Weekend in Poland

Wroclaw, Poland

I love to travel.  One of my life goals is to travel to every country on earth.  This last weekend I got to add a new country to the list, bringing the total to 16 countries I have spent time in!  I to Poland to visit my friends Joel, Renata, Daniel, Eric and Amelia!  I have known this family my whole life(Renata was at my birth) but do not get to see them very often, so it was great to spend the weekend with them!

FRIDAY:
At 8 pm I embarked on a journey to Wroclaw, Poland.  I got on a bus in Bremen and left for a ten hour ride.  I brought some snacks and drinks and cleaned out my iPod before I left so I would have room for movies.  I hoped that maybe I would sleep a few hours, especially considering I was going to arrive in Wroclaw at 6 am.  I managed maybe two hours of sleep...the bus stopped every hour or two, and they played a very loud Polish movie until 1 am.  At 6 am Joel picked me up at the bus stop, and I went straight to sleep at their house.  (They had planned a hike for the afternoon, so I figured it would be important to sleep a few hours :D).

Daniel, Joel and I on top of the mountain!

SATURDAY:
That afternoon Joel and Daniel took me on a hike to the top of a mountain and back.  This mountain is the highest in the area.  It is about a 30 minute drive from Wroclaw and has an interesting history of Slavic tribes.  You can find pagan idols all up and down the mountain.  Of course at some point the Christians came in and built a church at the top.  I am slightly out of shape, so the hike to the top was a little hard, but was fun.  The mountain is beautiful.  From the top you can see many towns spread throughout the valley below.  And you can climb a tower from which you can see even further.  We sat in the sun for a while and ate lunch before heading down the mountain.

Me with Poland in the background!

The trip down the mountain was quite adventurous.  We wanted to take a different trail down then we took up, so we found a route where we would start with one trail, then get on another and a little while later again switch to another trail.  So we headed off.  It started off well, we found the first trail then the second.  It was the third one that caused some problems.  We could not find it!  But we figured as long as we were heading downhill, we were going at least somewhat in the right direction.  So we kept going.  We ran into a couple deer on the way and walked along some beautiful trails.  After an hour or two we reached the bottom!  We found ourselves in a village, and stopped and asked where the town our car was in is located.  It was about 1.5 miles away!  So again we headed off, hiking through the Polish country side and through villages.  I quite enjoyed this and took many pictures.  We even made friends with a dog who followed us for a while.  We eventually made it to our car and stopped on the way home for ice cream!

PALM SUNDAY:

The plaza around the Synagogue

I attended a Polish speaking church for Palm Sunday.  Daniel helped me out by translating the sermon as much as he could.  I wanted to sing along with the songs, and though I knew some of them in English, I knew that my pronunciation of Polish was not to par...so I listened as they sang.  That afternoon Daniel and Eric took me on  a bike ride through some beautiful fields next to their house.  Sunday night Joel, Daniel and I went to a Jewish Synagogue for a Jazz concert.  It had an accordion, two guitars, a cello and a violin!  We also stopped at a Jewish coffee shop for some hot chocolate!

You can find these little dwarfs
 all over Wroclaw

MONDAY:
Today Renata took me on a tour of Wroclaw.  Wroclaw is a very interesting city with a diverse history.  Much of the city was destroyed during WW2, and due to Communism they were not really able to start rebuilding until 1989.  So now Wroclaw is a growing city with a lot of construction going on!  It was interesting to see the mix of old and new buildings as well as some war ruins.  There are also a lot of beautiful fountains around the city, and many interesting places to shop and eat.  One thing interesting about Wroclaw are the dwarfs you can find all over the city.  There are hundreds.  You can find them next to stores, restaurants and around other parts of the city.  These dwarfs were a form of protest against Communism during the 1980's.  A group called the Orange Alternative in Wroclaw would paint smiling dwarfs over Communist propaganda.  The statues showed up in Wroclaw in 2005 to remember the work this group did.

At the Japanese Garden

TUESDAY:
This was my last day in Wroclaw.  Joel, Daniel, Amelia and I went into Wroclaw to find a way to tire me out before my 10 hours bus ride that night :).  We ended up walking through a really beautiful Japanese Garden!  It had giant fish and beautiful paths to walk along. That night I headed back to Bremen.  Getting home was a little exciting...the bus line I was on, Sindbad, had about 10 buses show up all at once...so Joel and I ran around trying to figure out which was mine, none of which were.  Mine showed up about a half an hour late, and they did not have my name on the list.  It ended up that I accidentally bought a ticket for the next day.  Luckily someone didn't show up for the bus so they let me on!  I was able to sleep a little more on this ride,
and arrived back in Bremen safely and just in time to take a nap! 

Prayer Requests:
-This is my biggest prayer request: Lately I have found myself dreading going back to my apartment.  When I'm with friends or at a restaurant or store, I dread the idea of going home.  Not because I want to stay where I am, but because I am scared to run into my landlady.  Almost every time I come home she either tells me something I have done wrong or I come into my apartment and find that she has been in there without my permission.  I understand when I do something wrong, she has to tell me, but its not a good feeling to feel like you are always doing something wrong.  And, I don't like her invading my privacy by coming into my room without my permission.  Please pray for this situation and that God will give me wisdom on how to handle it.
-I have had a soar throat for a couple of days, please pray that it will get better soon!
-I have a lot of school work to do in the next 2.5 months.  Please pray that I will find time to do it all!
-Two friends and  I are traveling to Amsterdam and Belgium this weekend.  Please pray for safety as we travel.  We rented a car and depending on if the company can get us an automatic or not, I may be the driver.
-Pray for the Euro to Dollar exchange rate...right now its not moving in my favor!

