Psalm 66

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
Sing the glory of His name;
Make His praise glorious.
Say to God, “How awesome are your works!
Because of the greatness of Your power
Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You.
All the earth will worship You,
And will sing praises to You;
They will sing praises to Your name.” Selah.

This is what I turn to when tears come. This is what my heart needs when it cannot have you. This is what I read when other words won’t do.

This, and you know why.

It’s hard. Not every hour. Not every day. But when it comes, it stays, like an unwelcome guest. Demanding at the very least cordiality, a guest like this can wear you out. They take your time; steal your self from yourself. They force you to clean up after dinner just a little more than you normally would. They might not even ask for much; they might just stick around in silence. You might not know they are there, after all. In fact, I think they’ve already left…

The view from here never gets old. I witness the sun as it goes down slowly on this city, illuminating the trees and highlighting colors I’ve not yet seen in them: flecks of gold, a little orange here, there a brown. The city sleeps when I do, long before you rest your head on blue striped sheets and khaki cases.

I look to my right: four smiles find me smiling back, fighting the urge to wave (I know the picture won’t wave back). Further right and it’s us again, in a castle’s sill. My view is similar here, but if I rest my back against the wall it is not stone. I can put my arms around only myself, no brother near to take the photo. The look of love invites the guest back in, and I realize they’ve never really left.

I love and miss you Gina.
Deine Blakey

-BW

29 Juli, 1:29 am, nach eine Reise nach Frankfurt

For a brief moment, the bothersome sound of the nearby disco was muffled as a longer-than-usual train passed through. This time, I could hear the train’s whistle despite the heavy rumble. My computer tells me it is 6:07 pm, but only says so because I won’t let it tell me what time it really is, in Germany. Each time I type onto the laptop, I’m transported back to good ole Central Standard Time.

I’ve been listening to Sarah (the witch, Jimmy) while cleaning my room. It sounds strange to write that. I’ve saved the desk for last, and now I just feel like typing a bit before I continue. It’s after one in the morning. Tomorrow I don’t have anything important to do in the a.m., so I don’t mind being up now. James is out at the bars, with a group of other ISU students from our building.

The weather has changed here like it does in Texas. Such a nice cool breeze is blowing through my window tonight. I might even need a blanket. I made my bed. They gave me a duvet and cover, but I first thought it was a blanket and a sheet. I keep them separated (Offspring, anyone?) because of the heat we’ve had.

I got stung by a bee today. Or maybe a wasp, or maybe a hornet, or maybe a terrorist. I don’t know; I never saw my assailant. I panicked, somewhat, but regained my sense of “I am o.k.” about an hour or so later. Unfortunately, the sting impeded my career by keeping me out of the Jewish Museum of Frankfurt. I sort of think I’d had had a better time by myself; then we wouldn’t have been in the are where I got stung, but that’s like wishing you’d taken 635 when you’re already on 114. So it’s pointless. This is not a very good entry, primarily because I am tired. It’s actually starting to hurt my finger to type (where the evil killer got me), so I think I’ll just let Jordan comment on this one and head to bed. If there are actually people reading this (since it won’t be posted until much later, it feels weird to ask a question), then I salute you.

Danke Schön. Tscüß!

-BW

26 Juli (teil drei)

I am about to go down the hall to the kitchen area where there are some couches and tables to study with James, but first I had to write down this brief story before I forgot it.

Earlier in the day, while at the Mensa’s computer area, a small group of ISUers were reading the text for today’s class (myself included—and what a text it was, more on that later). A Studentin (female student) came up with a clipboard and paper and appeared to be asking for something. Ah, a petition! I understand what this is, I thought. A girl in our group knew German quite well, and she told her she’d sign it—it was a petition against the rising university fees. We all signed, happy to participate in an authentic German protest.

Well, a few minutes ago another Studentin appeared—this time outside the door to James’ dorm. She had a clipboard and similar looking paper, and looked quizzically into the room. I stood, went over to her, and looked at the paper, probably muttering “what is this” in English to myself. I looked at her and said, “Wir haben…schon … unterschriften,” paused, and waited to see if it worked. Ah, yes, she was nodding her head—it worked! I used my German to actually communicate an idea effectively in casual conversation with a fluent speaker! I realize now that my conjugation of the last word—unterschriften (sign)—should have been unterschrieben, but still, it worked, she understood. I did not know that the verb for “to sign” was unterschreiben, but I had seen the word somewhere on the sheet earlier and figured I could make a verb out of the word for signature. After the girl walked out of James’ room into Suzanne’s, I looked at James, smiled, and said, “holy crap it freakin worked!” We were ecstatic. Almost a real conversation…and that’s my short story.

