Now that spring has come

It's freckle-gathering season! That also means unintentional sunburn season too... Oh the joys of being a red-head. Actually, my hair isn't even all that red. It's been the topic of several discussions over the years. I don't even know what color to call it. Anyways...
I have to take Jilli to a playground every day. I love the sun. I don't love that I can get sunburned by being outside for an hour in not even hot weather. For example, it was 19°C/66°F and I managed to get burnt. I blame the North-European genes. Oh how I hope I don't get sent to somewhere super-sunny on my mission. That would be death. Yeah, I grew up in the sunny South, but I certainly wasn't outside all day. Last week we had a really warm day. It was like summer here. I mean, it was like 24°C/75°F. Perfect weather- sunny, with a slight breeze. We went out that evening, and the kids were complaining about how hot it was in the car. Puhleeze. I grew up in Texas, and every stinkin' summer was a drought. I remember getting in the van one day and the thermometer read 112°F. That's 44°C. By the time the air conditioning even starts being effective, you're back to your hot, sticky house.
And since this is Germany, spring doesn't mean eternal sunshine. It also means cool and cloudy weather. This ain't the South. Not everywhere on earth can be blessed with sunshine and crazy storms.

Now that I've gone on and on about the weather, I should probably write about something more interesting.

I went to Stuttgart this weekend with my choir.
Sadly, they never plan any tourist time. I would've liked to see the Porsche museum or the Ritter Sport museum, or heck, anything other than our two church buildings with a brief excursion to sing in the city center. Granted, we didn't have much time, but still...
I've decided that southern Germany is absolutely beautiful. It's a relatively long car ride down to Stuttgart. It's a whole five hours. And for Germans, that's a long time. I caught one of my friends in our carpool group complaining about it. He should be glad he doesn't live in America then. It takes it a bit more than five hours to cross the country. Ok, we didn't cross the whole thing, but a good portion. Whatever.
By the way, if you want to take pictures of the countryside, don't sit on the left side of the car, especially when traveling on the Autobahn. You will either have blurs of color called cars in your picture or have to awkwardly lean across two people for a shot that will probably be gone by the time they make room for you. Naja. Lesson learned. I still love the Autobahn. I couldn't help but think we should get rid of speed limits on portions of the interstates back home, but then I remembered how idiotic Americans can be.
I don't know if my rambling counts as interesting stuff, but you just read it, didn't you?

I don't know where I'm going

I handed in my mission papers last Sunday. In just a couple long weeks, I'll know where I'll be serving for eighteen months.
The suspense KILLS.

If it were up to me, I'd pick the Alpine Mission. I so wish to stay in the German-speaking part of Europe. It's not up to me, though. I could be sent anywhere in the whole world.
And that terrifies me.
I love this part of the world so very very much. I can't stand to think of being separated from my beloved Germany for the next several years. I say several because I won't be able to afford coming back after my mission for a while. Plane tickets aren't exactly cheap, ya know. Maybe I'll end up going to school here one day.
To leave Germany. I've been dreading it since August, maybe even July, when I first came. I knew I'd have to leave in a year.

What if I'm sent to France? No offense, but I really dislike that language. I don't understand why everybody thinks it's so beautiful.
Or what if I'm sent somewhere super-sunny? I sunburn super easily, thanks to my North-European genes and my red hair and fair skin. I can get sunburned in March. I have the awesome capability of turning into a lobster even when using SPF 70. Well, it was a day at a water park... and missionaries are outside a lot... I don't want skin cancer. This week was *slightly* warm and sunny, and I managed to turn pink.
I'd rather not serve in the States. I really just want to stay in Europe. Forever. Just watch how long it'll take me to start scheming how to get back once I get off my mission. I'm thinking about three seconds. Well, maybe a little bit longer. I think I'll want to say hello to my family before I start scheming.

There are times you feel you're part of the scenery

So here's what went down in Leipzig:
Anna and I drove there Friday midday. There was snow everywhere.

