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.

Glory to God

     Over a year ago I was climbing and I damaged my rotator cuff (shoulder).  The pain wasn't too intense but it lingered and limited what I could do (climbing, swimming, volleyball, pulling shirts up over my head) for roughly 9 months before the problem slowly faded away.  Shortly before Christmas I started feeling it again mildly.  Over break, my brother convinced me to try bench pressing 200lb without a warmup, which is definitely above my max, and then we did these weird behind the head pull-ups   Shoulder starts hurting a bit more.  I still rock climb though the pain is mounting a little bit.  On Friday, about two weeks after the lift, my shoulder began to hurt more and more over the course of the day.  That afternoon I was struggling to pull my shoe laces tight.  By that evening, I could barely ride a bike. By that night, I stopped using the shoulder muscle altogether.  When I needed to use my right arm I had to reach across with my left hand, grab my right arm and move it manually.  Saturday it felt no different.
     Sunday was just as bad, I cringed when I put soap under my arm in the shower.  I then had to use my left arm to lift my right arm over my head to wash it off.  Even that passive movement made me wince. I struggled through eating my cereal left handed, then went out the door to church.  I shifted into drive with my left hand (mind you this is an American, not a British car).  I did manage to turn the key in the ignition right handed, but then I drove entirely left handed to church.  Thank goodness it wasn't a manual!  When I arrived I had to pull the key out of the ignition left handed.  
     I assumed at this point that I had a partial tear in my rotator cuff.  If it were torn through then I don't believe I'd be able to move my arm at all.  In my case I could move it, just under severe pain.  If I tore through I'd have to get surgery requiring 3 to 4 weeks of complete immobilization of the joint, followed by another 6 months before being back close to normal.  I did my best to keep my shoulder still so it could heal on its own, but even through 2 nights there seemed to be no progress.  Back to our story.
     I went and found a seat as the service began.  That day at church, there were 3 in depth testimonies being shared.  One gentleman shared a story of his life that I related to a lot.  Larry was a physicist and quite clever.  Belief was difficult for him because he was always trying to explain things away and came to doubt very often.  Well in college he became a Christian through praying with a televangelist of all things (he has since moved beyond them, and to clarify, I didn't relate to this part of the story particularly).   Now Larry had achilles tendonitis and it was slowly getting worse until he was at the point of hobbling around.  I actually struggled with the same thing in Germany.  It takes months to recover from.  He had heard God could heal, but was hesitant to ask for it because God had more important things to do.  Maybe after everyone had been healed of cancer he could ask.  As he was watching his televangelist friend again he felt God speak to him saying in three "puffs" very clearly, "Nothing is to small for me," "I can heal your tendonitis," "Just have faith."  Larry began to pray, and at that point the televangelist (as expected) called out that there was someone with a heel problem that needed to be healed (look, it's a pun). And God healed him right then and there.  He still didn't understand why God would heal him in particular in that instance and asked God for years.  7 years later, God answered.  God said that if he hadn't healed him then, then Larry would have never made it that far in his Christian walk.  In those times of doubts, that healing was always an anchor for him that he could turn back to and know that God was real and loved him and healed him.  As Larry shared, and I thought of myself, I thought, "God, how cool would it be if you did something similar in my life!"  I felt God say, though not particularly clearly, "Go get prayer from the prayer team after the service."
     Now atheists are quick to point out that anecdotal evidence for the existence of God (or anything else) is not valid as proof and they are correct.  Our senses deceive us all the time.  I'd heard lots of stories of healing, but they were all second hand accounts, and while I figured they were probably true, they left me wondering.  A first hand experience with healing means so much more to me (though of course you as the reader only have a second hand account, sorry).  I'd prayed for healings before with no success.  I don't understand why God heals sometimes, and not at others.  This is a particularly important time of my life though to have that anchor, so maybe that's reason for God to work this time.
     I got up after the service and went for prayer with my arm still aching.  Kim prayed for me for a few minutes, then stops and asks if it's better.  I moved my shoulder all around and it suddenly didn't hurt anymore.  I raised my arm over my head like I'd tried in the shower that morning and it didn't hurt at all.  Upon further investigation I found that there were still some directions that invoked mild pain.  It was like God rewound the shoulder back to it's status on Friday morning before it got serious.  I don't really get that, but I can't complain.  It was drastic enough and sudden enough of a change that I know it wasn't natural.  I expected it to slowly fade of the course of the next week or 2.  Maybe in some cases, pain goes away rather suddenly (and naturally), but that it would happen during the 3 minutes we prayed for it?  Very suspicious.
     I'm honestly not certain if this thought came from me or from God.  Perhaps the lingering pain is a reminder to tell other people about it so the word gets out and this impacts other people too.  Maybe after I've shared this where I needed to, the pain will leave entirely.  Who knows?  I don't claim to understand God entirely, nor healing.  I would love to, but I don't.
     I am so thankful to God this week.  Place your trust in him.  He is worth your everything.

