HBR Pranking

A few weeks ago, when the juniors had gotten back from their trip to Normandy and while the seniors were still away on their senior trip to Italy, the juniors had the seniors' privileges for a week, which generally includes staying up later in pranking.  Well, the juniors wasted no time and decided to use their privilege of pranking on a fellow guy's dorm called HBR (Haus Bad Riedlingen, sp?).  So at about 1:30am, Emily, Amy, and I drove across town with 8 anxious juniors to play a joke.  The girls wrote fun, odd things in mustard all over the kitchen tables, soaked their silverware in apfelschorle and honey, opened the windows so when they woke up in the morning they would all be freezing, wrote WITT on their computers, wrote their names in what accidentally happened to be permanent marker on their refrigerators (big oops!! I think it ended up coming off after much scrubbing), put up pictures of themselves all over the 1st floor, stole their juice and video games, toilet papered their vans and nearby play set, and stole their infamous HBR flag. It was awesome! The boys definitely woke up to quite a surprise. :)

Happy Autumn!

            Fall is finally here and things are quite beautiful here in Wittlingen!  The leaves are all turning to gorgeous reds, yellows, and oranges, and falling to the ground.  According to my weather widget, today seems to be the last warm day of the season.  Come Saturday, the high for the day drops to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, with a chilly low of 34!  This next week is also supposed to bring a lot of rain.  Fall is definitely in the air.

Our girls eat a TON of apples.  I think we went through 15kg in 1 week..

            I’m so sorry I have not blogged in so long. Blogging doesn’t seem to be my strong point.  If you would indeed like more updates, and updates that cover more of the deeper, intense stuff that goes on here, shoot me an email and I can add you to my prayer emails that I send out about every 2 weeks.  But I am going to really try to update this blog more often too. 

A few of the girls and RA Amy on right at the bbq with Sonne.

Some of our seniors in the trees with boys at the bbq.

The dorm dads bbq-in away.

            So much has happened in the past month or so.  I’m not even sure where to begin or what all to say.  We’ve had 2 get togethers with different boys dorms, Sonne and HBR, where we bbq-ed and played some games.  One Sunday, there was a festival in town called Budenfest, which celebrates the town’s new wine.  Even though it celebrated wine, the festival was so cute and offered such a quaint ambiance of the whole community coming out to eat bratwursts and listening to accordions and whole orchestras!  The Blumenplatz was filled with vendors and people—I’ve never seen it so busy!  It was such a great Sunday afternoon.  Let’s see, we’ve also had plenty of movie nights with homemade carmel popcorn.  I took a few girls into Lorrach a few weekends ago to go shopping.  Every other Tuesday, the 5 of us staff take hot lunch into school for our girls.  It’s so much fun—we park our vans in the middle of this little field by the school and set up a picnic for them with some delicious food like paninis and salad brownies.  The place we set up is also right by this creek—so adorable.  If I went to BFA, I think picnics by the stream every other week in the middle of school would be one of my favorite things. 

I'm not sure how much they're gonna love me for putting this picture up, but this is from Friday night facials, fondue, 'n double feature. 

Freshman and sophomores and 3 of us RAs in Freiburg!

One of our sophomores cleaning dishes. 

            For more recent details of events, this past weekend was a 3 day weekend for the girls.  Monday was a German unification day; I’m not even sure what that means, but the whole town took the day off from school, work, etc.  This past weekend was also the dorm parents’ weekend off; so the 3 of us RAs were in charge of 8 girls for the weekend.  Why 8 girls you ask?  Well, the junior and seniors were off on some amazing field trips!  The juniors took a 4-day trip to Normandy and stopped off in Paris the last day, and the seniors took (are taking) a week-long trip to Italy to go to Rome, Florence, and Venice!  Gosh, I wish I had gone to high school in Europe!  I feel like history would have come so much more alive to me.  So anyways, we had just the freshman and sophomores, and boy did we plan a fun-filled weekend.  Friday night, we had a double feature of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants while painting nails and doing facemasks and eating pre-dipped fondue goodies.  All the girls and I also had a sleepover downstairs in the living room that night and woke up to monkey bread and some episodes of Boy Meets World.  Saturday afternoon, we took the girls into Freiburg—a most adorable town/city an hour away with cobble stone streets and the old Munster Cathedral and shops.  That night also brought a load of laughter and fun from playing water spoons—the card game spoons in which the loser of each round drinks a cup of water; the first to pee loses the whole game.  Haha! Pretty fun.  The girls are also really into playing Dutch Blitz right now, which is basically a different version of Nertz that played so often in South Africa; so I am absolutely love playing with them.  I just love games.  So much great interaction goes on there.  Sunday morning we went to church and then had a friend’s friends come over who were very German who made us an authentic German meal of noodles and gravy with meat chunks and mushrooms; vegetables; some kind of raddish; and potatoes!  They also informed us that day was the German Thanksgiving, which I’m guessing isn’t as big of a deal as America’s; but it was still such a blessing that the family came over on their holiday to make us a meal! Sunday night we went over to Blauen, a girls’ dorm in the mountains, for dorm fellowship, where we had a big game night and campfire.  Monday, the juniors came back and we had just a relax/homework day.  And so that concludes this past week or so. 

