(title from the very cheesy film, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, which I used to watch in my childhood…for whatever reason, this particular song, sung by my childhood crush, Gordon McRae, came to mind: 7:12 here)
I moved yesterday. All my worldly possessions — all the ones I need, anyway, give or take a few books. I managed to fit everything into the bags I brought here, and I was proud of myself. Taking them on the train wasn’t even too bad! I had help on both sides – it’s always good, I’ve found, to have a strong central European man around.
No, the hard part was being at Hannover Hauptbahnhof, as it turned out. The night before I left, Joerg informed Karla and me that 1 May (Erste Mai – a national holiday here, like May Day), and there would be lots of neo-Nazis out in the city, and burning cars, and policemen. “And Hannover will be worse,” he said. Karla’s been here 11 years, and she didn’t know; she thought he was joking.
Sure enough, as Joerg and Karla and Leah and Luke and I pulled into Hamburg Hauptbahnhof yesterday morning, we glimpsed a line of about fifteen Polizei cars. Police were milling about everywhere, and I felt a little uneasy. I got on the train just fine, though, thanks to the help of the sweet Meiers, whom I was sad to leave.
I got to Hannover in about an hour and fifteen minutes – the usual. Once I finally got out of the train with my two rolling bags, big backpack, overnight bag, and purse (thanks to the help of one kind German man), I headed for the horse statue where I was to meet the Meeks’ neighbors.
imagine me standing at the base of this with all my bags...
I was facing the direction from which this photo was taken. But imagine that, instead of wearing autumn attire, the folks milling about me were dressed in black…all of them. And to the left and the right of the statue were rows of polizei, standing there, arms folded. Loud techno music blasting from some loudspeaker, with someone yelling provoking-sounding German things every once in a while.
I was a bit nervous for a while there. I think I waited about 10-12 minutes, searching the crowd…until I finally saw Citi! I smiled largely at her, she smiled at me, we said “hey,” and she grabbed my bag and said “let’s get out of here.” Music to my ears.
I got here, and I have to tell you…it’s heaven. This house is gorgeous. It has three floors, as usual, including the basement…but it is bigger than any house I’ve seen in Germany. It has 10 rooms. Five bedrooms. I don’t even live in the basement. My room has HUGE windows that face the stables next door. There’s a room upstairs with a big screen and a projector. There’s a room downstairs that’s empty except for a tv with the Wii in the corner. This is a family of six and they don’t have enough stuff to fill this house with. That’s astounding for Germany.
There’s a church, literally down the street, that I found a picture of:
And the backyard of this house is a huuuuge field, with canola as far as the eye can see and hills in the background…I’ll upload pictures later but this is the basic idea:
imagine more hills in the background...and no words eclipsing the image.
The family is out of town, by the way, so I have some time to settle in. They’re fellow Texans, so I was immediately able to find all the ingredients to make tortillas, and, consequently, a refried-bean-and-cheese quesadilla. A couple of Dexter episodes later (I told myself I wouldn’t get hooked, and here we are), and I’m relaxed.
I miss Geesthacht already. I miss the Meiers, and Carina and Mareike, and Thiago and Andrea, and everyone and everything I was just getting to know. But, as Karla says, I got comfortable, and it seems like God likes to move us when we get to that place. I’m a little weary already thinking of starting over, trying to strike up conversation, getting to know the way things work in this family, learning the kids’ strengths and weaknesses and forms of communication, figuring out how to get places, learning more German…but I know it’s for my own good. I want to know Him more. I hope this happens. Here goes.
Hooray! God is so good.