Easter Weekend - part 1 of 2

This past weekend was Easter weekend for those of you who missed the memo.  At PUMA that means a 4 day weekend (Good Friday and Easter Monday).  Karen and I grabbed the chance to see two lovely cities while visiting a retired intern from days gone by.  We started off in Vienna, Austria.

We arrived Friday afternoon and checked in at the hostel.  My first experience in a dorm setting (6 people to a room).  We then made our way to the city center for a look around.  We quickly found these brilliant traffic lights. 

 Nice gardens, parliament, the city hall, and an Easter market with loads of painted eggs, some very ornate and others simple, but all real.  We split a giant apple cinnamon frosted pretzel.  We made our way to another market and tried Langos, this fried bread bigger than your face, coated in butter and garlic salt.  So delicious, and made us both feel rather bad upon finishing... We had just finished talking about our families’ heart attack histories.  I was sure I was going to have my first heart attack right there.

It seems everyone in Austria likes Mozart since he is from there.  We saw one guy dressed as Mozart with PUMA shoes.  I did take a picture, but am not bothering to post it. 

We stumbled across this cool “Explosion” on the south side of town.  I think it was supposed to be a frozen shock wave, milliseconds after some sort of bang.

After collecting ourselves at the hostel briefly we set out again to find some Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with an apricot layer in the middle and a special blend of chocolates from various manufacturers who produce chocolate solely for that purpose.  On our way we swung by the Nike store, because their shoes are absolutely amazing.  I love the new NikeFree 4.0.

After a short night’s sleep we both got up around 6 (don’t ask me why, it just happened).  Karen went for a long run, which I had to skip out on because of injury before we headed away from the city to see Castle Schönbrunn.  Absolutely HUGE building and property.  It included a labyrinth with games throughout it that included poles to climb, bells to ring with your feet, and crazy mirrors.  It made for a fun morning.

 Lunch was at a ridiculously large market.  Wiener (Viennese) Schnitzel from veal and Almdudler (served in CocaCola cups?), a drink like ice tea that tastes like Litchi.

Clock museum in the afternoon was full of fun little treasures.  Karen got in trouble for touching the clocks.

 The main event came that evening.  We had read that we could get standing room tickets at the Opera for 3€ so we lined up and got some.  “L’Eliser d’Amore”  (The Love Potion) was playing.  It had quite the shallow story line, but the opera experience was a fun one.  They have this crazy system for the standing room section that enforced by the staff.  Once you have your spot, you mark it with a scarf and then it is reserved for you.  You can’t mark it with a jacket, or a bag, only a scarf.  The guys next to us didn’t have scarves so they made the pages from the program into a scarf to draper over their spot.  Impressive.  That was the program for Vienna.  Stay tuned for the second half of the weekend in Graz in which we meet Markus and have even more fun.

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!

Contagion

Not a movie review, this is much better.

Going through the work day and look out the window to see an emergency vehicle pull up at PUMA right outside the brand center.  The brand center is a section of the building where we have all shoes from Spring ’13 set up right now.  People from all over the world are here this week having meetings to talk about the shoes, and make final changes.  That makes it a very busy exciting week around PUMA.  With all those extra people and stress etc. I wasn’t totally surprised to see an ambulance, but then 4 more pulled up...

