Letters home: February, 2003

My dear friends and family,

Here is yet another of those Jess updates you have come to know and love... I hope. I am personally astonished at how well I have kept all of you updated on my activities and reflections on life here in Germany, which goes to show how much I want to keep you all involved in my life, but I realize there is a bit of a selfish edge to things as well—I really enjoy being able to look back on this personal log of all the news fit to print, as they say. For those of you whose curiosity is now piqued, I will say, there really isn’t much going on that’s NOT fit to print. :-)

Among the strange but fun things I have done lately at the dorm include my attendance at the "dedication ceremony" of our newest, unfortunately temporary, dorm building project—an igloo on our soccer field, big enough for five people to sit in comfortably, listen to music and drink Gluhwein. If you don’t mind a slightly wet tush, it’s a right comfy place to hang out.

What’s been going on here lately? Well, news of war is starting to pervade things here too. We had a big forum on war/peace in the dorm where I live, which was very interesting, and I checked out an anti-war demonstration on Saturday. I heard afterwards Americans shouldn’t go to these demo’s because our presence might provoke violence or anti-American feelings, etc, but there was none of that. The sentiment expressed was very clearly not anti-American, but anti-ourrecentpoliticaldecisions. Then an American singer sang a 70’s-style war protest song. All in all, I felt quite at home there and could relate to what was said. You know, I seem to find myself quite commonly in weird war-related situations overseas. Odd.

Last week was a really stressful one for me. Suddenly all the bureaucratic crap that I have to deal with came tumbling into my lap at the same time—getting a different visa, proving to my student loan company that I am indeed still a student, or at least too poor to pay back my loan at this point in time, lots of preparation for my one-month practicum that begins any minute now, wrapping up one semester and preparing for a new one to start… it was frustrating trying to wriggle my way through a few different systems, and I had a bad cold on top of it, and as a result I missed a retreat I was really looking forward to. Sigh. These kinds of situations make me feel totally incompetent and like I want to run back to the bosom of any place where they speak English and follow the rules that I know… but I did not have too much time to feel sorry for myself, as I am now in the middle of a really fantastic seminar that introduces my one-month practicum.

There are just 8 of us in this seminar, all German theology students, (except me of course) about to embark on this wild practicum journey in different Bavarian villages. We are getting a really compelling introduction to some of the main issues facing rural Bavaria and its land folk, working up some great theological questions to test out in our congregations when we arrive, and of course bonding like crazy. I feel like celebrating, because for the first time, I feel like my language skills are truly sufficient for the situation. Up till now I have felt like I’m just muddling through situations, doing my best and laughing at myself afterwards. But here I am really, truly participating, and can even add a new thought every once in a while (hooray for the very thorough practical-theology training I got in the US!). Yahoo! The other students immediately accepted me as just one of the gang, and it’s been great. I am one of the gang at the dorm too, but there I sometimes still feel like the same Jess that arrived in the beginning, knowing next to no German and feeling like the elephant in the room all the time.

Ooh, speaking of our dorm, I did get elected Studierendensprecherin (representative), with an added bonus: now our student leader/pastor has found a new job and during my tenure as Sprecherin, his position will temporarily be empty (hopefully just as temporary as our igloo!). I asked for responsibility, now I definitely have a platefull. Yikes. But I am excited to see how it all turns out.

PS—February 14
Now I am here at my practicum site (a tiny little village called Kirchrimbach, halfway between Nurnberg and Wurzberg, in Middle Franconia), living with a dear, dear pastor-family, and experiencing the life of a (German, rural) pastor. Yesterday we had "hang out with other pastors" day, as we attended a regional meeting and had a preaching seminar with area pastors. Today is "hang out with youth" day, with Confirmation classes and a youth event tonight. I have been talking up a storm and while my grammar is probably not getting any better, my confidence is, which is definitely what I needed. With that I will bid my adieu’s (ooh, what a wanton massacre of a lovely, unassuming French word!)

Jess, rural Praktikantin extraordinaire