I Know That I Have to Go

Yes, I'm quoting Cat Stevens today. No, I did not actually hear Cat Stevens on the radio- it is the Boyzone (I'm not asking about this band) remix that is all current and popular in Germany at the moment. Awesome song, though. (It's called "Father and Son" if you're still clueless)

What an awesome day. I got up far too early and we got almost lost on the way to church because Rosi didn't trust my map-reading skills, which are actually quite good. But we made it and I found Nadja pretty much immediately and she is just the coolest person- we were a little early, so she showed me around the church (she lives at the church, you know, and it's not as weird as it sounds- there's lots of apartments as part of the building). And then it was time for Sunday School, which was the same time as church for reaons I didn't totally grasp, and we filled shoeboxes in a tradition that my home church knows very well (ask my mom if you are clueless here). And then the pastor (who you can imagine as Peter Jackson except German and a preacher) invited me for lunch, and Nadja and I made some salad (I am pretty good at making salad, you know) and we ate Frikadellen with the pastor's neighbors, who are a young couple and the girl was getting ready to cut the boy's pretty pretty hair all off, which made me and Nadja sad for the pretty hair. Then Nadja and I hung out for a while and walked a bit through Augsburg (it was very cold) and talked about everything- youth group, movies, how pretty Tübingen is (Nadja's from Stuttgart) and more- it was one of the best conversations I've had in a while. We continued to hang out until the Russian musicians arrived- you see, there was this awesome concert tonight of these Russian floutists who were really good and then also these two Russian dudes who played guitar and some instrument that is maybe called a zitter- I don't know, but Rosi said it is a Bavarian tradition. The guy playing it was not Bavarian, however, but he was very pretty and his fingers moved very quickly over the strings in a way that had me and many others fascinated- the boys must have played 3 encores, and it was really cute because their German was not that great and they had these awesome Russian accents and their final encore was both of them playing the same guitar at the same time, which was pretty awesome and funny- I demand that the Sparrows work out this skill by the time I return- it is a Certified Crowd-Pleaser. Anyway, Nadja and I were mostly responsible for making sure that the Russians were well-fed, so we got cake to them (and of course ate some ourselves) pre-concert and served them pizza (also fed ourselves like good Methodists) post-concert, where I was also mildly shocked to find beer being served at church, but this is Germany, and moreso Bavaria. And now I am home after spending (I now realize) about 12 and a half hours at church, and I couldn't be happier. I didn't sing one hymn today, or even attend any sort of service, but just being in the building was enough to give me back this grounding that I didn't even realize I was missing.

I want to live at church, too.