[the life & times of lizzy schulz]

2010-04-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

There's one tiny thing I forgot to mention in my last blog: 2 weeks ago the girls in my dorm snuck out in the middle of the night and slept over at a guys dorm!!!!

My dorm is about 4 kilometers (just over 2 miles) away from HBR, the guys dorm that Brandon works at. It is an ongoing tradition for the students to conspire amongst themselves and plan a secret "dorm swap" where they sneak out in the middle of the night, walk along the road all the way to the other dorm and sleep there the rest of the night, waiting to surprise the dorm staff in the morning! The students kept it a complete secret from all of us, but they got permission from our boss, the Residence Life Supervisor.

I was assigned to breakfast the morning of the swap and what a surprise I had when I walked out into the common area and saw a bunch of bodies covered in blankets scattered all around!!! I stood for about 10 seconds with my jaw on the floor, then I finally realized what it was! I laughed out loud, which woke up a few of the guys, then my next thought was: "Oh no! How am I going to feed all of these guys!!"

But everything worked out just fine. I didn't get any pictures because I was rushing around trying to scrounge up enough food for 26 hungry guys, but below are some pictures that Greg, the dorm dad at HBR, took of the girls at his dorm.

Some girls sleeping in the guys computer room.

Girls sleeping on the couches and floors.

Greg was nicer than me and quickly fixed a nice French toast breakfast!

Soccer & Track Weekend
This past weekend the Soccer and Track teams played at "home" and so we all gathered at the nearby soccer field and track complex to support our teams. We have guys varsity and junior varsity (JV) team as well as girls varsity and JV, so it makes for a long day to watch 4 games and a track meet! There are 8 girls in my dorm who play soccer, and 3 who are involved with track--it was so much fun to watch!

Kjersti is the girl in blue in the middle--she is a great runner!

This is Jessica and although this is the first year she has been on the track team, you would never know it! She is a great athlete and finished first in all her races!

Katey is one of the goalies for the girls varsity and JV teams. It's actually her first year to play soccer, but she's done very well so far!

Krystal is the girl on the right in the white. She plays on JV and although she is little, don't let that fool you! She's tough!

And this is the other Jessica, scoring her first of three goals for this game!! She is an amazing soccer player and has been awarded a scholarship to a university in the States!

Our teams did well and all but the JV girls team won their games (the JV girls tied)! They have an "away" game this weekend and so the dorm will be much quieter with 11 of the 19 girls gone! I will miss them, but I'm not complaining about a little extra peace and quiet! :)

1 week down, 8 to go!

2010-04-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was the 2nd annual BFA's GOT TALENT show! Any student or staff member can perform and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes are awarded. There was an assortment of performances from the students: singing, dancing...the normal stuff. But we as RA's had the tough task of topping our performance from last year when we pulled off the "Evolution of Dance" routine after only practicing 2 times before the show! (there's a video of our performance on my facebook page) So this year, knowing it would be difficult to re-create another dance routine, we decided to go a different route...a very different route. We put together a sort of "variety show" and the audience was flabbergasted at our "raw" talent! First, a group of us performed as an air-band to the song "Funky Town", then Brandon (my fiance) did a few "magic" tricks (posing as a skilled magician), then a few more of us did what we call "Soccer Matrix", then we ended the show with Brandon sawing someone in half! It was a great night!

This is Jun--he is a senior in Maugenhard (the guys dorm upstairs) and he sang a solo!

This is a group of girls from my dorm who performed a dance to a Korean pop song. They did awesome!

And heeeeere's the RA's! This was the "Soccer Matrix" portion of our performance. Each soccer player has a pair of fake legs, and those are directed by 2 people dressed in black. The soccer ball is on a black pole, directed by another person in black. We wanted the stage lights to be dimmed so that the people in black were less noticable...but that didn't really work out. It was still funny though! ...can you find me????

I'm the one in the middle in charge of the soccer ball.

And this is the "leg-portion" of Brandon's saw-in-half trick. I couldn't find a better picture, but basically we had 2 huge boxes and SoYoung, an RA, was hiding inside one of the boxes. Then another RA, Corey, climbed in the other box. As he got inside, So Young stuck her feet out so that it looked like they were his legs!!! It was really funny!

Palmgarten Poker Night!!!

This past Friday night we spent our evening playing poker! I, along with a few others, had never played before and so Luke, our dorm dad, printed out a "cheat sheet" of possible winning combinations. I learned words like "big blind", "the river", "the flop" etc. Now I try to sound smart and incorporate them in normal conversation around the dorm. It's catching on pretty quick.

This is Lizzy--she was the dealer at my table. She fooled me with her poker face a few times!!

Here is Luke, instructing all the newbies.

And this is Eunji...yep, you guessed it! Her first time playing poker!!! :)

We played for a few hours on Friday night, continued the game on Sunday night, and then they finally finished tonight! (monday) I'm sorry to report that I did not win, BUT, at one point I got a straight flush!! This is a big deal, apparently...so we took a picture of it.

This coming weekend we have the first home soccer game and the first home track meet! I'll post some more pictures soon!

Spring Break!!

2010-03-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

Allow me to explain this picture...

It's Easter time and for a lot of people that means Easter egg hunt!! Last weekend we hid 30 eggs in our dorm and set the girls loose to find them all! They got candy for each egg they found, and in order to raise the stakes, we hid a "special egg" that, if found, meant that the finder would be exempt from their daily chores for a day. Recognizing that these are not little toddlers with pink and blue bunny baskets but candy-starved teenagers, we knew we had to make this a challenge and so we were pretty sly in our hiding tactics. My second favorite hiding spot was the picture below where I put tape on the egg and stuck it in an empty light fixture!

But, my most favorite hiding spot was where we hid the "special egg"...you guessed it! In the hood of my jacket! All the girls were in their rooms and when we were finished hiding the eggs we yelled: "ready, get set, GO!" And they burst forth and ran screaming down the hallways like a bunch of crazed pop-star fans! It was much more of a response than I expected!

Here's Joy and Kara...

And here's Eunji...

