Bodenseehof

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Hi,
Sorry for the long delay! I don't have regular access to the entire internet
(including this website)- usually the computers can only do the email. If you
could mail me at joe_omundson@bodenseehof.de instead of my other one, that
would be great.

Here's a nice little update on what I'm doing...

I'll tell you about some of my friends. Where do I start? I have two friends
here who are into metal. Florian, the austrian guy, and Jeff, who is American
but his parents are missionaries in Japan so he's been there for 14 years of
his life. Flo is going to Austria with me in the spring (and maybe another
guy Dan, and I have kitchen duty with him after lunch every day (for three
weeks). Oh, I'll start with my roommates. Jeff is in my room. We have... Jeff
from Japan, Dan from the US (I think), Dan from Taiwan, Thomas from Canada (I
think), Jon from Canada, Steffen from Germany, Lukas from Germany, James from
the US, Moses from Kenya (He made it (he was delayed)! We were really excited.
He's a pastor there and really interesting), and me, from the US. I'm in the 10
room. I like Steffen and Lukas a lot... Steffen is a firefighter, he's like 25.
Really nice guy and the natural room leader. I hang out with plenty of other
guys too, I kind of switch it up at meals all the time. I don't really have any
girl friends... the closest might be the girl I sit next to (we have assigned
seats) in the lectures, she's German.

The lectures are good- we've really only had like 1-2 actual days of lectures,
the rest has been mostly orientation. Today was cool (yesterday, now), Peter
Reid shared about "the anatomy of sin" from 1st (2nd?) samuel 12, with David
and Bathsheba. Interesting insights into it all. And we had a "reflection hour"
which we'll have from time to time, to pray and focus on what we've been
learning. They go by really quickly actually... in the morning, we have
breakfast at 7:45, and lectures at 9. We go for 50 minutes or an hour and then
have a 20-minute coffee break, then another hour with a 5-10 minute break, then
a final hour... by then it's almost lunch, so we eat lunch. After lunch I have
to help clean dishes, which takes until at least 1400. Then I have free time
until dinner at 17:45... I do stuff like playing pool or ping-pong or foosball,
or I check my email, or I go on a walk or talk to people or whatever. Or all of
them. Then we have dinner and then lectures start again at 7:15. I think there
are 2 lectures, with a break in between. It's nice because there's a break
between almost everything, for at least 20-30 minutes. After that, I'm not
really sure, we can do whatever I guess... the lounge place (the "honeycomb")
is open. Lock-up is at 22:30 and lights out is 23:00. I've been waking up at
6-6:30, because that's really the only time I have to be by myself, without
feeling like I'm missing out or being antisocial (like if I was alone in the
afternoons).

My room is just a room with 5 bunks and 4 closets and 2 sinks and 2 doors (one
goes to the balcony) and a couple windows. I'll try to get some pictures on, maybe I'll go to the internet cafe soon.

Anyway, I'm having a great time and making some good friends. Don't worry
about me!  :p Thanks again, everyone, for the support and prayers and notes.

-Joe

Hello,

Getting a bit more situated now... I've adjusted to the time zone and stuff. I'm
meeting a lot of cool people who I think could turn out to be great friends. I
talked to one Austrian guy in particular yesterday and we have a lot in common,
and he's doing the same thing I am with Tauernhof in the spring and stuff. Today
is the first Sunday, with church and all, and I'm all dressed up as I write this.
Today I woke up at about 7 and took a shower when we don't even have breakfast
until 8:30... what am I DOING??? It's very unlike me. Yesterday we took the bus
into Friedrichshafen (which, by the way, is pronounced "FREED-ricks-hoffen") and
walked around in the city. Last night we had a big barbecue... no hamburgers,
though. How can you call it a "barbecue" if there are no hamburgers? Honestly...

Anyway, things seem to be going great here and I think this will be a great 6 months.
(Made a couple updates to the info section. It might be a while before I get any
pictures up, I can't do it from the school. It's not that I don't have the
right gear, it just doesn't really work with these computers- I'll go to an
internet cafe sometime, though, and throw a few on.)

Hey all,
made it here fine. Met up with two fellow students on the way, in Newark, and
three more when we landed in Zurich, so we all found our way there together and
it was fun and stuff. I´ve been up for 32 hours now (except for maybe a 1-hour
nap on the plane), so I`m TIRED and need to get to bed. But I`m having a good
time. I`ll write more later. Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Added important update about sending packages, in "info" section.

It was pretty tough saying goodbye to Ginny and stuff on Sunday. We'll make it
through, though. My plane leaves at 7:45 on Thursday morning, which is in about
32 hours as I write this. Tonight is my last night ever at my dad's house,
where I grew up- they're moving while I'm away. So that's probably pretty sad.
I don't really know. I don't really know what to think about all this, or what
to feel. It seems sudden (though I've known it was coming for so long) and a
bit overwhelming. I'll just be glad to be on the plane, finally DOING this
thing that I've been thinking about for so long. It still doesn't seem very real.

Thanks, everyone, for the support.

Added "New camera" section in Images.

My digital camera came yesterday. It's pretty swehttp://www.angelfire.lycos.com/cgi-auth/webshellet, and stuff.
(edit: there's a funny picture with it in my images section.)
I'm leaving a week from tomorrow, wow. Two more days left with Ginny.

Doing better today. I'll leave to visit her at OSU Saturday afternoon and get there
at around 5 or 6, find a campground, set up my tent and stuff, and then meet
Ginny after 7. Hmm, maybe that night I can have a little campfire if I bring some
wood, that would be nice. Then we'll go to church in the morning and I'll head
out shortly before this soccer game starts, at 1 or so... not a ton of time to
see her, but maybe that's ok. The timhttp://www.angelfire.lycos.com/cgi-auth/webshelle we do have will be more special.

Ginny left for school today. Yesterday (we said goodbye) was harder than I ever
expected. This was supposed to be the easy part, since I'm going to see her this
weekend anyway. I'm only going to see her a couple more times, and I'm gone... I
almost wish I was gone already so I could start this time of being apart instead
of it dragging on for a couple more weeks. Saying goodbye is the hardest part for
me.

Turns out her roomate is a Christian (at least until school starts, when she will
probably switch roommates), which is really great and an answer to prayer.