A Little Taste of Home

This weekend was relatively low-key considering some of the recent traveling that's been done, but I still had a lot of fun. On Saturday, we had our own version of Chilifest here in Germany (thanks Katie and Austin for the planning and work)! It seems like every time we get together as a group (Megan's birthday or this weekend) we end up eating dishes like tacos, nachos, queso, chili...you get the point. So as much as we might have mixed feelings about our time here coming to an end, I think we can agree that we're all craving some good ol' Mexican/Tex-Mex from the states.

This morning I went back to the English-speaking Protestant Church in Bad Godesburg with Joanna. It was really interesting because it was the one Sunday of the month where the worship service was done African-style. Despite being in Germany, a large proportion of this English-speaking congregation hails from Africa, so we got to hear some traditional music and sing along with songs like "Hakuna Mungu kama wewe". I thought that the cultural mix was really interesting (and beautiful, of course), and maybe I'll go back home knowing a few words of Swahili as well as the German that I've picked up. After making it back to the house, Joanna, Andrea and I all ran eleven miles as part of our final training for the Bonn Marathon next week. I'm really excited about it, being that I missed the opportunity to run in the "Cowtown" back home in Fort Worth this spring. However, that excitement died down a bit towards the end of the run as my legs started protesting the abuse. I was trying to drown out the complaints by focusing on how beautiful the landscape is along the Rhine, and was largely successful. Running over a bridge and getting to see both banks down below was really great, as were the pastoral stretches along the banks. Anyway, with any luck, the weather will stay nice next week and we'll all have a great run.

With only a few weeks left in Germany I'm beginning to have a bit of inner conflict- on one hand, I'm starting to really try to appreciate all the days I have left in Germany and trying to get the most out of this incredible experience. However, I'm also starting to really get excited about going home and seeing everyone without having to look at their pixelated faces on Skype. And of course, there's also that little bit of panic upon realizing how much work there is left to do before the semester wraps up, but I think it's best not to dwell on that particular worry. So there's my weekend in a nutshell- chili, Swahili, long run and musings. Tchüss!