Räuchermännchen

Today's topic is "Räuchermännchen" which is translated into English as "smoking men." It's a typical German product that you can find at most Christmas Markets here. You burn incense in them and the smoke comes out their mouthes. Often times they are holding pipes but there are other versions as well where it may be the chimney of a small house or something. They range in price from 3 € to 100€ depending on the size, detail, and quantity of materials. Many of the nice ones have large beards that are made of fur, perhaps rabbit. You can google image search "Räuchermännchen große Bart" to get a better idea (that is "smoking men big beard").

Below you can see pictures of my cheap one with a fake beard. He's a night watchman and makes me happy. I had to wait until today to post it because Jesse is getting the same one for Christmas =)

Real

What is Real? I'm not talking about our sense of reality and what exists, but instead about this idea I see about me. People want to be real. Maybe it's a new phenomenon and maybe not. I know what it's not. It's not Fake. It's the rebellion against the fake that we're all sick of seeing, whether that be in the media, the generations before, or even the church. Real is not wearing a mask to cover up who you really are. Real is not forcing yourself to conform against your will to the norms. It's admitting what doesn't make sense to you and not walking along as if it did just because the people around you seem to get it.

What does that mean in practice though. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Should we strive to be real?

I think yes, but with a caution.

We're born evil. Sinful nature. To me that's pretty clear just looking around. The danger then is this. We place being real on a pedestal and say, I know this (whatever this may be for you) is wrong, but if I don't do it, I wouldn't be being true to myself. I wouldn't be the true me. I would be fake to not do it. Therefore I must do it.

No. The idea isn't "be true to yourself." Instead the idea is "be true to who you should be." Find out what you were created for and,

pursue it,

openly,

honestly,

fully.

When what you know is right and what you feel is right disagree, don't just blindly pick one, following what you know and being fake, or what you feel because you want to be real. Instead Question, Search, Think, Observe, until the two things become aligned. Some times that's a shift in what you know, or thought you knew, and other times it's a shift in how you feel.

Always admit to yourself what bothers you, what you don't understand, what you disagree with, but don't leave it there. Fix it. When you've fixed it, you've grown. The Real you has become closer to who it should be. That's the difference. There's the people who reject themselves to make it look like they are who they should be. They look like they've progressed while they leave their real selves far behind. That is fake. Real, is when what you really think, and how you really feel is how you act, and that real you grows each day to be closer to the you that should be. Those two different lives will look the same for a time, but in the end, one will be going through meaningless motions and the other will be living from the heart.

Real is not an excuse to give in to your nature. It is not an excuse to be lazy, not to struggle. Real is a challenge to do nothing thoughtlessly. Both being fake, and being "true to your nature" kill you, while being Real and true to who you should be, gives life.

City of Snow - Schneestadt

Firstly I just want to point out that this is my 100th post and I started this blog in mid-February. I'd say that counts as perseverance. Definitely enjoying having all this stuff together in one place and going through the process as well.

Secondly I just invented the word "Schneestadt" but I think I'm allowed to do that because that's how the German language works. Instead of using adjectives they just cram words like "Schnee" (snow) and "Stadt" (city) together.

I've mentioned I think that my church meets on the 6th floor of a building on the north edge of the city. I've been meaning to bring my camera for weeks and I finally did. It's a lovely snowy day. The first picture is a close up of the second one. You'll notice that those churches are about the tallest buildings in the city. They are situated pretty roughly in the middle. Granted Osnabrück is a small city even by European standards, but it's a stark contrast to skylines like Pittsburgh.

View more recent photos here. I just added another 15 photos to the end of the album.

German Manners

So I've eaten with Germans a good handful of times now and am trying to learn to eat like them. It's an awful lot of work. While both "Continental" and "American" manners are both common in the US, I was raised on American manners. The clearest difference between the two styles is that I was raised to cut a bite of food and then set the knife down, switch the fork to my right hand then eat... a little tedious but it's a habit now. In Germany they use "Continental" manners which means the fork stays in the left hand and fork in the right so you end up eating left handed when using your knife. My impression of the style is that it looks like one is rushing and trying to shovel food into their mouth without taking the time to switch hands. They're impression of my manners is that it's childish. Children often have trouble eating with the left hand so they switch the fork back to the right. To the German defense, they by no means appear to be shoveling food; in fact it's quite the opposite.

