Java stuff

The hostel I'm at allows internet, but no Java, so I can't use the
normal blogspot interface to update, and therefore, I can't post a
picture with the post for today. So the picture for this text is
actually below this text, in the previous post. Shouldn't be too hard
to figure out. Oh well. In any case, I went to the train station
in Hamburg this morning to get on a train to Berlin. I was on the
platform, about half an hour early, and saw a couple that I recognized
from the hostel I was staying at. We chatted, and it turns out that
they were waiting for the same train, but were headed past Berlin, to
Leipzig. So we chatted for a bit, Mike and Kirsten turned out to be
really cool, and the convinced me to head to Leipzig with them.
Kirsten spent a year here studying, so she knows German very well and
is familiar with the city. Today, we went to a nearby town and climbed
a huge hill to a castel. The castle was Wartburg, but I forget what
town it is in. I can look that up when I get home. Tomorrow morning,
we're headed to Prague, where Kirsten knows of a really cool hostel.
We're all spending the night there, and they are returning home the
next day. I think I may spend another day in Prague, or head on to
somewhere else. That's still up in the air. Till next time, cheers!

Sorry, no picture, probably

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Final hour in Rostock

So, our stay here in Rostock is coming to an end. The bus comes at 3am (in one hour) and we're all heading to Hamburg. Once there, the team is flying home and I'm finding a hostel and crashing for the night.
Today was pretty laid back. We went downtown in the morning so people could do some last minute shopping. Then we had lunch and headed over to Toitenwinkle. We played some frisbee and soccer with some of our friends, made our goodbyes, then headed to the church for dinner. It was good to just chill and everything in the evening. Then we talked until about 11, parted ways with Marko and Daniel, and then headed back to the hostel. Once here, we packed, then have been hanging out in the lobby, playing cards and chilling.
So after this, I don't know how often I'll have internet access, so updates may be sporadic, or potentially daily. Who really knows. Till next time!

Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday

Ok, so Friday started with a prayer breakfast with the SMD students. I don't remember if I covered this or not, but the SMD is a student mission group on the Rostock campus here. They were cool, and we talked a lot. Learned a cool pre-eating song. Jon and I agree that we need to initiate pre-eating songs in the US. After that, we went shopping downtown. Some of the peeps picked up scarfs and jerseys for the soccer teams. I did not. After that, we went back to Toitenwinkel for the final Bistro. We set up, practiced a drama, then went to the soccer fields to kick around a ball for a little bit. After that, we met some of the local students and brought them back to the church and played some volleyball. After that, we ate and Troy shared the gospel with the group, then we broken into small groups to talk about it. A couple of the kids were totally into it, which was awesome, and they even showed up at church on Sunday. After small groups, two of the students pulled out an american football and began tossing it around. There's an american football league in this state in Germany, and it turns out that Friday is the Rostock seniors against some other neighboring city team. So we accepted an invitation to the game. After that, we went home, did devotions, and crashed.
Saturday was pretty much the football game. Prior to that, a few of us went to town to do more shopping. My cold was starting to get pretty intense, so I went in search of decongestant. I stepped into a drug store, coveyed that I was sick, and I needed drugs. The lady seemed confused by what kind of sickness I had. I tried to communicate a cold. This didn't go well. In the end, she gave me a box of drugs, and I've been taking them. I haven't found that they help a lot, but they aren't hurting.
The football game was pretty funny. Imagine a country whose primary sport is soccer. Now imagine that at every american football game, the announcer has to explain the general concept of the game and a rough layout of the rules (see photo). Just about every kick was eight feet in the air and straight. On one extra point attempt, a defensive lineman was actually pegged in the face. But it was fun to watch and hang out with our new friends. And we were interviewed for NDR, which is like the local northern Germany news channel. That was all of Saturday.
Today, we went to church and played a song for the congregation. I played drums, which was cool, but rough. All around, it was neat, especially because we were seeing some of our friends from earlier in the week. After church, we went to lunch with the SMD peeps, which was fun. Then we met up with Mike and Simone and their children. We walked around downtown in extreme wind (On a side note, Jerome, tons of people were out windsurfing and kiteboarding on the baltic. Super intense :) and we eventually took shelter in a small Italian restaraunt. We chatted for a bit, then headed back to the Hostel. That's where we are now. I'm going to go eat German chocolate and give a devotion. Later.

It's been some time...

