just the facts maam (and sirs)

Well, hey there. Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, so we had an interesting time in class, discussing what the Holocaust was, why it is so important to reflect, and why things like that happen (and how to prevent them in the future (spoiler alert: it's to remember that EVERY PERSON has value and worth, by merit of being a human)). It was an interesting time to get the kids thinking and talking about their opinions and thoughts about a wide range of topics around this idea. I was particularly grateful to have a short video from my friend, Aaron, with Jews for Jesus to really get the conversation started in a productive way. It's the first time I have really broached the subject with my students before, and I am glad I did. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have big talks with my kids and, hopefully, give them something to chew on going forward. Kindness is so important, y'all, and we are ALL capable of great evil AND kindness. 

Without further ado, the post from 27.January...

~deine Sarah

howdy!

 

i promise im trying to be better about sending these with more regularity, but not having a computer at home really cuts down on the success of that plan. 

 

today is friday, and i already took my test, so thats nice!  at 215, were going on a tour of the town hall and the salt museum, so those should be interesting and good to learn about!  the semester is really starting to fly by already!  i can hardly believe that ive been here for three weeks!  its crazy! 

 

i guess ill use this email to send praises and prayer requests.

 

ill start with some praises and then some prayer requests and end with some praises again because theyre good!

 

my first praise is that i am being required to get close to God because otherwise i dont think that i would be able to make it through the semester. 

 

also, the sun is shining today!  whoop!  i hope that it gets warmer soon.  i know thats not really practical, but what is a girl without a dream?

 

i love that i get to see calvinism work every day!  every time something good happens i get to see God loving me and when non-believers do things for me, i get to think "thanks, God, for using that person to love on me right now."  because thats the other half of T(otal depravity) right?  that the good we do comes from God?  whoop!

 

some prayer requests...

 

im still having a hard time adjusting and most of the time i could cry at any given moment, and i hate that!  but im told its 'normal' and that "this, too, shall pass" so im trying to get by and not doing so well at it but things have got to get better soon!

 

would yall pray for the other people on this trip?  its fun to get to know them because i dont think that any (maybe one) of them are Christians, and their stories are similar and basically they arent Christians and what do non-Christians need most?  Jesus! 

 

i still havent really found my groove and it seems like each day is harried and the only things that are very settled are my quiet times though those are intermittently interrupted, so would you pray that my desire for the Word and time with God would be increased and that i would be excited to get to spend time everyday?

 

and i worry too much.  about everything.  and i know that God will take care of it but i dont want to really believe that so it feels like im trusting Him but only with one hand because i need to be able to catch myself if i fall (which would only be through fault of my own...).  thats a really exhausting way to live, im coming to realize!

 

i guess thats all i have for that section...on to the end, which is...MORE PRAISES!  whoop!

 

i get a chance to talk to people about God a lot, and no one seems to be too strong in their anti-Christian sentiment, and people are even coming to talk to me about religious ideas about things!  awesome!  pray that i would continue to be led by the Spirit in those situations because its no surprise that Gods words are better, more poignant, and more effective than my own!

 

God is good to me, and He loves me!  and He truly is the God who waits and will always be there for you, but only on His time and thats always just in time, so thats awesome!  He really has been protecting me so far on this trip and I am so very thankful for that! 

 

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation!  Oh my soul praise Him for he is thy hope and salvation! 

 

love hearing from everyone, so thanks for being an interactive group!  i love each of you dearly, and wish that i could be martin luther and own a house thats as big as a hotel when i get back so that i could have all the people i hold most dear within reach! 

 

love,

°sarah

 

ps--for those of you who are wondering what im doing in quiet times, im reading through Isaiah in the evenings and skimming Proverbs in the mornings. 

raise your hand if you know how cold -13°C really is...

Well, it was bound to happen, and it did. This post is late, hah. It is dated 25. January, and today is the 26th. Oh, well, and let's be honest--if you didn't expect me to miss this at some point, you must've overlooked the fact that this blog lay dormant for '05 (whoop!) years before this semester. Anyhow, and without further ado, the next post. Tomorrow there should be another. 

~deine sarah

because i do!  its 8,59999°F and its how cold it was when i walked to school yesterday!  what?!?!

 

well, howdy!

 

so its been like a week since i last wrote so i think i have kind of a lot to say but i think that maybe ill leave part of it for tomorrow so that those of you who contend that i have been slacking on the emailing can smile smugly and think 'ha, sarah really DOES do my bidding' hehe...or so you think.

