Berlin lake cruise!

As of two days ago, the total hits on my blog since it was originally started has reached 1000!!!  Most of those have been in the past few weeks, so thank YOU for being a part of that, I am super excited to reach that milestone!  I hope to post a lot more in the future, too, time permitting of course...

The last few days have been cool and lots to talk about, but I was thinking today on the time when I was looking for an apartment, I didn't tell you about the other rooms for rent I looked at.  Germans love to smoke, so you have maybe a 50/50 chance of getting a non-smoking roommate(s).  I realized early on that I would have to look at each situation to see if it was good or not so much.  The first place I looked at was pretty far north, but not unreasonably so.  I got off the train and came up to the street.  The neighborhood was not ideal, but I thought I'll give it a shot.  So as I was walking there, there was this REALLY lout noise above me.  It was a very large airplane. Apparently this apartment was on the FINAL approach to the Berlin Tegel airport and planes were literally (by my best guess) about 150 feet up.  Most commercial jets are about that long.  I was just a little taken back by how low they were, you could make out every detail on the plane and I'm sure if you looked hard enough, you could see people's faces in the windows.  Not a deal breaker per se, but concerning.  I met the gentleman and entered a very dark and dirty apartment that absolutely reeked of cigarette smoke.  He said that he was about to start spring cleaning, there was crap stacked up out on the balcony and even spilled into the kitchen area. It was gross.  He also had a cat. The room was very large, it was probably 200 square feet by itself or more and it was furnished.  I basically told the guy I was not interested and he essentially begged me to rent the place.  Ugh.  I told him that I would call him back after I had a chance to think about it.  I actually feel bad because I didn't call him back.  Either way, as I was walking out of the house, I begged God not to have to live there.  LOL and eek.

The second place I looked at was a small one-room apartment (think studio apt).  It was nice, newer, but it would not have had any appliances or furniture and it was way far east of the city.  It took me forever to find the place and was a longer way from the train. It was much cheaper too, but not worth being so far from the city and my friends.  I'm very grateful for my place that God gave me here! :)

Fast forward to yesterday, May 1st!  Maitag in Germany.  We just say May day!!!  So it was a holiday here and so the Singles had an event where we went to the Wannsee in SW Berlin, which partially was the border between the German city state of Berlin and the former East German state of Brandenburg.  It's very beautiful out there, lots of forest and trails and boats out on the water. Wannsee is the largest of the lakes and its connected to several other lakes, so there is a 2-hour cruise around the lakes.  I took a similar boat trip with my friend Thomas back in 1992 and I was excited to see how it looked now.  The houses on the lake back then looked very dreary so I was sure things would be different now and I was not disappointed! There was about 20 of us all together including one married couple that leads the singles and campus groups in the church. They are great by the way, so it was okay they were there!  LOL.  Got a chance to meet and talk to a bunch of new people I hadn't met yet.

On that note, I have to mention here that it has been very surreal how people have reacted to me here.  I think I'm just an average guy that has a great love for this country.  People can't believe that I speak German so well (accent-wise I guess, because I struggle a lot with how to say things, understanding people, etc).  My flatmate is blown away that I'm American and that I have been to East Berlin while the wall was still up in 1986.  I'm kind of blown away that he's blown away about that, but I'm super encouraged that it is a point of commonality between us.  He has told his whole family about me and wants me to meet his brother.  He says I'm not a real American!  I think it's funny.  I think some people in the church are the same way.  Everyone I've spoken to has asked me the *exact* same question: "So how is it that your German is so good?".  I'm still surprised every time I hear it, but I always feel very encouraged, flattered when I'm asked, and I always thank them.  This is going to sound really prideful, but it really isn't, it's super humbling if anything, but I feel like a bit of a celebrity or something.  Everyone seems to know about me in the church.  Its SOOO weird, but I'm not complaining, it's also super humbling and encouraging that there is such acceptance for me!   As an older, overweight crazy American, acceptance wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion!  Thanks, God.  Another answered prayer!!!

I took lots of pics of the cruise and I'll post a few on here.  If you're on facebook, there are even more on there.

