first, it’s memorial day.  i don’t feel at all like it’s a holiday or very patriotic right now, but i guess that’s what happens when you’re so distant from american culture.

and my new favorite song is Sweet Pea by Amos Lee.  it makes me smile.  really, it does. 

but onto the real post (warning: very long entry and three random links to video clips here and there)…

after a week of being gone, i’m home.  i’ve been to italy and i’ve been to a town in the north-east of Germany.  i’ve seen friends from back at my “real” home and i’ve had to meet new people.  i’ve been outside on sunny days and have sat under an umbrella on the not-so-sunny days.  i’ve spent hours on trains and i’ve been in a hot stuffy van in the midst of crawling traffic.  it’s been lovely and i’ve enjoyed every minute of my time away, but i do find that i’m quite content to be back here in the confines of my yellow walls and “normal” routine.

i’ve taken so many pictures (and video clips) in the last week and so i thought you might enjoy having images to go along with what i write — but really, it’s just a way of getting out of writing.  the more pictures i show, the less i have to write!

on monday morning, amy and i woke up from our phone ringing at the time we were supposed to be leaving the building (moral of the story, don’t trust me with the alarm clock — i sleep through everything).  in three minutes we had thrown our clothes on, grabbed our bags, made sure we had tickets and passports, and ran out, hoping that we’d catch our train.  we did (and lucky me, two hours later at one of the bigger train stations i even got to brush my teeth!).  but anyway, we got to her house and we had the bestest time ever in italy. 

a few pictures from a day in venice:

stepping out of the train station…

gondolas (Gondoliers, anyone?)…

wonderfully cute…

friends in venice…

from “The Gondoliers” set…

“wow!  they’re real!”

we didn’t ride on the gondolas, but the gondoliers posed for a picture…

more loveliness…

your little girl in Venice, Italy…

traveling is always better with other people.  crazy things always happen.

during our visit with them

we were able to experience everything american and wonderful (including a tour of american helicoptors!).

as much as i loved italy, i was grateful for landing back into germany where i can say “vielen Dank” and other such lovely words and not feel like a complete idiot for saying it in the wrong country.  and germany is always so beautiful.

we arrived back at bodenseehof on friday morning at 8:45 am.  we packed up and left again at 1:30 pm.  the whole team (and a few others) headed off to Bobengrün (an outdoor conference rather like Beyond the Song) where we would be playing.  on our way there we got caught in traffic and enjoyed our “quality” time together to enjoy some music.

ryan is our banjo player and wears his mullet with pride.

matt is our lead guitarist and most of the time, vocalist.  he enjoys calling me strange names and making fun of the meaning of my real name.

evelyn müller.  she likes fun photos from strange angles.

amy+tambourine=great fun!

lorna, amy, and evelyn…

The Nehemiah Project…

so i was in a skit where i had to dance with a whisk.  so what?  that’s normal, right?

they told us to pack for rain, but the first day was cloudless and hot.  i still carried the umbrella around with me and sometimes used it.

the second day it did rain.  it rained with no concern about us poor people who had to sit in the outdoors during the meetings.

all the umbrellas were rather fun…

that day i really did need the umbrella…

and then a few hours later is amazing skies again…

waiting for our sound check…

some pictures that i took of my lovely bodenseehof people.  you don’t know them, but i like the pictures.

lorna (doone).

dave.

a.mac

steve.

evelyn.

amy.

and me with some of my dear German girls.

and i’ve now spent a total of over two hours on this computer so i’m going to get off. 

gute Nacht.