Settling In

Jamie and I are back from our trip around Europe and we are very excited to finally start work. We have many ideas that we want to get working on and it feels as if we have been living an unsettled life for the past 3 months; thus, structure and organization will be remedies for the two of us.
Our trip was wonderful; beauty and blessing permeated the whole experience: from the Alps to the Brandenburg Gate, from Amsterdam to the tiny principality of Luxembourg; Jamie and I came and saw and conquered....(cheap laugh)...

We both kept journals of our travels and since it would be quite tedious to recount our trip day to day for all to read on our blog, we have decided to do something very special: let you into our personal thoughts and experiences!!! That is right, Jamie and I will give you short snippets of our journal entries. We hope that you find them enjoyable and maybe, just maybe, enlightening.

I will write about my experience in half of the cities, and then Jamie will write about the other half.

Munich, Germany: Aug. 1st (Jamie)
The first thing I noticed upon arriving in Munich was how many bikes there are! The number is almost obsene. Another thing that caught my attention was all the women dressed in traditional clothin. I didn't think we would see much of the traditional dress, until I noticed 10 or more shops that only carried those outfits and realised the style had become trendy.

We went to the English Park today and instantly wished we would have wore something we could have went swimming in, because there was a stream that ran through the park and people where playing in the water. It looked like a lot of fun, but there was one thing that I noticed; a large percentage of the people sun bathing where completely naked!
Berlin, Germany: Aug. 3rd (jeremy)Berlin is a study of contrasts. It fits though, because for much of the twentieth century, Berlin was the epicenter of divergent ideologies :the Soviets in the East, and the free markets in he West. It was a city separated by an archaic wall, a dehumanizing wall. The East German government in an attempt to halt the mass exodus of its citizenry to West Berlin, literally built a concrete barrier. It would end up separating brothers from sisters, mothers from children and long-time comrades. The wall symbolizes oppression, death, suffering and embarrassement for many Berliners. It is no wonder, then, that no one would notice where the wall once stood. The former site of the wall is demarcated by a narrow strip of parallel cobbelstones that are easy to miss if you don't walk with your head looking directly at the ground. Change came so quickly, that Germans knocked it down with great excitment and haste. The lack of any trace of the wall bespeaks of the peoples' yearning to forget such a terrible past. However, a piece of the wall can be found for a certain sum of Euro. Bits of it can be easily purchased at many tourist-friendly shops. How funny, a symbol of Socialist Germany is now being sold by a capital-hungry toursit industry......

Amsterdam, Netherlands: Aug. 4th (jeremy)Only seven hours have passed since Jamie and I arrived in Amsterdam and I find myself infatuated with its unique architecture. The roads are narrow and each buliding looks like a small doll house with shutters and flowers on the window sill. It seems to me that every single alley is a picture-perfect alignment of buildings. The city is bursting with quaint charm: cobble-stone streets, bicycles, wooden boats and small beer pubs. Under each building is water saturated land that shifts and sinks, causing many of the buildings to bow out and tilt from their original foundation; it is very beautiful.

The Red Light District is famous for its "freedom" of sexual expression, yet I can't help but see this section of town as a prison. On my walk over to our hostel, I passed many brightly lit rooms with women sitting. They were all scantily clad with breats and legs hanging out, like adverstisements. I couldn't help but notice that many of the women were hispanic and black; none were Dutch or Western European. How is that sexual freedom? How is this "progressive"? It is sexual bondage, sexual slavery.

Brugge, Belgium: Aug. 5th (Jamie)
Brugge was just what we needed! It was cute, small and if we walked on the outskirts we could get away from all the tourist and it was peaceful. I know that I have said it before, but I am tired of being in the big cities. Some aspects are cool, but for the most part ther are the same as every large city. Brugge was refreshing, and we had a good time eating traditional belgium waffels, beer and chocolate, looking at windmills and walking over the many bridges.

Brussels, Belgium: Aug.7th (jeremy)Jamie and I are disappointed that we did not spend more time in Brugge, because Brussles isn't really the place that we want to be. Personally, I am competely tired of the city trend. It seems as if everyone here tries so hard to get the perfect style and be up with the new look, which nauseates me to no end. I really do miss that aspect of American culture: at least there isn't overwhelming pressure to be "fetch". I find myself yearning for home on occassion and it really shocks me. I thought that I would be able to pick up and leave and come back and not experience much home sickness. Ha! that is proving quite difficult to do: I miss my family, my friends, even American politics. I feel very vulnerable here, because it is hard to see community developing when you don't speak any of the language and you can't even fathom how to start a conversation. Having said all of that, Brussels is still an interesting city: it is the capital of the EU,NATO and has excellent beer. Our hostel is wonderful, even if there are about 100,000 Australians.

**Please note that in the picture on the right, there is a sign for Iron City Beer...

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg: Aug.9\10 (jeremy)
Our expectations of Luxembourg were very low. Afterall, it is the size of 3 Pennsylvania counties. Yet, this little gem is gorgeous; it seems like a fairytale land. Tonight, Jamie and I spent a full hour and a half walking through the runis of the wall foritifications. We scaled the towers and walked along the romanesque bridge; we peered through narrow-slit window and walked along the old moat.

