The traveling times

So... I thought I enjoyed traveling a lot more than I actually do...or a lot more than I actually did, I think. I discovered this this past weekend when I was hanging out with a friend and attempting to show her pictures and tell her about my trip. I don't (yet) look back on this summer as a an experience that I would want to repeat, but didn't realize it until I attempted to share pictures and stories (something ) thought I really wanted to do with friends). Part of the reason for this difficulty might just be that this summer was actually a really painful experience for many reasons (spiritual, emotional, etc.); it could also just be the nature of this summer's trip: by myself for most of it, and a lot of God digging around and poking and surgerizing me. I could also not like traveling as much as I thought I did because I'm not running anymore; I missed my church and friends here TERRIBLY. Apparently, there's still a lot to process about last summer...

Elephants for show, donkeys for pet, and rivers for jump-in: my last day in Die Schweiz

Matthias left for his weekend hiking trip around 9 this morning, leaving me with Anita and the two beautiful boys to have the day for ourselves. Anita is such a sweet, patient, gentle woman and wonderful host - we did LOTS of stuff today! We began the day by watching elephants march through the streets of Bern. That's right; the oldest circus in Switzerland was in town today (once every year!) so we got to see these incredible, majestic, prehistoric creatures do several tricks right in the middle of the city. There was a huge crowd, but I managed to get a few good pictures, all the while being completely amazed at such giant, yet such gentle-looking, calm animals. The Lord is certainly creative!
After this, we took the "Gurtenbahn" (bahn = train in German, Gurten = the name of the mountain you can see from the Stu(e)rmer's balcony) and spent about 3 hours on top of this lovely mountain where they had a Tahj-Mahal-esque restaurant (where Matthias and Anita had their wedding dinner five years ago!), a tiny train for riding around a kid's play area, with a little stream, a BEAUTIFUL network of short hiking trails (no, I have not gotten enough scenery in Die Schweiz!), and a tower you could climb up in about 45 seconds (even with a 3 year old) to see even more wonderous scenes of the Swiss countryside. Anita even packed a picnic lunch for all of us to enjoy on the mountain!
My favorite part of the whole day, though, was the River Aare. We were on our way from fun in the sun on the Gurten to the petting zoo permanently stationed by the River Aare - this is a really well-run zoo, the animals have HUGE cages and the ones that the kids can pet have ladders going into them so the kids (like Lionel) can actually go into the cages of the animals - the goats, donkeys, horses, etc. As we were walking from the bus to the petting zoo, Anita was explaining to me about how people very often swim in this beautiful, clean river - and they jump from a bridge! Well, I just HAD to try this, seeing as it's not a very common thing, I don't think, and it's one thing everyone does in Bern. The current is fast, the water is cold, I wear glasses (and can't see without them) and...I didn't have my swimsuit. So, I got used to the water a bit on the shore, then, took off my glasses and my pants (I left my shirt on, my underwear covers more of me than some girls' suits I saw, and looks like it could be a swimsuit), and then, jumped from that bridge about 15 feet up in the chilling river with my glasses in my hand so I could put them on to see the shore. The current was fast and strong; to get out, you had to stay to the left bank and try to grab onto a red railing and pull yourself out - HARD. Anita did have a towel from the picnic, so I got out of the water, took off my soaking wet shirt (and put on my zip-up fleece) and wrapped a towel around me. If I did the Celsius-to-Fahrenheit coversion correctly, it was about 90 degrees, so everything dried really fast.
After the petting zoo, Anita took us to the new West Side shopping mall, built in a poorer area of town to "fix it up" a bit. We had dinner at the cafe there, and I got to help take care of Kai, I played with him, fed him a bit and let him climb around. (In the process I lost one of my favorite earrings...hopefully I can find some like it some time...). I then went to a German bookstore and tried to figure out what was going on there. I learned some more words: literatur = literature, herz = heart, and gedichte=poetry.
It was a lovely day - I am SO blessed to have stayed with such a lovely, wonderful family. This is the first time on this trip that I haven't felt like I "just wanted to go home" and the first time that I've felt that I didn't want to leave. Switzerland has really done me some good, the Stu(e)rmer's have, too. They are incredibly, inspiring people who really show me the face of God (which is REALLY needed right now in case you are wondering how to pray for me).
Oh, that and safe travels. Tomorrow I leave with my 15-pounds-over-the-limit suitcase (no, it's not because I've bought so much stuff here, it's because I've BROUGHT too much stuff here!) to Scotland for the last part of my trip: Edinburgh for a week, and then hopping a train to meet my SPU crew in Oban! I can't believe I've only got two and a half weeks left before the craziness of summer school, finding a house, work, school and church all on-slought.

House Christ

First of all, happy birthday to my "dad"/pastor. I hope God just wrecks him with blessing today.

