Lazy Sunday...but Sans Cupcakes

So when I was in Tuebingen, the very first Sunday I was there, I went to church, and the young adult group there invited me to make lunch with them. They were the first Germans to be kind and sociable to me. I came to church here hoping for the same. Karen, a neighbor, had showed me where the church was, and I'd gone in to check and make sure they weren't allied with some enemy Lutheran organization, and--though they were on the extreme liberal end of the lutheran spectrum--they checked out.



This is the church, not 5 minutes from where I live.

It turned out to be Confirmation Sunday, so the place was PACKED, and in a circular space, the noise REALLY echoes, kids, teens snickering, wheelchairs groaning against the floor. The Confirmants didn't have to wear hugely embarrassing cloaks like us; they didn't wear fancy clothes at all, just jeans and tee shirts!!!

Directly in front of me sat a young couple, perhaps a bit younger than I, who were related to one of the confirmants who had picked Micah 6:8 for his verse, so he couldn't be THAT bad. These two, however, had clearly never heard "Save some room for Jesus" and they kept kanoodling IN THE CHURCH! I kept wondering if "Pssst! Make place for the Holy Spirit" would translate well, but I didn't say anything. Because it was such a big day, no one really noticed me, which was fine. The organ plugged away at modern-ish tunes that no one actually sang until the drama queen player stopped, turned around, and said "Does everyone know how it goes? Let's do it again!" so we obliged and mumbled along slightly louder. This annoyed even the lady pastor who kept rolling her eyes and dropping her shoulders like "Oh, jeez. Who let Manfred play this week?"

When church got out I went to Bergmanstrasse for a crepe, but the crepe place was closed (grrr) so I went back to the garlic joint, got a plate of salamis and cheeses (who knew there was more than one type of salami!!? Hands up...No one? Ok, me neither!) along with a simple coffee. On the way out I grabbed a Bacio (Italian hersheys' kiss...but yummy, classy, and not herseys, and with a fortune inside in like 6 langauges) and walked slowly back to my place where I settled some things with Kirsten before she left for Mexico (YAY!).

Today I'm just hanging out. Was quite productive in the AM hours, but now the temperature is cool and kind of windy, all the offices are backed up or closed because of the strike, and I just kind of want to sit back in my room with a coffee and listen to music.