The Things You Discover...

...when you pack!

Yeah, I have just finished doing some haphazard packing. Basically I planned out what I'm going to wear for the next 10 days and then proceeded to put just about everything else into the one big suitcase I brought. Let me just say that the amount of breakable items and the kinds of chocolate I'm bringing home are equal. Since this is just for "storage" while I'm in Munich I'm not using every niche and cranny in the suitcase. Still, I have hardly any clothes and limited toiletries in there and, well, it's a good thing I have a duffel bag and my backpack too. :-) Plus, as I was packing, I discovered a variety of medicines and random toiletries I'd forgotten I had brought with me. Yay!

Haha, besides that I found the "Things to do before leaving" list I made at work last week. Of the 11 things I've done 9--pretty impressive since I lost the list like a day after making it. Oh, post-it notes, why are you so easily misplaced? And I can actually do the two things left on the list before I leave Saturday...if I remember. :-)

Alrighty, so my day. Well, we didn't have hot water last night for some reason and all of us hoped it would be turned on this morning. I went to bed preparing myself to not be able to wash my hair. Well, we had no hot water this morning. I did not feel like braving the cold water for a hair washing so I didn't wash it. That's a healthy thing to do, right? Haha, yeah, whatever, Lise, our landlady, made a call and apparently everyone in our housing area is without hot water. The water company turned it off to do some pipe work and then just didn't turn the water back on. Sweet.

I left later than I wanted but had both batches of lemon bars in tow. Made it to work and had everything on it's way to being done when Esben arrived from DTU sometime around 10:30. And then lunch came and I stood Arkady up. I know, I'm a horrible person but hear me out. So yesterday I wasn't around when the lab group went to lunch and today I was. The first time I was asked I graciously declined but the second time I was asked (about 5 minutes later) I couldn't resist. It was actually a good lunch; 5 Danes, me and a Chinese guy. Esben wasn't with us but I am pretty okay with that now (have been for a while, actually). I learned that the boss/manager of the group was a punk musician when he was younger and did some crazy gigs. I also learned that we are going to his house tomorrow for a bbq. His house is on the same latitude as Helsingor, which is at least a 35 minute drive from work. You can imagine I will be home late tomorrow. :-)

Once lunch was over I started an experiment and then handed out lemon bars. Klas was first followed shortly by Arkady (who did forgive me for standing him up, but only after two lemon bars :-)). Burcin had one then Brandon "ran" from Fuel Cell to devour two. Xiabo (shoot, I spelled that wrong but I can't remember the correct spelling right now), Mai-Britt, Bodil and Simon all had one too before I left. And there's still basically a whole batch left! So I left them in the fridge at work and will take them to the bbq tomorrow. Yay for being able to contribute. :-) Wow, lots of smileys. Guess my words aren't enough to convey my feelings tonight.

Esben read my report/paper and had quite a few changes. He must've thought I was upset/stressed by all the comments and said that he was being really detailed. I thanked him. Part of me was yelling and screaming inside with disappointment but there was another part of me that said this was good, he was teaching me the best way he thought to write a paper. Now, there were a couple of things I did that were good but, because I didn't really know what he wanted, I had left out quite a bit. So there's plenty of writing for me to do the next two days (three if I have to work on it Friday). I spent the next hour with writer's block, lack of motivation and a desire to get up and take a run around the building just so I wouldn't have to sit there.

Anywho, left around 5:15 and on the way home thought about having a quiet time in the park by the house. I did to a certain degree but I didn't read in the Word like I thought I would. It really was perfect, though. My Ipod was on shuffle and the songs fit the sunny day and many were praise/worship songs. The sun was shining, everything green and the blue sky had lots of white fluffy clouds. I had my camera and ended up taking a bunch of random pictures because I could. Part of me lingered there because I didn't really want to come back to the house. I prayed on my way back and, upon entering, realized Lise wasn't home. I thanked the Lord because He apparently knew I needed some quiet time to myself. I then discovered a note on the table saying Lise had gone to visit a friend and wouldn't be back tonight. As unloving as it is I was excited. I e-mailed Yujie so that she would maybe consider coming home at a normal time since we had the place to ourselves. I made dinner, ate and watched the sermon from Elmbrook this past week and then did some Facebook stalking.

Somehow two hours passed and Yujie came home. She too was excited and we enjoyed just chatting for like half an hour or so. My heart aches for her a little because I know that when I leave she will be alone here for three weeks. We are both very much hoping her brother gets his visa soon so that he is back here. We made s'mores too; I made her marshmallows and she made mine--we're very good at it, let me tell you. :-) And then I finally started the packing I described above. I did that around 9:30 and, since it's going on 11, I should get to bed.

Please, this is selfish, but please pray we have hot water in the morning. We heated water on the stove so that Yujie could wash her hair (and I hope she sleeps well tonight because she doesn't sleep well without a bath) and I'd rather not have to do that at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Also pray for me to be gracious, loving, humble and content each day. Leaving can be difficult and, let's face it, awkward too. I want to leave a good impression when I leave. Who doesn't. Yeah, I just don't want to be all fake and what not before I leave. So please keep that in mind. Also pray for my coworkers. I realized today that one of them in particular is searching. My coworker claims life becomes boring very quickly and is running out of ways to make things more interesting. That's a cry for something more and I finally realized the only thing that will give that excitement is Christ. That is a very intense statement but I think it's true. Why I am realizing this right now and why it didn't occur to me earlier I have no idea. But please, be praying for my coworkers!

That is it for now. It is definitely time to sleep.

Have a great night/day/afternoon,
Bekah