Gotta study, Tschüß!!
-BW

26 Juli (teil zwei)

I sit down to type and I’m immediately distracted by the soft, cool breeze blowing in through the open window. The breeze is followed by the sound of a train, perhaps the RB (Regionalbahn??), passing through Marburg. As I listen, and look up to catch the full force of the breeze, I see the city: steeples, towers, and spires catch my eye; dim lights dot the landscape, barely visible through the thick cover of trees hiding the city’s lower half from view. Here, from my dormitory window, I feel like a scientist carefully observing my subject, wondering what it will do to surprise me next.

-BW

26 Juli

Ich möchte euch über meinen Tag sagen, aber ich habe nicht zu viel Zeit. Heute hat mein Deutschkurs begonnen, und er gefällt mir.

(( I would like to tell you all about my day, but I don’t have so much time. Today, my German language course began, and I liked it. ))

I’m pretty proud of myself for constructing those two sentences there. Wow, it’s odd that I’ve been here for more than two days now. Hopefully (höffentlich) I will be able to post this to the internet soon; I am still waiting to find out if it is even possible for me to obtain access from my dorm. So I am sitting in room 4410 of the Evangelische Studenten Gemeinde (ESG), which is on the fifth, not fourth, floor. In Germany, the first floor of a building is not referred to as the first, but rather the basement or ground floor. So up and down five flights I go each day, usually more than once. What great exercise living in Germany can be! The ESG is, translated roughly, the protestant student union dormitories. Where I live is a fifteen minute walk from the Hörsaalgebäude (the campus building where all of the ISU action takes place), which is very close—some of the ISUers live in dorms more than 25 minutes (by bus!) from the campus. And campus is the wrong word. The Philipps-Üniversität Marburg is spread throughout the main part of the city, separated by many streets and mixed in with various other buildings, restaurants, hotels, cafés, etc. Just about zero of these buildings have air conditioning.

Das ist alles für jetzt!

-BW

Arrival: Deutschland

My first view of Marburg, from the Hauptbahnhof, or main train station. After my arrival in Frankfurt at 7:30 Deutschzeit (German time) I met up with the other UT Dallas student, James King, and we bought a train ticket to Marburg. We headed to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof via a short train trip from the airport, then made our way towards the humungous bahnsteig (train platform). It was there I saw my first Starbucks, and I resisted the beast quite easily. Not wanting to look too american or touristy, I neglected to retrieve either of the cameras from my bag, so I have no images of the Frankfurt train station, but when I go back there on my last day in Deutschland, I will take some. It really is an amazing place; it would be difficult to feel anything other than in the center of the world while one is standing in the middle, looking up at the big board, which updates passengers on platform changes and such. Ours changed, and had James not gone to check at the last minute we'd have been stuck there for a few hours. An hour train ride from Frankfurt found us in Marburg, where we were greeted by some people holding up yellow signs with "ISU" on them. We boarded a van, drove through our new home to an academic office building where we wnet over logistics and made sure we were all paid. Here, a variety of students--Lithuanian, Polish, Albanian, Canadian, Australian, etc.--mingled and engaged in all kinds of German conversations, ranging from very basic (mine and James'), to complicated and zu schnell ("too fast"; i.e., all the Europeans). Eventually, we were taken to our dorms...
Here is my dorm, with various views:

The door, from inside...

...end of my new bed and my very empty desk...

...sink behind the door...

...and here's me after I "decorated":

That's all for now...so now you have an idea of where I live... I will post more pictures later, of the actual city and also form the trips we go on during the weekend excursions...
Tschüß!
-BW

**Greetings From Deutschland!**

Sorry for taking so long to post anything here; if anyone is indeed reading this, I would appreciate a comment so I know I'm not alone in this cyberworld. I've been in Marburg for over a week and a half, but this will show up as posted on the 23rd. I am retroactively posting some words I've written on my laptop since I have not had internet access in my dorm, and whenever I get to a free computer I spend the time reading emails from family...that should explain enough. Hope Club Synergy enjoys my pictures...if anyone has questions, please comment!

bis später!
-BW

Departure: DFW, 2:50 pm

Crazy. I'm about to leave the apartment for the airport...
I've got a few hours before my flight, and I'm a little nervous...
Gina and I sat down and wrote out a letter/prayer for each other on one sheet of paper, then ripped it in half and we'll each keep our piece for the duration of this 4 week Sabbatical from Real Life.
I think that will help in the lonely times.
---
But I'm excited--not just nervous. I'm excited to move in to a new place, to make new friends, to discover new stories I can come back home and share.

Auf Wiedersehen, Texas.

-bw