Germany: Year Two Begins

Happy day after Swiss National Day everyone! I hope you had a good one. 1 August is the day the Swiss celebrate their national pride. I'm sure I could research or ask one of my smart friends why it's on the first, but it's more fun to be in the dark and see if any of you can come up with some good hypotheses. To start the holiday, the Swiss (in Basel, at least) have a huge fireworks display on 31 July. This was my first full day on the European Continent and I have to say I did pretty well on the jet lag. It helped that the show started at 21:45 and was over in about an hour. The most beautiful part of the display was at the beginning when they let at least a hundred or so fuchsia twinkling lights/fireworks that were attached to balloons of some sort into the sky from two different towers across the Rhein from each other. Each were purchased by a person for about 10CHF to give aid to people with Leprosy. It reminded me a bit of the duck race in Eugene. The evening had a mild wind, so the lights floated above us as we stood in the middle of the bridge watching them congregate just behind us. The fireworks display was better than any I have seen in the States for the Fourth of July. What a beautiful sight it was. Added to this was the joy of seeing many of my church friends after a month or so of absence!

I arrived first of the three roommates: Me, Amy-Jo (roommate last year), and Mallory (new this year). We are all doing pretty well with the jet lag, except that I am wanting to stay awake until 1, 2, 3 in the morning and Amy-Jo got a migraine today. Mallory is only a day into it, so we'll see where she goes from here. I must say that this time around has been much easier. Maybe it's the fact that this time I actually got to relax before coming and knew what to expect once I got here. When I did arrive this time I lasted about 30 hours before I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. That first day I also survived a chat with one of my neighbors and a trip to the grocery store. The check out woman thought I was crazy when I wasn't able to figure out how to make proper change so she didn't have to give me a ton of change back. At least I understood her :)

School starts 18 August and I can't wait to get going with my little ones. It will be interesting to see the new class dynamic with five additions. All of which have amazingly strong personalities! Please be praying for me and my class of eight girls. I desire to make my classroom a welcoming one where everyone feels included and loved. I also hope to be able to speak directly into their lives about Christ, whether it be to show them the truth of His salvation or to help them grow in their relationship with Him. And, of course, I greatly desire for them to learn as much as their little brains can take and grow as much as possible in who they are. Thank you for all your support and prayers!