Time for our meeting.  We went down to the brand center to discuss the shoes that our group was responsible for.  We cover all the shoes, then most of the team heads back to the office.  My supervisor though insisted that we stay longer and look at the whole range of shoes.  Normally great, but I really wanted lunch.  As we were looking through the shoes a guy walks in and announces that some people had come down sick, and we were not to go into show rooms 1 or 3.  The people were going to the hospital to see what was wrong.  I didn’t see the big deal since they said it was just some throwing up and diarrhea (admittedly unpleasant).  We finish looking at the shoes and go to leave the brand center to go to lunch (20 minutes late).  Coming to the door we learned that sometime between when my colleagues escaped the brand center at our meeting's end and the present time they had decided to quarantine us.  Not cool.  Hungry, and I needed to leave early for the day anyway and they weren’t letting anyone out.  I checked around, and they had people guarding every exit and there were people with masks and medical equipment wandering around.

After a while of this, the head doctor called us all together.  He opened with, “I’m sure you have all heard what is going on here.”  Which was followed with an immediate rejection of the claim from the 150 or so of us locked in there who really had hardly any idea what was going on.  He went on to explain that 18 people had come down sick at once and after examining them in the hospital for the cause, decided it was just an ordinary bug, that makes you uncomfortable for 8 to 10 hours and then passes.  Thank goodness.  They let us all go after only about an hour with the advice to wash our hands regularly, not to kiss anyone, and to drink lots.  Most people assumed he meant beer.  Germans...

Anyway, we were released upstairs to explain what was going on to the people who had been on the outside and confused.  They were all terrified to come near us lest we be infected.  Shortly afterwards we all got an email saying that after all the commotion, we should all just head home for an early weekend.  I caught the bus at 13:30 and enjoyed an extra couple hours free.  Just as well, I was going to leave by 14:30 anyway.  I got out earlier and with a story.

Side story:  The meetings this week for the new shoes has been quite memorable when combining the story above at closing with the alarm during the opening ceremonies on Monday.  A pipe had burst and flooded shoes stored in the basement (which I got to clean up with the other development interns), so we all evacuated a little bit and stood outside in the -5F weather (-20C).  The people at the meeting of course didn’t have coats with them.

Dresden

If you're sharp you've already guessed from the title that this entry is about a trip to Dresden.  It started off quite early.  I was surprised to walk out the door at 5:30 Saturday morning to see everything was covered in snow.  Fortunately when we got Dresden it was gone and slightly warmer.

Waiting at the bus stop to kick off the morning.

The "Artsy" side of Dresden.

They turned gates into bikes.  Not practical but creative.

I don't know what it is but it was impressive.

The Japanese garden in the foreground looking across the Elbe to a number of the larger landmarks.

Karen is terrified of these spiky stars that keep following us everywhere.  

They just seem dangerous!

Crossing one of the bridges in town.  We did a lot of walking on Saturday looking at all the sights.  I think this was the last bridge crossing before closing the night with Chocoloccino and cake.

The coffee filter was invented in Dresden.  Everyone knows that it's not the bean that makes the coffee good, it's the filter!

Volkswagon has a manufacturing plant here that is all glass so you can watch the process.  Unfortunately we weren't there while they were giving tours.

This was in the middle of a 15km run early on Sunday to see things farther from the center.

We followed the river to all sorts of cool stuff

The bridge is the "Blue Wonder"  and I don't know what the spike is in the back.  Dresden is just spiky.  We had to jump a fence later, and another spike got the better of Karen's running pants.. Schade Schokolade..

The bird feeding lady.  The swans could have pecked her nose if they weren't on such good terms.

There is where J.S. Bach is buried in Leipzig.  We passed through on our way back.

That's all.  

A Story - we got on a train that we weren't technically allowed to take with the ticket we had (honest mistake).  But the super nice train lady (wearing Nike earrings) made an "especially special exception" and didn't make us pay a fine as long as we got out at the next stop (Leipzig).  Probably more stories to tell, but the mall is kicking me out now.

The End

Speaching in German

Twice!  Twice in less than a week I had to address groups of about 100 Germans... in German!  With groups that size I have just about zero fear of speaking, assuming the language of the day is English and I can just be myself.  German on the other hand is just awkward.  No matter how good it sounds in my head the words end up turned around somehow or another.


Case 1:  Last Sunday the International Student Group (IST) was visiting the church that lends us a room each week.  Every language represented said something in that language (I was the only native english speaker, and coincidentally the only language the congregation understood before the final translation into German).  Then the group leader, spur of the moment, asked us, over the microphone, if any of us could briefly share what IST meant to us personally.  Awkward pause before I shuffled over to the microphone fumbled through some positive sounding words.  Everyone understood, but... rather challenging.


