Montag 6/1/09

The meetings were so good today. It was the first time in a long time that I shared in a meeting and really wanted to. I don't know if this is a Europe thing or if it's going to be long-term, but I'll take it. I've had some really good experiences here so far, and I don't want them to stop.

What's cool is that I got to share in German. It was one small, easy sentence, but they understood me!

After the conference was over, we ended up taking a train to Heidelberg. It worked out nicely because Phoebe, one of the sisters we met here, is leaving for London from Frankfurt Hahn, too. She hooked us up with Isaiah, Andy, Angelina (twins), and Sorn, who live/work/are students in Heidelberg. I love that we keep meeting people on this trip.



As is evident in the picture, we were in a rush to catch the train.

David and I definitely napped on the train ride, and it was pretty good that we recharged because we took a long walk through and around Heidelberg when we got there (after dropping off our bags at Andy and Angelina's place). Basically, we walked along the river and then up a hill to get a nice view of the city/castle. It was awesome! the city is really picturesque, and you can't even tell that parts of it were damaged by the war.



I'm pretty used to walking a whole heck of a lot now, and that's one thing I like about this trip; I feel like I can walk anywhere once I get home.

The markets and shops below the castle were pretty cool. A lot of the shops were too touristy, but one thing that stood out was that they had gummi bear shops, which are pretty characteristic of Germany. I got couple of packs - one to snack on there and one to bring back to work. The souvenir buying has started.

We met up with Isaiah, his wife, Andy, Angelina, and Sorn for dinner at this restaurant that serves big portions of meat in downtown - my kind of restaurant. I got an order of Pig's Knuckle, which was huge, crispy, and probably very heart-attack inducing. I tried some of Isaiah's beer (bier, here), which was pretty good. Interestingly, it's the first alcoholic drink I've had in Europe. That's another thing I noticed on this trip - I don't really have as big of a craving for alcohol here. Europe is good for me.



That's the pig's knuckle. We ordered about 8 of these, so basically, two pigs died because of us that night.

The fellowship at the table was pretty good. We talked about how the Lord spoke to us/affected us by coming to Europe, how the Lord prepared us, and how we're like soldiers at the point of no return.

After dinner, we headed back to Andy and Angelina's place to pick up our bags because our next flight was leaving from Frankfurt at 6 AM. We were planning on heading there early and sleeping in the airport, but they offered to let us stay at their place and leave for the airport in the morning. This was pretty cool of them, and it gave us an opportunity to have more time to talk to them and do laundry (my sock bag was pretty rancid).

It turns out that we both know a family in Indonesia, and Andy grew up with someone I knew as a kid (His name is John Tahir, and He lived in California for a few years when he was younger). I'm starting to really believe that whole 6 degrees of separation thing.

The twins went to bed early, and we cleaned their place a little bit, checked how to get to the next hostel from Rome Ciampino Airport, folded our laundry, and are heading out to the bus station.

It's about 1 AM right now, and we're going to take a two hour bus ride to Frankfurt. It's a 20 minute walk to the bus station. Hope we don't get lost! :)

Sonntag 5/31/09

Today marks the one-week point in our trip, but the funny thing is that it feels like we've been here for months. I guess one contributing factor to the time warp is that we've already passed through three countries, and taken three plane rides and one bus trip.

The meetings were good today (the parts that I was awake during, that is), and one thing that's happening to me experientially is that I'm starting to learn how to trust in the Lord and give matters to him. That's always been hard for me because I can typically solve all of my problems, and I don't like people touching "my stuff."

Here's a practical example that happened today. Our next plane leaves from Frankfurt Hahn Airport, which is about a two hour drive away. We had no idea how to get there, but one guy here, named Isaac, told us everything we need to do to get there. Plus, there"s a route through Heidelberg, which I wanted to see but didn't think I'd be able to fit in on this trip. Isaac lives in Heidelberg, and we'll probably be able to stay with him or someone he knows until we have to leave to go to Frankfurt. See? Things are being arranged in a way much better than I could ever have planned.

Another thing happened today. It wasn't related to the message of the meeting, but I started to feel the Lord touching me about Stanford. I'm not sure if the feeling is to give it up and come to Europe for school/work/living, but I really hope that the Lord doesn't want me to give Stanford up. I have to keep praying about this matter. I know I want to come to Europe long-term eventually, but I don"t know how or when it's going to happen.

