Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Sun and Shield

Hi Readers!!
Woof. Our neighbor got a new dog!

Passing by blooming flowers.
I was a little confused how the flowers are so beautiful...
but there's no grass?
Last Wednesday was the last day of school for our seniors. On the ride to school I noticed how gitty all the little kids on the bus were. As we pulled into the school parking lot I saw why. Each senior was lined up with hair spray paint where the buses dropped us off. We were sitting ducks. I guess on their last day they’re allowed to spray us with waterguns, colored hair spray, and write on our faces with lipstick. Everyone got marked, there was no escaping it. One senior was at every entrance of the school. Luckily, my friend Nadine wrote on my first to spare me from others who drew inappropriate things. German High School Seniors don’t write SAT’s or ACT’s, they write a six hour test for the main subjects and two by choice. Every student graduates from High School, but your allowance into college relies very heavily on the results from the Abitur.
After the first hour. Then came the onion spray bottles.
So not funny.
People I never talked to sprayed me with musty perfume, wrote on my forehead, and sprayed me with onion water. A couple students were drinking. They came into our first class, the teacher left and they threw candy. After the first half hour, I got annoyed and would only respond in English. No more for Genevieve. Through the terror we heard a voice over the intercom that told us to go outside. We reluctantly sauntered out the door where we were sprayed again. The teachers were put in a ‘cage’ (fenced area) and were only allowed to get out when they won a game against another teacher. Here is a picture of them playing ‘Spit the Cherry into the Bucket’. The principal played too, but most teachers were coincidentally ‘sick’ that day.
I was really suprised the Princpal participated,
afterwards there was a dress up contest.
I never thought I would see my economy teacher,
with a pink poodle umbrella in a tutu. Oje.
The day after, I joined the American Exchange students in their tour of Boizenburg. I have lived here for six months, and have never been to the top of the church or knew that the history stretches back to 1100 A.C.. I am tempted to get a tour of New England when I get back. It’s funny how we conduct our daily life, without every being aware of our surroundings. Afterwards, we visited the local Elementary School. We played games with the first and second graders, sang songs, and gave out American Peppermints. They looked at us like rockstars. And did I mention they could only speak in English because the Ami’s didn’t know a lick of German? Although the topics of conversation were limited to color/relatives/name/age I was thoroughly impressed. We also met with the town Mayor who gave us goodie packets. Each packet had a handmade tile that was the main good that was produced in our town, and some candies from a local candy factory.
At the top of the Boizenburg church,
that's our little village!!
Here's one for you mom. Super old door in the church!!
With the kids! They were so fantastic. I'll add more later in the week.
A lot has been on my mind lately. God prompted me in November to memorize one Bible verse every week. Last week’s verse was Psalm 84:11. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. After memorizing this verse, I have encountered many situations where I needed the strength from these words. I would recommend verse memorization with the help of Jesus, to have Him confirm it in your Spirit. I don’t have much time to write, because 1) The Bavarian soccer team is playing and 2) I have to memorize a poem called Osterspaziergang, which means An Easter Walk. Oh and real quick, I got a bunny, he is all gray!
At the bottom of the VERY NARROW stairs,
leading up to the church bells.
God Bless, Until next week!!

P.S. I made the cookies with my host sister. First time EVER eating chocolate chip cookies.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Couch Potatoe Christians Can't Run

