Sister

This is Jill. She is my sister. And she came to Berlin for six days. What a glorious six days they were! It was incredible to have her meet people and see my city. I just love her so much. It was weirdly normal to see her in my apartment or with my friends. I think they also felt a strange familiarity with her. It may be connected to the fact that we look exactly alike. Hard to tell. We met my friends from language school several times for burgers, games, coffee, etc. It was so fun and it gave me an excuse to speak English the whole night (which I sometimes secretly love). We spent some time with some people from my cafe team and brunched. _________________________________________ We went to a flea markets, talked, drank coffee, cooked a little, danced a lot, laughed even more than all of that, and had such a wonderful time. We hung out with people all the time, baked, and by the end I was so tired and my feet were so sore and I was so glad because we had a great time. It was a blessing and a joy to spend that time with her. Many thanks to Uncle John for doing so much research for flights! You can't even imagine the blessings you've given me and I'm so thankful for your love and help.

Things I love about Berlin

I thought it would be a swell idea to write a new one and count my blessings and joys in this crazy city. ____________________________________One thing I love is that I just capitalized "idea" before correcting it. In German, nouns are capitalized. I love that I'm learning a new language. In fact, language learning is my favorite part of my day. It's not always because I like learning German. Sometimes it's crazy hard. But it's a place to go everyday where I'm interacting with people from all over the world who have different lives and stories and ideas and the list goes on and on. I truly love the people in my class and I'm more sad than you can even know that this is my last month. We have been doing more outside of class lately (including a burger run, games in the park, and this week my German teacher's 30th birthday!!!) which makes me think we will still be friends even when we don't go to class everyday. Here is us at the burger place. Lecker! (delicious). Another thing I love is public transportation. I don't love everything about it...but most of the time it's just the best. I love the punctuality. I love blaming the train if it's not punctual, as if there was nothing I did to be late. I love sitting and looking at people's shoes or watching them secretly to see what they're reading or how they try their darndest not to dance to their music. I love when funny things happen on the train and sometimes, only sometimes, we laugh (snicker at best) together and share a moment. I love sometimes seeing the same people on the train and giving the acknowledging look that we sorta kinda know something about each other...mostly just what time they have to be somewhere or where they switch to the next train. I love that yesterday I was on a SUPER slow train, and instead of being annoyed, I got to listen to 50 school children (probably 5 or 6) singing their songs. I also love that one of these songs was about drinking beer and wine. Germany. psh.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I love that it's spring here. It just sort of happened overnight. One day we are wearing snow jackets and scarves and the next, my feet are sore because I haven't worn sandals in so long. It's so strange to see what people actually look like now. I sort of forgot that we have normal clothes that change daily underneath the same jacket. We have just worn that one jacket (with whatever schlubb sweatshirt we can find underneath) for 7 months and now we get to use our imaginations! The dead trees also just sprouted overnight. All of a sudden you can see life! It's amazing! There are flowers everywhere--markets with roses and lillies and tulips and hydrangeas(!!!). The grass is green and there are buds on the branches and the sun shines sometimes! What a change. It makes me so happy. Spring is my favorite season. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I love that I get to work with a great cafe team that is full of Germans that love Jesus and are teaching me a lot about what it looks like to live in a different context and follow Christ. They are smart and funny and interesting and it's great to hear what they think about the world and God and how we fit in those two things together. I also like hearing from my other friends who maybe don't live a life of faith but have a history in the church (or maybe sometimes just opinions about the church). They have lots of interesting things to say and commentaries to make. Again, learning so much.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I love the cobblestones. I love the old buildings. I love that there is history here and that I can walk in the area Bonnhoeffer lived or see where the royals used to drive to their country homes. I love that there are people from all over the world here. I love that I can find any kind of food and most of the time for crazy cheap. I love my friend Gracie who is American and is the one person who has so far made this experience so wonderful. She is my closest friend here and I'm thankful God knew that we both needed a friend this year. Lots to be thankful for. Can't wait to grow more in love with this city and the people here.