Talent Show

I tried to upload a video of Kelsey and me performing at the talent show, but it took way too long. Hopefully I can get a recording up on here, at least. Here are some pictures of other acts:

Nathan, Ethan, And Nick with a pop and RnB song medley.

Julia and Murray singing "Ring of Fire." She's holding a kazoo up to his mouth. . .

Hans with the Tauernhof version of "My Way" by Frank Sinatra.

Today most of the school went to Salzburg because there was a Christmas market.

There were lots of vendors selling food and toys and clothes and decorations. I hung out with Benni, Jan and Adam (DE, DE, US-Idaho), and basically just walked and walked and walked, occasionally talking when we had nothing else to do. I told Kelsey later that the day was pretty quiet and she laughed and unbelieving laugh. She hung out with American girls, probably as opposite as you can get of hanging out with German guys. There was a cathedral and a children's choir. . . and then we came home. Salzburg I have to soak up; one day of walking around doesn't cut it.

(ABOVE: Benni and me; BELOW: Adam and... )

So, I can't remember if I wrote it in the last post, but EFG (Evangelical-Free "Gemeinde" [Fellowship], the church in Weimar, Germany where I'll be working after Tauernhof) has found me a place to live! Apparently I'll have my own room and entrance, but I'll be sharing a bathroom with a family. Sooo. . . I'll sort of have my own place. Wow, I just realized that this will be my first official "own place" . . . cool. :) Rent is totally covered, but I'm on my own otherwise. Hopefully I'll be traveling a tiny bit beforehand, possibly to Hungary, possibly to visit Tauernhof friends in Germany. For sure to visit Stephanie for New Year's Eve in Stuttgart. We'll see how things shape up.

Goodbye for now,

-Michael

Heyyyy Everybody. :D

Well, the hotel across the street from the school finally opened back up from their month-long vacation, so the internet is finally at my command. :D

Ok, first things first: the picture above is lying to you. See all the hair below about nose level? It's not there anymore. Now it's something more like this:

That's me at this very moment; that face comes from a sore throat. Lots of guys (and a few girls) are doing "No-shave November," but for me I guess it was "Shave November."

I'll start with recent events, and write till my computer battery runs out:

Tonight is a talent show; I'll be playing piano for my friend Kelsey who's singing "Chasing Pavements" by Adele. I fee like I should say a superlative or two about Kelsey's voice. It's AWESOME, really intimate but powerful, too. I didn't know people with voices like this came to Bible schools. Hopefully a video of that will end up on here. Also I'm leading worship Sunday evening. There are always two church services on Sunday, morning and evening, with music and a student's testimony and a speaker. Different worship teams and "family groups" lead the worship. (A family group is a small group that meets Monday nights for a more intimate Bible study led by a student.) Anyway, my worship team is leading it this Sunday evening, and we decided to do a "total praise" service, with songs basically focusing only on God Himself, not my own troubles or experiences. Obviously those songs aren't bad or anything, but we just wanted to do this one time idea.

This week everyone had a "secret angel" who would write them letters or give them (good) food or do their duties for them; whatever practical ideas that would bless and encourage their person, whose names we drew from a bag. I got a letter and some chocolate from my angel, and to my person I organized a scavenger hunt, using, of course, Bible verse as the clues. I am at Bible school, after all. It's nice to see some of the friendships that have formed here. Here are some of my friends:

From left to right: Kelsey (who I'm playing with in the talent show; she's from Oregon), Ruth (Britain), Robin (Germany), Samara (Canada), and Laura (Minnesota).

This was the group I went to Vienna with on travel weekend. Oh man, that's a whole other story, and I'm running out of time. Anyway, Robin and I hit it off from the beginning, and he's definitely my closest friend here. Maybe, maybe even my closest friend in a long, long time. I've been learning how to open up to people and take myself seriously since I've been here, and Robin's sort of been the test subject. Robin and I go on long walks sometimes, even though it's pretty cold nowadays (though I should mention, the snow has been hit-or-miss, and currently we have no snow to speak of). Anyway, Robin is 20 years old wants to be a teacher of government or geography, or something related. Kelsey is another one I talk with a bit. She's 21 and was studying to be a singer, but some things happened and she's abandoned that for now.

Benni (German, left) is one of my room mates, and he's another guy I treasure a bunch for a number of reasons. He's going to study medicine after Bible school, and wants to be a children's doctor.

Wow, okay, time's up - dinner's ready. I didn't write half of what I should've. This didn't even break the surface. Well, then you can probably be expecting at least one more of these soon.

Till then, farewell; I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving.

-Michael

Teaser

I'll post something better once I'm done with a Bible study I've been working on. That goes down tonight, so pray for me if you remember. I've never talked for forty-five minutes straight before. :S

Now here's something for your viewing pleasure:

Schladming ^^^

Rod, the guy's RA ^^^

My team in a photo-scavenger hunt ^^^

Talk to y'all later.

-Michael

Pictures + Real Update

Fast connection today!

In the Alps, near Schladming...

My new buddy Robin, and Jan ("Yahn") the pianist/molecular medicine graduate. Both are German.

The "Eagle's Nest," where I am right now. The guy on the left is French, the girl on the right is British, and the guy in the distant center is Canadian.

Volleyball...

The view from my train as it approached Schladming, where the school is. The spiritual dynamics here are about the same as the physical dynamics.

These pictures are chronologically backwards.