Freshman, RA Amy, and sophomore helping cut potatoes for Sunday's German meal. 

Three sophomores helping in the kitchen with RA Emily 3rd from Left.

Game night at Blauen!

Game night at Blauen!

            On my free time the past few days, I’ve gone on some walks with my fellow RAs, and we have found quite the treasure trove of pumpkins in the neighborhood!  I’m pretty sure there was a largest pumpkin contest in the neighborhood.  We found MASSIVE pumpkins everywhere, the biggest one totaling in at 1000kg!!  Yesterday, I bought a few to decorate for my room, as well as some beautiful sunflowers.  It’s amazing—here in the Black Forest area, there are random fields of flowers all over that anyone and everyone are welcome to go cut.  There’s a little table in front of the fields with knives and a jar, and once you finish picking, you just place a few cents in the jar to pay!  It’s a total honor system thing!  It’s wonderful!  Lately, they’ve had rows and rows of sunflowers, dahlias, and gladiolas—gorgeous!!

Sunflower Fields!!!

            Oh, one last thing: On Monday, I started a weekly sophomore meeting where all the sophomore on my hall meet once a week to fellowship.  We decided that each week can be different, and girls can even lead some.  We are going to play games, share stories and testimonies, have snacks, chat, etc.  This first meeting went so well and all the girls seem to be really excited about it!  I’m hoping this will create a lot of unity and prevent and squash any cliques among this grade.  I’m so excited!

The cute little church in Wittlingen.

The MASSIVE pumpkin.  This bad boy allegedly ways 1000 kg!

More pumpkins!

Love love love me some pumpkins. :)

            I know this is all very superficial and on the surface, so let me remind you: if you want to know more of the deeper details and things that God is doing in me and in the dorm, please send me an email to get on my prayer email list.  As far now, this blog is for more of the pictures and fun things that are happening.  J Hopefully I’ll get better at updating these more often!

The Witt Chicks' 1st Week

The Witt chicks have finally arrived! Last Sunday, which also happened to be my birthday, 7 new girls came.  Monday, all the new girls had orientation while the returning girls moved in.  So we are officially and finally a full house!

Picture of the front of Wittlingen. 

Closer-up picture of the main entrance. 

Their first day of class was on Tuesday, which was celebrated with an opening ceremony that proudly and excitedly started with all the seniors carrying in the flag of either their home country or country where their parents are serving.  Out of about 308 students from junior high to high school, over 53 countries are represented this year!  Isn’t that amazing? I feel like that would be a statistic for a small college!  This is definitely an international school. 

Seniors waiting to come down the aisle with their flags.

In our dorm alone, we have girls from all over the world—from Ireland to Russia to Tajekistan to Bangladesh to China to Korea, and the list goes on.  I love hearing their stories about living in different places and in different ministries and the joys and difficulties that go with it.  Some of these girls have lived almost their whole lives growing up and helping out in orphanages and such.  They are some very special girls and I am so excited to be serving them and living with them.

A few of girls at Chillin and Grillin.

It has been quite a week getting into the hang of things.  There is so much to do and so much to learn how to do.  With almost an entire new dorm staff, there are a lot of things we are still trying to figure out, like which rules to keep from last year and how to go about addressing certain issues.  But slowly and surely, I am getting the hang of things.

The tea party in the rain.

This past weekend was both a blast and exhausting.  As an RA, I work 70-80 hours a week, and I think a lot of that time is on the weekends because the girls are at the dorm all day and not at school.  After a school event called Chillin’ and Grillin’ on Friday afternoon, the girls came home and decided to have a nunnery tea party.  Half way through, it started raining, but that didn’t stop the girls.  We got our raincoats and umbrellas and continued to speak in our English accents and referring to each other as Sister Mary So and So!  High school girls are great. 

Above: Amy's troughing. 

Below: After I got troughed. Luckily, I was already wearing a rain coat. 

