Ja-9

YouTube is great!

2008-03-20T21:46:00.004+01:00

I don't have a working TV at the moment because I was not home when the TV company showed up to make me pay a bunch of money for it.
That's why I sometimes just stay online a little longer and instead of watching stupid TV shows I watch stupid YouTube videos.
I found this really old one which was on TV Total a few years ago. It is about the garbage collecting teams and their job. It was taped 1976 for a show for kids (Sendung mit der Maus) ...

It made me laugh... :-)

I especially like the last two men who really seem to have missed out on a great musical career when they decided to work for a "clean Germany" and become "Müllabfuhr-Männer" :-)
I also think it is funny if you do not get the words.... But whoever knows German: Kölsch!!! :)

Here it is!

.... I have just noticed that there are some for the fire department and others... That's wonderful! :)

Being taught in a Second Language

2008-03-17T18:37:00.002+01:00

As some of you know, I had a wonderful time at my practicum at the International School in Dresden. I loved going there and learning about being a teacher.
I chose this school because of its special programme and the unique way of bringing up the children. I did not know all about their programme and I still don't, but I got to know that there are maaaany positive but also some critical ways of looking at the school's system.
I will probably come back to a more specific blogging about the practicum.

For now I have some question for those of you who have been taught in a second language:

How did the teachers explain the language... to you and how do you think this effected your learning of the language?
Did you ever take a class in another language than your 1st language (like an American taking math in German or a German being taught history in French...) ? If so, did you notice anything difference from being taught in your first language? Like: Did your teacher translate words you didn't know? Did (s)he explain things differently? Did (s)he use more pictures, different books or anything elso you have noticed?

I ask this because I have to write a research paper about my practicum and my theme is: How does it influence the lessons when you teach in a different language than the kids' first language?

It would be pretty helpful if I would get some comments on this... You can also email it to me - peanutbutter_is_better_butter@hotmail.com

THANKS!!!

Post in wrong place ...

2008-03-11T20:37:00.001+01:00

There is a new post underneath the old post... ;-)
The *10 things that made me smile lately* were posted just a minute ago :-)

Cannot help it... Or can I???

2008-03-08T00:46:00.004+01:00

It took me half an hour to get into my account because I have too many different account, different passwords, ....

So instead of what I was going to post I will now re-think my signing up to everything and letting the internet steal my time...

I am a more or less active member of:

studiVZ
facebook
myspace
msn messenger
icq
skype
...

I probably even missed something...
Sooo... my daily routine of checking mail is the following:

opening firefox
going to web.de to check mail
*open another tab*
going to hotmail.com to check personal account
switching users there to check work account
switching over to me 3rd account just in case....
*open another tab*
going to work homepage to check for news
*open another tab*
go to university's (?) homepage to check for exam results
next to this opening msn, icq and skye at the same time (if I have half an hour to stay on this is...)
if there was any mail telling me I got new posts on facebook or studiVZ -> open those

This turned into a weird but automatical routine which I would prefer not to go through so much because it is driving me CRAZY but I am, I must admit, addicted to this stupid computer and to all this *wonderful* stuff...

It's just taking soooo much time... time I could use to read, to have actual one to one conversations and to think about real life ;-) But I guess it's good to take a few minutes off every ones in a while ... I just need to re-think what *every ones in a while* means to me... ;-)

Thanks for listening... ;)

Coming up soon:

my first *for real* teaching experience
the practicum at DIS - an awesome place to be ;-) and
How I turn into a grandma... :-)

10 things that made me smile lately...

2008-02-18T23:06:00.003+01:00

I have decided to post something like this because too often we forget that there ARE many good things happening in our lives... we are not looking at the good stuff...

A good friend from the Uni came to my house yesterday and we had coffee together and talked about sooo many things and I suddenly realised: I have been to Dresden long enough to have actual *friends*, not just people I say *Hi* and *Bye* to at the Uni! What a great feeling!
I tried to find the Theaterstraße and had to walk around for about 30 minutes to find it yesterday, but I actually had enough time to do that and I noticed how beautiful Dresden is and how close to the pretty *Altstadt* I live/work/study...
I saw a sign on the yellow trash cans that explained EXACTLY what needs to go into that can and what has to go somewhere else.... How hard can it be to seperate trash ;-)
On saturday I went to my old school (10-year-high-school) and most of the teachers still knew me (after 5 years -> not sooo normal in German schools), my math/physics teacher whom I really love gave me a hug! =)
I taught 7th graders in German last thursday and they were soooo kind and I had a wonderful time practicing what will soon be my job!
One of the kids in school told me yesterday that I should *really* try to get a job at their school because he would *really* like for me to be his teacher... sooo cute!
I listened to the Interlude of *Into the Woods*
One of the students from 7th grade said: *Essays are not for being interesting, but to show your knowledge.*
Another student said about the main character of *Kleider machen Leute*, a story about a poor tailor who is thought of as a rich earl (?) due to his clothes: *Wenn ich so richtig drüber nachdenke, dann erinnert der mich an Orlando Bloom!* (*The more I think about this guy the more he reminds me of Orlando Bloom!* - or sth. like that)
I can actually take pictures now because I have a new phone and it has a pretty good cam in it... It's wonderful, but I think there were quite a lot of people in the tram lately who thought I was weird because I kept taking pictures of myself... =)

Anyway... These things might seem weird to you or some people don't know why certain things made me laugh, but honestly: This is something I should do more often because it makes me smile again at those things and it helps me to stay optimistic, no matter how many things made me wanna say bad things and think bad thoughts... Life is too good to worry about those things more than to be excited about the good stuff!!!!

Aller Anfang ist schwer, doch wenn der Anfang nicht wär' ...