Ok, so I've missed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I've tried to update this a few times, but always get interrupted. I would save each draft and finish it later, but all the buttons I have to click on are in German, so I have to guess which one means "Save for later" and so far all I've found "Delete Forever." I hope I finish this one.

Thursday was an adventure. The students are out of school for both Thursday and Friday. Thursday is "National Celebrate Men Day" which translates into "Guys, get wasted." So school was canceled for that. Friday was canceled for the unofficial "National Hangover Day." So on Thursday, a few of us were invited by a group of students to go to a beach to play volleyball and other beach games. This sounded cool, so we went. Originally, the plan we heard was to take a tram to parking lot where some friend with a van would pick us up and drive us to the beach. We took the tram to a parking lot, then a bus came to take us to the beach. And by "to the beach" I mean "two miles from the beach" which we then walked. Bear in mind that this is still "Drink 'till You Can't See Day," so we are accompanied by plenty of loud Germans as we walk along this road, also sharing the space with the local drivers, who are presumably also taking part in the day's festivites. But after the long walk in the rain and cold, we arrive at the Beach. This beach is about 100 feet long (well, not really, beacause we're on the metric system), with beautful waves of black oily foam lapping at a rough, crushed gravel shoreline. But it was still fun, even though the water was unswimmable, the rain cold, the beach painful, and the stomachs empty. The fellowship was fun :) Eventually the rain and cold got to myself, Jamie, and Carrie. We decided to find our way back. Up till this point in the day, we've been following local guides, and therefore not paying attention to streetnames, bus numbers, or tram routes. But we're confident. So off we go. After the familiar two mile walk, pestered by loud inebriated Germans, we round a corner and see a bus driving toward our bus stop. Casting thoughts os Social Outcast to the wind, we decid to sprint, while wearing backpacks. We arrive just in time for our bus to drive straight past us without stopping. We laugh, realizing that the totally uncool sacrifice of running with a backpack was just made totally worthless by missing our bus anyways. So we wait for it to come back. Jamie remembered that we needed bus 16 or 18 to get home, and 18 came into sight. The sign at the intersection said Rostock (our destination) to the left, and SomewhereElse to the right. We boarded bus 18 and hoped for a left turn. Luckily for us, it turned right. Because who would actually want to go home? We laughed at our situation, because that's that kind of people we are. So we decided to ride the bus to the end of the line, wait for it to turn around, then head for home. We arrived at the end of the line, which turned out to be Wandermunde. You may remember this town from an earlier post. Yes, we had been there before, but this time we were on the East side of the bay. Which basically equates to trying to get to the Grand Haven beach from Blockbuster and ending up in Ferrysburg. Your goal is just about in sight, but you really have a long way to get there. We sit on the bus and watch the Numer 18, and the destination, waiting for it to change to Number 18 and SomeplaceWeRecognize. It changes to to Number 17 and WhoKnowsWhere. So we bail from the bus before it takes off in some random direction, further from our desitnation. Luckily, the bus doesn't leave, and in broken German, we ask the driver how to get home. He tells us to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes (metric time) for the new #18 bus, or take the ferry. We again laugh at how unfortunate we are. So we start walking around Wandermude East-Side. We find the ferry, and walk up to the ticket office. In horrible German, we make attempts to talk to the ferry ticket sales-dude. The nice old man speaks in more broken English, and conversation begins to ensue. I show him my bus-and-tram pass, trying to figure out if ferrys were included on the ticket. After quite the conversation, we conclude that we're good, and so we walk to where the ferry was loading just a moment ago. As we turn the corner, we see the ferry pulling away from the dock. Again, laughter at our horrible misfortune ensues. I couldn't have asked for better traveling companions. We take a couple pictures at the dock and chat for about five minutes, until the next ferry pulls in. The Germans are certainly efficient. We board the ferry, take more pictures, and travel across to Wandermunde West-Side. After disembarking, we recognize nothing that we were hoping to. So we simply follow the mass of people into the town. Magically, we pass the Train Station! We stop at the station, and spend about 15 minutes trying to figure the schedule in another language. Not only are we convinced that we're successfull at that, but we're pretty convinced that we know where to transfer from the train to the tram! So we jump on the next train (they all have to go South, since North leads to the Baltic. As Marko said, the trains leaving Wandermunde only go North once), and are on our way to freedom! On the train, we reflect on our adventures and continue to laugh more. We succesfully make our transfer, and arrive back at Hänse-Hostel, missing the rest of the group by mere hours. A note was left for the three of us to call "Scoddy," who we deduce is Scott, our team leader. We get in touch with Troy, who tells us that if we left now, there may be some dessert left at Mike and Simone's. We tell him that we're going to grab some food, since we hadn't eaten in about 8 hours. So we walk up and down the street, trying to find something that is open on "Men, Get Plastered Day." We find a Chinese restaraunt. We manage to convey an order to the service person there. Imagine only knowing English and couple words in German, and trying to order from a person who only knows Chinese and a few German words. It was very similar to that. But we get our food, and return to the hostel to eat. Again, we laugh, this time at the fact that we're Americans in Germany, and we ended up eating Chinese. Good times. Eventually, the rest of the group makes it home (we didn't have time to go get dessert), and the rest of the night continues with devotions, then bed. All around, and adventuresome day. Ok, this is way too long as it is, so I'll get to Friday and Saturday a little later on. 'night!

