Three Cheers for Priesthood Holders

I really do love the guys that I go to school with here. We have a lot of fun and they respect me and my mormon ways. But when it comes to knowing anything about life, happiness, virtue, and respect... they don't have a clue. From what I've observed of these guys, I don't know how our young men today have made it this far. We were hanging around after class today and they were talking about how the rating system of movies is really messed up now-a-days. They were upset that the ratings will allow violence more freely than nudity. I don't know, that just got my blood boiling. THERE SHOULD BE NO NUDITY AT ALL! EVER! How can they ever have any respect for girls if they can't understand that the body is not a display piece... It's not something to show off or make fun of. I try to think of ways to explain truths to these boys and to help them see even small rays of light, but it's so discouraging when they don't have any foundation, let alone a floor of morals to build off of. I love these guys. I want them to be happy. But they have no idea what happiness is.

Thats why today I am so grateful for the young men of the church who strive so hard to honor their priesthood. Who keep themselves from stupid movies and music and any influence that offends the spirit. I feel the young men of the church probably have it the hardest out of our generation, and look at how many are serving the Lord by serving missions and getting married in the temple.

After my classes today I walked down to my ward building and played volleyball with a bunch of people and there were 4 elders there. I marvel at the spirit they carry with them. The difference between the elders and my friends at school is just crazy. Seeing them gives me hope that I can still have an influence on these boys. That somehow they will remember who they truly are.

Thank you priesthood holders. You make this world so much more bearable.

It's a Beautiful Day

So last week was super super slow. And by the time saturday came around I was just itching to do something CRAZY! so a bunch of the kids from the Berklee crew traveled up to the Black Forest (Schwarze Wald) to enjoy a nice hike. It was so beautiful and peaceful inside the forest. It was just what the doctor ordered. Here are some pictures



This is John. he ran all the way out there so you could see exactly how tall the trees are.

This is the road that Snow White took when she was running away from the hunter. you can tell because it's really dark and scary when the path goes under the trees.















This is my friend Brittany. I met her my first week at church. She's from Utah and was here for four weeks studying German. She's so great! She told me everything I need to know about Freiburg, including the bus and train systems, good grocery stores, and she helped me sign up for a Young Single Adult event that i'm going to in a couple of weeks in Augsburg. AND she's staying in the same housing as I am! how crazy is that? She was such a blessing to me especially in church when she would translate all the meetings for me. She served a mission in Hamburg so she knows German really well. Anyway, she rocks!! But she left just this last thursday to go meet her friend in München. Don't really know how i'm gonna understand anything in church. The gift of tongues would be good right about now.

In contrast, this week was a lot faster and pretty fun. I mean I didn't do a lot but I found a good book; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's SO great and I haven't been able to put it down. Laura if your reading this you need to stop reading it start reading this book because it's set in the 1940s in London. So that helped my week go by quickly and it also helped that I am getting more invloved in my school studies. I have six classes adding up to 14 hours a week. Somethin that might be a little trying this semester is that I have the same teacher for 3 of those classes. Florian is an interesting middle aged man who likes to talk slowly, explain slowly, and chuckle heartily at his own jokes. I have to make sure not to give any pity laughs because he'll keep adding on to the not funny joke and I'll have to keep fake laughing. But he's a nice guy and he is a good teacher. we'll see how it goes.

Today is yet another beautiful saturday and I was excited to go to the market and pick up some flowers and just to walk around. When I started on my way I came to the park near my place to find it totally packed with a flea market! It was awesome. There were so many people and so much stuff to look at. There's always something going on during the weekends here. And it always surprises me because even if they advertise for it I wouldn't be able to read the advertisement.

Here are some pics from the city.


I love this. But, honestly, I think I would
rather be forever 21 rather than 18.












They eat cacti here instead of ice cream. JK. But there are whole booths on market day with little pots of cacti. Pretty funny to me.
Maybe I should start breeding saguaro cacti
and set up my own booth.












This clown is pretty freaky but really good at drawing
a crowd with his loud buzzing noise he does.

Chateau McDonalds. I havn't eaten there yet. But i'm sure it's fabulous just like all the food in Germany.

And these are my flowers I bought:) I'm very happy about my purchase. Even though I made a fool out of myself trying to tell the flower girl what I wanted. We chuckled at eachother.

Absolutely True Facts About Germany

No one in Freiburg wears flip flops. They all have cool boots and Vans and sneekers. I could probably pass as a European except for my love of the flip flop.

I’ve noticed that there are so many pregnant women here. I mean you see them everywhere and they usually have another kid or two hanging around. I told this to my friend and she said it’s because the government has started giving incentives for couples to have more children. Yeah! They pay for all the hospital bills and they give them money yearly until they’re 18: as long as they have them within a certain time frame. I looked it up online and there’s a whole article on it in the NY Times.

Google weather doesn’t know anything about Freiburg. It’s pretty much always over cast and gloomy. It says there’s supposed to be sunshine all week, but the sun has yet to come out on this Tuesday morning.

Out side the States, pepperoni is an actual pepper. If you want a “pepperoni” pizza, ask for salami.

