Sonntag

I don´t know if I´ll continue to post as regularly as I´ve started out doing, but today has been interesting so far and I want to write about it while it´s still fresh in my mind! This morning I went to the English language service I mentioned last time, at a centre for protestant groups in the old town. It was led by Rhona Dunphy, who´s been here for quite a long time, 17 years if I remember correctly! I find the idea of being an expat very interesting, especially when people start families outside their home country, as she has. It´s hard for me to imagine what it´s like to make such concrete plans to be quite far away from where you came from. Think that shows just how much of an island mentality I have. She wasn´t expecting many others as students are only just returning for the start of term, but two students about my age came, as well as a few older women (maybe mature students). Normally services are held in a little chapel in the centre, but this time we met in a wee room, with a wreath and candles on a table in the middle. It was like a normal Church of Scotland service except with comfy chairs and with the minister playing the piano for the hymns...quite surreal and funny now I reflect on it! But I enjoyed it. Rhona talked about Jesus being the light of the world; she said she´d found this a difficult topic to talk about in recent years, as through cancer she has lost the use of one eye, and when it´s dark, even her good eye doesn´t work well at all. But she talked about the power that Jesus´ light has, and how, when people reflect clearly his light (she mentioned Mother Teresa), it has a greater evangelical impact than almost anything else.There was communion at the end, where we stood in a circle, and I wasn´t quite sure what was going to happen - Rhona passed me a cracker (think savoury snack, not Christmas), broke off a piece of it, and said "this is Christ´s body, broken for you" and passed me the piece. It took a while for me to realise that I was meant to do the same for the person next in the circle! Then the wine was passed round, and we held hands for the blessing, and then shook each other´s hands afterwards. I know it mightn´t be practically possible to have communion in this way with a bigger congregation, but I liked it; I also know it´s obvious that Christians all over the world are part of the same family, but this brought it home to me in a very clear way- I hadn´t known these folk first thing today, but we already shared a bond!

Some of us stayed after the meeting for tea and coffee. All through my career as a chemistry student, my explanation that I am that very thing usually arouses the same sentiment, tellingly expressed as an "...oh." Today wasn´t much different...except that one of the other students studies maths, so we share common ground in the reaction-of-others-on-disclosure-of-our-subject-of-study stakes I think, that´s always comforting. She lives next to the halls I think I´ll be staying in (it´s curious that the student office is being quite shady about the details of my accommodation...but all will become clear tomorrow!) and said I could pop round if I liked, which was very nice! Rhona talked about a meeting of the Church of Scotland presbytery of Europe which is coming up...did you know that Bermuda and Sri Lanka are part of that? Long story - they nearly joined with the CoS presbytery of the Scottish Western Isles beforehand...hahaha! And Rhona used to be a minister in Culloden so knows David Meredith, and knows people who used to go to Bon Accord. This world is distinctly small.

Afterwards, I went a walk and finally properly got my camera out! This here is the cathedral, der Regensburger Dom:



It´s a big chap.

Here´s the Danube, in spate with all the snowmelt:

And here´s my first real German Kaffee und Kuchen! :D A mocha and a Donauwelle (Danube wave), which was creamy and had cherries in it, scrumdiddly.

Because not many places are open today, I bought myself a cheese pretzel to have sometime today (I have fruit and things too, never fear!). Alas, you don´t get to see this. My belly already has.