So far a lot of this trip has been spending time with significant people in my life. And significant people are like mirrors sometimes. Especially the ones who have lived with you. We are in Chicago now with our friend and my room-, apartment-, housemate Brandon and his wife Amy. We have already tickled our diaphragm many a times over dinner and a good glass of Bourbon as we shared stories from our times together. And that’s been just great. The reason he is a mirror though is that he shows me who I am. For some reason it is good to have some pointers in your life to show you around when you don’t know what to think of yourself anymore. So I am thankful for all those significant people in my life like Brandon who help along the way.
Some lines in Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller struck a chord on this theme of finding oneself. He took a trip like this and writes about sharing his plans and reasons to go with people.
“…plans were shared with friends, but few understood. “Going off to find yourself” was the standard interpretation. I don’t think that is really our point. We are shaped by our experience. Our perception of joy, fear, pain, and beauty are sharpened or dulled by the way we rub against time. My senses have become dull and this trip is an effort to sharpen them.”
I think for me it is both of these ideas. Sharpening senses and finding myself or rather my path set out for me. Jamie Cullum’s words in “Twenty Something” still ring in my ears too…
1) It is Aaron’s 22nd birthday today!!
Everybody join for a biiiiiig Hurrrrray and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
2) My brother and his wife Margit had their first baby on Oct 3rd!! His name is Felix Matthias Ingo. I love the name! Praise be to the Lord!
So everybody join in a biiiiig awwwww and CONGRATULATIONS!!
I really don’t have any idea why Nashville is referred to as Nashvegas. Nonetheless, we are here and we are chilling at Centennial Park, home of the full-size replica of the Parthenon. Sammy is probably reading a book or doing something else enjoyable while I sit here and finish up some website work.
As the videos show, we’ve had quite an exciting time so far. To those of you dying to know, the fire was put out and nobody was injured (we even saved a cat from a nearby tree). But really, it has been great seeing all the old faces. Everyone has been such a blessing to us. Tonight we’re going to see Andrew Osenga in concert. He’s one of my favorite songwriters so I’m looking forward to it.
Back to work (soon I’ll be done for a long time!)
It has been some time… and a lot has happened since Virginia. Since there was a tsunami of comments on the last post on Virginia I thought I needed to say a few more words, which I finally found again. So let me tell you more about her. I miss her. I miss her mess she leaves around the table, her nice smile when she comes up to me, her stories which most of the time I don’t understand, being called Cici, going for a drive in her cabriolet… I think a few a you might still be confused, so please have a look at our last picture!
If you need to throw a sheep at me, go to facebook. 
When I came to Richmond the Booth family lovingly took me into their home and made me feel so welcome and at home here. I know Steve Booth from his visits to Salzburg with teams from FBC Richmond. I thank God for them because they were an answer to prayer. Even though Barbara calls me “Christian” here and there :-), (the last Austrian in the house was my friend Christian from Freilassing), and that I almost had a heart attack from the wolf I saw on Tuesday morning in the backyard, they have been absolutley wonderful to me.
I never thought this would happen. Not now. But it did. I fell in love. She is absolutely beautiful. I met her up in the DC area and spent the weekend with her.
I am a bit lost for words at the moment…
I got up fairly early the last day in NY since my chinatown bus left at 11am from 88 E Broad St. Having been in NYC for 4 days I knew my way around (or so I thought) so I planned to just cross Central park up at 88th street in the upper East Side, drop by the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) for an hour or so and then hop on the bus. I was a little curious about the Chinatown bus not leaving from Chinatown…
Well, leaving the hostel I just aked the receptionist about 88 E Broad St. and to my surprise… it was nowhere near where I suspected! It did indeed leave from Chinatown in lower Manhatten Had I not got this crucial info I would have hopelessly missed my 20$ ride to DC. So I got on the Metro (sleeping people all over) hopped off in Chinatown and rushed through the what seemed like thousands of Chinese with my map… Tourist! But I got there on time!
4 beautiful faces met me in DC. Jon, Sasha, Isabella, and Josiah. They had doubled since last time I saw them!! The kids are adorable. To say the least. Isabella is 19 months and Josiah is 3 months old. Josiah was fascinated by the first airplane (brothers Wright) in the Air and Space museum and Isabella loved the flowers at the Botanical gardens which we visited that afternoon.
I spent 4 wonderful days with the Webbs. Our time was filled with good laughter, good conversation about worship and the church, and watching Isabella mess up the three m2 around her place at the dinner table. She calls me “Cici” by the way. She is too cute!
Jon is the worship pastor at Dulles Community Church, where he led the music for two services in the morning and an evening event as well. It was food for my soul to be part of an authentic Christian community with Jon leading the music.
It was such a sweet time that I didn’t want to say our good-bye…having decided that Isabella would come with Cici to travel the world. But she stayed after all. I’m still caught in the webb though…
I sat in Strawberry Fields… singing Lennon’s song… eating a banana.
Can you guess the 3 things that New Yorkers do on the Metro? -sleep.-listen to an ipod-read. They don’t talk much on the Metro, which is surprising. Still, Americans are open to strangers and usually just start to talk. That’s what I like about them! What a change from the tight European Continent, where you barely look someone in the eye.
I was waiting for the train to arrive at JFK… As it came around the corner the A at the front jumped out at me and Duke’s tune “A train” came to mind with which I happily enjoyed the ride into New York. A good start.
Well, guess what the name of the first New Yorker I met was…
ROBERT!! I had a good internal laugh as we chatted about NY, thinking about my first visit to the US with Logan in 98. There we establshed that every second male American is called BOB. Theory proven.
Good times with a guinness last night at St. Nick’s pub..
Today, a day remembering 9-11. An intense atmosphere hovered over Ground Zero and all the people gathered there to remember. A few crying. A lot demonstrating for peace.
The theories here about the attack are too numerous to count. Everybody at Ground Zero has his own.. I wonder myself how much we know about the truth of that day…
