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May 27th 22:38
Wow. This has been a long day. I flew into Frankfurt, and I was so scared the whole time. The girl I sat beside on the plane was a University of Arizona student named Becca. She was a complete idiot, and she (who openly doesn’t speak German or understand the culture at all) is a German minor. Even though she’s flying into Germany only speaking English, she had the audacity to complain about “those Mexicans.” It took a lot on my part not to tell her what I thought of her. Besides, it was a pretty full flight so the only other place for me to sit would have been the toilet.
I realized the majority of the people I flew in with were Americans, so I just followed them. Even still, it was an odd experience, just walking around like I knew what to do! The guy that stamped my passport stared at me for a long time, and he even asked me to take off my hat. I was pretty peeved, but he let me go after that. But I just went to baggage claim after that…And I stood there with knots in my stomach, waiting for my bright green suitcase to show up. Finally it did after the people I’d just ridden with were already stalking away.
As I left baggage claim, I followed this awkward lady that wore a see-thru red shirt and black bra (she was very “European”). She led me straight to the right place, and there I met Friedemann and Louisa. I was excited to see them, so we left from there to kill time to wait on Ellie. We went around Frankfurt for a bit, looking at city hall where a dozen people got married today. We looked at the river, walked all around the city. I was struck by the American Sycamores so grotesquely trimmed to about 25 feet, twisting like a bonsai tree. It looked so odd. And they were numbered with little green tags next to chalk writing.
And I met Manu (sp?), Louisa’s fiancé. They were really cute together, but he didn’t speak English so we didn’t really communicate. From there we visited a shopping center and got ice cream. The shopping center we went to had an electronic store—Saturn, I think—that was 4 stories high! We walked down through the shops, and I giggled when I saw a Woolworth. After that, we visited the market, and stopped to get pastries. Louisa explained that Germans have a time to “eat coffee” around 4 in the afternoon where they eat something sweet and drink coffee. We skipped the coffee and had the most wonderful pastry by the river. It was like a really flaky crust with some kind of pudding filling covered by a crumb crust dusted in powdered sugar. I keep looking around at these people, wondering how they’re so thin if all they eat is carbs.
On the drive to the airport, I dozed off. I tried so hard to stay awake, but I couldn’t fight sleep off any longer. We parked in 10 minute parking, jumped in to grab Ellie, and jumped right back out to the car. We enjoyed orange juice and some kind of chocolate chip roll on the car ride from Frankfurt to Meiningen. There was a bit of a traffic jam though, so the ride took around 3 hours. I didn’t notice because I slept most of the way. Oops! = )
When we drove through Meiningen, Friedemann and Louisa started pointing out buildings. “There’s a bank. There’s another bank. There’s another bank. There’s a park. There’s a bank.” I guess they need a lot of banks around here. So we came in to the house, brought our suitcases in to our awesome room, and then had a light dinner. Really, it seems like the only thing I’ve done since getting here is eat-eat-eat-eat-eat. We had ham and cheese on “fancy German bread” as Freidemann called it. After that, we did some unpacking while Friedemann did the dishes and Louisa and Alex went to a meeting. When we had almost finished, we took a brief 40 minute tour of Meiningen. We came back to have ice cream with Felitzia and talk about our plans. We’re going to a conference this weekend, but tomorrow there’s a Welcome party for Elli and me with the youth from church. In the morning, Ellie and I made plans to explore Meiningen further. But I should probably get some sleep if I want to get up to look around this cool place!

May 29th 12:12
Today Ellie and I started the day by walking around town. We looked at the stores, the market place, just the rest of the town. We saw lots of things for sale like purses and clothes, but we also saw normal stores with soap and shampoo things. People didn’t smile much or anything, but that was expected. Louisa took us for a tour today, and man she walks fast! It’s a good thing I took walking for fitness this semester because I would have had a hard time keeping up. While we were with her, a neo nazi approached her and gave her a flyer. She was pretty upset by it, so she just threw it in the trash.
After that, we spent some time around the flat (there was much eating of bread and sweets). We went to church tonight at around 5 for “teens.” There was a girl named Anna and two other boys (who remain nameless because I’m awful with names). They had a Bible study in German, so I just stayed quiet. Then we played Chinese ping pong while more people came in to the church. Friedemann asked us to talk about ourselves with the group, and Ellie went through her pictures. I showed mine for a few minutes, then I was like, “GAH! They look bored! I’ll just talk to them!” That was a bust because most of them don’t speak English. We went up stairs for a Bible study/praise and worship service. A lot of the praise songs we sang happened to be in English. At the end, Ben ran downstairs to get more praise songs in English (presumably because we speak-a the English).
After that, we went downstairs. A lot of German speaking ensued, so Ellie and I spaced out. Then people started speaking English. One girl (I don’t remember her name) spoke GREAT English. Anja who is a nurse speaks really good English, too. We went out to a pub and I had Vita-cola. It was really nice.
I’m going to a conference tomorrow, so I should get to bed!

