A new chapter

As of last Friday, Ryan and I have been done with language school. Going to language school was one of the hardest experiences of my life, but now that it's over... I miss it terribly. When we first got to Jena and kind of figured out our schedule and the price of school, we decided that we would do 3 months in language school and 3 months not, so that we could focus on other things. We knew that we would greatly improve our language skills through this process and meet a lot of people, but I don't think we really expected the great joy that this opportunity would bring to us. Through our German classes we have met so many amazing people, and God has blessed us with some awesome friends through this experience. They are from all over the world, maybe speak English or German :) and are just so wonderful.

It's exciting to have more time in our day for other learning opportunities now, but I already miss being in the classroom with my friends, learning this crazy language. We're praying that God allows us to continue these friendships even outside of school. And of course that our German can also keep improving. Would you pray for us for those things also? It is so hard to believe that we are already half way through this internship! But we are excited to see what this new chapter has in store for us.




These pictures are from the 2 birthday parties my German class had while Ryan and I were still in the school. No, we didn't have a party and eat cake EVERYday :)

Oma and Papa

Yesterday was my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary! I have always thought that they were the cutest couple on earth. My Oma and her family came over to the States from Holland when she was just a young woman, and my Papa is 150% Italian. They are never short on crazy stories about their life together, and have had to endure some of the hardest things a marriage would ever have to face. And here they are today, 50 years gone by and still in love. My parents along with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins are all getting together today to celebrate with them. If you know me well you would know just how hard it is for me to be so far away right now.

How cute are those?! My aunt Gianna sent me a invitation to their party (thanks aunt G!). She designed the whole thing- it was so absolutly wonderful. Above are the pictures that were featured on the invitation of my Oma and Papa back in the day :)

I heard from my dad that they're planning on recreating their Honeymoon. Going to the same places, retaurants, and everything! How romantic and cute is that?!

Love you Oma and Papa! Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary!

.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 :)

our adventures... so far

!!!! Ah!!!! So much has happened since I posted last! Well to sum it all up, our few days in Napa before Mexico were amazing and then Mexico was SUPER AMAZING! And then going back to Napa for a few days after Mexico was definitely a blessing. THEN, trying for about 35 hours to fly to Virginia was finally successful (we got to spend a not so lovely night on the floor of the LA airport...) and for sure worth it because our time in Virginia was awesome! But at the end of our time in VA came the 18 1/2 hour car ride back to Illinois... which was not AS awesome but still an adventure :)

SO.... as you can see we have been a little busy. OH! And we MOVE TO GERMANY in like 3 days!!!!! WHAT?!!? it's so crazy. Our life is so crazy right now, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.... not even a Yorkie puppy.

Here are some photo highlights from the places we have been in the last few weeks!

MEXICO: We spend a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico a the Paradise Village. It was SOOOOOO fun! It was me and my brother's like 4th or 5th time going there but me and my husband's first together, so it was really nice to escape and relax a bit.... well, a lot. :) We had so many fun adventures while in Mexico. There next few pictures show some of those adventures, like having a little zoo at the resort full of tigers, going para sailing and catching a Mahi Mahi on our fishing trip!





BACK TO NAPA, CA: After Mexico we spent another 5 days in Napa. This was great because we got to throw a little party for us to be able to share some Germany information with all of the CA people that we love but hardly ever get to see. That evening was amazing, and you can read more about it on our Germany blog. We also just chilled with our family a lot and really tried to enjoy being in CA for the last time until after Germany and who knows how much longer after that. It was very sad to leave. I don't think I have been that homesick-y kind of sad when leaving so many times before, but it was really hard to say goodbye this time. We'll be back friends and family to see you soon! In the mean time, Skype with us please!!!!


VIRGINIA: We were in Virginia for 3 full days to see my mother in law's side of the family, It was fun because both of my hubby's siblings were there and I just love them so much. We went to a crazy huge fourth of July party and did a lot of eating and playing games. My grandparents in law live on an old plantation, the Love Plantation and it was so pretty! I had never been to Virginia before, so that was really fun to be able to go somewhere new!