Arrival

So I just read Edmund's little thing and it made me smile quite a lot. Thanks Efmund :)

I'm currently writing this from my new bedroom in Castrop-Rauxel, Germany. After a week of hardcore sight-seeing, an insane amount of traveling, and no sleep at all, I finally made it.

First I'll talk about D.C. After twelve hours of solo (for the first time) traveling, I arrived in D.C. I had this stereotype in my head of a bunch of socially awkward Germany geeks but actually it was a really diverse group. People from all over the western United States, all different styles and accents and personalities. It was pretty cool. However, it was seriously lacking in Christian fellowship which I've grown so accustomed to. My bedmate was a girl named Leilani from Seattle who was really cool. It was rather ironic I thought. From the second we landed it was go, go, go. We were there Sunday night through Wednesday afternoon and they to show us every single possible thing. I went to the State Department of Foreign Affairs, the Smithsonian, the Archives, the White House, the Capitol, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Roosevelt Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, including JFK's grave and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the German Embassy, and the Senate building where I met Senator Akaka. I think that's all haha. It was really cool but sooo exhausting. And the jet lag had me up till two in the morning almost every night. Only to get in a few hours for breakfast and departure. The day we met the Senators they gave us a list of appointments with the address of the Senate building they were in and a map and we had to navigate D.C. to find it. It was fun but we had to dress nice which included the most horridly uncomfortable death ballet flats ever. Some stupid girls wore heels. That was also the same day we saw all the memorials. It was literally 14 hours of non-stop walking in really painful shoes. I have really bad blisters. Every night around nine we would all meet for a little meeting on advice about Germany and information and whatnot. Not really that helpful actually. My superior intellect made such things common sense. Just kidding. Kind of haha.

Then yesterday after doing several things in the morning we headed back to Dulles Airport. We got there about three hours early but only ended up waiting like fifteen minutes. It took a while to get through security and another while to wait for my subway sandwich. Which reminds me, in D.C. we ate really crappy food and at one crappy food court you had to go through security to get in. Every single place we went we had to go through metal detectors and scanners and the whole shebang. It was ridiculous. But then at 5:15 east coast time I left the States. It was a seven hour direct flight to Frankfurt which I did not get one wink of sleep on. When I finally staggered out of the plane (after being awake 24 hours and sleeping only three or four hours a night for four nights) I was so insanely tired I was getting dizzy and having trouble walking haha. We then had to wait at the train station for a few hours to catch a train to Duesseldorf to meet up with our host families. It was an hour and a half beautiful train ride through the German countryside which I tried so hard to stay awake for but I couldn't. At Duesseldorf I met my family and they were very happy to see me and I them. One thing I learned right off the bat is that in Germany all the water is sparkling water, and it's nasty haha. If you ask for water at a restaurant or whatnot they don't have regular water. I'll have to acquire the taste I guess. I fell asleep again in the hour car ride up to Castrop. Castrop is a really adorable city actually. With old very German looking buildings right next to very modern buildings. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. I live in the third floor of an apartment. I got to the apartment and showered and took a two hour nap. My host sister baked my a heart shaped cake that says "Wilkommen" or welcome which was super sweet. I'm going to enjoy it tomorrow. And finally my family took me to eat at an Italian place which was good and where I met these two other German girls who are nice and think it's the coolest thing ever that I'm from Hawaii. I can already predict that my Hawaiian status will be a leg up in making friends haha.

Now I am pooped and am going to spend my first night in Europe.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Kathryn :)

Dear Kathryn

So for those of you who don't know... If anyone reads this, haha. Kathryn flew to Washington DC recently for some cultural training or whatever before she moves to Germany. Unless I misheard that. But I'm not very proficient at goodbye's. I also failed to give a speech at her birthday party, which I had meant to do. Also... with everyone wondering if we're an item... it would be good to clarify how I feel about her I guess.

I guess I should start with... We are not courting, haha. No but on to seriousness.

Kathryn is one of those people that I wish I had met sooner. We met in our AP English class senior year. But we didn't really talk to each other for half the year. However, she was one of the very few people who actually stated her opinion in that class.

We were fast friends and really got to talk when we both went to the same art show alone. We awkwardly gravitated to each other and took (as I remember it) two or three rounds about the artwork. Talking most the entire time. After striking up a conversation, the art really became secondary. I don't quite remember what we talked about until the subject of Christ and the Bible came up. (This was near the end of a period of time when I was very detached from Christ and living quite on my own will) We talked for the next hour or so about how much similarly we viewed Christianity and the Bible.

The topic of God has since been quite the bonding point between us. Oh, and the constant jokes about our soulmate-ism. (I don't think she knows this but I was seriously encouraged by friends to date her) We are quite alike. Both of us hate being emotional and loathe crying. We see things in similar ways. Yet the most striking thing is how often in our pasts our personalities and experiences have matched up and developed.

We also had more than a few bonding moments when we worked together on the biggest project of our senior year. Our partner essay about a poet. Unfortunately, seeing things in a similar light also brought us both to find little merit in the poetry of William Wordsworth. I still wish we had chosen Thomas Hardy, whom I love. But anyway, there were a few sleepless nights brought on by our routine of taking three hour conversation breaks after every hour of work. (I also had my first experience with sleep-talking) We wrote the paper in two days and scored a B. Totally worth it.

Our love of music has also played a role in our friendship. It's hard to find someone who says they love music and actually goes out and looks for it. Of course, it's also a stumbling block and idol for both of us.

All in all, God has been the greatest factor in bringing us together. And how glad I am at the whims of God's good pleasure. It has been a very encouraging relationship in possessing similar emotional tendencies and viewpoints. I have also been encouraged to never fear expressing an opinion. I've also strived toward being able to humble myself always.

I guess my main point is that I am so happy we met. And I believe she is one of the few people that I'll really keep in contact with. Not that I don't have other friends... it just really seems that way... since NO ONE IS JOINING OUR BLOG. But yeah, I really wish we could have met sooner. I'll miss her. There. I admitted it. Done.

-Edmund

PS: I'll mail you your book and send you a letter and whatever if you give me your adress Kathryn. Oh yeah, and blog about DC.