Oh Dear! I need a place to live! (blog post #200)

I don’t know why I’m surprised when God's amazing anymore.  I'm moving to Boston for work starting in September.  Getting housing taken care of, was the last detail I felt I had little control over and of course that made me nervous.  I sent emails out to at least 15 adds on craigslist (plus follow up emails to most), with no replies.  I only had one lead that I had gotten from posting my bio on the Park Ave Church housing forum.  I had days to spend in Boston and expected to look at 5-10 places during my stay, but only had one lead.  I set that up for the first evening hoping it was a good one, because I was out of ideas of how to get more.  Even asking for help from the locals (friends, cousins, and YWAM) didn’t yield anything promising.  

So I went out the area where the apartment was about an hour early.  I explored the area and it seemed delightful, with the shopping, and the park, and the semi-quiet neighborhood with many young international families.  As I’m waiting, I mention to a friend in Boston where I was looking.  "the house is on Wilson St. by the park, and near the Stop and Shop," I said.  Turns out she used to go by the street regularly, and that street sign was her reminder to pray for me.  That begins to ease my worries as I remember that God is looking out for me, just as he was when he got me the job a few weeks earlier.  I go in and the house is clean and spacious.  My room is at the front with large bay windows.  It turns out I’m allowed to put hooks in the wall to hang my bike from :)  it also has a basement for storing extra bikes.  Also turns out one of my roommates is familiar with YWAM and some of the people there that I've know since I was young.  To make it perfect, it's on the market for well under it's market value.  My potential roommates say they’ll get back to me in 48 hours.  They’ve already interviewed one person, and then have one more the next day.  Ends up, they call me back an hour later to say I have the spot.   God is good.  I can rest secure in him.  I am more than thrilled with my first apartment in Boston.  Now that that's settled, I have the rest of the week to enjoy Boston.

Birthday - Rounds 1 and 2

I had a birthday again a few days back and quite enjoyed it.  I decided I might as well celebrate twice.  Round 1 was well photographed as seen below.  That was with a group of friends from SMD, specifically people I know well from worship team or International Student Group.  We went first to 3 Linden for lunch.  There was something about "Crap" written on the sign, but word on the street was that it was just a name.

3 Linden is known for their schnitzel.  I ordered half of one (see below).  A full one is just another one stacked on top.  It's a good deal of food and it is one of the few places in Germany where take out is encouraged.  When the waitress noticed us slowing down she promptly brought out the aluminum foil (which we used for decorating eyeglasses).  We then went to a café room at a church nearby and I cooked up an apple crisp, and brought vanilla ice cream to go on top.  We played and listened to music, played crazy mind games, and a version of Mafia.  When it was time for presents they blindfolded me and gave me a "weapon," really a spatula, and made me look for it.  The idea at first was that happy piano music meant I was closer and sad that I was farther away.  We resorted to hot and cold though in the end and I found a nice bag of gifts hiding away for me.  I could go into details but you would all be jealous.  Eventually we all split and headed our separate ways.  Just as I was getting ready to say goodbye to everyone, my family called, so I did speed goodbyes and then talked to my family a bit.  It was so great to hear everyone's voices from home.

When I got home I mixed up some chocolate chip cookies to bring into work the next day.  Chocolate chips are super expensive here though so I bought a giant chocolate bar.  It was too fat to break so I melted it and let it cool on wax paper so I could break it in pieces.  It made really cool swirls in the cookies.  For some reason, my experience with German ovens has been that they always cook slower, which meant my first two rounds of cookies were crunchy all the way through before I adapted and got them crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  There was just enough to cover my dinner that night (oops), work in the morning, and a few for my landlord and his family.

After work I went to an Italian restaurant with friends from PUMA.  I forgot my camera though.  Schade...  It was fun, mostly interns, some old and some new.  One was sick and volunteered to breathe all over my food as a birthday present for me.  I declined.  Instead I got a beautifully illustrated card with fun notes, and a rad PUMA keychain.  Afterwards a couple of us headed to a bar nearby to hang out a little bit.  It is Carnival time now, and so there were quite a few peculiar costumes wondering around.  I love people watching.

After all that fun, I still made it to bed by 11.  Impressive I know.  Enjoy the photos below!

Joy at PUMA

There has always been something that has struck me as brilliant about PUMA. In a
market dominated by adidas and Nike, PUMA has stayed alive. They do it by staying
ahead. The company was revived in the 90s when they invented the concept of “sports
lifestyle.” The idea of everyday clothing for athletes was PUMAʼs idea and followed
shortly after by giants adidas and Nike. adidas and Nike combine for 60% of the sports
market in comparison to PUMAʼs 6%. PUMA has to be different and ahead to stay
alive. So whatʼs the idea now? Joy.


Joy is one of my favorite things and itʼs a good feeling to work for a company in full
support of it. Sure sports are hard and involve blood, sweat, and tears, but to dwell on
that? Thatʼs just masochistic, we donʼt do sports for the
pain. Sure pain comes along some time and is necessary sometimes, but we do it for
the joy. The feeling of the win, the feeling of speed, the love of competition, the benefits
of a healthy lifestyle, the love of the game, thatʼs what itʼs about! That carries over
outside of sports too as a “sports lifestyle.” Enjoy every moment, love what you do,
laugh!


Take it how you will but we can all use joy in our lives. There are temporary joys
(PUMAʼs focus) and full long-term joy (that comes from Christ). I think healthy doses of
both are... healthy!


At the welcome day we had recently PUMA showed us some really awesome videos
driving this home, but unfortunately I canʼt post them to the internet, but I may show you
some time on my computer =)


Another area where PUMA is leading the way is sustainability. Hereʼs a video about
one of PUMAʼs newer innovations. I present to you, “The Clever Little Bag”: