Don't Breaker My Heart

"Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you." -Matthew 5:48 (MSG)

Ok whoa! Speaking of adjusting to a slightly different way of life over here, here's a good story.

So a new dryer was purchased for us right before we arrived in this apartment and both Amy and I were very excited to have soft, warm clothes (she had previously been hanging everything to dry). A couple nights ago we attempted to wash the towels and sheets that had accumulated, so after figuring out the washing machine (which was a feat in itself) and Amy realizing she had "washed" her clothes earlier that week in only fabric softener (she says she thought it looked like soap..?) I transferred the wet clothes into the new dryer. We had been warned that the wiring wasn't that great in the basement and although Amy hadn't had luck drying her newly softened(?) clothes a few days earlier, I was certain I could get it to work. So I closed the dryer door, adjusted the timer, and voila! It was working! For like 3 seconds. Then all the lights and sounds in the already creepy basement went out, and I was stuck, by myself, with only a cell phone for light (which, for the record isn't that great-!). Uhh it was a total dilemma and I decided to feel around in the dark and try to make my way to where we were shown the breaker was. So I flipped it back on, and much to my relief the lights came on and I could easily find my way back to the laundry room. Ok, take 2: I unplugged everything save the dryer and I think it might have stayed on for maybe 5 seconds this time before flipping the breaker, leaving me to retrace my steps to turn it back on. Not fun-! I finally decided to just hang the towels and sheets and started coming to grips that we may never have soft towels here in Germany and that was how it was going to be.

So that was a couple nights ago and I'm proud to say that last night I re-attempted to conquer the dryer situation and was this time armed with my trusty maglite (to dispell the darkness should it come). I brought a book and a blanket, and sat in the cold basement until all loads of towels and now also my clothes were washed and dryed. I didn't want it to blow the breaker as soon as I headed back upstairs or anything-! And keep in mind that the washer and dryer can't ever run at the same time. Or even be plugged in at the same time-! I think what I figured out is that it will never be figured out, and I should never count on dryer-dried clothes. Do Germans live like this all the time? I guess this is what adapting means...

(so if anyone wonders what I am doing with my time, chances are it's probably laundry...) :)

Establishing a Daily Routine

"If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse." -Proverbs 27:14

Wow, it's unbelievable that 2 weeks has come and gone...in some ways it's flown by but in others it feels like I've been away from everyone at home for much longer. Life is slowly starting to settle into a normal pace, and as Amy and I finish putting up pictures and try to patiently wait for our "Hausmeister" (apartment manager) to visit and hang our curtains (he insists on hanging anything to avoid us hitting wires) things are starting to seem like home. As I walk around the city it is still a bit surreal to think that I will be living here for 2 years and am not just staying for only a few weeks or months. I am looking forward to it and know the reality is sinking in one day at a time.

Did you notice the "verse of the day"? Well last weekend our Hausmeister and his family returned from a 3 week vacation, so the sounds of another family (with 2 small children I might add) were unfamiliar to me in our previously quiet and calm building. Since then, Amy and I have often heard the screaming and crying of both children (after Amy had commented on how nice it is to have thick walls, and we then concluded that it must be the floor that is not thick or insulated at all) and although they live directly below us, in the middle of the day it doesn't bother me at all but just serves as a reminder that we are not alone in this building. However, this morning as both of us were sleeping soundly in our comfortable, warm beds, we suddenly awoke to the alarm clock type sounds permeating the building. It was not the middle of the day! And after a tiring week our hopes of sleeping in had vanished. All attempts to roll over and return to the land of slumber failed and we both reluctantly got up and started the day. Needless to say today hasn't been a bad day by any means and I think Amy and I are well on our way to becoming flexible, adaptable missionaries. :)

So it's been so long since I last wrote about life here that I should probably add a bit about what's been going on in the last week and a half. Well most importantly I think we have conquered the fruitfly infestation of our kitchen. What was this, you wonder? See garbage here isn't just garbage, it is either paper, plastic or food (I know you're wondering about all the other normal, day to day items that don't seem to fit in any of these categories, and believe me it's a constant dilemma for both Amy and I) and trash cans are conveniently made with all 3 categories seperated. The problem is that as food is prepared, consumed, and discarded, and then sits in an open trash can (there is a lid but it is by no means air-tight) it somehow breeds multitudes of fruitflies. So after much research and study (ie. I asked a couple ladies in the church) we have since changed our ways and now have a completely seperate, enclosed food-trash recepticle which has proved miraculous in diminishing the density of small, annoying flies. One challenge down!

Amy and I also attended our first Dresden ballet at the beautiful Semperoper (Opera House). We managed to get some really inexpensive yet great seats because we bought them 10 minutes before the show started. It was very entertaining watching Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" ballet-style...but all those men in tights still made me a little uneasy-!
Much of last weekend and the beginning of this week was spent acquiring the smaller necessities for our apartment, and trips around town to different stores take an unexpected amount of time due to our mode of transportation. Not to mention the lingering reminder that whatever we buy has to be taken on the tram and then carried home and cannot just be easily thrown into a car trunk and unloaded there! What a different mindset. The missionaries here, the Carrolls, did bring their car when we bought our closet at Ikea, so thankfully that was one thing we didn't have to squeeze onto the tram with. And it's been wonderful to unload our clothes into a more permanent closet than just our suitcases sprawled about. Now to find a place to hide the empty suitcases until it's time to leave!

