En Route

The day screams stay in bed. I obey. Every half hour a new thunderstorm comes rolling through, darkening the sky, filling the air with torrents of rain, big blue flashes of lightening, and deep rumbling thunder. This Saturday of thunderstorms was ordered just for me. I have just returned to Germany from the United States and I don't want to get down to business until Monday. This wall of rain is my ticket to lay in bed sleeping, reading and writing.

My trip from the United States to Germany was interesting. I was supposed to take a United Airlines flight from Detroit, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois and then a Air India flight from Chicago, Illinois to Frankfurt, Germany. Thunderstorms managed to delay my flight to Chicago by an hour and a half, so my flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was switched to a United Airlines flight. I had been looking forward to experiencing an Air India flight, but I was grateful to the United Airlines agent for getting me a United Airlines flight for that same day instead of having to wait until the next day for another Air India flight. Can you imagine managing the money for an airline? Airlines have to eat the cost of passengers like me every day who had paid for a different airline but get rescheduled with a new airline. I suppose they make up the money through passengers of their own who get lost to other airlines. But even if it is a bit of give and take, the accountants have to keep track of all that. Yuck.

For as many flights as I can remember, I have not been seated in the middle section where there are something like four or five seats across. Yet again I was lucky to get a side aisle seat in the Economy Plus section (ie, extra leg room). My seatmate was a young man who I would like to think of as my European reflection. He was traveling from Windsor, Canada to Poland for a two week visit to his family and friends. Although he loves his Polish homeland, he has lived in Canada for 6 years and wants to move to California because he finds life in the Americas fascinating. He said that he tries to travel somewhere in the USA or Canada about one weekend a month. Although I am unlike this man in many, many ways, we are reflections because he is a European who came to the Americas in pursuit of a more interesting life, while I am an American who came to Europe in pursuit of a more interesting life.

Before leaving the United States I purchased the book Party of One: The Loners Manifesto, by Anneli Rufus, which I had been wanting to read for several months. I was glued to the book the entire trip and was very glad to have such a good companion along with me. When I excitedly showed my seatmate the title of the book, he asked, "So, does it teach you how to not be a loner?" No, it's a defense of loners and argues that they aren't crazy. To this he replied, "Well, people can change. They can learn to not be loners." It was with these words that he hit upon one of the main themes of the book. He was obviously not a loner and adhered to the general "nonloner mob" mentality that there is something wrong with people who enjoy doing things alone and spending time alone. I just recommended he read the book and then he'd understand that loners don't need to change.

Upon arrival in Frankfurt, several of my fellow passengers and I were baggageless. I will confess that it was kind of nice not having to drag my suitcase and duffel bag around with me as I made my way through the airport, trains, and neighborhood on my journey home. But, I missed Ling-Ling, who is my stuffed panda bear, and my toothbrush. I think my luggage got lost in the process of my flight being delayed and changed. Thankfully, it all arrived on my doorstep this morning via DHL. Ling-Ling got a big hug which lasted a few hours while we slept some more.

While waiting for my train at the Frankfurt airport I met a few English speakers. One of these was a friendly young woman with orange hair from Ireland who sat with me while we waited for our train and then sat with me for the ten minutes she was on the train. I don't usually meet Irish people, so I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions. I first wanted to know if orange hair was common in Ireland, since in the United States people always credit people with orange hair as having Irish ancestors. She said that there are a lot of Irish people with orange hair but that it is definitely a dying breed. The second burning topic was money since she mentioned paying for her plane ticket in Euros. I had been under the false impression that England and all of the other countries in that isle region had not adopted the Euro. It turns out things are a bit more complicated: England still uses the Pound, Ireland has adopted the Euro, and Northern Ireland still uses its own form of money. I asked her if she keeps a stash of each form of money for when she visits these other nearby places, but she said that she rarely visits England and Northern Ireland, so she has no need to keep their monies at the ready.

My enthusiasm for my book was not enough to keep my eyes from wanting to close on the train ride from Frankfurt to Nurnberg and I didn't even crack the book open on the trip from Nurnberg to Erlangen-Bruck because I was just too sleepy and excited to be almost home. When I arrived home my landlord gifted me a day old pretzel, and Steve gifted me dinner (delicious stuffing mixed with canned chicken and turkey) and a visit. It was good to be back.

And now it rains.

Aufwiedersehen America

I have had a lovely visit to the homeland. My brother Chris got married to the amazing Julie. My friends Christy and Scott married each other. I met up with good friends. I stocked up on English books. I hugged my dog Molly about a thousand times.

I will be back in Germany come Thursday mornin'. Yay! But, it will be kind of weird to no longer have a car, not to drive in suburban stop-and-go traffic, not have thousands of chain stores available at all hours of the day to support my every need, and be in a lower humidity climate. Of course, this is one of the reasons I go to Germany, for the spice of a different way of life and the challenge of it.

P.S. Aufwiedersehen means "until we see each other again" and not strickly "goodbye", so I am not bidding America "goodbye", rather "farewell until we see each other again".

Interpersonal Relationships: Part 2

I think trust, patience, and forgiveness are the most important virtues to hold and practice in order for interpersonal relationships to work well.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1loyjm4SOa0

Just follow the link and enjoy : )

New Flickr Photos

I have posted new photos on Flickr. Please do pay those photos a visit. You'll be happy you did. Remember how to find my pictures? Go to flickr.com, search for Larrietta Ding Dong under People, and wahla!

