IrishOboe

I didn’t realize how behind I am with my blog, so I’ll go backwards in an attempt to catch up without getting overwhelmed.  My Sunday illustrated well my state of being.  I got to church on time, but I forgot some books I was supposed to deliver and I forgot I’d agreed to sing German songs at the Bloms afterwards.  I was thrilled at the invitation, then failed to write it in my book, and it slipped the memory completely.  The books I’d put together with something else to bring to church and I brought that, but not the books . . .

I’ve been in Switzerland for nine months, but I first touched Swiss soil (actually it was snow) a year ago today.  What a lot has changed in 365 days.  I’ve said it before, but I never would have guessed even a fraction of what would happen in my life.  All of it was beyond the capacity of my feeble imagination.  I wondered things like which state I’d live living in and how many kids I’d have.  There was one romantic influence in my life who studied music in Europe but her life was generally impossibly operatic compared to us mortals so there was no way I’d ever get experiences like hers.  Fortunately, I didn’t.  I’ve had better adventures.  Praise to God for his marvelous ways!  They always are, but I’m extra grateful when it’s easy to tell.

Thanks to Bloglines I'm keeping up better with blogs than with emails.  Apologies to the folks who have emails sitting in my inbox.  I've been having productive, relaxed, and interesting lessons because of consistent practice so I'm enjoying that victory without too much guilt about emails as I plan to tackle that one in the next step.

Anyway, the point of this post is one blog lead me to this.

And another blog lead me to this.

Maybe they have nothing to do with each other.  Then again, maybe not.

One of the first things I did when visiting Stephan’s apartment for the first time was check out his bookshelves.  They made an impression then and now I’m making more of an effort to find time to read those books on his shelves that I haven’t read before.  Stephan recommended Graham Greene and I started with Travels With My Aunt.  It is certainly an entertaining and thought provoking book.  I would not want my children reading it and I don’t think HJJN would find it worth it, but it is well written, insightful, and full of character development, which is one of those important elements in a book or movie for me that is often poorly dealt with or left out altogether.  In this case the main character leads a simple life that is blown to pieces as his Aunt enters his world late in life and opens his imagination to an exciting way of living.  In this case, that way of living is less than godly, though comparatively the descriptions are mild.  It is an insightful journey through the mind of one slowly wooed by the excitement of sin.  I think it illustrates well how important it is for our imaginations to be shaped by what is good.  Life is not meant to be boring and dreary and empty of excitement because we can’t have the fun of sin.  Yet how many examples of exciting, beautiful lives lived for the Lord?  One thing I appreciate about George MacDanald is how he expands the imagination beyond that which we know and creates desire for the purity, bliss and excitement of abiding in God and growing in his will and discovering the wonderfully exciting world he created.  So watch out for your imaginative influences!  If you know of inspirational ones and really get you thinking on a different (and good) track, let me know!

“Surely that’s a legend.”

“There speaks a Protestant,” Mr Visconti said, “Any Catholic knows that a legend which is believed has the same value and effect as the truth.”

I foolishly tried to make Ais stew starting at night, now it’s nearly 11 and the stew is done but I can’t put it in the fridge cold.  The idea was to prepared for another day, but it means staying up ‘way past my bedtime.  The good news is, I’m too tired to do school work, so you get a fuzzy-brained updated instead. ;)

There is simply not enough time in the day or in the week.  Today I slept in until 9, but other than that, I’ve been working without hardly any breaks and it’s 10:30 and now I understand why I can’t keep my room clean or get practice in.  Today I gave practicing a priority and in addition to that I ran errands but now my Saturday is over and there was no time for writing updates, emails, or relaxing.  When I choose to do those three on Saturday, inevitably the practicing goes out the window.  Somehow I have the idea that all I want to do can actually get done.  I wonder if that’s a pipe dream.  Despite that potentially devastating realizing, I’ve had a good last few days – great ones in fact.

