Bureaucracy, library work, girls in witch costumes, and other drama in my corner of the world....

Hello again! I'm sure you've been thinking I've disappeared or something, but I'm still here, taking life one day at a time. :-)

I have to admit the past week and a half or so since I last posted has been a difficult and frustrating time for me. I mentioned that I planned to stay in my apartment that night, and I did do that. It was really exciting to realize that I was "going home" to my apartment. The next day, however, was the beginning of my epic battle with the phone company, Deutsche Telecom. Someone was supposed to come to my apartment to check on my phone between 5 and 7 pm. I waited until 8:30 and no one came. Stores here close at 8, if not at 6, so I knew no one would be coming after 8:30. I was supposed to go to the ladies' Bible study at church that night, and so I decided to go even though I was an hour and a half late.

So, Wednesday I went back and waited in line for what seemed like forever before finally reaching the counter and telling the woman that no one came for the appointment the day before. When she finally seemed to understand what I was telling her in my limited German, she called the help line and waited on hold for about 20 minutes before hanging up and giving me the number to call myself. I walked out feeling extremely frustrated. At that point it had been a week and a half since I registered for my phone service, and I had been told everything would be connected within a few days. The fact that all this communication is in German adds to the frustration for me. After relating my struggles to Elsa, she volunteered to call the help line for me. Thursday Elsa told me she had spoken with a very kind person at the help line who apologized and said that someone would come on Friday morning. So I waited again on Friday and the person finally came. I was extremely thrilled when he told me - in English - that my phone would now work. Living at my apartment with no phone or internet access made me feel disconnected from the world, so it was really nice to finally be able to use my telephone.

However, I still have no internet access. (If you're wondering how I'm typing this now, the Abercrombies were kind enough to let me camp out in their apartment today to use the internet.) I have the router that Telecom gave me when I registered with them, and I've called the help line and someone verified that my DSL line is open, but I need several numbers in order to register my internet service, and I haven't received these yet. I went by Telecom again on Wednesday, and the person there called and asked that these numbers be sent to me, but I still haven't received them. So, if they don't come in the mail tomorrow, I may have to take drastic measures. :-) I don't yet know what those measures will be, but....Whenever I start to complain about how long things take and how people don't seem to be able to help you, Elsa tells me, "Welcome to Germany!" I guess every country has its share of bureaucracy, but Germany seems to me to have been given a double portion.

Monday last week I did get two steps closer to getting my residency visa. Elsa went with me to the Bürger Service-Center so I could register with the police. As she says, I now officially have a police record in Germany. :-) This paperwork is one more piece of the puzzle needed by the Ausländeramt before they can issue me my visa. The woman who helped me with my police registration told me to go to another part of the building to pick up a welcome package since I'm new to the city. So, Elsa and I went there and listened to a man describe all the things included in the gift bag. There were phone books, free passes to a Bremen history museum, chocolate, tea, and all sorts of pamphlets about other museums, concerts, and shows around the city. At the end he also mentioned that I could have two bottles of beer if I wanted. When I told him no thank you because I don't drink beer, he looked at me a bit skeptically, said okay, and asked if I had any other questions for him. I didn't, but Elsa did: "Can she have a double portion of chocolate since she doesn't want the beer?" I don't think this was the type of question the man was expecting, but he considered it and then went on a search for some extra chocolate for me. I was a little embarrassed, but Elsa laughed and said, "Hey, it doesn't hurt to try." While we were in the lobby I noticed one of those automatic photo booths, so I stopped there before leaving to make some photos of myself, which is something else the government needs for my visa. There are lots of regulations about the size, lighting, and postioning of your face in these photos, and since I was in a government building where Germans go to get their passports, this photo booth was set up with the right configurations. So, I now have my police paperwork and my photos, so I'm that much closer to getting my visa. *sigh*

I met with the Springers a week and a half ago to talk about the plans for my work here. We threw around some ideas for English Bible studies and advertising for them, but we decided we can't really put any of those ideas into action until after the holidays. Because of that and because I'm still trying to get some of the bugs worked out with my apartment, we decided that for now I will spend several days each week helping Jim with his library. When I say Jim has a library, I really mean that he has a library. There are rows of bookshelves that fill a good portion of the ground floor of their house. (Keep in mind they live in a row-house, so it's much narrower than the average house in the States.) He developed his own classification system for the books and has put the numbers on labels on the spines of the books. He has even catalogued the books and has a computer database so he can find the books easily. The problem is that Jim spends a lot of time using the books but hasn't had much of a chance to keep up with the record keeping and organization of them and hasn't had someone help him with it since the early '90s. Needless to say, he's very excited that I've worked in a library! I spent quite a while at the beginning helping him with some general organization and purging of some older items, and now I'm working on the books themselves. I've been sorting the ones that still need to be catalogued from those that have been catalogued and need to be shelved. I felt like I was back in my element on Tuesday when I was reshelving some of the books. I told Jim that this was the sort of thing I used to do and trained others to do. It was a nice reprieve to do something familiar in the midst of so many new things in strange surroundings. Jim uses his books for his sermons, Bible studies, ETM training courses, and seminars, as well as lends them to others who want to do research, so keeping his library organized will be a big help to him but will also be a lot of fun for me. After we finish with some of the reorganization, he's going to have me do some cataloguing. He apparently hasn't been able to do this for some time, so I think I have a lot to catch up on.

