St. Martin and I are cool like that......

well 11/11 was the big day. i turned 26 in style. in the states, nov 11 is always veterans day, but over here in germany it's st. martin's day. i've been here for over 2 years and hadn't seen how it's celebrated. barbara came up from freiburg and we went to the st. martin's parade. i had told friends that i was going and they told me that it was just for kids. hmm.........
so i'll explain. there was this nice guy called st. martin. he helped people and road a horse and stuff. so in germany the kids make lanterns in school and then walk through the streets singing songs and whatnot. there are special st. martin songs and the hang a lantern(made of paper with a candle suspended in the middle) on a stick.
i didn't know that my birthday was special everywhere, so this was a nice surprise and a nice stroll through town with barbara and lots of mothers watching to make sure that the lantern candle doesn't go out. hard to explain it all. hope this gives you a glimpse of it all.

growing a spine

so i've never been the type to ruffle other people's feathers. i don't like conflicts and tend to be more american and indirect than the germans. other's may tell you to your face that you've done something wrong, but i just hate that type of situation.
being in germany has definately "helped" me be more direct and better at making decisions. oh....... that's the other part. indecisiveness. yeah. i don't like making decisions or i usually just don't feel pulled in one direction or the other.
germans are much more direct than americans and will usually tell you what you're doing wrong or what you could do better. it's not rude. just honest and open. :-)
i think the culture, as well my work has made me be more direct and make more decisions on my own.
i've learned that there's a point where i give others too much room to have their own way against my will and my better judgement. i'm still really nice, but i think that i'm more confident of the decisions that i make or the advice that i give. i still don't like telling someone they're wrong, but i'm much better at standing my ground and seeing that i don't let the other person have their way because i don't want a conflict.
i'm right. aren't i?

dealing

friday night i got a call from my dad that my grandma was in the hospital. something happened and she ended up unconscious. they're still not quite sure what it was, but they ended up doing exploratory surgery and found lots of dead tissue, but no answer why. after a second try, they've gotten her off the breathing machine and she's alert and even sitting up in bed.
but friday night it sounded pretty bad and they weren't sure if she would come through it ok. barbara was with me, so we prayed about it and i decided to get away on saturday. saturday morning ulf said he would be going out to take pictures, so i got a ride up to thomashof and we walked through the woods and took pictures. i just needed the time to get away and clear my mind. later i got to sit in the church and play guitar and sing. it cleared my mind a bit and calmed me.
now all those questions from before about what will happen with grandma and grandpa are being answered quickly. mom is in PA now to help with moving and visiting in the hospital and dad is staying up as long as he can to give support. i have that feeling that alot of going on and i wish i could help or just be present with all the changes taking place.
distance is a wierd thing. it hurts more to be so far away and not be able to help, but it also gives a buffer so that i don't have the direct emotional contact with what's going on. so i swing between being too emotional in wishing that i could be there -and- with feeling too removed and not worrying/praying enough about what's going on there.

Ab die Post!!!!!!

So this was a long and interesting weekend. Saturday was the yearly "Mennocup" indoor soccer tournament for mennonite churches. There's a wandering trophy that the winner mennonite church takes home, then they're responsible to organize the tournament for the next year. i had planned to play for the thomashof team, but barbara's family decided to form a family team and invited me to play with them. the kärcher family team was called "Ab die Post!" cause barbara's brother, Johannes, worked for DHL. anyway. her whole family played. all 8 of them played. and her 2 foster sisters were cheerleaders for us. we didn't start off so well, losing our first game, but then didn't lose any more games. we just barely made the playoffs, but then went on to win the quarter and semi-final. then in the final we played 10 minutes and no one scored, so it went to penalty kicks. needless to say, we lost in penalty kicks.
so we took second place from 14 teams, and since we were the best team from a mennonite church we got the trophy and thomashof needs to plan it for next year.
you can check out more pics on ulf's website