 

so not too much has been going on over here and so i havent written much but mostly i havent written much because i spend so much time in the computer lab writing emails to everyone that i dont get around to mass emails...horrible excuse, i know, and so i promise to try to do better, even if its short...

 

first off, i have to say that i think that its weird that celcius to people here is "grad" because im like, isnt that the word for degrees and how come you dont specify which measuring scale youre using??  but i guess that we do the same thing so its okay?

 

but seriously, i was talking to krista last night i think its funny that while people in texas get their weather from oh, say, the northwest, our cold is coming from russia.  thats right, i said russia...and apparently its colder than normal there (be glad for the heat, merinda (or maybe not, but i would be!)) so its colder than normal here, as well.  we got home from holland and didnt really enjoy the prospect of walking home from the train station...at least i live closer than most everyone!

 

this weekend, about 12 of us went to amsterdam to see the sights and take in some art.  it was an interesting time, and traveling by train is an excellent way to go...its so fast!  and who would have thought that traveling by train would be so leicht (lie-cht (a soft ch))!  its awesome...

 

so how was amsterdam, you might be wondering.  well, it was alright.  i think i could take it or leave it, but the museums were pretty nice and such.  we went to the rijks museum to see some rembrandt (http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/index.jsp), and to the van gogh museum (http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/bisrd/top-1-1.html).  i liked the van gogh museum better, methinks...

 

so that was my weekend.  i got back to lüneburg to find out that the temperature had dropped drastically and that was not a lot of fun to walk home in.  well, i took too long writing this and it didnt get sent on tuesday as planned (please forgive me!), so i guess ill add what happened today so far.  yesterday i went to class and (in true to sarah style) volunteered to give a presentation on TUESDAY next!  included with it must be a paper, so thats a major bummer, as well!  what was i thinking?!?!?!  so now i have two thats right, TWO projects to do this weekend...guess ill spend a fair amount of time in the computer lab on saturday (they arent open on sunday), but at least im gettin this stuff outta the way...more tomorrow, perhaps!

 

later days and much love!

°sarah

i would never have predicted that the thumb would be the biggest wuss of the hand...

 

Howdy! This is the last post until Monday, so I hope you enjoy it. And, don't forget--your thumbs will freeze on a cold day in a bike, even in gloves. ;)

~deine sarah

but apparently when youre riding a bike home in the dark and its 26.6°F outside thats the digit thats going to be the worst off...stupid thumbs

so howdy!  hower yall doing today, on what is most likely a holiday for you?  im in school.  boooooo...(schade (shh-ah-duh))

well its been like a week, so whats been going on...

first, school here is still a bummer, just like school in the states (who am i kidding, i LOVE school! but its still less fun) and i had my first test on friday.  i got an 80 which is apparently smack in the middle of the b's so thats...good?  meh.  i have another quiz today, which will be over before any of yall read this so asking for prayer is a moot point, ha.  

saturday we went to hamburg and had a great time walking around the city, and to the top of st michaels church tower.  wouldnt have been too bad but the elevator broke literally an hour before we got there so we took the stairs.  all 440 (or so) of them!  that was tres horrible!  we were like, ummm can we just turn around?  we changed our minds...the view was almost worth the psychotic amounts of stairs so i guess thats okay.  then we met some parent-aged men who were over from TN so that was cool and one of them was a pastor of a free will baptist church there so that was nice to talk to a "normal" person.  we finally left the city on the 1055 pm train and it took an hour to get to the 30 minute-away destination...bummer again!  

but it was okay and i got home and had funny conversation with my roommates, lena and luise, about what they had predicted i would be like.  they were apparently seriously fearing that i would have brought a picture of g.w. and put it up in my room and then apparently svend was threatening that if i had done that hed post a picture of merkel.  then we talked about how germany doesnt really use its flag in too much stuff and that no one here knows the national anthem.  WEIRD right?  they thought it was weird that we say the pledge every morning and i then allowed them to heard my recitation of it so that was funny...

yesterday, breakfast was at 8 (NOOOOOOO good) and it was fun and they are silly and i hate hate hate hate HATE that they all get dressed before they eat breakfast.  i guess thats why i mostly eat breakfast in my room.  if i didnt id have to be already dressed and i think thats stupid.  i should have them have an "american" breakfast with eggs and french toast (american? ha) and IN THEIR PAJAMAS.  i think svend even shuddered when i told him that i wore pajama pants to school almost everyday for 4 years!  ahahahahaha...i love it.  then we rode our bikes to church (and i fell off and now have a bruise on my knee).  

