time to breathe

We are about two thirds of the way through our first Christmas break in Kandern, and friends — it’s been wonderful. This past semester felt like nonstop busyness, from the legitimate work required by our two jobs to the “extras” of life, such as sifting through the German paperwork we get in the mail, figuring out substitutes and translations when we try to use our American recipes, learning the rules of how and where to recycle anything you can possibly think of, and desperately attempting to squeeze in some new German vocabulary along the way. It’s been so long since I’ve lived overseas that I’d forgotten how much time and energy it takes to accomplish very simple tasks. Last week one of my recipes called for sour cream, and I immediately thought, “Oh no. I just figured out which one is heavy cream, and the last time I tried to buy sour cream I ended up with something that was like garlic cream cheese.” So I went to the grocery store and spent way more time in the dairy aisle than I ever would have in the States, and guess what? I found the sour cream!! At least, I’m 99% sure it’s sour cream. It’s the little victories, people. Honestly, this is a pretty fun adventure, at least on the days when I can maintain perspective and view things as learning experiences. There are, of course, those rare days when something as simple as baking soda makes me want to melt into a puddle of tears…but I think maybe we all have those days, even back in the States, right?

Our lives here have been very busy and fairly exhausting, so we are deeply grateful for the luxury of following a school calendar, i.e. having three weeks of no work. (Well, Keane doesn’t get all three weeks off, but it’s still been pretty awesome.) It’s given us a chance to stop, breathe, be still, to revel in the wonder that a year ago this was but a dream. Keane and I followed the advice of older, wiser, more experienced workers and got away from Kandern for the first week of our break. It was sooooo good to be in a new environment for a bit, and was also surprisingly sweet to want to come “home” after being away. We spent our very first Christmas away from all of our family, which was sort of sad, but it’s been so good to experience our community here during the holidays–a time when friends step in and become family. We’ve enjoyed some European traditions like raclette and fondue (in the States, those things felt like luxuries; here, they’re normal…so cool!), we’ve visited a couple of Christmas markets, and we’ve slept in a whole lot. And two days after Christmas, we woke up to THIS:

Winter in Kandern

This is the Germany that I remember from my high school days, not the mild weather we’ve been having all fall. We’re loving the turn in the season, except for the fact that we’re now stranded in Kandern because we’re not sure what kind of tires are on our car, and it’s illegal to drive here in the winter without snow tires. We just found that out a couple weeks ago. Oops. The learning curve continues!

Hopefully you’ll see more blog posts soon. We love you and miss you. Yes, you. Thanks for sharing life with us!

one month in less than ten minutes. go!

It is an awful, terrible thing that it has been almost a month since my last blog post and almost two months since we arrived in Germany. I’ll lay aside all my excuses and reasons and simply say: Please forgive me! I hope to make up for this just a bit in the following paragraphs.

First, happy Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Day of German Unity) to you all! This day marks the official reunification of Germany in 1990 following the Cold War. We have really enjoyed the chance to sleep in and not go in to work today. 🙂

We’d also like to dedicate this post to some new friends here in Kandern. They are out of town and went totally out of their way to leave us their house keys and internet password, and we have enjoyed an afternoon of sitting on a comfortable couch, enjoying internet at “home.” We’ve been in the process of getting internet for almost two months now. I have to laugh at some of the eccentricities of living here, like living in a modern country yet also living in a town so small that it doesn’t have enough internet connections for all the houses.

So many things have happened in the last month. Tuesday night small groups have begun at the high school. I am co-leading a group of six wonderful 10th grade girls comprised of both home and dorm students. These girls have lived all over the world and tell the most amazing stories. I love hearing about BFA life through their eyes as they discuss everything under the sun every time we get together. We are always cutting off their conversations to focus on our study (I love that they love to talk so much), which is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This Tuesday my whole small group is coming over to our apartment for dinner. I’m looking forward to spending a whole evening with these sweet girls. Keane is co-leading a group of seven freshman boys. I haven’t met them yet, so I will let Keane tell you about them.

We are really excited to be freshman class sponsors this year, which means we will help the freshman class student council plan class parties and will also help chaperone different class events. Our first real stab at being sponsors is this Monday, when we will travel with the freshman class to France to visit some French-German WWI trenches. All day long, we will be exploring these historical battlegrounds with over 34 fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds. Yikes!! We are glad to have a day to get to know these students better.

Every Thursday, Keane and I “sub” at two different dorms for dorm parents who are enjoying a well-deserved weeknight off. We get to eat dinner with the students and help the Residence Assistants (RAs) bake snacks and prepare other meals, and help students with homework. We are really looking forward to introducing you all to Haus Blauen and Haus Bad Riedlingen this year!

