5 Things I love / hate about my life in Germany

I´ve been thinking a lot about my life in Germany. Amidst the ups and downs, I thought it would be a good exercise to reflect and thank God for the blessings and trials that I have been through so far... Yup, so here´s my 2 cents worth of adjusting to life in Germany...Was thinking of having 10 things, but its a bit too much to think, so will start with 5 first. I don´t want to paint such a rosy picture of my life here, cos the truth is that even if there are great and awesome times, there are still struggles and pains nevertheless.... So for those who are praying for me and Stephan, thanks so much and can use the following as pointers...

5 Things I love about Germany (in no specific order)

1. The weather! - The average temperature that I´ve experienced here is 20 degrees.

2. My wonderful parents-in-law: Werner and Anita - You two are the most amazing, loving and einfach vollkommen (perfect) in-laws that any daughter-in-law can dream about. Thanks for all your help with the cooking every Saturday for lunch (Anita) and helping us with the setting up of furniture, lights etc. (Werner)

3. Meine Wohnung! (Apartment) - Its truly such a God-sent! There´s so much light flooding the entire place, its spacious and I couldn´t ask for a better place.

4. Being able to drive in our car - yup, its fully paid by both Stephan and myself.... My first driving experience with Werner was a bit tough, cos I haven´t driven much in 3 years, plus its manual car and they drive on the other side of the road. However, I´m happy to say that my driving is slowly improving =) Stephan allows me to drive to church on Sundays too. So yay! The roads are deserted on Sunday morning.

Photos of my parking attempts in the practice space

5. The wonderful madelines and yoghurt
- Madelines are similar to the ones in Delifrance,
except that they are cheaper and in bite-size portions.

- Yoghurt cost a mere $0.33 EU.





5 Things I don´t like about Germany (in no specific order)

1. The Language Barrier - Its really stiffling and I know that I need to be patient with myself and everybody tells me that its only a matter of time, but its really easier said than done. I just want to wake up one day and I can speak, read and understand german perfectly, but I know that God has everything worked out in His time and I just need to be patient!

2. The fact that I need to cook and wash everyday! - All Singaporeans like myself are just spoilt with cheap, hawker fare. I like cooking, but I need to get strike a balance between loving to cook and doing it because I have to. I want to cook and honour God with having the right attitudes in my heart while I go about with my housework.

3. Needing to start from scratch to make my social circle again - I know that Stephan has friends, but its different from having friends on your own.

4. Not knowing what on earth God wants me to do here - Stephan and I both know that God showed us so clearly about moving to Germany. However, now while Stephan has eased back into his job, my journey of discovery has just begun. Not to say that I was any clearer about God´s purpose for my life in Singapore, but somehow being in Germany makes it even tougher to see God´s plans for the pure reason of not being a native speaker here. Feels like my options of job is so much narrowed now.

5. Missing Singapore and missing my friends and family and church - Hey peeps, especially my girly bunch, you know who you are.... I think of you all lots here. I miss cell group too - both the youth and the adult cell. I´m just desperate to experience God in a way that I can understand and grow here. I´m finding it hard to connect with God in a spiritual setting like church when everything is done in a foreign language.

Speaking of church, this little girl who sat behind me in church last Sunday drew me these 3 pictures and gave them to me after the service. It´s really sweet of her and the person in the pictures is supposed to be me....haha