Case 2:  My small group was responsible for handling the details for Large Group this week for the SMD.  My task (in addition to set up and tear down) was to talk briefly about why we worship.  Fortunately my troubles with German drove my point home stronger.  For me, being able to worship with music allows me to express myself more fully and completely than with words alone, just as speaking in English allows me to express myself more fully and completely than when I speak German.  That is the gist of what I said, only it took me a good many more words to say it in German.


That's all.  Hopefully I'm off the hook for addressing large crowds for a while.
Thanks for your attention.  Good night.

Good Week

So we left off with Sunday's hike.  Let's skip to Thursday.  The international student group all went ice skating.  It was quite a good time.  I take for granted that ice skating is a part of our culture and we've all grown up doing it at least annually.  Not the case worldwide.  For much of the group, it was their first time putting on skates.

Come Friday, I found out that Germany does have hardware stores very much like what I would find at home.  I went to "OBI" and found some good wood glue to fix the guitar I broke...  I also used it to fix the hole I made in the wall when I tore a picture down. 

Saturday morning I got up early (8am) to make sure I had eaten and woken up by my 9am appointment with my landlord.  The meeting was about finding a bike.  See next entry for details.  It made me happy.  That afternoon I met up with a friend from PUMA (Lisa) to go the Toy Museum (Spielzeug Museum) in Nuremberg.  For just 3€ it was quite a good time.   A few pics below.  This morning, the church who provides us a room for the international student meetings invited us all to the service followed by lunch provided by them.  I quite enjoyed it.  We went for a stroll afterwards around a part of the city I hadn't seen before.  All I keep thinking though is, "wow, this would be so much more awesome in summer!"  Oh well, summer is coming.  I can't wait.

In other news, I got a biomechanics of footwear book the other day from 1987 written in German.  I'm going to try to plow my way through that.  My flatmate also finally finished unpacking and is going to lend me a few novels in German to try reading.  That's all for now.  Off to write an entry about bikes!

These folks flip one over the other down the stairs like a slinky

This is a toy kitchen.  Many of the ovens let you put a candle in to heat water.

Stieff toys "with button in ear" was their slogan.

American toys - Popeye the Sailor man

Lisa at her masterpiece

December - part IV - in which there were young ones

The day after my exploration of Bayern, I spent the afternoon with a family.  An organization that connects foreigners with German families put me in contact with these folks and we planned to hang out for a day.  Super Great!  I met them at church where we stayed late so the daughters could practice for a Christmas Eve dance that they would be participating in.  The youngest, Celina, was probably 7, the daughter Malacha was 9, and then the only son was Michael, about 12 years old.   My youngest sister is now 14, so spending a day with this family brought back many old memories.


For starters, lunch.  Very German, with some sort of rolled up meat with gravy and mashed potatoes and red sauerkraut.  I thought it was delicious.  The youngest didn't agree though.  She was told to finish her last three bites of sauerkraut (which would have been about half a bite for myself), she burst into tears.  Her sister tried to help by getting right in her face yelling "don't cry!" over and over again (didn't help).  Just like my sisters back in the day.  


Once we finished there, we played some board and card games in the living room, where I held my own. Learning new games via German instructions takes a ridiculous amount of focus, especially when a 7 year old does the explaining!  Eventually the music kicked on and the girls started twirling around the living room while I chatted with Michael.  Eventually I stepped in and taught some swing dancing.  Before it was out, I picked Celina up on my shoulders.  She quickly started yelling and clawing my face so I put her back down.  A few minutes later, "Wyan, darf ich wieder hoch gehen? (Ryan, may I go high again?)."  


"But Celina," I said, "I thought you were terrified last time."
"No, just a little bit.  I wasn't really scared."


So I picked her up again, and she started screaming again as expected, so back down she went to the amusement of her siblings.


Both of the girls had just gotten Polly Pocket contact books (for those of you without sisters, it is comparable to Barbie).  They each had me fill in my info, and my hobbies, and my favorite food and color etc.  While I was filling it in, I found a finger poking my face all of a sudden.  The father of the family, Martin, keeps his whiskers shaved shorter than I do mine, so the 7 year old was fascinated.  I asked if I could draw a beard on the picture of Polly Pocket that was on my page, but her grin turned into a scowl and she yanked the book out of my hands.  Not a joking matter apparently...

