Gianna Jessen

German Culture Lesson #1

A few different people have told me since moving to Germany that sometimes "culture shock" is worse in a place that is, for the most part, similar to the culture you come from. They say the reason is that things are similar enough to home that you unconsciously expect that most everything will be the same and when it's not it catches you completely off-guard, whereas in a completely new culture you don't really expect things to be the same. Some of my more difficult days here have definitely been when I felt like I had this living-in-Germany-thing pretty well under control and then haven't been able to do something simple like help the lady at the grocery store that insists on asking me about denture cleaners. I have no idea why she thought I looked like a denture expert! (There were tons of people in the store that day...many of whom were much older than me! :-) I ended up telling her I thought it was okay, but I was really frustrated that I couldn't understand what she was saying. We have also had some moments of "culture shock". One of these "moments" occurred many times this summer. We have come to learn that Germans believe that a draft will make you sick, maybe even kill you (especially if you're an infant). So even if it is 85 degrees outside and you're riding on the un-airconditioned train you cannot open your window (pictured above). If you do open your window people just come up and close it for you. I was caught so off-guard the first time this happened! They don't ask, they just walk up and close it. So funny! Some younger people apparently have not bought into this theory as much, so we always looked for cars with open windows on it when we traveled by train this summer. Now that it's getting cooler outside we've also learned that Germans believe it's good to sleep in a cold room...a really cold room actually. It is very common for Germans to turn the heat off in their sleeping room and leave their window wide open all night long! Crazy!! I haven't figured out yet why that draft is okay but the one on the train isn't. They will also leave a door or window open in winter to allow fresh air inside. Strange coming from people that hate drafts and are very energy-efficiency conscious! We haven't adopted this practice yet, but we've contemplated it just so it'd get cool enough in our apartment that we'd have a good excuse for Luke to start a fire in our fireplace! But I have a feeling those really cold days will be here soon enough!

Luke's Trip to Russia

Last week Luke took a business trip to Moscow, Russia for a couple of days. They had meetings one day and then had a morning to see some of the sights. Here are a few pictures from his trip!

The Kremlin

Russian architecture (notice each window is different...a Russian trademark)

Red Square (red in Russian also means beautiful...hence the lack of red!)

Cathedral inside the Kremlin

Another cathedral inside the Kremlin

Moscow skyline from Luke's hotel room.

Stalin-era apartments. Luke said these are everywhere...how aesthetic!

Notice the small, older (green) building next to the Stalin-era building. Luke said it was a city of contrasts of the very old, communist era, and the new capitalist era.

St. Basil's Cathedral

Fall is in the air!

Fall is definitely in the air here and I've been inspired to update the look of our blog! It has been a lot cooler here and a few of the trees have even started to lose their leaves. We welcomed the fall season this weekend with some chili and cinnamon rolls...yum...one of my favorites! We've also been able to take in some K-State football (replay of the games anyway) and watched the Chiefs yesterday (via Slingbox). Now we just need to figure out how to get our Kachelofen going! Our what?!...you may be asking...it's a large, tiled stove in our apartment. Apparently they're very popular in Germany, people get excited here when they find out we have one. It does produce a lot of heat and will definitely help us keep warm this winter...we just have to figure out how to carry the firewood to our apartment. The dilemmas of not having a car! The other sign of fall is that Oktoberfest is close to kicking off. We went to Munich yesterday for church and our church is only a block from the grounds where Oktoberfest is held. All the "tents" are up and ready to go. We haven't gotten our drindl and lederhosen yet, but we might go into Munich early next Sunday and check it out.

Soon to come...pictures from Luke's recent trip to Russia...

Sommer in Marktoberdorf

My parents had originally talked about coming to visit this summer but it didn't work out and my dad recently commented that he was disappointed to not be here during the "growing season". So I thought I'd take some pictures to give you a glimpse of summer in Southern Germany. It really has been a gorgeous summer and I just told Luke the other day that I'm probably going to think that I'm going to melt our first summer back in Kansas! The highs average in the 70's and the lows in the 50's...definitely can't complain! There are several photos so I put them in a slideshow on the right hand side of the blog. I think if you click on the slideshow it will take you to the website that I uploaded them to and you can view them larger. We hope you're all doing well!

Back to School

While I have enjoyed the past few months and the time I've had to adjust to living in Germany and the role of wife it has definitely gotten more difficult in recent weeks to find enough to do to keep busy. So this Thursday it is back to school for me. I am taking 4 courses at KU Med and plan to finish with a Masters of Public Health Nursing. Fortunately I'll be able to complete all my courses online and then will have 2 semesters of clinicals to complete when we return to the States. So it's time to hit the books!

The Lord is Good

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
~Psalm 100

This past weekend the weather was gorgeous and we didn't have anywhere we had to be so Luke and I decided to ride our bikes towards Füssen (a town in the Alps where the Neuschwanstein castle is located). We thought we'd either ride part way and back or ride all the way and then take the train home. After we'd been riding for awhile we realized we hadn't brought any money with us for the train...so wherever we rode to we'd be riding back. We ended up within about 5 km of Füssen by the time we stopped for lunch...which made it about 55 km (35 mi.) round trip. I was reminded once again of the Lord's goodness and majesty surrounded by His beautiful creation! We have been so blessed in our first 5 months of marriage! It definitely hasn't been perfect and the Lord is already using our marriage to teach us just how selfish we can be and to refine us. I hope that I can continue to learn to praise Him in all circumstances and situations and learn to trust that even the difficult times are from Him and are in accordance with His good and perfect will. Here are some pictures from where we stopped for lunch.

Forgensee

You can barely see Neuschwanstein castle in mountains
(towards the left)