New Favorite Word

I just wanted to let you know that I have a new favorite word...

der Ellenbogen

...that's elbow in German!!

Mein Kleiner Grüner Kaktus

This was my second favorite song of the night. (Unfortunately, I did not record the one that turned out to be my favorite. I make this promise though... if I can record it, I will!!) Back to the Kaktus. As some of you may have guessed, the title of the song is "My little, green cactus." This one is just plain fun!!

(Click continue reading to see the video)

Can-can

The second video from my "collection" is the Can-can... this was very fun, though on the recording, when there is clapping, you cannot hear the music as well. But, really, you know the song!! Just play along in your head!

(Click continue reading to see the video)

Funiculì, Funiculà

At the end of my parents's visit, we went to see my boss's mens choir perform. This was a true German experience. Great food was served, everything except a guest act was in German and we were there until after midnight!!

These guys work very hard to prepare for this. They practice every Friday night and sing throughout the year at various venues.

(Click continue reading to see the video)

Travels

In my last post, I mentioned I have some travelling coming up. Alas, it is true... My first trip comes in mid-April. I will be in Bangkok, Thailand for 8 days for MinistryNet: Bangkok 2007 followed by Global Technology Leadership (GTL) meetings. Three days after I return, I will be heading to Spain for a leadership forum.

Frost - Pleasure in each day

"Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year."

~ Robert Frost

March 2007

Praying for Berlin, beginning our work , and Learning German

To view letter in PDF format, click here

Kann Ich Ihnen helfen?

So, Regine, our language tutor, has given us several useful phrases to use around town. She even gave us examples of what a shopkeeper might ask or say to us.

I was so excited the other day, when shopping at Hieber's (our one of three little grocery stores), I was addressed by one of the workers there. I actually understood what he said and didn't have to say "Bitte?" or "Entschuldigen?" So, I mustered up my courage, searched my brain for a phrase, and said "Ya, Ich suche fur die Mangosaft?" He looked at me very patiently and then as plain as day said "Do you speak English?" I'm sure the expression on my face completely fell as I said "Yes, I'm trying to find Mango Juice."

At my next meeting with Regine, I laughingly explained what had happened. Apparently, I confused the man by adding 'fur die' in the sentance. Had I just said "Ich suche Mangosaft," he would have understood me. I guess that's the trouble with trying to directly translate something, you can easily add lots of extras that are unnecessary. Well, I learned my lesson, and now even if it sounds funny to me I will always remember to say "Ich suche ..."

Oh, head over to our Newsletter section...Thad just uploaded our latest letter: http://www.thadandjana.com/prayer.htm

Work and Play

We had our first visitors last week! Thad's parents came to spend their Spring Break with us, and we enjoyed showing them the sights and sounds of small town German life.

I posted some photos on our Picasa site...link to it here. The most recent photos added are from Lucerne, Koenigsburg, Schliengen, and Hochblauen. We took Phil and Susie on two day trips (to Lucerne, Switzerland and Koenigsburg, France), and they spent the rest of their time seeing in and around Kandern with a short stay in Freiburg.

I had many opportunities to practice my German (and French!) last week and was very encouraged to look back on my progress these past few weeks (and see how much I remember from my French classes at Baylor University!).

Thad continues to work his magic at the office. Just today he repaired a server that had gone down, put together a list of folks who need the new Office 2007, tinkered with a Palm Pilot wireless keyboard, troubleshot (and still is) an email problem, updated an Agape community website, and attended a Communications meeting (with me too!)...right now he is trying to figure out how to edit a video, so that we can put it on our site.

As for myself, I have a few projects under my belt too. The new Agape Europe letterhead (which is basically finished with a minor tweak left), a couple of small graphics for an upcoming conference, redesigning the current Agape website, and designing the new Athletes in Action cycling jersey (how cool!!!).

Balancing our work time/projects with language learning can be a little tedious, but we both work better with many things on our plates. Pray for us to stay focused on the task at hand, so that we can continue to make learning German a priority.

Better to laugh than cry

So, here in Europe curbs and sidewalks are common place for a quick stop in the car. And, as we learned at cultural training, you should observe the locals and try to do what they do (you know buy a bus ticket before the bus starts going vs. after...standing in line vs. a free for all...speaking quietly at the grocery store vs. loudly laughing your way through the aisles...parking on the sidewalk...it's all cutlural observation).

So we pulled off of a narrow street in Schliengen to see the remnant of a canon shot during a battle of Napoleon's. We must have been too much in awe of what we had just seen because we failed to notice the tiny marble step before us. We hear a POP, and I said "there goes our tire." Everyone else in the car said "no way, it couldn't be!" So we pull over (this time into a driveway), and sure enough our very flat tire, had a very large hole in it, while a very sharp marble step smirked at us just a few meters away.

Is it bad that I laughed? What else can you do after you have been driving your car for a mere 5 days after it's 5 week stint at the mechanic!?! This is just cultural adjustment, right?

Our Car Has Returned!!

Thank you all for praying for us (and the car), thinking about us and encouraging us! It has been almost exactly a month since we took it in to the shop. They fixed quite a few things and left 1 thing unfixed. I will not go into it all, but we are very thankful to have it back. The Lord has been gracious to us in every way since we arrived. Please pray for the last hurdle in this process... the bill! That should arrive in the next week or so. I will keep you posted. Thank you again... more to come later, I promise!