The service that morning was, of course, in German, but Holger (the preacher) always types out his sermons and translates them into English for the English speakers in the audience--and there were several of us that morning! Every time I go to church there, one of the things I look most forward to is the singing. Sure, the words are in German, but the notes are all the same! Music is truly a universal language. =) A lot of the songs we sing, they sing there as well. Sometimes I can sing quietly in English while they sing the same song in German, and sometimes (especially if it's a slower song) I read the words and sing along in German! It's so interesting how languages work and letters have different sounds. Letter combinations are cool because in English we rarely have more than three consonants in a row, but other languages can have entire words of just consonants. I think it's interesting. =)
At any rate, it was fun to sing along in German and follow along with the lesson in English! Prayers were said in both English and German, which all we Americans so appreciated! Language differences are not at all the barriers they seem to be. It sounds corny and silly perhaps, but the things that tie us together--our faith and love for our brothers and sisters in Christ--are so much stronger than the language and cultural differences are.
After church, Ben and Allison got up to thank everyone for what they'd done for the wedding, and of course Ben made me cry when he thanked those who traveled from the States. I would not have traded the experience for the world! It was worth every last penny and every lost hour of sleep, too! We all ate together for lunch (there was a LOT of food left over from the reception and dinner the night before). And then it was off to explore Basel!
The other American young person there was Nick, who knows the Steinhauers very well, but had never been to visit Switzerland. We all (Nicole, Chris, Simona, Nick and I) went to the little downtown area and gawked at the old buildings, walked around a couple of cathedrals, crossed the Rhine River on a bridge that was built in 1226, crossed back across the Rhine on the famous Ferry that is only powered by the Rhine's current--you know, the usual. =) We showed Nick how you can really drink out of any of the fountains in Switzerland unless otherwise noted--he didn't believe it at first! Chris, ever a wealth of knowledge, explained a lot of the stuff along the way. I always learn something new, no matter how many times I walk around the sites in Basel. Afterward we ate ice cream at Moevenpick, which is a famous, fancy-dancy restaurant on the main plaza in Basel. We go there every time I go to Switzerland--it's just the best! After a while we went over to Simona's (Nicole had to leave to catch the train, since she takes the train an hour or so home). She made us Roesti, a traditional Swiss meal of hashbrowns and sausage--so good, but I feel like all I do in Switzerland is eat! Afterward, Simona and Nick made brownie-cookies for dessert, which was a pretty amazing thing! We played games and talked for the longest time until Chris's dad, Dan, came to meet us around 12:30 am. Nick, Chris and I walked over to Allison and Ben's apartment to help them unload wedding presents from Dan's car for them, then we all went home to the Steinhauers' and crashed into bed! We knew we were in for another eventful day starting in just a few hours!
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