constant movement

Well! Just got back from orientation for my immersion this summer. Twas in Philly at LTSP (yay) and three-ish days long. We stayed in a hotel downtown and took the train to the seminary each day. It was fun, although yeah, parts were boring, parts were boring but important, parts were fun but not important, and parts were interesting and important. Just like pretty much every orientation that has ever happened in the history of the world. Even that one time when God was orienting all the angels to the new earth place.

So. I'm getting pretty excited about the summer. It's going to be pretty busy, but it seems to be pretty cool. Not to mention that it seems that I will be working with some pretty awesome people.

Some wrap up May Term stuff:
It's been interesting adjusting to being back. I'm starting to get un-jet-lagged. We had bread at the restaurant in Philly yesterday evening, and it was pretty amazing. Not like German bread, but it was almost fresh out of the oven, and I happen to adore fresh warm bread.

I also really like to cook. I'm thinking angel cake, caramel sauce, and.... whipped cream? Yeah, I'm in a cooking mood. This could be very fun. Especially for my family who will be stuck with all the food that will result from this cooking mood, 'cause I'm threeish days from moving to DC. Oh, and I pretty much only know how to make desserts. Oops.

Until the next,

who says you can't go home?

Hello! Greetings from sunny Severn!

I made it back all in one piece, on time and everything. There was some trouble in Paris (like having to run through the airport, go through the lines at passport control, go through the liiiiinnes at security, bolt to my gate, get security checked again, get on the shuttle to the plane and board the plane all in 50 minutes), since my plane from Germany landed after the plane to JFK had already started boarding. But I did make it!

I get to practice today, which is very exciting since it's been pretty much forever. Or, four weeks. I would have gotten to play on Monday at the Augustana Hochschule in Neundettlesau, but I was impeded by the complexities of the image of God.

Today I head off to orientation for my thing this summer, which should be pretty neat, as long as I don't jet lag too much. I woke up at 5:30 this morning, so I'm apparently not having problems with sleeping in too much, but then again, here at 6:30, it's already noon:30 in Germany, so maybe I'll be falling asleep too much this evening.

It's good to be back, and later on today or this weekend I will add more information about stuff we did on the trip.

Until the next

Well! Here we are in Augsburg for the day. We are finally in our last hotel, although it seems to be in a town smaller than Waverly, it has no internet cafes, and none of the phones in the hotels or the town seem to be letting our phone cards work. Argh.

In other news: three days left, more pictures to come once I get home, and I figured out why the organs keep getting smaller as we go further south. Yes, that's right, not only do I remember something I learned in an organ lesson, but I was able to practically apply it and make connections. :D

Uh, I mean... I always remember everything I learn during lessons. Uh, yep.

;)

Until the next

Marburg

Well! Imagine that, another post in such a short time. But how could I not? Free wireless LAN in the hotel tonight. Sweet!

Not much has happened since my last entry... We're in Marburg now, pretty neat. Visited another castle. (Why do they always have to be on the top of the mountain? It's so much walking up! And 500 year old cobblestones do not make an easy trip coming down. Especially in the rain. When we haven't had lunch yet. And my shoes have no rainy traction.)

We visited the St. Elizabeth church today. Really cool old church, still with multiple altars. I've trained myself to wait until I get to the front of the church before I turn around, no matter what looks are on everyone else's faces, so I get to see the whole organ at once. That was the wierdest, most "modern" organ I have ever seen in my life, and this church is older than Luther!
It was built last year.


Oh, and I used up all but the last 80 or so pictures on my camera, so I'm in the middle of uploading almost 1GB of pictures and video onto my computer. Heh, and we still have a week left.

Oh! and yesterday at the Kartoffelhaus I had Kartoffelpoofers (not the correct spelling) with apple sauce and pork schnizel. Um-yay!

Well, I must be going now, there is much sleep to be had after climbing three castles in the past three days. Why are they all on mountain tops?

Until the next

It's been a while...

Well! It certainly has been awhile since I've been able to update this... my apologies.

Let's see...

Did Erfurt... fun.
Buchenwald... no so fun, but very thought provoking.
Eisenach... :D
The Wartburg... :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Schmalkald... eh, alright. Oh, except the super cool organ at the church that is one of the oldest working pipe organs in Germany (Europe?) that is completely wooden pipes. (Hmm... can you tell what is interesting me the most on this trip?)

Today in Eisenach there was this Kirchentag thing... think youth event with grown-ups and a sweet musical about the life of St. Elizabeth (not Seton)... only we were in the third balcony and we couldn't see anything. But the music was kinda neat.

Tomorrow we finally get the city tour, and then we go to the Bach house. Sweet.

To all the moms reading this: Happy Mother's Day!

Well, while you all are enjoying a nice 3pm (or 4, depending), it's after ten here, so I'm going to leave it at that, and try again tomorrow to write more.

The future: Eisenach to Marburg, Marburg to Worms, Worms to Nürnberg, Nürnberg to Neundettlesomethingsomething, Neundettlesomethingsomething to Nürnberg, Nürnberg to Paris, Paris to New York, New York to Baltimore, Baltimore to Philadelphia, and hopefully then I'll be able to sleep.

Oh, and we had steak for dinner. And I agree with our tour guide. Steak is one of the few things that Americans do better.

Until the next

Erfurt

This is going to be short, because I have things to do, places to go, chocolate to eat, presents to buy...

