And I don’t know what to say. I’ve had an amazing year. I’ve had a year where I’ve grown so much, more than I thought I would. I learned German; didn’t master it but I can get around, or could write this blog post in German. But then a lot of you wouldn’t understand me. I have met some of the most outstanding people in my life that I admire so much. I’ve made some really good friends that I hope will stay with me in the years to come. I’ve learned to deal with people I don’t necessarily like. And I’ve learned that I don’t like everyone and it’s okay. I’ve learned how to travel in Europe, where to spend the bucks and where not to. I’ve learned to let go a little. I’ve learned how to play chinese checkers. I’ve learned a lot.

And I know I’ve been sad at point. So sad that I couldn’t think about anything but how sad I was. But that just made me a stronger person. And now I look back and I recognize those moments as important parts but they don’t stand out. I have much better memories that stand out and make me love Enkenbach more.

I’m really going to miss this town and these people. I’m going to miss speaking German everyday. I’m going to miss hopping on a train and being in a different country in a few hours. I’m going to miss all the little things that make German people German and that make me smile.

I really hope that on another day I can give a better post here with more reflection to it about this year. But honestly a year is a long time to summarize but a short time in our life.

And now for whats coming up:

Tomorrow – driving to Holland to meet up with trainness for one last weekend.

Monday Aug 2- flying from Amsterdam to Leviv, Ukraine where my family will meet me. So my mom, sister, dad, grandma and aunt. We’re then taking an overnight train to Odessa.

Tuesday Aug 3 – In Odessa on the black sea for awhile.

Thursday Aug 5 – Going to my great-grandmothers home. And to one of the first Mennonite settlements in the area.

Friday Aug 6 – Should be in Kiev for a few days.

Sunday Aug 8 – Flying to MOSCOW. My Russian visa will now come in handy

Tuesday Aug 10 – Training it to St. Petersburg!!

Friday Aug 13 – Flying to Samara, Russia where we’ll hopefully meet some relatives. So crazy story… My great-grandfather came to Canada in the 1920’s from this area with one of his brothers. But by the time the rest of the family wanted to travel over Russia was closed. So now my great-grandathers brother still lives in Russia and we’re going to meet. So we’ll be staying with one of his grandchildren because he’s about 90 years old. Luckily the Mennonites held on to the German language or to low-german so we can at least communicate with them. But we have to wear long skirts to not be immodest. And they don’t have indoor plumbing.

Wednesday Aug 18 – Fly to Berlin and back into civilization.

Then we meet up with some old family friends and drive back down here to Enkenbach where all my things await me. So that will be around Aug. 25

And then Aug 26 is the big day where I land on Canadian soil. But maybe we’ll hear something from me by then.

And thank you all who’ve kept up with me this year. Thank you for commenting or just thinking your comments. Thanks for the prayers and the letters. It means a lot.

So this is the last week. That’s it. And I’m still half in disbelief that this time has come so quickly and has hit me a little harder than anticipated.

Yesterday was my last church service. The words said, the hugs given lead to some tears but also promises of return.

I remember at the beginning setting a goal that I wanted to leave here either not wanting to go, or ready to go but very sad about it. And in the last month I’ve realized I’ve made my goal happen. Letting go has been hard, saying goodbyes have come too quickly. I feel at home here and I’m going to miss this community around me. I’m going to miss speaking German everyday. I’m going to miss the friends I’ve made.

I’m not usually this bad with goodbyes. I’m often the person who seems cold because goodbyes come easy to me. I’m usually ready to leave a place and move on and it’s rare that I want to hang on so much. I can remember one other time, first year university, that I had a hard time letting go. So I know that this place is really special to me, but it’s also a place I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to visit again and that makes me sad because I want to see these people again.

I don’t know what else I can say. My heart is heavy and is leaving a piece here in Enkenbach. So I’m just putting my trust that God has Germany in store for me again and that my path will wander over the ocean.