Let's look at the example of pizza. Yes, they use utensils for that. I rarely see people use their hands for pizza. We American's probably look barbaric to them... Anyways, so you stick the fork in the pizza and then cut the piece off, you have a bite on your fork and you... well, I would expect you would eat it... but nope. First you inspect the bite. If it's too big you set it back down and cut a little off. If two small, then you cut a little more to add to the bit. Then, oh wait... there's a little bit of cheese hanging off, so the knife is used to set the cheese all on top of the fork. The little sauce that dripped on your plate is then spread onto the bite with the knife. The bite must then be shaped perfectly to fit in the mouth. The knife pushes, spreads and shapes the bite in motions resembling the motions of frosting a cake. When that is all said and done the knife probably has some food on it so that food is then wiped off onto the fork and the bite is taken. That's right, each bite is the perfect bite. The size and shape are ideal and the proportions of cheese to sauce to bread to pepperoni are perfect as well. Then the process starts all over again. With years of practice a German can execute that whole process from cutting to eating in less than 15 seconds! I've been practicing and hope to be able to demonstrate similar skill by the end of my time here.

Mother's Arrival

A week ago today my Mom arrived in Osnabrück. She stayed till Monday and now I finally have time to post. It was great. I was noticing though what a depressing look the Osnabrück train station had though... not a beautiful place to arrive necessarily. Fortunately the rest of the city makes up for that.

8th Grade Project

Here are two videos I made with flash while I was in 8th grade. I didn't know how to export them to something useful at the time, so I haven't been able to open them until recently. Enjoy! They are unique =)

Good Morning

Rise and Shine Ryan

Throw open the blinds

let the day begin

oh..

Good morning to you too! Hello =)

A good way to begin the morning.

Spannend Pläne (exciting plans)

As of today I have officially made some rather exciting plans and bought all the plane and train tickets to make it happen. Our semester ends February 11th and RIT starts March 7th I believe. That means I have some time to see more of Europe. First I'll relax for the weekend. Then Monday through Thursday will be just south of London with some friends from Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Then I take a train under the English channel to Paris. Thursday through Monday I will be there with my cousin. She has been studying there for a few years now. From there I take a train through the Alps to Milan, Italy where I can stay with a friend I met here from Monday till Friday. I have my "7 days to learning conversational Italian" book with me so maybe I'll come back half fluent in Italian too if I'm lucky. That's a good bit of time in Milan so maybe there will be some mini trips involved there to the Alps or the Mediterranean perhaps. This is my first time in Europe and I've hardly seen anything so far, but I'll get to see a fair bit before I leave. RyanAir is the greatest airline ever. It will cost me $20 to fly to London. Maybe after I ride on their trashed plane I won't appreciate them as much, but for now I'm just excited. After Milan I head back to Osnabrück for one last weekend and then Monday February 28th I head back to Pittsburgh to spend some time with the fam.

Also, my mom is visiting on Tuesday till the following Monday. Can't wait. I need a hair cut so the timing is perfect ;) This may be the first haircut of my life that doesn't take place in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (excluding any haircuts before the age of 2 since they would have been in Virginia).

Saturday I go with my church to invite people to a Christmas Eve service. If there are enough costumes I may find myself dressed as Santa Claus. We'll see. I hope to have pictures.

later,

Winter

Winter Morning

Bright and Early

Osnabrück

3 months more

Theology (that could change your life)

I'll start by addressing those of you that haven't been raised in the church. You probably have seen some video of Christians speaking "in tongues," or barking, or prophesying, or falling down. Those things probably make you uncomfortable. Well here's the thing, I'm uncomfortable too. Unfortunately we can't judge the reality of something based on how comfortable it makes us feel. I can't say that because it's weird and scares me it's fake, and likewise I can't say it makes me uncomfortable so it's probably really God. Instead we must look at the Bible for insight. Some things it talks about directly and other things me may have to infer from God's character. The interpretations are numerous in the church and it turns out here in Germany it is no different.

