Boy, do the weeks fly by! I’ve finally decided that I want to and can justify coming back for more school. I was having some serious doubts, but the Lord opened my eyes to alternate perspectives and I feel confident that it will be a productive and valuable three years if I come back. This makes it easier to live here now since in my mind I am coming back. So, hopefully I stay stable until the audition and either go on as planned or cry my eyes out and prepare to be in the place God wants me instead. Life sure isn’t as simple as it looks, but I supposed everyone has to learn that at some point.
It’s still the little things in life that make me happy. I’ve never been a big picture person, for good or ill. This week has had its share of little blessings despite the struggle of seriously evaluating whether it’s right to come back or not.
Completely randomly, I’m learning how to throw a Frisbee consistently. I suppose I take everything too seriously, but even though I enjoy throwing it around I always wondered how Jimmy and Stephan can throw it straight and true consistently. I’ve been watching and experimenting and the last time we played finally found something to change the helps a lot. Anybody for Maggie P. Frisbee? Oh wait, that might be dangerous . . .
On the music front: I had an extra harp lesson on Monday and it went well. I finally sat down and wrote out all my ideas for this one piece and I have to say it’s not bad. I had to make an appropriate accompaniment then make up another strophe, as it were. It’s the stuff I want to learn, but that I find so intimidating. Imagine being able to understand a language and being able to recite epoch poetry in it, but being unable to form your own sentence. One can hardly say you’re fluent, and that’s how I feel about music. I find it so hard to make the first step to making my own sentences because I’m familiar with the great literature and I know how much my expression falls short! Baby steps, Janet, baby steps . . .
I might never have thought tin whistle and electric bass would work together, but Stephan had the idea to do some worship before Bible study and we used the instruments at hand. It wasn’t half bad, actually, and it was fun to play. I only had the guts to improvise ornaments for the most part. Gaaaa! I’m such a coward!
I had a great lesson with Baptist on fiddle. He helped me fix some problems that were frustrating me. Even though the instrument is much better with the moved sound post, the lowest string still sounds like a bear, only much worse. It doesn’t ring and it’s, well, anyway, when I used his bow it made a huge difference and he happened to have an extra bow, and though it’s not as good with it it’s still much better than with mine. He also brought some very cool pieces from the 13th century, and it’s just the sort of piece that makes me crazy for medieval music. He played them for me, improvising on the form and playing beautiful ornaments and accompanying drones. I have to learn to do that!
This week was a huge improvement to the depressing events of the last few weeks on the German front. At dance class I understood just about everything, including a number of jokes! I feel so comfortable around those folks and my mind and ears are open and relaxed so I learn quite a bit. Hopefully I can find such a group that’s in Swiss German and start learning that, when I come back of course . . .
More exciting than dance was going out for coffee with a fellow student at Inlingua. We expressed a range of thoughts and feelings in German, and had relatively little difficulty in doing so (though I can’t vouch for the accuracy of our grammar). Be both want more such opportunities because what we learn in class is not reinforced on the street. It is a shame, but I suppose it’s just an extra challenge.
Most thrilling of all was twisting Stephan’s arm to let me buy him dinner in exchange for an evening of German. He did a wonderful job of speaking slowly and clearly, but naturally and choosing when to correct me and when to let it slide. I want to be corrected so I can learn, but it is frustrating to not be able to get any idea across because the teacher is only interested in your grammar and not your idea (humph, how dare they!). We didn’t stick to simple subjects either and I was really forced to work hard to express some of the thoughts I had. He very rarely used English to explain a word, and we only had a few train wrecks and only once I had to give up on understanding his point altogether. That means the rest of the time, I, Janet Wightman, a monolingual American fool spoke in another language for an evening! Stephan was very patient, and I really can’t imagine that he corrected a tenth of my mistakes, but for now it was a good balance. Of course this means I’ll soon have a humbling experience, but it’s good to know I haven’t spent nine months of my life studying in complete vain.
Today Stephan and I went to the children’s movie “Das Doppelte Lottchen” which is a sweet story based on the children’s book by Erich Kästners. It’s where the idea for “The Parent Trap” came from. Anyway, he thought it would be simple enough for a German student and it was. It was cute, and I understood nearly all of it (naturally no subtitles). In the normal dialogue I hardly had to think as well, and could still catch the meaning and let my mind wonder at the same time. I should watch a real movie in German to keep my ego from inflating, but it’s been squashed in other areas of my life so I’ll let this be for the moment.
