Reflecting Reality

Good day Readers!

Two minute walk from my house 

I've been five months in Germany. Tomorrow journey will I to my half year stay camp. (That’s me writing without triple checking my grammar – I call it Germish. Writing English but with German grammar.) Tomorrow I’m traveling to Köln (Cologne) for my midyear stay camp with twenty five other CBYX’ers. Here is the website for the youth hotel we’re going to stay at if you're curious.

http://www.jugendherberge.de/jh/rheinland/bad-honnef/galerie/index.shtml.de#

It’s in German but you can see pictures or click around to get an idea of the place. Only by the grace of God did I get my camera back in time before I leave. My mom sent it out on Thursday, and I got it on Saturday. Sunday was glorious weather, it was fifty degrees and the birds came out of their trees to sing the whole morning. As much as I want to write a well thought out blog post to mark my five month journey in Germany, I won’t be able to in the amount of time that I have. People say that a picture can speak a thousand words, because I’m short on time I hope that the pictures I included can be a reflection of the last week.



Garage door handle, that's a story for another time.



One minute walk from my house

Did I fail to mention that we have a four foot cactus in our kitchen? During the school week I'm pretty groggy when I wake up, that means four out of five times when I go into the kitchen I think someone's standing there, but its just the four foot cactus. Some things you can never get used to. 

Until next week, Genevieve 



The Start of my Study

Hey Readers (I know you're there!),
Check out this sunrise, it was my first morning in Celle. I couldn't have thought to make it any more beautiful.

Thanks Maryann and Mom for your input! The title of my story is the ‘Grandma’s aren’t so nice’. You can see at the bottom I included some pictures from the week spent in Washington D.C. that I never got to show.

Here’s the story.



I go to Oma’s (Grandma’s) for the competition; I can’t help it I’m a competitive person. I can run fast alone but I prefer to race so I can cross the finish line first. I don’t compete to be first, I compete to find out my limits. That doesn’t mean when running a hundred kilometer sprint, I don’t thoroughly enjoy the gap behind me and my competitors. At least once a month Nadia and I visit our Grandparents. Nadia goes because Grandma always buys her favorite chocolate and cooks her favorite soup. I go to talk with Opa (Grandpa) about ‘the old days’ and play board games with Oma. Her sister lives in the same village as her, so when we wipe the dust off the board game box we invite her over to play too. I included a picture of how the board looks in a December post but I’ll show another one.

Here are the rules if you’re ever to come across this game. Each player gets a dice, whoever rolls the highest number starts. The starting player can roll three times; you need a 4 to remove the blocker chip. You can place the chip anywhere on the little black circles (where the players go), but when beginnings it’s more fun to put it directly in front of someone’s house. Next player, same story but if they have the chip in front of their house they need a one to get out. After the first round of each player (maximum of 4) rolling three times, it starts from the first player and they are only allowed to roll one. When he/she rolls a six, they're allowed to roll again but have to use the six first. If all of your players are blockaded by the chip you have to forfeit your turn. The point of the game is for all 5 pieces in your house to make it across the board, and through the Door, without being knocked out from when another player lands on you.

After coming home from Berlin, I packed my bag in five minutes and rushed out the door to drive to Grandma’s with Nadia. For dinner we had warm milk with a piece of bread torn up and thrown in (first and last time I will eat that). With full bellies we all took our seats (Grandma’s sister too).  Two pots of ‘Relaxation Tea’ later, Nadia and I had only two players left in the game, and the two Oma’s had all of theirs. When the game starts it’s funny to land on people and to send them back to their house, but after four hours of playing and the rules begin to change then we’re not laughing so much. As the game develops we insist on new rules such as ‘when it is a players turn, no other player is allowed to talk or they have to sit out a round’. Nadia made this rule because I would always overlook a turn to knock Nadia out and Grandma would give me advice. Grandma makes it appear like she wants to win, but she just enjoys sending everyone’s players home. Tante Hedwig (Aunt Hedwig) Oma’s sister, has only one time ever gotten a player through the Door, so she plays for the company. Nadia plays for the chocolate that the Oma’s bring.