Praises:
-Praise God for many opportunities to travel over this two week break from school!
-Praise God for the opportunities I have had to not go to places just as a tourist but to actually get to spend time with local families and getting to know their culture!
-Praise God for the relationships I have been able to build here in Europe and the opportunities I have had to share the Gospel with people!

Update from my iPod...

Note: Praise God!! My computer is now fixed!  I figured I would post this update anyways since it was pretty much ready to go at the time that my computer got fixed!

First of all, I'm sorry for the lack of updates! I was almost ready to update my blog when the unthinkable happened: my computer broke. (I know what your thinking: "Kims computer NEVER breaks!").

I am updating my blog from my iPod! My iPod is my only connection to the outside world now. I'm not used to depending so much on it, so it's been kinda exciting to have everything be touchable!

Homesickness:

A sign I found in Bremen
Never too far from home :)

I have been in Germany just over a month. That means I have now been out of America longer than ever before. And after next week I will have been away from my family longer than ever before. This has lead to the first true hit of homesickness, as I realize that this is not just another two to three week trip out of the country. At the same time I am starting to realize that I will not be in Germany much longer...so my emotions are kind of a mix between wanting to be home and wanting to stay in Germany longer.

I have also started to realize the hardships of living in another country. Nothing is easy...simply ordering a cheeseburger or buying a loaf of bread is hard because you don't know if the cashier will know English or if you'll know enough German to communicate. At first that was an adventure, but now it is just hard. It is a hardship I am learning through, and I am reminding myself everyday that I am here to learn and experience their language and culture.

Traveling:

St. Nikolai Church in Hamburg

The last month has been nohing short of amazing! Three weeks ago In spent a day in Hamburg. The highlight for me from that city was St. Nikolai. St. Nikolai is a church that was destroyed during WW2. The remnants of it, including a steeple that you can go to the top of, are now a WW2 memorial. This was the first time that I had the opportunity to learn about WW2 from Germanys point of view and was very interesting.

In front of the west side of the
Berlin Wall

Last weekend I spent three days in Berlin. I'm sure most of you know Berlins history with the Berlin wall. This again was very interesting to learn about from Germanys point of view. And I got to stand in front of the Berlin wall on both the east and west sides.  I also go to walk around Berlin's Holocaust Memorial.

Driving the pedal boat in
Bad Zwischenhahn

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in a city called Bad Zwischenhahn. This is a small tourist town in the north west Germany. It surrounds a large lake and you can rent boats for vey cheap! So five friends and I rented two pedal boats for a half an hour, costing a total of 11 €. I was the driver of my boat and had a great time pedaling around the lake!



Protests:

Logo for the protests in Germany

Back in December and January when he Arab World Protests first started I thought to myself "well atleast Germanys not protesting!". Little did I know the world events that were going to occur while I was in Germany...ever since the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, Germans have been protesting the use of nuclear power in their country. Luckily these protests have been peaceful, but about once a week they protest on the route the trams take to my house, which means the trams to my house stop running for an unknown amount of time. This usually occurs when I am alone after dark trying to get home(at around 7 pm so not too late). The police and tram drivers give the people lots of information, but not in English. This has probably been my biggest challenge here, as I try to figure out how to communicate with people who oftentimes don't speak English and try to find my way home, or atleast figure out when the trams will be running again. I always manage to make English speaking friends at the tram stops and I always get home safe, usually about an hour later then I had planned on.

School:

My German Class!

And of course there is the whole reason I came to Germany.....school! School started two weeks ago. It was a bit of a rough start as the school here does not do a very good job of communicating. But after accidentally ditching one class and being late for another, I finally have my schedule figured out! I am taking four classes. One German language class and three computer classes. So far these are all very interesting. In one of my classes I am the oy person who does not speak German. So the whole class is in English for me...no one seems to mind, too much.....


God:

God has been teaching me a lot since I have been here.  I have met people from all over the world, and have learned about their religions and cultures.  I have had a lot of time to think about my life, my calling and my religion.  I know that I am called to spend my entire life serving God full time, but He has not fully revealed to me what this means.  Over the past almost twenty-one years this calling has been revealed in small bits and pieces. I believe that part of the reason God has brought me here to Germany is to show me, in more details, what His plan is for the rest of my life.  This has been exciting, challenging and hard.  I have been constantly under Satan's attacks and every day has been a battle.  One verse that has really stuck out to me over the last couple of weeks is Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish.  And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"  This verse has humbled me as I realized that if I were to not fulfill God's calling for my life, He would use someone else.  This verse also scared me as I thought of the possibility of not fulfilling God's calling, and what that would mean for my future.  And this verse gave me an excited peace, as I thought of God calling me for "such a time as this".  This is a topic I'm sure I will write on more in the future...for now it is something you can be praying for!

Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany

Prayer Requests:
-Please pray for my computer that all of its problems will be solved.  It is running again, but it is not completely fixed.
-Please pray for me as what I am studying here is not the same as back home.  Back home I study mostly computer programming, here it is mostly graphic design.
-Please pray for me as I continue to grow in Christ and learn about where God is leading me.
-Please pray as Easter Break is coming up and I am planning to travel during that time!

Praises:
-Praise God that my computer is working again!
-Praise God that I have made a wide variety of friends!
-Praise God for the people who bought me a bike this week!
-Praise God for the opportunities to travel around Germany!
-I finally found a place to get my favorite type of soda, Root Beer!!