Pretty Cool Day! :)

I guess you might want to know what I've been up to. I just realized my first blog was more personal and less practical and document like. So here's an overview of the last two weeks. I arrived Sunday the 26 of Aug, jet lagged, dead to the world. :) Shook it off though and spent that week getting the pattern of things and shadowing with Teas. (The Au Pair who I'm stepping in for) then on Saturday, we went downtown Heidelburg and saw a castle illumination which was cool and I was all starry eyed over awesome Europe! Then, Sunday Teas left, Monday we were all off and just hung out and Tuesday and Wednesday I was flying solo with the three little ones. :) Thursday and Friday Buddy and Sissy had their first two days at preschool had lots of fun and came back ready for naps. :) MaiMai likes the individual attention while Bud and Sis are gone and has been pretty fun to do 1:1 stuff with. :) Yesterday, we went to a pumpkin fest, which I will share pictures from later. :)



So, that brings us to now! Well, today was a pretty cool day. :) I got up, got ready for the day and then hung out till it was time to leave for church. It started with Kristy making me laugh as she's telling me stories (like only Kristy could tell) about being stationed in Alabama with monster, stalker cockroaches. So the day started with some good laughs. :)

I did some research with my best friend, (shout out to Google!) before I arrived to see what options were out there for English speaking churches here in Stuttgart, and a church called IBC (International Baptist Church) stood out to me. I knew I would want to check it out soon after arriving. I found out they had a cool young adults group so I was excited to see that could be a really good fit. When Kristy dropped me off I had a little bit of a moment where I was completely freaked out to be in church all alone. So glad I did though!

I was only there for a few minutes, being awkward trying to find somebody I could ask some questions of, without interrupting a conversation. A lady named Debby, who was probably a little older than my parents came up to me and asked if I was new. I told her I was and she invited me to sit with her since her husband was at first service. She was very nice and introduced me to the associate pastor who happens to be from Eugene. :) (About an hour or so away from my home for those of you who aren't from the Valley) So that was cool. He wanted to make sure I got connected with some others in the Fusion group for young adults after service because they usually go to lunch after church. I thanked him, then we sat down and church was really good. I enjoyed the service, and there were so many people from all over the world with many different backgrounds. Kinda like what I imagine Heaven to be like. It was pretty cool. Really enjoyed the service, and the people were very nice. It was peaceful, even if I was a little stressed being a newbie.

After service, I asked some girls who looked about my age if they knew anything about The Fusion group and they invited me to ride with them to the park-ish/cafe' place that lunch was going to be. They were so welcoming and hospitable. I think they definitely caught the times in the Word that God tells us to be hospitable to foreigners. :) We drove to the park and walked about a mile to get to the actual cafe area. Like I said, everyone in the group was very nice. One of the girls, Cathy I think her name is, ordered for me ("Hallo", "Gut Morgan" and "Spreken English" is the extent of my German thus far.) AND even paid for my lunch! (Apparently debit cards are useable here, but there just aren't many places at all to use them at. And all the hard money I had was the dollars my grandparents gave me before I left as an early birthday present still waiting to be converted. So she just jumped right in. So kind of her! "No, no, don't worry! You're invited!" She said.) :) So I had no clue what to order so they kinda surprised me, but it was good. :) I missed the memo about how in Europe you get a beer with your lunch after going to church though. Hehe  ;) (The stuff is like coffee or a smoothie here.) We all ate and visited and I got to know some of the group. They made it a point to speak in English for the few of us who didn't speak any German which was so nice of them. (I don't know why I was kinda surprised that out of a group of about 15 of us, there were only about 4 of us who were not German. There was another girl from Arkansas, myself and a couple from South Africa. Hello Lindy, you're IN GERMANY!!! :) But that's probably because in the service there were so many people from all over the world, since it's an international church. They said there are a lot more in the Fusion group from all over the world.) Towards the end of lunch I told the group I needed to meet up with Pat, Kristy and the gang back at the church and one of the other girls, Theresa was happy to give me a ride. She was friendly and funny. She said (in her cute German accent) "I must varn you, dat all de udder Au Pairs, dey came to IBC ven dey moved here and den, dey ended up staying for a while because dey met a man...." :) We both got a good laugh out of that one. :)

Then Theresa dropped me off, Pat and Kristy picked me up and we went to some friend's house for a BBQ. Drove through downtown Stuttgart to get there. So pretty, I want to just spend a day downtown, soak it in, shop and take pictures. I was totally having one of those moments when your eyes get big and you suddenly just feel like you belong in a musical.:) Please tell me that I am not the only one to have those moments?!? ;)

Well. I guess that's a pretty good summation of life in Stuttgart thus far! As it seems to happen these days, my inspiration comes late, but I know I need to get it all documented while its fresh. But now, and my bed is calling my name. :) So, for now...like I tell the kids, Bye-bye Chose! :)