The stores don’t have grocery bags or baggers. So you better bring your own and bag your stuff fast or everyone will be really mad and you’ll feel like a stupid foreigner. However they pretty much always have the amount you owe showing on a screen. So if you don’t know how to count in German you’re saved a little embarrassment.

Jay walking is in fact illegal here. Everyone waits for the light to turn and the cops will fine you a hefty fine if you’re caught crossing the street out of turn.

There are as many bike riders here as there are car drivers. Old, young, fat, skinny, boys, girls, the poor or the wealthy. So watch your back or they’ll run you over.

Skinny jeans are in. But I’ve also seen quite a few people wearing those India Jenie pants we got in India. Can’t believe I didn’t bring mine….

If you need to pay for a ticket when you get on the bus, just put whatever money you’ve got on the table in front of the driver and let him give you your change. Don’t keep talking to him in English because if he knew English he would have said so ten minutes ago.

People here have the coolest dogs. And they take them everywhere. Even into the grocery store and restaurants.

If you get caught on a bus or train without a ticket you can get fined from 40 to 80 euro!!

Entschuldigung is the word for excuse me or sorry. But you don’t hear it very often. If some one wants to move past you they’ll kind of just stand there until you notice them. Awkward.

Most German guys are attractive.

People get kind of freak out if you tell them you don’t drink alcohol. (not really but kinda)

Just like in the states, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints is also true here in Germany.

Yeah Germany is Amazing!

WOW. What a wicked awesome weekend I've had.
My plane ride to Zurich was great. I sat next to this hullarious German kid. I thought Germans weren't supposed to have much of a sense of humor.... well philip had tons. Whenever we would hit some turbulence he would say " oh your bags are too heavy. I think they just threw them off the plane" haha he was crackin me up with his awesome english but very unattractive accent. So I arrived at my dorm on thursday. My place is great! it's a single with my own bathroom and a great view. and these funny curtains the have trees on them. Then the group got together and we went out and had an awesome dinner (steak) with the school directors and some kids from the school. We had a great time getting to know eachother, even if it was the beer and wine that made everyone happy:) it was still fun. The only thing about Germany, and maybe this is all of Europe. Dinner took FOREVER! and when I mean forever I mean we sat down at 7 40 PM and got home at 11 00 PM. But hey it was free food so i'm not complaining. Friday I got up and went running around the town to try and get lost a little, just to get a feel for the place. I also needed to find a blow dryer, which I did after going into two salons and trying to ask my question to some beautiful german women. After my run I took a tour of the school. It seems very nice and just perfect for the 60 students who attend The Jazz and Rock Schulen. yeah 60 total. Friday night JODI came into town. I LOVE JODI. she makes my life so much sunnier. So she came to another 3 hour dinner with me and my group. After which we went to a bar to check out some dancing but it was not the great because it was too early.
Saturday has been the best day so far.
In the center of town there's this big cathedral called the Munster. It's huge and awesome and is in the middle of big courtyard which is perfect for the market place on saturdays!! so we went to the market this morning and it was pretty much everything you could want in a german market place. tons of people and food and flowers and meat and bread. It was so picturesque and me and jodi Had a lot of fun. My pictures aren't working so good right now so i'll put some more up tomorrow. BUt ya it was great. We got lots of food to stock up my place and we put my place together a little bit better. Right now I got to go but tomorrow we're going to church and I am so stoked.

Till tomorrow

Today's the day!!

Here's the plan.

Depart Boston at 9:40 PM

Arrive in Zurich at 10:55 AM

Take a train from Zurich to Basel at 12:04

Then I take a shuttle from basel to Freiburg

Am I scared? nervous? Excited? ...yes

I just really don't have any expectations for the next 3 and a half months. Will I make friends? Will I catch on to the language? Will I sit alone in my room all the time? Who KNOWS?! I sure don't. But I think I know myself well enough to know that I'm gonna make this adventure fun. Jodi is meeting me on Thursday or friday or sometime this week. So that will be way nice to have her around to calm my nerves and get me settled a little bit. She's been in Europe for the past two weeks traveling a bit with her Dad. How cool is Jodi GREEN?

Wow am I really doing this?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

Full speed ahead!!!

Provo stuffs

What a wonderful summer! I've made so many new friends and made so many new memories. To finish off my summer I went Utah for a week and played with a bunch of friends who are up there going to school. Kesley and Hannah and Rachel and Angela were kind enough to let me crash in there new, cute apartment for four nights. It was so freakin fun. We got to go classic skating, talk late into the night, Hike the Y (death hike), and meet a bunch of people who I'll never see again. ha.

Here's a funny story. So I got in touch with my old friend Oyoyo Bonner, who's at BYU doing their MDT program, and so we decide I had tp come visit her during some rehearsal she's doing. So I head over to the Marriot center to say hi, only to be pulled into this rehearsal with yoyo and I end up being apart of this dance they were preparing for the next night. They were practicing a dance to Newsies "Sieze the Day" for Sophomore orientation. So I said sure whatever i can do that! haha And it was so fun. I mean I havn't danced in over a year but I wasn't too shabby. Any way, That was the craziest part of my week in Utah. I love spontanious stuff like that. Life just isn't fun if everything is planned out. I was sad to leave my friends after kind of getting used to the whole Provo scene. Maybe some day I'll actually be a part of it... who knows:)