This was Eunji's very FIRST Easter egg hunt! She didn't even know what it was and so we had to explain the concept to her many times throughout the day. Her roommate, Krystal, is behind her; she was excited too!

Me, Bonnie and Stephanie (fellow RA and dorm mom) quickly realized that our "sly hiding tactcis" were a little too sly... even after tearing apart all the furniture in a mad rush, it still took them almost 10 minutes to find the first egg! And I was conveniently strolling around, parading around as the vessel for the coveted "special egg."

Lizzy was our most skilled egg-finder. She found about 6 of the 30 eggs, attributing her success to her height.

Hannah was the lucky one who found my 2nd favorite hidden egg. This happend about 20 minutes into the search when we were starting to give hints. After 30 minutes of searching, all the eggs had been found except...the special egg. At this point, the girls all started to congregate and were at the point of mutiny because they had searched everywhere (over and over) and still could not find it! A few minutes before this, I made the stupid mistake of telling our dorm dad, Luke, where the egg was hidden (he wasn't a part of the hiding). All of a sudden, things got quiet, and at the same moment I realized I was standing in the room all by myself, I heard something like this: "LIZZY!!!!! [scream scream scream] GET HER!!!!! [scream scream scream] LIZZY!!!! [more screaming, stampeding feet] HER HOOD!!! [more stampeding feet and then the thud of my body hitting the floor as I was mauled]."

As I fell to the floor, I caught a quick glimpse of Luke slinking away with a guilty grin on his face...I'll get him back.

Meet Jersey:

Jersey belongs to Luke and Stephanie and she is just over a year old. She has quickly become the dorm mascot and there's always a lot of laughter when she's around. But this laughter is usually because she has eaten something crazy (like a ceramic tile) or is chasing (and chewing) her tail again. I can honestly say that she can be accurately compared to the stories about Marley from the book/movie "Marley and Me."

So for the next week, I volunteered for the marvelous task of dog-sitting this precious puppy. Luke and Stephanie are away for a week leading a missions trip! Every Spring Break, the school sends out about 6 teams, comprised of students and the staff, to different parts of the globe, then there's a week left of break to rest and gear up for the last bit of the school year. If you think about it, please pray for the teams; right now they're in Greece, Macedonia, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and a country central Asia.

My first few days of Break have consisted of taking Jersey for walks, cleaning up after her during our walks, "playing" chase with her around the yard because she won't come inside (while my German neighors stand and watch), and waking up every couple of hours in the night to the sound of a sick dog...if you know what I mean. Thankfully, she is over her sickness as of this morning and hopefully we can have a fresh start! haha

In addition to this, BFA is hosting an annual ACSI conference. ACSI stands for Association of Christian Schools International and the conference is ICEC: Internations Christian Educators Conference. We're BIG fans of acronyms. (BIG stands for.....hahahaha just kidding) Because my dorm is in town where the school is, our dorm is being used as a guest house and so we will have over 20 people staying with us for the next few days. They will all arrive by this evening and the conference officially starts tomorrow and ends Tuesday. It's not the most ideal thing to be "hosting" so many guests in my dorm on my break, but it has been great to meet like-minded people from all over the world.

Alright, time to take Jersey out for another walk--thanks for reading!

Beauty & Brawn

2009-11-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was packed with activity!
On Saturday afternoon from about 1-5:30 we all primped and prepared ourselves for the evening's banquet. Yes, that's right--it took four and a half hours for all of us to get ready! We had 5 people doing hair, a couple of people painting nails...and I ironed dresses because I don't know how to either of the other two things. Then we all headed down to the school for the annual Christmas Banquet which consists of a sit-down dinner and a series of performances by the students. It was a great time!

This is the auditorium at school decorated for the dinner.

A few of the girls all ready for the banquet! (finally!)

Me, Bonnie and Jessica .

Football????

Wittlingen is another girls dorm, and for some reason there is an ongoing rivalry between our two dorms. So naturally, we let out this pent-up aggression through a flag-football game! In order to help you understand the potential complexity of this, let me set up a scene for you:

It's three days before our game and I sit down with a group of the girls in my dorm to talk about the rules of the game because they're different than regular football. Before I have a chance to begin, one of them (who shall remain nameless) pipes up and says, "So, what is the end goal of this game anyways? Flag footbal? Do we throw around flags or something?!?"

Growing up in Europe (and other places) these kids don't really know much about American football at all! So, we started from scratch with some of them and were able to have a couple of practices before our big game on Sunday afternoon. Luckily, our dorm dad, Luke, loves football and was even able to teach them a few offensive plays.

This is Luke coaching from the sidelines.

Our team has the blue flags on and Hannah is the quarterback, ready to launch a rocket!

At the beginning of the semester Maugenhard (the guys dorm upstairs) played in a rugby game against the other guys dorms, and we all dressed up in red and black and cheered for them. So our game was their chance to return the favor and cheer for us! They all dressed up and put face paint on (to match all of us) and yelled their little hearts out!

This is me and Dahee. Yes, we have red hand prints on our faces and yes, she is wearing a bumble bee suite. Dorm spirit!

Here's a shot of a play in action--Hannah (far left) is looking for someone to pass to while Kjersti (far right) runs to get open.
The game was pretty evenly matched and turned into a defensive battle. We scored during the first half and they came close a couple of times. But in the end...

WE WON!!!! The Maugenhard guys rushed the field and celebrated our victory with the girls. It was great!

I am glad that we had such a busy and eventful weekend because it's getting close to the end of the semester and everyone is weary and ready to go home for Christmas. Just three weeks left! This coming weekend will be busy again because it's our first home basketball game! It will be especially fun for me because this year I am the JV girls assistant coach! I'll be sure to take pictures and let you know how our first game goes!

Old and New Traditions

2009-11-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

BFA is a school that changes a lot every year; but ironically, BFA is also a school with a lot of traditions that have been passed down for years. One of these traditions is the annual trip to Herbstmesse.

Essentially, Herbstmesse is a Fall carnival held in Basel, Switzerland. Every year at the end of October, we load all the dorm students (approx. 150 students) into charter buses and then turn them loose to enjoy carnival food, rides and games.