Today I went with a very sweet, very lovely girl named Sara (who is leaving this week to move to a town near Zürich to work with people struggling with addiction) to do some service with a team from Vineyard Bern. She was on a bike and so Matthias let me borrow his and we rode a good half hour to a warehouse the Vineyard Bern rents for their ministry to newcomers and foreigners to the country. (I can't WAIT until I can afford a bike/gear to start commuting this way - I LOVED this ride despite the incorrect size of the bike making my back/bum sore). The team from Vineyard Bern serves foreigners by providing breakfast, offering bags of groceries, donated clothes and shoes and teaching German classes every Tuesday morning. I served coffee for two hours and learned a bit of German, too. The words for coffee (cafe), tea (tee) and sugar (Zucker) are similar, and the stuff I couldn't understand I communicated by charades. It is a wonderful stretch in thinking for someone (such as myself) so strongly gifted in verbal communication to learn how to "talk" non-verbally. I'm also feeling rising in me a desire to learn more languages, seeing as it's not as hard as I thought it would be pick up SOME German. For example, the sign on the left basically embodies what we did today; I THINK, since I now know that "Liebe Gott" is "Love God", this would be the Greatest Command in High German: it looks (to me) like this sign says: Love God from your heart, with all your thoughts and with all your virtues (so mind and soul), and serve your next ones like yourself (love your neighbor as yourself, though the "next ones" is a really interesting way to think about "neighbor" - like, those that have yet to come on the earth are our neighbors too. And THAT is, if you can't find a better reason, a sobering reason to care about the planet). Pretty good, ja?
The fellowship was amazing, too. After the clothes were picked (Sara noticed that I was looking at one particular item and she gave it to me!), the breakfast was eaten (lots of sweets and cakes and Zucker!), the groceries were distributed and the German was learned, the Vineyard Bern crew had lunch (spaghetti with a really good bean/corn sauce). I met the lady who made it: Suzanna. She has two adorable little boys about the age of the Stürmer boys; her husband is not a believer and to hear her talk about how much peace she has about the whole thing really inspired me to trust God more. Another older lady (60's, maybe), Monica, actually divorced her husband for that reason (I don't know the whole story). They were so kind as to have their conversation in English so I could participate. At one point, Monica (pronounced Mo (like "no") EE - KAH) was attempting to talk about home groups and she asked, "Do you have House Christ in Seattle?" Suzanna and I burst out laughing - I thought she meant something like do we have Jesus visitations or something. Suzanna says, "Ah, nothing like a German word with an English translation, eh?" (The German word for "homegroup" is "hausekreiste" or something like that). Anyway, it was awesome. I'm learning just how well one has to know the English language to understand what others who do not speak it so well are trying to communicate...I'm learning that even I don't speak English as well as you'd think someone from America would! (Gosh I really want to learn other languages...especially (I can't believe I'm saying this because I'd not ever had the desire before) Hebrew). And, I want to be involved in service more. Not because that's "the good Christian thing to do" but because I just loved being there, attempting to communicate, and really feeling the Spirit of God move among these people.
After we finished lunch and cleaned up, Sara offered to take me to the Vineyard Bern offices so I might help out there, if they needed any help (that wouldn't require speaking or reading or writing). We got there, and I realized that the way Sara, Matthias and others have been introducing me makes me a representative of my church: "This Megan from Vineyard Seattle." No pressure! Anyway, I was put to the task of putting together 60 welcome packets and shortly after beginning this, met a woman whose first language is German but moved to England young enough to speak English with a British accent. We had a very interesting conversation about traveling since she's lived/traveled all over the world and speaks at least 6 languages. Something very healing about this conversation was that during it, I realized the necessity of travel in an ever-globalizing world. Here I thought I was "wasting my time and resources" doing something "just for me", but traveling really increases one's understanding and compassion for the world in ways that, as Christ followers, is absolutely essential to the heart of love. I finally released myself from the burden of guilt of "what if this selfish trip wasn't God's will for my life and I could have spent these two months and money "helping others" somehow." I think...just maybe...that is exactly what I'm doing...
A few other things solidified for me while helping out as best I could behind the language barrier today, so all in all, I think Christ really is becoming my house, and I'm starting to believe (though I still don't understand such an extraordinary claim) that I am a house for Christ as well.

(Now, I am going to go watch a movie in German - it was either that or watch a really bad movie in English!)

One Flew Over and Out her Nest

(Written at the Philadelphia International Airport 6:30 pm 6/21/09)

On my flight across the country from the Green Like Whoa City to the City That Needs Brotherly Love yesterday, the entire flight crew was male. I hope I don’t sound sexist, but a place called progress inside me suddenly made more room. Not that it’s here nor there, but the enjoy-your-flight felt different. I noticed. And, I contemplated the life of a steward (on an airplane) for the 10 wonderful minutes I stood in line waiting for the lavatory.

