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 café 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