The bumper cars are always a big hit! In the middle of the picture is Rachel and Kara (in the white hat) in hot pursuit of Krista and Luke! (left corner)

Giant ferris wheel.

In the spirit of being a carnival, Herbstmesse has some weird booths and decorations! Above you see Mrs. Mais, ready to serve you a hot corn on the cob!

At this booth you can find "mega coole preise."

This is the overhead display at a food booth. It's hard to see, but Batman has a sausage for a thumb (a very effective thumbs up), and to the right of that is the hand of the Statue of Liberty holding a sausage...I don't know how to interpret that.

1st Annual 3-3 Basketball Tournament

The day after Herbstmesse (a Friday) is always a day off of school and this year there was a 3-on-3 basketball tournament! There was a pretty good turn out, 9 teams, comprised of students and staff. I hope this becomes a new tradition because it was really fun! My team, the Jetz, played hard for 2 games but then, sadly, we had to sit the bench...it was double elimination.

This is me trying to find an open teammate.

Here I am again, squaring up for a 3-pointer to tie the game...ha ha ha, yeah right!

This is a picture of Rachel just after shooting the ball.

This is Joy, sitting poised and ready to sub-in.

I am proud to say that the star of the winning team was Jessica! (pictured above) Her team was the only undefeated team and she averaged about 12 points per game. She scored over 20 against my team...but I let her because a good RA doesn't make her students look bad on the court, right?!?!?

Palmgarten/Maugenhard Open House

Everyone in the community has been asking for tours of the new building (with Maugenhard dorm being added on top) and so we decided to have a joint open house. The seniors of both dorms came up with the theme and planned the snack menu; all we did was buy and help prepare the food! It was great! Throughout the evening all of the BFA community traipsed through our two dorms and made themselves at home.

The theme was evolution of music and each floor of the building represented a genre of music. The basement floor was Classical, the first floor was Jazz, the third floor was Rock and the fourth floor was Electronica. The cool sign pictured above was made by Anna.

These are the dorm parents of Maugenhard with their two daughters. They were dressed up as Rock and Electronica.

These are the dorm parents of Palmgarten! They dressed up as Sonny and Cher.

Rachel, Jessica, Bonnie and Steph sporting their creative costumes.

Here are some Palmgarten girls dressed up as flappers--I'm still not really sure where they got the fake guns from...I should probably check on that, I think it's against the rules.

Here's me, Sanna and Krista. We had so much fun!

Starbucks trip & Shopping trip

2009-10-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

I was a witness to someone's first Starbucks experience. Yes, it's true. Until two weeks ago, Eunji had never consumed a hot, overpriced but delicious beverage from the coffee chain we all love to hate. So in order to remedy this, we took a trip to the nearest Starbucks, just 25 minutes away in Basel, Switzerland.

Eunji, me and Krystal.

Although the visit ended with a stomache ache induced by her first starbucks beverage...the trip was an overall success.

Shopping

Grocery shopping is a bit different here in Germany. It's not common at all to have a one-stop-shop Super Wal-Mart, so we typically go to three, sometimes four, stores in one day to get everything we need for the dorm. I am lucky because my dorm is located in Kandern where the three major grocery stores are, whereas other dorms have to drive up to 20 minutes to the nearest store! On Monday's the dorm parents go shopping to stock up on food to last until thursday. And then on thursday the RA's buy everything we need to last through the weekend until Monday. So this past thursday I took a few pictures of our weekly shopping trip.

We stop at Lidl first and we easily fill two grocery carts. All the dorms have a running milk order with Lidl, meaning that we tell them how much milk we're going to buy from them each week and they will stock their store for that amount in addition to what they order per week for the rest of the town (Kandern). If we didn't do this, then all the dorms would buy all of their milk and Lidl (and Kandern)would not be happy with us! My dorm orders 20-30 liters of milk per week, but the guys' dorms order at least 50-60 liters!!! That's a lot of milk!

This is our van, stacked full of empty crates. By then end of the morning, these crates will all be full and overflowing into the back seats of the van.

This is Hieber's. Hieber's is a bit more expensive and nicer than the other grocery stores. They carry specialty items like Oreo's and Ritz crackers! The other day I saw a box of "American style" cereal that was priced at 5 euros...that's like $8! So we only buy a few things here every week.

Penny Markt is probably the cheapest grocery store in town and it is our final stop.

Sometimes it's hard to control the grocery carts!

Once we get back to the dorm, its takes a while to unload everything and organize it inside. We have one large walk-in refridgerator, as well as a walk-in freezer and large pantry. This picture is of me in the refridgerator.

It always amazes me that in just a few days, all of this food "magically" disappears!

Everybody's workin' for the weekend...

2009-09-22T04:57:00.000-07:00

Usually the weekend is a time to catch up on sleep and spend time with friends. Well, weekends for an RA run a bit differently than the average person. On a normal weekday, our time off is in the afternoon when the girls are at school. But on the weekend, they are at home and so the down time is minimal. Some weekends are filled with constant activity, and others may not be; but regardless of this, in the past year weekends for me have shifted from being a time of rest to the most tiring time of the week.

We always have a brunch on Saturday morning, and after this I supervise the girls as they do their various chores around the dorm and clean their room for our weekly room inspections. The rest of the day is usually free time for them, so sometimes we take the girls shopping in a nearby town, or we just hang around the dorm.

This weekend started off a little bit crazy because on Friday afternoon I got a call from the school saying that I needed to come pick up Hannah from volleyball practice and take her to the hospital! Everything turned out alright and she only ended up with a temporary cast on her hand. She was in a lot of pain as we were driving there and she was explaining her fear of hospials and needles. I knew that she would need some sort of motivation to make it and right then we passed the golden arhces of...McDonald's!!! So I said, "How about we stop at McDonald's on the way home?" That was just the ticket--her face brightened and anytime she was in pain or scared after that we just chanted "McDonalds, McDonalds, McDonalds, McDonalds."

I've found that I am doing much less "entertaining" on the weekends this year because of the guys dorm being upstairs. Now they just all entertain themselves and it's easy for them because in our backyard we have a sand volleyball court! This past weekend we had a mini volleyball tournament--it was a lot of fun!