Since I am a car guy, I'm always looking around at the cars people drive here.  One thing I have noticed is that the French have very odd looking cars.  Renault and Citroen are the chief offenders, but Fiat also has what I believe to be the ugliest car on the road here. It's the newer Fiat Multipla (the old ones from the 50's were super cool, the new ones are horribly ugly, see below)  Most the cars here are small.  Very rarely do you ever see a large car.  For instance, the Toyota Camry. Nissan Maxima and Honda Accord are the big models of these Japanese automakers.  I have only seen one of these cars in over 3 weeks here, and that was today. I saw my first Camry.  I still have yet to see an Accord or Maxima.  Most cars are about the size of a Civic and most are smaller even than that.   And Smart cars are EVERYWHERE.  I wish I was the guy that designed those, I'd be a zillionaire!  LOL

I have been really struggling with the job search.  There is a lot to do and frankly I feel confused by it all and super overwhelmed.  I tried to do some more today, but started having problems with my laptop.  I hope it's nothing, I've been running virus scans all day, but it was extremely slow today.  Please pray for me not only to have the time, but the motivation to jump on this task, to trust God with it and to be diligent. I figure I have about a month's worth of savings left because everything has been costing so much more than expected.

I also need to get into a regular schedule, which should include a gym membership.  Now that I'm moved in and all comfy now, I need to get to the gym now.  I've already lost probably between 5 and 10 pounds already, I'm down one hole on my belt and my clothes are beginning to feel loose on me!  Yay!  But I need to get more aerobic exercise to hopefully help out with my bad circulation in my legs.  I don't want to wear my circulation stockings in summer because I would have to wear jeans.

I have also been super encouraged that all of my electronics are compatible with the 110 Volt and 220 volt systems!  I'm really glad I brought my video camera, now I can take pics and videos.  I'll have to bust that out soon and post some video!  I could not find on my laptop where it said if it was compatible with both.  Well, I found out that it is actually on the cord going to the outlet.  I looked everywhere for that info!!!  Well, I'm super relieved now!!  :)

Well, I think that's about it for tonight.  Thanks for letting me share my time here with you.  Please pray for me (or send good thoughts and vibes) so that I can find a job soon.  I'm ready to get back to work!  Thanks all!  We're almost to another weekend! Tschüß!!!

In town, saw this -- A building that still has bullet holes in it from World War II

Infamous bridge between East Germany and West Berlin. Espionage and prisoner exchanges apparently common on this bridge.

A little history... and my weekend!

I have been really excited about church lately.  My first Sunday service in Berlin was really cool, one of the best "regular" services I have been to in a while. As I mentioned, Doug Arthur was preaching, which was definitely a treat, but also there was a baptism, too.  But there was something a bit different about the service, let me share with you what it was like.

After the sermon (which was in English -- which kinda ruined me for last week's and this week's services... LOL), the sisters got up with Jessica, a student, and shared about her before they baptized her.  Then came the baptism....  After Jessica got out of the water, what seemed to be the entire campus ministry stood up at the front of the hall and sang along with the rest of the church. There was such a pure sense of joy and of family.  They didn't rush out to get dry or sing a couple verses of a song, no it was a real production almost, full song, people arm-in-arm.  It's hard to describe, but it was so impacting!  It was really amazing!

Today, we had a special service that went from 11am to about 3pm.  There were lessons, sharing about some HOPE projects in town, etc, with about an hour lunch, where we all sat in our bible talk groups and ate our sack lunches we brought with us.  Terry's sermon today was so impactful.  It was on the Bible discussing God's heart for the poor.  There were at least 20 scriptures, Old and New Testaments, and I was just convicted.  One of the first things I wanted to do when I got to Berlin was get involved in volunteering, which I was hoping to do this coming week (frankly I don't think it was a big priority though, mostly because I was going to really hit the job search hard this week).  Anyway, they shared that HOPE runs (?) a retirement home which just so happens to be very close to where I currently live.  I've had the elderly on my heart for a long time, and this was the incentive that I needed to go encourage some older folks, hear their stories and just sit down with them and be their friends.  I really do just love hearing all their stories!!!  I feel bad that I never did that in Spokane....
______________________________________________