Bremen's Christmas market started on November 30th. It's a lot like Oktoberfest but with a Christmas theme. There are rides, carnival-type games, booths with all sorts of food and candies, and people selling lots of different handmade crafts. In order for me to get from my apartment to almost anywhere I need to go in the city I have to go through the area with the Christmas market, and there are always crowds of people filling the streets. I've had to plan extra time when I leave because it takes almost twice as long for the streetcar to dodge all the people.

Wednesday was St. Nicholas Day. I remember talking about this in my German classes in the U.S. and about how children put their boots outside their doors in hopes of receiving candy from St. Nicholas. While I didn't see any boots outside any doors on Wednesday, I did see DROVES of children in Santa hats. I don't know whether this is a practice in other cities in Germany or if this is just a tradition in Bremen, but Wednesday afternoon all the children of the city went around to the different businesses in hope of receiving candy. They carried bags with them, and most of them were dressed in costumes. While the prevailing theme was "Santa," with most children wearing traditional red and white Santa hats, several wore angel wings and princess-like dresses with crowns. I think the girl who won my award for the strangest costume, though, was the one dressed as a witch. Her outfit was complete with long black cloak and tall pointy black hat and was even accessorized with a broom. That was a little unsettling to me considering that I've never equated Christmas with witches, but I walked on by anyway. From what I understand, the children go into businesses, sing songs, and receive candy or other little gifts from the shopkeepers. I think every child in Bremen and all of their cousins and friends from the rest of Germany decided to participate this year because there were so many children in the streets that the streetcar could only crawl down the road. There were children in shoe stores, butcher shops, travel agencies, grocery stores, and bakeries. It reminded me a lot of trick-or-treating at Halloween in the U.S., but Halloween can't even be compared to St. Nicholas Day here. It was definitely a new experience for me. Since the Christmas market is also going on, it was almost impossible to get anywhere that evening.

Monday last week my landlord came by my apartment and told me that a painter would be coming on Tuesday morning to paint my window frames. I learned on Tuesday that he would also need to come on Wednesday and Thursday because the windows needed three coats. So, Tuesday morning the painter came and merrily began his work. He was a really nice man probably in his 60's who whistled and sang while he worked. I was in another room working on some things while he worked on the kitchen window when I suddenly heard some very angry words coming from my kitchen. I went to the door and asked if everything was okay only to find the painter holding my window because it was hanging by only one hinge. The windows here have hinges on one side as well as along the bottom, and there's a handle on the side opposite the hinges. When the handle is turned one way the window can "tip" using the bottom hinges, and when it's turned another way the window swings open using the side hinges. When he opened the window all the way, I guess he pushed it too hard and it hit the corner of my kitchen counter, snapping one of the hinges and taking a big chunk of wood out of the window frame. So, I ran to call my landlord while he tried to put the window back into the window frame. Needless to say, he was not able to paint that window, and it looks to me like the whole window frame will need to be replaced because of where the break is. While I know it's not something I'll have to pay for, it's another frustration to add to life while I wait for it to be fixed. I think the painter also told my landlord that the corner of the counter needs to be removed in order for him to do his work, so there may be some kitchen demolition in my future as well.

Speaking of demolition, we all will be doing a lot of that very soon. For the past year, the congregation here has been considering buying a new building because of recent growth and subsequent overflow of the current building. The men decided last Monday that everything looked do-able. The owner has agreed to their offering price, and the man who owns the Turkish restaurant next door to the current building has agreed to buy it. The only problem is that the new building used to be a bar, so there's a lot of remodelling that needs to be done for it to be usable as a church building. I think that's going to be the big project occupying everyone's spare time in the spring.

Please continue to pray for Wolfgang. I mentioned in my last post that he was in the hospital, and the doctors have decided that he actually did have a heart attack. He finally was able to come home from the hospital last Monday, but he still will have to go back to the hospital for therapy for awhile.

I realized on December 1st that I've been in Bremen for 6 weeks. When I came for the campaign in 2003, we only stayed 6 weeks. So, as of last Saturday, I'm in uncharted waters. I think this realization has made it sink in for me that I'm not just here for a visit like before. That combined with all the frustrations of getting settled in my apartment and lack of restful sleep over the past week has made me feel really overwhelmed. I wouldn't say that culture shock has set in yet, but the past few days have been rough for me. This weekend has been a little better because I've had a chance to spend time with some of the Christians from church, and that has encouraged me. I guess everyone has their up and down days, and when you're in a different culture trying to adjust, both the ups and the downs are amplified. The tiniest achievements are huge victories, but the smallest disappointments can be tremendous let-downs. Please pray for me and for Mark and Karen as we continue to figure out how to live here and as we battle the up-hill struggle of learning the language.

Overall, though, life is good. I'm enjoying my new apartment and getting to know the area. The people at church have been very welcoming to me and are very encouraging as I try not to butcher their language. :-) I've been blessed more than I take time to realize. I pray that you also might see the blessings God has showered upon you and your family, especially as Christmas is approaching. Even though life throws a lot of junk at us, God has given us a lot to be thankful for.