Bergkirchweih

From the moment I came to live in Erlangen I was given notice that I would be around for the big Bergkirchweih festival. Within two days of my arrival I had heard of the festival three times. Considering it was only mid-March, I was amazed that this beginning of June festival was so prominent in people's minds.

Well, Bergkirchweih has come and the town is bustling with festival fever. Buses have "Bergkirchweih" plastered on their destination signs. Swarms of people are snaking down the main street sidewalks towards the "Berg" (means mountain, but it is really just a hill) where the festival is taking place. Men and women are seen wearing Lederhosen (leather pants), and women are dolled up in traditional Bavarian dresses. Everyone is so excited and enthusiastic.

Up at the festival, the once empty rows of wooden benches are covered in bodies with not a bare spot in sight. At the heart of the festival is the opening of the multiple beer cellars located in the hill which are operated by local breweries. Interspersed among the beer drinking merry-makers are stages where bands perform semi-decently. Apparently, drunk people don't require good music to be entertained.

In addition to big liter mugs of beer, there are huge pretzels, wurst on bread, cotton candy, and gingerbread hearts being sold in a frenzy. Since this festival is an affair for all ages, there are shooting games for prizes and rides, including a really tall ferris wheel. When I first saw the ferris wheel from a street paralleling the festival, I was struck with awe at how they managed to put it up on the hill where I thought there were way too many trees for such a monstrous structure.

So, do I now understand what all the fuss for this festival was about? Um, not really. But, I have an idea. I suppose it is a little something like how as a child I always looked forward to my city's "Founder"s Day Festival" which consisted of a parade, tents selling crafts, and festival food like Elephant Ears. A big reason I loved the festival was because it was a tradition, and not because it was really that interesting. These breweries here have been opening up their cellars in a Springtime festival for 250 years, and to Erlangers it is a happy tradition.

Apparently, as I heard it, the festival used to be only a few days long, but Erlangers wanted to keep partying, so the number of days kept extending until it was finally officially cut off at 12 days. The festival dates coincide with the two week Pfingsten Holiday when school children don't have school, which means even more people are available daily to turn out for the festivities.

In the photo you can see the key aspects of this festival: Bavarian outfits, 1 liter mugs of beer, carnival rides, and lots of people! (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

Christian Social

A few weeks ago my friend Baraa invited me to attend a German course with him, which he said was a very social gathering of international students. I brushed off the idea because I didn't feel like hanging around a group of international students stuttering their ways through the German language. But, this week he told me that some of the group also meets on Thursday evenings for dinner and a small Bible passage discussion. I've been feeling a need to be more social, so I decided that I should go and have some fun. The interesting thing about Baraa attending these student missionary gatherings is that he is Muslim. But, he explained to me that he studied world religions in college (at a college which he says is one of the oldest colleges/universities in the world, and I believe him since he is from Egypt) and that he is constantly searching for answers in all religions and sciences.

Upon entering the room where the social was taking place, Baraa and I were immediately met by an international display of welcoming faces. A few Chinese students had prepared dinner that evening and it tasted absolutely fantastic! I found the soup fascinating: it was tomatoes and egg in a clear broth. Surprisingly tasty.

After dinner we all introduced ourselves and then talked about something we had lost in our lives which had been very dear to us. Everyone had something interesting to talk about on this subject. Happily, most people had re-found what had been lost. For my part, I showed them my corse/how keychain. I explained how my friends had stolen him but I thought he was lost, and how happy I was to have him returned to me.

Once we had cleared away the dinner dishes, we relocated ourselves to couches. The leader of the student missionaries is studying to be a teacher, so as most teachers like to do, he lead us in a game before our reading of John 15. It was the Hot/Cold game. You know, the one where an object is hidden in the room and the rest of the group says "Hot" or "Cold" to lead the searcher in the right direction. Three people searched quite successfully for their prize candies hidden under a metal pot. After the game, Bibles were dispersed among us in German, English, and Chinese. The reading presentation was entertaining because a Chinese man read the German Bible, and then a German woman read the Chinese Bible. Our group of 16 was then split in to two smaller groups for more intimate discussions of the passage.

I admit that I have never been attracted to small group discussions of Bible passages. I am more attracted to having theologically educated pastors preach because I find their insights more trustworthy. But, I kind of liked this group. It was special. It wasn't like Sunday school where we all know the "correct" answers and interpretations. And it wasn't like college religion courses where we all ask the most far out there and impossible questions. No, these were people who have read the Bible and understand what is being said, but wonder how the words are actually supposed to work in our depraved human lives. I didn't contribute anything to the discussion because I identified with both the people asking the difficult questions and the people giving the traditional responses.

Logic would make me believe that as people grow older they have more answers than questions, but the opposite is true. As a child, the world was just made up of things like trees, streams, dogs, old people, and peer people. Now, I get shown thin sections on slides of tree cores in the lab, wonder about the chemical contents of streams, ponder the thousands of breeds of big and small dogs, dread the thought of being a shriveled up old human being, and stand in awe at how complex the personalities of my peers have become. The world was once black and white, yes and no, true and false. Where did this simple world go? Now I question everything under the Sun and beyond. We try to give the answers we think are true or what we want to be true. But, as it goes in the realm of academic science research, the only answer we can really settle on is this: we need more information to draw a definite conclusion.

But, I digress from my summary of the evening. The big group came back together after about half an hour of small group discussion. We proceeded to have a general social time. I was amazed at how late it had gotten, so I only stayed for a little while before making my exit. I found out that Baraa also lives in Erlangen-Bruck, so we chatted our walk home in the cool Spring weather.