I thought here that I would share with everyone who is wondering, why I came to Berlin.  Well, in August of 2011, a good friend and brother in the church told me he had a dream the previous night that I lived in Germany (I was thinking he was talking in the past, I wasn't even considering moving) and I thought, "that's cool, ha ha ha...."  Just as he was saying that, Jermaine (who was leading our church at the time) walked out the door right behind him and looked at me and said excitedly "Did you hear that???".  I said, "Yeah..."  and at that moment something sparked with me.  For a moment I asked myself what just happened there.  I had to decide if this was maybe God speaking through this brother's dream (God did that quite a bit in the Bible actually, especially in the book of Daniel, but many other places as well).  So because all the doors seemed to be closing for me in Spokane, I thought why not at least give it a try...  God can always say no, and he's good at not allowing things to happen if they are not in his plan.  I'm sure you all know what I mean. LOL.

For months afterward, I began getting a lot of advice and praying about it.  I also prayed frequently that if this was NOT God's will, for him to make it very obvious and to stop it.  There were certainly bumps along the way that had to be overcome, but there was never an obvious "no".

About a month and a half before I left Spokane, I was extremely broke.  I had to make a credit card payment on the 15th of the month, and ON the 15th, I was 38 cents short... 38 CENTS!  I did not have change in a jar, I had no change in my cars, and I could not produce anything out of the cushions of my couch.  I was stuck.  I was calling to take out a $5 loan from someone so I could pay it and to have a small buffer if something should go wrong (the month before I made the payment online, and even though I paid the amount showing, I was still $3 short, so I didn't want to chance it).  So I started calling around and nobody was home and nobody answered their phones.  It was so frustrating that I was so close to being able to make the payment.  Finally I got hold of a neighbor a few hours later and was able to get $5 and made the payment on time.  Phew!!!

After that, I began to sell some of my stuff.  First went the '78 Civic, then I had my moving sale, then I sold the '72 Honda N600, then the van.  By now, I actually had some money in the bank.  But I had been pinching pennies to the point of insanity for so long, it occurred to me that I needed to buy my plane ticket. Gasp!!!!  So I did some research, found the cheapest dates to fly and a reliable carrier with reasonable fares.  By reasonable fairs, I mean $1500+ round-trip (they're actually cheaper than a one-way fare.  If you don't believe me, try it out online...).  So, I sat there at my computer and I just froze.  I just sold most everything of value that I own and now I had to make the decision to spend FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS on a plane ticket when I couldn't even afford to buy groceries for months before that.  I had to pray about it and frankly, I had to just trust God.  He had been so incredibly faithful with everything up to that point, I just put my trust in him and bought the tickets. It was so hard to push the "Purchase" button, I've gotta be honest....

So back to service today... As I was in fellowship afterward, I told a sister in the church my story (see above) and I was really surprised at the answer she gave me.  Now, one of the things I have seriously had to consider while doing all of these things over the past months, is where do I draw the line between being "responsible" (which I believe is *extremely* important) and being "faithful".  Think about this for a minute.  None of what I'm doing makes much sense in the American culture... What? Sell all your stuff and move to a foreign country with no housing and no job?  Seems irresponsible, doesn't it?  Well, I agree.  Unless you consider what I believe with all my heart to be open doors and green lights from God...  So the sister told me that someone had the exact same story as me, but wasn't able to find work and had to return to the states.  I felt like someone let the air out of me.  I thought, "well that was discouraging".

I've been thinking this over all day long and at first I was really upset at the sister for not having faith.  (I think I'm still working on that too)  I think you have to be really careful what you say and how you say it to someone that has worked insanely hard, given up everything, and I believe is putting his faith into action... and so forth.  But the more I ponder this, I think it was really just a reminder that as much as I believe God will bless this effort, I still need to be making every effort on my end.  This wasn't an accident this sister said this to me.  I think I just need to take a very sober assessment of what I'm doing every day and not let the old Spokane habits creep back in.  **Please pray for me to be diligent in finding a good job where they are willing to get me a work permit so that I can also get a resident's permit as well.**  If I don't have these within 90 days of arriving in country, I have to leave for at least 90 more days...