CHURCH WAS AWESOME!  i loved it a lot!  i think i understood most of the things they said, and i think it was an evangelical free church but they didnt really read directly from the Bible, but we definitely sang songs i knew, such as "what a friend we have in Jesus!" so that was sooo comforting i almost cried.  but i kept it together.  hehehe...

what i got out of the sermon (i think it was about how Jesus gives us new life, esp using lazarus) was that lazarus is symoblism for us.  maybe ive gotten that before but it sure was awesome to hear it!  it was sooooo cool too because i know it was totally Holy Spirit because i was sitting there listening, and sort of understanding what was being said and then WHAM!  "lazarus is a metaphor for the redeeming work of our Lord" or something pretty close to that whole sentence just popped into my head.  i love when He does that!!!  (thoughts??  i love hearing what other people think about this stuff!)

so then later i went to ultimate frisbee practice.  i guess here is when a lot of people check out and some others really really start to pay attention (hahaha)

well theyre the farmers apparently and they play inside when its cold out but they pretty much are horrible.  i dont know if thats mostly a result of me knowing that theres better out there or what but MAN was i disappointed.  i mean, they kind of know the rules and idk how often ill go...maybe once a week.  

when i get out of class ill finish and send this...

okay, im back!  the quiz was super easy so thats always good right?

um so why ultimate was depressing...theyre more of an intramural group and they dont really know whats up and SkyU! is so amazing, how could i NOT be unsatisfied with a new group??  but for real, they travel (to a point even i would call it) they throw blades as though theyre like, legitimately good throws.  i didnt try to catch them at first because i was like "yeah right!" and then i realized that it wasnt that the hammers werent flattening out it was that thats how they ACTUALLY meant for it to go.  i dont think ill take my discs back.  in fact last night i had a dream that one of my discs got torn so i really think it freaked me out.  for more details email me because i dont want to bore everyone with frustrations most of the people wont get.  

well i guess thats "all" i have for this chapter...i will try to write more often as my week-long silence on here raised some eyebrows (btw, "eye" is really difficult to type on a german keyboard!).  miss and love yall bunches!  write when you get time, i love getting mail (electronic or otherwise!)!!!

love!!!

°sarah

to all the students out there...this ones for you...(well everyone can read it ;-) )

 

Well, another day, another semester. On the sum, I enjoyed being in school, and syllabus day was one of the best days...if you're an extrovert. ;) You got to see how things were going to go, use a new notebook, see the new people you might befriend for a few months...if you're a student, I hope that today is fun for you, even if you're in grad school--the first day is the best day, so make it a good one! I'll post the other post from this day either later today or tomorrow. Thanks for coming on this trek with me!

~sarah

HOWDY!!!

 

I just wanted to send yall a message that was a general "good first day of school" kind of message, so if youre not in school, you can disregard this part of the message and go directly to the end of the message (its cool because its like a choose your own adventure book! hahaha)...

 

so to those of you in school:  HAPPY SYLLABUS DAY!!!!!  i am so envious because of course this is the best day in school (well actually tomorrow will probably be better since TR teachers feel like they need to actually teach on syllabus day).  also because i love the first day of school every time!  i love love love that i getta go to see my new classes and all the fun things im going to learn and whos in my classes &c.  (im sure that a few of you dont believe me but if thats the case find someone who "knows me well" and ask...youll see) i always had a hard time sleeping the night before a first day of school and almost always (even last semester) have my clothes laid out so that i can just get up and get a great start on the day.  sooo, have fun, and remember to do everything to the glory of God!  He's put you where you are for a reason...okay, so on to the rest of the email.  you can skip to the ending salutation, if'n youd like...

 

so i hope that each of you has the best day ever and that things are going well for yall.  i havent received much mail yet but i guess thats because yall are writing super long letters, so ill understand if i dont get anything until next week...plus, if you dont write me i probably wont write you since my address pile is limited here (because im an idiot and forgotta bring em with me!  whoops!)

 

ill send the huge book version later because its not finished yet!

love!

°sarah

A break in the chain

 Howdy! 

