Abschied!

Today was my last day of work and my last assembly with my church family here in Bremen. Monday was my goodbye party with my beloved neighbors. Tomorrow I travel by bus to Berlin and the next day I fly home for a short time. Pray for my safety in travel and that I do not immediately forget all the German that I've learned.

I am the least sad about leaving my church family (no offense) as I will see them again. Yesterday we read Psalm 23 during our women's bible study. I am glad to have read it; I realized that for 3 months I have been "dwelling in the house of the Lord" quite literally (although it is not as spiffy as our eternal house). We Christians can look forward to "dwelling in the house of the Lord forever." It's great to live in a church; that I can testify. Let us look forward to our eternity there.

I have come so far with language, and am a bit disappointed that I have to stop! The most common-place phrases here run through my head when it is quiet enough:
Shau mir mal (let's look)
Musst man angucken! (yeah, I'll check that out)
Liebe Himmlischer Vater (our loving God in heaven)
probier es noch mal (try that again)
ah, Sch*$#@# egal! (whatever)


Today's vocabulary lesson: Abschied = Farewell = ձտէսութիւն

Street Circus Festival

I read in the paper and saw signs for Bremen’s “Street-Circus Festival,” La Strada. Like the Maritime Festival, I was culturally confused. What exactly is a street circus, and what makes it worthy of its own festival? On Friday after work, I went and found out!

In the grassy park across from the Stadt Bibliothek, there was a puppet theater (with Mr. Roger’s style puppets, rather than the VBS, Muppet or Marionette style puppets I am used to) where a man performed “Rumpelstiskin.” Besides being my first proper German puppet theater show, I could understand the whole thing! A landmark in German-learning.
After the puppet show, I went over to watch some acrobat/dancers at the stage on the other side of the park.

Joseph and the Amazing Technically Unrelated but Yet Touching Parallels to the Story of Jesus

I thought that I was listening to a relatively standard sermon about the life of Joseph, and was checking my watch when I saw that we had already gone half an hour and still hadn’t gotten to read the part where Joseph saves the Egyptians and then forgives his brothers (and our preacher for the day was reading every passage and then clarifying and summarizing it, so I assumed this would go on for a long while). Then the sermon took such a sudden turn towards a meaningful application that my soul gasped in surprise. The preacher stopped the story at the interpretation of the baker’s dream, and pointed out the similarities between Joseph and Jesus.
Both were sold by their brothers/friends for silver
When Joseph is in prison, and Jesus on the cross, they encounter two men. One is saved, the other isn’t.
Joseph starts serving Pharoah at the age of 30.
Both forgive those who do them wrong.

A fresh take on an old story!

Getting my Money’s Worth

German that I couldn't learn from a Dictionary:

Angucken- This means “to look at” or “to take a look.” Essential here! Used all the time.

Siebung- Sieving, panning. What our soil laboratory technician does everyday to figure out the soil grain size distribution. Ok, maybe not a particularly interesting word for normal people, but, as far as I can tell, not in Collins Dictionary, Leo, or Wikipedia! Shame shame!

In Pudding- taking a walk around the block. For example, after you’ve eaten a lot, you should go for a walk so that you have more room to eat dessert!

Es geht vorbei- “It will get better with time.” “It’s not so bad.” “It is what it is.” You can say this when something bad happens, when you are disappointed, etc. As expected, “Kommt vorbei!” means “come by!”

Ne? – “Do you understand?” “Do you agree?” Use at the end of every sentence when you are explaining something to the foreign Praktikantin.

Oder? “isn’t that so?” “Do you agree?” “I’m right, aren’t I? Undeniably so?” A more exact translation would be the Canadian “eh?” I don’t think we have an equivalent in English, and if we do it is not used as frequently. Maybe it’s closest to “y’know what I’m saying?” or Rocky’s “y’know?”

Better than Listening Through a Conch Shell

I had seen Billboards around Bremen advertising the “Vegesack Maritime Festival,” at which there would be a celebration of all things sea-faring and maritime music. I was intrigued as to what they meant by Maritime music.
The Maritime festival proper started in the afternoon. In the morning there were street performers throughout the pedestrian town center. I saw the Vegesack Seeman’s Chor (pictured here) singing sailing songs-the North German equivalent of a barbershop choir. They looked like they were having a lot of fun. Their signature song is “Wir fahr’n nach Vegesack” but since they were finally performing in Vegesack, they sang “wir sind in Vegesack.”
My heart was first moved by natural beauty on my bike ride and then by beautiful music in Vegesack.

I then raced to the church, to pick up the decorations and desserts I’d made (Amerikaner cookies and apple pastries) and raced over to my American friend's apartment for our 4th of August party.
We had planned to celebrate the 4th of July together but because of unfortunate circumstances our celebration was cancelled. My friend had the clever idea of moving the celebration to the next possible 4th.
We decorated Amerikaner cookies in red, white and blue and decorated the walls and table as well ("Amerikaner cookies" are what we in New York would call "Black and White cookies", only they have them here in all different colors. I don't know what Americans call black and white cookies that aren't black and white.)
We took a healthy walk across a pedestrian bridge over the Weser, overtop of a hydroelectric system and a canal/lock system for skinny coal barges. We also went to Staples, where I had a few nerd moments and felt very much in America. Back in the apartment, we made burgers and talked a little bit about Americanny things. I am glad to not let my nation's special day pass without a celebration.

He feeds the sparrows!

So far, whenever I haven’t had time in between work and Wednesday night church or Bible study to eat dinner, someone brings cookies or cakes and sets them on the table during the Bible class. 4 out of the 6 or so times that we have had snacks at church were times when I hadn’t had any dinner before hand. (And the one time that I slept until 10 minutes before church started on Sunday was the one time that we had cookies.)
I need not fear hunger. God provides for me!