Sunny Days Have Come Again

The Vienna students made it in this weekend! We had 14 people total, 10 students and the sponsors with their 2 children. We packed over 150 (i dont remember the final count) bags of clothes to take the Bulgaria for the winter.

Our baseball party was rained out, sad day I know, never the less we played volleyball! We had a good turn out! I was a bit sad that none of the random people I had met and given invites to came, but so goes life! We still had some new people come!

I also met another American here, Steffi actually met here somewhere. Hopefully we will get to hang out with her some more! I am making some more friends here which helps. Not that I dont love the people I already know here lol, but I am meeting more people and getting to know them better!

We went to a worship service in Leipzig last night- that was an amazing experience! We missed the sermon due to some directional issues, but made it in time for communion and some singing!

It is truly a blessing to have the opportunity to see a new church form! The transitions that are going on, watching the native members take on leadership at the church here and witnessing a new church sprouting up truly leaves me in awe of God and how He moves in us and through us.

Alas this has been a long post so I shall end it. Have a great week! Be good and do good!

Sarah B

Quote: The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands. ~Robert Persig

Rough Day

Hey folks!

Life here is going good! This weekend is going to be crazy busy! The Vienna students get in this afternoon, I need to go get some goodies for them in just a little bit! We have a baseball party tomorrow and then Sunday a pot luck!

Lets back track a little. I went to Dresden to visit Janine on Wednesday. It was a great day, I rode the train all by myself successfully! I did get a bit of motion sickness though, granted I was riding backwards the entire way which im sure had a lot to do with it! She showed me around the university in Dresden and then we stopped at an odd looking church and went inside, that was fun! We went downtown to starbucks and the mall. Good times! Then we went to KFC for lunch, that was exciting! I got hot wings (there are not a lot of hot things here) and they were great! Then we went to a science museum! That was amazing! It was like the omniplex for adults! Lots of hands on stuff! There were english translations on most everything too so it made it even better! Then we went for coffee, to Janines apartment and then to the Dresden english Bible study and back on the train!

I got back to Chemnitz just fine on the train, but got off one stop to soon for my train stop. Luckily (keep in mind it was around 10:45) it was somewhere in town I recognized! I walked up to the next bus stop and saw one was coming in about 5 minutes so I waited and made it home by 11 just fine!

Thursday was a rough day. I was still frustrated with myself from the night before and not looking forward to starting German lessons. Tiffany and I went over to Steffens house and started our lesson. Long story short, I freaked out just a bit. All was okay, and I calmed down, but it was a frustrating day. Last night we had the ladies Bible Study which is in english and that helped! We had a great turn out, we talking about being thankful and how to be thankful. It was a very good lesson!

Today is prep for the Vienna students. Like I said, busy weekend ahead. English Bible Study tonight (Hey look at that, 3 this week!) and set up for the morning. In the morning we are sorting clothes for Bulgaria and then tomorrow afternoon we are having the Baseball party! Tomorrow night we are having a few friends over and playing card games with the girls we will have staying with us. Sunday we have a pot luck and then taking the group back to the train station.

Anyways, alls well that goes well. One foot in front of the other. Its odd, I find myself standing at a bus stop and listening to the wind rustle the leaves as they roll past. Admiring the cobble stone streets that people have walked on for years, hundreds of years.

Europe has a majestic err about it. I dont really know how to explain it. Sometimes it doesn't even seem like Im not in the states, and then other times, one is utterly aware of the insignificance of one human life. At the same time, one can't help but imagine all of the influences each of the insignificant lives have had. The same insignificant people that have sauntered across the same stones.

Unlimited possibilities....

Quote: Success is permanent, and failure isn't fatal. ~ Mike Ditka

Almost a Month

Its hard to believe I have been here almost a month already! It certainly doesn't feel like it!

Well lets see, I was supposed to start German on Monday, however Friday I got an email (all in german mind you) that said my class had been canceled because there weren't enough people signed up. I am completely and utterly unmotivated to learn German.... kinda of bad when Im living in a country and cant understand what is being said. All that said, I start lessons with a gentleman from church on Thursday with Tiffany. He is a language instructor and is crazy smart lol. I hope I get it.... I just feel dumb when I am trying to learn, not like I just graduated from college. This will be a humbling experience....