A short while after our tea party, the girls decided to break in a new Witt birthday tradition called troughing, which involves carrying the birthday girl down the road to the nearest town trough and dumping her in.  This first Friday just so happened to be one of my co-RA Amy’s birthday; so they pretty much attacked her and carried her to the middle of the town to trough her.  While I was trying to capture this moment on camera, some senior girls unexpectedly came and attacked me, throwing me in the trough as well, since my birthday was just a week before.  Keep in mind, this was all while it was 60 degrees out and pouring.  Needless to say, the Wittlingen birthday tradition of troughing has began.  The troughing was followed by a birthday cake and a movie for a lovely, quieter Friday evening.

Just a fun picture I took on a short walk behind our dorm.

Our living room.

Me and one of the girls. 

The office we repainted/redid.  It used to be an awful Texas theme. 

Our coffee room!

Saturday, after brunch, we took the girls to Carrefour, France, (the store was equivalent to a Walmart) to get school supplies and other necessary items.  After a long day at the store, we had a bratwurst bbq and watched another movie altogether.  I think this week was just all around exhausting for everyone, especially when you combine jetlag with the excitement of starting school again.  So Sunday too was more of a day of rest and doing homework.  Every Sunday night, though, we have dorm fellowship; and this weekend the dorm staff decided to talk about modesty and dress code, which included us RAs modeling appropriate and inappropriate attire.  J I’m hoping and praying the girls took it well. 

All in all this week has been both great and tiring.  I love getting to know all 21 girls, but sometimes I wish I just already knew all of them, that we could skip this beginning phase.  So that is my prayer request—for the relationships with the girls.  

Guten Tag!

Allo! I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to update you all, but as I’m sure you know, I made it to Germany!  I’ve been in such a transition lately, in which internet has not always been available.  Two weeks later, and I am finally on my own computer with wifi!

I can’t even fully describe to you how beautiful this part of Germany is!  It is absolutely gorgeous!  I can’t believe I am living here.  It hasn’t quite hit me yet, and hearing from other BFA staff, I’m not sure it ever will.  I feel like I’m living in a fairy tale—rolling green hills up against the forest; adorable houses with blue shutters; church bells ringing every 15 minutes; cows, horses, and sheep everywhere; fruit trees decorating the greenery.  It’s amazing!  I love taking walks through town and even up through the orchards and vineyards.  A few times we’ve even picked blackberries on the side of the hill!  Anyways, so far I am loving being here—definitely still in my honeymoon phase of culture shock. J

Holzen, where Storch dorm is located, which is where we stayed for the first 10 days.

 To give you an overview of what I have been up to the past 2 weeks, let’s just say it’s been extremely busy.  After arriving here in Kandern after traveling through 5 countries in 24 hours (with no difficulty in layovers or luggage—praise the Lord), I pretty much hit the ground running.  We have had meetings galore everyday for the past 2 weeks.  The first week mainly consisted of German language class and driving lessons.  Learning how to drive a 9-person van using a stick shift in Germany has turned out to be quite the adventure.  The roads and road signs here are very different.  So let’s just say I spent the first few days driving out in some cornfields to just get used to the stick.  This past week we had more orientation meetings about bank accounts and policies for the new staff, and this next week we will be having an all staff (residence life and school) orientation.  So here come more meetings!

This is pretty much what everywhere looks like where I'm living. Beautiful. 

For the first 10 days, all the new RAs and I were living in one dorm which gave us all the chance to get to know each other better as well as allow the dorm parents some time to choose which RA should go in which dorm.  So for the first week, I felt as if I was in a fish bowl, with all the dorm parents scouting me out.  But alas, I got chosen to be apart of the Wittlingen dorm (pronounced Vittlingen, and often simply referred to as Witt, which would sound like Vitt in German)!  The Witt chicks are commonly stereotyped as quirky and random; so I feel like this is going to be a good fit for me. J And so I moved into my new home for the next 2 years last Wednesday and am slowly yet surely settling into my new room. 

Trip to Freiburg (45 min away) to get an RA's computer fixed

Just some facts about my dorm: For one, Witt is ginormous!  With 21 girls and 1 boy (dorm parents’ son), we have one of the largest, if not the largest, girls dorm this year.  Out of the 22 highschoolers, only about 2 or so will have to share a room.  The 250-year-old dorm likewise consists of 3 RA rooms, an apartment for the dorm parents, and 2 guest rooms!  It’s massive!  The dining room looks like a restaurant with its booths and nooks!  That’s probably because Wittlingen at one point used to be a gasthaus (guesthouse) with a bar and dance hall.  During the World Wars, some Nazis actually came over and carved a swastika downstairs in the basement!  And in the back yard, we have apple and pear trees and a pumpkin patch!  I love it, although the layout of the dorm is really odd—it’s quite maze-like with different towers and random passageways, but it’s great. 