2008-02-09T19:55:00.000+01:00

I must say, living in Dresden has at first been quite a challenge - this is, getting used to university.

European Universities are currently in a time of great changes due to the BOLOGNA-Process ( couldn't find the English Link :-( ). This is a program designed to allow European students and graduates more flexibility, the chance to switch from one university to another and to work all over the world (or at least all over Europe) with their degree. Therefore we do not get a *Diplom* or a *Staatsprüfung* anymore, but Bachelors and Masters degrees. This does -of course- sound wonderful and I love the thought of it...
But theory and putting it into practice are, let's say, not quite in balance and being a first semester student in a program which just started, having no clue and experiencing that neither the other students nor the university workers do actually have one either is not just scary but very frustrating at times...

So we ended up with about 500 students of German this semester... And that were way too many. Not only is it hard to concentrate on what the mentor is trying to tell you but also finding real *friends* is difficult. You sit next to a person which you never met before - not just during the first couple of hours but almost all semester long....

After all I must say that this challenge came unexpected but was very helpful...

There are two reasons why this has worked out even though it seemed hopeless sometimes. Really there is just one cause the other -> It's the amazingly great love that God has for all of us and the plan that really is His plan- one that always works out and one that I never seem to get right ahead :-)
The other *thing* are soooo many people who helped out (and who still do help out for that matter):
Dresden has a wonderful Church of Christ with a lot of great Christian brothers and sisters of mine who supported me in any way you could think of:
I stayed with Bri and Randy for almost 2 months (!!!), Steve went to class with me, I always had serveral people that I knew that I could always call, go to or ask for help. All of them are a wonderful gift of God, those are people who are unbelievable and who play a very important role in my life... THX!
Not to forget(?): my family and my sisters and brothers in the Chemnitz church ... They are simply awesome! That's pretty much all I can say because words could never express how much I love them and how thankful I am for them!

It's great to know that you are never really alone and that God works in our lives sooo much - something which an upcoming post will show as well ;-)

PS: By now, God has also blessed me with some good friends at the Uni... which I am am very thankful for as well ;-)

Yay for posting!

2008-02-09T19:46:00.000+01:00

Wow...
It's been a long time... Nici left so long ago and I really do miss her a lot. She's so wonderful!

I have decided that even though I am going to be busy again soon (I wonder if there really has been a time in my life when I have NOT been busy, but I enjoy acting as if this was a new and temporary state of mine ;-) ... ) anyway... I have decided that I really DO want to keep this blog and I DO want to update it more often...

Some of those who know me well will go : Oooh, let's see when the next entry is going to be then... in 5 or in 6 months... But NO... I really will try harder to find time...

Sooo.... The upcoming entries will mainly be updates from the last couple of months.... University, random thoughts about *great* professors, talks to students, difficulties and laughs..
.
Hope that won't bore you to death... ;-)

Goodbye Nici

2007-08-27T10:04:00.000+02:00

Today was the day - Nici left to go from Leipzig to Frankfurt and from there she will be leaving to go to New York for the next couple of days in about 30 minutes.
I was at the airport with 5 other friends to tell her bye and it was sure hard to do so. I was now standing on the other side of the gate- watching someone I really love leave for a year, or maybe two or even more...
It was/is a strange feeling: A mixture of excitement for her because I really know that she will have a wonderful time there, of sadness because I can't imagine not being with her for soooo long (We spent almost every day together lately!) and of fear - the fear of being too far away to stay as close as we are now.
I know that we share a very special friendship - Nici knows that too. Anyway it seems really hard to be so far apart!
I just wanted you all to know about her as she is a wonderful friend, a soul mate (?) and one more 50%/50% (German/American) - like me - soon! (Was all of this correct English???)
I love you Nici and am looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Dresden - I am coming

2007-08-27T09:49:00.001+02:00

Ok, I guess most of you know about this already as I was very excited about the good news and I emailed a lot of people (including all of my blog-readers, I think)... Anyway... I got accepted at the University of Dresden to study German and English education.
All of it went like that:
On friday (I think it was 2 weeks ago) I got a letter from Leipzig, my #1, telling me that I was NOT accepted there. I cried, was all nervous and felt very bad about their dessicion of turning me down. Everybody treid to encourage me not to be so sad about it and all that. but after all it was my favourite university and it made me wanna cry.
The next day, so saturday two weeks ago, I went to the mailbox and said: Please, let me have a letter from Dresden! And *tada*, there was a letter from Dresden telling me that I was accepted there. Pretty much all the troubles that I had on friday were gone and I was very excited about going to Dresden! I don't know why but I really feel that God doesn't do all of that without a reason. He is working in my life and already prepares me for new steps in my life that I am not yet thinking about. And when I got the letter I didn't feel like this was an *Ersatz* or something, but as if this was really what was right for me. It was, from the first moment on, the right way for me to go and I finally understood that!
On wednesday I am going to look for apartments and dormrooms in Dresden. I am planning on moving in with Vanessa, but she doesn't know about her studies yet. Medicine (which is what she would like to do) has very strict ways of finding the right students. They take the ones that are really really good (1.2 German grade) without any extra tests but prepare conversations, entry tests and other things to find those students who have the highest interest and seem to be able to handle all of the studying etc. We will see how all of that goes...
Anyway I am very much looking forward to my time in Dresden, to getting to know the people in church and at the university there better and to finding out all kinds of things about a *new* city - best place to eat, best time to go shopping, cheap, cool, fun stores, the times and ways of the different trams etc. If anyone has some hints for me or wants to share some thoughts about DD with me - You are more than welcome to do so.
Otherwise I wil try to keep you informed about everything that I am discovering there...

Uni Magdeburg

2007-08-07T16:16:00.000+02:00

I got the first letter from a university on friday last week.