Monday I ventured down to the train station and back- Friday the Vienna group comes and we are supposed to go meet them and bring them back to the church. But we have never taken the bus there and back. It went much easier and smoother than I expected :D. On a side note, while I was at the train station Monday I ate lunch at Burger King. Great place by the way, I tell you all this to say, they were very confused when I ordered a burger with just meat and nothing else. I really only wanted a burger and drink, no fries, but that was going to be to complicated so I paid the extra 50 cents to get deal with fries that I didnt touch... but it was extremely interesting as the manager and lady taking my order proceeded to point to each item that usually comes on a burger and ask me if i wanted it. The answer was always no...

Also, while I was in the train station monday, i meandered into the bookstore. I was casually looking at some newspapers, they had a few in English (much to expensive to buy or I would have!) when I noticed an older lady looking at the English section of books. Taking my cue I wondered over casually standing next to her, and asked her, "Hello, do you speak English?" She turned to me and greeted me with a friendly smile, and then responded, "I learned in University" and went back to looking at books. I then said, "Its so nice to hear someone else speak english, it is so rare to find." She then proceeded to walk away. Fail.

Tomorrow I am going to Dresden to visit Janine. That will be fun! I am riding the train by myself for the first time though, I am a bit nervous, not going to lie. But I am sure it will all be just fine! Not sure exactly what she has planned, I know Starbucks is in there somewhere!!!

Anyways, that is all for now! Here are some pictures I have taken of things around: We worked putting in a new floor in Olesnitz last week, the oldest tower in Saxony, Karl Marx's head, and a church downtown :)

Quote: We should not say that one man's hour is worth another man's hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing: he is at most time's carcass. ~Karl Marx

Sigh

Its been a while since I have updated on here- sorry...

Lets recap with whats happened.... I met with my first readers last week! That was VERY exciting!

This particular reader we will call Mrs. K, Mrs. K told her neigbors about us, so they came to read that afternoon with Tiffany and I. The readings went well, I need to review a little before tomorrows reading though!

Last week was my friends birthday so Karen and I went to watch his gymnastic practice and then we had a singing night for the younger group on friday and made that a surprise birthday party for him. That was a good time!

Saturday Karen and I were invited to one of the older ladies house for lunch, it was good! I am working on eating more meat.... lol its not that I dont like meat, i have nothing against it, i am just more of a veggi eater. Anyways, it was fun! We went to another older ladies garden with the first older lady and had ice cream out in the garden! That was great!

The pace of life here is just so much different than I am used to. It has been a bit of culture shock with how little people rush around to get things done. I really like it lol!

We got the baseball invitations printed for the baseball game next saturday with the OC Vienna group, I went out monday with the intention of handing out some invitations. My goal was to give out 5. Just 5. I failed... not even one. I just couldn't seem to find anyone who actually spoke any english. So Tuesday I went out again, going to another mall, with the goal of handing out 3. At least on Tuesday I got 1 out. Better than nothing I suppose. Who knows. I was a bit frustrated and disappointed with myself that I couldn't give them out though. All in good time I suppose...

I start my german class next week. Not going to lie, I am scared... but hopefully it will help speed up the German... I certainly hope so anyways, but its going to be hard. Maybe I can hand out some baseball invites there!

On a side note- the Doner man up the street thought I was from great Britain and insisted I drink some hot green apple cider tasting stuff. It was good, but made me laugh he thought I was from GB.

All is going well here, tomorrow Larry, Roy, and myself are going to Oelsnitz to help work on their floor and then Roy and I have the married couple again. The ladies are at the German woman's retreat. I decided to sit this one out, 1, because it is all in german and I dont understand any of it, and 2, because it was really expensive for me to not understand anything! Tiffany braved it and went though, I cant wait to hear about it! They get back on Friday!

I think that is it for now. All is good. No real homesickness yet. Ive missed some friends a bit, but after some skype dates it helps.

Quote: Dont take life to seriously, otherwise you'll never get out alive. ~ Elbert Hubbard

German

Oh my, so I started my German lessons today. That was exciting.... I feel like I am back in remedial retarded class. Ahhh but so goes life, I have to start at the beginning! Lets see, I went and registered somewhere downtown today, that was exciting! But the most exciting thing is my new fish Timon! Now I know you are thinking Timon from the lion king, you know, timon and pumba! But that is kinda close- but it is "T-Moan"! Ha take that suckas!!!!

