day 1....adventure begins

hullo! haley here...well, we have finished day one of our europe adventure! i cant figure out how to capitalize letters on this keyboard and a few letters are different, so bear with me if i mix things up! we arrived in frankfurt at 7:20 this morning. it is now about 8 pm. i slept pretty well on the plane. felt like i had a good nights sleep. charlotte on the other hand only got about an hour of sleep! i sat by a super nice lady on the plane. she is from germanz and went to visit her sister in shreveport. we talked off and on throughout the flight but both wanted to get some sleep. she had to go to work this morning! we got to know each other fairly well; she even gave me an english-german pocket dictionary! so sweet! we have already used it a bunch! i look like the people here (more so than my last international trip to japan) and i want to be able to talk german and not look like a tourist! so, iäm studying up on my german:)

once we landed in frankfurt, we had to figure out the train situation. took a little time, a few confusing conversations where i pretended to understand german conversations and charlotte finally getting english answers. i just want to figure it out on mz own rather than ask for directions and look like a "dumb american" but asking for directions does save time! so we boarded a short train to frankfurts main station and then a 2.5 hour train from their to weimar. didnät think there was much to this small cute german town but apparentlz hitler was a frequent visitor and the ss police had a main station there. we then boarded a bus and went to buchenwald concentration camp-about 15 min. awaz. i cannot imagine living just 15 min from a place where thousands were murdered. the realitz of the holocaust. how? i donät understand how someone could torture and kill people like that-and the kids that were there-how?to think of the torture those people went through just because of their faith. where was god in that? his people-why? god, you saz everything happens to magnify your glory, but its really hard to understand how that magnified you. in the cells there were pictures and memorials. i guess familz members somehow found out their relative was in that cell. one cell had a cross and 2 corinthians 5:2o on the wall:

20. here we are, then, speaking for christ, as though god himself were making his appeal through us. we plead on christs behalf; let god change zou from enemies into his friends!

wow, to think these people, whoäs relative was tortured and murdered, prayed for the salvation of the murderers. lord, please help me to love others this much!


now, we are in wittenburg...home of martin luther! we get to see the church where he nailed the 95 day thesis to the door! wow, i know i am a theology nerd when i get excited over this but the history in this country is amazing! ok, time is running out! love you! miss you already!