Tribute to Sharolee

So... I made a promise that I would someday write a blog entry in German, and the person I made that promise to is leaving on her mission to the Baltic Mission in 3 days (I am so excited for you Sharolee!) so this is my last chance to fulfill that promise.... so for those of you who don't speak German, I am sorry. And for those of you who do, I am also sorry because this is going to be really bad.

Ich kann nicht es glauben: nachste Woche ist die letzte ganz Woche von meinen Deutsch Kurs! Ich bin sehr traurig, weil ich da vielen Freunden gemacht habe. Auch, wir haben nur sechs Wochen in Europa. Verruckt!

Heute, haben wir Mittagessen im Kirche mit der Gemeinde gegessen (Jedermann hat Speisen mitgebracht). Dann, sind die Missionaire bei uns fur Dinner angekommen, weil wir einen neuen Missionair haben. Er heiszt Elder Schenk und kommt aus Idaho Falls, Idaho. Wir sind am Mittwoch Abend zusammen mit dem alte Missionaire zuessen gegangen.

Okay I am switching back to English for this part cause I think many will want to know this. So on Saturday night, we went out to dinner at a traditional German restaurant with Pika, and then we sent her off on the train to visit her friend Imke one last time and then she is headed back to the states on Wednesday. So sad for us, though happy for Pato, and you all. But we will miss her oodles.

Oh I wanted to tell you about my experience on Thursday night. My school had this really cool night of international music where any of the students could share their musical talents. So Carrie and another girl Rachel who is also an opera singer, sang a song from Hansel and Gretel and it was AMAZING. Tony, a music major from California played an amazing classical piano piece. Also, Brandon another American, played some Neil Young on his guitar and seriously made me itch to get my hands on a guitar again.... I somehow got addicted in the short time between Brighton and coming to Europe.... anyway, he did a really good job, and then my personal favorite number was when a girl from Switzerland combined with a girl from Canada to sing a Celine Dion song in French, since Celine Dion is from Canada, but is apparently currently living in Switzerland so it all tied together.... ok no I am kinda making fun of them because well..... it was Celine Dion.... (sorry Elyse, I know you love her...) but they actually did a pretty good job. My real personal favorite number was actually these two men from Africa who speak not only a bunch of diferent African dialects and French, but also English and German. Anyway, the one, Blanchard, is completely blind, which I knew. What I didn't know was that he can play the piano!!!! He sat down at the piano and started playing and I was like, what the heck! He can play a trillion times better than me and I have full vision! And then, he started singing. This rich, deep voice in some beautiful African dialect. It was like nothing I have ever heard. And I seriously cannot get over his playing the piano- he just totally played by touch. And I am not just talking about playing the keys by touch of his fingers, I am talking about making music with his soul. You seriously just felt the music eminate from his soul, via the tools of his fingers and vocal chords- who needs eyes. Anyway, with all of the music talent that abounded from my fellow students at my school that night, I realized how many of the students studying there were doing so to enrich somethin to do with a music career or talent. Or maybe, just people who love and understand music are more quantitatively minded and have a better knack for learning another language. Although I don't seem to fall into either one of those categories, so maybe this is all just useless and false generalizations...

Well, Sharolee, I am so excited for you and wish you all the best on your mission and I can't wait to hear you speak Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, or whatever languages you know when you get back. And I promise I will write you lots!!!

And to everyone else, I miss you bunches and bunches and love you even more. Until next week,

Emily