Just a short update:
We have arrived in Hamburg! We are in our apartment and have been here one day or so. The flights went well. Our cat Augustine was an absolute champ in terms of staying calm and not losing his mind in the midst of being stuck in a cage for 20 hours and being jostled around endlessly. We had no issues with customs or baggage size restrictions. Thank you Lord.
We went shopping the large part of yesterday to make sure we had some food to eat and tools for every day life. Shopping is a chore and you must visit a different store for every little category of thing you might need. It’s a bit frustrating, but we actually don’t mind it. It makes it even more difficult when you don’t have a car, because when you’ve bought large things, you’re stuck carrying them! We carried a new litter box for Augustine about 2 miles yesterday because we wanted to enjoy the streets of Hamburg instead of riding a bus. Typically, one would take a bus or train and can get anywhere in the city within 30 minutes.
The weather is Fall-like. It’s like we took a flight a month into the future when the U.S. finally becomes cold and the leaves start falling.
The language barrier is not *too* challenging. I (Evan) am so thankful for the benefit of having studied German as much as I have (which hasn’t been enough, but has been helpful). We have had conversations with several Germans. The conversations are a bit awkward because even knowing Hoch-Deutsch (High German), there are different dialects and of course cultural colloquialisms of the different cities one might visit that, believe it or not, make one stick out quite a bit for not knowing. Still, I don’t know how this would have gone without knowing a little bit of German beforehand.
We are so excited to attend a church tomorrow. We are yearning to find Christian fellowship and to be encouraged by / encourage other believers. We’ll let you all know how it goes tomorrow (Sunday).
That’s it for now. Here are a few pictures from our journeys so far. Thank you all for your prayers in support. Much love from Jodi and I both!
Nach Deutschland 