The Countdown Begins

My time in Germany is much too quickly coming to an end. I am ready to see my family and my critters. I look forward to the convenience of having all my "stuff", being able to drive, having stores open when I have a whim for something. Yet, I have found a family here in Neuendettelsau, too and it is going to be very difficult to leave them.

I look forward to the new adventures that will come with my internship assignment in Coos Bay, Oregon. At the same time, I am afraid. Afraid of the unknown. Yes, I realize that doesn't make so much sense after I up and ran off to Germany for a year and now I'm afraid to go somewhere new in my own country... but I am. Maybe I am more afraid of the relationships I will build in this new place, knowing that in just a year I will have to leave those people, just like I will be leaving my German friends.

Wilhelm-Löhe-Kirche in Fürth

Another thing that I am sad about is going back to the American health care system. I will have insurance, which is more than many people. However, here in Germany I have health insurance for a very reasonable premium and I can walk into a doctor's office for 10 Euros per quarter. But, I'm not going to get into all the political crap. There's enough of that everywhere else. Just one more thing about that. The Academic Dean of Wartburg Seminary was here in Neuendettelsau last week. He gave a lecture on the Occupy Movement and Liberation Theology. This was a good reminder that as Christians, we have responsibilities to be politically active, a voice for social justice. We choose where our resources go, and I am proud of the ELCA for being a denomination focused more on social aid around the world than on media attention and planting fear in people as a means of control.

Maus???

Friday, Dr. Nessan, Sebastian, and I wandered around Nürnberg, through a Dürer exhibit at the Germänisches National Museum, to Löhe's birth house (Nessan's connections got us in) and Wilhelm-Löhe-Kirche in Fürth. The best part about the birth house was the petrified mouse in the case with all the other artifacts they found in the birth room. The dude said the mouse needed to be displayed as the "last resident of the room".

Sunday is race day. This will be my third half marathon and I am looking forward to the experience of running in München with such an enormous number of participants. The number of participants (all distances) is capped at 18,000 runners. Of course I will be lost in the crowd. That's ok. I don't mind that.

Pax.