It was sooo cold out today, according to an Iowan...

and it was only -9! ahhahahaha. I laugh. That is not cold.

So I have a picture of the castle! ok, so it may not appear like a castle...well like the castles that I always imagine, or maybe you imagine, but it's called the watercastle....and so we call it the castle!

p.s. here is my address for those of you who were wondering :)

Katie Suderman

JMEM/DTS
Untere Dorfstr. 56
02747 Ruppersdorf
Germany

so here are some pics.

bed time for me!

good night!

or good morning/afternoon!

Living in a castle...

...and this castle is just minutes from the Czech border, and the Poland border! Soooo the other day we were heading into town, but we needed to refuel the van, and apparently gas is cheaper in Poland, so we just headed over there....but the line was LONG! sooo why not head over to the Czech Republic to refuel. so fun! Germany - check

Poland - check

Czech - check

I will have to go back and actually spend time in those countries...

ok the second official day is about to begin! Yesterday was AWESOME! We heard the story about how this castle came to be apart of ywam, how God totally provided a way for them to purchase this place, so they could house many many people! It was such an amazing story!

And we made pinhole cameras yesterday(Pinhole camera =homemade camera)....spent HOURS creating them out of boxes we found around here. It was a good time to get to know more people here, as there are 40 some students, and I still don't know everyones name.

I must go. I shall put some pics up soon!

have a super great day everyone!

I LOVE Heidelberg...

Here are some of my favorite things about it so far :)

#1 Most everybody rides their bicycle...EVERYWHERE.

#2 The bikes all have bells on them!

#3 And they also all have baskets on em...and cool little headlights.

#4 Bicyclists have their own little lane right on the sidewalk...I don't have to fear vehicles hitting me!

#4 The cappuccinos are fabulous!

#5 The cobblestone, old buildings, and the river...all beautiful views!

#6 AND they have dutch blitz! except it's called Ligretto

(I like bicycling...can ya tell)

And here are some of my not so favorite things.

#1 The labels on the food is ALL in German. I keep thinking it will be like Canada where we have English, and then French...so here it should be German, and then....English :) nope.

I bought some food today so I could make supper for my friend out here...and I had to pick a package of sauce, buy it, and just hope it tasted good...cause I really had no clue what it said.

Luckily it was tasty :)

So really there are no things here yet that I don't like....cause I probably won't go grocery shopping ever again...BECAUSE I START YWAM TOMORROW :) and people will be cooking for me :)

Ok it's late, I need to sleep...got a long ride ahead of me tomorrow to get to ywam base.

Gute Nacht!

So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen...

Said good-bye to Randi this morning :( .....but as she left I was greeted in the Frankfurt airport by a friend of mine here in Germany! and we drove on the autobahn to his place! I was in a car that goes 200 km/hour...isn't that great mom :) But you will be happy to know that the car could only make it to 150, sad for me....I really wanted to go FAST! but I am here in Germany for the next 3ish months, so no doubt I will have a chance! 3 days until YWAM!
ok I'm off to wander the streets of Heidelberg...
Auf Wiedersehen!

The hills are alive...

with the mocking of the sound of music, La la la laaaaa. The movie that we all know and some love, it's not so great in the eyes of an Austrian. At least the 8 that I met last night! quite unbelievable actually, cause that movie is wonderful. I do recall every single night the last time I was out here, they played the 'Sound of Music' at our hostel. So they do cator to us tourists who have a love for that movie :)
It's beautiful out here...Randi and I walked up a mountain today, and it didn't even hail or storm on us! such a relief. We have tried 2 of the traditional dishes/desserts so far...Krapfen, a delicious deep fried dough with icing sugar and apricot jam ( very much reminded me of a soft rollkucken for those of you who know what that is ) and we tried wiener schnitzel, das vas goot. Shortly we will be heading over to my friends grandma's, where she has made APPLE STRUDEL for us, and that my friends will be das beste! I had it lots when I was here the last time, but never a grandmas homemade strudel. yummmmm.
Apart from the traditional dishes, we learned the wiener waltzer(Vienna Waltz) this morning...so we can work off all the desserts we're eating :)
And it's also a good thing we climbed that mountain today...now bring on the apple strudel :)

Je parle francais mal...

The 5 words or so that I do know in french, I get them mixed up all the time....I was at the grocery store yesterday, and I got to the cashier to pay, and wanting to say hello, I instead said 'merci', which is 'thank you'. This has happened all too much, perhaps I shouldn't have copied off of Randi in all our french classes in high school...perhaps.

This is our last evening here in France at my brother's place, so

we are going out for some good French food tonight...eating at 9

pm, wow I knew they ate late out here, but 9! If I ate like this all the time I would need a pre-supper meal everyday....only 2 hours til supper now! Yay!

It has been so beautiful out here in the ALPS! I find myself always capitalizing ALPS, cause when I say/write it I am so very excited that I am actually in these beautiful ALPS! You all need to visit IRELAND, and the ALPS!

Tomorrow we have an alllll day train ride up to my friends place in Austria! Cannot wait! this will be good,

in German I know maybe 10 words :) twice as much as French.

we'll see how it goes :)

Have a great day everyone!

Survived the skiing! LOVED the skiing. will go again...

So seen as I came back in one piece from the skiing...here are just a few more photos of Ireland...my absolute favorite country on this trip so far.

My future home... :)

golden grass, green grass, and SNOW

Hiking in Connemara down a stream, in the middle of nowhere! didn't make it far, but it was pretty!

Traffic jam!

on our lovely tour bus, as it blizzards outside.

Goodbye Ireland, hello big brother...

The green green grass, the beautiful stone fences that cover the lovely green grass, all the friendly locals, sleepzone hostel in Conamara, Desmond our cute little old tour guide in Galway....these are just a few of my favorite things in Ireland.

Guinness. Had about 3 sips, Randi managed 1 sip...and allan, he finished it for us...Thanks a bunch allan! Guinness, that would have to be one of my least favorite things in Ireland.

I also could have done without the snow, but it was inevitable, the curse of us Canadians...we brought the snow WHERE EVER we went. I will be back again, in summer.

We were greeted by my big brother and snow here in France...but we are amid the ALPS! so this time I am alright with the snow, and with my brother. There is literally a chair lift right outside my window, and tomorrow I will be riding up on it :) Should be a funny day, haven't done this skiing business in a long while. We are in a little city...which is right full of ski lodges, cute little shops, some good French bakeries, and much else!

So here's hoping I walk away tomorrow injury free :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!