Also, I may have to move out of the room I rented two weeks ago.  There was a misunderstanding and now I have to try to make some things right.  There is a possibility that I won't be able to do that and still be above reproach before God and the powers that be.  The situation is that I have been asked to lie about something.  We had a discussion about these things and I was just in shock on Friday.  It was never my intent to deceive anyone about anything, but I've had some time to think it over and be open with some people at church about the situation and if it means I have to move out, then so be it.  It would be so much more convenient to just tell the lie and move on, but it just isn't the right thing to do...  Not to mention the fact that lying could jeopardize my status here. I've agonized a bit over this and have brought it before God, so I'm at peace about it for now, but please pray for me to be courageous when we sit down to discuss this week.  Either way, God is in control. Sounds like they are trying to get some new households set up among the single and campus men in the church, which would be fantastic!
____________________________________

So on to a lighter subject...  LOL   I had a really fun weekend the last couple days. Friday night, Matthias invited me to his friends' house for a game night.  He was very vague as to what we would be playing, but he said to trust him, I will love it.  His friend's wife works at the Mexican Embassy here and he is Canadian.  They were a lot of fun and the game we played was called "Rhetoric".  It's a game where everyone has to give 1-minute speeches about different subjects and every other player rates your speech on a 1-10 scale.  At first I thought it was ridiculous, how do you do a speech every 15 minutes???  Actually, it was a lot of fun.  First of all, some of these guys belonged to "Toastmasters", so they had a LOT more experience at speeches than I do, but I like to talk so I figured that should help, right?  LOL!! At the very end, we each gave our critiques (good and bad) about every other person.  I was told I'm a very good story-teller (not lies, actual stories!) but essentially I came in last because they were judging on Toastmasters standards.  They also said they were impressed that I had no training (whatsoever!) and that I agreed to play the game at all!  LOL  Anyway, a good time was had by all and we headed home about midnight.

Last night, the singles had a pizza-making party.  There was probably 15 people there or so (apartments here are kind of small) so it was a good amount of people.  Anyway, we just baked and ate pizza and sat around and talked.  I spoke with a Slovakian sister who knows two people that were in my bible talk back in 1993 in Seattle.  They both moved to Prague in 1995 to help start the church there, and she knew both, one of them she was roommates with!  SMALL WORLD!!!  (again).  Anyway, I had so much fun talking to people and getting to know them all.  Ooh, I almost forgot. The sister that was hosting the party Skyped her boyfriend who lives in Ghana, where she is from also.  So they were having some technical difficulties, but finally they got them worked out.  Well, her friend, a brother in the church in Accra Ghana, on Skype and in front of a room full of witnesses asked her to "be his special friend".  Which I guess is how they ask someone in Ghana to be their girlfriend.  LOL.  I don't know, but she was super surprised and it was really cool to be there for it. And she said yes....

Well, it's 11pm and I'm starting to fade.  I think I will try to share the lesson from today with you on God's heart for us to serve the poor and needy.  I'll try to do that tomorrow, but hopefully soon either way.  Thanks for taking time to catch up with me.  Please be praying for me with the room situation and to find a job soon!  Best regards!!!

Short and Simple

Hey all!  Not much to report tonight, but I did want to ask a favor.  I'm over here enjoying this really remarkable experience and at times I'm loving it, at times I'm not loving it and other times I'm just not sure how to feel about it...  So, I am asking people that have read at least one blog entry to give me some feedback.  I'm not writing this for entertainment purposes per se, but there's no denying some of the stuff God has been doing in my life (not to mention the stuff that's in my head) can be at times really amusing...  So, if something has touched you or challenged you, or that you think is total heresy, I would really like to hear from you.  You can send me an email or a message on fb (private or public, up to you) or you can comment here on the blog.  I LOVE feedback, or even if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them for you.  That's it. That's all for tonight, it was a pretty uneventful day, so now it's YOUR turn to tell me something... if you're brave enough!  Thanks all!!!

I've said it twice, I'll say it again... It's a small world!

It's the end of a very beautiful day in Berlin.  It was sunny and warm and a great day to meet up with people, enjoy the outdoors and even do a bit of sightseeing in this wonderful city!  But I have to share some really cool stuff that happened today.  They were pretty amazing.