I could start studying German and educational science at the University in Magdeburg starting October 1st.

This means that the question of whether or not I can study is answered
-> Yes, I can study starting next semester!
And the next question is up to be answered:
Can I study where I would like to study and become a teacher?

About 2 more weeks until I know for sure (I hope)!

2007-08-06T18:31:00.000+02:00

E-mailing

2007-07-13T01:20:00.000+02:00

I have now deleted my gmx-account and got a new email-address at web.de If you do not know this address, let me know and I will send it to you.... My hotmail-account is still working and I check it daily...

All applications are sent out

2007-07-13T00:57:00.000+02:00

During the last weekend and the beginning of this week I have finished all the application work that was still left to do.
I have applied at the following universities:

Leipzig (LA German/English)
Dresden (LA German/English; 2nd choice: educational science/social work)
Rostock (LA German/English; 2nd choice: LA for primary school-same subjects)
Halle (LA German/English; 2nd choice: English language and educational science)
Magdeburg (educational science (major)/cultural science-German (minor))
Berlin (LA German/English, 2nd choice: English language/"social and cultural anthropogy")
Erfurt (LA German/English, 2nd choice: psychology (special one for education and pedagogics(?))/English language)

So, I am really hoping for Leipzig, I woudl also like Dresden and other than that I don't know at all... I will just keep on hoping!

By the way: LA means Lehramt=education/becoming a teacher

I will try to keep you updated on the newest results of my applications...

2007-07-03T17:56:00.001+02:00

I love
Jesus!!!!!
Just for everyone to know.... I thought I hadn't mentioned it in a while and felt like doing so again...

Lots of news

2007-07-03T17:06:00.000+02:00

I am horrible at keeping my blog updated but so far I don't think anyone is too sad about it... Anyway, I have a lot of things to talk about! Well, really it's all kinda the same...

I passed my Abitur with a German grade of 1.6, which might be a 3.4 if you go by the American GPA. I had -amazingly- 15 out of 15 points in my German and in my English exam. I am still very ver excited... In maths I did a really bad job and did only get 6 out of 15, in economics I had 9 our of 15... That's all good because my final result is still pretty good. With 1.6 I am the 4th best (?) in my class and I have the 3rd best grade. That really makes me happy...

I applied at all the universities that do not have extra fees (Studiengebühren) which have -unfortunatly- lately been established (?) by universities in Germany. I will have to wait for answers till middle of August. Leipzig is still my #1, but Dresden is getting pretty close right now. I have taken an English entry test in Dresden and I passed with about 86% in the Overall result. This pretty much allows me to go to the Dresden university and I am excited about this! In Leipzig there is no entry test and therefore I have no idea whether or not I will have a chance there this year... No matter how it works out and what all will happen, I will have to keep believing that God is guiding me and He will in the end make the decision of where I need to be. And this might be somewhere totally different and in a place that I really didn't want to be at all...

I had a concert (Liederabend) on saturday and everything went really well. There were about 60 invited guests and it took place at the"Alte Apotheke" in Neukirchen again. I love this place, the boss-Kathrin- and the wonderful team of workers. We are like a big family and even though they are totally different from me we get along great! Unfortunatly my mom couldn't join the concert as she was sick at home. She had a little sergery and is now starting to feel better. I don't think anyone would like further details... ;-) Anyway, we had a lot of fun and I was excited to play the sax again and to play with 2 great musicians (?) who are also close friends of mine...

On friday I will have my graduation party and I am sick right now. That really stinks and I am sooo much hoping to get better before friday... I am totally involved into pretty much everything in the program and I would not like not being fit that day... It's what we have been working on for a year... Or even three years if you want...
I guess being sick is my body's way to tell me that I went a couple of steps too far (This is sooo German thinking-English writing! sorry!!!) I needed a break for a long time and should have taken one before... Now I have to!

I hope that nobody got bored by this update!

Stressful day...

2007-05-24T18:01:00.000+02:00

I can't believe that I finally have enough time to blog again!

The last months have probably been the most challenging that I have ever experienced when it comes to school life!
For all of you who did not yet get annoyed by me whining about the horrible exams I am now writing about it...

In German, all the themes were good. We could chose one out of three and I took the creative work on a book that we had to read in 13th grade.
There were three parts to it:

1st write a summery of the book. We had to write about a certain part of it as well and had to describe how the author characterized the main person in this part and why he did it in this way. The book is called "Irrungen, Wirrungen" (could be translated to something like: "Mistakes and confusion" I guess) and was written by Theodor Fontane in 1888. So it was the time of realism and Fontane critized the splitting up of the society in rich and poor, working and aristocratic people.
The 2nd part was to write a letter as Lene, one of the leading characters of the book at the time right after the scene that we had to descibe in #1. We had to come up with the recipient (?) and the whole context of the letter - her feelings and the reasons for those, her situation at this time and the results that she draws out of those for her future life.
In the 3rd and last part we had to explain, why we wrote what we wrote and why we wrote it in the way we did. That's actually not as bad as it sounds because knowing that this is going to be your task you can use all the rhetorical instruments that you know the names of in #2 and you can brag with you great knowledge about those in #3. I kinda like that!

So German went pretty good and I was excited and nervous at the same time when preparing for the maths test. I studies so hard, worked on all the exams of the past 7 years thinking that I knew everything afterwards. My good friend Nicole and I met the day before the test and we repeated everything. All the different tasks and what we would have to do was in our head. We went to bed and it was like a bad dream when we got the exam and held it in our hand for the first time. The analysis-part was really hard and different compared to the test that they had written before.
Our maths-teacher gave us a big smile and a thumb up before the exam but said afterwards that she was afraid of telling us before how hard it would be. Good decision. That way we didn't freak out before the test...
So maths was as bad as it could be and my plan of getting at least 12 out of 15 (which is a B+) for studying so much is thrown back to 7 credits or so (C-) ... This kicks me off my 1.5 grade at the end!