That’s not to say I’m not excited to go home and continue my studies and see all my friends. That’s really important to me and I think as the time comes closer I’ll be more excited. But this week I’m letting myself be sad about leaving. I’m letting myself take it all in and be humbled by the love and blessings people are giving me. I’m also packing up my apartment, preparing for a crazy European tour that will lead me and my family into Ukraine and Russia before we head back to Canada.

Now this is something everyone needs to take in once in their life.

The Kerwe is an annual town festival that takes over 4 days. And pretty much all you do is sit around, sing German folk songs, drink your preferred drink of choice in varying amounts and eat German food. It’s probably one of the best charms of living in Germany.

So it starts Saturday evening with an opening ceremony, which I missed. All the ‘ceremonial’ stuff in the Kerwe is not important. But Saturday night I went nonetheless to the Kerwe joined with my friends AC, A, Former Trainee (who came for a visit!) the remaining church young people’s group. And it was a blast. Saturday night they have the ‘modern’ music with a local band who sings in all German and all the favourite German hits. And the later it got the more likely are people to dance. And dance we did. And we danced in the rain. Needless to say it was late before we got to hit the hay.

Sunday continued the festivities with a parade! The second hand store run by the church had a float. So I got to walk in the parade! In a blistering 30C in a dirndle, the dress you think all German women must wear, with a bunch of other people. It was  hoot! Everyone in our float were wearing clothes from the second hand store and we threw candy out at the towns people who looked on. I didn’t get to see all the floats because once we were done all we wanted to do was not be outside in hot clothing.

Sunday evening after a disappointing World Cup Finale, we made our way back to the Kerwe. And there played the Enkenbach brass band. And all they played were Kerwe songs. They sing the same songs year after year and they can be pretty hilarious. One song goes something like this:

I’ll get my lasso and my gun

And we’ll play cowboy and indians

I’ll tie you up and ride you around…

Charming I know. Other songs have to do with the Kerwe. Or how there’s no beer on Hawaii so you should just stay in Germany. Sometimes we all link arms and rock back and forth in sync. Sometimes you take your mug and swing it around saying ‘Prosti, prosti…’ which means Cheers! in German. Sunday evening I also had the pleasure of trying a Pfalzer specialty, saumagen. Now, Sau = pig and magen = stomach. So you can understand my hesitancy of trying this delicacy. It’s pretty much a hamburger patty made with pigs stomach filled with potatoes. And it tastes pretty good.

Monday we brought a bunch of old people from the Altenheim down to the Kerwe in the morning. And if I could say it was as German as it gets without seeing people in Lederhosen and Dirndle, I would say it’s German. 10am the place is not empty is actually kinda full. And it’s mostly filled with old men drinking beer. You see here in Germany there’s no social more saying you can’t drink before noon. You can. So we got all the wheel-chairs aligned at a table in the shade, people got their drinks and we swung back and forth for the next 2 hours to Kerwe songs. The morning ones are a bit tamer. Lunch I was also treated to another German dish. It’s our standard roast beer with horseradish – except that they make the horseradish into a sauce that’s a lot easy to eat and makes it also pretty tastey.

Tuesday night is the last night and it’s a big one. So I headed over around 10pm – because it’s never too late to arrive at Kerwe. The band was still playing the good ole songs. We were swigging, swaying and singing. At midnight came the grand event. The Funeral. Yes, every Kerwe at midnight of the last day has a funeral to bury the Kerwe. A group of men from the community come in chanting like Catholic monks spraying water on everyone with toilet bowl brushes. They sit up on stage and in the thickest dialect sing, talk and reminisce about the Kerwe. It’s very very funny. There are a lot of good jokes and some bad ones. If I understood the dialect better I would have found it even funnier than I understand it now. But it’s pretty much a Catholic funeral held for a fest with baudy jokes.

Please is you’re in the Pfalz July-September find a town with a Kerwe. I would go back.