Here are some pictures to taunt your eyeballs! 

1 week!

I will have been in Chemnitz for one week tomorrow morning! Things here have been crazy busy, just the way I like it! 

Above are some pictures, a few of my room, the sideways one is up the street and the park is around the corner and that is where we play baseball!!!! 

The delicious looking food up there is a Donur, the most amazing thing ever! It is pita (like) bread, and lamb slices, and garlic sauce! MMMMMM it is deliciouse!!!! 

So that is all for now, i'm pooped! I am going to get a fish tomorrow though and I will post a pic eventually! 

Quote: God's gifts puts mans dreams to shame! 

Be good and do good!

Sarah B

Time Flies

Its hard to believe it is already Friday! It hasn't hit me yet that I am actually here. Things have been crazy busy since I landed! Lets recap: 

Left OKC Tuesday at 12:20, I sat next to a very lovely man from OKC that was on his way to Niagara Falls, he installs breathalyzers in cars :) that made me smile because I knew exactly what he did! Arrived in Chicago at 2:30. Got to my gate at 2:45 for my 3:45 flight- stopped and got a pumpkin spice frap from starbucks and a muffin for lunch. The terminal was packed. When they did start loading at about 3:15 everyone on their grandmas got in line.... i missed that memo... But no worries, about 3:25 when I realized everyone was gone I too got in line! Once in line I realized my backpack was waaaay to big and I really didnt want to sit with it between my legs like i did for the last flight! So i voluntarily asked if it would fit and the lady laughed and said no, i would have to check it. I was not excited about this because that means it would be more, so I groaned, but proceeded to the check out deciding i would rather spend another $100 than be uncomfortable for an 8 hour flight! To my pleasant surprise, they checked the bag for free and said I could pick it up with the rest of my luggage in Dresden! Once on the plane, I was in the second seat in next to an older lady who wanted me to change seats with her grandson, that she wanted me to find.... i chuckled and told her I would not mind changing seats, but I did not know her grandson, therefore I did not know who to look for. She found him, we switched, it was great! It was about 3:45 at this point. We move out and get in line to take off and get going around 4:15-ish. I sat next to a lady from Illinois who is on a Martin Luther tour in Germany, and a man from Poland who was visiting family in Chicago on Holiday. It was a great flight! I didnt sleep much though, which was not to my advantage but it all worked out. I pretty much lost my night. We arrived about 6:50 in frankfurt the next morning (whuch would have been about 11:50 pm OK time).

Wednesday: Arrived in Frankfurt. After unloading the plane, I found a man under a sign that was helping people and he looked at my ticket, told me my gate had changed and crossed out the 9:30 and wrote 8:30. (9:30 was the leave time from frankfurt to dresden). So I went on my merry way to find my gate. Got my passport stamped with no problems. I met another very nice man who was on vacation from Chicago and was meeting a freind in Frankfurt and then they were traveling for 2 weeks. There was also a very helpful lady behind me that grew up in Virginia and then moved to Italy (her mom was in the military) in high school and met her husband and has been their since. She gave me a lot of helpful tips and helped me not freak out looking for my gate! I found the new gate, only to find that the plane had not been moved up an hour, so I still had plenty of time. I bought a coke because I was soooo thirsty! It was 3 Euro, booo! waited for my flight and arrived in Dresden about 10:30. I walked out around 10:50ish and found Larry and Pam, and Roy and Tiffany waiting :) yay for friends! We loaded up and headed back to Chemniz where Karen and a delicious lasagna waiting and we all had lunch together, and Marc and Karen got to come too! That afternoon Tiff took me up to a some stores and showed me how to get there, which will be very handy! We came back and I unpacked my room and stuff to get settleded, then we went over and helped Marc and Karen load up their moving vans. I was exahusted. 

Thursday: Woke up at 3 am and had a mini-freak out. But it was okay :). Went back to sleep at 4 and did not wake up to my alarm when it went off at 7 :(. I heard larry knocking at 8 and jumped up and got ready super fast and we were on the road by 8:15 to Leipzig to unload Marc and Karen. They live on the 4th floor I think, something like that, it was up a lot of stairs! We got them all moved in, started to head back, stopped and McDonalds for lunch then got back around 3:30. I got to speak with Larrys reader, I dont remember his name so we will call him Mr. Man, he was nice, I read with him once last summer for Clint. Then Larry got home, and i went to the church with Karen to help her clean. Got back a few minutes til 6. Got ready for English Bible study since it was here, and then people started to come around 6:45. Bible study was great, we talked about choosing our actions. Then I went to bed yay :). 