Well, then I thought I could just do good and better than I thought I would have to do on my economics exam to make up for the bad credits in maths and I did again study a lot!

The themes for this test were actually pretty good. It was seperated into 3 parts as well: business studies, accounting and actual economics (VWL translates to this I guess)

The business studies-part had my favourite theme: general partnerships and credit raising.
Accounting has always been the part of economics which I hated the most. But the theme was ok: contribution accounting (?) I practised that the most because I couldn't do it at first. Now I am glad I did as it was a big part of the exam...
Now, for economics I didn't have enough time left. I spent three hours and 45 minutes out of 4,5 hours on the first two themes and did then end up having to hurry through my favourite part of the lessons... About 40 minutes couldn't ever be enough for this theme... I chose the monetary policy, inflation and deflation tasks and the questions weren't that hard but I did the most stupid mistakes being in a hurry.... Well, I guess that's life...

I am sure that I passed though and think that it is not going to be a lot worse than a 1.7 Abitur which is really good... But of course I would like to study education for German and English and the restrictions on those are at an NC of 1.5 right now... We will see...

I will still take the oral exam in English and I am not too worried about it ;-) I guess I will do ok, but I need to get some substance into my talking there- British history, the school systems of the US, GB and Germany, the slavery, the commonwealth, etc....
I am still going for a 15-points exam (A+) and my teacher told me that she would expect that from me as well... hihi

Well, I have been really busy studying and not sleeping a lot. I only went to church on sundays and not for any special events and stuff. I didn't get to see my friends form church more often either. It was a big challenge not just schoolwise but also faithwise... I kept cutting off time for God and took time for class... Looking back this was the stupidest thing to do!
God is awesome and wants to be with us especially during those times... This period of my life has taught me so much and I am thankful for having to go threw it, even though I hated it sooo much!

I want to especially thank those who have kept me and the rest of the "Prüflinge" in their prayers. Thanks April and Clint for being so understanding! Thanks Nicole for always studying with me and putting up with my stupid questions! I am excited to have wonderful friends like that...

Next time I will be back to normal and write about the fun things in life again... And I will be able to update more often as I will not be in school anymore.

10 weird things about me...

2007-02-21T23:05:00.000+01:00

I got the idea of posting this from Courtney and thought it would be a lot of fun, as I AM weird anyway and thought that putting up the 10 things that I think are MOST weird would be great!
It actually got me thinking and I laughed at myself while doing so a lot!
OK, here we go:

I cannot clean unless I am home alone or it is past 9 p.m. (This is probably why I don't clean a lot...hihi)
I often think about that I think of what I think......
I get very hyper when I don't wanna show my real feelings.
Before going to bed I like to jump, dance, drive my mom in sane and to eat!
I wanted to become a "puddle-jumper" or a princess when I was little.
I don't like being at home with nothing to do...that I would like to do... I get really annoying after a while and am very glad that my mom still loves me even though she is the one who has to deal with me at those moments! (I guess that's what a mom is for!)
Once I get started on talking I keep talking and talking and talking.... Sometimes I really think I am kinda funny, too....
I keep buying books that I never get to read. (even though I would really like to)
I love Genglish and believe that this is the most fitting language for me anyway!
I am German, which is shown in the way I keep stuff planned and more or less organized (Ask for my ETM-folder! - Pam called me a real German for this one!) etc. But my stay in Turpin/Ok has turned me into a huggy and PJ-loving American too... I am a mixture, which can be a lot of fun but also nerve-wrecking!

I guess there is more to say about my weirdness, but for now this was all I could think of!

None of those things have really been secret. I will try to come up with a "Janine's secret weirdnesses"-list in the future... But how can you really keep secret how strange you are? I don't know... This would be #11: I confuse myself all the time! That might go along with #2 !

Not to be used twice!

2007-02-18T20:20:00.000+01:00

I thought this was kinda funny, so I wanted to share it with you!

It is kinda stupid as well, but oh well, it made me laugh!

This is an ad for "novofine"-injection-needles (?) !

Have a great day!

Faschings-Party

2007-02-17T13:52:00.001+01:00

On of the German traditions that I am not sure of whether or not I love them is Fasching. You could maybe compare it to Halloween, even though it is still a lot different.

Starting on 11/11 every year, carneval-clubs start to have events going on where everybody has to get dressed up and they do a more or less funny programme after which people can dance or do whatsoever they want to do while wearing a clowns-costume etc. ...

Anyway, I don't enjoy the official parties that much, mainly because I don't agree with many things that are going on there which can be kinda weird and too German for me...

But every year we do a party for the kids at our house and this is the most fun day ever. We play games such as "Blinde Kuh" and sing songs, dance etc. ... The kids really enjoy that day and I do too...

We just dress up and act weird! The perfect party for me... I can actually be myself... hihi

Here are some pictures that were taken that day:

What a great day we had...

2007-02-11T12:55:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday, Vanessa!
It was Nessy's 18th birthday last saturday and after we had our regional singing meeting we wanted to go to her house to celebrate her special day...

Well, we were almost there when a motorcycle (Mopet) hit our car on the left side! We wanted to park and Pam was just about to turn the car when it happened! Nobody got hurt. But there is a dint on the left side of the car now and it had a flat tire! Yay to Clint, who fixed it with the help of Cedric (Van's brother) and Alex, even though it was raining and really cold outside.

After having fixed it we all could go inside and enjoy the time with Vanessa. We watch her babypictures/-videos and had some goood food. It really was a good time!