So the question of the week (or maybe longer) is what does the Holy Spirit look like in our lives? or really how should he look in our lives. The Holy Spirit is God with us, in our hearts and minds, giving direction and teaching us to have the greatest effect for God's kingdom. That includes a handful of gifts to which he gives us access which talked about in numerous places in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 12 is a good example. It talks about healing, tongues, prophesy, wisdom etc. People will argue that that was only for the early church but I think the main reason that is argued is not because of the scriptural evidence (though you can find verses that hint mildly in that direction) but more because of how uncomfortable the idea is. I've looked for the proof because indeed I think I would like that too but I can't say with a good conscience that I've found it.

The real issue I come to is, how Biblical is it to be slain in the spirit, bark, or have seizures because of the Holy Spirit's power on you. I haven't particularly run into any verses that say strongly either way, though the lack of it's mention is suspicious. Then again the Bible always leaves space for faith, not giving every single detail. I also don't want to condemn something and then find out later that indeed it was the Holy Spirit that was responsible for it. There are so many people I respect on either side of the issue making it rather more difficult. I don't know what's right and what's wrong and I don't want to just pick a position arbitrarily. It's frustrating and has my mind spinning. The only conclusion I've yet come to is that it is imperative that we know the scriptures well. I have a lot of learning to do.

Feel free to chime in with verses or perspectives to think about. I need to find some Truth.

Terrific Speaker

This was the speaker we had last night at SMD (German equivalent of IV). He is an ex hippy and drug user... well maybe still hippy.. but ex-drug addict anyways. I didn't follow all of what he said exactly but I still enjoyed listening to him sit there and recount how God moved in his live during the last 65 years (I can't imagine being born in Germany in 1945). There were maybe 30 students there and we all sat around on pillows to listen while drinking juice. A good evening for sure.

and here's a link to see what he really looks like:

HodgePodge

Nothing in particular inspiring this post but I need to write again. The weather was actually fairly terrific yesterday. It only rained before I woke up and then again in the evening when I was mostly indoors. In between I saw the first dry roads this week and got to use my longboard.

My money transfer from the States finally came through after 5 weeks of being ridiculously frugal. I suppose that was good practice and will help my money last, though I immediately bought a scarf. Amazingly, it's predominately dark green with strong accents that allow it to work with clothes that are both in the gray/black/white family and things that are shades of brown. Usually that color combinations is contradictory because everyone knows that black and brown don't usually work together (or gray and brown, note that this website is on the brown side so there are no blacks). Most of my wardrobe can be broken into those two categories and the items that can go cross-category are particularly valuable. I mostly only packed brown though because I only had room to bring brown shoes.

And speaking of brown shoes, I set my scarf on my brown leather boat shoes that I wear everywhere and someone commented that it would smell like feet. Well, it didn't. Then I decided to smell the shoes. After the use those have gotten they deserve to smell, and they did, but they only smelled of leather (and I love that smell). No feet smell at all. Note that well, alway take the chance to have leather shoes.

Last week I found my home church for my time here. It's called FIT Gemeinde. Its a group of perhaps 20 people which is much smaller than other things I've seen but I think since I have 4 more months it will let me connect quicker and deeper. One of the things I didn't really expect to find in Europe, just from what I had heard, was the Holy Spirit and I figured I would miss him while I was gone. That was one of my main concerns for if I were to ever live here long term in the future. He is definitely here though so no worries. I guess it's like Elijah when he thought he was all alone and God's like "hey now, there's 7,000 other people following hard after me, not just you. I can draw people to myself. There's no place that is above me." I guess I should expect that God is awesome enough to make awesome believers all over the world in every culture. That said, there falls another barrier keeping me from living in Europe. Maybe I should make a list of barriers to help me better look at my time here.

Lastly, a family in the church invited me to Christmas and New Years with them so that will be enjoyable. I hear that in Germany they really celebrate Christmas, but very differently than we do. Lot's of Christmas markets to go to in every city. I'll write more about it as we get there.