I’ve been thinking about it often though, this concept of time. And I’ve been thinking about how much we do things. If we think about it, if we only engage in an activity once a week and we do that for a year, then we’d only have done that activity 52 time. ONLY 52 times. And in my head that seems so small. When I sweep and wash the floors at someones house every week I feel like I’ve done it 300 times but can only remember 5 clear times I’ve done a specific action. And in all I’ve washed that floor over 30 times if we count day’s that I’ve been gone.

I don’t know if this is blowing your mind as much as it is mine.

So here’s some numbers (really rough estimates):

Number of Weeks Here: 47

Visit’s An Idividual Received: 42

Average number of visits I have done: 546

Amount of rugs made Monday mornings: 10

Hours on transportation: 148

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten because that’s just too much counting and I’m not really a numbers person. But I ate TONS of cake, like seriously cake has lost a little luster. And cake shouldn’t. Cake should be awesome and delicious and amazing everytime you get to eat it. Not anymore. I’m tired of cake. And I’m tired of coffee. I’m prepared for sugar and coffee withdrawal when I return.

I can tell you it was spectacular. My very good friend J came all the way from Canada to spend some time with me before she began a work program in Spain.

So Monday she flew into Frankfurt where I gladly picked her up and took her poor jet-lagged butt home. Good idea I think  because as many of us know flying over 9 times zones is exhausting.

Early Tuesday morning we went to Paris but not after not catching our train to Kaiserslautern. Good thing we had to catch a train an hour early so we had time to call a taxi to bring us to the train station (It was J’s fault). But we caught our train with plenty of time to spare and although we were supposed to look out and see the beautiful German and French countryside we slept instead.

3 hours we were in Paris and on our way to our hostel in the Latin Quarter. We found ourselves at a quaint little hostel with a spiral staircase and 3 flours of rooms. Not fun to carry luggage up. We took the first day and just chilled. We walked down to Notre Dame and wandered around without an agenda. We simply took in Paris in all it’s bustle and people and tourists. We enjoyed the cafes that are every where for various refreshments.

Wednesday we began with a free walking tour to get our bearings on this enormous city. It was perfect as we learned a little bit of history, found where all the big things were and learned insider information. 3 hours later we found ourselves at Champs D’Elysses. J and I decided to wander down the famous avenue and peer into all those shops I can’t afford yet. You know Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior etc. And right at the end of the avenue is the Arc de Triomf! So we got to see that too.  Later in the evening we went to Mont Martre where you would find Moulin Rouge and a beautiful old church called Sacre Couer. It sits right at the highest point in Paris and you can see everything. Just gorgeous.

Thursday we went to the Louvre – mostly to see the famous woman on the canvas. The Mona Lisa. And she’s everything people say about her. Underwhelming, but you can’t go to Paris and not see her. And the best part about the Louvre is that I got in for free!! European citizens under 26 get free entry into certain museums in Paris and with my visa I’m in! After the Louvre we chilled walked the city some more, enjoyed some Paris night life and weather. And then we headed to the Eiffel Tower cuz you gotta do that too.  And it was really cool. I mean you wait in line for like 30mins. And the top wasnt even open OR the stairs. So we had to take the elevator only to the second platform. Downer. But we stayed till later so we could see the impressive light show that occurs on the Tower in the evening.

Friday was spent at the very very beautiful Versailles. We got a tour of the palace and then wandered through the gardens. It’s just so gorgeous.  My favourite part though was Marie-Antoinette’s gardens. There were these little houses that looked like they came out of a Disney movie (or maybe Disney went here himself and was inspired…) There were farm animals and fish and flowers. As much as seeing a gold door makes you go ‘wow’ – being outside on a fairytale farm with a pig in the mud makes you go ‘THIS IS THE BEST’. And there you have it. Versailles greatest feature is the farm animals.

Just rollin in the mud

Okay Versailles happened and then came Saturday. We pretty much a whole day as we waited to catch our flight to Barcelona. We sat on the river and we wandered the roads. We had no agenda, we didn’t need to see anything else and we just wanted to eat crepes and lay in the sun. It was perfect.

