It seems that all my travels in Europe have been very interesting getting to my destinations. In order to get to Karlsruhe (which is about 1 hour east of Strasbourg, France and is in the vicinity of Heidelberg, Germany), I had to go from Tours to Paris and then from Paris to Karlsruhe. The trip from Tours to Paris began around 4 am and my train left near 5 am. Then I had to get from the southern train station (la gare Montparnasse) to the eastern one (la gare de l’est). Then wait about an hour and then board the train directly to Karlsruhe. Typically the train on that eastern stretch would take about 6 hours, but they recently changed things and now have a train line that does it in 3 hours. Also they had introductory rates at 19 Euros one-way. So I arrived in Karlsruhe, another one of the place that I studied at, and my friend, Holger, was there to pick me up. I stayed with him and his wife, Claudia. This time in Germany was very hard for me because my mind was not switching over to German like it has in the past. I view the languages in my head like disks. Everything for one language and one culture are on one disk. So when I get questions about America, I have a hard time thinking about how things are in America. This happened to me one night when I was looking for the word “garbage disposal” – something that does not exist in Europe. So this time, my German was severely hindered, but luckily, Holger has been to the States and can speak English, although I tried my hardest to speak in German. Another thing with German is that they have High German (Hochdeutsch – which is like their standard German) and then dialects, which to me are even more than our accents in the States. In this region of Germany, they speak with a thicker accent, but I am used to it because I studied there.
Again, this trip was to refresh my German as well as visit friends that I have in Karlsruhe. On Thursday, I spend time with Doro, who studied in Greeley, but is German. We ate lunch and spent time at ZKM (http://www.zkm.de/), a museum in Karlsruhe. It is known for having more modern art. On Friday, Holger, one of his school friends, HDM (a friend of mine) and I went to Das Fest (http://www.dasfest-karlsruhe.de), also known as Wood Stock – Karlsruhe. The name Wood Stock evokes massive amounts of people and loud music; well, it met up to it all. Holger’s friend started to talk to two women near us, so afterward we all stayed for about another hour after the concert and talked. On Saturday, Holger, Claudia and I went to Stuttgart to the Wilhelma. The flower pictures were taken there. It was a very large zoo that had tons of plant and wildlife. On Sunday, I was excited to go to church. Since I studied in Karlsruhe and attended this church, I knew many people there. I was very glad to reestablish my connections with them. Later that day, I hung out with my friend, HDM (Hans-Dominik). We had good Italian food and a great conversation. I told HDM that I was leaving Germany on Wednesday, but when I got home, I realized that I leave on Tuesday at 6 am from the Stuttgart airport (an hour from Karlsruhe). So I was only able to spend this day and a short time on Monday with him. On Monday, Holger and I spent time at the house; we recuperated from a long weekend, so we didn’t do much. That night was my last supper before my trip back to Kenya.
Although my trip was just 2 weeks, it seemed like a month. It was a different feel to go to Kenya as my final destination instead of my real home in Colorado. I know that God has prepared me for this time to teach and minister in Kenya.
The castle in Karlsruhe
Pretty flowers from the Wilhelma
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