Weather

I find the hour by hour forecast to look like this every day. Temp between 35 and 45 with 30% chance of rain showers all day and all night. Chance of sun... about 5%

Choir Singing (with live Orchestra accompaniment)

I found it rather amusing how long it took for the choir to stand up. You think they are all standing and then another person pops up for a good 30 seconds. They did sing beautifully though.

Quieting

Concentration Camp

-Bergen-Belsen, Deutschland

Margot Frank passed away from Typhus at age 19 and Anne passed away a few days later from the same epidemic before her 16th birthday.

Osnabrück!

10 shots

First, don't write German words on your hand... they won't fit.

Second, feet look great in every country

Third, the side of "the castle" on campus. I need to get a shot from the front.

Fourth, there was lovely piano music drifting out that window.

Fifth, another building on campus with a different style.

Sixth, this is still that building.

Seventh, the darkest most ominous building on campus. I feel like weapons should be made here.

Eighth, it's like RIT; it's under construction.

Ninth, but the architecture is better perhaps.

Tenth, and more tastefully colored.

A Mono-Class Society (in appearance)

Disclaimer up front is that my view of Germany has been very limited and there are probably large segments of society that I haven't seen yet.

Basically, my view here has been that everyone here seems to be in the same class. Talking to to people that's not entirely true. Generally people associate lower class folks with British names like (example given was Kevin). I have a few ideas why the class difference isn't so apparent.

1. Many of the minorities here are often still white Europeans and so to me they look German. It's possible that all the russian immigrants are poor for example but I just can't see it. The varying skin color in America makes it easier to quickly categorize groups of people and make assumptions at to what class they are in, regardless of how accurate it is.

2. It seems that everyone here has basically the same sense of style. Sure some people are more stylish than others but you don't have goth, emo, prep, hippie, lumberjack, as well as the style sets that tend to come with african americans. That means everyone looks the same still further. Once again it is harder to categorize groups of people by appearance.

3. Where do poor people live? Maybe they are all out in the country, or maybe just in the big cities? Anyways, I have seen no particularly rough, or rundown areas. Yes it's a small town (160,000) but it's definitely not like America.

So we should never stereotype people by appearance but I know in America we do it all the time. It's just peculiar here how much of a non issue it is. I'm taking a class called "Race and Equality in America." The prof and I are the only Americans. I think it will be difficult to convey to the class what America and racism is like because of what they are used to living in.

k later

Church Adventure part II

Today was church in Andreas Gemeinde. I believe it is a baptist church, although I admittedly have hardly any idea what that means both here in Germany and back in the states. I didn't understand much of the teaching but it was a good time to think and journal. We started with hymns with a piano, and then moved to a band and more contemporary although somewhat muted music. We did "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" in German, which I assume was the language it was written in though I'm not certain. Interestingly enough the latter half of each of the verses have less syllables and so they switch to a 3/4 time signature (like a waltz). There are a number of college students that attend there and every week they go back to an apartment for lunch, very reminiscent of the brunch at Ozzy's last year. It was a great time to connect with German students and they helped teach me German. I have one more church I'd like to visit next week before I pick a place.

Also today I finally went for a run along the river that passes through town (it's a pretty week river), but came across some beautiful spots where I'm looking forward to relaxing, reading, and picturing.

k later

Osnabrück in Fall

a seat along a path,

out of the way

view of what's here

life rolls by on wheels and on foot

gently, pleasantly

"I urge you brothers... to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands." -Thessalonians 4:11

Kein Fahrrad (no bike)

Bikes are all over the place. Huge lots full, packed to the limits with bikes. Bike lanes, bike traffic lights, everything for bikes. A bike here in Osnabrück is the perfect way to get anywhere fast. My roommate found one cheap. I almost followed suit, and then wondered,

"why do I need to get anywhere fast?"

Do you learn better fast? or observe better, see better, think better, pray better?

All that fast does it get things done, but I'm not actually here to get things done. I want to learn, observe, see, think, and pray. I will do that slowly. There are other things I could do better slowly but it's 2am and I can't think of them right now.