When we left, Courtney told Vanessa that in case something happened to the car again, we would just come back and stay over night...

Well, after driving for about 3 minutes the car sounded weird and guess what -the tire on the other side of the car was flat now!
Yay to Clint once again, because he just took the extra tire of his car and put it on Pam's... We would have been very lost without him that day!

Adding to this you must say that Pam and Courtney were really not feeling very good that day and standing out in the cold for quite a while didn't really help them to get well quicker!

We finally decided that it was really time for a prayer! We left after putting the rest of our adventurous tour in the hands of God and here we go: We made it home savely!
Should have done that in the first place!

I survived

2007-02-09T09:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the great day of our first "Vorabi", which is a test that is put up in the same way as the final exam is going to be... The one we took yesterday was the German essay.
I was sooo nervous even though this is one of my best classes and I did good in the essays we had to write before...
Anyway, I studied very hard and was very exhausted the days before...

Adding to that I had this really important "concert" on wednesday and got home at about 10:30 p.m. . Our wonderful band, which is now officially called "different choices" (This was the only acceptable idea that came to our "creative" minds), played at the "Studio W.M.'s bosses (?) wife's 50th birthday. (That was confusing and probably spelled totally wrong... 's 's 's)
The people there seemed to really enjoy what we did. But the thought of two of them being professional opera singers in Chemnitz and the Studio W.M. bosses being there (They cooperate with the opera house very closly.) kinda scared me...

Anyway, we did well and I didn't know what to be more nervous about - the concert or the Vorabi...

As I came to find out, it was the Vorabi which was a lot more nerve-wrecking. That was, according to my mom, shown in the way I was running around in our apartment and in school right before it started.
Never having studied for German I was now actually almost too well prepared -especially for interpreting poems- since I tried to learn (?) everything about the different eras in the German literature etc.
After all interpreting poems was NOT one of the themes- Lucky me!

I then decided to take the third out of the three themes that we could choose from - the book "Geschwister Oppermann", which we had to write an internal monologue as one of the actors for. We also had to write a summery of the book and had to explain why we wrote our text the way we did and what kind of rhetorical figures etc. we used.

It was a very nice theme and I think the monologue turned out pretty well, but you never know...

What is most important- I am still alive!!! This was one of my greatest worries ... hihi...
I am soo glad to soon be on spring break!!! (Only four more hours to go!)

It is gonna be a busy time filled with maths and economy studies, but I can at least decide myself when I really feel like getting busy!

Thanks for praying for my Vorabi!

Able to comment again!!!

2007-02-06T14:53:00.002+01:00

Sorry,
but I have no idea why there were no comment-links on the last few things I wrote. Feel free to write whatever you wanted to on this one ;-)
Really, I have no idea how to just change it on the old ones...

I am excited about finally having a profile-picture though...
It took quite a while to figure that out, but thanks to my good friend April I got 'er done!
Thanks!

Hope I will get better one posting more often and a lot more interesting things! hihi...

Thank you!

2007-02-06T14:53:00.001+01:00

Lately I have again noticed how blessed I am to have good friends.A lot of things have been going on and it was wonderful to have people around me whom I could talk to, who hug(ged) me (which, as you know, is very important to me!) and who made/make me laugh!I tend to sometimes forget the importance of those people; I don't call a lot, don't talk to them as much as I should and I don't tell them how much I love them; but knowing that even though I am far away from being a perfect friend you ARE my friends and you don't seem to care whether I am perfect or not, makes me a very blessed girl!I thank you for always being there for me...Most of all I want to thank my best(estestestest) friend -Jesus Christ- though... To Him I can always go. He even died for me!He always knows what to do; He always forgives me and He knows me way better than I even know myself and He STILL loves me! If that's not real love than I don't know what should be...Anyway, I wish I would know Him as well as He knows me... I hope I won't ever stop trying!

Thank you!

2007-01-27T18:58:00.000+01:00

Lately I have again noticed how blessed I am to have good friends.
A lot of things have been going on and it was wonderful to have people around me whom I could talk to, who hug(ged) me (which, as you know, is very important to me!) and who made/make me laugh!

I tend to sometimes forget the importance of those people; I don't call a lot, don't talk to them as much as I should and I don't tell them how much I love them; but knowing that even though I am far away from being a perfect friend you ARE my friends and you don't seem to care whether I am perfect or not, makes me a very blessed girl!
I thank you for always being there for me...

Most of all I want to thank my best(estestestest) friend -Jesus Christ- though... To Him I can always go. He even died for me!
He always knows what to do; He always forgives me and He knows me way better than I even know myself and He STILL loves me! If that's not real love than I don't know what should be...
Anyway, I wish I would know Him as well as He knows me... I hope I won't ever stop trying!

Abiball

2007-01-26T10:43:00.000+01:00

I believe that our graduation plans are going great!
We have a theme : Journey through the last century - 1997 to 2007
and a lot of good things are planned. We will try to get a life band and play a lot of music anyway: the choir is going to sing, we built a group which would also like to sing and there are many many people in our class who can actually play instruments. We also planned some speeches and a dancing competition. It is getting along very good.
New ideas and songs that you would suggest are more than welcome!!!
Also please pray with me for all the planning and the people who are stressed out because of their Abitur-exams and still willing to make this the a very special one for all of us! This is hard work!

My Uni-day in Leipzig

2007-01-26T09:51:00.000+01:00

So...

I have posted that I would visit Leipzig's university's "Open House" and wanted to let you know what all I got to know there...

Well, not a whole lot of new things, but I made sure that everything I had researched before would be right and still up to date.

As most of you know, I would like to become a teacher for German and English, either at the "higher level high school" (or however you might call that) or at a primary school. I am right now thinking that I would prefer the high school though...

