Christmas time is here...

 Well, I am back!  I spent the morning rolling out sugar cookies. The girls were in great spirits when they came home from school because Christmas officially hit Palmgarten dorm.  Some girls helped to decorate the dorm and the tree upstairs. 

 While other girls willingly went downstairs to our kitchen to "help" frost cookies.  I think they might have eaten as many as they frosted...but it was all in good fun.

Taylor was in charge of the frosting...while I was STILL rolling out sugar cookies...we made a BIG batch!

Luckily, Anna decided to help me roll out the cookies.  She sure did speed up the process!

Then we all frosted to our hearts content.  I even got in on the action.  I am not sure how many cookies we had originally...but we ended up with 6 1/2 pans full of cookies.

COOKIES...So many COOKIES!

The is a special creation of one of the girls...a boy cookie holding a girl cookies hand.

After a long day at school and then piano lessons after that, "E" is excited to eat her cookie.  What a great way to end the day!

Visiting Poland

 I had the weekend off, and I was able to go and see my friend Dawn Ebbers and the rest of Avant's Short Cycle Poland Team.  I was fun to see how they work together as a team and how they are sharing the Gospel with the people they meet around them.

Dawn and I spent the morning making traditional thanksgiving food. The Poland team invited Poles to celebrate Thanksgiving. They enjoyed experiencing an American tradition without leaving Poland.

Clint, (second from the right) the team leader, wrote a Polish Thanksgiving skit.  It was written in Polish, so I didn't understand it, but Shelly another team Poland member translated for me. It was very funny...at least they laughed a lot.  I also was able to talk to two Polish women.  They were very impressed that I lived in Alaska.  We also talked about BFA and languages.  It was a great conversation.

Since Gdansk, Poland is so far north, it gets dark around 4pm.  Dawn took me to "Old Town" and the buildings were very colorful, but it is hard to see in the dark.  Gdansk is where WWII began, so it is a very historic city.

On Sunday after church in Gdansk, Dawn and  Calvin (another teammate) took me to Sopot.  It is a short train ride away and it is the beach on the Baltic Sea.   This is the Catholic church that Dawn and Calvin sang in with the Gospel Choir they are in.  It was so cold in there when they sang that the holy water was frozen...and it was frozen when I went as well.

The Baltic Sea and me!!  It is gray, just like Southeast Alaska is.  Part of me felt right at home.  I was also able to walk out to the end of the pier. It is the longest pier in the world...it was a very long and cold walk. 

 The sea gulls did not seem to mind to cold weather...I was not quite use to it since Germany is about 10 degrees F warmer.

A famous and well known spot in Sopot is this crooked building...this is actually how it is built...I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book!

Shelly, Bonnie, Missy, and Dawn enjoy the evening out.

 Shelly, one of Dawn's teammates, had a birthday so we celebrated at a restaurant in Gdansk.  Here I am with the ladies of Team Poland.

Team Poland has four singles on the team.  They all have apartments in this complex.  Dawn and Shelly proudly show off there place.  This is where they meet and connect with the Poles.  It was a wonderful weekend off for me.  I was able to rest and encourage some friends.

The First Snow in Kandern

The first snowfall is always exciting.  It was even more so for me.  I was my first weekend off in five weeks and I woke up to this!

I love how the snow covers each individual branch.  What a sight of beauty.

All of these shots were taken from my balcony in the dorm.  I have to say, I was glad I was off, so I didn't have to shovel!

The Palmgarten Thanksgiving

Here is the calm before the storm.  On Tuesday November 23, we had 45 people to our dorm to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.

 As a staff, we started to prepare for this event three days before it took place...we had quite a bit of cooking to do.  I was able to make the potatoes. Here I am using our giant mixer to mash up some yummyness!

Stephanie (dorm mom) and myself worked on cooking 4 turkeys.  Here she is in the basting process.  We had to borrow the oven from the dorm upstairs, so every time we needed to check on the turkeys we had to go up 3 flights of stairs! 

The birds looked wonderful and tasted great.  We used apples, oranges, and onions to flavor the birds.

 Luke (dorm dad) is now carving the birds.  This took a bit of time since there were four of them, but in the end, it was worth the wait.

Taylor (other RA) manned the oven and made sure everything was hot and ready to eat on time!

The blessed event began with Luke telling everyone why he was thankful to the Lord.  We ate our fill, had lots of laughs, and just enjoyed the wonderful environment.

The girls really enjoyed the food.  We had at least three girls who were able to experience their first Thanksgiving.

The Amazing Palmgarten Dorm 20010-2011

This is the amazing group of people that I live with.  They live in 13 different countries and there are 9 different nationalities represented here.  They live in places like Lithuania, Turkey, Jordan, Bosnia, Tajikistan, France, Dubai, Cameroon, Hong Kong, Italy, Qatar, and Azerbaijan.  This year we also have some girls who have mixed nationalities like French-American, Brazilian-American, Australian-American, Peruvian-Canadian, Mexican-American and we also have Americans, Canadians, Koreans, and one girl from Hong Kong.  Which means we have a lot of different languages floating around in the dorm. 

My dorm enjoys having fun and being silly, as you can see from this picture!

"Angel Street" the play

 BFA had the high school play this weekend.  One of the girls in our dorm, "P" was a maid in the play.  There were only 5 characters, so it is quite an honor to be chosen.  "Angel Street" is a mystery.

"P" is all dressed up.  Two of her dorm sisters did her hair and makeup.

Here "P" is with her many fans!

Every dorm sister and staff went to cheer "P" on.

Frockling on a Warm Fall Day

 It was unseasonably warm on Saturday November 13, 2010.  So I set off on a walk with two of my sophomores.

Here they are in just short sleeve shirts...I have more common sense and wore a sweat shirt and a vest to keep warm!

Joy by the old apple tree!

"R" enjoys the grass...she almost blends in!

Silly shadow Girls

"A" and I are enjoying the last rays of sunshine.

"A" found a tree and HAS to climb it!

We walked up to the Kandern Monument to honor veterans who died in WWI.  It is at the top of a hill that you can see from my dorm.

This is the quaint village of Kandern, Germany.

The three of us with Kandern in the background!

As we walked home, we found these horses hanging on the edge of hill.

Beautiful Kandern Sunset!

This nice purple house is on the way home to Palmgarten.  I drive past it every day and decided that I needed to take this picture for my sister-in-law, Amy.  She loves purple, but I am not sure she loves it enough to paint her house purple! 

Birkman Method Training Class

 I had the opportunity to get some further education and training this past week.  The Birkman method is a personality test.  After a 45 minute questionaire, this test can tell you what your usual behaviors are, what your needs are, and what your stress behaviors are.  This is an excellent tool to use with groups...like a dorm staff.  I learned a lot about my fellow teammates that I did not know and I also learned why they do the things they do.  When I was told about this training session, I was excited to take it.  Now I am certified to explain people's results to them.  So...if anyone wants to learn more about themselves...just let me know.

 This is my Birkman manuel...with so much information....I am not sure I will every fully comprehend all of it.  It is layer and layers of information.

My instructor was Matt Zamzow.  He is the Director of Training for Birkman and possibly the most knowledgeable person about this test. I guess if I am going to get trained...I might as well be taught by the best!

 There were 16 of us in the class.  We had people from Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, and the United States.  And by this, I mean passport countries.  Many people lived in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Canada, and the States.

What a happy crowd.  Many of the people worked for the International Mission Board and Campus Crusade for Christ. Some people were pastors and others were missionaries.  Needless to say it was a fun group of people to work with and learn with.

Here we are, the group of us Level 1 Birkman graduates...well after we do our online take home test!