Helau!

It's teatime here in Aschaffenburg, and I am eating bread (a Berliner, to be specific) for the third time today.  Our little community has only lived together for three days, but we already have an idea of what "per usual" means for us.

When it comes to teatime, this means that I take my tea with milk and sugar while Amandine drinks green tea and Lena drinks rooibos; Franziska switches things up a bit each time.  :)  When it comes to prayer, "per usual" means that Lena plays the guitar while singing alto, Amandine and I take the high road with the soprano parts, and, again, Franziska switches things up each time depending on what she knows best.

Castle in Aschaffenburg

When it comes to other aspects of life, "per usual" is still taking shape.  But I can say this about my community members: Lena, with her painting, singing, drawing, and guitar-playing, reminds us to be creative and spontaneous; Amandine roots us in a quiet strength and stability, always remembering to pray for God's guidance and support during our time here (and--fun fact--she also played on a professional basketball team in Belgium!); Franziska, who did a lot of planning and groundwork for our community, serves as our leader-friend.  Without her connections to the Aschaffenburg community and her ability to help everyone understand each other in our respective languages, we might be a little lost!  Tomorrow, we meet Johanna, the fifth member of our community. We can't wait!

At mass today, I did my darndest to understand something--anything!--in German, but "Du ist mein Herr" was the only complete sentence I gleaned from all that was said.  If we lived in medieval times and I was a serf, this could be very useful.  As it stands, it might be more practical to know "Where is the bathroom?" than "You are my Lord."  Oh well.  One has to start somewhere.

"Du ist mein Herr" might be the sentence of the day, but "Helau!!!" wins for today's salutation.  Clowns, astronauts, birds, giant babies, skeletons--all of these and more yelled "Helau!  Helau!  Helau!" from the floats rolling through the streets in Aschaffenburg's Carneval parade.  Small children clamored for candy thrown into the crowds, and while this small adult did a bit of that herself, she was more excited about the free cup of beer she got from the festival committee's float.  Everyone deserves a little fun before Lent.  Don't you agree?

Helau!  Helau!  Helau!

Lest you think we've forgotten our prayerful intentions for this time together, take note of the fact that evening prayer open to the community begins on Ash Wednesday evening in the chapel of the Church of St. Agatha.  If you happened to passing through there this morning, you might have heard us practicing our songs (and, we have say, the acoustics were fantastic).  Join us every evening at 7:45.  Just try not to think about how far you might have to travel to get here,  :)