I was going to meet up with a brother from the church here that we've been trying to get some time for a week or so.  I found out where he worked and despite missing the bus, I finally got there about 20 minutes late. Ugh.  Now I looked at a map and got there and was a little stymied.  I came out of the subway to a very large traffic circle.  (It was so big there was a few acre park in the middle of it!!!)  Traffic circles are round of course, so I had no bearings as to which way was north, south, etc., so all of the sudden I had no idea which way to go.  There were like six or eight roads that converged on this monstrosity of a traffic circle.  So I called the brother to come and find me and he did. LOL.  So we went to the university to sit down and get a coffee.  Much to our surprise, there was Christoph from church as well with another brother and one of their friends!  Remember, Berlin has 3.4 million inhabitants, what are the odds you will bump into someone you know? Extremely slim!!! It was cool, because I've been trying to get time with Christoph as well.  He leads the singles and campus ministries and he's just a busy guy!

So I got a chance to hang out with the other bro for a while and just chatted.  He and I both speak English, German and Spanish, so we ended up talking, at least a bit, in each.  Christoph was still hanging around and so when the other bro had to go back to work, I got a chance to hang out with him for a while.  We had a good conversation and he told me that's he's really amazed how good my German is.  It's totally a gift that God has allowed me to keep for the last 20 years.  There's no reason I should be able to speak this well after so long!!!  Either way, it never gets old getting compliments on my German!  Eventually, he had to go, so we walked to the subway and he left and I grabbed a bite to eat before heading off to see some sights before I met up with some other singles for dinner.

I decided that I wanted to check out this place called Potsdamer Platz.  Now, this area was a very beloved place before World War II.  There were grand hotels and generally a place people met and shopped and ate and hung out.  During the war, it was significantly damaged and because of its location at the convergence of the American, British and Russian Sectors, the wall ended up going right through the middle of the square. It was no longer the center of Berlin life, but rather on the fringes and most of the square was in "No Man's Land", land that lie between two walls, one on the west, one on the east.

After the wall came down in 1989 and the area was mined and made safe for people to use, and since the government wanted to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin, this was prime real estate!  It's only a few blocks from the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (parliament).  So they have built some very large skyscrapers (which is not very common in Germany) and have made the square into quite a tourist attraction.  On one end of the square is a long piece of land (formerly "No Man's Land") and all the way through it, they erected piping about 10-15 feet above the square to show where the wall once meandered through the area.  It took me a while to figure it out, because at first I thought "Why would anyone put a pipeline through this area"?  Duh... Anyway, I'll include some photos below.

Earlier I mentioned that I bumped into someone I knew from church, right?  Well as I was leaving the square, I saw ANOTHER person from church!!!!  What are the odds?????  Apparently he works at a coffee shop on the square, but I think I scared him a little cuz I kinda grabbed him by the arm as he was walking by.  Oops.  We chatted for just a minute.  I better apologize on facebook.

Anyway, my last stop was going to be Checkpoint Charlie.  As has become exceedingly apparent to me, it seems at least, that very little of what I experienced on my first visit to Germany as a teenager looks ANYTHING like it did back then.  Even for the places I visited in '92, it's still completely different. Oh well, at least they try to keep little bits and pieces of that time alive for all to enjoy.  The world doesn't stop in time just for me.  And frankly the Germans may want it that way too, so it's cool I guess.  In any case, the history of this city is one of the richest and most interesting of any city I know.  I love digging into the past and see why things are the way they are now. 

After I left Charlie, I needed to go and meet some singles for dinner.  Katja is so awesome, she wanted to encourage me because I shared with her a few days ago that I've been having a hard time finding a schnitzel. Amazing to say, but it's true.  Apparently Berliners aren't as keen on schnitzel, as say, EVERY OTHER GERMAN!!!!  LOL.  It just seems odd to me, no judgment here, but come on people, this is Germany and I want a schnitzel!!!!  So we went to a steakhouse and felt a bit obligated to get one, they did have them there.  I ordered an XXL because one I saw a few days ago wasn't very big.  Well this one was stinkin' HUGE. It was like a square foot!  I'm pretty sure I didn't get through even half of it, so I brought the rest home with me.  I ate the fries because I knew they wouldn't reheat well, but it was pretty decent.  Now I just need a beer with it when I reheat it and I'll be a happy  (-ier) camper!!

