So despite this being my actual 2nd week back in Germany, I have had other stuff on my heart to share, so here's what happened last week...
Before I left Seattle, I had the back of the CRV full of stuff, which I dropped in my mom's dining room in Lake Stevens when I rolled into town. Now I knew I would have to still sort out and get rid of stuff and whatnot, but it was really stressful trying to figure out what would go into my two (very large) suitcases and one carry-on bag. I finally got it done (and I worked up a sweat doing it!), then I had to say good-bye to mom. She was visibly upset, but she was such a trooper! I love you mom!
Went to church on Queen Anne in Seattle and got to see some of my old buds there. After church Kevin Michel, Kathy Estabrook and Matt Bell (and a few others) set up a little reception for me to stay after and chat and see people before I left the next day. It was very encouraging! It was great to see everyone at service too. It was funny, as the song leaders got up to do the last song of the service, Jay Kelly happened to look back and see me. Just at the song was starting, Jay rushed up and stopped them, but the timing was super awkward. Either way, I REALLY appreciated what Jay said, letting everyone know that I was leaving for Germany the next day! I'll have to remind him of that one some time! LOL
So after the service I headed to the Red Lion at the Seattle airport for my last 24 hours in town. Unloaded the car into the room again, and still had too much stuff to fit into what I was taking on the plane, so I had to do another sort. The next morning David Wu came to the hotel and we had breakfast together, it was super good to see him before I left. He went to Spokane for the weekend so I wasn't able to catch up with him until Monday morning. Later, Dad and Pam came to the hotel to help me take everything on the shuttle to the airport. We get to the counter and they didn't even open until 3pm. Finally got to the counter after 3, but my bags were still too heavy. Ugh... Had to take some stuff out and give it to dad.... LOL.... Ugh. Busy right up to the end!!
Finally got the bags checked in and Dad and Pam and I got a chance to grab a bite to eat before I got on the plane. After I got in line to go through, that was the last time I saw them.
When I got on the plane, sat down next to this guy from Uganda. He told me he was a missionary that had been visiting the US for about a month. His story was pretty incredible. I told him my story and we had a great conversation. He gave me his card and I'm hoping to keep in touch with him. Anyway, for a 9-hour flight, it went relatively quickly. I can't sleep well on planes, but I think I might have slept an hour or maybe a bit more. That's about all I can hope for on planes... So the plane left 45 minutes late from Seattle, so I missed my connecting flight in London... no biggie, because despite dinner on the plane, I was hungry when I landed, so I got some food there. Caught a later flight to Berlin and as soon as we were airborn, I was OUT and I slept most of the way to Berlin... By the time I left London I hadn't slept (much) for just about 24 hours and I guess I was just wiped out.
Got my bags and went through customs, which was pretty uneventful. It is interesting, however, when you miss a flight, to see if your bags show up at your destination... and they did!! :) So I went out to get a taxi and realized I hadn't changed into Euros yet, the taxi driver said he could use a card... whew... Apparently nobody in Germany really takes credit cards unless you're in a department store or in a schwanky restaurant or tourist area... As such, I brought nearly $1500 cash with me on the plane and walked around with that amount of money in my wallet in Berlin for two days. I finally opened an account and it was such a relief to not have to carry that amount around with me...
When I got to the hotel, I lugged everything up (by elevator thankfully) to the 4th floor and then decided I needed to go buy a few things. By this time, it was like 730pm and 20 years ago, everything would have been closed. Not today apparently... well, it definitely helped that my hotel was right across the street from the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche, which is smack dab in the middle of (former) West Berlin tourist area. As such, there was an electronics store in the Europa Center that was open until 9pm. So, I was able to get a phone and a transformer so I could use my laptop (converts 220 volts to the US standard 110 volts, without it, it would toast my laptop). So two big things to cross off my list before hitting the sack my first night!!
My hotel was just a half step up from a youth hostel, but it was exactly what I needed. There were two bathrooms on my floor and neither one of them had a shower, so I had to walk up a flight of stairs to shower. The room had two single beds in it and I could stand between them, with one leg touching one of the beds and my other leg touching the other. It was very narrow between them. With one person it was fine, but two people would have been tight.... Either way, I was able to use their internet, kinda, to start looking for a room to rent in Berlin the next day. The internet there was really bad though. It worked great early in the morning and late at night, but apparently if more than a couple people were on the network at one time, it didn't work well at all. There would be times that I would try to get to google to check email, and it kept bringing up Yahoo. Hmph.... not very helpful. Well, I guess I can't complain, I got the room for $35/night on hotels.com. After three nights I decided to see if there was a better situation close by. So I went back to hotels.com and I found one not too far away called the Come Inn, which was a really nice hotel. Per the website, the rooms were $200/night regularly and I got 3 nights there for $56/night. It was more than I wanted to spend, but at least I could use the internet and I had a bathroom in the room, so it was worth it.
