The Comforts of Home

The Comforts of Home
Yesterday I was a little homesick, so I cooked.  Mom sent me a package with some food things in it a few weeks ago, so I can make American food.  So yesterday I cooked for my neighbor in the dorms, and he was really impressed with my American food.  I made Mesquite Chicken, corn, and brownies.  Mmmm…brownies.  One thing I’m really missing now is Gumbo.  I love Gumbo.  Apparently, Germans have no idea what Cajun food is like.  They don’t have it here.  I think Gumbo is an essential part of my diet.  I guess I need to learn to make it from scratch if I’m to survive here.  

A billion posts in one day…can you tell I’m bored today?

Pope Benedict XVI at the final service of World Youth Day 2005. This is the service I attended.

Arial Shot of Marienfeld

Weltjugendtag 2005 Köln

I am proud to say that I have made a religious pilgrimage. On Sunday, August 21st, I traveled to Köln (Cologne), Germany. Pope Benedict XVI was there for World Youth Day. Yes, I went to Sunday Mass with the Pope. I had Eucharist blessed by the Pope, I have neclaces blessed by the Pope, I was blessed by the Pope. Did I actully see him? No. He was too far away for me to see him, but I could see him on the big TV screens they had set up for the "unregistered pilgrims". Yes, they register pilgrims now. Go figure. I dedicated 14 hours to seeing the Pope. Actually, I spent an hour eating in a chinese place, so it was really 13 hours, but still it's a lot of time. I have a little video that I made of the event. If you want to see what I could see, email me and I'll send it to you. Pardon the german in it though. The Pope is German, the country was Germany...go figure that most of the service was held in german. There was an english translation on the radio, so I could hear some of that from the canadian people behind us. On this day, my small corner of the world was expanded in a way I can't entirely explain. There is something inexplicable that happens when you hold the hand of an Italian man to pray the "Our Father" and hear him say it in Italian, hear it in French from behind you, in Spanish from in front of you and in german over the loud speaker. There were an estimated 80,000 pilgrims at the final service on Sunday, representing nearly every country on earth including several african countries, and some small island from the south pacific. They all prayed the "Our Father" together in their own languages. It was really something.
I am, at best, a bad catholic. I don't go to church much. Ok, it's been years. But on Sunday, I spend 8 hours on trains and 2 1/2 hours walking so that I could go to Sunday Mass. Does that make me a better catholic? I don't really think so, but at least I know the importance of what I saw...nearly one million people who had traveled from all parts of the globe to see a man who has dedicated his entire life to his belief. To our belief. To hear us proclaim our faith in more languages than I can count on both hands, may not make me a better catholic, but I think it may have made me a better person.

Madagascar auf Deutsch

I saw my first film in german. I went to the theater in the Libori Gallery (a little mall downtown) with my friend Sabrina and some of her friends. The movie was so funny! Even when I didn't understand the words, I could still understand the story because it was animated. I laughed so hard I almost cried. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in going to the theater. I think the last movie that made me laught like that was one of the Shreck movies. I'm glad I started with something easy to understand because I think some of the films that are about to come out will be a bit more difficult. I can see some films in English, but that's just not as cool. I want to see them all in German. Though, I think something like Sin City will be to difficult for me to follow in german. Anyway, go see Madagascar! I had a great time!

The Diocesan Museum of Paderborn

Paderborn is a catholic town. Everything they do here revolves around the chruch. They have a huge cathedral (Paderborner Dom) and beside it they have a Diocesan Museum. It's filled with tons of old statues, figures, and other chruch related relics. Aside from the ornate goblets and life sized statues and clergy vestments which are amazing in their own right, one can't help but notice something...nearly every piece of work is older than my own country. Think about that. The two oldest things there were the Imad Maria (mother and child made of wood) and a church cloth from the Byzantine Church. Both of these items were from the 11th century. THE 11TH CENTURY!!!! That's a thousand years ago when people still thought the world was flat! In fact, it would be almost 500 years before someone thought to prove the earth was round! Wow. "This was carved when the world was still thought to be flat"...say it out loud. I still can't even fathom it. Wow. Here's the clincher...I paid 1,50 euros to see it. That's less than two dollars. I gotta love culture and history on a budget!

This is me and my penpal, Julie. We've been writing for almost 13 years to eachother and I finally get to visit here while I'm here in Germany. This Picture was taken in Heidelburg. You can see the castle in the background.

Getting it started

Ok, I've been meaning to re-start my blog for a while now. I was inspired by my brother who now also has a blog. It was kind of a kick in the butt to get it moving on my site. Anyway, it's going now and it has the same address as the old one so no one will get lost trying to find it. I have a lot of stories to publish already, but my internet access it limited in my German dorm room, so I'm looking for an apartment with internet access. That is today's adventure...weeding through roommate ads. fun. But it's better than knowing I'm forever confined to a closet of a room with no web access, and don't get me started on the kitchen and fridge problems...