Blasted

I've mentioned this before, people smoke here a lot.  I'm not particularly bothered by cigarette smoke, but nonetheless, I prefer it out of my face rather than it it.  At the bus stop after traveling, the guy standing in front of me, and facing the other way, took a big puff and... the wind took a huge cloud of smoke right at me.  I flinched, but then to my surprise, it didn't smell half bad.  Turns out it was a tobacco pipe.  So much classier.  I should have asked him what kind of tobacco he had.  I wish all the cigarette smokers would trade in for pipes.  How much more awesome would it be to see hundreds of pipe smokers every day instead of the hundreds of cigarette smokers I usually see.  


ta ta for now.

December - part II - in which I went North

Come the second weekend in December it was time for my first vacation.  I took Friday and Monday off to visit friends in Osnabrück where I studied last year.  Right off the bat though, an 8 minute delay on my first train made me miss my connection turning a 5 hour commute into 7 hours.  Conveniently just enough for me to get a refund of half my ticket (enough to cover my expenses for the rest of the weekend).  The afternoon involved cooking and eating and friends, and christmas cookies (not the "R" I made on top right =).

That evening I went back to stay with Jonas and Marlene who were hosting me for the weekend.  Marlene introduced me to "The Voice of Germany," a fun show along the lines of American idol, except the judges can't see the singers until after they vote, and the judges pick teams and have a competition of sorts.  We also saw the Christmas market in Melle that evening which was small but quaint and nice.

The next morning we went with people from church, all dressed up as Santa Claus, giving out candy and Bible verses at the Osnabrück Christmas market.  Went quite well and had opportunities to really encourage some people, and to pray with the people of the city.  Fun on all sides!

Later we ate Döner, knocked out some shopping, and then went to play a big game of Risk in German.  I got lucky with an easy mission and won  =P

Sunday was church at my favorite church in Germany, followed by lunch out.  It was great with 16 or so of us all squeezed around the table at Vapiano's, and Italian chain restaurant.  I stuffed myself, and then went back to Melle.  After some tea, Jonas and I went for a run... way to close after eating.  Did NOT feel good.  Oh well.  We hung out in the evening, played some music and then watched "Tatort," (translated as "scene of the crime." One of the few German phrases shorter than the English version)  a popular German criminal investigation TV show.  I got a lot of German culture this weekend.

Come Monday, Marlene had to head to work early, and Jonas to Uni, so I hung out with some other friends and enjoyed their company before taking the train back to Erlangen that evening.

Fun relaxing weekend.  I'm looking forward to doing it again when it is warmer.

I'm off to bed now.  Christmas will come early tomorrow.  Have a good one!

December - part I - in which we attended the Christkindlesmarkt

This was my second December in Germany, although this time I am home for Christmas.  It was a delightful month.  Here are some stories, and maybe a few pictures if I get inspired to add them though my photography skills are deteriorating.


Early December I made my way to the Christmas market in Nürnberg.  It is know as the Christkindlesmarkt and is supposed to an excellent one.  Accompanied by Karen, Melissa, and Markus all from work we went to check it out on a Wednesday after work, hoping it would be less crowded than the weekend.  Well as we arrived, the crowds of people were all streaming out...  The wind was whipping sleet in our faces, and lightning was etching itself across the sky.  It only lasted about 15 minutes, cleared out the market, and then left us to enjoy the market in peace.  Definitely a memorable start.  (trash cans began filling up with wind broken umbrellas).


We all picked up some hot drinks.  Karen set one down on a counter of a nearby booth to take a picture.  I noticed the dirty look the booth owner gave her. "psst Karen," I said, "you probably shouldn't leave that there."  She wasn't too concerned though.  When she retrieved her drink we realized she had put it directly on top of the sign that read in German "Do Not Set Your Drinks Here!"  Oops, I'm a foreigner and can't speak German, is the motto that gets us through situations like that unscathed even if it's not entirely true sometimes  =P  - I'm obviously American, and then we had a Canadian, Austrian, and one German, but she would pretend to be Dutch when necessary, making us the perfect combination of clueless foreigners. 

Arriving in the rain

This has already turned into a full entry, so I'll stop here and talk more later.  I've gotta run spot my brother lifting downstairs...

laters,