Hey readers look, I'm on time!
Sunday sunset.
Since the group of twelve American exchange students arrival, I have been busy participating in activities with them. My German high school has a partner school in Michigan. The Germans went to America in the fall, and now it’s turn for the Americans to come to Germany. The Americans don’t know any German, because it’s not an offered language at their school. On Saturday, the students, teachers and host parents enjoyed a small brunch at our school. I received a rescue bag of Skittles, Starbursts, and Reese’s. I gave out the Skittles, and Starbursts but kept the Reese’s for me! One of the American teachers brought me a cookie mix to make classic chocolate chip cookies for my host family. I’m so excited to make them, considering all of my recipes have been a disaster, except for the fact that I ate the bag of chocolate chips…so my host family will be getting sugar cookies! The American students thought that I was a German student, that could only speak 'ok' english. They were shocked, totally shocked, when they found out I was from the States. After brunch, the students and their German partners all took the train to Hamburg. It was the first time ever riding a train for the most of them.
We mostly wandered around the city, like all over-sized tourists groups do. It’s hard to ever accomplish anything worth taking note of, unless you travel with one or two friends. Big groups move slow, and fail to ever have a set of destinations. Nevertheless, our last stop was the Hamburg Fair which I had never been to. French fries, arcade games, chocolate covered fruit kebabs (I had to Google that word), small rollercoasters, and people trying to convince you to buy their stuff. It was all there. I went on a small rollercoaster,  that started off like a kids ride then turned into a chiropractor’s nightmare. At least I can check off rollercoaster on my list of things to do in Germany.
Chocolate Kebabs. I had a pineapple/apple/banana/grape one.
Mmmmmmm.

Mime Man in the center of Hamburg


Win an overstuffed animal! I saw a young girl win a monster sized
chihuahua. It was so big her mom had to carry it for her!
The next day, I went to church service with a school friend and his American exchange partner. I ended up translating the entire sermon for the student sitting to my left. It was hard because 1) the speaker didn’t give any pauses 2) German is complicated to translate, it involves reforming entire sentences and 3) I didn’t understand some parts myself. At the end of the service, a sister of one of the members gave a short speech. She was from a small village in the mountains (I didn’t catch the exact name). She spoke in her native tongue, and her sister who has been living in German translated for the audience, and I translated from German to English. It was quite a moment to be talking about God’s glory in three different languages.

After service, I went back to my school friends’ house to enjoy lunch with his family. His mom prepared curry coconut soup, meat with a yummy sauce, and a strawberry yogurt dessert. As we were driving home, she asked if I had a minute to take a short detour. Before she finished her sentence, I said ‘Ja!!’, which means ‘yes!!’. Apparently, there is a small village called Heidel that has a completely different landscape. You’ll be driving through green country side, then all of a sudden its hilly, the shrubs are dark purple and there are patches of electric green moss. I ran to the top of one of the hills and I guess you can see a small part of Poland on the Horizon.
Sitting in the green moss.














The next stop was a ‘throwback’ village. That’s not what she called it, but to me it made sense. After this village, there is another that’s house architecture is exact that of England’s in the late 1800’s. A whole block of houses are built completely different from normal German houses. This was during the time of the German Industrial Revolution which was very close entwined with England.
I believe this house was built in 1878,
can you imagine how much it would cost to heat??
When I got home, I was surprised to find fifteen of our baby birds hatched and already fuzzy. They are extremely curious little birds. If you tap on the side of their box they’ll all come running over and start tapping where they hear the noise.
I have yet to name the little guys. They're staying in a crate in our livingroom
until it begins to warm up outside. I play my guitar for them everymorning and they all
try to crow along!