I really want to come back to Germany next summer for a few weeks, though. They're proofreading a version of the bible, and it'd be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live in Germany, serve the Lord, and really brush up on my German. I think I'm going to take German classes as my electives at Stanford, so that I can be of some use there next summer. It's crazy how much of my German came back already, but I know I need a lot more work.



Fun/Good things that happened today: During the break time David and I took a bunch more pictures relating to Chris' modified idea. That's really vague, I know. Then we played chess on this huge chessboard with some German kids.



Then, there was a campfire at night with singing. I always liked things like that growing up, and it was cool to sing songs we knew that were translated into German. Unfortunately, I didn't get the words to "Lord, I just love you," but I?ll try to figure them out later. Right now, I'm going to sleep!

One more day in Germany, then off to Rome. I wish I could do this for a living.

Neckarzimmern 5/30/09

This is going to be a short entry, but as a warning, it'll probably be more God-related than my other posts.

Being with the saints at the conference has been really good. Again, I've been having the experience that being with them is like being with family (or even better), and it's true even when we don't speak the same language. There are people here who speak only Russian and German, or only Dutch, and it still feels like we have this connection. I don't know how to explain it.

I'm actually dreading going back home because my experience with God here in Europe has been so awesome, and my situations back home have been dragging me downhill. What's encouraging is the fact that the Lord has been telling me that I have to be able to enjoy Him no matter where I am, so I guess I have to just have faith in this matter.

The conference is on the Testimony of Jesus, centering on this aspect of the book of Revelation. Most people come to the book curious about things like the Apocalypse, but the conference is focused on how we need to be the expression of the Lord in the end times. This is seen in the golden lampstands in the book of Revelation, where gold signifies the divine nature of God. The lampstands signify the believers (Revelation is a book of signs).

This is kind of off topic, but the food here has been really good - a nice change from the expensive Parisian food we've been having. Everything is meat and carb based: we've had spaghetti and meatballs with a good vegetable soup today for dinner, and sadly, I don't remember what we had for lunch. I guess I'm pretty tired because we walked around for a long time in the hills trying to find our cabins - "Finnenhauser" = Finnish Houses. It was beautiful, but exhausting. Plus, I've got some pretty gnarly blisters on my left foot. I won't gross you out with pictures of it, but I will show you a picture I took on the campgrounds (another one is at the top):



What's cool is that they have a Holocaust memorial right on site. The pieces of the memorial look like tombstones (I thought it was a graveyard at first), and the whole thing is so cohesive and well thought out. I'll take some closeups tomorrow, but this is a picture of the whole thing:



I kind of wish there was a tall building I could take a picture from. It's arranged in a Star of David.

It's not late right now (by our Europe standards), but I'm going to sleep because I might actually get 8 hours tonight! It's been so long since I've had more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep, and I'm a little excited.

Hello Germany 5/29/09

We got our bus tickets for the Euroline, which were a lot cheaper than flying. I think it came out to about 30 Euros a person, as opposed to 200 Euros a person. Now we have more money to spend on the rest of the trip!

Here's a funny story about the first time I got to use my German on the trip: As I was falling asleep, I unconsciously put my feet in the gap between the seat back and cushion of the seat in front of me (it was really hard to get comfortable). I guess they touched the butt of the girl who was sitting in front of me because she grabbed my foot (which jolted me awake), and said to her boyfriend, "Fusse!" That means feet in German.

I leaned forward and said, "Es tut mir leid," which is German for "sorry." She kind of just smiled and nodded, and I was too awake at this point to fall back asleep so I took a note of this in my journal. I was hoping that the first time I used my German would be a little more grand than this, but oh well.

I finally got to sleep a while later (after doing a few crosswords), and woke up two hours later when we stopped for our first pee break. I was pretty thirsty at this point because I left my water bottle in the hold under the bus, and I hadn't drank water since we left for the metro station in Paris. Not smart. Anyway, the picture at the top was taken at the rest stop. It amused me.

Right now, we're two hours from Stuttgart, and I can tell that I'm really going to like the part of Germany we're going too because everything is soooo green outside! Here's a picture which doesn't do what I've been seeing justice, but I'm going to post it anyway:



It's nice to have a change of scenery from the huge cities we've been visiting. As a side note, I'm pretty grungy right now, and my teeth feel like crap because I didn't have a chance to brush them. I'm seriously considering taking a hobo shower at the Stuttgart Station. I guess I'll try to sleep a bit more before we have to figure out a way to get to Neckarzimmern from Stuttgart. This is the least planned out part of our trip, and I'm a little excited for the adventure!