I will post the next update on the 19th, as it is situationally appropriate. It is, however, one of two emails I sent that day, so I will post the second of the two the next day. After that, the next of the memory lane travel installments will appear on or near the 25th, as that's the send date of the next email. I wanted to be sure to let you know what was the deal, so that's the deal! Let me know if you have any questions or want to know anything specific!

~sarah

jerry rice has fans in lueneburg, too...

 hellloooooo out there! after this letter, there are only a couple more to be on track to slow these posts down to one a week (or so). i hope youve enjoyed getting started on this journey--its been surprisingly fun and refreshing for me to get to read through these and remember what life was like "back when" and to think through what i might need to re-introduce into my life. let me know what you think, if you want; id love to hear!

~sarah

hallo, alle!

today was my first day of class, and it seems like it might be pretty easy which might or might not be a good thing.  i woke up and made it to class on time, though i didnt sleep well last night because i was super paranoid about being late.  for those of you who (apparently) think im an idiot ;-) i DO have an alarm clock, but i have been sleeping through it for the past few days.  i appreciate your concern for my well-being, however...it goes off only for one minute, and has apparently awoken the girl i share a wall with, so its better that i wake up on time.  i walked to school this morning, and it was super cold, but well worth the time because its a nice way to wake up...30 minutes' worth of it.

in case you all were worried about my spending so much time in pubs, i drink mostly cappucinos and might become addicted to them by the time i get back in the states...i think ive had 2 drinks since ive been here (each on a different night), so not to worry!  until i find other people to bum around with, i think my options are going out with these people or sitting alone in my room with nothing to do and no one with whom to speak, since EVERYONE keeps their doors closed ALL the time, even when they are home...weird.  

lets see...turkish food will be the topic for this paragraph...

its pretty much all we eat since we dont know what else to eat, it tastes good, and we are cheap ;-)  but, its excellent (d, you were right) and i made it the first thing i tried when i got to hamburg from the airplane.  if youre ever over here, you must try both turkish pizza and döner.  its kinda weird to see the way they prepare it, but no ones gotten sick yet, so it cant be that bad, right?  ha.

was anderes....hmmmm....a few funny things (esp for andrea) before i sign off and go do other things...

first:  theres this kid from mexico city, antonio, who is on our trip and whom i keep wanting to call carlos.  its horrible!  i KNOW his name but still, carlos is what makes it out first, most of the time.  well, this kid is a hoot and totally fearless and an inspiration...while we americans are trying to be <<responsible>>, he will walk up to a german and ask, in a thick hispanic voice (but in english, still) <<excuse me do you speak english, where is this place...>>  funniest thing ever, and a total inspiration!

second:  the children in strollers are usually prone and covered from head to toe in a weird sleeping bag looking thing.  its hilarious because it looks like the person has a big meal that they want to keep warm whilst they travel over the river and through the woods (of which there are both in lüneburg) on the way to großmuttis haus, but oh wait its a stroller containing a child.  i know that sounds totally crazy, but ill try to remember to take a picture of it so that i have proof.

next:  the radio here is uncensored, so that caught me by surprise...i was about to take a shower and wanted to make sure that whomever was eating breakfast didnt need the bathroom for a while, and there was an american song on the radio and i definitely didnt know that word was in it!  but i told svend that i wasnt taking a shower until i listened to the song so he looked at me like i was crazy, but i think he thinks im cool...ahahahahahahahahahaahaha....

lastly:  the jerry rice thing...so last night i was walking around with antonio and this kid, kris from cali and we see this car thats maroon (whoop!) with a HUGE #80 on the side.  kris says <<is that a jerry rice car?  surely not>>  so we get a little closer and sure enough, theres gold trim, and on the back theres the <<san francisco 49ers>> logo!  jigga WHAT?!?!?!?! (just for you mel)...isnt that weird?  i mean, come on, i dont even know people who are that fanatical about the guy in the states, but hey at least he has zealot-level fans somewhere außer ((ow-sir)outside of) cali right?

so i guess thats all i have for this email, i finally unpacked so it looks like i live in my room now...i put up the little cards with verses on them that we get in ASC everyweek, so there are random verses in my room, but it is the most comforting thing...prayer requests:  that i might hear my alarm clock more regularly so that i have better sleep at night, and that i find people here that are not americans with whom i can spend time, but also who arent obsessed with going to pubs, &c.  that gets old quick.  