May 30th
Ellie and I went to a Baptist Youth Conference today. We drove a few hours from Meiningen, and I think we’re pretty close to Frankfurt. Louisa, Maria (1 and 2), “Sara”, “Dorothy,” “Michael,” Matthias, Uley loaded up in a van and a car and came over. I slept most of the way, but I woke up long enough to see HUGE windmills and some of the tallest trees I’ve ever seen. I think some of them were poplars, but I’m not sure. There were also these precariously leaning pine trees around the highway.
At the conference, there were several sermons and lots of praise and worship songs. We also had bread (of course) for dinner with potato salad, a braut and some cheese. These Germans don’t know about diversity in their meals! Ellie and I made a plan to cook for a group of them sometime soon, but we don’t know who. I guess it would be interesting to cook for the people at church that are so nervous about speaking with us. It might make them a little bit more confident about talking to us…
And in German, there is no word for sorry. There is no word for boyfriend. There is no word for awkward. That’s 80% of my vocabulary. What else can I talk about? We’ve deemed Allan Ellie’s “weird friend” because we can’t call him her awkward boyfriend. This title is accompanied by a picture of him distorting his face in the woods.
Speaking of which, I miss Erik. Today I was riding to this place, and I was in half asleep stage. I wondered if I’d just dreamed everything that’s happened with Erik—the I love yous, the kisses, the accents…everything. It feels like ages since I’ve talked to him, and I really don’t know if I can handle this long without him. I think I’ll request an internet date as soon as he gets out. Because yes, I’m that much of a loser.
I still haven’t called Mom. Oops.
People are staring. I think I’m calling it a night.

May 31st 22:49
Today was the last full day at the conference. We woke up at 5:30 to the sound of Thumper (aka 12 year olds thump-thump-thumping their way to the bathroom). I was able to go back to sleep, but I got woken up every few minutes to the continued thump thump thumping of 12 year olds. When Ellie and I gave up on sleeping around 615, we watched people go by. One girl had a toiletry bag that said “Beauty” to which we could only roll our eyes. America! AGH!
After we got up and got dressed, we rode in the van to the place where we had breakfast. There was bread of course, and there was also nutella stuff, yogurt-ish stuff, jelly, coffee and milk. Their milk tastes SO different than ours. First of all, it’s served warmer. Secondly, it’s not as homogenized. And third, they have 3.5% instead of skim. Woooooow!
After breakfast, we went to the tent for praise and worship. Ellie and I sat in the back and sang along. When that was over, there were small groups. Ellie and I had a small group because we didn’t want to force people to speak English. We talked a lot about what was going on with our time here. Louisa met us afterward and translated the service. From there we had macaroni noodles with a meat sauce for lunch. Ellie went to the bathroom because the line for food was so long. Louisa went to the far side to get in line, and I knew Ellie wouldn’t find us there, so I went and stood by the bathroom to wait for her. After a while, she never came out. So I have all these kidnap scenarios running through my head, but the Germans just want to finish their lunch. So I have all these kidnap scenarios running through my head, but the Germans just want to finish their lunch. I hurry through lunch while looking for Ellie, and when I finish, I go searching for her. I look EVERYWHERE, but I still couldn’t find her. I periodically checked in with Louisa and the rest of the group to tell them no luck. So like, 3 seconds later, Dorothy finds Ellie and brings her back. I was like…wow, I suck at finding Americans. Bah ha ha ha
At this point, we had some down time. Ellie and I were exhausted. We wandered off to the tent and made a video (which will be posted soon). It goes through a lot of stuff I’ve already written, but it’s worth watching. From there we were rushed off to seminars. We met two girls with really good English. We talked with them for a bit, and then we went inside. Louisa went to a seminar on mission work, so we went with. She wasn’t translating, so Ellie and I were getting nothing from it. When the room got really crowded, we ducked out to let other people have our seats. We kept falling asleep in the hall, and it was hilarious. Ellie took some pretty unflattering pictures (soon to be posted).
As we were walking out, a girl offered us a ride. We gladly accepted, and so did a few others. So the three of us got in the back seat and two girls who spoke some English got in the back of the car. I really felt like I was back in West Virginia. One of them kept asking us if we were here on a “wisit.” She was really nice though, and again: her English is better than mein Deutsch.
From there we layed in the sun behind the tent. When we couldn’t sleep, Louisa asked us if we wanted to play a card game called Palumbo, but we figured out it was Assasin. We had a blast playing with these kids who “barely speak English.” We both assumed two of them were dating because the girl was laying on this guy, sitting on his lap, etc. so Ellie referred to her as his girlfriend, and they both flipped out. It was adorable (short clip available).
After assassin, we went to dinner. We had bread bread bread, and Manu was shocked to learn ketchup was English for ketchup. There were two different kinds of meat, and huge pickles. I’m not much of a fan of pickles since the one bite challenge at staff training. After dinner, there was one more worship service. We were all so tired that afterward, we went straight to bed. And that brings me to now. Bed time. = )