A successful bistro!

So we went into the school again to talk with the classes. This time, we got a Philosophy class, and a 6th grade class. The young ones haven't ever been taught anything about America, so for two hours, they simply sat and asked us questions such as "Are the fish bigger in America?" We also got to play "Get up and move" twice, which is always a good time. The more time I spend with the team, the more I find out about each individual and discover how cool each person is. I'm surrounded by excellent friends. Last night, we held a Bistro for all the students in the area we're working in. It was so successfull. We had one on Monday, but no one showed up. Last night, we had a ton of people. We had to go out and buy more food. It was cool, just playing games, eating, and talking about God with them. Ok, breakfast time. I love it!

Back to school

The past two days have been pretty awesome. We got a chance to go into the local highschool and hold discussions in the classes. One group took an English class and the other a Religion class. Within these groups, we held discussions on perspectives of Germans from Americans and Americans from Germans. Mostly, we got to hang out with the students. After school today, we met up with a bunch of the students and played soccer. It was a lot of fun, because they play just about every day, and we suck. So it was pretty much sit back and let the Germans carry your team. Much fun.

Chillin' in the Baltic

Today we went to the church service at the church we are serving at. It was pretty cool. I didn't get a ton from the message, as it was all in German, but singing familiar songs in a different language was a cool experience. After that, we ate lunch with one the families that will be guiding us around this week. They have four children, David, Charon, Sara, and a new baby. Charon was awesome. In the picture, she's the one standing in front of me. We hung out all day. Tomorrow, a few of us are going to a local middle school and talking to an English class. We're discussing common social pressures, specifically where one draws his or her identity from. It'll be sweet. Tchuß.

Travel and the first daz

Pardon typos and potential lack of photos. The keyboard is German and the websites are all in German. In any case, travel was good, we took about 25 hours to get to our Hostel. Saw Cuba Gooding Jr. at the airport. Once here, we went to the church we'll be working at and met the people we'll be working with. There was a big party earlier tonight outside our Hostel, and I got some photos of that. Tomorrow we'll be going to church and then to the beach. This picture is of the Hostel we are staying at. The second floor windows are for the girls and the guy's are the next level up. The yellow building on the left is the home of the owners of the Hostel. That's it for now! Later!

Arrivial of the Departure

Today is the day. Annie gave me a nice suprise and came to visit me yesterday. She and my step-dad are taking me to Lansing to meet up with the group. From there, we hitch a ride to Detroit and board the flight to London, then to Hamburg, Germany. The next 12 days is the mission trip with the group. After that, I'm on my own. I couldn't sleep last night. Just tossing and turining. Got to that stage of "Ok Brett, it's really important to go to sleep now," and I just can't sleep with all that stress on me. The irony strikes me. I can sleep on the plane, though. The only downfall to this is my recent Sudoku addiction. I'm not good, which means it takes me longer, which means I won't sleep as much. Oh well. It'll work out. Well, my next post will be from another country! Later!

The end of school

This is the trademark "This is my first blog post" post. I'm just getting used to this thing. School is done. If I walk away now, they send me a diploma. That's a good feeling. Most of my grades turned out better than expected.

I guess the main point of this blog is to keep people posted on what I'm up to while I'm on my trip in Europe. I leave on the 18th of May, and will return on the 30th of July. I've started prepartations, to a certain extent. I've ordered a digital camera, so soon these posts will contain pictures. Really, that's all I've done.