RA trip into Basel, Switzerland, for an evening. 

In terms of staff, I am RA-ing with 2 other wonderful RAs and 2 dorm parents, who have 2 high school kids of their own.  All of us besides one RA are all new this year, so the one returner has been so great in helping us get adjusted to duties and schedules around the house.  I love the staff I’m working with!  Some of the other RAs and staff in the other dorms have been saying that Witt probably has the sweetest people working in the dorm.  I’ll take that as a compliment! ;) So the 5 of us staff have been working hard getting the dorm ready for the girls to come next Sunday and Monday (August 21 & 22).  We’ve been doing some painting and just redoing a lot of different rooms to lighten up the old place.  It’s all been really fun, but quite exhausting. 

Farmer's Market one Saturday morning in Lorrach (nearest city, where our dorm goes grocery shopping).

If and when we do get some free time, us RAs are usually hanging out playing games and getting to know each other—bond before all the students come.  One night we all hiked up to a castle, another day we drove 20 minutes across the border to Switzerland, and today we drove to the cute, cobble-stoned city of Freiburg to Ikea to get some necessary room items like sheets. 

Part of an orchard we walked through. 

The beauty that is known as Germany.

So in a nutshell and a rather long blog, that has been my life the past 2 weeks.  I love bonding with all the different RAs and other staff, but I really just can’t wait until all the girls get here.  Only one week left!!

*Pics of my dorm/room soon to come!

Germany, Here I Come!

Today's the day! In just a few hours I will be flying to Germany, with a few stops in London and Switzerland on the way! I am so excited to embark on this journey and adventure God is calling me to at BFA as an RA!  I'm so glad I got to see so many of you before I leave.  I will miss everyone so much, but I look forward to what the Lord has in store! Auf Wiedersehen!

MK YouTube Video

Here's a YouTube Video of MKs (missionary kids) at BFA to give you an idea of who I will be living with and serving.  :)

Raising Support

Essentially, I will be a missionary to missionary kids.  Nevertheless, being a missionary, I have to raise a monthly support of $1,657.  Everyone at the school, from teachers to counselors, are all technically missionaries and thus must all raise their own support to go.  Being self-funded likewise keeps the cost of tuition down for missionary families to send their teenagers to the school.

To be honest, at the beginning, I was really nervous about raising money to go, but the Lord has been so faithful and has completely blown my mind.  So many of you have sent in so much to support me in going.  I am so amazed and so thankful!  Thank you so much for all your prayers and financial support!  I am almost at the monthly goal, but still need just a bit more.  I currently have 66% raised for 2 years—which is $1,081/month of $1,657/month; only $576/month to go!  If you feel led to help, here are 3 ways you can give:

How to donate monthly or a special gift:

1) Mail: Send a check or money order payable to TeachBeyond with a separate sheet of paper with my name (Jessica Poulsen) to:

    TeachBeyond

    PO Box 6248

    Bloomingdale, IL 60108-6248

2) Direct Debit (EFT—Electronic Funds Transfer)

Funds are transferred directly from your checking or savings account to

TeachBeyond. The donor (you) sends bank information and a voided check to the U.S.

office (see address above). Note that there are only two withdrawal dates each

month, the 1st or the 15th. Donors must indicate which they prefer.

3) Web: Online and credit card donations can be made through the services of PayPal.  Visit www.teachbeyond.org and click ‘Donate.’

*For each donation processed, an official receipt for tax purposes will be sent to you. :) 

Training in the Windy City

As the days go on, moving to Germany and serving at BFA is becoming more and more of a reality, and I am stoked!  This next week, I am flying out to Chicago, specifically Wheaton College, for training.  This will also be the first time I meet some of the people, like other RAs, whom I will be serving together with.  As I prepare for BFA, I ask that you join with me in praying for me and the students I will be working with:

--Pray for boldness and courage on my part.  It’s a bit nervewracking at times moving so far away without knowing anybody at the place I’m moving to.

--Pray for the girls in my dorm that the Lord really transforms them this year and comforts them and brings them great friends as they too are from home.

--Pray that God uses me to reach and connect to the girls, to help bring them up in the Lord; that I am tuned into the Spirit’s leading in this area.

--Pray that the students, RAs, and dorm parents would all experience a wonderful community within each dorm.