I got a reminder of my mortality and the need to be careful.  Yesterday morning I was a bit late to class and as I whipped down the hill (slowing at intersections, of course) and made the turn onto Hole Gasse, I released my breaks a bit too soon for the curve I was taking and suddenly found myself lying on my left side in the middle of the road.  The road was wet and it was still early, so that might have been one reason why I misjudged the curve and my speed.  I lay they in a bit of a shock, but some people had seen it and called out to see if I was okay.  I was hoping nothing was broken and I figured since I couldn’t tell it probably meant nothing was.

Due to certain circumstances I am spending a rather large amount of time with a sweet young Swiss gal.  It is she who is teaching me some phrases and I forgot to mention that she also told me that if you say you have a boyfriend it is assumed you’re sleeping with him.  Stephan didn’t tell me that part, but I’m hoping the social dynamics change once out of high school.  Anyway, today SG came bubbling to me in Swiss German, and though I caught her greeting the rest sounded like beautiful, cute, unintelligible nonsense.  I started laughing, but her story was funny so she kept going.  It wasn’t until the end that I confessed my ignorance and the whole story came again in High German.  Trial by fire – it’s the only way I’m going to learn, I guess!  It reminded me of my favorite scene in “Finding Nemo,” so hence the blog title.

Today was a good day.  I got good work done in the practice room, managed to concentrate well enough in classes, enjoyed seeing people again, and didn’t stress too much about all I have to do.

Folks are starting to come back from vacation, which is a lovely thing.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay long at coffee hour because I had to get back home for Veronika’s Epiphany party.  Dreikönigstag has more of a tradition in Switzerland than it does in the states.  Veronika had nine people over for fondue and a special cake with small king hidden inside.  Whoever gets the piece with the king gets a crown on his head and I’m sure more happens but with a bunch of middle-aged single folks getting a paper crown is about as wild as it gets.  I found the cake really delicious.  It was a kind of cross between cake and whole wheat bread and biscuits.  Yum.

The 7^th Day of Christmas (my true love gave to me: a beautiful baptism birthday)

After getting some work done in the morning I took the tram to the Blom’s house and had a good afternoon of intense discussion.  Then the Coopers picked me up and we went to the Manduka’s house (family of the pastor of BCF that lives just over the border in Germany).  I had invited myself over for New Year’s Eve because ever since I was baptized at age 10 I’ve had someone pray over my lit baptismal candle every year on the anniversary.  I tried to be gentle with the suggestion, but they took to it well and didn’t seem to mind my forward request.  The Molls also came, and it was a good chance for me to get to know their kids better.  We had a lovely dinner and good conversation.  Frank works for a company that makes ergonomic devises and he affirmed the health benefits of running barefoot (on good soil at least).  His company makes shoes that make it feel like you’re walking on forest ground and they sell mats of the same stuff.  I’d love to try it someday.  They did an experiment and set up a bank with adjustable desks so workers could stand or sit.  Most workers stood less than 20% of the time but when they gave them the mats to stand on most of them sat for less than 20% of the time.  You can try the marvel for yourself for the low price of 100 Francs.

The 3^rd Day of Christmas (my true love gave to me: a trip to Bern)

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Where do I begin?  First there are all those little things that make life a joy in the everyday.  I was in the secretary’s office and as I walked out with a smile on my face I realized that I had just walked in, taken care of business in German without much thought, asking questions and understanding the answers and even cracking a joke that was understood and caused a laugh.  Fluency used to be my goal, but now I realize that all I really need to be happy is to be able to easily express myself and understand and most importantly, make people laugh.  Some days are better than others, but good days are getting more frequent.

I know I have much more exciting things to write about, but I’m frustrated at how the simple task of cooking potatoes caused a bad mood, a burnt thumb and an argument.  All I wanted to do was make a potato salad.  All Veronika wanted to do was help.  It was all downhill from there.  Just as carrots and celery were a cause of difficulty in my parent’s relationship, so here we had a culture war over potatoes!!!

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