The city is transpersed by cliffs, ravins and a meandering river. Consequently, it is broken up into three main sections:old city, the Grund and Gant. The oldest section is situated like a citadle about 100 feet on the top of a cliff, which overlooks the Grund. The city is one of the most well foritified I have seen, as its wall and castle ramparts were built right into the natural cliff faces; this makes for a very enchanting and meandering town with great site lines and lots of hill climbs. Oh, crazy fact: they speak their own language here called Luxembourgish: it sounds a little bit like Dutch and German.

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg: Aug. 10th (Jamie)
Tonight we where watching ducks as we walked along the river/cannel thing. They where all hanging out, eating, bathing, and sleeping. I didn't realise that when ducks slept they only stand on one leg! Anyway, we were watching one mother duck taking care of her 6 baby ducks (they were not super small, but you could tell they were still young). They were swimming around eating and she was always behind them, counting to make sure they were all there before she would stick her head under the water to eat. I couldn't help but think of my time at Pine Springs Camp watching the councillor look after their campers.

Paris, France: Aug 12th (Jamie)

Rome, Italy: Aug 13/14/15 (jeremy)
Upon arriving, Jamie and I decided to head to the Colessium, as it was only a short walk from our hostel. I knew that this building and the Roman forum were going to be powerful to behold , and sure enough, they were. We toured Palatine hill, the Roman forum and went inside the Colessium. We did buy a tour and learned many interesting "fun facts", like that men were the only ones allowed to sit in the Colessium and that women would be relegated to a balcony known as the "fornicatium"...... It was wonderful just to touch the walls of a buliding that is so iconic. Our next step was to wander over to Palantine Hill, which is the site where all the Caesers built their houses, or palaces, which is a word dervied from Palantine. Palantine Hill is a massive complex of ruins that encompasses one square mile. We were told stories of granduer and indulgence, as the tour guides relayed to us the extravagant feasts and parties the Caesars would throw; the sole purpose being to show that they could throw such a large ball. They would eat for 8 hours straight and then leave and go to the designated "puke room" to unload their bulging stomachs, only to come back for more food. The tour guides expounded on the fact that many of the Caesars would build on top of eachothers palaces, so deep in the hill there are rooms from the earliest rulers, which is how Jamie and I got to see Augustus' house. Augustus was the first Roman Caesar ( he beat Marc Antony for that honor); thus, Augustus has the oldest house on Palantine hill. In about 1972, archeologist discovered two rooms that belonged to August's original palace and had just opened them up to the public this spring. So, Jamie and I decided to take a look. Boy, were we glad we did. In the rooms, there is a beautifully preserved fresco. It is the oldest painting,in Rome, that is open to the public, as it is over 2,200 years old. The paint was unbelievable: it was so vibrant and I could see brush strokes; I could not believe my eyes. I found it quite wonderful that out of all the ruins that Jamie and I saw that day, it was the most delicate and the oldest of them all that seems to have stood the test of time with dignity and enchanting beauty.

I can't help but think that when I am looking at the gandiose ruins of ancient Rome, I am looking at buildings and trophies that commemorate death. The Colessium is a place where over 2 million people died and the arches commemorate military conquests. By the way, the arch closest to the Colessium was built to celebrate the victory over the Jewish rebellion in 70 A.D., and that 90,000 Jewish slaves/prisoners were in charge of building the Colessium?! The structures are effused with simplistic beauty and purity that they have stood the test of time as the apex of architectural dignity. Yet, they are still sancturaries and relics of destruction. In truth, Rome was tyrannical and brutal. the Pax Romana was not peace and love; it created stability through military conquest and overwhelming power.

Venice, Italy: Aug. 17th (Jamie)

Gimmewald, Switzerland: Aug. 21 (Jeremy)
My heart was pounding. I feld the blood pulsating so hard that my skin trembled with each passing beat. I felt my temples throbbing. My lungs were screaming for air with each shortened breath. I had to stop every five minutes, because my calf muscles were so tight that I was sumbling on rocks that were not seven inches from the ground. Yes, Jamie and I hiked up Schiltorn: a 10,000 foot mountian peak. We started in Gimmelwald and hiked for 5 and half hours. We went 6,000 feet up, straight up. It was so wonderful, as we could literally touch the clouds. My lungs were really struggling to pull in air; I had never hiked this high in my life. Eventhough we were both exhausted, we still saw some of the most beautiful scenery that can be found in all the world: ice-peaked mountians, cascading waterfalls, cows with bells and quaint wooden cottages nestled in bucolic valleys. Towards the end of the hike, I was feeling very tired, but Jamie seemed to have received a second wind; she was climbng, hiking and not stopping. I was very proud of her progress, even as I began to fall back. Yet, I must admit, I was a little bit frustrated that I was not able to catch up. She was killing me in the last 500 feet. We were above the tree line and even reached the remainder of the snow cap. To reach the peak, the last bit of the hike was very tedious, as there were sheer drop-offs to the left and right and the mountian had turned into an agglomeration of granite and shale. I looked over my shoulder and realized that I saw the clouds below and all I could behold with my eyes, were the tops of Alpine peaks rearing their snow-covered heads. In fact, Schiltorn is directly across from the highest peak in all of Europe: Jungfrau. Concentration was my main focus for the last 100 yards; my head was aching from lack of oxygen, my legs felt like rubber and Jamie was already at the top, looking down. I wanted to give up, but I had made it too far. Climbing up a mountian is a physical, emotional and spiritual challenge, but when you reach the top, see the beauty, feel the chill and look down from where you came, the sense of accomplishment can not be taken from you, and that, is what makes it worth it.