Almost a full week now

We need to apologize for our lack of good pictures. We have never really been into taking photos, so it is hard to remember to take them now, but we will keep trying and hopefully only get better. Don't give up on us yet!

This is a church in the city we're staying in right now. 

Since we last wrote we have:

. gone to our first Sunday morning church service, a Presbyterian church-plant that's been meeting since January in someone's basement.

. been invited out for Tuesday night trivia, from someone we met at church. There we hung out with some German University students who were wonderful, smiley, and very engaging; defying every German stereotype we were worried about.

. our car back! Driving is such a luxury that I have always taken for granted. Because we are staying on an American base until we find housing, the first 3 days we were here without transportation were difficult,

Our very first look at the market in the city-center.

. checked out the Saturday morning market (it's enormous!) in Wiesbaden, a city we're thinking of living in. Here we were able to get a pretty good feel of the heartbeat of the people here, most of whom were much more friendly that we were anticipating.

. set up appointments to look at two apartments this weekend!

Just a random hot spring on the sidewalk.

. been given opportunities to share our faith with new friends and praise God's great name in a dark part of the world. Which has led to even greater confirmation that this is exactly where we've been called to. Feeling as though we are right in the center of God's will is an incredible feeling. Satisfying and terrifying all at once. 

They are very serious about recycling here. 

. walked anywhere from 2 - 6.5 miles per day, simply living life and getting around from place to place. Quite the lifestyle change from living back home, where we only moved from room to room or went out of our way to make time for exercise.

Example: My immediate thought upon seeing this store,
"Maybe we should get Jason some athletic sandals."

. been reintroduced to shopping/consumerism. Back home we didn't go to the mall very often, we weren't into new clothes or very much habitual spending. As soon as we got here we were assaulted by all kinds of stores, marketing, and consumerism simply walking to the market for groceries (in Maryland there aren't any billboards so I'm not used to the subtle, daily marketing attacks like I was growing up in the Midwest). 

That's the update for now. Jason went into the office yesterday for the first time so I'm sure this weekend he'll post about the new office (whatever he can actually share with us) and share some of his experiences during our first full week here as well.