Don't you worry, don't you worry, child...

In what seemed like a thunderstorm of an extended weekend, we packed everything up in Budapest (where my cousin has been living this past year), and with multiple suitcases in tow, traveled to Munich, and two hotels later, arrived in Frankfurt, moving into a district outside the main city known as "Hochst" (or so I think thats where I am!). With wheelchair accessibility requirements, we used taxi, tram, bus, train, metro... perhaps multiple combinations of the various, and then simply a bit of walking along the way to reach our current "home" for the month! PHEW! we made it!!

And then... the REAL "excitement" began. No need to relive with full dramatic details - but it seemed that our first week here, each day presented a different challenge: an "Are-you-worthy-of-being-here?"-type reality gameshow. The conclusion is a definite "not so much" but I think because we're fairly nice people, they're letting us stay nonetheless :)

Story Time! I've got three :) brace yourself.

 "Don't you worry, don't you worry, child..."

On our first day here, we had to venture to another little town to get Lotte's wheelchair fixed. The public transportation here is great: convenient and for the most part, wheelchair accessible. However, as in most large cities and their respective outreaching towns, it can be a leeeetle tricky as newcomers. The order of passage to the store: walk. bus. tram. metro. bus. walk. Got it? So our first transition (bus -> tram), we weren't quite sure which stop we needed to get off. This is where making quick friends along the way is priceless. By the time it was our stop to get off, I felt like the whole bus was helping us in their Germanglish (Not yet! Not yet! Okay now! This is your stop!), signaling to the bus driver (Stop! Get out the ramp! They need to get off!), pointing to where we needed to catch our next tram (Over there! Cross the street! To the left!), and cheering us forward into the big wide surrounding space of Frankfurt :)

 "See, Heaven's got a plan for you..."

As an early birthday gift, my aunt got me a month pass to the gym that is on the ground floor of the apartment building to where we are living. I am SO thankful for this chance to meet some people, vary my running schedule, and just have fun at some of the classes :) Therefore, off to Zumba in German we go! Walking in at the same time as another girl, I made deliberate eye contact and smiled, "hello, new friend that I will give space to right now because I don't want to be creepy." It was fairly amusing how the social structure was the same: there's the "hardcore groupies" who stand at the front with all their Zumba gear accessorized even to bracelets, the smattering of tiny friend groups lingering on the fringes chatting, and then the "everybody else" posturing at the very back, nervously acting busy so as not to be just standing there awkwardly. I positioned myself somewhere in the middle and had an absolute blast Zumba-ing away! After thanking the instructor at the end (she was great! can't wait to go back!), I quickly paced to walk next to the girl I had walked in with, and...ever so casually...introduced myself, asked if she spoke English (a little!), and am looking forward to getting to know better my new-friend-Nadine in these next few weeks :)

"It's the song of the redeemed...the song of Asian believers...it's every tribe, every tongue, every nation, a love song born of a grateful choir..."

Long story...but I found myself attending a German-Chinese church this past Sunday!  [Side clarifier: for those of you of which I am your token-Asian-friend, the service was spoken in Mandarin (the national language of China) but I understand/speak Cantonese only (a dialect spoken in the Canton/Hong Kong area of China)] Therefore, I decided to go downstairs and hang out with the 2-3 year old kids, hoping I could make my non-German-nor-Mandarin-speaking-self somewhat useful. During the Praise & Worship Time, I was able to follow along with the physical actions to the songs (love love LOVE hearing praises sung in a different language!) BUT THEN... came the Bible Story Time. I'm proud to say that after the story was read aloud in Mandarin with pictures, then acted out with puppets in German, I was able to gather that the lesson was of Jesus multiplying the TWO fisch (eins, zwei. & ee, er.) and FIVE loaves of brot (eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf. & ee, er, sahn, si, oo) And along the way, I realized and learned that my current German & Mandarin vocabulary skills are... a little beneathe that of a 2-yr-old ;) Also along the way, most of the kids realized that this strange lady standing next to us...has no clue what.so.ever. However, we then progressed to the Arts & Crafts Time. It was here that I got back a little bit of my street creditability; that's right, I can color a pretty fancy fish AND smoothly cut on the lines :P

PS. sorry for the lack of visuals but due to the lack of megabits in our current internet situation, photos will be uploaded at a later date :)

PPS. also due to the lack of megabits, the above inserted YouTube videos for your listening pleasure have not been pre-screened by moi. Therefore, lemme know if they're not so much suitable :)

PPS. isn't the word "megabits" just fun to say???
PPPS. thanks for making it through this super long post. whilst Lotte is at work, I am clearly in need of more social interaction ;) thanks for reading!