.love.

Wow, it's been quite a week so far! Thanks to all of you sweeties who commented on my dreadie post! I appreciate your support and encouragement.

I cannot believe how fast the weeks go by. Language school has been quite a ride so far. We're a little over half way though our time in the school and I can't even begin to explain what an amazing experience it has been. For one thing, it's been one of the hardest things I have done! I'm not what one would call a "language person". I love languages and thinking about how they work and discovering cool differences and similarities and such between languages (is the TESOL gal inside of me) but I'm not really that great at learning languages. German is a difficult language, much more difficult than Spanish is (the other language I kinda know). And it's true what people say about a language reflecting the culture it belongs to, at least with German anyway! Very structured, a lot of rules, but also very interesting! hehe :) Anyway, I have been feeling quite overwhelmed with it all to say the least. BUT thankfully God has been blessing me randomly throughout the week through different things that He knew I would .love.

Hang Drum = Amazing. Most of my time is spent doing language stuff like all my tons of homework that I have everyday. I love listening to music while I work but it's very difficult to listen t songs being sung in English while trying to have a German state of mind. Hang drum music has been allowing me to groove out while still being able to do German stuff. That may sound trivial, but believe me... it's a big deal for me :) Anyway click here to read a little bit on why Hang Drums are so freakishly awesome!!!

Also, there is a gal in Ryan's language class who has sort of become my dready-god-mother :) She has beautiful locks and has been so helpful to me by answering questions, giving me encouragement and talking to me in her freakishly adorable English accent. love. Anyway, yesterday she gave me a couple of beads that she wanted me to have and to put in my little dreadie :) So fun! Can you see it in the pic?


And last but not least, my dear friend Danielle sent me a love package all the way from her new home in California. Her and her Hubby recently packed up and moved from Lincoln, IL to The Bay Area in CA (So very near to where I'm from!!) Danielle and I have always shared a special little heart bond. Can't really explain it, but I .love. it! So Danielle, if you read this... THANK YOU my dear sister. You don't know how happy your little gifts made me! I have worn the scarf three days in a row now, the bracelet never comes off and your gorgeous photos are in our living room on display!


And so many other things have just been great this week; The new Sufjan Stevens EP came out, the weather has been amazing, lovely moments have been spent with a dear new friend, and finding out our little church is finally getting a building! (see our Germany blog soon for more details!)

Well, this is enough writing for one evening. I'm off to drink some more Yerba Mate!

.love. elyse aubrie

my dreadie post

Okay, what I'm about to write on here is just going to be copied from my journal entry that I wrote this afternoon while I was out on my independent Jena adventure! (Ryan had language school today and I didn't, hehe). I have been wanting to talk about my desire to get dreads, soooo here it goes!

Today is Friday and I didn't have to go to school! I went on a long walk into town by myself, saw an elephant, saw a wedding, bought some yarn, took pictures, thought about life, thought about dreads and now I'm here sitting at the river with the warm summer sun on my shoulders.

Dreadies: Why do I want them??? I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I feel like most everyone who has dreads also has this deep spiritual soul story that goes along with them. I don't think I have one of those.

I have always deeply cared about how people see me. Not in a "I need to be popular" sort of way, but I have always seen myself as a sort of people pleaser. I don't necessarily think that that is always a bad thing, but hm... I don't know, sometimes it really wares on me. Most of my family and friends know that I have been thinking about dreads, and let me tell ya... They are not all thrilled about the idea :) But here is the thing, I think they are beautiful and I think they would be beautiful on me... so I think I should get them! I don't mean any of this in a "screw you all!" sort of way, I just need to know that I can feel beautiful and good about myself with out relying on the opinions of others. The only thing that I know I need to take into account is the feelings of my husband and let me tell ya, and am so blessed to have a supportive husband who knows me and loves me no matter what I do with my hair! He's the best! So that's that I think. I have had one little lovely dreadie for a week now, and now I can't wait to get some more!

So, feel free to comment :) If you have questions about me having dreads, go ahead and ask! And yes, I can wash them :)

Can you see my dread?! It's so cute!

chinese food, knitting and flohmarkts

So far God has blessed me with some really great girl friends here in Jena. This weekend I was lucky enough to spend some time with a couple of them. My new friend TianTian is a girl from my German school who is here getting her doctorate degree as well as working in the institute on lung cancer research. Both her and her husband came to Jena from China a couple of years ago. They invited Ryan and I over for dinner last night and not just any dinner.... A Real Chinese Dinner!!! We were sooooo excited! And let me tell ya, we were not disappointed because everything was so amazingly good. The night was filled with laughter, language barriers, good conversation despite it all, Chinese dumplings, fresh soy milk...fresh almond milk, camera talk, and yes.... even KNITTING!

I have been bringing my knitting to class sometimes to work on during break and earlier in the week TianTian told me she wanted to learn! So a few days ago after class, we went to the local yarn shop and picked out some yarn for her :) She caught on SO fast and in like 20 minutes she was already almost as fast as I am at knitting! So I'm delighted to be able to say that I have found me new knitting buddy!



There is a Chinese Christian home church in the city that meets with our church sometimes, so I have really been encouraging TianTian an her husband to come to church sometime when the Chinese group is there!

AND this morning I got to hang out with my new friend Ashleigh! Ashleigh married a man from Jena in April and she just moved here last month! She is also in my German class AND she is also from the Bay Area in California! We pretty much hit it off right away and let me tell ya, it is SOOOO nice to be able to spend time with another American sometimes :)



So anyway, her and her hubby picked me up this morning and we went to a local Flohmarkt (flea market) to do some exploring! I got a couple things, but my dear little Ashleigh go more than the car... and her husband.... could handle! But we just kept telling him it was necessary because it's her dream to open up a vintage home interior decor shop in Jena someday, so she needs to find cool things to put in her shop! :) It was really a ton of fun and we both got to practice our German!




So that is just a little bit of what has been going on in Elyse world lately! I'm loving my German life!

ps- Be sure to always check on my Flickr account for all of my pictures!

my new german life

well, today is the first day that we have had internet in our apartment! Since my last post I have been spending the last month-ish trying to figure out how I fit into my new crazy German life.

Internship stuff is going great (see our Germany blog for more detail)but even aside from what we're doing in our church and other things for the internship, there are so many other things we both have been having to adjust to and deal with everyday. For me it's been trying to figure out how to make this new apartment, city, state, country, continent... feel like home :) As a wife, as a friend, and as a creative person, I ave been having to find out where my certain elyse groove is. I think it's been working out quite well, but it is always a process.

I just have to say, I love this city. Jena is so beautiful (in an eastern Germany post- communist sort of way) teehee. It really is so full of charm, history and culture. I'll go into more later, but for now I'm going to show you some pictures :)