what fun.

i love it here.
tonight i went with another intern, lydia, along with 3 german girls, katja, tanja, and sarah, to the cinema to see a documentary auf deutsch! we saw Unsere Erde [our world]. basically lots of shots of all over the world, animals and nature. it was pretty sweet. we all were getting pretty sleepy towards the end but it was cool!
learned some new things about german culture, particularly in their movie theaters [Kino]:
-you get assigned seats, but you can also go online beforehand and reserve seats
-they show commercials first, ending with one or two ice cream commercials. then the lights go up, and the ice cream men appear to sell their goodies! amazing! then the lights go back down after a few minutes and we get on with the previews.

last night i led worship at monday night class at the church. it was so fun, and i prayed auf deutsch, during which i forgot how to say something and ended up laughing a bit [lyds thought i was crying!], but it went well.
i also got adopted by my family last night! the dad is super nice! i was really scared to get adopted, mostly because i hate/fear awkwardness, but it wasn't awkward at all.

our house smells like santa claus' house.. christy and anjulie have been baking cookies all night.

tomorrow is anja's birthday!!!!! :) should be a schon tag!

yesterday i purchased an amazingly enormous turnip [which i fondly deemed The Rutabaga], and tonight i cooked it. half was a disastrous, albeit perfectly seasoned, sauteed ordeal, which produced rapturous cries of dismay from michelle upon tasting. the other half was much improved by a good steady boil, and cooked up quite nicely. i, however, was quite through with my rutabaga by then, and willingly handed it off to a much more eager michelle [she finally worked up the guts to try the second batch]. [i love you misheru!!!!!]

and so the daily chronicle ends. it's been a good day. our cupboard is hung, our couch is fixed, our bathroom is clean, our cookies are burning [jk], and we've put our Wollemäuse to bed. bis morgen!

wie süß!!

meet and greet.

i love it here so much! the Lord had put it on my heart quite some time ago [since i first began considering this internship] to come back here and to build relationships with and be a blessing to the girls, just like the intern girls of old were to me! and lo and behold, the Lord has already begun that very thing! of our 75-member family here, there are very few of whom i can say that i've not yet had a meaningful conversation. and they've only been here a week! praise the Lord for the fellowship we have in Christ with the Body of believers! how amazing. i counted tonight, while looking at a list of student's names and pictures, and there are less than 5 girls with whom i've not had daily [if not several times daily] fellowship- asking how things are going, laughing, joking around, praying, eating together, walking together, etc. i used to be so scared of girls.. not necessarily scared, but more along the lines of Wary. being one of the boys was no problem to me, and while i didn't always flee from girls, i typically was much more comfortable with the boys. but the Lord, in His abundant, tender mercies, has given me these past 2.5 years of bible college [and dozens of roommates], and in doing so, He has stirred in me a great love and appreciation for girls. sure, they're a lot of trouble, but, in all sincerity, how blessed i am to have so many dear, precious, beloved sisters.
and so, on y va! into the semester! i absolutely adore the group of people here this semester. thank you Jesus!!

locked out of my house.

so i will update!
i have been so bad at updating! sorry.
things here are super busy to the extreme. but everything is going really well, and i love it here so very much! i haven't taken any pictures, otherwise i'd post.
my days pretty much consist of helping in the kitchen, figuring out my m199ers' schedules [i am the laundry intern this semester], leading worship [yesterday devos + tonight for all-girls koinonia], and going to inga-lill's block class "women of the bible" [3 hours/day, 5 days/week, 2 weeks].
classes and devotions have all been so encouraging!!! i'm so blessed to be here and to sit under such rich teaching. and worshiping together with the Body of Christ is also so great.
this weekend i'm on weekend team, and we're going to the Wartburg, which is the castle in Eisenach where martin luther was held captive. been there before. it's cool. so it'll be a crazy weekend of continued cooking and running around.
the Lord keeps reminding me that it's only in His strength that i am to begin and to complete anything. i've been given a lot of responsibilities, and i tend to get going in my own strength and start to burn out before i realize that all along i should have been relying upon His sufficiency in everything.
so that's definitely a prayer request! keep us all in your prayers, staff and students.. we all have a LOT going on this week and next. pray for wisdom, strength, clarity of thought, and most of all a closeness to the Lord in this time.
love!