Some final thoughts from today... As I was talking with this one brother today, I was sharing how I was struggling with knowing where the line is between being "responsible" and enjoying my new hometown. He asked me why I felt so guilty.  I thought about it for a minute and realized that it wasn't guilt, per se, but just a lack having something to do.  Now, this theory is full of trap doors, so I want to be very cautious here.  I've come to this conclusion. I absolutely do need to find a job relatively soon.  This must become a priority for me as I cannot live on what I came over with for very long, not to mention that I only have 90 days before the German government kicks me out of the country.  Now, as I mentioned, people have been very encouraging about my ability to *speak* German, which is always great to hear!  But I'm still trying to get my feet under me with *understanding* people.  I'm definitely improving, but still have a little way to go yet before I will really feel comfortable enough to do a bunch of interviews, etc.  Either way, I am starting this week to look for work in earnest and have one lead at this time which I will be pursuing tomorrow (it's 11pm now), but I think it's okay for me to enjoy some time to explore this city, talk to people and continue to build relationships.  I've been so enslaved to work, remodel, selling stuff and everything for so long, that I do think I can look for jobs AND try to enjoy my new surroundings, too.  I really enjoy working and am looking forward to finding a job and starting it, but I want to not be so stressed out by my situation that I'm not enjoying my situation too.  I believe there is a delicate balance there.

Anyway, that's it from Berlin for now.  I'll add some photos, thanks for looking in on me.  Much love to everyone.  Skyping with Don Cypher yesterday (I consider Don one of my very best friends) reminded me how much I really miss everyone, how much I love you all and wish you were all closer.  I'm doing fine, and better every day, but my life is very different without all of you near.  Talk to you soon.

"No Man's Land", the area between the walls (see piping on left?)

I remember these old signs!

You can't take me ANYWHERE!

Happy Monday evening from Berlin!  So glad you joined me for another episode of As The World Turns.... er... I mean, What's up with Tim...  LOL

I've been feeling a little bit guilty lately because, in my mind, I haven't been working hard enough.  All I do is walk 3-5 miles a day around Berlin to get stuff done, meet people, sit and have a beer or a bratwurst somewhere.  I feel like I need to work harder (I'm starting to sound German!!!).  In any case, I decided last night I had to bite the bullet and try to be at the "authorities" at or around 7am this morning when they opened.  I found out their hours on Friday because I spent an hour and a half trying to find the stupid place, only to realize they were closed on Fridays.  Only me, I tell ya.... LOL.  The walk from the subway station is about 10 minutes or a little more and it's not a very interesting walk...  Anyway I decided to be a good boy this morning and I was ready to catch the bus about 6:30am.  I got to my destination about  7:20 or so after my long boring walk and found the place I needed to go.  I waited in line to get a number and finally got to the counter.  The lady informs me that I need to register with the city of Berlin.  I'm sure she saw the life go out of my face.... So she gives me some paperwork and says (at least I understood her to say) to come back after I got registered.  She tells me about where it's at, but doesn't have a lot of specifics...

So I'm pretty frustrated at this point.  I'm tired of making the walk from the subway to this place and I just want to register with someone!!!  So I went out to the nearest main road to find a bus.  I asked a lady if the bus goes by the city hall, she said yes.  So I get on the bus and after a few minutes, I ask the driver when we will be passing city hall.  (We were at a stoplight)  He said it was in the other direction.  Now I'm really ticked...  So I exit the bus and have a pity party on the side of the road, vent some frustration for a few minutes and decide to cross the street and get on a bus going in the right direction.  I finally found the place, but so had a hundred plus other people... So I went to get my "number"... 131.  They were just helping #30... Hm, this might be a while.  Just then, a man walked up to me and said, "Do you want my number?" I looked at the little "78" on it and said, "Sure, thank you!!!"  That kinda made up for the rotten morning I had been having so far.  The wait was about an hour and I got registered with the city.  The lady was really nice and reassured me at the end that I'm now a "Berliner".  I couldn't help thinking about JFK's famous speech where he said, in German, "Ich bin ein Berliner", which translated means "I'm a jelly-filled donut".  LOL  As a person, you would say "Ich bin Berliner", you leave the "ein" out... Anyway, I had a good laugh about that...