The next day was Monday, the first day of school for the Americans. Instead of going to history, my teacher encouraged me to go to breakfast with the two American teachers to share experiences. When we got back to the school, the principal was waiting for us to give the welcome speech to all of the exchange participants (including a newspaper guy taking notes on the side). I turned to leave, and he asked me to stay and translate for him. He told me he couldn’t speak English very well, and I told him I can’t speak English very well. The standard of ‘speaking well’ to a German, is grammatical perfection. I turned to leave, but he insisted that he needed me so I pulled up a chair. After all of the students were quiet, he began speaking for a minute then looked at me.
‘He said that he is very excited to all have you here at his school. He knows that the Germans have made a lot of preparations to make your stay comfortable…and because I was busy translating the first two sentences I spaced out on the second two, so I’m going to let the English teacher do the second two!’ The room filled with light laughter. She translated what I missed, but I did the rest of the speech. After he was done and awarded with his thank you gift, I couldn’t help but smile too. I was honored that he allowed me to do that for him, and also that I was able to do it.
Bed of flowers in the woods behind my house.
Come Monday night, I was exhausted. Exhausted. One minute English, one minute German, then back to English, and then back to German. My head was spinning. So, I took today off to calm myself out. After sleeping thirteen hours, I woke up and had a much needed slow breakfast. The sun was shining and the wind wasn’t ice cold, so I decided to go for a run. The day before, I had a conversation with my history teacher about running. We agreed that you can think of ten different excuses not to go running, before your about to go running. Your mind thinks of how strenuous it is for every muscle, and how painful side cramps are. The couch calls out your name, and the warm blanket says ‘come, let’s take a nap!’.  If you can get past the island of syrene’s, calling you to be lazy and actually go running, it’s worth it. She told me, not until she gets home and takes her shoes off does she realize how fantastic she feels. The same goes for me. Sometimes, even during my run I consider stopping and walking home. It was a fun conversation, but later during my prayer time a Bible verse from Paul came to mind about what we had said.
2 Corinthians’ 9:24 ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.’
And Timothy 4:5-7 Paul writing to Timothy ‘But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith’.
Sunset from a hill.
Paul exhorts us to run. But the truth is, that too many of us don’t get past the couch that is calling us to sit and relax, to actually put our sneakers on and go running. Here are some thoughts on a physical level of running. We think of how painful it could possibly be, and how much energy it would require. And isn’t the couch just so comfortable and easy? I don’t have to go out of my comfort level at all! Apply these to the spiritual level now. Many think of how painful living for God could be, how many Sunday’s they would have to ‘sacrifice’, how many gallons of gas they would use up and how much energy it would all require.
For a couch potato, those are legitimate excuses. But couch potatoes won’t get into the Kingdom of God. How can you win a race if you never started running? How could you be more than a conqueror, if you have never fought a battle? There is no better time to start studying the Word of God than now, no better time to give your life to Him than this moment. Another verse that may be haunting for some, is a question posed by one of the disciples to Jesus. Luke 13:23 ‘Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.’’ The words ‘strive’ and ‘seek’ are essential in this verse. According to the Greek and Hebrew dictionary, strive means to struggle or fight and seek means simply to look without actual intent of pursuing.
Sitting on the bench, giving myself time to be still and listen.
Many people are bystanders of the Christian life, many merely seek. Jesus came to give us life , and life more abundantly. But we have to run the race, in order to win. And we have to fight so that God can be victorious through us. Like I said, we won’t run if we never get running. You can’t enter the Kingdom of God by simply looking, you have to strive to enter in. I was thinking about it on a totally basic level. Would I want to allow someone into my Kingdom so easily? Would I accept someone that never proved they really wanted to come in? We have got to want this more than anything, because we only have this life to prove we really want in.

Your fellow runner, Genevieve

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Eleven

Hello Readers!
Our last big vacation before summer just ended.
There's eleven weeks left for my adventure,
loving every day when its not rainy.
I included some picture with captions underneath,
hope you enjoy.
Most of them are group pictures.
As an exchange student, you learn quickly
how to cluster as a group and take a picture.

Sunset at Grandma's

Watching the dew evaporate

Group of Celle students
We all went to the language camp for 4 weeks together



Bunny that I almost got.
On Easter Sunday my family woke up early to go to the flea market
and animal market (bunnies, guinea pigs, birds).
Next week I get to pick one out, but a baby!
Sadly when I leave 'es geht in das Topf'
which means, it's going in the cooking pot.



Group of Celle-AFS Chapter with Michael our leader!

Group of AFS students from Survivor Camp


In my orientation group

Again with the Celle group!

That's all folks!
Until next week, Genevieve!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Strong Roots in a Changing Tide and Wind


Hey Everyone!
Some vegetables, fruits and spices are grown in our own garden and used for the
restaraunt. We get our potatoes from Gabi's parents, the meat from a local hunter and we raise our own chickens for poultry. When our chicken is done laying her eggs, she stands in front of the barn window until someone comes to pick them up, see her there? In a couple of weeks, we're going to get forty baby chickies. I got to pick out the color they would be, I chose a mix of yellow, brown, and black birdies.