We had about 20 guys and girls come out and play (all from Palmgarten & Maugenhard).

This is me with my team--I think our team name was Nacho Cheese...I still don't really know why.

This is a picture of me hitting the ball right into the net--I was kind of the weakest link.

This is Andrew, Hadad, and Kjersti taking a break between games.

Me and Krista took charge of the music for a while: we changed it from annoying rap music to "Jesus, Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood...we weren't allowed to be the DJ's anymore after that.

We didn't have an official winner of the tournament, but it was fun to all play and laugh together. One other thing happened this weekend and although it was a small instance, it is just so typical of the many random situations that I find myself in:

On Saturday, Julia came and asked for some super glue to fix the sole of her shoe. A little while later I was in my room and there was a frantic knock on my door and I heard someone say "Lizzzzzzy!!!!!!" I opened my door and this is what I saw:

This is Julia...

She glued her fingers together.

With some hot water and a little bit of time she was just fine; but I must confess that when I opened my door and saw her, I just turned around and laughed! ...And then I took her picture!! Oh, the joys of dorm life!

the beginning of year #2

2009-08-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

These first few weeks have been an interesting mixture of rest time, fun time, and work time. I arrived back in Germany on July 31, had a day of rest and then new staff orientation started, which I am a part of because returning RA's help train the new RA's. Incorporated into these 2 weeks of orientation are countless meetings with all the the Residence Life staff to discuss topics like dorm issues and the upcoming year in general. Then this past week has been a time of preparation for our dorm, and we have had a lot of work to do!

As most of you know, there has been major construction going on for the past year with the end goal being: add a 4th floor to our [previously] 3 floor building so that one of the guys dorms can move in. Well, the construction was completed yesterday (yes, yesterday) and now my dorm (Palmgarten) occupies the basement floor and the first floor, while Maugenhard guys dorm will occupy the third and fourth floors. Here are a couple of pictures:

There was a lot of clean up work to do in our part of the building, as well as shuffling a lot of furniture between the floors. But the most exciting (and time consuming) project that we had was a new TV room for the girls! Last year, our TV room was on the third floor and had a beautiful view of the rolling hills outside; there was a foozball table and a ping pong table, as well as extra space to just lounge around.
Weeeell, that is now Maugenhard's TV room, and our new alloted space for a TV room was an old, dark and dingy storage room on the basement level of the building. eeek. The carpet was all stained, there's no daylight that comes in and it was a serious step down from what we all enjoyed last year.
So, myself, Bonnie (fellow RA) and Luke and Stephanie (new dorm parents) tackledthe project that would have made Ty Penington with Extreme Home Makeover proud! Here are a couple of pictures:

This was a project that we considered to be a priority because there is a lot of change going on this year in our dorm: moving floors, new dorm parents, and guys living upstairs! We wanted to create a comfortable, fun room that the girls could enjoy, and I think we did it!

The new students arrive on Sunday; we will have 2 new girls: Eunji, a freshman and Krystal, a sophomore.

We will have 19 total girls in the dorm this year; this is 7 fewer than last year, which I am excited about because the group dynamics are a little bit more manageable.

On Monday the returning students arrive and classes start on Tuesday!

I can't wait to see all the girls--I have high expectations for this year and can't wait to see all the girls I missed so much this summer!

Here are some specific things you can be praying about:

changes in the dorm--needless to say, having a guys dorm move into our building will completely change the pace of life that we're so used to here at Palmgarten. Each dorm will run separately, but I know that there will be issues to address along the way concerning students and staff. Please pray that we, as dorm staff, will have the wisdom to deal with each new challenge and be a positive example for the students.

new dorm parents--Palmgarten has new dorm parents this year, Luke & Stephanie Welbourn. They are a fantastic couple who bring a lot of energy and fresh perspective and I am thrilled to be working with them this year. It was sad for us all to say goodbye to Les & Elva Porter who were the dorm parents for the past 4 years, so please pray for a smooth transition. Here is our picture: (me, Luke, Stephanie, Bonnie)

staff shortage--overall, there are some gaps in the staff of BFA this year, particularly in the Residence Life department. Typically each dorm (7 all together) has up to 4 RA's; but this year only one dorm has 3 RA's, the rest only have two...We are trusting that God will provide us with the strength and wisdom we need to run the boarding program with so few people, and also that He would provide new faces to help fill in the gaps. (staffing opportunities can be found at http://www.bfacademy.com/ :))

Thank you all so much for keeping up with all that is happening here. It was wonderful to see so many of you while I was home this summer and I hope to be able to keep in touch throughout this school year!

2009-05-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we all hit the ground running after spring break and it seems like none of us will get a break until school is out! As I type this, the varsity soccer teams and the track teams are away at their national tournaments. The girls soccer team has a great chance to win, they were ranked as #1 going into the tournament! Tomorrow is the final day of play and so we all have our fingers crossed! :)

Sadly, I was not able to make it to a track meet this season, but here are some pictures of Kjersti and Katelyn, 2 of our track stars!

Track

This is Kjersti running the anchor for one of the relay races. Kjersti is only a sophomore, but is one of the best runners on the team.

This is Katelyn--she is a senior this year and has been granted a track/field scholarship to a college in North Dakota. We compared her long jump scores to the high school scores in the state of Minnesota (where she is originally from) and her score places her in the top ten in the state!

Soccer

This is Jessica C.--she just headed the ball, but I couldn't snap the picture in time! This is her first year playing soccer at BFA--she has really proven herself as a player and has loved being a part of the team.

Joy (in the blue) is a junior in our dorm and this is her second year playing junior varsity. Their last game was this past weekend and they scrimmaged some of the staff and alumni.

If you look closely at this picture, you'll see a girl with red hair to the left of the goal post--that's Jessica K. and she just scored a goal! She scored 3 goals in the game this past weekend!