i almost forgot this!  church yesterday...well, so it turns out that i didnt go because my house was having a whole-house breakfast at the same time.  thats right, the same time and theyre the evangelicals...what?  they had quite the feast, and it lasted from 10-1230.  there was really tasty food and i didnt talk much so i kept almost falling asleep, which wasnt super wonderful :-/ but oh well.  i dont think this is a regular thing, but if it is i will start going to church on saturday night at 6.  so that could be interesting.  the lutheran churches here are very Catholic-inspired, so thats a little different, but i think it could be good.  they have women pastors here too, ha.  soooo, i guess everything really is kind of different here.  the sun came out today, which is excellent, and i was told that we are expected to have 7 sunny days next month (which is apparently quite a few?), so that could be...fun.  oh!  AND the word on the street is that theres an ultimate frisbee team here on campus and that they practice a LOT, so well have to see about that because their semester (again, germans are weird, ahha) ends in like 2 weeks but the next one starts in april so maybe then...

keep the emails coming, i read every one and love them all!

later days!

°sarah

do what you want, just dont ride a bike without a light...

 

howdy! I hope this finds you well and warm wherever you are. It’s a cold, wet—snowy in some places—Sunday here in east Texas, and I am cuddling a sweet three year old as I type this. 😍 

I hope you enjoy this next installment of the posts; I think we’ve almost caught up, but I’ll wait until I have my computer to confirm that suspicion. Enjoy the day—man is made for the Sabbath.

~sarah

hallo alle! 

 

so it is 143 pm, i am awake and in the computer lab on campus, which is a 20 minute walk from home, so maybe ill use the bike afterall...

 

today is 7 januar and i woke up late again.  not as late as last time (thank goodness!) but i was about 05 (whoop) minutes late.  booo....i didnt sleep well last night, so hopefully that will work itself out soon. 

 

it gets dark here super early, and i think that i might not need my sunglasses the whole time!  gosh!  haha, probably ill need them after a few weeks, but its weird to have not had to wear them.  i went american on my clothes today since i woke up too late to shower and hadnt had any <<real>> clothes to wear.  jeans, a tshirt and sweatshirt and my jacket which is almost too hot...

 

as for the subject line, that is what this guy, lars, says to us.  <<you can drink in the street, you can take drugs (whoa!) in the street, but just dont right a bike without a light or the police will stop you.>>

 

i start school on monday, so i really need to get my act together by then and start waking up on time.  i dont know how the other students wake up in time to get stuff done, as some of them stay out later than i do!  its crazy to me, but i wish i could do it.  ha

 

i feel a little more at home here since i got to hang out with some americans last night, and am loving the fact that im from texas SOOOO much!  last night i was at a pub and the girl had james avery jewlelry (schmuck..(shmook)), and it turns out that she went to a year of high school at clear lake...how weird is that?  oh, and shes a methodist (thomas) but doesnt go to church at school very often, which seems to be the case around here...

 

i had a beer last night and it was good, paulaner dunkel hefeweizen...i liked it okay.  so at another pub, i had a milkshake and so you think american milkshake...no, this was definitely milk, with chocolate in it, shaken up.  ahahahaha...i can hardly believe that.  so that was funny to me. 

 

today i think i might go buy a cell phone and so if'n i do, yall gots ta call me, even if its expensive...ahaha, just kidding but incoming calls are free for me, i think.  ill let yall know all the gory details later...

 

from what i can tell, if you want to mail me stuff, esp packages, the address is:

 

Universität Lüneburg

USAC

c/o Sarah Smith

Scharnhorstr. 1/ 8.9

21335 Lüneburg

Germany

 

and ill see if i can get mail at my apt...i think i told yall yesterday where i live in town, but i dont remember, so you getta hear it again!  hahaha...

 

i live at Lindenstraße 22, which is close to the innenstadt (town center) and across the street from the theatre where there a live plays.  its a nice location for nightlife and church, but i think i would have fared better closer to the campus, what with me waking up late all the time...

 

maybe ill write more on monday...we cant get into the computer lab on sundays...BUT if someone wants to get me a laptop by way of buying one or making one (mark charles or mason...or really anyone who knows how) to send to me, i have wireless access in my room, and that would be super wonderful great!  and i would, of course, pay you.  i just dont have the lots of money to but a notebook outright...you understand yes?  ahaha!  i just figured out why typing the () is so difficult for me...theyre above the 8 & 9, not the 9 & 0...good to know, good to know...

 

well, im outties, and yall needa write me soon!

 

later days!  love!

