Dorm Shopping

People gotta eat and to eat and you need food and the best place to get food is at the grocery store. Shopping in Germany is a bit different than in the States. To feed my dorm we go shopping twice a week. On Mondays the dorm parents go and on Thursdays the RAs go. Here is an average week of Lizzy and myself shopping. In Germany they do not give you shopping bags. You can buy them, but that gets expensive, so we bring our own crates to put the food inside of.

Outside of the grocery story you have to put one euro into the slot to unlock the cart. The carts also have 4 wheels that rotate independently. This makes it easy to move over in an aisle, but challenging to push it down the parking lot hill to the van without crashing!

Heibers is the fancey grocery story where we can buy American food like marshmallows.

We also shop at Penny Mart and Lidel. Both are chain stores and quite a bit cheaper. An interesting fact about German grocery stores is that they do not like to have empty shelves. All of the dorms love the "Choco Granola" cereal. There were a couple of weeks in a row last year that the dorms cleared out the shelves. So instead of buying more to meet our needs (supply and demand) they stopped stocking the "Choco Granola." So for about 6 weeks they did not have this product. Then finally they restocked. So we try not to clear them out so they don't stop carrying our favorite foods.

Here I am with one of our carts. Notice there are no bags! We fill the cart and check it out and put it back into the cart only to repack it into the crates in the van.

Then we drive to the dorm and have to unload the food. Lizzy uses the dolly move the crates of food. See all of the marshmallows on top...and American favorite.

Our dorm had a huge walk in refrigerator. Lizzy is putting all of the food away. The girls love their yogurt.

We still have a couple of crates of food to put away.

All of the food is finally put away in the pantry. The crates are in the corner waiting for the next shopping trip.

Bonnie German Birthday

On October 15th I had my second German birthday. I woke up and the girls wished me "Happy Birthday" every time they saw me. Then I got a cake in a mug at 8am! My first dessert of the day. My parents were kind enough to send me these lovely flowers in the mail! Aren't they pretty? What a great surprise.

Then my small group gathered. Jen, our leader, made some wonderful pumpkin soup and this lovely dessert. Here I am fighting off Anna, So Young, and Stephanie from blowing out my candles.

Here I am with Jen and her wonderful dessert for us! She is an amazing cook and just an awesome person!

For supper my girls decorated my place at the table! They put up pictures of Hugh Jackman and Gerald Butler, so I would have some "dinner dates". How thoughtful of them!

And as the Palmgarten tradition goes, before you get your dessert served to you you get nutella kisses. Two girls run at you and kiss you with chocolate nutella on their lips. What a sweet surprise!

Kate, a music teacher, came to help me celebrate my big day. It was a wonderful day and I am so glad that I have so many people who love me. Thank you everyone.

The Saga of HBR and Palm

The girls at Palmgarten acquired a organ...what do high school girls choose to do with an organ...paint it pink of course!! For a dorm fellowship we all got some bright pink spray paint. Here "K" and "K", who are roommates paint the organ.

Everyone in the dorm had a chance to decorate the organ. "J" and "K" are working on the details.

"L" makes sure the keyboard stays white, but the rest is pink. Then late one evening the girls took the pink organ to HBR (Haus Bad Riedlingen), a boys dorm. They left it in the senior hall playing loud organ music.

Then HBR was kind enough to invite the Palm girls over to carve some pumpkins.

The guys and girls were very creative and we even had a pumpkin contest. They looked beautiful. But we left all of the pumpkins at HBR so Stephanie, the dorm mom, and a couple of girls sneakily took 4 carved pumpkins to decorate our front door. Then just an hour or two later the HBR boys stormed the Palm front dorm and SMASHED the PUMPKINS and dumped their bio bucket (left over food) all over our front steps! We had rice that week!

Two of our seniors, "J" and "J", jumped up to help clean up the mess.

It was pretty gross! Luke the dorm dad was not too happy...but we got it cleaned up and even some of the HBR guys came back to help clean up. But still the girls were not too happy with the HBR boys.

So, in the words of the boys, they made and "epic apology!" They dressed up and sang "Stand By Me."

Then they gave us a peace offering.... chocolate cake! Yummmm..... THE END.

Palmgarten Dorm Traditions....