To become a teacher you have to have pretty good grades. Right now, the "Numerus Clausus" (the grade you need to have to get in) is at 1.5, which would be a 3.5 in America (It works the other way around. The less the better.) ... That's very high, especially because I have tried to find out what mine would be if I did bad and if I did good and came to a 1.6 - 1.9 ...

So I will really have to do good in my exams... Which I am nervous about even more now...

However, I went to a lot of interesting info-meetings and found out that I really wanna work with kids, but if I don't do good enough I will also apply for "American Studies" where you basically learn about the culture, history and politics of America and then you can concentrate on one of those parts (which would be culture for me) and work either in companies who cooperate with the US or in any other area that deals with the German-American cooperation, which I would like to do as well.

I found out that I pretty much have to get "BaFöG" , a financial aid given by the state to help you get through university. That was good news, especially because this is the only way for me to actually go there.

The living situation is a very difficult subject though:

Many people start living in the dorms for 1 semester to get to know the people and to find out where in the city they would like to live and after that time they move into their own apartment or they move in with friends.

I have a good friend in my school whom I was thinking about moving in with, but we both don't know if we can study at this university yet, so our plans are not too deepend yet. We will see... The dorm rooms are about 100-400 Euros, which is including warm water, internet etc. This, of course, is a great advantage (the 100-200 Euro ones).

Therefore I will probably just do what most people before me have done and move into the dorms first...

We will see how all of this goes...

Anyway, it has been a very interesting day. The first meeting was cancelled and I ran from one house to the other (15 min. walk) about 7 times to get from one seminar to the next meeting and then to a class that I could sit in to see how people study there (The theme was: English sayings - very interesting!) I was home by 8 p.m., very exhausted but reasured that I would love to study in Leipzig!

Let's pray that everything will work out, not just the way I want it to be, but the way God plans for me to do it!

Hey....

2007-01-26T09:45:00.000+01:00

Since I couldn't get my picture on my profile I thought I would just put it here. So whoever might wanna see me can now...

Have a great day....

Open House at all universities in saxony

2007-01-10T21:43:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow is open house at all universities in saxony, meaning, that all students who are attending high school in the 11th, 12th or (as for me) 13th grade do not have to go to school but therefore visit the university they would like to go to and get information about the application, the studies.... there.
I think that's great! It's a good opportunity for us to get some REAL information, not the answers of a very irritated lady, telling me I can find ALL the information that I need on the internet... Well, maybe she just had a bad day...
Anyway, I am going to Leipzig. I will go there with my boss, Alex. She is great and we have a very good relationship. She has done so much for me and has given me the opportunity to work for her every once in a while...
It's great how everything worked out after my stay in the States. This was just one of the many doors that God opened for me through this stay!
Anyway... After visiting 5 different information meetings (This is my plan at least!) I will go to Pizza Hut with 2 class mates and than we will go back by train...
I think it is going to be a very exhausting day, especially after I have been sick for a few days. I didn't go to school this week. Today I just went there for 2 hours... Economy- If you miss one lesson of it you are lost for about half a year! So I decided to go... It was ok...
Well, let's see how everything will work out...
I know, this was a really confusing update, if you can even call it that! But don't give up on me yet... I will get into it again and do a lot better!
Thanks!!!

Starting again!

2007-01-10T21:43:00.000+01:00

Suprised???

Well, I don't really know how good I am going to do... but I decided to start blogging again! I thought it was very senseless for the longest time... And maybe it is... But still... I thought it would be worth having another try!

We will see....

Bad flight and Good times...

2006-08-09T07:16:00.000+02:00

Hello everybody!
It really is time for an update and there are lots of things to talk about as well. So here I go...

I am in Turpin/OK at this time and the trip here was quite rememberable! And this does not mean in a good way...

I left the Dresden airport at 6 a.m., as planned, to get to Frankfurt/Main and go on the longest flight overseas. It was suppost to be a straight trip from there to Denver, that's at least what was put on my flight ticket. Wondering around looking for my gate I finally found out that I couldn't find my way there because it was signed out as the flight to Chicago. Right... I had to stop in Chicago - at the biggest airport of the US - to get through customs and passport checks as well as through the whole airport in ONE hour...
Of course, some of the people in front of me (some of the about 200 people there were!!!) couldn't speak English very well or at all! So it took me about the hour I had to get through passport checks and all that...
To make a long story short (or at least shorter) I missed my flight to Denver. Unfortunatly, there are exactly 2 flights going from there to Amarillo... and guess what... I was suppost to be on the second one...
Coming in to Denver late did therefore make the trip to Amarillo at this same day impossible... After some arguing with the Denver Airport/United service lady I finally got me a hotel room and some coupons for food! I was sooo desperate and all I wanted to do was to cry... I was sooo ready to see my family and to be with them and spend time with them! I really felt like a little kid that was all lost! Anyway, the next day they put me on standard for the first flight to Amarillo and (thanks to God) I was able to get this flight and to get to my family...
Finally! I flew with a very little plane and felt like being in the rollercoaster, which I prefere to feel like that when this is where I actually am! lol... So I was praying the whole time I was in there and God brought us to Amarillo savely even though I was sooo exhausted...
Anyway, this whole thing made seeing my family even better and I am now glad to finally be here!

Now, that I have arrived in the beautiful town of Turpin/OK I am having a great time... The first week my mom was on vacation, so we got to spend a lot of time together... We went to the zoo, ate out, she colored my hair, we went to Beaver and had a great time just being together... After that first week I started visiting a lot of my friends... I still haven't seen them all, but I am sure I will...
This weekend we went to the lake and we had a wonderful time. The weather was great, almost too hot though... The lake is called Foss lake and it is pretty big and about 3,5 hours away from Turpin.... We went Tubing all day long and I got pretty sun burned and bruised... But it was worth all the pain I had after the weekend... Thanks dad for taking me there!
Now the third week has just started and it seems like time is running by fast... My wonderful little American niece, Amiah, came today to stay with her grandma for 2 weeks. She is really adorable and grew a lot since I have seen her last... Today she told me that she loved me, which of course made me very proud...

