What a Surprise!

Last night, Anthony and I went to our friends' apartment to have dinner before I head out to Houston and then Europe. Well, they had me. I got there and more of our friends jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!" It was awesome! I have never had a surprise party before. In fact, I had kind of hoped someone would give me a going away party, but I put it out of my mind in order to not be disapointed if it didn't happen, but it did, and it was a surprise!!! They are absolutely amazing people, and I am so blessed to be able to call them friends. Anyway last night was absolutely fantastic!

Speaking of last nights, last night was my last night in Austin for quite a while. We drive to Houston tonight to stay there with my family until Monday when I fly out. I have not started packing yet. I really need to get on the ball on that one. I hope it won't be too bad and hectic. I am also a little apprehensive as this will be the longest time I have spent away from my husband. Well, God will be with us both, so I am not worried. God has provided us with many friends, who will pray for us, and take care of us when it is needed, and he has shown us that many times.

For example, our friend Kevin just helped us get our new Washer and dryer over to our new apartment. It was really great seeing Anthony and Kevin working on the appliances, and I also noticed that when Anthony would normally have been very frustrated, he wasn't because of our friend's presense. It was very nice and refreshing to have that kind of help. Thanks so much Kevin!

German stuff

I bought my eurail pass today. They are so expensive, but not as expensive as buying each train ticket individually. I got a pass that will allow me to travel between Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and Benelux, which is Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg all rolled into one. I also got 100 Euros. The exchange rate is high too. I paid $145.59 for 100 euros, including the $1 service fee. The cash will hopefully get me through the first couple of days, and then I can go to a Deutsche Bank ATM and get money out with no extra fees. My bank has a deal with them that their customers can use Deutsche Bank atms just like their own atms, except that I would have to pay for the exchange rate. So if I spend 1 Euro, that is approximately $1.45 that I am spending here. That really stinks.

Anyway, I am going to Germany and will be studying the German language there. It is really very interesting, since there is a common German language, but an incredible amount of dialects. There are even many dialects within dialects. I have been learning the standard German, so I really hope I understand people when they talk to me. Another possible problem is that people from all over the world are coming to the Goethe Institute in order to learn German. That means that German is the common language, and that most, if not all of the classes will be conducted in German. So in order to communicate to people of other nationalities, we will have to speak to each other in our broken German. It will probably be a point of amusement; you know, it is always good to laugh at yourself.

New Apartment

So Anthony and I have officially moved in to our new apartment in Austin, thanks to our friends from the Young Marrieds group at our church. We still have a lot of unpacking to do, but it is looking so much better than it did two days ago. The only problem is I have to do most of it myself, since Anthony is at work most of the day, and when he gets home he is exhausted.

We have just switched our internet from our old apartment to the new one, and this is one of the first items that I have accomplished after checking my email, of course. I am hoping to continue this blog through my trip to Germany. For those of you who don't know, I am flying to Germany this summer for seven weeks, leaving my husband in the capable hands of the YM group. Anthony has arrived at home now, so I need to attend to him. More about Germany later.