January High and Lows 2016

We're off and running with the New Year! The first month is over, and it was a good one. I've been busier than I have been in a while, and very happy. I hope it's been a good month for you as well!

HIGHS

• starting a new job teaching German (A1 Level) to refugees living in our area. I was in München for three days last week, and I'm eager to get back to the classroom on Monday!


• M taking me shopping "for horse stuff" at a big saddle shop in Heimsheim. That was one of his Christmas presents to me, and he promised to be patient. :-)  He was great!


• a few days later M came with me to my riding lesson and took pictures! 

• at the lesson above, I rode a new horse, Fee ("Fay"). She looks gorgeous but moves more strangely than any horse I've ever been on - as if all her joints are loose. Sadly she's gone again because she wouldn't have worked well for a lesson horse. I was flattered that the instructor was confident enough in my riding ability to put me on a horse they were unsure of.


• my Sprachpartnerin visited my class for part of an afternoon and enjoyed the experience. She was impressed with my fabulous students and they welcomed her warmly. She wants to come back next week!


• three days in München with my Schwiegermutter! The purpose of the trip was to renew my passport, but we'd decided to stay two nights and do some sight-seeing. I know München well, and it's one of the few big cities I like. Like with Rome and Vienna, even when we walked about at night, I never felt unsafe. I would never want to be out at night in Milwaukee, Chicago, or any other American big city.
  
  We stayed in an AirBnB flat for the first time, and it worked out well. We got the 3-day public transportation pass and navigated the system easily. She and my daughter are the perfect travel partners for me - we love to visit churches, museums, and historical buildings, we can walk all day with a stop now and then for a coffee, and after dinner we're done! No need for night life - just go to bed early, read a little, and be fit for the next day's adventures!
  
  

  

  Englischer Garten in January, München



• coming home to a sweet email from one of my students saying the class is looking forward to my return on Monday!

LOWS

• having to stand on the street outside the U.S. consulate in München 100 feet or so away from the entrance until they decided it was time to let me in for the security check. Luckily the weather was fine and I had a book, because I waited out there for 10 minutes - that would have been nasty had it been pouring down with rain, windy and stormy, or very cold. 


• the news

Let me leave you with a poem/prayer I plan to do with my students this week.

Gebet für die Weltkirche

Segne uns alle, allmächtiger Gott.

Wir brauchen Deinen Segen,

   denn wir sind so verschieden

   im Glauben, in der Farbe, in der Sprache.

Es ist manchmal so schwer,

   jeden so anzunehmen, wie er ist.

Wir tun uns so schwer, die Art zu verstehen,

   wie der andere lebt, wie er reagiert, was er ist.

Gib uns Mut, aufeinander zuzugehen.

Bewahre uns vor dem Fehler,

   die Menschen in Gruppen einzuteilen.

Wir sind ja alle Deine Kinder,

   Brüder und Schwestern,

   eine Großfamilie

   und wollen es auch bleiben.

Prayer for the Church of the World

Bless us all, all-powerful God.

We need your blessing,

   because we are so different

   in faith, in color, in language.

It is so difficult sometimes

   to accept someone as he is.

We try so hard to understand the way

   in which others live, how they react, what they are.

Give us courage to come together.

Protect us from the mistake

   of dividing people into groups.

We are all Your children,

   brothers and sisters,

   a large family

   and wish to remain thus.