We're in Erfurt.
We're going to Buchenwald today.
Tomorrow we're going to Eisenach.
Trains are expensive and complicated: I'm not going to be able to take any trips.

Until the next.

organ what?!?!

!!!!!!!!:):):):):):):):):):D:D:D:D:D:D:D!!!!!!!!
Any guess what would make me so happy? (I should note the sadness as well.) I'll give you a hint: 4,745+pipes are involved.
Bad news first: :( The Castle Church here in Wittenberg has become victim (as did many of the trees in the city) to a recent hurricane force wind tornado. It still stands completely (the church, not the trees) but the tower and the rear of the church were damaged such that they are not safe to enter. This includes the organ. So we didn't get to climb the tower, nor go up and actually see the organ. Very sad. Even sadder is that until the repairs are done, they have to make do with a very pathetic electric keyboard for services.
Now the good news. We visted the Stadtkirche twice today. First as a part of our tour of the city. Here I'll mention the beautious organ. Beauteous. Our second visit was at 6pm. Organ recital!!! Bach, Prelude & Fugue in C-dur, three mvts from Schumann's 6 fugues on B-A-C-H, and Bach's Christ is somethingsomething from the Orgelbüchlein. Oh man. So cool.

I was having a rough day, being tired and so on, but the organ stuff reallz birhgtened my day. As did the amazing white asparagus that we had for dinner. Um-yay.

Oh, and the eggs have been located, and chocolate purchased for daily consumption. And I've decided NOT to buy the 12 string guitar. And knitting needles have been located. The good kind. :)

On the banks of a moat

I'm actually penning this out for future transition to computer while sitting on the banks of the Wittenberg moat. It's a beautiful daz, and we're just waiting for our panel discussion to be closer to starting.
So far the search for chocolate has been fruitless. Also chocolateless. I'm also on the lookout for colored pencils and knitting needles.

The colors are so vivid here. There's so much green. And the sky is so blue.

We leave Berlin

Well! I've seen quite a lot of Berlin in the past 24 hours. Yesterday, having gotten into the airport late, I drove over to the hotel with Dr. K and Sean, who's luggage was lost, and we almost immediately left again for the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. That was interesting. We wlked over the double brick line that follows the path of the Wall, read some of the monumen there, and then went into the museum. It wasn't very big, mostly blown up and translated newspaper clippings on the walls. But there was one section with some art. Very... moving (read: creepy) art. We were free to leave as we would, and the four of us (Julie, Mandy, Alyssa, and I) headed back to the hotel after a brief stop at the gift shop. (Although I understand the historical significance, I personally do not understand the desire to have a piece of the Wall. Seems like a piece of hatred to me.) We then proceeded to nap until dinner, which was quite excellent. I worked my way through bread, bread, and a little more bread... and then they brought out the food. We made an unsuccessful excursion for chocolate and then went to bed.
Today we went to the Bonhoeffer archeives and heard a lecture by a guy whose name I forget. He spoke at the end about the Christian need for the physical presence of other christians. Amen, Bonhoeffer, amen!
On to the American Church in Berlin, where the words "I'm and organist" coupled with "how many manuals does your organ have?" (no pun intended) got me up to the organ loft to see for myself. (4) When we were first going into the church the organist was practicing. And what was she practicing you may wonder? It took me a while because she was going voer the end of the piece, and I've mostly only worked on the beginning yet. (although I have gotten to the end several times!) Yes, Wachet Auf, Bach, which is on my planned list for next year's recita. So cool.
Then a lunch stop and onto the bus for a guided city tour. Got lots of pictures, didn't get to see IN the big Lutheran cathedral, but did get postcardical experience of their magnifcent organ. Then to some other sites (like the still standing part of the Wall, and the Holocaust memorial... more ramblings on those later), drop off the tour guide, and on to Wittenberg.

We're here in Wittenberg now, and it's getting late. We haven't done much but eat dinner and walk around the town a bit.

More to come later.
Until the next!

Yes, I'm on my way!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye.
But the dawn is breakin', it's early morn
The taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could cry

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go..
'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again (well, I hope I know!)
Oh babe, I hate to go..

There's so many times I've let you down
So many times I've played around
I tell you now, they don't mean a thing
Every place I go, I'll think of you
Every song I sing, I'll sing for you
When I come back, I'll bring some pictures back

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane,
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go..

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time, let me hug you
Then close your eyes, I'll be on my way.
Dream about the days to come
When I won't have to leave alone
About the times I won't have to say...

Oh kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go...
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So here I go... my bags are mostly packed, but I have some time left, it's only 7 am. I'll miss you all.

And hey, since I'm doing a bad job of getting word of this blog out... share the lovin'! Maybe carefully... but whatever.

Until the next!

And thus we begin...

Welcome to the new blog! If you're looking for something resembling the old blog, you haven't found it, and you most likely never will, since it doesn't exist. Sorry.

This blog will be used for my May Term Germany trip, my summer job, and my Germany studying abroad. At least that's the current plan.
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I've almost started packing for May Term. Yes, it's after 9:30 pm, and I leave for the airport around 9:30 am. But that's not the point... the point is that I've started. :)

I fly from here to JFK to Berlin, and once there meet up with the rest of the group.

I'm very excited about being there, but I'm still so tired just thinking about the traveling. 1.5 hr flight to JFK, 3.5 hr layover, 8.5 hr flight. Ugh. So tiring.
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I'll post again when I can from Germany, and definitatly post backwards once I get back, and I'll let you know when that has happened.

Until the next!