I have not even begun to describe our jobs, church, language study, and personal lives, but I think I’ve already used up my allotted ten minutes. Friends from Illinois, we miss you all more than we can say. It continues to sink in that we are so far from all of you every time we get Ultimate Frisbee emails or Open House facebook invitations. We miss our LGC small group and Sunday mornings at LGC (and sermons in English!). We thank you for your prayers for us, and we have felt God’s hand in our lives here. Homesickness has been present but not too acute. Our health has been fantastic, even with me working in a new school! And God has been helping us so much in our work here. We love and miss you all.

sarah and keane

P.S. We have a guest room, and it is guest-ready!! Let us know if you want to come visit southwestern Germany. 🙂

Welcome to Kandern!

One of the best things so far about moving overseas has been to get to explore our new town, Kandern. The town is made up of a few thousand people. It has one traffic light, one pharmacy, and two grocery stores–in which we are basically guaranteed to run into a handful of BFA staff and students.

This area of Germany is beautiful. We are in the heart of the Black Forest; our backyard is literally on the edge of the forest, on the side of a steep hill. We have quite the walk to and from work each day, and thankfully our lungs and legs are acclimating (anyone planning to visit us: you might want to do some hills training first…).

A view from our apartment of the valley in which we live

A view from our apartment of the morning light

This past weekend was a town celebration called Budenfest (Booths Fest). For four days straight, the normally silent town of Kandern suddenly becomes alive with people we never knew existed. The town’s clubs each set up a “booth” (Are you picturing a concessions stand? Nope. These clubs basically build temporary restaurants.) and sell local food and drinks to benefit their clubs.

Some of the Budenfest "booths"

Some of the Budenfest “booths”

One of the coolest booths was run by the Men’s Choir, which served a number of local wines and built a water fountain that pumped in cold water to keep the beverages cold. It was amazing that so much effort went into a four-day event. They even decorated their booth with beautiful arrangements of dried flowers.

Cold water to keep the drinks cold

Cold water to keep the drinks cold

It’s hard to tell, but most of this festival took place in the town square, called the Blumenplatz (Place of Flowers). Once we were inside the festival, though, we felt like we were in a mini village. Some of the other booths were hosted by local clubs such as the Accordion Club and the Ping Pong Club! There were also several booths hosted by two local Wiccan clubs, which took us by surprise since most groups like that in the States would operate in secrecy. Here in the Black Forest, it seems to be accepted by everyone.

Me in front of the Accordion Club's booth

Me in front of the Accordion Club’s booth

We’re really looking forward to sharing more of our new home with all of you. Expect more photos soon. In the meantime, we are keeping very busy with our work and several big volunteering positions we’ve signed up for, including being Freshman class sponsors and Small Group leaders. Please keep us in your prayers as those kick off in the next week. We miss you all and would love to hear from you, too!

sarah and keane

Hello from Deutschland!!

We are so glad to be writing this update from Germany!! Keane and I arrived on Friday, August 8, and we feel like we’ve been in a whirlwind ever since. We are praising God for allowing us to pass the 90% support-raising threshold that allowed us to purchase plane tickets in time for new staff orientation and language lessons. While we still have a little ways to go (we are currently at 93%), we know God is in control and will provide for all our needs!

We are feeling settled into our new home, which is the top floor in a house that is divided into three apartments. All of our ceilings are slanted; I don’t know how many times Keane hit his head during our first week here! We are becoming more practiced in the German ways of doing things: buying bread from a local bakery, walking to the grocery store several times a week because the fridge is too small to hold much, turning the water off in the shower while you soap up to save money on utilities, to name a few things. We officially registered at our town hall, meaning that we purchased an approved trash can, which was delivered to us the following week. In Germany, there is a process for everything, so registering at the town hall allowed us to open a German bank account, which then allowed us to pre-register for auto insurance, which we had to do before obtaining our car.

For those of you who have been praying with us about our car situation, we are so glad to share that it has all worked out beautifully! God brought an old family friend back into our lives who speaks German and knows a wonderful mechanic a few towns over. This mechanic not only completed the required repairs on the new car, but he also registered our car, got license plates for our car, and obtained the necessary state approval (sort of like getting emissions testing, but much more expensive) for us to be able to use the car! We are so grateful for this mechanic and for our dear friend, Joe!

We do not yet have internet at our apartment, so please forgive us for our lack of communication on the blog/Facebook/emails these past few weeks. We are really looking forward to sharing more about the German culture, our new home, and our new jobs with you. We miss our community back in the States SO much. God has already given us some good friendships here. It’s been a while since I have experienced all the “hellos” and “goodbyes” associated with moving overseas…it doesn’t get any easier as an adult. 🙂 But we are SO buoyed up by your prayers and can really see God’s hand of provision in our lives.

Sending much love from Germany,

Sarah