Oh Krista...this is Krista--this is her first year at BFA and she was one of the junior varsity captains. Unfortunately, she severly sprained her ankle a few weeks ago and had to sit out the remainder of the season. But as you can tell, she is pretty stubborn and just couldn't sit on the bench anymore! :)

BFA's Got Talent

In April we had the first ever talent show at BFA, appropriately named "BFA's Got Talent." There were about 20 performances showcasing a variety of different talents: singing, dancing, acting and even karate and nun chucks skills!

This is Charity, a senior from my dorm, and her boyfriend Brandon performing a fun song from the movie High School Musical.

This is a group of girls from my dorm dancing to a song--they practiced A LOT and for many nights after this I woke up in the middle of the night with this song in my head! (...but of course I can't remember now what it was! :))

All the RA's (all 22 of us) pulled together a last minute performance of "the evolution of dance." This "routine" was made popular on youtube by a comedian and so we tweaked some of the songs and made it our own. It was so fun! Basically, it's a montage of songs beginning with Elvis all the way to present day and so we got to do tons of fun dance moves like the twist, MC Hammer moves, the macarena, etc. There's a video on my facebook page of the performance if you want to watch it.

Here we are doing Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Im the one in the front row, second from the right.

"We're All in this Together" from High School Musical.

Junior/Senior Banquet

Every year the Junior class organizes a nice dinner for the senior class as a sort of farewell. The dinner was held at a nice restaurant/banquet hall in a town nearby and everyone came all gussied up.

This is Ellie, me and Bonnie--Palmgarten RA's.

Anna and me.

This is Lizzy H., Ellie and me...a Lizzy sandwich...

These are the Juniors from this year, only 2 weeks away from being seniors! They're very excited.

This is a group shot of our juniors and seniors--we had a great time!

All the girls are beginning to pack up their rooms and the seniors are preparing to leave BFA for the final time. Most of them have been here for at least 2 years, and so you can imagine how difficult it can be to say good bye to friends you've lived with and gotten to know on such a personal level; not knowing if you will ever see them again, but knowing that things will never be the same again. Please pray that the students will have healthy closure to their time here.

But, the good news is that I will be coming home soon! I leave here on June 19th and will arrive in Georgia on June 20th. It has been almost a year since I've been home, so I am beginning to get antsy! I look forward to hearing English spoken as the dominant language, seeing all of you, and eating Chick-fil-A!

Soccer Mom

2009-04-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Spring is officially here, as evidenced by the blooming apple trees and the green fields and hill sides! School started back this week after a 2 week holiday. There's always a lot of squealing and giggling when the girls come back to the dorm and see each other again after a long break. I just partake in the giggling part...not the squealing.

Dorm Cookout

On Sunday night we had a cookout at a fire pit that's just behind our dorm in the back yard. We roasted hot dogs and then made s'mores.

Me, Kjersti, Naomi and Emily enjoying our hot dogs.

Unfortunately, it started to rain and we barely had time to make our s'mores. But, Hannah just wouldn't give up! She couldn't leave until she made her s'more!

Laundry

I don't often talk about the specific jobs I do in the dorm, so here goes:

At the beginning of the school year we let the girls decide whether or not they want to do their own laundry or if they want us (RA's) to do it for them. So, once a week we have "dorm laundry" and those girls who choose not to do their own laundry leave their clothes in the laundry room and by the time they come home from school it is all magically clean, folded and placed neatly on a shelf which bears their name. There are 13 girls who have chosen dorm laundry and as you can see from the above picture, its a lot of clothes! We usually have between 15-20 loads to wash.

We have 4 washers and 4 dryers. It's a very sad day when one of the washers is broken. Luckily, all 4 were working for me this week!

This is the completed project...almost. There were still a couple of loads in the dryer and as you can see by the table on the left, I got tired of folding. I guess "neatly folded" is a subjective term for me... :)

Soccer!

Soccer season is underway at BFA and this past weekend we had our first home game! Soccer is definitely the sport of choice for our school and every year we are one of the top ranked teams in our division, which is comprised of high schools from U.S. army bases located all over Germany. BFA has four soccer teams, Varsity and Junior Varsity girls, and Varsity and Junior Varsity guys.

Because its early in the season and the grass on the field in Kandern isn't quite "ready" yet, the games were played up "the hill", as we call it, in the town of Marzell where there is a turf field. There are 2 BFA dorms in Marzell, Sonne (guys dorm) and Blauen (girls dorm). It is absolutely beautiful up there, but unfortunately they deal with some weird weather because the altitude is significantly higher. It was sunny and warm down in Kandern, but 20 minutes up the hill it was raining and cold! But regardless of the weather, we all packed into our vans and drove up to support the teams!

Jessica C. throws in the ball--you can see it up in the air. There are 4 girls from my dorm who play on the Varsity girls team: Jessica K., Jessica C., Anna and Rachel.

The traditional shaking of the opposing coach's hand after the game. We won!

Me and Jessica K. after her game.

Our guys varsity team warming up before their game.

This is Vangie (left, an RA at Blauen) and Ellie (another Palmgarten RA) trying to stay warm while cheering on the guys. Ellie is holding a sign for one of the senior players, Serge. She has school spirit.

This is Dahee (far left), Jessica C. (middle) and Anna (right) enjoying some yummy snacks. Ellie is in the background wishing she was enjoying the yummy snacks.

While the JV girls were warming up for their game, it started hailing! But by the half, it cleared up to sunny skies again.

This is Krista--she scored her first goal!

There are only 6 weeks left in the semester and they are packed with soccer games, track meets, music recitals, and Junior/Senior Banquet. I just can't believe how fast this year has gone by! Since the end of spring break, it feels as if the BFA community has taken a figurative deep breath in order to brace itself for saying good-bye to the graduating seniors and others who will not be back next year. Because of our close-knit community here, the end of the year is a very emotional time. I for one am glad that I will be back next year and do not have to say good bye to all the girls just yet. I am also glad that I will be coming home for a few weeks this summer and can't wait to catch up with as many of you as I can!

2009-02-20T01:11:00.000-08:00

We've had a full couple of months here and I have some pictures to prove it...

In January the school had a spirit week where each day had a different dress-up theme. Crazy hair day was one of the themes. This is Naomi (from left), Emily, Katelyn and Deena with their crazy do's.