Like last week's blog, I’m going to share my thoughts and a couple pictures with a describing text underneath.
I hope you like the new changes. If anyone has Facebook you may have been confronted with the choice to change to the ‘timeline’ setting. Google also has many ‘updates’ and forced them upon their users, or at least me. One false click and I had a different background and set up. I tried to go back but Google wouldn’t allow me, so let’s make some lemonade out of these lemons and try to enjoy the change.  Once again, I was late writing my blog. As I mentioned, it is a process to upload the pictures, write the text, and format everything so it is pleasing to the eye. The entire website is reformatted so I had to dedicate my whole day to write this blog today, but I labor in love for you all. And in my opinion, it is all worth it. Thanks to the new changes, I was able to see that my blog viewers not only come from my home country (including Alaska), but also Russia and South Korea.
Once again I have vacation! I have this week until next Thursday free, woohoo! So far, I have went to a birthday party, visited my grandparents, and went hiking. Going to my grandparents is always a blast; I can expect good home cooked food, lots of sweets, and a friendly atmosphere. The entire seven months, as of today, has led up to one big revelation that is essential for exchange students and people in general. Self-confidence.
Cows at Opa and Oma's Farm. Moo!

Moo.
If, as an exchange student, you lose weight in the first month you’re doing something wrong or are suffering from malnutrition. I think the first dozen times I went into a grocery store it felt like Christmas or my birthday. Everything was packaged differently, different shapes and colors, everything was new! Breakfast was a rainbow of jellies and fruits, lunch was a colorful palette of sauces and cooked vegetables, and then two hours later we would all gather again for coffee and cake! And don’t forget dinner! More sauces, potatoes,  meat, and vegetables. Then as if that wasn’t enough, if we watched a movie together we would munch on gummy bears. Naturally on the weekends you drive to a cafĂ© in the country, or meet friends after school for an ice-cream, or on the weekend for ice cream. And that seems to turn into the routine; somehow humans find it very bonding to eat together. Which is great for the photo album, but consequently bad for the waist line. It seems like a big banquet until about, well the seventh month when you step into your favorite dress and can’t zip the zipper.
Buying Bread at the Bread Truck

Standing with Oma (Grandma)
You know what I’m talking about exchange students. I’m pretty sure we’re all feeling the same things.  When you go to the grocery store you know which candies taste good, and which ones give you stomach aches. When you go to your grandma’s and can say no to cake because you have already tasted it. When you go out with friends and don’t have to buy ice cream (because you’ve tried them all), around this time you should be feeling settled in and at home. I don’t regret all of the big slices of cake and tortes on the weekend at my grandma’s, not one bit. I can say no to cake or candy’s when I don’t want them, but what I can’t say no to is the ‘normal’ food that I’m expected to eat. My diet at home is almost all vegetables; except for bacon I would consider myself a vegetarian. (Feel free to cackle at the irony!). France has their baguettes and croissants, China has rice, Italy has pasta, and Germany has BREAD. It comes in every shape, form, taste, color, and size you can imagine. Whole walnuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, white, brown, gray, raisins, cranberries and the list goes on and on and on. Its carbohydrate heaven for those who aren’t gluten sensitive, like me.