So I am trying to decide how to get back to that first place without having to walk a mile and of course, I make yet another bad decision. I decide to take the rail system instead of the bus. The bus drops you off much closer than the train.  Yeah, mark another one up for me and the feet!  So I walked that really boring 10 minute walk again, go to the same lady I spoke with earlier and she tells me I didn't need to come back at all, but when I get a job, I will need to return to give her some paperwork.  Really?  Now I have to take that 10 minute walk back to the subway station AGAIN!!! 3 times today!!!  So, I took the walk again, and had to run into the city center to do some more errands before I made my way out to the far southeast corner of Berlin to go to the unemployment office.  It's about a 10-minute walk from the train station and by this time, I'm starting to get really tired, but I wanted to get this stuff done today, so I just sucked it up like a good little soldier and went. I got all checked in there, and as I was waiting for the lady to call me, I noticed on their wall that there was a job fair today for Berlin hotels.  It started in 10 minutes and of course, it was only one subway stop from where I had been all morning.  Wouldn't you know it.

So I wrapped up my business there and decided I had better head home to shower and get changed.  I was really exhausted by the time I got home, so I checked facebook and dinked around for a bit, then figured I had better get going because it started at 2pm and ended at 6 and it was 3:30 by the time I started to get ready.  I had to print off some resumes (which unfortunately I didn't need), walked the wrong way to catch the bus (on my own street), missed that bus.  Decided I should get something to eat cuz I hadn't eaten since 10am, then I nearly choked to death on a hazelnut.  No kidding, it was kind of bad.  I'm trying not to miss my bus again, so I ran across the street to buy a bottle of anything to drink so I would stop hocking up a lung and by this time, my eyes were watering and I could barely keep it together.  Thank goodness for the juice, I thought I was going to die....  I didn't miss my bus, but I did miss the first train after I got off the bus and then the second train when I had to change subway lines.  At least they were only a few minutes apart that time of the day!

I finally got to the job fair a little after 5pm.  Most of the hotels were looking for students or people to work in the kitchens or wait staff, etc.  Most of the other jobs you have to have a hotel-related degree for...  But I did get one lead, reservationist for a hotel chain based in Berlin with hotels all across Europe.  Sounds promising, I had a good conversation with a young guy there.  I think I'll apply for that job and see what happens. I hit all but a few of the booths and just sort of ran out of gumption.  I left and sat down by the subway station, enjoying the late afternoon sun and a croissant, made some calls and just generally chilled for about 20 minutes. I finally made it home and I'm super exhausted.  Who knows how many miles I walked today, but it was quite a few.  I really pushed myself and I can tell my stamina is improving.  In two weeks of being here, I'm pretty sure I've walked more than 40 miles, maybe even as much as 50....  Crazy, huh?  Well, I'm certainly getting to know my new home and for now, I need to put my feet up.  LOL!  Until the next time...

My first week back....

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!

Deep Stuff

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I would love to regale all of you with wonderful stories of places I've seen and wondrous memories rekindled, but today I just want to get some stuff off my chest of a bit more personal nature.  Let me start off by saying that every day I wake up here and get out and see Germany, it still amazes me.  Today I did go to an Imbissstube (yes, there are 3 s's in that word), and I got to eat a bratwurst, fries and a coke... for old time's sake.  Anyone who has ever had this combo, knows how special it is.  Okay, so I lied, there was one great memory I got to relive today.  It was amazing...

So, now that I'm kind of planted in my new place, getting things all set up and trying to find my place here in Berlin, I have come to some realizations.  This place kind of freaks me out a little.  Not Berlin, not Germany per se, just sort of my situation.  I wouldn't trade it for the world, but I'm realizing that my new home is not Spokane. Or Seattle.  I don't live in my house any more.  I don't own a car and I'm not here on vacation.  Honestly I don't think I ever looked upon this adventure as a "holiday" but there are aspects of being here that feel that way.

