“Die Geist springt über die Grenzen.”

“The Holy Spirit jumps over boundaries.”
[From today's Homily.]

Living life in another language is bizarre. Sometimes I understand exactly what is going on, sometimes I zone out and forget that I actually can understand what they are saying, and sometimes, I am just completely lost. What an incredible experience it is to live and learn this way. Every so often, I feel as though I am living a normal life. I feel as though it is normal for me to be having conversations in German while enjoying food in the beautiful German scenery. I lose myself in what is going on and forget how abnormal it is. Occasionally I find myself during these times and stop to think how strange it is that the words we are communicating with can’t be understood by some of my closest friend in America. To think, I haven’t even been speaking this language for half of my life yet. Living life in German has been an absolutely incredible adventure that has helped me recognize how important and how universal communication truly is.

My German is nowhere near perfect, but here I am living in Germany, communicating in German, and my imperfections are perfectly fine. It is okay that I don’t know all of the grammar or all of the noun genders. It is okay that I can’t always understand every word or every instruction said to me. It is okay that when I speak it is slow and sometimes broken and often times my words are out of order. It is okay because people want to understand each other, and they want to help me learn. Our communication  may not exactly be perfect, but our hearts are open and willing to try to understand.

I have seen so much in this past week. Looking back through all of my photos, it is hard to believe that I have been in Düsseldorf for a whole week already, and that I have been in Europe for 18 days. The amount I have seen and learned in this time is unfathomable.

At the beginning of the week, my host mom, Annette, and sister, Nora, met me at the train station in Düsseldorf and brought me home with them. Their house is absolute gorgeous and the garden looks like it came straight out of a fairytale. A wonderful part of this house is the beautiful white Kawaii Piano that I get to play for the next six weeks. I also got to me our cat, Lilly, who is spunky and sassy like any typical cat, and makes me miss my kitty back at home.

My first afternoon in Düsseldorf, I met with Prof. Zinggeler (my German Professor) and my EMU classmates downtown. We went for a ferry ride along the Rhein River. It was fun to relax and see the town that I will call home for the next six weeks.

I had an opportunity to see the city from 240 meters high in the Düsseldorf Rheinturm. It was an incredible sight to see all of the buildings and the Rhein River. It gave me insight on how different my life is going to be living in an incredible city that is much larger than my little home town.

We also spent some time exploring the old city. Among many incredible things, I got to see where Robert and Clara Schumann lived during their time in Dusseldorf.We also saw several very beautiful churches.

On our third morning, we rested. On Thursday, we went to the Neanderthal museum. I always forget how fascinating museums are until I am in one. It was really cool to learn about human history and see how it has developed throughout time.

Friday, we spent some time at the German Stock Market. We heard a lecture about the stock market’s history and how it works now.

Saturday, we traveled to Aachen. If you are ever in the area and can visit the Aachen Dom, I highly recommend it. The Aachen Dom is a magnificent cathedral where many German kings were crowned. Aachen also housed Karl der Grosse. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures inside the Dom. If you are curious, you can google some pictures of this magnificent building.

Ruins of Roman buildings

The EMU Crew takes on Aachen.

Aachen Dom

St. JP II was here!

Sunday, today, I went to mass at St. Margareta Basilica. It is about a 10 minute walk from my house. Pentecost is a big celebration in Germany, and all of the shops are closed tomorrow to celebrate “Pfingstmontag” (Pentecost Monday). Mass in the Basilica was outstanding. The music left me speechless and I had to consciously keep my jaw from dropping because of how in awe I was at the beauty of it.

The basilica is a beautiful building. Outside, there is a square with a nice sculpture depicting the history of Gerresheim (the part of Düsseldorf I live in). Nearby, there is a “library.” This library is very much to my liking. It is simply a bookshelf that people can take or leave books as they please. I took a book called “Die Trapp Familie” which is about the life of Maria von Trapp. (For those of you who may not recognize the name, she is from Sound of Music.) It has been fun to read this beloved story in German while enjoying the sunshine in my fairy-tale garden.

We ended the day by grilling in the garden and enjoying each other's company. It is nice to have a relaxing and comfortable environment to speak German freely in and hear wonderful German conversation. I even was able to follow a German recipe with the help of my host family!

Oh right! I started school last Tuesday! It is easy to forget since my time is so enjoyable and feels like a vacation. My German class lasts four hours every afternoon. We focus a lot on grammar and all sorts of fun German things. It is very interactive, and there are only 9 people, so I have many opportunities to speak German (not to mention at the train station, with my host family, on the street, in restaurants, etc.) My classmates are a lot of fun and very diverse. Their cultures include Brazilian, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Netherlander, and Turkish. It is so fascinating learning about the German culture within such a diverse community.

I feel as though I have so many things to say, and I am excited to share more stories with you when I come home.