At the Philadelphia Airport, I used my last US coins – after, of course, trying the Euro-dollars I have about 4 times (they look like US quarters!) – to call my dad and my “dad.” Despite the slightly misleading blue sticker that says “$1.00 for 5 long distance minutes” (as in, once your call starts, it takes your $1 even if you don’t use all 5 of those minutes), I enjoyed the brief conversation with my dad in Colorado. I left a message on my “dad’s” cell phone in Seattle.

I was also reminded of why I am slowly but surely withdrawing my participation in US culture…about 150 times in two hours. A digitized-tired woman’s voice perpetuated the all-the-best-for-me-all-the-time mentality every 6.2 minutes so as not to miss one set of ears: “Here at Philadelphia International Airport, you’ll find entertainment to make the wait for your flight fly by. With over 160 award-wining shops and restaurants, we’ve got something for everyone.” Actually, that would be false advertising again, since the only thing Philly IA has for me is a woman’s restroom (it is REALLY hard to eat anything even remotely healthy at airports…).

Per the flight over here (to Philly), I realized that, though this runs counter to my accumulation of stuff complex, one of those neck pillows really does make sudden tiredness on airplanes less embarrassing. So, on my hunt to subdue my addiction (the internet), I found, apparently, the last purple neck pillow at this place. Didn’t find the internet, though (so this is posted after the fact).

Before the internet quest, I talked with a girl who leaned over to me in the waiting area and asked if I was British. I think she wanted to make fun of how Americans said “Birmingham” or something, and I have to admit, I agree: we got screwed out of the cool accents. Of course, across the pond, I’ll be the one with the accent. Hee.

I’ve been to Pennsylvania three times, and the staggering humidity never ceases to smother me. I was in PA (that’s what the natives call it and I dated a PA native, apparently, long enough for the reference stick) around this time last year, and there is still just too much air down here. Living in Colorado has probably ruined me for life.

On a completely separate note, the friend-to-whom-I-attribute-my-conversion left her wedding ring in a bathroom somewhere after only a few months of wearing it. At the time she told me (about three years ago), I simply couldn’t understand that. I’d wanted a wedding ring real, real bad for my entire life and hers drives her crazy enough that she took it off every chance she got? But now…well, let’s just say I know what she means.

Blast-off

I leave my country in 4 hours on a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants adventure home.

Today, I think for reminders' sake, I was aware of "home" feelings for Seattle - ironically the first time I have felt such since moving here almost three years ago. The past week has been a spinny-crazy vortex of packing (some stuff had remained in boxes since the move to Washington State), the ridding of stuff I don't think I'd ever wanted at Good Will, pulling up roots I'd spent two and a half years laying (and admitting that the staggering blessing of Christy and Carrie is now, officially, over) and setting up a potential baby Christmas for myself back in September when, in my new place (yet to be found), I will unpack all the things that made the cut for "keep."

I had all my meals in my freshly packed, sterile-white, made-to-look-like-new-for-my-replacement room. Various friends and I spread newspaper on the don't-soil carpet, and ate tofu curry, or deli sprout/hummus English muffin sandwiches, or mixed-green salads with blueberries and Balsamic. I unloaded the rest of my food on a friend as a rather skimpy-sized thank you for all he made possible for me today.

I got my hair trimmed. He cleaned my room. My landlord came over for an inspection/discussion of the last-original-roommate-to-move-out caliber. My back tightened in unexpressable emotion. My friend prayed. I realized I'd packed my orthotics in a friend's storage unit. He rode his bike down to go get them. I dropped off my cat with another friend. He prayed some more. I divided up the important books/notebooks between carry on and suitcase. He ran to Safeway to make copies of all important documents. I laid on my bed and started to shake. He rubbed my back out, prayed and washed a vat of raspberries.
He's coming over in about 3 hours to move one last piece of furniture and take on the rest of my "random" stuff that I'd either forgotten to pack (for example, I forgot completely to bring my cat's prescription food to the house where he will be vacationing until September) or need to donate. He will give stuff to its respective people and then, while I'm gone, will take care of the few loose ends I have left here. I am so blessed.

Aside from the backache, I am numb to the adventure, but I'm sure when I'm sitting in the Philidelphia airport at 5pm tonight with no phone, about to board the plane for my second trip to Europe - the first to Ireland and the first by myself, I'll feel it. I'll have the last-minute freak out/I don't want to go because it doesn't feel safe feelings trying to strong-arm me out of having the time, probably, of my life. I'll think of all the people I miss here, all those reading this (I'll admit, I'll probably be tempted from time to time to censor myself, but the whole point of this summer is to discover the self God made in me, so I'll resist). What I won't be able to resist, though, is falling in love all over again with Europe.

All fears to my behind, I'm hyped to the power of rad. And, I leave for my summer adventure in less than three hours. Hopefully, I'll know more why I'm going when I'm there. That is also what 16 hours plane rides are for.

More from the other side!