Friday night, there were classes. This guy named David introduced himself to Ary and me. The two of them hit it off and he hung out with our little group most of the weekend. Or Ary hung out with him. Then there was a movie night because apparently you aren't supposed to dance the Friday before Easter. Yay old traditions?

We went to the Stasi Museum. Stasi = secret East German police. And they were creepy good at finding people out, guilty or not. They were even better at keeping records of minutia.

We found a door our size!

And then we found out it was a door for disabled people......

Markt!

We were looking at watch necklaces. I kinda sorta maybe want one.

By the way, Leipzig is really run-down, except in the town center. You can really tell it was in communist hands for several decades. 

 

Osterball/ Easter ball

Ary and David hanging out on the Osterspaziergang thing. I'm not a creeper at all.

The chocolate bunnies we found on our Osterspaziergang.

What if chocolate rabbits multiplied like real rabbits? That could potentially be very awesome. Or really bad. Then I'd eat even more chocolate.

My real question is: Why did it snow on Easter? I should be wearing shorts at this time of year...

Game night on Sunday

I'm not a creeper, I promise! I was just... bored...

Monday we decided to take some silly pictures before we all left.

One more picture with Felicia. She just had to move to Russia... 

I'm so glad she came down for the weekend!

One last gem! A Trabbi! The notorious East German car. People have refurbished them and stuff. That still doesn't mean they go very fast. This guy certainly wasn't. But that's ok, because I got a picture. Seriously, seeing this made my day.

I like West Germany a lot better than the East. Maybe I should just spend more time there. It's not fair to base an opinion on anything after such a short time, especially since a lot of the time was spent in the church building. And I'll be honest. Sometimes I was downright lonely. My friends would manage somehow to all hang out with their other friends at the same time, and I either didn't want to interrupt potential flirting or couldn't find them at all. Nevertheless, it was good to get out of this house. Oh so very good. And now I know that I never want to live in Leipzig if I can help it. Don't even get me started on the quality of the roads or how chunks of the facades of the various buildings were missing. I'll just leave it at that. I'm sure Leipzig can be nice. It probably looks better when there are leaves on the trees, too.

Where the children of tomorrow dream away

I don't think I've ever seen a movie that  moved me as much as Les Mis. It was so intense and depressing and... wow. I just feel like venting my thoughts to the internet.

I know America isn't as bad off as France back then, but I can't help but wonder when we'll have another revolution. So many people aren't happy with the way things are going. Or have we become too complacent or apathetic, thinking that nothing can touch the government far off in DC? It'll probably take something really over the top. I don't know what it'll be or when it will come. I'm not calling for a revolution, by any means. These are just the thoughts that ran through my head last night.
Love and Mercy overrule Justice. There's a lot to be learned from that.
There are a lot of really great lines too. "Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." Just go listen to the soundtrack or watch the movie. You'd be doing yourself a gloomy favor.

And maybe it was a bit foolish of me to go home and listen to the soundtrack, because now I feel I can somehow relate to several of the songs, or at least some of the lines.
After the film, I thought I would never want to see it again, simply because it was that memorable and sad. But now I want to buy it. I haven't been able to get it out of my head for more than a few hours at a time this past week. I'll buy it in the States, though, since it's not worth it to buy in German. They translated only the spoken words and just had subtitles for the lyrics. So, 99% of the film was in English anyways. 

And I had to laugh to myself a little when Maria asked before I went to see it if it would be something her 12-year-old son would enjoy... ummm, it's a musical....

On the note of revolutions, this week has been full of reminders of them. I went to Leipzig this weekend for a Young Single Adult conference held by my church. I'll post more about that soon. In 1989, Leipzig was home to a peaceful revolution. I love standing where history has hinged.
I've been watching Downton Abbey, and the last episode I watched featured some drama about the Irish Revolution.
And there have been the constant reminders through the repeated songs from Les Mis. It's my friend's favorite musical, so we sang it all weekend long.
Why has it been a week of revolutions? It's getting a little creepy...