Shanna (from left), Dahee and Julia decided to go frizzy.

TEA PARTY!
The seniors did a great job planning this event: we invited Blauen over, another girls dorm, and we all dressed up for a tea party! The catch was that we were to dress up like little girls who have raided their mom's closet and are dressed in all her clothes and make up. It was so fun to scrounge around the dorm and find silly clothes to wear!

Enjoying their tea and cupcakes!

This is Kristi (from left), Kara, Naomi and Rebecca.

We had a lot of fun with this...or at least I did....
This is me and Ellie, one of my fellow RA's. She was not very impressed with my make up job and pig-tails. A lot of the girls didn't recognize me and were actually a little scared...maybe i overdid it on the eye shadow?

This is me and Vangie (RA at Blauen) sipping our tea like the little ladies we are.

VALENTINE'S DAY DINNER
For the 2nd year in a row, our girls have hosted a Valentine's Day dinner at our dorm. It's really fun because each girl secretly asks a guy to be her roommate's date! And then they don't find out who it is until all the guys actually arrive for the dinner!

This is Krista and Emily--they were very nervous to find out who their date was--I had to coax them to come out of their rooms!

The girls decorated very nicely with candles and hearts everywhere.

Here's a lively group enjoying the meal that Les, our dorm dad, prepared: Italian chicken, almond green beans, twice-baked potatoes, fresh baguettes and then chocolate torte for dessert.

Overall, it's been a fantastic couple of months! Now winter is winding down (hopefully! although we just got 2 inches of snow today!) and we're all gearing up for soccer and track season--BFA's favorite time of year! The treadmill in our dorm has been going non-stop as girls get back in shape just in time for try-outs. Making the varsity soccer team is pretty tough, even as a junior or a senior, so I've loved being able to run with some girls to help them get ready; but I'm no help whatsoever as far as soccer skills go!
I am so blessed because my parents are coming to visit for 2 weeks! They arrive in 3 days and I think that the girls are just as excited as I am because they get to meet the parents who are responsible for raising their crazy, weird R.A.!
Thank you all for your interest and investment in our lives here-more to come soon!

2009-01-05T03:45:00.000-08:00

December at Palmgarten!

This month was filled with all kinds of activities from shopping in Freiburg, Christmas banquet, exams, Christmas parties and then finally…break!!!

This is the main street in Kandern decorated for Christmas!

We’ve had a good bit of snow so far this winter. Although it doesn’t stay for more than a few days, it’s really pretty! This is a view of our dorm from down our street.

Here we are getting ready for the annual Christmas Banquet, held at the school. We had a “salon” for the girls so that they could get their hair, makeup and nails done. My job was to paint nails.

Me and Jessica all set to go!

All the Palmgarten girls

We had a dorm Christmas party and as part of the festivities, the girls made gingerbread houses. Anna, Jessica, Lizzy and Shanna made a beach house instead.

Kjirsti and Esther hard at work.

Katelyn won our gift game—she was the first one able to open the present while wearing mittens.

What’s a party without food?!?!?

Merry Christmas!

The girls get back from break in one week and I can’t wait to see them all again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

A few descriptive words come to mind when I think about this year's Thanksgiving...
1. Early: because of the school schedule and other various reasons (i.e. the amount of nationalities here at BFA!) we actually celebrated American thanksgiving 2 weeks ago!
2. Massive (amounts of food): preparing food for 26 girls, 5 dorm staff and about 12 other guests was no small task!
3. Scrumptious: Turkey, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, stuffing, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, hot apple cider...all made from scratch!

My self-proclaimed job for the evening was "coffee lady."

Scrumptious!

This is Les (dorm dad) carving the turkeys. We are so lucky to have a chef in our dorm! Seriously, he's a real chef.

This is me, Meghan (middle school teacher), Jessica and Katie.

Helen and Charity are enjoying the hors d'oeuvres!

Our dining room.

Lizzy, me and Kristi feeling full and happy.

Me and Anna ate too much turkey.

November is almost over and now it is officially the Christmas season! We will be decorating our dorm soon and the girls will all be cramming for exams. It really is hard to believe that the semester is almost over! The last day of classes is December 19th and all the students will go home for 3 weeks. I had originally planned to come home for Christmas, but it seems to have worked out better financially and logistically to return home for the summer instead, when I will have a longer break. So I will be staying in Kandern, resting and celebrating the holidays with friends here.
I pray for God's blessings over you all and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

October is for pumpkins and open house.

2008-11-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

Pumpkins!
What would October be without carving a few pumpkins?
We split up into groups and let the creative juices flow!

This is me, Katelyn and Hannah. The best group.

Our design was pretty intricate; it took a lot of concentration and precision. This is Katelyn hard at work.

The finished product! The pumpkin on the left is ours...if you can't tell, it's a carving of Perry, one of our vans!

This is the Jessica's. They are roommates and I'm pretty sure they took out their frustrations with each other on the pumpkin.

Palmgarten Open House
Each dorm has 1 open house per year where the students come up with a theme, decorate, and invite the entire BFA community over to traipse through the dorm. We recently had our turn and the girls did a fantastic job of pulling off a major event!

The theme was "The World Wide Web," and so the goal was to make people feel as if they were actually in the Internet. We decorated the halls with signs made to look like different websites, and the girls chose to decorate their rooms as a website as well.

This is Naomi. She was in charge of organizing all the decorations.
I think the stress was getting to her at this point...

This is Shanna & Dahee's room. They chose InStyle.com as their website.

We have 2 main hallways in our dorm, so each one was designated as a separate "browser"--Internet Explorer...

...And Firefox. Anna did an awesome job on these signs!

This is Bonnie (a fellow RA) with Emily & Helen. They were in charge of refreshments and chose to make cookies, in order to go along with the Internet theme. We were expecting over 300 guests, so all the girls pulled together and, over the course of 2 weeks, baked over 900 cookies!
The next few weeks are going to be very exciting and very busy! We will be celebrating Thanksgiving as a dorm this week, which means tons of good food! And the school is having its annual Christmas banquet coming up at the end of the month. Stay tuned!