 It was Nadia’s turn, two 6’s and a 4. She wasn’t able to land on Oma’s player that was standing two spaces away from the Door. She went to move another piece but I recounted her steps, nope she couldn’t land on Oma. I rolled my dice a millisecond before Nadia was done, a 5. Everyone, except Oma, concluded it didn’t count because I rolled too early. I rolled again, one 6 and a 3. I could land on Oma! As I reached for my player she screamed ‘stop, stop, stop’ over our laughter. She was so happy before she had one player almost free! Before I could knock her little blue piece over in sweet success, with a brush of her arm she cleared the board completely. Tante Hedwig was laughing, and Nadia stared at her with a ‘what?!’ face. She insisted that I should have sit out a round because I recounted on Nadia’s turn. But the rule was that I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t. I thought it was hilarious. Here’s this little Oma with her perfect circle glasses drinking her tea, and she in a frenzy practically flips the board over. ‘I guess I need to buy some stronger Relaxation tea, huh?’ she said and we all broke out into laughter. We ended up talking until 1 a.m. and eating a fruit cocktail mix. I always leave my Grandma’s with a sore side from laughing so much.

The pictures! For any desperate CBYXers who made stumble upon my blog and want to read how the Washington Week went, I'll write a complete blog on that later.



Arriving in Washington D.C. from Connecticut
Hallway or dance floor? Hahah, hallway.



Day after flying out from D.C.
All exchange students in Frankfurt, Germany Airport
At least people from twenty different countries were present



















Next Sunday six AFS exchange students are coming to our school for two weeks as a part of a ‘Midyear ‘program. Another AFS’er from South America is coming to finish the year with Chiara, Claudia, and I in our school. As for me, a new semester has started which is a fresh beginning. When I arrived at school I was over a month behind which made it extremely hard to do homework. But not that we’re starting with new topics I can do the homework with more success. I’m excited to go to school again!


Roof of the Washington D.C. Mall
Last place where you can find pumpkin chocolate before landing on German soil
They make almost nothing with pumpkin here!!

  

In front of the Cannon Building after my meeting with
the representative of Joe Courtney, we talked for two hours!

Time's starting to fly quickly. Some of my classmates are alreading wearing floral print, which means Spring is around the corner! It feels like yesterday I was sitting in my Geometry B math class, staring out the window thinking about how cool it would be to go to Germany.

I also downloaded a Bible research program. It includes Commentaries, the Bible in multiple versions, the Greek dictionary, and the Hebrew dictionary. There are a million other helper tools, it is incredibly phenomenal and FREE. Here is the site:
http://www.e-sword.net/support.html

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

to God be the Glory,
Genevieve



The Flag of Forever

Hey folks, sorry for the delay our internet was down!

Path leading to East Sea, Rügen

This blog post would take a week to write if I were to tell every funny story. I can’t believe it has only been nine days since I last sat here at my computer. I can’t believe where the strength of my legs have brought me. In a very, very small nutshell of my last week I went to the Sport Hotel in Rügen for two days with my family, spent three days in Berlin with friends, and three days at my grandparents with Nadia. This nutshell is absolutely microscopic in comparison to everything that I did. If I were to hold this nut in my hand, it would fall between the small crevices of my palm. My mind is still spinning from living at a fast forward pace for a week. It feels like I would need two weeks just sitting in a chair staring out the window to balance my focus. I’m going to tell you the funniest story from the bundle, and also give you some liberty to decide what I write in the next blog. Here are the titles of five stories you can choose from, let me know in a comment at the end of this blog which one you want to read!

1.       How do we get home from here?

2.       Squash is not that easy after rock climbing.

3.       The Grandmas aren’t so nice.

4.       Just give me my coffee.

5.       Don’t eat the seahorse!

Taken from the Rügen Boardwalk, oceanside

Mix of modern and classic houses on the island Rügen

Modern windows and classic streetlamp, Rügen

My favorite story from last week takes place in Berlin. I’m with Claudia, my fellow AFS friend from Italy, standing in front of a Starbucks across from the Brandenburg Gate (informational link). It’s three degrees Fahrenheit and I feel like a chilly potato. The wind finds its way through every poorly sown seam in my jacket. I turn to push my way into the crowded Starbucks when I notice out of the corner of my eye an American flag. The Brandenburg Gate is to the right of the American Embassy, but the man holding Americas flag was dressed with soldiers clothing. I tugged Claudia’s jacket and we walked in his direction.

In front of the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
Last time I was here was with my school
exchange last summer!