I have to admid that more than the years before I do miss y'all over there in Germany! But I love my second home and my family and friends here soo much that I enjoy every single day I get with them... They are the best people ever!
I love y'all! See ya soon... Janine

School is over! and "Calling all Nations"

2006-07-16T13:59:00.000+02:00

Life has once again been busy but very interesting and fun.

I am done with school for this year, which I thought would never be ending at all. My grades turned out to be better than I expected and worse than what I was hoping for in the beginning of the year. I got and average of 11.5 points out of 15 which would compare to a B I guess.
I am very eager to get up to a 12.5 or better next semester, but all in all I guess I can be satisfied with my grades. I got 15 points out of 15 in English which is an A+ and I also got A's in music and literature. My only C is in history, which is not one of the classes I have to count full in my Abitur-grade. It's all really complicated and I will explain it to whoever is interested, but for now it would go way too far and I would have to write a huge post which I am not going for right now...

Anyway, yesterday was an awesome day! I went to "Calling all Nations" which is a huge international christian worship service. It took place in Berlin this year and there were about 20,000 christians who came together to worship Jesus and sing and pray together. It was wonderful and God's presence was in this place! It was mainly a musical event, so there were great musicians from Germany, the States, the UK, Hungaria and many other countries. Some of them were: Judy Bailey, Matt Redman, Noel Richards (who was in charge of the whole event), deliriuos?, yfriday, Andrea Adams-Frey, Tim Hughes and many more...
We had to leave from Neukirchen at about 4 in the morning, got to Berlin at around 8 and the event started at 11. It took place in the olympic stadium, where the soccer final was held a week before. It was a great feeling being in such a great building with so many other christians.
After celebrating Jesus all day long we left at about 9:30 p.m. to go back to Neukirchen. We got there at 2:30 in the morning and were very exausted. After all it was a great day spent with the Lord and even though I had doubts of whether I should go there or not since it was expensive and during a very busy time it turned out to be the best decision I have made in a long time! lol...
Something else that we did there and that I believe was great were two prayers that we spoke. First all the foreign people were suppost to get up and the Germans spoke a prayer saying that we are sorry for our past and that we would ask them for forgivingness, as we have shown, especially through the world cup time that we have a new mind set and that we do not longer want to be a threat to other nations, but a help and a friend. I thought that was really awesome! Then all the younger people spoke a prayer asking Jesus to take over our life and saying that we want to live for Him and only for Him! That was amazing as well... We asked for guidence and for Him to lead us!
It was amazing! Thank You Lord for giving us the oportunity tro come together with others to celebrate You!

I love you all and hope you will have a great week as I am going to England with my class...
Janine

Having a good time!!

2006-06-25T18:56:00.000+02:00

There is so much going on here... It's just too much to tell you all of it...

I just wanted to say that the Oklahoma Christian Gospel Singers, who have been here for about two weeks to go to schools and the market place to sing and let people know about God have been a very great blessing and they have really inspired me to also work for God and to spend more time with Him and His people...
I was pretty sad that the time with them went by so fast, but especially the last three nights, when they were singing at the "DAStietz" very many people came and heard about the Good News. That's always very exciting. Also some people from my school were there and I was very excited about them getting to know something about our wonderful Savior.
I hope that the chorus will be able to come back next year. I will surely be praying for all of them!

The hard days in school are almost over as well... Last week I had 3 big tests and 2 smaller ones. It was crazy! This week I will just have one more big test and one small one and then I will be done! We will still be in school till July 14th, but we'll get no more grades, which makes things a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable...

There is a quotation I found that I wanted to share with you also:

Live in such a way that those who know you but don't know God will come to know God because they know you.

Anonymous

Some of you have probably heard that before... I thought it was very inspiring...

PS: I will get my hair done on wednesday! I am soooo excited!!! Yeah!!!!

To my dear American friends!

2006-06-03T23:49:00.000+02:00

Hello,
now that I have told some of my friends in good ol' Turpin about that blog I thought I might just let you know how I am feeling, what all is going on here and what my plans about going to the States are....

I am doing pretty well, except that my throat has been hurting pretty bad, I haven't been able to talk for the last couple of days and I had a bad cough... It's all better than what it sounds like though...

I will be coming to the States on July 24th and will be staying there for three weeks, which means my date of departure be the 14th of August. I will tell you the exact time later, since I don't really know for sure right now and I am not able to look it up... I am very excited to come and to spend time with everybody! I hope I will be able to spend enough time with all of you and that I will be able to see everybody.

If someone is willing to go to SONIC with me, or to the movies, to WalMart (but it has to be during the night as stores in Germany close at 8 p.m. and I wanna be cool and go there at night for once!) or to eat at Pizza Hut or something like that - Just call at the McClures (I am staying with my wonderful family again! I love you!!!) and tell me when you wanna go! I will be there! lol...

Things here are pretty busy... School won't be out untill the week before my departure to the States. The last week of "school" the 12th-graders (which includes me!!!) will go to England on a linguistic trip (?) or something... Anyway, we are suppost to practice our English skills... lol...

There are a lot of awesome things going on in church as well. Last week we had a choir sing in Chemnitz (look at the post below...) and then we have some LST (Let's start talking) people here- 3 students from the States who are here to read parts of the bible in English with Germans who are willing to improve their English skills. It's great because it combines being in the Word and practising English!