2008-09-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

It has been a full couple of months here at BFA!
Here are some pictures from the last few weeks...

This weekend me and few girls went to a "pick-your-own-flowers" field that is close to town. The flowers were gorgeous!

(From left) Rebecca, Joy, Kara, Rachel and Sooji.

Pumpkins were for sale as well. Jessica said she was excited to find one that was "freckly like me!"

We found a really tall one that could double as a baseball bat.

Krista, me and Sooji.

A very successful trip!

This is Helen & Emily on their way out to their first day of school as seniors!!!
(can you find me in the background?:))

The school hosted a Fall Party where the theme was "Black & White." This is Bonnie and Cara (fellow RA's) all dressed up for the occasion. (Can you find me?:))

Shanna & Anna were very scared of my costume.

In addition to dressing up, individuals or groups can perform as part of the show. This is a group of my girls performing their dance at the Fall Party. It was awesome!

Pyramid! We almost got 1 more on top!

This is the me with the 4 new girls in our dorm this year. I walked them to school on the first day. (from left: Lizzy, me, Emily, Krista, & Kara)

This is the staff of Haus Palmgarten--Ellie (top left) is from Canada--this is her 2nd year serving here, Bonnie (bottom left) is from Ohio and it's her first year at BFA, and Les & Elva are in their 4th year as dorm parents of Palmgarten. Their kids are Brandon (11th grade) and Brooklyn (7th grade).

...we have a lot of fun together...

I'll keep you guessing on this one...

Fall is setting in now and with that comes cooler weather, colorful leaves, and packed schedules! The Seniors can hardly contain their excitement because they're leaving this Thursday for their 10-day trip to Rome! And the Juniors are also pumped to leave for their weekend trip to Normandy! As a staff, we know that these trips will create life-long memories for them...we're so jealous!

more news to come soon!

2008-08-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

It's picture time!

The last few weeks have been filled with new staff orientation, learning to drive in Germany, learning to speak German, getting over jet lag...I have an assortment of pictures to help explain it all...

One afternoon we all (the RA's) drove up to the top of Hochblauen--it is a mountain that overlooks Kandern (where I live), France, and the Swiss Alps! We hiked back down the mountain--it was very beautiful!

It was a clear, windy day so there were para-sailors taking off the top of the mountain!

This is Brandon, me and Sam posing for a nice pic.

Basel, Switzerland is just a 20 minute drive from Kandern. This is the Rhine river--the border between France and Germany. It's been so fun to be able to travel from country to country so easily!

This is Rachel, me, another Rachel, and Sam. The Rachels are returning RA's so they showed me and Sam all the hot spots of Basel!

Basel--it is a very old city--cobblestone streets, old churches, buildings from the 1300s.

This is Tommy--we were attempting not to look like American tourists...

This is a fountain of fresh, spring drinking water--they are all over the city (and also in Germany).

This is me drinking fresh Swiss water straight from the source that people in the States pay lots of money for...and this is the point where it was obvious that I was an American tourist.

This is the Powell family--they are from Nashville and we happened to be on the same flight out of Atlanta. They are such a sweet family and I have loved getting to know them! (Ethan, their youngest son, is not in the picture)

This is my dorm!!! It's name is Palmgarten. I am on the first floor, all the way down on the left. Every room has it's own bathroom, and a balcony. There will be 26 girls in the dorm this year, grades 10-12. I will be working with 2 other RA's, Bonnie, and Ellie--I hope to put their picture up soon. The awesome dorm parents are Les and Elva--they are from Canada and have 2 kids--Brandon and Brooklyn (grades 11 & 7).

This is my room--they gave us a lot of freedom as far as decorating goes, so I painted 2 walls brown, and 1 wall green. I love it! I bought a couple of chairs from Ikea and a small coffee table so that girls could feel free to come in and hang out. My next strategic plan is to put out a jar of candy as a bribe.

Overall, I absolutely love it here! Each day God gives me more and more assurance that serving here at BFA is what He has been preparing me for over the past months and years. Today is the day that the girls start arriving, so we have been busy with all kinds of preparation.

New students will come today, and then returning students will arrive tomorrow, with classes starting on Tuesday.

Many, many thanks for your continued prayers and support--I think of ya'll often and look forward to keeping you connected to my life in Deutschland!

Guten Tag!

2008-08-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note...
I arrived safely here in Germany on Monday afternoon--my flight over was great! I landed in Frankfurt at 10:00am local German time, had a 3 hour layover and then landed in Basel, Switzerland at 1:45 local time; BFA is just a short 25 minute drive from Basel. I am just getting over jet lag. :)
My days so far have been filled with German class in the morning, and then in the afternoons we practice driving around the surrounding towns and get acquainted with the culture, many driving laws/signs, and a manual transmission. I have to give the credit to my Dad for teaching me to drive a manual shift--I have only stalled out a couple of times and I even drove on the Audubon today!
I hope to post some pictures soon--it is absolutely beautiful here!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers!

this time next week...

2008-07-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Great news! The final countdown has begun and in just a matter of days I will be boarding a plane bound for Germany! I was able to purchase an airline ticket a couple of weeks ago and I am scheduled to leave on August 2nd at 6pm.

My last week here at home is filled with packing, preparations and final visits with family and friends. It is a weird feeling to be wrapping up the life I have known for the last 23 years, in anticipation for a whole new lifestyle that includes a new community of people and a new culture. But any amount of anxiety is overshadowed by my excitement to finally begin this ministry of service and discipleship that God has been preparing me for. It has been amazing to look back and see His hand at work in every circumstance to bring me to this point in life. I can't wait to share all the great things that God will do in the coming months!

Prayer Requests...

*safety in travel--I will fly through the night on Saturday (Aug. 2nd) and then after a short layover, arrive in Germany on Sunday afternoon.

**smooth transition/adjustment back into dorm life.

***for close, meaningful relationships with the girls in my dorm

****for the missionary kids and their families--for God's blessing on the parents' ministries and a smooth transition for the students as they move back to school.