He was standing on a small podium that said ‘Welcome to Berlin’ and waving with not only an American flag, but a Turkish one too. ‘Hmmm’ I thought trying to piece the puzzle together. ‘Es kann nicht Wahr! Amerikan? (It can’t be true, an American)?’ I suddenly thought. ‘’What state are you from? ‘ I asked him excitedly. He looked at me with raised eyebrows. ‘’ I don’t understand’’ he said with a thick accent. Not American!! I felt like an eight year old kid on the hottest day of summer who just got out of a two hour ice cream waiting line, about to take my first lick, and then someone smacks my cone down onto the pavement and keeps walking. I don’t know why I was filled with bursting excitement at the thought of seeing someone from the States.  I also can’t explain my disappointment when I found out he wasn’t from America. But he saw the disappointment on my face.

‘Woher kommen Sie? (Where do you come from?)’ I asked.

‘Italy’ he replied. My jaw dropped and I twisted towards Claudia. Her face was beaming with the same expectation I had. She had met someone from her home country! With glistening eyes she asked 'where?' (but in Italian). He still looked confused. She continued to speak in Italian. Then he said he was born in Germany and only knew a little Italian. He was an actor, attending a theatre school in Berlin and trying to make some money. Considering he already had the costumes and props, he and a friend stationed themselves in front of the Gate and charged two Euro’s for a picture. Thousands stand before this gate every year to pose for their perfect ‘I was here’ picture and hurry on their way, what a better way to earn a couple bucks.

Berlin holding my flag!

Nevertheless, I was excited to see my flag and hopped onto the podium next to him. He plopped a heavy hat onto my head and held out the peace sign. I rolled my eyes and stuck out my peace sign too. Claudia and I said goodbye and walked away while chuckling with disappointment. We laughed then walked home in silence. The feeling was unexplainable; not the feeling that my heart would freeze at any moment because of the wind chill, but that my heart was somehow a little broken. I knew this feeling from somewhere. When we arrived back at the apartment I let myself fall deep into thought. I thought this guy was from America. No matter his background or what state he came from, I could have made a connection with him, because what we shared was greater than our differences. I thought we shared America.  

My heart has known this feeling on more than one occasion. I have had this feeling after encountering many American ‘Christians’, here is a typical scenario.  I’m at the grocery store or gas station, and somehow they shine a little differently from the other people bustling along with their lives. As I’m waiting in line I’m impelled to talk with them. Through small talk I find that indeed they are a believer. My heart swells and I share my testimony of how He healed a cyst in my stomach and a disease in my blood. Caught up in the excitement of my story, I fail to notice their face. They look at me as if I’m speaking another language. ‘’That’s great’’ they say politely and wish me a good day. ‘Don’t we share the same God? The same Jesus?’ I ask myself as they walk away. They were waving the Christian flag and claimed His Name, maybe even wearing a necklace with The Cross too, but they were not a Christian. If they were, they would know that the impossible is where God works. He works when doctors say that I need an operation to remove a nickel sized cyst. He works when every option, logical attempt, and antibiotic fails. The Berlin actor was dressed as an American soldier and even held our flag. Many Christians may dress, act, and wave the flag of Christ but the words ‘spiritual warfare’ or ‘spiritual principalities’ are truly another foreign language to them. We may be dressed as a soldier of Christ but does our armor know battle? Does our hand know how to hold a sword? Do we know the tactics of the enemy?

Mid-day from my window and a walk

I share this with you in the hope you will join me, in advancing past being comfortable into being curious. I have spent too many days being passive without questioning or evaluating myself. Proverbs 9:8 says ‘reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee’. If you’re not offended by what I have written until this point, I ask one more thing of you. I’m asking you to evaluate yourself today. I want to leave you with this thought, this question; if today was the day you came before the Judgment Seat, would He know your name? Could He say, ‘I heard you this morning worshipping Me. I heard you this morning praying for your work colleague. I heard you singing praise songs to Me in the car ride. I gladly took your problems and offenses from you when they came and you gave them to me. Welcome to heaven now we can spend eternity together. Our time on earth was only the beginning.’ Could He say that? If He couldn't, are we any more than an actor too?

What I wrote was heavy I know. It was a conviction for myself and my relationship with Him, I am not as close as I wish to be. But the experience showed me the kind of person I don't want to be, I don't want to be an actor. The reality is that on that day we can't fake a relationship with Him. This revelation and soon coming reality is a wake up call.