Saturday evening at 10pm we caught our flight to Barcelona arriving around midnight… But you know what!? It’s Spain! So 1am on a Saturday means everyone’s still awake and having a REAL good time. We found our way to the hostel and crashed though because we were exhausted.

And Sunday was beach day. That is all. We bathed as the Spanish do and layed in the hot sun for a long time. It was perfect. Except for the red shoulders afterwards. Sunscreen is a must.

Monday we toured the city a bit, saw the markets, the Picasso museum and enjoyed the Barcelona architecture. But that beach called us again. So we layed on the beach some more because that’s what you do in Barcelona. In the evening we enjoyed our tapas and sangria.

Tuesday morning I had to say goodbye to J as I had to go home and she was moving onto a WOOFing placement.

It was a great way to kick off summer for me, Germany had been really cold up till then. But I can’t say I fell in love with the cities like I love Vienna or Berlin. In Paris I tried reaaaallly hard to speak French because if you don’t the people give you dirty looks. Barcelona was nice, but small and rich. I would go back to both places, but not in a heartbeat.

So in the middle of April I and my friend E went to Vienna. I’d been looking forward to this trip for the longest time because Vienna is like one of the music capitals of the world. So many of the greats have lived there. Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, Beethoven…and that doesn’t even cover it. And I’d heard it was also really beautiful.

So I arrived Thursday afternoon after a short flight from Frankfurt where I didn’t take RyanAir (the cheapest planes EVER) and instead took AirBerlin which gave me a FREE sandwich. It was the best flight I’ve had here so far – probably because I didn’t pay 5 Euros to take it. I arrived and it was raining and raining. I found my way to the hostel just fine, made myself at home and waited for E to show up. I picked her up at the train station and since we were both tired from our day of traveling – mine started at 4am and she worked half a day – we grabbed a döner and called it a day.

Friday we hit the town. We walked a lot. We started at Karlskirche and made our way into the city centre to Stephansdom which is this monstrous old church. It’s really beautiful and marks the centre of Vienna.

Karlskirche

Stephansdom

Then we made a good loop around the city, passing the Hapsburg palace, National Gallery and walking through the Burg Garten. We then made our way to the Rathaus (city hall) where we found ourselves in the middle of a Bavarian Fest. We were surrounded by lederhosen, dirdls, polka music, pretzels, wurst and beer. It was hilarious and we thought we were pretty lucky to find ourselves in that.

We wandered around some more, walked to the river in search of Hundert Wasser Haus – which we didn’t find but had a good time nonetheless. Then we decided to visit Mozart Haus. Which was also awesome. There’s one apartment in Vienna that they know Mozart lived in when he was working in Vienna. They’ve made it into a great museum that takes you through his music and some of his life.

Me at Mozart Haus!

Afterwards we grabbed a bite to eat and then walked to the Stadt Oper or the State Opera. I was determined to watch an opera in Vienna in the standing room because its super cheap. Little did I know HOW cheap it was. We paid 4 Euros, stood in line for about and hour and a half to get into one of the best opera houses in the world. I was SO excited and so was E. We got to see Verdi’s Rigoletto and it was absolutely amazing. Each actor did an increadible job and I hardly believe that I was lucky enough to see such a spectacular performance. If I lived in Vienna I would go every weekend I’m sure. But I can tell you that standing for 3 hours is exhausting at we were ready to go and sleep after that.

Saturday we started at the city flee market looking through all the vendors, food stands, clothing stands. It was fantastic I love little finds like that. It reminded me so much of being home and going to the farmer’s market Saturday mornings with my dad – except that Saskatoon’s is kinda smaller. After wandering for awhile E and i sat down, enjoyed an espresso and glass of wine with our lunch. Then we made our way to the Hundertwasser Haus.

This is a really cool  apartment building created by artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It’s a place for artists to live, has green roofs – like actual trees- and is just really cool.

