five days in

My first five days in Germany have been quite the adventure. I'm using the school's wireless network to update on my lunch break; in about 20 minutes I'm due for another meeting with the staff. So I'll just give a quick list of what's happened since I arrived.

• Kristi from personnel and my roommate Jill Musick picked me up from the airport on Friday evening.
• I showered then went to dinner with them, enjoying my first schnitzel!


• 


• Saturday Jill and I accompanied the RAs to a town about an hour north called Freiburg, where we window shopped and enjoyed reading German signs. I spotted a McDonald's, Starbuck's, and even a Tea Gschwender (!!) so all is not lost... ;)
• Sunday I attended Black Forest Christian Fellowship, the church that meets in the auditorium of BFA and has an English service. Later that evening Jill and I went out with Kristi, Suzanne (my host) and Viki (old Janz Team friend!) for Starbuck's in Basel, Switzerland.
• Monday - Wednesday was new staff orientation with the personnel office. I began going through the actions necessary to obtain my visa and German driver's license, register with the city, and get my German bank account set up. Please pray that all the details and technicalities would go smoothly!

I live on a street called Ziegelstrasse in quite possibly the cutest house in all of Kandern. It's commonly referred to by returning staff as "The Greenhouse"...I'll let you figure out why.

Jill and I live on the bottom floor of this house. The window to the right of the door is mine!

Today officially ended the "New Staff" orientation with the personnel department, but this afternoon I begin meeting with my department head and going over things like my classroom, my schedule, my syllabus, etc. Then next week we will be attended the All Staff Conference, get acquainted with and begin working with the returning staff, and get all the classroom details in order before classes begin the following week.

Some things I'm looking forward to this week:

• A dorm tour on Thursday night to visit all seven dorms
• A trip to Basel, Switzerland on Friday night to see the sights and learn about the city
• A trip to some thrift stores and getting the rest of our apartment "settled" with Jill