June 1st 22:10
Today was the last day of the konferenz. It started bright and early at 6:50 with packing up our stuff, brushing our teeth, and getting dressed. By 7:05 we were driving to breakfast. The man who had so much trouble communicating with us yesterday got a kick out of me saying “ein und ein” and pointing to the pieces of bread I wanted. He then imitated me and gave me my bread.
After breakfast we went to praise and worship with Manu. Some of the songs were in English, and some were in German. After a while, the German phrases rolled off our tongues (and people around us probably cringed). They sang this song, “Oh Happy Day” like 5,000 times today, and no, it’s not the same as our Oh Happy day. From there we were dismissed to small groups. We went with Manu to get a sign that said, “Klein-grouppe” or “Small Group.” A woman and man in their 40s and a woman in her late 20s who was what they called “deficient” joined us. I thought about asking if they meant “different” rather than “deficient,” but I didn’t want to push any buttons. They shared with us that they lead a youth group nearby, and that they had a member from Detroit. We didn’t get to meet her though. = ( But anyway, our small group was amazing. They had a lot of insights into what was said during the sermons, and they shared their concerns with how it applies to their youth. At the end, we prayed in a circle. They prayed in German, and we prayed in English. It was really amazing.
Louisa came over after the praise and worship service and translate the first sermon of the day. It referenced a lot of the stuff from earlier in the conference. Ellie had a lot of trouble keeping our eyes open because we always get so tired around lunch on both sides. We have no idea why we’re so tired, but it’s not jet lag. I mean, it would be 4 am - 9 am.
We had lunch after that. It was some kind of beef + pineapple + peaches + gravy over white rice dish. It was really good, and my description doesn’t do it justice. By this point, they had run out of soap, so we just washed our silverware with water.
There was another sermon after that and a really long “goodbye” ceremony. I guess if you go to this conference every year, you need the goodbye ceremony to be that long. People seemed to make a lot of connections, and I even noticed people joking around with the preachers during the down time. The ride home was a sweltering 3 hours in the back of a van. It was so hot, I couldn’t sleep. But then we drove through the rain, so it cooled off a little. I fell asleep then.
When we got home, we talked about the things we heard and did at the conference with Felitizia. She made us some really good dinner (pork chop, smoked cheese, wheat bread, tommy toes, red peppers, onions). It was one of the biggest dinners I’ve had in Germany.
Then, Ellie and I showered. It was the highlight of the day. Lulz! Jk.

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Comments

[Mat]

athesim
Hi, i am from hessia, fulda, not far from Meiningen. What i have to tell you is: The people of east germany dont neat fanatic religous american christians. They didnt ask you for any missionars. They lived peacefully with their athesit beliefs. Stay home!