One side of Hundertwasser Haus

Then we made our way back to the city centre and into the Museum District. We wanted to take in at least one museum while there and we decided the Museum of Natural History would be pretty cool. And it was we spent a good amount of time there looking at stuffed animals and just having a good time. To round off the early part of the day we found a cafe and enjoyed Sache Torte and coffee, a Viennese specialty.

We headed back to the hostel to rest up a bit before we enjoyed Vienna’s famous nightlife at the club U4. And it was pretty fun!

Sunday we enjoyed the sights of Schönbrunn palace the famous summer palace of the Hapsburg family. It’s a beautiful palace with a huge garden. We did the whole thing including a tour of the palace inside and we walked through the entire garden. And it was a hike

Front of Schönbrunn Palace

The rest of Sunday we continued to wander through the centre of Vienna and just take in everything again. They have great shops in the area to look through and it’s really just beautiful to wander through. You just have to be careful to make sure you don’t walk on the bike paths.

Monday we got up for our last day in town. With our packs on we headed to the Stadts Park. This is just a really pretty area with tons of memorials to famous composers including the famous Strauss statue. We made sure to walk and see all of them. Then we headed back to the Danube river to enjoy gelato on the banks of the river before we departed. Unfortunately I wasn’t lucky enough to follow my plans.

Most of you probably heard about a volcano erupting in Iceland and halting all air traffic in Europe. Well during my time in Vienna I hadn’t. So you can imagine my surprise when I show up to the check-in desk wanting to go to Frankfurt and them telling me that nothing was flying into Frankfurt. Well that kinda messed up my schedule! I quickly decided against staying for 2-3 days because I didn’t know if those days would extend themselves to 5 or 6. And as much as I love Vienna it’s not very nice on your pocket book. I canceled my flight and quickly made my way to the train station. After standing in line for about an hour I got through to a representative and booked a train ticket for the next day home. I then spent another night at the hostel relieved that they still had room because there were a lot of people stuck in Vienna. Then Tuesday morning I boarded my train at 6:42am and after 11 hours of travel found myself back home in my apartment VERY tired, but happy.

So therefore I leave you hanging onto my blog wondering why I haven’t talked in a long time relating some ridiculous story back from a visit or telling you of my FANTASTIC time in Vienna (which I will don’t worry). If you want to know  my reality is that I’ve become homesick at least once a month and  emotionally it’s really hard for me sometimes. I get really lonely even when I talk to people everyday all day. I have wonderfully heart warming times with the people I know. I’ve been working on getting fitter and working out more. I’ve been running my 5km – not quite under half and hour yet. The weather here is changing to a normal +15C so I can read outside. I’m very excited for summer to come. I dream of how next year will look all the time when I return to school. I miss my family more and more. I’ve gained too much weight through all this cake. Sometimes its hard to be spiritual and talk to God. I love hanging out with the trainees and some came over for Easter. I’ve watched a German soccer game and it was really fun.

I don’t know what else to say other than I am, in all seriousness, doing okay. My life is not bad, but I’m not always happy but I will always be good.

Alina

But on my way home yesterday I sprained my ankle. Wasn’t looking where I was walking and stumbled right off the sidewalk rolling my foot over in the process. Didn’t help that I had to travel by train for the next 4 hours – one of which I had to run onto. And then there’s just a lot of standing and waiting, but also a lot of sitting which helps.

And some poor kid on the train was either really sick or really really hungover because he decided to puke his poor guts out on the seats across the aisle from me. At least his friends were around to help the poor guy out.

And I got home just exhausted with a sore ankle. But not after being approached by an old man questioning my church going practices. Which actually doesn’t totally bother me because I mean gotta get the word out there. And I’m sure I looked a mess yesterday walking from the train station that could do a bit with some Jesus love. But we had a friendly chat about going to church and reading the bible.

So I got inside and just chilled, watched a movie in English then watched Shrek 3 in german, ate leftovers and finally made my way to bed. Happy I didn’t have to work this morning.

And this week is full of preparation as Easter approaches and I have guests coming over so I have to do lots of laundry, house cleaning, grocery shopping and paska baking.

So awesomeness is to follow.