Ja Deustchland!

I'm in Deutschland folks!!!

Me and my precious brother Caleb at the airport

After last week's scrambling to get everything done, throwing out, cleaning, storing, packing, and saying hard goodbyes, I'm actually here. I left Thursday morning at 6:00am, so I had to be at the airport at 4:00am (ick!). Only got 2 hours of sleep, and when I got to the airport found out that all three of my checked bags were at least 10 pounds under weight, so that was a bit of a bummer, seeing as I'd been getting rid of lots of stuff that I thought I couldn't take with me. Oh well. Just a lesson in letting go of that which is really not important! I said a teary farewell to my parents, Hannah, and Caleb, and boarded the plane to Chicago. I had a 9 hour layover there, so I tried to sleep some in the terminal, but just managed a couple hours or so of light and interrupted dozing. From Chicago I flew to London, which takes a little under 8 hours. I sat in the same row as a young man from Germany, so it was nice to converse with him about where I was going and what his impression was of the USA. Didn't sleep a wink the whole time though. As we were getting nearer to London the sun was coming up, and I got to see a glimpse of Ireland!!! If you know me well, you know that that is a big deal. One of these days I'll get there! I had a short wait in London and then it was off to Basel-Mulhouse. In the airport there I figured out how to get through on the French side, got my passport stamped, picked up my luggage (didn't even have to wait for it as it was coming out on the belt as I walked in), and met Calvin, our Res. Life supervisor, who was there to pick me up. It was a seamless and uneventful trip, thank God!

Scenery around Holzen

On the drive from Basel to Holzen Calvin pointed out where the borders to France, Switzerland, and Germany all were (I was in England, France, and Germany all in one day!), what some of the road signs meant, and gave me some general info about the area. The scenery is beautiful, lots of green fields and small villages crowded with peaked-roof houses. We got to Hölzen, a village not too far from Kandern, where one of the school dorms is. This dorm is called Storchenblick, meaning something like “stork view” or “view of the storks” due to the large population of storks living in the area. There are a few perched atop the church across the street! All of the RA's are staying at Storch for this first week of orientation. It's been great to get to know them and share the start of this new era together! God truly has been amazing in His provision for all of us. Several of us were unsure even just a few short days ago whether we would be able to come at this time or not. But there is only one RA who is not yet here, and she gets here on Tuesday! Praise the Lord! He is good!

Shopping in Lörrach

Orientation officially starts tomorrow (Monday) morning. We will be having German classes in the mornings this whole week, as well as learning to drive in Germany, and other Res. Life training. We have orientation for the next 3 weeks, and then students arrive, so we will be busy bees! On Thursday we will be finding out which dorms we are assigned to, and I think we're all anxious to know, but enjoying our time together all the same. Today we had church at Black Forest Community Fellowship, an English-speaking church that holds its services at BFA and which we will be attending with the students during our time here. The people were very welcoming, and I'm excited to better know who they are. All of the Res. Life staff had lunch and supper together today here at Storch, which was delicious and great to get to know not only RA's better but also dorm parents and our Res. Life supervisor and other staff.

Some of the RA's on a walk in the country-side

Well, it's 7 hours later here than in Arkansas, so I'll be heading to bed soon. I was able to push through Friday without taking any naps or falling asleep early so that I could start my new sleep schedule as soon as possible. It was hard but it's working! I slept 13 hours that first night, and I've had almost no jet-lag since! Yay! Hopefully it'll stay that way!

I'll try to keep you guys updated on how orientation is going. I've already butchered my way through ordering pizza and ice cream in German, so I'm excited to get into some classes! Please pray that I would have the energy and emotional strength to keep up with everything that's going on. I have a feeling that it's going to get harder than it has been pretty quickly with all the new information that we'll be taking in. I appreciate it!!

James 1:17

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.