Introducing the Amazing Rockethead

For comparison purposes, a picture of me from last August, and a picture of me from May:




I spent Monday packing. Packing. Lots of packing, totally all packed up now. And I did my Abmeldung from Augsburg and I cleaned a bit and that was Monday. Yesterday, I got out of bed early and went with my host mom and Anja and Nadja to look at pretty castles and prettier mountains. We were kind of bad about taking pictures, but that's why I have the joy of hyperlinks. We went to Neuschwanstein and chose to just look at the outside cause the website has better pictures of the inside than is worth paying money to see for real. Then we went off driving through the mountains and stopped at the Plannsee for a swim and there was a weird guy there who talked to us and we decided later that he must have been a mailman but it was good swimming and we built towers from the rocks. Then back in the car and we drove to Linderhof, which is a very very pretty baroque castle that is mini-Versailles because Ludwig II really really hearted Louis XIV really. Totally pretty pretty place that doesn't let you take pictures inside but you should check it out sometime. Then we had dinner at the little restaurant there and I had real German Käsespätzle for the last time for a while, I guess, but I can totally make my own Käsespätzle. Then we drove home and stopped to stand on a mountain for a bit and then kept driving home. Somehow, a day in the Alps was what I needed right now- a day to go sit in this giant dramatic landscape and have my giant dramatic thoughts, or be able to finally ignore them, because these mountains have been here for so long and will stay here for so long and we can build our castles and highways and ski slopes, but even our tallest towers barely change that horizon, great beasts poking jaggedly into the sky.


I have a lot of things to do today, I guess, which is why I am awake early, I suppose (it is probably just nerves, really, and maybe the heat a bit).


And since I was asked, no, I am not going to be in any shape to play a mandolin this Sunday (hopefully those skills will come back soon, though!) but if the Sparrows want to change their program to include Lord I Lift Your Name on High somewhere, I will totally teach you guys how to sing it in German. Cause my German church is getting pretty good at singing it in English, and it is only fair. I promised.

Herr dein Name sei erhöht
Herr ich singe dir zu Ehre
Danke, dass du in mir lebst
Danke für deine Erlösung
Du kamst vom Himmel hierher
Zeigst uns den Weg
Und du hast am Kreuz bezahlt
Für meine Schuld
Und sie legten dich ins Grab
Doch du stiegst zum Himmel auf
Herr dein Name sei erhöht