This picture was staged. I didn't eat all of that
pasta, and our serving bowls are much
smaller. But that's how I view
dinner in my mind. With HUGE bowls
of deadly carbs, that are somehow
oh so yummy.
If I choose to enjoy a slice of pumpkin dark baked bread, I have to prepare myself for the stomach pain to come after. The ‘typical’ German diet consists of a bread roll for breakfast with jelly or cereal, between breakfast and lunchtime most snack on another bread roll, for lunch some sort of meat with a sauce and potatoes, and for dinner bread with sliced meat and cheese. My family is untypical in that we eat a warm dinner; most families will only eat one warm meal a day. When I was at my Grandma’s I had two slices of bread for breakfast, eggs in a mustard sauce for lunch, white bread with raisins and coffee, then spaghetti with cinnamon and sugar for dinner. As I was lying in a carbohydrate coma after lunch, I heard a bell ring outside; I peered out the window and saw the baker truck parked outside our driveway. Nadia grabbed my hand and I waddled slowly outside. When you don’t live close enough to a baker, they come to you. I closed my eyes, what a nightmare! More bread! Nadia ordered bread cheese sticks with bacon. I say this in all honesty, if I didn’t ever have to eat one slice of bread in my life again, I would be more than okay. AFS told us we can expect to gain weight, I haven’t, but such an extreme change of diet kind of messes with your stomach and your head.
Which brings me back to my revelation, self-confidence. My friends have told me that my German is improving, but I still feel at times incapable of expressing myself to the extent that I want. When you first arrive in a new land, you are like a baby. Logic helps but for the most part you, or at least I was clueless or overwhelmed. Bus schedules, train schedules, labels on food or personal products (I think I washed my hair with body soap the first week), washing machines, coffee machines, light switches, key locks, grocery carts, and the list goes on. It can begin to ware on your self-confidence when you have to ask for help so often, or when your favorite dress is beginning to be too small for you. I remember sitting in my frustration, and feeling pretty low about myself. You can bet who was there in a millisecond to assist me in my self-pity. The devil had me in a matter of minutes in tears, willing to count the days until I would be back home in my ‘safety zone’.
Enjoyed lunch with a friend Lena, I met her at the birthday party.
I cherished being able to play with her sister's son, Eleziah.
It reminded me how much I enjoy playing with the lovely girl I babysit at home.
I recognized the attack, and the words from Dr.Jeffers came to mind in his sermon ‘Healing on the Jericho Road’ (click on underlined text for link to sermon). ‘If the Devil can take your identity, he has got your protection’. If you don’t know the story about Jericho, click on the link. The story starts at verse thirty, but I would read at the beginning of the chapter.  What spoke to me the most from the story, and Dr. Jeffers preaching is the emphasis on our identity. In Biblical times, what you wore defined what rank you were in society, and was also your protection from dust storms and cold nights. The thieves, who represented Satan, had power over him because they had power over his identity. When it comes to identity, it is not a laughing matter. I have to be so deeply rooted in God’s love, wear His armor, and know that I am His daughter. Notice, the world doesn’t hesitate to form and shape us. Many of you are familiar with the analogy that we are as clay in God’s hands. We are formable and easily influenced by everything around us, if we don’t know our identity. I really emphasize watching this sermon to explain this issue better.
A purple flower I rescued from the still sleeping brownish
winter landscape. The shades of whites and purples are unbelievable.

Identity is also very closely related to confidence. If my sense of identity is poor, you can bet that my self-confidence is not shooting through the roof. Let’s look at what the Bible says (click on underlined text for a list of Bible verses that speak about confidence).

Situations, difficulties, and even the good times are all factors that shape us. When we submit all of our ways before God, we can be sure that everything is working for our benefit. In two days it is Easter. Bunny stickers are plastered onto windows, and chocolate bunnies are being sold left and right. As I was munching on the ears of my sweet chocolate treat, I asked myself why bunnies if Easter is to celebrate Jesus’s resurrection. Then I realized, like Santa Claus and Christmas, people will choose anything as a second option so they don’t have to believe in truth or in God.

Do I need a caption to say that this a picture of the sky? Haha. A picture of the sky on my way to Chiara's.
The silver-lining in the new updates, and blog format is that I can now add videos, which for me is the cherry on top of a super cool blog post.


God Bless You this week, and let me know what you think about the changes.

Genevieve

We are MOVIN'!

Hello Friends! Thank you for your support over the years, I'm happy to announce that I have a new  space and would be grateful if you ...