The last of the blessings this week: God sent me a rose. Actually, it was handed to me by the cashier in the grocery store for some inexplicable reason. God knew I needed it and it is bringing me joy here in my little room. Like I said, it’s the little things in life, like faithful readers leaving comments and listening to me through my ups and downs.
Love to all,
Janet
About the Frisbee: Tell me about it! I tend to frustrate George when we play Frisbee because instead of sticking to straight back-and-forth, I keep curving so much that I keep being tempted to just go with it and try silly things, which never work.
Baptist fiddle? Next thing you know you'll be telling us you're having a harp lesson with Lutheran.
She has improved her throw indeed. Maybe it's because she was playing barefoot?
Janet has told me more than once I sell myself short. Now it's my turn, after reading this blog. I wasn't too happy about the German evening for various reasons, including tiredness and not knowing Janet's level and High German being essentially a foreign language and other factors, but I was pleasantly surprised at Janet's abilities. Sure you can still tell she ain't from this arm of the bayou, but for someone only here since February she's doing well.
Oh, yeah: a Japanese-speaking monolingual American. Odd.
On a separate note, I saw three more movies today and Das Doppelte Lottchen was better than all the others.
If we play on the sandbar at low tide we shouldn't run into too much trouble, I'd guess.
Thanks, Stephan, I forgot this story until you mentioned barefoot. It was hot the other day and a woman had taken off her sandals and was walking barefoot down the sidewalk. I heard someone exclaim from a passing car, "Eww! Look at that, she's barefoot."
"Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Proverbs 27:2
It's good both that Janet knows her shortcomings and that Stephan and the rest of us remind her of her excellence.
I don't know how to spell the French name Baptist with the accent on the second syllable.
Let's make it happen: barefoot Frisbee on the sandbar at low tide. As much as I want to come back to Basel, I can't wait for two weeks with all my sisters and my cousins and my aunts (and nephews and uncles and fathers and brother-in-laws) at the Maggie P.! Europe is crowded and the Maggie is still a heavenly haven on earth despite the large growths on the opposite sandbar.
Speaking of the Maggie P., the movie was a cartoon, and I loved how they showed the European scenery in and around where the action took place. But once there was a scene where two girls were rowing and one let go of an oar and I nearly jumped out of my seat. But lo! The oar didn't slip into the water! A little while later they carried on a whole conversation with the oars magically suspended at 45 degrees. I couldn't concentrate on the dialogue . . . Now I'm sure dialogue is spelled that way but spell check doesn't like it. I've never argued with the supreme being, though.
Praise God it is Sunday and I can rest my heart in the Lord. My worth is not in my ability to spell, play music, speak German, learn new things, organize my life, or impress people. My worth is in Christ alone. How often must I learn that lesson? Thank our good Lord he never gives up on teaching it to me. Have a blessed Sabbath, all!
My dear sister, I am aware of many of my shortcomings, and am honored that you see excellence in me when you have such a high standard for following the Lord. Stephan's comments about German also are encouraging since he's qualified in the area, but after a few moments reflection I am now confused. Am I really that cryptic? In this post I was bragging about my accomplishments, not pointing out my shortcomings! It seems both joyful and Stephan thought otherwise. One might get a sense that I am not all joy in other areas of my life (say from the comment about God's rose), but surely it doesn't sound like I'm belittling my accomplishments! Does it? I think we should be able to take honest joy in our accomplishments as well as look squarely at our faults. That is why I share my joys in this blog hoping desperately that people won't think I have an ego because I take joy in getting better. Does it appear otherwise?
"Am I really that cryptic?" No, certainly not! I was commenting on Stephan's comment, that he was right in praising you where he felt you sold yourself short.
I think you did a very good job of relating your joys in accomplishing things without boasting.
I certainly appreciate encouragement whenever it is honestly given. I'm most happy when I've brought some pleasure to someone else, so it lifts my heart to hear of it, but occasional encouragement in personal accomplishments is appreciated as well.
"Next thing you know you'll be telling us you're having a harp lesson with Lutheran."
I was thinking exactly along on these lines.
My fault for doubting her -- I had assumed "Baptist" was a typo because that wasn't the name I had associated in my mind with her fiddle teacher. But it turns out he's a different person, yet another awesome player.
1) A google search for fiddle basel schola baptiste turns up what I assume is our denominational riddle: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=159654208
2) "...and I really can’t imagine that he corrected a tenth of my mistakes..." I did. More even. Nuff said. ;-)
