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!