I cannot think of anything else that is going on, even though I am sure that there are many things that I could talk about...

I love ya'll and hope to see you soon!

My great sunday

2006-05-29T19:43:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was an awesome day!
Even though I started out being really tired (I got home at 3 a.m. that night and got up at 8 a.m.) it turned out to be a wonderful day!
I went to church, which was not at the actual church building but at the "tietz", a big building in Chemnitz where you can also find the "Museum of Natural Science", the "New saxonia galery" (?) and something like a community college. They have some rooms there that you can rent and have events at.
The reason for us to move church over there was that we had the wonderful choir of the Harding University (Arkansas) with us. So after we were done with the pretty short but good sermon and a lot of Genglish songs we had the great honor of hearing the choir sing only for us (and of course for all the guest who were there that morning as well as the people from the Lutheran church who planned everything with us and had some people staying with them...) !
When I heard them I started to get goose bumps because they sounded SO GREAT! I think I have never heard a choir that was even half as good as them.
Anyway, I went home and called everybody who could have been interested in seeing the choir. We ended up being 10 people and I was very excited about my brother, grandma, aunt, cousin etc. going there with me and meeting the people from church and hearing the choir, too.
As I said, I was very very nervous, or better excited, so we were at the Lutheran church, where the concert was at, about 30 minutes early. We got to listen to the choir practise and about 7:30 they started the concert.
It was amazing. The goose bumps came back and I could just feel how God was so pleased with so many people praising Him and singing to Him that He was right there with us.

I cannot understand how anyone could think that monkeys are our ancestors in the first place. But in moments like that I just think it's sad that some people simply think that all those talents are there for no actual reason, they are just lucky coincidences and are really there for no reason!
How can people say that christians stand under so many laws and make themselves smaller than they are when really they say that they are here for no reason! Doesn't that make them so much smaller than us?

Anyway, I am amazed that God, and I truly believe that, gave everybody some talent and that so many people also know how to use them and work with them in the will of God. The choir was awesome, not only because they sang so very very good, but also because they were singing for God and God was very pleased with that and right there with them! I am so glad I got to see them and that they were able to be here with us. They were a true blessing to all of us!

So anybody... If you hear about the Harding Chorus giving a concert somewhere close to where you live- Go there, I really recommend them!

Awesome plans for all of us!

2006-05-24T23:51:00.001+02:00

I would like to tell you about my personal way to Christ, because I believe that it is a very special way and I just realized that again the other day as I was praying. I just feel like sharing it...

Before I went to the States I had a perfect life I would say. My grades in school were awesome, I was the member of an orchestra, a band and a dancing school. I took vocal classes and learnd how to play the saxophone. Everything was great, I was well-known, popular and self-confident.

Then I got a scholarship to go to the States, which made everything even better. I had now reached my main goals for the teenage-time and felt totally good about myself.

My hostfamily was awesome from the very beginning, they all have such great personalities and so much love for me, it was (and still is) amazing. I went to school and many of the people there were the same way. They treated me very well and there was just something about them that made them different from everybody I knew before.

The only explanation I found was there love for God. Here in German I have never seen anybody going to church 3 times a week, biblestudying with friends in their freetime or living according to God's Word in this great measure.

My curiousity made me go to church with my mom. It was amazing, I didn't even go in all the way when I knew that I had found my answer without really asking that much. God's love was in this place and His light was shining in each one of the churchmembers there.

So I started to read in my mom's bible, I talked to many people about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit... The more I was working with the Word and the more I found out about our wonderful Savior the surer (?) I got about His existense and reality.

About three months after coming to the States, on November 16th 2003, I went to an FFH concert with my mom's church youth group. That's where I spoke the salvation prayer and excepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. Easter sunday of 2004 was the day I was baptized.

My life has surely changed after being born again. I set many new valuations, other things are important to me.

Anyway, I told you all that stuff about my past to make one statement...

As I was praying during my first month of being a christian I thought about my past and how everything worked out so well before, without God. And I asked Him about it. The next day I got the answer and for me personally it is just amazing.

It was like He was saying:

Look back at all of this, would you have been able to come to the States without being good at school and without all of those special activities that made getting a scholarship possible in the first place? No!

And would you have gotten to know me any other way? Probably, but I cannot imagine any more beautiful way of getting to know God but to spend a great year with so many great people in such a godloving area! It made me more confident in the Lord than I believe I would have ever gotten in Germany.

The point is:

God has a plan for each one of us!

He is working with us and fulfilling His plan in us even during the time that we are not thinking about Him existing at all!

He loves us so much that He makes things work out perfectly for us, so we can just know Him!

And God even loved us enough to send His own son to die on the cross for us!

There is no greater god than Him because there is no other god at all. His love for as is unbelievably big and it will never end.

I thank Him so much for that!

Finally

2006-05-16T12:46:00.000+02:00

After more than 2 months of searching for my username I have now, thanks to April, successfully entered to my blog again.
Aren't you proud!

Well, now that I know how to do that I will have to figure out how everything works within the blogging-world. lol...
But as I am an optimistic girl, I am sure to be just as successful with that.

I will probably still need some inspiration on what to write, because really, I am so busy all the time, but what do you wanna know?
All in all, life can be pretty interesting at times,especially when you are as clumsy as me, so it might not be too hard to find things to write about... I will see, I guess...

For now, I will just get busy checking out what all I am able to do with that blog...

Ja-9

Yeah! I got my blog now too!

2006-01-05T18:36:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody and welcome to Ja-9's blog...
I thought it was so much fun to check out ya'lls blogs... Anyway, I decided to create one myself....And now, that I am at work and all my "work" is done...
Don't know if I am quite as good as all of you in updating everything that's going on... But i will sure try!