666 Four Years Removed
For the 666th post here on NonModernBlog, I am reminded of 6/6/6, the day we moved into our current house. It was actually four years ago today that we arrived in Germany to live. Four years. That may not seem like much, but it is almost as long as I have ever lived in one house in my nearly four decades of life. It would also be hard for us moving in on that day to believe that it would be more than four years before we would again visit our passport country and family. That being said, out of all the cities in all the countries that I have ever called home, Dresden is easily my favorite, and four years have been a joy to experience here. We look forward to many more.
A lot has changed in the time we have been here. The city of 2010 is not the same as it was in 2006. The endless construction one encounters in the former East Germany has seen to the physical changes. The increasing importance of tourism as an industry here has made English slightly more used, although still far less encountered in Saxony than it would be in western parts of the country. The city has grown, with one of the few birth rates that accounts for population growth in Germany.
Our family has changed as well—in more drastic ways than a family would normally change in just a few years. The kids are just as comfortable in the German language and European mindset as English and American. A couple of them have no concept of what it will be like to visit that magical land known as Texas. Likely it will be a fearful land of tornados, rattlesnakes and tarantulas. They may not understand their peers in that land who have been raised in such a safe and clear-cut shell; yet for all that they have been exposed to things that will hopefully make them even stronger in their faith.
Four years ago on the sixth of June, 2006, our new neighbor half jokingly told his wife that nothing good could come from moving into a new house on the sixth of the sixth of the sixth… it would surely be a curse. Instead it has been an incredible blessing.
A lot has changed in the time we have been here. The city of 2010 is not the same as it was in 2006. The endless construction one encounters in the former East Germany has seen to the physical changes. The increasing importance of tourism as an industry here has made English slightly more used, although still far less encountered in Saxony than it would be in western parts of the country. The city has grown, with one of the few birth rates that accounts for population growth in Germany.
Our family has changed as well—in more drastic ways than a family would normally change in just a few years. The kids are just as comfortable in the German language and European mindset as English and American. A couple of them have no concept of what it will be like to visit that magical land known as Texas. Likely it will be a fearful land of tornados, rattlesnakes and tarantulas. They may not understand their peers in that land who have been raised in such a safe and clear-cut shell; yet for all that they have been exposed to things that will hopefully make them even stronger in their faith.
Four years ago on the sixth of June, 2006, our new neighbor half jokingly told his wife that nothing good could come from moving into a new house on the sixth of the sixth of the sixth… it would surely be a curse. Instead it has been an incredible blessing.
Just as long as you don't decide to move to the middle east and bring peace...
ReplyDeleteI had no idea you were living in Germany! We're moving to Göttingen in September and it is great to hear (yet another!) positive experience living there. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts if you have the time. Have you written any posts on the transition to living in Europe?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I have written anything very German specific, but a little bit on culture shock and transition in general. Over all, it has been almost completely positive for us, then again I grew up in South America in a very European culture.
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