Amazingly, we also made a trip to Walmart last week! WALMART! I thought of all things I wouldn't find in Germany, Walmart would be at the top. But we made the long bus ride, even taking a "Walmart bus" the last bit of the way, and then stood at the door of Dresden's very own Walmart Supercenter. The Germans made it their own by adding a cafeteria, and also making a second floor on part of it. The prices were unbelievable and Amy and I even scored a couple of rugs for 1 and 2 euros each. Talk about a deal! I finally knew I was really in Walmart when I saw a whole row of employees sitting in the cafeteria with the blue vests on that said "Wilkommen bei Walmart" (Welcome to Walmart) on the back...it's the real deal, translated into German!
I feel like I've talked a lot about seemingly meaningless things, but to sum up what it's been like here all I can say is that I'm still figuring that out. Each day presents new cultural challenges, the most obvious and recurring being the language. Most days I jump on a tram or bus to maybe go somewhere in particular but to mostly become familiar with this city, something I have been reassured will take time. Everytime I go out I see something I hadn't noticed before and although I am looking forward to feeling at home here I hope no matter how familiar things get I can always find something new to remind me what a special place this is. I can't believe I'm living in Europe!

Settling In

"Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind." -1 Peter 3:8

The people here are so sweet! Germans have a reputation of being very hospitable and I have experienced that here. One lady in particular, Marion, has had 2 gatherings at her home since I arrived and her warmth just overflows when everyone is there. She prepares so much food and offers every type of drink... it seems like she rarely sits still. And ironically she used to live in Edmonton, where I just moved from! She worked there for a year and since returning to Germany has become a Christian. I am looking forward to getting to know her and the rest of the Christians here.

Amy and I have worked hard at adding our personal touches to our apartment. We have been blessed to "inherit" all the furniture we need from the Stoltes, a family who recently moved back to the States. In our main apartment we have a kitchen, large bedroom, and winter garden (a small room with lots of windows and typically filled with plants...similar to a porch or patio but is enclosed), and just across the hall we have more of a living room, with couches and a tv complete with a VHS player (compatible with videos from Canada and the US). It is a perfect size space for the 2 of us and we look forward to hosting people here soon. We have yet to get a closet, however, so we are currently living out of our suitcases clothes-wise. Hopefully we will find one by the end of the week and that will help alot in feeling settled...we can put the suitcases away! We are also planning to buy some fabric for curtains, but other than that we are very comfortable here. We even have a pull out couch if anyone wants to visit for a few days....;)

On Monday Amy and I began riding bikes around instead of walking. After a few days of walking around, what a blessing it was to ride instead! We had been walking the 25-30 minutes to the church building, and 20 minutes to the grocery store...but now with bikes it is so much more convenient and fun! The only downside is my sore butt, but it's a small price to pay for the luxury of speed!

Arrival in Dresden

What a crazy past couple days! I am finally here in Dresden after a whole lot of traveling, and I'm tired!

So, where to start...well I said tearful goodbyes and boarded the plane at about 8pm on Thursday, and my first experience of German culture hit me as I got onto the plane. I had waited in the airport terminal until my row was called, and it so happened it was in the last group called to board. There was noone left in the terminal when I went to board, and this should have been my first clue that something was different! Well, I walked down the long tunnel to the plane and as soon as I boarded EVERYONE looked up and gave me this look of disgust. Ok maybe not everyone...ok maybe just one or two people...but it felt like everyone was glaring at me as I feebly lifted my heavy carry on bags into the overhead compartment. No kidding, I was practically the very last person to board the huge 777 Airbus, and that's a lot of people! It then dawned on me that from my limited experience with Germans I knew they are very punctual people, and I guess they just couldn't get on that plane fast enough. I hadn't even left Edmonton and I was already feeling foreign-!

It was a good plane ride...long, but good. I watched 2 of the 3 films and that passed the time very quickly. The hardest part I started to notice about the jetlag was eating times--they fed us at like 11pm, and again at 430am. My head might be able to adjust quickly to 8 hours difference, but my stomach has a much harder time!

Arriving in Frankfurt presented me with another cultural experience, although this time it wasn't as surprising. After clearing customs it was time to collect luggage at the carousel, but as I turned the corner into the baggage claim area, I noticed that all 200 people that were on my flight were now crowding around the carousel (which wasn't nearly big enough for all 200 to stand around). Man! So now I had to remember possibly one of the longest German words and assertively announce "Entschuldigung!" (excuse me) when I recognized my bags...actually I should say, when I bent down and found a crack in the crowd big enough for me to peer through and see something that maybe might look similar to my bags...what a challenge. Welcome to Germany!

So the last leg of this incredible journey was meeting up with Randy Carroll, my supervisor and a current missionary in Dresden. He was a wonderful picker-upper and was waiting right outside the doors, and although I had never met him, I recognized him right away from pictures. We took my cart overloaded with luggage and headed for the train station, which OF COURSE was not in the same terminal of the airport. That would have been too easy.

After numerous escalators and elevators and then unloading, juggling, pulling, pushing, lifting and reloading the luggage, we made it on an earlier train to Dresden than expected. We sat on the floor since the reservations Randy had made were for a later train and we decided against waiting another 2 hours. I wanted to see Dresden!

It was a wonderful reunion with Amy in the Dresden Hauptbahnhof (train station) and crazy to think that it had been 4 months since we had seen each other. I said goodbye to Randy for the night and Amy and I took a taxi (it was a Mercedes!) to our new apartment. At 9pm, 17 hours after my journey started, I was finally where I would call home for the next 2 years...what a great feeling after such a long and exhausting day.