…1) Lessons on
wisdom, as philosophical as that sounds, can be relatable, interesting and
extremely funny. Wisdom was the first lecture week’s topic and although (maybe
even because) I have to reflect quite critically on what the preacher said and
not just believe everything, I enjoyed it a lot. We learned about worldly and
biblical wisdom, found out that sometimes even wisdom isn’t in the head but in
the heart, talked about wisdom in relationships, and the quint essence was: “You
can do anything, wherever and with whomever you like, as long as it is wise.” Which is good advice if you know what’s
wise and what isn’t, for example…
…2) Going to a
beach in New Zealand on a beautiful summer day without putting sunscreen on
everywhere more than once is NOT wise. Still that was a decision some of us
made and now regret with every pat on the shoulders. Though, to be fair, I did
put on sunscreen three times and I’m still a little burned. The combination of
the sun here and the sea is absolutely invincible and I can only say that there’s
a reason we normally have an ozone layer between us and the inferno.
…3) Cathedral
Cove and the neighbouring Hahei Beach are just as gorgeous as the Narnia films
and all the postcards try to tell us. Never have I ever seen a sea so blue and
wavy and warm. Our school trip there was awesome and although we all struggled
with the high waves sometimes, being swept off our feet in the Pacific was more
entertaining than frightening.
…4) The flu
going around in a house with 70+ people is not good and if that flu turns into
a stomach bug for some people it is just a nightmare of feeling ill and being
sleep deprived. Luckily, whatever has been moving from one student to the next for
the past week only seems to be a kind of 24-hour problem and so by now, almost
everyone is on their feet again. Even my room which got hit pretty badly doesn’t
look like a war zone of moved belongings and essential oils anymore.
…5) I miss the
good old German/Swiss food (especially bread!) but apples with peanut butter,
actually sweet kiwis and French toast also have their appeal.
…6) Apparently
floors (and almost everything else) can be cleaned with a sort of disinfectant every
day which makes my job in housekeeping relatively easy and not too long. Why
you wouldn’t just take a bucket and an actual mop and do the floors one day,
the windows the next and just vacuum in between, though, I haven’t established yet.
At least the bathrooms are thoroughly cleaned twice a day (not just with
disinfectant).
…7) Danish is
easy to read and hard to pronounce and if I were to learn a Scandinavian
language, it would probably be Swedish (so much more logical!). If I continue
the same way I started this week, I might actually come home with a decent
amount of Swedish in my repertoire. I certainly hope so :)
…8) Living
together as closely as we do and spending nearly every hour of every day with
each other might be exhausting sometimes but welding together always. I feel as
if I’ve known these people for months, if not years, and I get along really
well with most of them (thank God!). I’m already pretty sure that the
combination of teams for outreach can only be amazing.
…9) I might be a
control freak at times but my constant planning has the positive side effect of
being able to organize town and shopping trips to the right location when
needed. As it turns out, I’m not the only one who wants to see the city centre,
go second hand shopping and check out some souvenir stores. With all the pins
that I have on my maps now, we shouldn’t have any difficulties.
…10) I found the
church I’m going to go to for the next ten Sundays. It’s a small, but very cute
family oriented church with a lovely atmosphere that welcomed us YWAMers
openheartedly. We definitely turned down the average age but I liked being
around older people. It puts a contrast to the youthful chaos of the weekdays.
I think that
sums up week two quite well. I’m excited to see what I can tell you next Sunday
;)I really appreciate you reading this, writing sweet comments and supporting me in so many other ways. Thank you!
On that note, I
hope the rest of your weekend is great!
xx, Annika
xx, Annika
