Goodbye, Innsbruck...

Here are some photos of my time in Innsbruck, which ended Sunday morning.

I expected to enjoy Innsbruck, but I've been taken aback by how much it felt like part of my heart. As in most situations, this has something to do with the city itself and quite a bit to do with the people and experiences that defined my time there. The Innsbruck residents I met blew me away with their warmth, wisdom, and penchant for fun.

As I mentioned earlier, Dani and Lydia Miner (my first hosts) are internationals studying in Innsbruck. I had some amazing conversations with them and Berndi (who just proposed to Lydia) as well as lots of fun moments cooking, playing with the (name-unknown) cat they were watching, and creating music together. I also got to tag along and meet many of their friends from the Christian student group where they're both involved. Probably the closest friend I made in this group is a German student named Lisi, who's in Innsbruck only for the semester. She's studying education too, and already wrote me to ask how I'm doing in Munich. I also really enjoyed Karma, a Jordanian girl who followed Dani and Lydia to Innsbruck. Her sister is studying at Gettysburg starting this fall, if anyone's near there! It's a great privilege discovering "kindred spirits" around the world - people with whom I instantly feel comfortable opening up. They can be few and far between.

Irene and Horst Oexle hosted me last week, when the Miners' new roommate moved in. They're at the same church and thus know all my mom's old friends from Innsbruck. I had fun playing Rummikub with them and exchanging interesting phrases and expressions in German and English. (Irene loves obscure and goofy phrases in English like "see you later, alligator.") They kept me laughing the whole week, and cooked delicious Tyrolean specialties for me.

I had the joy of babysitting Rebekka and Miriam - the pastor's little girls - several times. Their parents have their hands full preparing for several American groups coming to visit and help out. Julie, their mom, is from Minnesota and first came here on a Fulbright scholarship. She encouraged me to come back to Austria...as if I needed encouragement! Plug: if you're a Christian college student whose native language is English, they'd love to have you visit for a week near the end of August! You'd be helping with an English camp for Austrian teens. No German skills required.

Everywhere I was in Innsbruck, I felt so loved and so alive. That made it hard knowing I'd be leaving soon, but part of me knew it was time. I have a feeling I needed to come to Munich in order to grow more as a person. Innsbruck was a really nurturing environment that equipped me in some ways for Munich. I had some sweet goodbyes - the Montessori kids were crazy about the Big Red gum I gave to them and filled my arms with pictures they'd made for me. And on my last night, I baked chocolate chip cookies with Dani, Lisi, Karma, and her German roommate Anne. We spent hours singing songs together and talking. Innsbruck was perfect in just about every sense.