Orientation in Winnipeg, Canada

2008-06-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

There is no better feeling than to know that you are smack in the middle of God’s will…
I spent this past week in Winnipeg, Canada attending the Janz Team orientation for new staff members of Black Forest Academy (BFA). Throughout the entire week, I felt nothing but confirmation and encouragement to continue moving forward in this new phase of life and ministry.

The purpose of orientation was to be introduced to and connect with the new staff of BFA who are specifically with Janz Team, to be commissioned as a member of Janz Team ministries, and to cover more preliminary details of my job description as a resident assistant in the dorms. I had a fantastic time connecting with my new friends and was very sad to leave them…

My trip to Winnipeg was very eventful…
I flew out of Atlanta on Monday, June 16th and because of flight delays, I missed my connecting flight in Minneapolis that would have taken me on to Winnipeg. I was able to check in for the next available flight, but there was a time gap of about 5 hours. Spending that long in an airport by yourself is not very much fun at all—but lucky for me the famous Mall of America was just a short 10 minute train ride away!

There was a Lego Land exhibit with statues made completely of legos--I took the pictures of the motorcycle for my Dad, I knew he would appreciate it.

It was my lucky day because the Mall of America was hosting the Midwest Regional Yo-Yo Championships...

My camera just doesn't do it justice--those guys had some cool tricks.

To the right here, you can see the competitors warming up, getting ready to take the stage. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see who won.

After my mall excursion, I made it safely to Winnipeg and jumped right into the orientation festivities. It was a pretty rigorous schedule--we had about 4 sessions a day that covered various areas of information/training. We still managed to have a lot of fun though—we played a few intense games of ultimate Frisbee, stayed up late playing cards, and one afternoon we all hopped on a bus to downtown Winnipeg to see the sights.

This is Cara (from California), me and Brandon (from Illinois) enjoying downtown Winnipeg.

This is me and Sam (from Alberta, Canada)--she was my sweet roommate for the week.

One of the most eventful training exercises was a 3-team competition: the team who constructed their kite the fastest and kept it in the air the longest would win. We did not know it at the time, but the objective behind this competition was to reveal our personalities and see how we would work together as a team...

This is part of my team (team iBe) and you can see our kite flying in the background...

The competition was fierce and it ended with The High Flyers trying to sabotage our flag--we had no choice but to bring down their kite as well and it resulted in a wrestling match between Adam and Tim. Tim won...

The funny thing is that this exercise really did bring out our personalities. After all, there's nothing wrong with some friendly competition, right?!? :)

I am amazed at how God orchestrates our lives on a personal level, and then brings us together with a community of other believers from all over the world who have the same heart and mind for ministry. I have been praying for weeks for the people I would be working with and to finally meet some of them face to face and pray WITH them was such a blessing.

So what's next?

I am in the process of buying my plane ticket and am scheduled to arrive in Germany by August 4th. Just 5 weeks away! I am SO thankful and humbled by all the support that you all have offered and trust that God will provide the last 20% of my funds.

The rest of my time here at home will be spent wrapping up with my job at Grace Fellowship Church, spending as much quality time as I can with my friends and family, and trying not to procrastinate and save my packing for the night before I leave! (I have a bad habit of that!)

Many of you ask what you can be in prayer about and so here are a few things...

*continued spiritual & emotional preparation to be a stand-in mom to the students in my dorm.

**for the students I will be living with and also their families who are serving all across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

***for a smooth, easy transition into life in Germany and life in a dorm setting.

Once again, thank you all so much for allowing me to be a part of your lives and for being willing to be a part of this ministry with me. I can't wait to share all that God will do!

Love,

Lizzy

55 days and counting...

2008-06-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that in just a couple of months I'll be on my way to Kandern, Germany to serve at Black Forest Academy (BFA). It's actually 55 days to be exact!
My days have been filled with completing projects at work (I am on staff with the kids ministry at Grace Fellowship Church), fitting in all the fun I can with friends and family, and wrapping up all the details that go with moving overseas: such as, figuring out how much I can stuff into a couple of suitcases, getting a drivers license that will be valid in Germany, and learning how to drive a manual shift so I am able to drive the cars/buses that belong to BFA.

On June 16th, I will be flying to Canada for a week-long orientation at Janz Team headquarters. All of the new staff of BFA (teachers, house parents, RA's ect.) that are partnered with Janz Team (JT) will be at this orientation, so I am very excited! Although I have talked with a few people from JT over the phone, it will be great to meet people face to face and really connect with those whom I will be serving alongside of.

Speaking of phone conversations, I recently had a very encouraging talk with a personnel member from BFA. She worked in the dorms for 2 years and now is more on the administrative side of things. I asked her what a typical day would look like for me and this is just a short summary of what we discussed:

6am-8:30am
*wake up
*wake up the girls
*fix breakfast/prepare lunches
*drive the girls to school
9am-12pm
*meeting with other staff (1-2 times a week)
*laundry
*cleaning
1pm-4pm
*free time
4pm-10:00pm
*pick up girls from school/sports activities, ect.
*help with homework
*prepare dinner
*oversee girls' chores
*oversee study/homework time
10pm-12am
*devotions
*make sure girls get to bed :)
*bedtime for me
Weekends...
Saturday:
*Big, fun brunch
*sports games
*shopping trips, hiking, & other activities
*organized social activities with other dorms
Sunday:
*church
*lunch
*fun "sister" activity with your own dorm in the evening

Overall, I will just be doing life with these girls--we will see the best and the worst of each other, but in this we will have an intimacy that is as close as you can get to being family. It is an intimidating thought to have my life and relationship with Christ be so closely observed by these girls that I will be caring for. I pray that I will live out my faith and dependence on Christ in a sincere way. I know that God has been preparing me for this role in so many capacities and so I look forward to it with nothing but anticipation!

Janz Team's policy regarding my support is that once 80% of my support is given or committed, they will then purchase my ticket to leave. When the funds are at 90% committed, then I can go...drum roll please..

With your help, I have enough funds to buy a plane ticket that will get me to Germany by August 1st! THANK YOU!! Now the next step is to buy that ticket and count down the days!

I love you all!

Lizzy

specific prayer needs:

*emotional & spiritual preparation

**for the remaining funds to come in