I guess what it really boils down to is that for the past two years of my life, I have worked VERY VERY hard.  I have nearly completely rebuilt an entire room in my house, mostly by myself (and with some amazing servants: Ryan Gauthier, Mark McCune and Mike Scally and others!!) but for the first time in a long time, I have very little to do.  Now I have begun in earnest to look for a job, but most of the heavy lifting, cleaning, projects and insanity has ended.  As a result, I am very physically tired (which is understandable for an obese 43 year old that has done what I have over the past however many months), so I guess today I felt kind of guilty for more-or-less taking the day off.  I slept 9 hours last night, 8 the night before and 10 the night before that. Over the past few months it's been consistently 5 to 6.5 hours per night.  I'm pretty sure that is my body and mind working together, realizing that I'm not in survival mode any more and that it's okay to get some shut-eye.  But I guess I still feel kind of guilty.

So the other thing I have been experiencing is that I speak German better than I understand.  For the last week (I've been here 8 days already!) I'm realizing I'm totally out of my element, struggling to understand not only WHAT people are saying, but trying to figure out simply how things work here.  It's pretty intense honestly. In Spokane, I knew how things worked so I was in control.  Here, I constantly misunderstand people, do the wrong things and make a fool of myself, which makes me feel self-conscious.  And for the first time in a very long time, I really feel weak and Satan has even tried telling me I'm stupid or ignorant or something.  Now, I'm not listening to him, but I have to admit, it is V-E-R-Y humbling being here under these circumstances.  It's only been a week, and I know it will get better, but it's been stressful!

At the same time, my physical body is severely out of shape.  As I have mentioned before on facebook, I have been doing a ton of walking.  This is a good thing, because one of my goals by moving here was to lose some weight. I can already tell my body is changing, but this is going to be a long-term project that took me 15 years to create.  I know it's not going to go away overnight.  That said, after a long day of walking around this enormous city, my feet hurt and my back hurts and I am very tired.   Ah, the wonders of aging!  LOL  Also, my room is on the 3rd floor of my building in an "Altbau" or an older style building with 10+ foot ceilings.  When I first came here last Saturday I could barely make it up to the door.  I was completely winded though, but I made it.  Today I could tell my legs were hurting a bit, but I'm not so winded any more.  Progress is good. Getting up in the mornings has been difficult, too, but I know that for a bit I'll have to deal with my body not wanting to do all this, but I know in a couple months I will see significant progress...

But here's the cool thing:  When I started this blog over 3 years ago, my goal was to reinvent myself.  I thought I was just talking about my body.  God wanted me to work on the inside first, and then the outside. Work on the heart, the way I think, the way I act....  It's actually a very biblical concept.  In Matthew 23, Jesus is rebuking the religious leaders because on the outside they looked good, but on the inside, they were not good.  Here's what he said to them:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  Mat. 23:25-26

Now that was a bit of a scathing rebuke, but the general concept still applies to me.  If my heart is not in the right place, no matter what I do to the outside, I will still not be in a good place.  Once I'm in a good place in my mind and in my heart, my chances are better that I won't go back to the place I was (am now) before.

I have to be honest, there are moments when I feel a bit overwhelmed and intimidated here.  I know that won't last forever, but in the meantime, please pray for me to submit to God, to trust him, to listen to what he says and then do it, to pray more fervently than ever before and to read my Bible like it's all I got. By leaving Spokane, I have left the distractions that kept me from really enjoying my relationship with God, I have rented the house that I have lived in for 9 years, sold my cars and gave away my dog.  These were all the things that I took comfort in and had control over.  By releasing that control and trusting in God, my hope was that I really could be a better Christian and to find out why it is that he called me here to Berlin.  My tendency is to look at the negative and to wallow in self pity.  Well, as much as today has been a "day off" or a day to take stock in my own mind, I believe it has still been a successful day.  Because I didn't give in to the negativity or listen to Satan's lies.  I slept in, laid around a bit, but for my situation, I don't think God is going to be mad at me for it. So there you have it, I have had a mind change that is going to continue to carry me through this.  And I think for this evening I will get some cash and treat myself to a beer at the local watering hole and get to know the neighbors.  And I won't have to worry about driving home.  Now how's that for reinventing myself!

 Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts and for checking in on me again!  I will continue to keep you posted.