Not a weak week

Something outrageous has been happening, and that is that everytime I check Lynn's blog, it seems her pictures and/or recent doings more than resemble mine! I'm talkin'....to the DAY or the PHOTO! How creepy! Maybe we are sisters or something. I guess we'll never know.

So this last week has been crazy and eventful. Friday I went to the Christkindlmarkt at Marienplatz and tried the glühwein, an amaretto roll, and had a big bratwurst with lots of mustard. I'm hungry just thinking of all the delicacies; calmed just thinking of the leisurely market pace. Later on, I packed my things and ventured out to Viehbach, Germany--the town of 400 where Rachel lives/LIVED...(We would then head to Haimhausen--Adam lent us his apartment/keys so we could be girls and bake cookies, sit on real couches, and spread out our arms without touching a wall.)

When I got to my third mode of transportation, I spoke a great deal with the bus driver and told him where I was going. Rachel was meeting me with her moped (MO-ped!). Long story short, the bus driver and I both thought I had to go to the last stop, but in actuality, my little itinerary was just telling me the DIRECTION of the bus...aka...the LAST STOP. Apparently Rachel was sitting there waiting for me, saw me NOT get off the bus, and chased me for a bit! After a phone call or two, and a good 15 minutes for me to laugh at what I had done, she arrived to rescue me. But don't forget, I had two bags with me, there were two of us, and the is only one helmet. She let me wear it. This guy across the street saw us look like fools and try to maneuver this phenomenal balancing act. After a prayer for protection, we were on our way, and it was sooo awesome! I got to ride through tiny villages on a moped, hanging on to my dear friend's torso and screaming at the top of my lungs. Not a scary scream, rather a WAHOOOOOO I'M-ON-A-MOPED-AND-MY-HANDS-ARE-FREEZING-CUZ-IT'S-COLD-BUT-I-DON'T-CARE-CUZ-I'M-RIDING-THROUGH-GERMAN-VILLAGES-ON-A-MOPED-scream.

The next night and day, we baked about 300 cookies, visited the international school's market, and made a really nice dinner for Adam and Michael, who were arriving late from their training in London. They loved the food, we loved making it, and we all watched the Grinch together and ate cookies until we couldn't move. Adam drove us to Rachel's host house, and although I wasn't prepared or planning to stay anywhere Saturday night, Rachel's pseudo-family said they'd be gone all night at a party and sleeping over. So Rach and I slept there, but then, at 3 in the morning, I awoke abruptly to the sounds of an argument. Even though the parents never expressed their expectations of visitors in the house, the mom told Rachel that "you let a foreigner in the house." (Oh, by the way, that's me...I'm a foreigner.)

Long, long story short......I have a new roommate. Her name is Rachel and I arranged my room so that half of it may be occupied by her. One of her suitcases is packed and stored at Adam's. The rest of it is here. The family apparently was having problems four months ago, which is one month before Rachel's arrival. The "fair" thing to do would have been to communicate that to Rachel prior to her flight and expected 9 month stay...right? Right. But say it with me...LIFE'S...NOT...FAIR! Good thing God is faithful.

So the week's been a bit crazy and I'm sorry for not writing. Last night, however, was AMAZING. Rachel and I were invited to a family's home from church, who had a beautiful home; oh, it was also aestethically beautiful. There are six children--three by birth and the other three are the cousins, whose parents are both deceased. I am so happy for this family and you just see LOVE written all over everything. We ate a great dinner, sang Christmas carols, talked about a story from the bible, played hide and seek, and watched I Love Lucy episodes....which were cracking all of us up, ages 8-40s or so. And if we hadn't been given enough already, we were sent away with lovely stockings and a ride home, because they didn't want us to ride public transportation home. We are blessed.

Also from this weeks, some pics from JYM activities...on St. Nikolaus day, St. Nikolaus (HP) surprised our classroom and gave all the "good ones" clementines. He had a book with names inside of all the people who spoke only german, and they were going to get BMWs, he said, but when he opened up the book, he found it (astonishingly!) to be blank. After class, we decorated a tree and had lebkuchen and wine/cider. It was lots of fun and I'm glad we did it. I signed up to sing some carols with others who want to for our party next Friday.

Can't believe the fam will be here in t-minus two weeks!
love you.