Photo Project I

Constants Here

Not New

Just a bigger part of my life Now

Ambassador

I never realized just how much representing one person can do until just the other night. People always say things like, "remember when in another country you represent the whole US, or RIT, or whatever." That seems ridiculous because you can't judge a culture based on one person from it. In our heads everyone knows that, but in practice we easily judge groups based on one individual. Example:

The other night my German roommates talked about the American who lived in my room last year. She was quite the party animal. Regularly out till 7am, at parties, and hosting parties here. Her wild 21st birthday party ended up with cake and footprints all over the wall, requiring a new paint job. She made life miserable for the rest of the people living here.

When my roommates heard that this semester they were getting another American, they all dreaded that they were in for round 2. They just knew one American and she was crazy, so they all must be crazy... It's the same representing Christ, or longboarders, or white people, or engineers. If you're the only person in a category that people know, then you have a huge influence over their perception of that group.

Be careful.

Represent well.

Münster Trip 1

Yesterday we took a free train to Münster, 45 minutes away.Pictures here.

It was weird to see abstract stain glass windows in the cathedral. The organ was enormous. I would love to press the keys and feel that room fill up with sound. There was also a “castle” with a Botanical garden behind it. The Garden had an art gallery in it for a man whose name I don’t recall

Unfortunately it was rather Cold and Wet...

I spent the train ride talking to a friend from England about her view on Germany, and what things are the same across Europe and what is unique to Germany. The ridiculous amount of Alcohol in public is unique to Germany. Small cars are European. Working 35-40 hours a week is European (except France where they strike after 32 hours). All British folk learn French and then maybe german or spanish. Germans learn English, then often times french

Also, thinking about what it means to be “Real” or “Genuine” and if that is alway good, bad, or otherwise.

Classes start this week, except for language classes, which means I have Monday off...

Typischer Deutsche Essen

Breakfast: Deli meat sandwhiches with coffee/orange juice. I usually have Müsli with milk (Granola basically)

Lunch: Main meal, Meat with gravy or cheese sauce, vegetables or salad, pudding, and a roll. I find it generally resembles dinner at home. It’s super cheap at the cafeteria so I by it and it ensures I get some veggies every day.

My Evening goes as follows

Evening meal 1 at 4:30: Deli Sandwhich

Evening meal 2 at 8:00: Spaghetti or a roll with sausage

I think Germans usually just have some bread and cheese and maybe coffee at some point.

Since I’m with lots of exchange students I’ve also experienced Turkish Soup, British Cake, French Kish Lorraine, Italian Bolognese, Russian Crepes, and Swiss Chocolate...

Eating is great!

Church Adventure

So today I visited Lebensquelle Gemeinde for church (Spring of Life Congregation roughly translated). When I arrived the worship team was very green. Fortunately they were just doing a light check and fixed it before the service. The gentleman who opened the service was translated into German. But with the chaos of people finding seats and such I couldn’t tell much more than that.

For worship, I knew some of the songs and some of them not. Most were in German but some were in Russian. As a note, Russian doesn’t use our alphabet so I couldn’t read it but the German translation was below. They did, “Here I am to Worship” in German, as well as “Dancing Generation”, and “Hosanna” by Hillsong in Russian (all very well done I might add).

So it turns out that 80% of the church is Russian, so the translation was for the small number of us outsiders... The craziness of Russian and German together when I hardly speak German was a little more than I could follow, so I’ll probably look for another place next week. I had asked someone to recommend a very charismatic church to me and that’s what I got. It was definitely a really cool one time experience, it just won’t be home.

Desk as a state of Mind

Not related to Germany at all,

I thought this was excellent

Also, I still have not made a home for myself at my desk here in Germany sadly

Desk - Music and Sound Design from Aaron Trinder Film:Motion:Music on Vimeo.

Intensiv Deutsch Kurs

So the intensive german class, 5 hours a day this week is not as intense as I expected. Here was the project I worked on today. It helps me conjugate the verb "to be" in German.

Ich bin

du bist

Sie sind

er, sie, es ist

wir sind

ihr seid

Sie sind

sie sind

Köln atmosphere

Plaza in front of Cathedral in Cologne. For more pictures from the days adventures, click here.

a delightful day I must say.

Be sure to have speakers on to hear the steel drums.

drunken fans or a revolution

Don't ask me what it was,

I just know it was loud by my window for a minute