°sarah

my exploits, chapter 1...

well, heres the (third-) oldest of the emails that i can find, so i hope you like it! id originally thought it was the inaugural email of the semester, but, upon further inspection, realized i was wrong. however, id already written the title, so i figured id let it stand and just amend it. #stylechoice

feel free to post questions in the comments if you have them...i guess comments there work, too. ;)  there were a lot of replies to the email that i am posting, and it was really nostalgic to read some of those. mayhaps i will include snippets or reflections on these email responses, as well. maybe ill even find my old computer and see what pictures exist! hmmm...so many options! 

note: please forgive the two spaces after periods...it was 2006, after all. hah. 

original writing: 6. january 2006

howdy!  

well i miss all of yall already, and i have only been here about one day.  i have to say this to start off that if i replace a y with a z its because the z is where the y should be on the german keyboard.  

most of yall will be proud to know that i am typing this on a mac, which is defintely a first...

so whats gone on since i wrote last...  wellllll, i almost didnt make my flight, but God is good and i was where i needed to be precisely when i needed to be there and the only things i can figure out that i didnt bring that i need is my outlet converter (a little annoying, to be sure...ärgerlich is how you say annoying in german...) and thats the only really necessary thing...

last night i could barely stay awake and i fell asleep in the desk chair in my room for like, 30 minutes and my roommates (you really dont realize how often you type y's until theyre in the wrong place) apparently found me and had a good laugh...oh well :-)  glad i could oblige them that.

we went to the pub last night to socialize (my favorite) and i stayed there until almost midnight this time, which is 7 hours ahead so it was really only 5 pm...however, i got to my platz  (place) and was in bed around 1230, so that i could get up and be meet the group at 10.  i said my prayers (yes, kelli cook, in german) and woke up today at 1245.  thats right, i said 1245.  WHAT?!?!?!  i almost had a panic attack and i hadnt even showered or anything.  i probably would not have freaked out as much if i were in a latin country, since theyre more lax about being on time.  AAAAHHHHH!!!  so i worried for a while until one of my roommates called the leader lady and she told me what i needed to do.  still, i cried (at least in my head) and had some yogurt (which is kinda gross over here) and took a shower.  

the shower is weird.  its in a bathtub and has a curtain, which seems normal...but the shower head is on the wall...in the middle of the bathtub!  so the shower curtain wraps around you as though you were in a round shower but theres the whole tub still.  ganz komisch (very strange).  

tonight, my buddy promised to take me and some peoples around to the pubs, so that should be fun but i figure i cant stay out late if i want to go to church tomorrow because who knows how long ill sleep tonight, too!  booooo....

so i got to school and was the only one not there, so that was horrible to walk into a room 4 hours late and be the only one to get there at that time.  i want to come home, but i know that i cant so that helps with the sucking it up and dealing with the unknown.  i am excited, however, that muster is on a friday this year because i wont have to skip any school to go!  whoop!  so, thats my big thing im looking forward to (jason brown, youd better figure out a way for me to get there ;-)  i would put the second parenthesis after that but then it looks stupid...if you can figure out why, let me know.  i know, but do you?)

a side note for those of you who like to laugh at the difference between americans and germans...

my buddy's name is dino, and his best friend?  knut.  thats right.  i know like 6 germans and their names are:  luise, lena, nadine, svend (those are the roommates), dino, and knut.  theyre pretty neat.

i got placed in the ESG which is on lindenstraße 22 (22 linden street) and it is the home of the evangälische studentgemeine.  yaaaay!  so im living with Christians, but still not the sort you might expect.  they are apparently fairly sketchy about how often they go to church but one of them is baptist, so that could be fun.  i think i might try to see if he will take me to church with him tomorrow.  hes a nice guy, and speaks probably less english than the rest of the house, so communicating with him is ein bißchen schwer (a little hard).  

i loved reading yalls emails so keep sending them!  i miss you all so greatly that even just reading them made me cry (but its good).  ill try to call soon!  love! 

later days!

-sarah (theres no tilde on this keyboard!  aaah!)

the time has come, die deutsche gesagt hatte...

welcome back! today is the second email, and the oldest one i can find, so thats a definite bummer. i hope that you enjoy this almost-the-oldest email in the chain. a funny point to think on is that my friend, antonio, who was on the study abroad, posted his pictures from 15 years ago to facebook today. there were some good ones in there, and i have attached a couple to this post, so you can get a feel for where you are. i hope this finds you well, and i look forward to our journey together. let me know your thoughts if youve got any you want to share! im glad youre here!

