Church in 2 Languages!

Even though I have it written on my calendar and a few people reminded me, I totally forgot that we were supposed to change our clocks today! Maressa, Hedi and I were meeting at the train station at 8:30ish to go to church. Heidi and I live closer to each other and decided to meet at the bus stop and go to the train station together. I got to the bus stop just as it was leaving. I woke up late and left one or two minutes late. I could even see Heidi sitting on the bus as it pulled away! I would have just waited until the next bus came, but on Sunday's the busses run a very limited schedule and only one of the busses was going to the train station at the time I needed it. So I just went home and sent Maressa and Heidi text messages saying I missed the bus and that I would just go with them next time. Maressa sends back a message saying that it's only 8:30 and that we were supposed to set the clocks back! Heidi didn't know this and ended up going to Kirchheim on the train! Maressa and I met up at the train station and hopped on the train. There were quite a few free seats, but this woman came and sat down right next to me. Actually, she sort of sat on me. That was nice. We only had to ride the train until the next stop and then we met up with Heidi. Maressa had already been to this church two times so she knew exactly where to go.

Before going the only thing I knew about the church was that they spoke English. This was probably the coolest church service I have ever been to though. The pastor, or the person speaking, spoke in English and a woman said it in German. I LOVED THIS! Since I've been here, I usually try to figure out how to say things in German once they are said in German and today I got to hear both ways of saying things! I felt like the message of complaceny applied directly to me and I noticed that if I didn't understand it or didn't what was said in English, I could get what was being said in German! The only reason I wasn't looking forward to going to this church was because everything would be in English, but instead it totally helped my German since I could hear and understand both! Most of the Americans who were there work at the base or are families of soldiers. We met this one guy who has been here for about 4 years but hardly knows German. When we told him we are studying German at the University he said "Good luck! I've been here for four years and haven't learned very much." I just can't imagine being here and not learning the language. I know that they don't need to learn it since they have everything they could possibily need on base, but that just wouldn't work for me. We talked with a few other people including the pastor and they were all really nice. I'm excited to have finally gone to church here! I will definitely be going back!

The church also has kaffe und kuchen (coffee and cake) after church. We had already told other people from Heidelberg that we would meet up with them after church so we passed this time. We took the bus back instead of the train since it wasn't coming for about an hour. The bus ride was much longer but it got us to Heidelberg a lot faster than if we had waited fo the train. The people we were meeting were Michael and Susanna. Michael was a student with AJY and then moved here and married Susanna a few years later when he was working on another degree. He gave us a tour of Heidelberg and was at the airport at the beginning of the semester. Maressa knows them really well, but I've never actually hung out with them. They were meeting at Starbucks, but I just couldn't see paying 4-5 Euros for a drink just because. I ended up going home with the intent of working on homework. When I got home there was a note from Keith under my door asking if I wanted to go get coffee with him later. It was so cute! When he got back we decided that we'd go later. I tried to do a little homework but ended up taking a nap. Keith and I decided we'd go get coffee tomorrow or another day next week.

I cleaned my room a little today, too. It's unreal how quickly things get dirty! After dinner and working on my homework/blog, I went over to Maressa's to watch a few more episodes of Friends. I absolutely love that show and have found that I love watching it with other people who love it! The only bad thing is that we quote it ALL the time now, but that's just funny!