Hallo Alle!
So I'm now at the end of my Easter Break, and what an interesting two weeks it's been! It started off great with my awesome trip with Danielle to Switzerland and Europa Park, but then Danielle left... and I was left to fend for myself for pretty much the rest of the break. I thought it wouldn't really be a big deal, but I've definitely realized how much I personally need human interaction every day. I don't like being by myself for so long! Well I wasn't COMPLETELY on my own, a few of my friends from the Jazz and Rock Schulen were still around, and it was nice to see them, but I didn't see them at any regular times, so I still felt like I was on my own.
But I'll start with Easter. What an experience that was. I wasn't sure at first what I should do for Easter, seeing as I would be spending it mostly by myself. So I decided to go to the big Catholic Cathedral here in Freiburg, the Münster. There were services every day from Thursday to Sunday. The Thursday Mass was small, more like a normal Mass meeting, and the sermon focused on Easter events, mainly the Last Supper. It was really cool to experience a Catholic Mass like that, which I've only done a handful of times. On Good Friday it was very similar, and there were a few more people there. But then on Saturday, the celebration was much larger. A friend and I got to the church fifteen minutes before the service started, and we didn't even get seats! It was so full! They gave everyone candles, and then when the service started, the entire cathedral went dark. There was a speaker/singer singing something in a Gregorian style, and then the Bishop and the rest of the church leaders came up the isle in their normal procession, but this time they all had lit candles. When they got to the front, they lit the candles of the people in the front row, and then those people lit the candles of the people in the next row, and so on and so forth until everyone's candles were lit. It was really really cool. Then the lights came up and there was incredible organ music playing and a children's choir singing, and it was so amazing! Such an incredible experience. The best part of the service was when they performed the Hallelujah Chorus by Handel at the end, it was so amazing.
So I had a very interesting cultural experience going to the Catholic church, however I had an even more exciting opportunity for Easter Sunday. A friend of mine from the Jazz and Rock Schulen invited me to spend Easter Sunday with his family, who live just outside Freiburg. It was such a lovely time! My friend, Alex, picked me up at 9:15am and took me to his family's house, and then we all piled into the car and proceeded to church, an Evangelical church, for 9:45. After church Alex, his Dad and I walked back to their house. They made a DELICIOUS Easter meal, with their traditional family soup, which was a lot like chicken noodle soup, to start, and then a feast of lamb, turkey, chicken, homemade German potato salad, rice, GRAVY, and various vegetables including white asparagus which I'm told is currently in season. So that was absolutely splendid. We also played DOMINION in German!! Esther, Rob and Caleb, you know what I'm talking about. It was so awesome. Then we went for a walk, and did an Easter hunt, and they had even bought ME some Easter treats!! It was such a great time, they really made me feel welcome into their family. It was so much like celebrating Easter at home!
Then I spent the rest of the week mostly on my own. This was when I started to feel lonely. I spent basically every day doing homework and practicing. I saw some of my friends sporadically throughout the week, but it wasn't the same. So that was a difficult time for me. I was so happy when Tasha and Christian came back from their trip on Friday, and then when James came back on Saturday.
Und HEUTE... habe ich ein GANZ gutes tag gehabt! I've been searching for a good church to go to, and had, until today, failed to find one, and was stuck with what I thought was the only option; the Catholic church. But then my friend Jan told me about a church that they call die Freikirche, which is basically a non-denominational Christian church, the same type of church I go to in Boston. So I figured, why not try it out? Can't hurt. It was AWESOME!! Almost EXACTLY like my church in Boston! I felt so at home :) I met a whole group of people there, and they invited me to come have lunch with them. So we took the train to their house and made homemade pizza, and THEN, they invited me to go to the SOCCER GAME WITH THEM!!! I got to see a Bundesliga game in the true German tradition!! WOW!! What an experience that was!! All the singing, cheering, jumping, dancing, it was so much fun. No one scored unfortunately, but I was having so much fun and enjoying taking in the experience that I didn't really care that much. Afterwords we had some coffee back at their house and then I went back home. It was so exciting to find a good church community, and I'm really looking forward to spending some more time with them. God is good!!
Well I think that's enough for now. All in all, my Easter Break was definitely a time of learning. Onto the next stage... more school. Hahaha.
Bis später!!
<3 hannah ;)