Friday: Got up and went downtown with Roy and Tiffany, got lots of stuff :)! They are getting ready to paint their apartment! and I just got back and had my first Donor. Ok I gotta get off of here, we (Karen, Janine and myself) are going on a Singles Retreat this weekend and I need to pack and go buy a snack! 

Please keep my fundraising in your prayers. Funds are coming in, but very slowly! I have around 5 of 30 thousand. 

Quote: Dare not to do what the world expects you to do! ~William Zinsser 

Guten Morgan

I made it! Just wanted to update on here. Will post more tomorrow night when I have a chance! I hit the ground running as soon as I got here which is good and will be busy until next week! YAY!!!!! Im going back to bed because its around 3 am here! 

Leaving on a Jet Place

I leave in about 11 hours. I am getting up in about 4 1/2 and have to leave PV by 8 to make it to the airport by 10 to leave by 12. its going to be a long day tomorrow.

I did better today than I expected. I had my going away at OC on thursday night, that was rough. It seems to be getting easier though. Today I said bye to 3 of my closest friends, ehhhhh. I didnt cry though! I got a little teary at each, but no crying! Tomorrow I dont expect the same luck though. 

There is already a lot to do in Chemnitz so that makes me happy! Thursday is a womens devotional (which ill need to do the assigned reading on the plane!) and then Friday Karen has invited a group over to work on some english songs and hang out!

I've got most everything packed. I really didnt even know what to take and what not to take. I am going to have to have dad ship me over one box/bag. Mainly shoes and sweatshirts. Both of my bags are currently 49.8 lbs! lets hope they are the same at the airport tomorrow! 

Ok well i'm going to try to get some sleep before its time to get up again! Lady is sleeping at my feet :). Oh yea! Dad and I went cemetery hunting on Saturday! That was great! We saw around 8 cemeteries I think! We went north and west of the Whichta mountains! We saw some cool stuff! I will see if I can post a few pics! 

Quote: "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~Unknown. 

Surreal

Sleep seems to be eluding me these past few weeks. I seem so very tired, and then get to bed and cant sleep. No fun. 

I am heading up to Edmond in the morning, busy day tomorrow. Going to get some pics done for mom and dad. They keep complaining I haven't gotten any pictures since my senior pics in high school so im trying to be a good daughter before I go and at least take some lol. 

I'm having my going away at OC tomorrow night. Saturday dad and I are going to find some old cemeteries just west of lawton, :) im excited! Then courtney is coming over for the OU game! Sunday is going to be rough, ill have to say lots of good byes to family. 

On that note- mom is actually excited about coming to visit me in Germany! She wasnt to keen on the idea at first, but she has warmed up to it! I think we are going to try for next year right after I get back from my 3 week furlough. It will be a good time of year when it isnt crazy over there and mom can put in for the leave early. Anyways, yay for actually getting her to come! Now comes raising the funds and getting her passport in! 

I've started to pack! I've got a lot of stuff.... I got my hoodies and jackets packed today, they are heavy lol. Monday ill finish packing everything. I'm afraid im going to go over my weight limit, but dad said he'd ship me over stuff if I couldn't get it all in 2 bags so thats nice to know although id like to get it in if I can! 

I went on a drive tonight with my dog Lady. We used to go on drives all the time. She is about 14 years old now, she used to stick her head out the window and let her ears blow in the wind, now she lays her head on the window sill and sticks her nose out lol. Oh well, she still enjoys it! Everything seems very surreal right now. As if I'm going through the motions with no real control over anything. 

Anyways, its getting close, 5 days! I'm really excited to get over and start work. I know its going to be tough the first couple days, but I think ill be okay once i get in the swing of things. 

This truly has been an amazing experience, and as much as it is confusing, and hurts at times, it is comforting to know that God is in control. There is an under laying peace that follows each of the rough times. God is good. I'll be saying that a lot in the times to come. God is good. 

Quote for this post: "I see my path, but I dont know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it." Rosalia  Castro