Cowboy Cookies are a Palm Favorite. "K" and "E", just two of our seniors have made some yummy cookies similar to monster cookies. They then dress in like crazy people and serve the girls doing their homework during study hours. Here they are ready to enter a couple of the girls rooms with some milk and cookies.

Weekend in Spain

This past weekend I was able to go to Malaga, Spain and enjoy a retreat with Avant missionaries in Spain. It was a wonderful time to bond with fellow missionaries from America, Canada, Spain, Moracco, and Equador.

This is Becky my roomate for the weekend. She is also a single missionary.

I actually made it to Spain.

This is the road to the camp. It was near here where I saw a stag (a 8 point if you are wondering Dad). It ran behind me on a walk and in to a grove of olive trees.

The camp was covered with beautiful grapes and vines. What a lovely form of shade.

This is the spring that the camp is named after: Spring of Life Camp.

Terry and myself enjoy the orange and pink sunset.

The beautiful, rugged Spanish terrian.

Olives are one of the main crops in this region. All of the hills are covered with them.

I was able to climb a small mountain with some new friends. What a beautiful view.

The Spanish terrian is very dry. The lines on the hillside are rows of olive trees.

On my last night at the Spring of Life Camp some of the ladies played "Truth or Dare and Spin the Bottle." We would "spin" the bottle and whoever it landed on had to choose a truth or a dare. It is pretty funny seeing grown women act like monkeys, singing "I'm a Little Tea Pot" or hearing really bad date stories.

Gayle and Dan Lippincott and myself all went through Gospel Missionary Union (GMU)'s C.O.P. (Canadaite Orientation Program) together in July 2001. They have been serving at Malaga Media Center for the last 4 years. Previously they served at the Santa Cruz Learning Center in Boliva. It was wonderful to connect with them. It was fun to see how we could just pick up from where we left off in 01.

Here are Phil & Slyvia, our special speakers and the pastor to the Avant missionaries who are based in Kansas City. They have also served at BFA for 5 year.

Gratises

The girls in Palmgarten have a busy evening after school. They will come home around 4:00 and grab a quick snack and then they have a couple hours of freedom. The girls can use this time to check Facebook, do homework (not a favorite activity), go to sports or play practice, or hang out with the guys in Maugenhard dorm.

Here "K" is updating her Facebook with all of her cool pictures for the Junior Normandy Field Trip. Then at 6:15 we eat the wonderful food the chef from Sudexo cooks for us. After dinner we have gratises. This is the German word for free. And since all of the dorm students have a chore that they do for free we call them gratises.

Here "KD" is joyfully washing the pots in pans as she jams to her music on her IPOD.

Right after dinner the girls try to get in as much time on the Internet or shall we say facebook as possible. "E" and "S" want you to think they are doing homework...really they are on facebook!

"D" is cleaning up the dishwasher area. She has already pushed through quite a few loads of dirty dishes. After gratises are done, we have "study hours" from 8:00-10:00. The girls are either in their rooms or working in the computer room on homework. During this time I have a bit of down time.

I need to be available to the girls during study hours if they have homework questions or need something, so I find a comfortable spot and read! What a wonderful way to end the day. Then at 10:00 the girls come out, grab a quick snack or yogurt or toast and at 10:30 they are off to bed.

K and E are the only 2 Students!

Here are "K" the only sophomore and "E" the only freshman in Haus Palmgarten.


This weekend was the weekend of field trips. On Thursday the Seniors left for Rome for 8 days. I know this sounds really rough doesn't it! The Juniors also left for a weekend trip to Normandy. On Friday the sophomores did a day trip to the concentration camp and the freshmen went to the WWI trenches. It was a day of history. This meant that only the freshman and sophomores were in the dorms. Since Palm only had one of each we were down to 2 students and 4 staff!



"K" enjoys her view of the Rhein River is Basel, Switzerland on Saturday. We ate our lunches near the river and then we strolled around the city center.


Stephanie, the dorm mom, "E", and Lizzy, a RA enjoy the beautiful weather.


Three staff and one student, now this is a good ratio!


Here Lizzy helps "E" and "K" celebrate their first Starbucks! What a day to remember!


We also treated our students to fine dining at a lovely Thai restaurant in Lorrach, Germany. It was both girls first time to eat Thai food! Yummmmm....


The dorm parents, Luke and Stephanie Welbourne, and "E" are waiting with great anticipation for the food to come out! What a great weekend to relax with only 2 girls.