For the first morning, I decided to look around for a place to eat breakfast and found this really cool place called the "Alt Berliner Biersalon. I bet it is hopping at night, it has lots of chairs out front on the very wide sidewalk. At any rate, the breakfast and the coffee were amazing, so good in fact, that I decided to go there again the 2nd morning too. Food was kind of expensived, but it was such a cool experience. I felt so spoiled. I posted pics on facebook if you want to see pics of the place.
Since the last time I lived here, the city has changed a LOT. I could barely recognize places. Some places, not many, I could figure out, but most just looked totally different. They have built high-rise buildings next to famous places, so the whole area just looked totally different. This is such a cool city! I also went back to where I lived 20 years ago and found the building. It's weird, I know I lived there, but I don't remember it very well. I guess I'm just getting old or something. I feel a bit lost here now, it just is so different. I'm getting along okay though.
So I was starting to feel a little discouraged because I was having more difficulty communicating than I thought I would, would get super flustered in a grocery store for instance, couldn't understand what they were saying, also dealing with a new currency, etc. I just felt stupid, on many occasions. Still doing those things occasionally, but they are becoming less frequent now thankfully. Either way, it was very humbling the first week....
But I have to say I have been super encouraged by one of the guys in the church here, his name is Matthias. He's a very funny younger German man and he has endeared himself to me greatly. He has been very patient with me, especially when I was looking for a room to rent in a very far-away part of the city and I got lost a couple times coming back, having to change trains, he waited well over an hour for me. We finally met up and he only had 15 or 20 minutes to hang out before he had to leave. I felt terrible, but he was a very good sport. He also helped me buy my dinner one night, apparently most restaurants don't take any plastic. AT ALL.... I paid him back, but once again, he was a great sport about it...
That same night, we went to a kind of midweek service with the church. This was my first full day in country and it was great to meet the men of the church (it was a men's devotional) and a lot of the Germans were surprised my German was so good. That was good to hear, because it felt like I was drowning every time I tried to speak with someone. LOL Amen, it was a good time! I didn't have any fellowship with the Christians for the rest of the week, except for some time with Matthias.... until Sunday. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, a German brother named John invited me and some other guys over to watch a European quarter final soccer game between Bayern Muenchen (my old team from Munich) and a team from Italy. Bayer Muenchen kicked their butts but it was super encouraging to spend time with some of the guys of the church. (And I actually REALLY enjoyed watching soccer. (Uh oh, I think I might be becoming a German))
Then came Sunday... I was very excited and nervous for Sunday, got there early so that I could get some fellowship in and make some more friends. Some of the songs had the same music, but different words, some were exactly the same songs (I hear God singing to me!) Either way, I think I'll get used to those pretty quickly I think. Well, then came a huge surprise... we had a guest speaker... Doug Arthur!!! I was so excited, I had heard him speak probably 15 years ago or maybe even longer, in Seattle. I was able to get a very short time with him before he had to go into a meeting. Oh well, it was still super encouraging to hear him speak! After service I got to have lunch with a married couple, Christian and Jolee. He's Swiss and she's British. What a great time we had at a local Italian restaurant, enjoying a warm sunny day! Christian suggested we should get together to pray on Friday morning, I said great idea and so we were able to do that yesterday morning! It was cool. It was my first real full prayer in German, I was nervous, but I think it was okay. Either way, God understood it... LOL
On Thursday, I visited a Christian library that is run by one of the brothers in the church here. It's called "Connections" and I got a chance to meet him and we had a great conversation. He invited me over for dinner to his house for Mexican food. He is from Vernon, BC, which is only a few hours away from Spokane!!! S-M-A-L-L world.
Last night we had a midweek type event there as well and met another sister who is studying abroad, and she is from Bremerton. Since my mom's side of the family is from Bremerton and my grandfather was stationed at the naval base there for years, I'm very familiar with the area and also have some great friends in the church in the area, which she knew!!! That was super exciting to meet someone in Berlin that knows some of my best friends in Tacoma! Afterward, a sister, Katja, and I walked to the train together and ran into two other sisters and we rode together. Apparently one of the women was from Bratislava (Slovakia) and she knows Iva Piljarova (not sure the last name, she's married now) and also knows Alena Lenzova, both of whom I know from Seattle from 93 to 95. Once again... S-M-A-L-L world. Crazy!!!!
One more thing I wanted to mention before I end for tonight... When I first came to Berlin in 1986, we visited the East and we went to Alexanderplatz, which is the main square in East Berlin. Right next to it is the very tall radio tower. At that time, there was a bit of shopping, but just small stores mostly. When I returned in 1992, a department store had taken over the main building on that square and it was starting to grow a bit. I have to be honest, I was not prepared for how that store looks now... 5 stories of shopping, on the level of Macy's or Nordstrom! What a change since I first went there so long ago! And the whole area around it is almost completely unrecognizably different as well. Wow.
Well, Lori and I will be Skyping soon. She's the second to Skype me, first was John Biggerstaff last night (kind of on the fly) and got to say hi to my Spokane mom, too! Well, I had better go so I can get ready for that, thanks for checking in on me on my adventure! Keep in touch and please give me feedback, ask questions... Anything! Love you guys, until next time!
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