah met me to go to dinner. She let me choose the place, and I got to have my last dinner in the states at Juan Colorado. Even though she was doubtful of the dessert that was deep frozen ice cream rolled in cornflakes and dunked in a fryer, she ended up loving the fried ice cream as much as I do.
Once we got back to my house, Sarah opened my three suitcases and confidently told me that we could get it down to two - underweight. The next four hours were a painful process of eliminating books, clothes, and a few heavy items - I left every mug behind.
And we're not even to the travelling yet. Ready? Let's go!
Monday morning at 7 am, my parents, Sarah, and I loaded the two full suitcases, carry on, and my backpack into the car with the empty suitcase just in case anything unforeseen happened at the airport. We drove to Tacoma where we had lunch and coffee with Cat before getting to the SeaTac airport at 3pm. Eight hours into my trip, we finally made it to the airport! Sarah walked up to the kiosk to check me in, and the employee weighed by checked bags which each had half a kilo to spare before asking me if I had a carryon. I told her my small duffel was my carryon and my backpack was my laptop case. She politely informed me that was not okay and I would have to remove my laptop from the backpack and leave it behind. She also said my duffel weighed too much to take on the plane. Sarah calmly pulled heavy items out of the duffel to put in the checked bags, and I frantically took my laptop out of the backpack and started stuffing clothes and food from the other bag into it to replace the weight.
I made it through security fine, and didn't even panic when my 10.5 hour flight to Frankfurt started boarding half an hour late, eating up a third of my layover. I calmly walked aboard my first international flight to discover all the nice flight attendants speaking German. I realized I was already outside my comfort zone, but I made my way to my aisle seat to discover an older woman occupying it. I told her I thought she was in my seat to which she rudely responded, "No. Find another seat. They have already moved me twice. Go away." Panicked, I showed my seat number to a flight attendant who waved me to the middle section. "Sit in that row," she said nonchalantly, "Just sit in the middle one." So much for my nice aisle seat.
I wrenched my knee getting in to the seat, but once able to buckle the belt, I didn't stand up again until we landed in Frankfurt. As we began our descent, the flight attendant announced that due to our delay several passengers had already been rebooked on new flights and those going to another list of connections would have to rush to make their connecting flight. Naturally, the connection to Basel was one that I had to rush to.
After nearly 11 hours seated, I found my knee did not respond well to weight of any kind put on it, but I ignored the pain and powered through to a massive security line. I walked to an employee and held out my ticket asking, "Will I be able to make my flight?" He looked at the ticket and confirmed I was travelling alone before letting me cut to the front of the line. Flustered, I pulled my laptop out of the case, placed my carryon after it on the conveyor belt and walked through when the waved me forward without a chance to empty my pockets. Of course I set off the alarm and I'm sure the employees thought I was the dumbest person to go through the line that hour (I'm assuming they get several people a day flustered because they're about to miss their flights... I'm hoping at least). After being released from security once they confirmed the metal bookmark in my backpack was not a knife (thanks, Jen), I hurried on to the long line at customs. I made small talk with the couple who flew in from LA and were about to miss their connection to Prague. I prayed that the line would move faster. I fidgeted as the stern faced employees checked passports and tickets. I finally made it to the counter and discovered there was no need for worry. With just a quick look at my photo and my face, the kind German customs man put the first stamp in my passport. I didn't have to answer any questions or be delayed any more. He directed me how to get to my gate, and I booked it through the massive duty free store to make it panting to my gate.
The kind woman asked me politely if I was going to Basel. I said yes. She asked me if I was from Helsinki. I panicked. "No, I'm from Seattle," I said as soon as I remembered that's where I flew from, not Portland. The other flight attendant said that I was from Seattle at the same time, so I felt a little better. She scanned my ticket and let me through the gate. I followed a doorway to a hallway to a tunnel and started to panic again - where was my plane? It was leaving in less than half an hour, and I was lost in a tunnel!
I came to a bus in front of a man with a yellow vest. "Basel?" I asked. He nodded, and I got on the empty bus save one American business man. "Are you going to Basel?" I asked. "Yes." "Are we flying?" "Yes." "Okay. Good." I sat down and caught my breath. "Are we going to make it?" He looked at his watch and told me we'd be fine. We sat there for another ten minutes as a few more people loaded the bus.
Finally, the driver boarded, and we left the tunnel and entered the tarmac. Big, fat raindrops bombarded the bus, and the driver swore as he was assaulted by wind and rain when he opened the door. (I laughed inside when the one naughty German word I know was the first one I heard in Germany.) I plowed through the sheets of rain up the stairs into the plane and found my seat near the back of the tiny jet. I plopped into my seat and checked the time - 4:12. The flight was scheduled to depart at 4:15, and I'd made it. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Once my sigh was out, the pilot announced that the entire Frankfurt airport was closed indefinitely due to the thunderstorm. We sat there in the pressurized cabin for an hour before actually beginning our half hour flight to Basel.
Once I exited the plane, I knew I needed to get my bags and leave out the French exit - NOT THE SWISS - where my ride would pick me up. I followed the signs with pictures of bags that everyone else seemed to be following and was assaulted by a red hallway with a white cross that boldly told me WELCOME TO SWITZERLAND. I turned around and looked for any other hallway that might welcome me to France, but, seeing no other way out, followed everyone else to baggage claim. I discovered once we got to the baggage carousels that there were exits from there leading to France or Switzerland. I picked up my two suitcases and walked towards the French doors expecting them to lead me to another line where I'd have to answer questions about the contents of my bags. Instead, I stepped in the green lane with nothing to declare, and walked through the doors to France were Dani immediately stepped out and said, "Laura?" I was so relieved, exhausted, and smelly, that I weakly smiled my reply confirming she was my ride.

Now do you feel a little more okay with me forgetting to take pictures? Thanks. I do hope to share some soon, but it may take me a few days before my body knows when to wake up and when to pull my camera out to document the beauty around me.