Poop-flinging Monkeys

The title of this post is homage to Kelley and Aaron for all the randomness they've added to my life in the last month or so. For the full story, you'll have to ask me about it.

Sushi Party

Friday night was the sushi party. Other than the crashes that the international students at AU used to do, I don't think I've been to a house party as international as this. There were probably about 20 of us that night, but between us, we had Spanish-, Japanese-, English-, German-, French- and Mandarin-speakers.

A few of my favourite moments that evening:
1) When Mariko stepped in and started demonstrating and explaining how it's done. Let's be honest, I've done sushi parties in Singapore before, but they always end up messy but fun anyway. I was a little nervous about the whole party, so it was a big relief when Mariko decided to just step in. Come to find out later, it's actually unlike Mariko to step in to the center of a party like that. Well, it was a good thing regardless!

2) Jie Qiong and Rocio - new friends from China and Chile. At one point during the night, the three of us were talking, but there was no common language that the three of us completely understood. Jie Qiong had a little bit of English, so she understood what Rocio and I were saying to each other but she couldn't say much. I understood that little bit of Deutsch so when Rocio and Jie Qiong were talking, I couldn't say much either. And I got to practise my really rusty Mandarin with Jie Qiong. Come to find out she doesn't go out much because she doesn't speak much of the language. So we're going to hang out some while I'm here!

3) Christian's fantastic work of art. Yes, in that picture above, that's his own masterpiece. He doesn't like being in front of the camera though, hence the evil eye that he always gives me.

Excursion

Saturday morning, we loaded up the picnic baskets and headed to... somewhere. I have no idea where we ended up mostly because I just followed the group around after we got on the S-bahn. The sun was out and I think that was the highlight. Unfortunately, that also meant the sunbathers were out. If I had forgotten for a moment that I was in Europe, the sunbathers definitely let me know.

On the way back from our picnic, we encountered an interesting group of people. Speaking of the subcultures of Berlin, this group was definitely an interesting subculture. Bikes, mohawks in all colours, and bags and bags of alcohol... I'm not even sure which group they would belong to, but if you've seen Step Up 2, with the group of dancers "punk"-ing the train stations, that's what that group reminded me of. It was fascinating just to watch the people react as they got on the train. One lady turned the stroller her baby was in around so she her baby wasn't facing them. On the other hand, there was the one guy who offered a bottle to another. I couldn't figure out if the other guy was part of the group, but guy #1 who offered the bottle asked if he needed help opening the bottle. And guy #2 said no, he had a bottle opener that he wore on his thumb.

But that got me thinking. What if we "one-another"ed like that more in our Christ communities? How many more people will we draw?

What gave me hope that day though, was after the lady with the stroller left, Ralf come over and sit where she had been sitting. Not only was Samira's stroller facing them, Ralf also leaned over to make small talk with guy #1 who had offered the beer.

These are the people I get to work alongside.  Blessing #652? Yes, please.

Ok, that's all I'm writing for now. My brain is exhausted. I don't know if you can tell from just reading these entries, but I'm REALLY enjoying every moment of this. And I'm trying to take it all in and not start thinking about how little time I actually have here.

Oh, and here's what the weather's been like this weekend:

And today's entry was brought to you by:

Kelley, Aaron and the poop-flinging monkeys.

Love you all.