Bodenseehof

Email: joe_omundson@bodenseehof.de

Oh man, I haven't updated in like 100 years. Sorry.
I'm at school and things are grand. In the break, after Flo's, I went to visit
some relatives in Bayreuth and then in Andernach, and that was good.
Then I went to Zurich to meet Dad and Bev, and back to Bodenseehof for a
couple days, and then to Zurich to meet Grammy and Pappy, and then we
around in Switzerland... spent nights in Zermatt (by the Matterhorn) and
Ascona, then went to Innsbruck in Austria, and then they dropped me off at
school in lovely Schladming, Austria, amid the alps.
Today it's a bit cold and rainy, but that's ok.
I have 5 roommates, and we have our OWN bathroom and shower, which
is pretty cool.
please leave some questions in the message board so i know what to
write about!
-Joe

So now school is over and I'm at my friend Flo's house, in Austria. My school email
address is deleted, so please email me at theradpotato@gmail.com . It was pretty
hard saying goodbye to all the people there... that was like my home. And I'd
been around those guys 24 hours a day for 6 months (minus Christmas break), and
now I'll probably never see a lot of them again. So it was rough. But it's ok.
Yeah, any questions? Let me know,
-Joe

Hey,
about 2 more weeks at Bodenseehof... then I'll be going to my friend Flo's house
in Austria for a 7-10 days, and the Brenners' in Germany for 7-10 days, and then
meeting up with my dad, step-mom, and grandparents to travel until Tauernhof
starts on the 23rd. That runs until the 17th of June, and then Ginny flies out on
the 18th, and we'll travel until July 3... she flies into Zurich, and we'll go
from there to 3 different relatives' houses in Germany (hopefully), and then
spend a few days in Poland with our friends and then in Krakow, and then go down
to Austria and visit Tauernhof, and then go to Bodenseehof for a couple days. The
"Spring Sing Team" (6 students from this year) will still be here, and it will be
fun to see them. Then we'll fly home, from Zurich.
We just had a week of apologetics, from Ian Leitch of Scotland, and now we have a
week of "facing life issues", I don't remember the name of the lecturer.
Take care,
-Joe

The original plan was to go to a hut the first day, sleep there, and then go up to
the top of the mountain and back down on the second day... but because of the
conditions, all we did was go up to a hut that was closer than the original hut,
and spent the night there and came down the next day. But I'm glad, because I was
pretty worn out as it was. It was fun and stuff. We only climbed about 900 meters
of vertical gain.
So, We still have today and tomorrow for travel weekend, and then we return to
the regular school schedule.
-Joe

So I am indeed going on the snowshoeing trip- we leave tomorrow (assuming the
conditions are safe enough). I ran at least 10k on Monday, and it was ok... I got
sort of lost, and walked for a few minutes after probably 8k, but then when I
found my way I ran 2 or 3k again. So I hope I'm in good enough shape. You can
pray that I don't die, it might be dangerous, with avalanches and possible -40
temperatures. This afternoon we have a time of silence and prayer, for like 4.5
hours, so that should be cool.
I hope you're all doing well,
-Joe

Ok! Here's a good update. I had a good break back at home, it was good to see
everybody. It was weird not to go back to dad's old house... I guess it never
really felt like I went home over break. The funny thing is that when I got
back to school here, I felt like I was at home. It feels like home here now. It
doesn't seem the slightest bit weird to be living in Europe... it's completely
normal not to be able to understand anything when you go into the city, and to
see all the old German people, and the small cars, and hear German all the
time. It would be weird for it to be any other way.
We just had a guest lecturer, Ridge Burns, for the whole week. He spoke on
Personal Development. He was the head guy for 10 years at Forest Home, outside
of LA, the biggest Christian camp in America. Interesting guy, somewhat silly,
very American.
I'm in a room with only 3 other guys, now. Their names are Dan, Nathan, and
Tobi. Tobi is German. I like it- they're good guys, and sometimes we stay up at
night talking about things, and we pray for each other. It's really good.
Travel weekend is 2 weeks from now. What I would like to do is go on a
snowshoeing trip the school offers- snowshoeing up to an emergency hut,
spending the night there, and then going to the top of the mountain the next
day. It's pretty remote and dangerous. It gets ridiculously cold. The hut is so
remote that the only way to get firewood there is by helicopter. There are lots
of avalanches all around, but we'll only go if the avalanche risk rating is 1
or 2 (out of 5). It sounds like a lot of fun, but I guess you have to be in
really good shape to do it.
So to prepare for that I started running on Sunday, so today was my 7th day of
it, and it's been good. I run a little bit farther every day, and I've noticed
a lot of improvement in my body already. Today I ran for about 37 minutes... I
don't know how far, maybe 6 kilometers (3.75 miles), assuming I'm doing about 6
minute kilometers (about 10 minute miles). But it's cool because it's the most
I've ever run. My goal is to run a 10k on Wednesday, and from there get my 10k
time down to less than an hour. I hope you all are doing well, and I hope
you've enjoyed my update, and I'm sorry it's been so long since the last one.
(I updated the prayer requests)
-Joe

Sorry for the huge delays in updates! And even now I don't have time to update,
hopefully in the next couple days, but there are people behind me. But I'm
doing well, and I'm here safely, and I miss my girlfriend.
-Joe

Hello. I'll be going home in just 5 days, now... tomorrow most of the school is
going on a trip to a Christmas market in Stuttgart all day, that should be cool
I think. Then Thursday is our last day of classes and stuff. I'm looking
forward to being home.
I'll see some of you soon,
-Joe

I don't have much to update about, but I find myself with some time on the
internet. This week the lecturer is Derek Burnside and he's talking about the
Holy Spirit. He's from England. There are just two weeks of school left. If
you're reading this and you're someone who would typically expect a Christmas
present from me, you could leave a private message detailing something you
might like, from Germany.
Have a good Sunday,
-Joe

Hello.
I'll be going home in just over a couple weeks... I think the next big
event here is Advent International, we put on a concert for the people. I'm in
the choir for it. Also I'm singing in a quartet, there are 2 basses and 2
tenors, and a guy playing a handdrum thing and a guy playing bass and a guy
playing guitar. 3 of them are on staff, so they're older and good musicians,
and we're singing "go tell it on the mountain" and it's kind of slow and funky
and stuff. It will be pretty fun.
-Joe