'The Doorway' Berlin

Have a blessed week, Genevieve

P.S. all of these pictures were taken with my blackberry, I won't get my camera for an extended period of time because of global weather conditions such as tsunami's and floods in Japan. Do you think He's trying to get our attention?

 

The Fruit of February

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. (Psalm 29:2)

Mid-day by Grandpas and Grandmas.

When I see the marvelous colors of the sunrise or witness the simple beauty of nature I think of this verse, ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which  made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber’ (Psalm 121). Praise the Creator not the creation. When I look to the hills or watch passing clouds I love that I cannot change them. I do not have the power to form them with my hands and piece them like a puzzle together. I can’t push a hill to make a valley or separate oceans with my breath, but God can. By being submitted to Him I can share the glory of His creation. Click  here for cool cloud website!

This blog is coming a couple days earlier because I am going on vacation with my family. We are visiting the largest island of Germany, Rügen (click here for information link). We are booked to stay two or three days in a sport hotel. It is as logical as it sounds; a sport hotel is a mega gym with a place to sleep. Though I do not have my camera with me (sent home for repair), Reiner is lending me his camera so you can still expect pictures!

Tuesday sunrise while waiting for the bus

Since last week Chiara (AFS student from Italy), Claudia (AFS student from Slovakia) and I have welcomed a new exchange student to our group, Maicon from Brazil. We met him on several occasion with our AFS-Schwerin Chapter but he has officially moved from Schwerin to our town. As we were sitting in the atrium, a student introduced herself in German, then began speaking Portuguese with him. From my findings the expectation for European students is that they are bilingual. In addition to one’s native tongue, teenagers are expected to know English and possibly additional languages. In the USA, being bilingual let alone trilingual is a rarity, whereas for European students it is expected. I hope one day in the future when a group of Germans are visiting the States, I can chime in and show them that we are not only an English speaking country. I can see their faces now! I can picture the same confused face my host sister makes when I speak English with my Mom, when I will Skype with my host family in a US Starbucks and speak German. As I’m writing this post now, I can clearly see since September the sharpness of my English grammar skills declining. Every week a blog post takes longer because I have to read it over and over again. The other day in English class the teacher asked me a question, but I heard it in my head in German and repeated with German grammar. I’ll give you an example in case you don’t know how the word order goes.

Wie kommst du nach Hause? --How are you getting home?

Ich komme mit dem Fahhrad. -- I come with the bike.

Kommst du sofort nach der Schule zu Hause?

            Nein, erstmal muss ich zum Sky gehen.--No first must I to Sky ( a grocery store) go.(Correct English --No, first I have to go to sky.)

My school has an American-German exchange, in April a group of twenty US students will be visiting our school for a couple of weeks. I am wondering how poor my English is going to be in two more months. When I answer an email or call home for to congratulate a family member for a birthday, I hesitate between every word. A friend of mine said after her sister came home from the US she spoke English the first month with her family and class mates. Can you imagine?! Hahah, and I’m supposed to take the SAT’s when I get home!

Enjoying figs with the start of a new book

Friday was the last day of school before our two week winter vacation. On the last day the students gather in their home room and receive their grades from each class. The German school system is constructed so that in each class, (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) there are smaller classes that meet together for main subjects (English, German, Math). I am in the class 11c. Before we got the notebooks filled with our grades, we wrote our name on a small piece of paper, placed it in a bag and then took a name back out. Each student was to write something nice about the person from the name they picked out. Not to be 'Hallmark cardy', but it was truly heartwarming and refreshing to hear each person say something nice about one another. Though I did not receive grades, I received an evaluation from my class teacher (who is also my English teacher). Here are a couple quotes, ‘When Genevieve arrived, she already had a good command of the German language. During the first term she has made further progress and is continually improving. Genevieve is able to communicate fluently. She conducted a presentation of Thanksgiving, on Thanksgiving, for both her class and the 7^th class. It was very much appreciated. She is friendly, open- minded, helpful, tolerant and a cooperative student.’

Sunset, place of photo forgotten

Now that I am fully situated and feeling at home, I can see July 7^th, my departure date, on the horizon. Somehow it is always in the back of my mind, reminding me to seize every day and capture its beauty. The struggles such as students making fun of my ‘R’  makes the sun shine brighter. Apparently it sounds very guttural or that we have bubblegum in our mouths. By the way, its below 0° F.

Standing before a gateway in Boizenburg

Have a blessed week, Genevieve

Comments and questions welcome, but leave your name not just Anonymous!