Pumpkins, Birthdays, and Butterflies

The last two weeks have been busy and wonderful. We have had several days of sunshine which everyone is feeling the need to soak up before winter weather is upon us. It is definitely fall now and the leaves are beginning to change. Last weekend Soyoung (my fellow Blauen RA) and I took the girls to a pumpkin festival in Witt. The festival was small and quaint but enjoyable. This is a picture of Soyoung and I with a pumpkin cow. There was also a pumpkin circus and pumpkin people on pumpkin swings. See a theme here? All the roommates picked out a pumpkin to be carved at a later date.

Now I would like to introduce you to a Blauen tradition. Each girl gets to have a birthday celebration on a Sunday, usually the Sunday closest to their birthday. The birthday girl picks a meal and dessert and we make it for them. There is LOUD singing/yelling and then the birthday girl gets "bucketed". In other words, she gets doused by buckets of warm water prepared before hand while everyone sings High School Musical's "Breaking Free". Naturally, the birthday girl can't go along with this too easily so often we end up with a chase down the street and then carry said birthday girl back to the house. The draw back to running away, however, is that the creek is on the way back to the house and it's easier just to dunk them in the creek instead. This weekend it was Anna's birthday and she put up a good fight but, as always, ended up in the creek. Here is a picture of the girls carrying here to the creek.

Here is a random picture I thought I would include because it makes me really happy. On Saturday I walked into my room, where I always have my windows open, and there on my window sits a butterfly. I took the opportunity to practice my photography skills (which I don't really have) and take some shots of it. This is one of my favorites. It reminds me of one of my dear friends from home who not only love butterflies and what they represent to us, but also love blue glass. E, this one is for you.

And here is another view of my valley. This is a view of Marzel from the top of Hoch Blauen, the big hill/mountain right behind my dorm. When this picture is bigger you can actually see the back of my dorm and my room. I hiked up to Hoch Blauen on my day off yesterday and took this.

For those of you who have been asking about a picture of my dorm I thought I would give you a link to see a video of it instead. One of the RA's from across the street took this time-lapse out the front window of their dorm. My dorm is right across the street, the white house with the blue shutters. Nothing too exciting happens but you can see the students leave for school, come home from school, one of the guys get creeked for his birthday, and then everyone leave for a worship night at school. When you see the black van drive up in front of Blauen and then turn around in Sonne's parking area that is me. Here is the link to check it out on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiqrKljHFPw

That's all for now. Thanks for all the support and interest in my life here. I am so blessed to have

the support of all of you!

Peace.

Schlaf im Stroh

Today is the final day of my first weekend off. When I found out that I would have a weekend off this soon, I wasn't sure what I would do with myself. Fortunately, I found some other RA's who had the same weekend off and we made plans. Little did I know what I was getting myself in to.

We decided to go visit Berner Oberland, a valley in the Swiss alps that's a 2 hour drive from school. Although the weather was overcast most of the 2 days we were there, it was still absolutely beautiful. Below is a picture from a waterfall we hiked to by the lake we stayed on.


And this is a picture out the front "door" of where we stayed. We were in the little fishing village of Iseltwald right on the lake.


Now one might be thinking to oneself, how could this possibly be affordable? Such a beautiful place, right on the lake, in the middle of the Alps. Well, in order to travel without spending much money we decided to "schlaf in stroh" or in English, sleep in straw. It's common in this area for farmers to rent out the stalls in their barns to tourists in the summer months, while the cows are grazing in higher pastures. One of the girls I travled with found Heidi and Christian, two friendly Swiss farmers who don't speak any English, and we stayed in their barn. I stayed in Elena's stall for the night as seen below.


This is a picture of the inside of the barn and our beds for the night. Though it was fairly clean it still smelled like manure, not quite like waking up to the smells of breakfast in the morning.


And here is our barn. The joke of the weekend, "Were you raised in a barn? No, but I slept in one!" Hilarious, I know.


All in all it was a great time. Heidi made us a wonderful and very Swiss/German breakfast the next morning and minus having "barn breath" in the morning, we all had a great time.

As I write this I am still in disbelief that this is my life. I took a walk on Friday in my hills and valley in Marzel, and was just blown away at how well God knows my needs and how He meets them. When I think about where I was last year, at Moody studying, I am so thankful to be where I am. I loved Moody and miss my friends more than I can say, but being here is so good for my soul. The beauty that surrounds me is healing and just what I need after four years of school. I am convinced that though it is hard to have faith in where God is leading, it is the best place to be.

If you couldn't tell, I am doing well here. I am also enjoying my "job". I'm almost positive it is the best job there is. My girls are absolutely wonderful and I am enjoying serving them in every way I can.

A few things to pray about....
-Adjustment both for me and the girls. We're all kind of coming out of the "honeymoon" period and really settling into life.
-Building relationships both with everyone in my dorm and other staff in the BFA community.

Thanks for all your support and prayer. Peace.

So Faithful

So much has happened since my last post and I hardly know where to start. Last night one of the counselors from the school came up to our dorm fellowship (a time where our dorm does something fun together which often includes visitors or food or games). Mari Ellen asked the girls to put together a picture of what their life looks like for them right now. After considering this question for awhile I decided that my life is like a hike in the area around where I live. Sometimes I working hard to climb a steep hill and other times I'm enjoying a flat area with a great view. Every so often I come to a place where I look out and know unmistakably that God is faithful.

For those of you who don't already know, my Papa (my dad's dad) passed away August 28th. While not completely unexpected, I didn't think this would happen so soon after I moved here. I wasn't sure if I should go back for the funeral and went back and forth in my mind. In the end I decided to make the trip and was completely supported by the dorm staff here. When I made the decision I wasn't sure if this would negatively affect my relationships with the girl since they had just arrived. Not only that but I absolutely did not have the money to by a last minute plane ticket. What I did know is that God is always faithful and this is direction I felt He was taking me in.

Now on the other side I can again say, He is faithful. Through unexpected sources my ticket was completely paid for. My girls where more than understanding about everything and I feel like I never even left. Jet lag was almost non-existent when I got back.

My time in Texas was a sweet time. It was exhausting and at times heart-breaking but it was good. The whole family was able to be together and mourn together. We were also able to see my grandparents community reach out and care for us in our time of need. My papa had a clear testimony and I have no doubt that I will see him again. I think the picture below is a testament to my papa. He was always making us laugh and keeping us on our toes. You wouldn't think that the this picture was taken at a funeral and I think that is exactly how Papa would have wanted it.

On a completely different note, I went to my first rugby game on Saturday. The 3 guys dorms gathered to play each other and the 4 girls dorms followed to cheer on the guys. My dorm is across the street from Sonne, a guys dorm, so we became their cheerleaders. The girls painted their faces and made signs and cheered so hard they lost their voices. It was a beautiful day and a great time altogether. This is Anna (on the right), a senior in my dorm with Jordan (on the left), the sister of one of the guys from Sonne.

And this is the poster the girls made for the guys to run through.


That's about all that is new here for now. Today is my day off so I'm going to go for a hike and enjoy the sun while it is shining. Thank you for all your prayers and hopefully my next post won't be so long coming.

Peace.