Out of the Wilderness

40 days and 40 nights! It's hard to believe we've been here for that long. Here's a picture from a nice sunset, taken last Sunday in the hills.

Today was another glorious Sunday. It was sunny and beautiful on our walk to church, so warm that I almost didn't bring my leather jacket. It was, unfortunately, gray and cold on the walk home; I almost wished I had brought my wool coat. Jena weather is much like South Bend weather in this way, which is to say wildly--really just irrationally--unpredictable.

Our church moved from a single service to two morning services this week, one at 9:30 (as usual) and another at 11:30. We went to the 9:30 one, and as a result saw very few of the students that we usually see at church :) We did see several of our friends, though, and we met quite a few new people. I have to tell you this, given Michael's post yesterday about how terrible his German is: One of the men we spoke with this morning was visibly surprised to learn that Michael was American. He said that Michael's German was perfect. It has been said that Michael is a perfectionist. I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself.

I, on the other hand, announced to a woman (and indeed the entire room) that we were joining a House Battle this Friday. There I was, happily (though haltingly) chatting away in German, when the room got silent, and everyone burst out laughing. Right, I said. Not a House Battle, a House Circle. ("Haus Kreis", not a "Haus Krieg.") They really couldn't stop laughing for quite some time.

Still, this wonderful woman went on to invite us out to lunch with her and her daughter at a restaurant in town. (It's called EinStein's--a play on Einstein's name, which means literally A Stein.) Our friend Laura, who was talking to her daughter at the time, came as well. It was fantastic. We spent the whole time speaking German, which was difficult of course but very good for me. I'm sure I sound like a child, but at least I didn't make any more calls to battle.

What's more, our new friend (whose name I won't even try to spell) asked us about our Thanksgiving plans. We told her that we had no plans, so she got very excited. "I have an idea!" she said. "We love Thanksgiving! And I have an oven..." So she has an oven, but doesn't really know how to cook Thanksgiving dinner. I love to cook Thanksgiving dinner, but have no oven.
See the plan? We are all very excited. I will teach them how to cook a Turkey, and they will (and have already tried to) teach me to say "turkey" auf Deutsch. They even made sure that stuffing would be included. It should be a great way to celebrate without feeling homesick (or buying an oven.)

I'll end, as I sometimes do, on a totally unrelated note. I'm afraid we've made gluttons out of the birds. As Michael said this morning "It's amazing how quickly those birds went from thinking that the feeder was a trap to shamelessly wiling away the day eating." Sometimes, when they're being agreeable, there will be as many as four birds at a time on the feeder. They ate the entire contents--500 grams of sunflower seeds--in 2 days. Today, the tits were hanging on the bottom trying to pick the remnants through the floor of the feeder. Two days ago, Michael watched a flock of Greenfinches feast. Two were on the feeder, with 5 or 6 on the ground below. The ones on the feeder were either eating very sloppily, or deliberately throwing food down to the rest. Fortunately for everyone involved, we finally found some actual birdseed. We were going to go broke feeding these birds shelled sunflower seeds!