The real (short) update:

This week has been an ideal start to the semester. Not because it's been perfect, but because being around all these people, having school and chore duties, and of course the spiritual teaching have brought out a few mindset-type things I'll need to work on over the next three months. There are about sixty students here, mostly from Canada, then America, Germany, and others. We've got three hours of lectures in the morning, lunch, then the afternoon serves as a free time for homework, exercise, working on our outreach projects (going to schools, hospitals, things like that; I'm in the "singing team" :D), or just relaxing. In the mornings, between breakfast and first lecture, we have "duties" like cleaning and helping in the kitchen. Most of these duties rotate, so after a while you get a new duty. Mine, however, is permanent. I take care of the fish. There's a fish tank by the stairs near my room, so I have to feed them, change the filter, and every couple of weeks change their water. I really like this job, actually! It'll be a good way for me to grow in being consistent, which is a weakness of mine.

I've met most of the students already, and there are quite a few interesting people here. One guy I hang around with a bit is a German guy named Robin. You can see his shadowy picture above. He wants to be a teacher, and is very eager and genuine. All of the Germans seem that way, and I love it; no pretense at all.

The lectures this week have been over the book of Phillipians, taught by a German named Tobi. He's one of those really cool/frustrating guys who's done just about EVERYTHING, including pro boxing, architecture, and carpentry. Lots of stories, quite a bit of insight. Today, one thing he touched on was being faithful in our little jobs, and I thought how great it is that we have our duties around the school, as tangible ways to practice that.

That's all for now. Writing this reminded me of a few things I should take pictures of to show y'all. Hope everything is going well wherever you are.

-Michael

Arrived

Everything's going well, though I don't yet have my luggage; supposedly it'll arrive tomorrow morning. Here's the scoop:

My first American Airlines plane from DFW to Chicago was juuust late enough to keep me from getting to the Air India ticket counter in time to get my next ticket to Frankfurt. (Can you put more "to"s in a sentence?) I went back and talked to AA, who gave me a seat on a flight to Frankfurt later that day. The agent assured me my bags and ticket would be transferred without problem. Cool.

While waiting for the next flight, I emailed my parents and German friend, Sandra, to tell them that I'd be a few hours later but everything was ok.

One smooth flight later, I arrived in Frankfurt a little bit earlier than I had expected so I was relaxed and in a positive mood. Of course all the passengers went to the baggage-claim area, and, long story short, my luggage hadn't come on the same flight I had. The AA man had not succeeded in transferring my stuff from the Air India flight, but when AI saw that I had not gotten my ticket, they removed my bags and put them on the next AI flight to Frankfurt, which would arrive the next day (yesterday). No big deal, the German man assured me, I just needed to call this phone number on that day and everything would be fine.

So, I waited, walked around, read a little bit . . . Half an hour to an hour later, I decided to check my email to see if Sandra had responded the one I sent her. There was an email, but not from Sandra. The words "Failure Notice" were in the subject line, and I knew right away: she hadn't received it.

After that I sent her a couple of facebook messages, because I knew she would get those, eventually. About every 45 minutes I checked facebook again, and sent a message to Lena, Sandra's fiancé Phillipp's sister. Finally, four and a half worried, sleepy hours later I got a message from Sandra saying they had already boarded the train home, and to get a train toward Erfurt, close to their town. She also gave me a phone number at which to call her, which turned out to be Phillipp's iPhone. Apparently they had left within the same hour I had arrived, after spending three hours looking for me. Finally by the fifth hour I was getting on the train to Erfurt, where they would meet me. Whew.

That was all two days ago. Yesterday I called the phone number the German man gave me, hoping my bags would be in. No one answered, so I left a message. An hour later, no one answered; two hours later, no one answered. Online we found another number for the American Airlines desk at the Frankfurt airport, which was answered by a lady who confirmed that my bags were indeed at the airport (thank God), but the desk I was calling with the previous number had already closed for the day, and to call back the next day during their open hours.

Heute morgen. AA called me because of the messages I had left, confirmed everything, and said my bags would be sent to me!. . . tomorrow! . . . my bags will arrive tomorrow. Man. So close.

So tomorrow, I expect to have my suitcase and guitar, which will be awesome. I had packed an extra change of clothes in my carry-on, so I'm not a complete stinkpot. We're having fun, I'm speaking some German, etc. It's cold here; or as they say in German, "It gives cold." Crazy Germans.

-Michael

I made it, ya'll. It's a long story that I'll write later. Later.

-Michael

Second Post

let me tell you what's going down, as it stands right now.

Sept. 14, 2009: I leave on a jet plane for Germany; visit my friend Sandra and her church in Weimar, where I will hopefully be interning later.

Sept. 20, 2009: Take a train to Austria; begin the fall semester at Tauernhof, a Torchbearers Bible school in Schladming, Austria (near Salzburg). (http://www.fackeltraeger.at/)

Dec. 12, 2009: Finish fall semester at Tauernhof; take a train back to Weimar; begin internship at the Evangelical-Free Church of Weimar (pending approval by church); hopefully visit Budapest.

April 26?, 2010: Leave Weimar; take a train back to Tauernhof for the second semester of Bible school.

June 18, 2010: Finish Spring semester at Tauernhof; return home to Dallas.

Obviously more changes may take place in the future, so we'll see what the Lord does.

Here's my mailing address and phone number while I'm there. Feel free to surprise me!

Mailing Address in Austria:

Michael Wade
Tauernhof
Coburgstrasse 50
A-8970 Schladming
Austria

For phone calls from North America:

Student Phone: 011-43-3687-24190
Office Phone: 011-43-3687-22294

NOTE: I can only receive calls between:
7:00-8:45 am
12:30 - 5:15 pm
9:00-10:30 pm
Central European Time (7 house ahead of Dallas).