~eure sarah

PS--i guess better late, than never, about posting these to this blog! hahahah.

...to speak of many things!  and i shall.

 

well, dear readers, first a few items of business:

• if you did not, for whatever reason, get the first email (it was sent on Christmas), and would like to read it email me and ill send it on to you.
• the plan is to add these emails to my blog so's you can read them later if you delete them (i dont know why you would, but some people are weird like that, ahahahaha), and that url is: http://scheinen.blogspot.com
• heres hoping that tu gets smashed!  ahahahahaha...i wont know for a few days since ill be in the air for the game, but ill be wearing offensive shirts (you never know whos going to be going to germany at the same time)

so on to the fun...

 

i leave for germany at 4 pm on 4 january, which is tomorrow.  WEIRD!   my sister is having twins today, so thats crazy too (she has 2 boys already and is expecting 2 more!).  getting ready for this trip has been an emotional rollercoaster because i dont like the unexpected.  im sure it will be fine but still theres that inkling of "what was i on when i thought this was a good idea?" going on.  oh well me guesses; i made a deal with myself that i could freak out as much as i wanted because this decision was irreversible and thats seemed to help a little. 

 

i have spent the better part of my "vacation" driving across this wonderful state to see as many people as i could before i left and i think i canvassed it pretty well.  last week i drove from san antonio to del rio to plano and back via rockdale.  now ill go to houston, so all's i missed was west texas. 

 

God's still preparing me for what i will be learning because He is faithful to me and us all.  i am thoroughly excited to get to go to church in germany this week!  SO weird!  i hope that i can understand enough to make it meaningful, but i know that it will come so i need only be patient and sincere. 

 

happy new year, and i hope that this finds each of you doing well and being thankful for everything in your lives!  the verse from the sermon this week is: Luke 7:47...what does that verse (in context, of course) mean to you?  let me know!

 

later days!

~sarah

 

(end letter two)

Vor 15 Jahren...

 ...na???

So, long time no anything, and I am certain no one is reading this. If you are reading this, however, I imagine that you've already been told what the plan is. If not, here it is: I have always wanted to do a live-stream walk down memory lane, so here we are. Fifteen years ago this week, I landed in Germany for the first time ever. It seems like so long ago and just yesterday, all at once. While in Lueneburg, I wrote home about once a week, so those emails will be the bulk of the revival of this blog (for this semester, at least...or, let's be realistic, maybe only until the end of January). I am going to post the emails as their own posts, as near to their original date, unedited for content, and, just maybe, I will add commentary in a post-script of sorts. Further, I am going to try not to care (too much) that the formatting doesn't work or match previous (or even subsequent) posts. The first of the emails were from 6. January and 7. January, respectively, so I am posting them on 8. & 9. January (2021), and the one from 9. January will post on 10. January (2021), and then I think we'll be caught up. 

(Editor's note: apparently I've missed three emails, so the originals are actually from Christmas '05 (we'll see if I can find that one) and 2. January...whoops)

A bit of background...

I chose USAC for its convenience and ability to stick to an American academic calendar because I didn't think that I had time to use a whole year for this endeavor. I also put off studying abroad because I was only majoring in German because the coursework seemed interesting, not because I had a big drive to be in Germany (or so I thought). Up to the point where I landed in Germany, the farthest north I had ever lived was College Station, Texas, and the longest I had been outside of Texas at any length of time was two weeks. To say that I was underprepared for what awaited me on this ~five month journey is an understatement. I would be informed by my German friends that that winter was one of the coldest they'd experienced in years--a fact that I didn't really relish. 

The only real foresight I'd had about Germany before I left was, when I was at my going away party at the Kimballs', I commented to a friend that I wasn't sure I was ready to never feel at home again. How much truer those words, haphazardly spoken, were than I could have realized at their utterance. 

While gone, I missed weddings, planning of weddings, births, and many other life events, but I was exactly where I needed to be at the time (especially if I wanted to graduate, hah). 

I plan for the blog posts to carry the title that was in the original subject line of the email, which isn't totally different than the way that the posts on this blog are intended to be--consistency FTW (for more information on that, go to the archive and read the very first entry on "how this blog is going to work").

I hope you enjoy this, if you're reading...it was an extraordinarily formative time. 

GLG,

~deine sarah