Pictures from Disneyland

Check out my pictures from my great birthday at Disneyland on Facebook here.

Birthday at Disneyland

This year Disneyland is letting you in free on the day of your birthday if you register with them online. It just so happened that this year my birthday was on a Sunday!

I convinced my brother to join me, got an awesome, cheap hotel nearby and voila! Instant vacation!

It had been 8 years since I had been to Disneyland and almost 20 years since my brother and I had been there together. So early Sunday morning we drove up to Anaheim and started our 11 hour adventure! Here's a list of best/worst of Disneyland!

1. Best time to come: As soon as it opened. We got there 20 minutes after it opened and we got through the ticket line in 5 minutes, walked onto our first few rides with no wait time and had great morning Southern California weather(overcast and cool).
2. Plan of action: Do what you really want first. Otherwise, you will wait in line forever.
3. Best ride to get a Fast Pass for: Tie between Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. We had FP for Indiana Jones and still had to wait 20+ minutes because it is so popular. At 2PM at Space Mountain, they were giving out FPs for 9-10PM. Wait time for both rides without a FP was 70-90 minutes.
4. Ride with fastest normal line: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We rode this 4 times. Three times without FP and we only had to wait maybe 20-30 minutes. FP was especially good at night. We got on in 10 minutes.
   
5. Ride you should probably get a Fast Pass for just because the line is so mind-numbing: Roger Rabbit. Ugh. I can never have those 35 minutes back.
6. Best food in the park: Corn dog from the Corn dog truck on Main Street. It is $6, but it the best corn dog you will ever have. The ice cream was good too and was the same price you would pay at Coldstone.
   
7. Worst place to walk through due to traffic issues: Adventureland into New Orleans. If the amount of people didn't crush you, the hundreds of strollers outside of Pirates of the Caribbean will.
   
8. Ride that seems entirely inappropriate for children: Haunted Mansion. Seriously, I don't remember it being that bad. It was horrible. My brother, who watches horror movies and laughs at them, about halfway through went, "I'm super creeped out right now. Like, I'm really creeped out." We were in a funk for a good 15 minutes after that one.
9. Best ride for physical exercise: Davy Crockett Canoes. Man, that gets your blood pumping, especially when the steamboat was right behind us and all the tourists in front of us got tired and stopped paddling.
   
10. Most disappointing updated ride: I know you're thinking I'm going to say Pirates of the Caribbean, but no, it's a small world was sad. There was Disney product placement everywhere. When you went to the cute hula girl part, Lilo and Stitch were in front, blocking most of it. Underwater room, almost entirely taken over by Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. The strangest was in Spain, Cinderella showed up. Seriously? And they don't even look like the rest of the animatronics. It looks cheesy and added on(can it's a small world be even more cheesy than it was? Yes. Yes, it can).
    
11. Weirdest people that you never knew were at Disneyland: So there are these people who collect Disney pins (like the kind you wear) and sit outside a cafe on Main Street for hours at a time, selling, bartering and trading pins. It's like a little Mafia. There's one dude who looks like a cross between Dom DeLuise and Marlon Brando. Seriously strange to watch.
12. Funniest thing my brother said: At the end of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (where you end up in Hell, seriously, not very kid friendly), my brother says casually, "Hey, I'm not supposed to be here!"
13. Best thing we did that my brother thought would be super cheesy: Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Super fun show. Lots of talent, lots of laughs and just good old fashion fun.
    
14. Best place to be for fireworks: In front of the Magic Kingdom, but not behind Walt Disney's statue(2 hours before these seats are filled) or right at the intersection between Tomorrowland, Main Street, Adventureland and the lane leading up to the Magic Kingdom(we were here an hour early and it was great).
    

Pictures to come...

Helpful, yet humorous travel tips

Daniel Pink is just one of my favorite authors ever. Yeah, what he writes is good, but he blogs and speaks an awful lot and he is intelligent and super funny. If you haven't read A Whole New Mind, his fabulous book defending all things right-brained, you need to, it's awesome.

Anyway, Pink has been making informative and funny travel videos for the last few months as he is on the road. From which food court food to avoid to how to travel with kids, the tips are always interesting and have that certain "Pink" flair. His latest from today is a classic. Enjoy!

Pink's Travel Tips -- Tip#8 from DHP on Vimeo.

Learning new things...

Besides learning German, there is a host of new things I will have to learn in order to avoid becoming the "ugly American" in town.

Here are just a few:

1. Sort trash...I mean, sort trash, not just recycling. Germany is very green and one commentator said that Germany's second hobby behind drinking beer is sorting trash.
2. Bike. I will be cycling to work. Once again, Germany is very green.
3. Not take work home. It's a "no-no" in German culture. You work hard, get your work done, go home and have fun. Working overtime is seen as being inefficient and lazy.
4. Smile less and do not "overshare". Unlike Americans who automatically become friends with just about anyone ("Wow, you juggle chainsaws while reciting the Declaration of Independence? Here's my phone number! Let's have lunch!"), Germans are traditionally more guarded.
   
5. Be open to very blunt advice. It's Germany. It's normal to them.
   

Just like any culture change, I'm sure it will take time, but I'm trying to prepare myself as much as possible so I'm not super cranky. Thankfully, I found this blog by an American from North Carolina who's lived in Germany for several years now. I think my favorite post was this one, on how to not dress like an American in Europe. Awesomely funny!

What the future holds...

From my high school memory book, senior year (2000-2001):

What will you be doing in 10 years?

My response: Probably teaching high school students since I promised I would never teach high school students...

Whoa.

Video Preaching!

I'm stoked! My pastor, Art Evans, is doing live video teaching Wednesday nights at 7PM (Pacific time) and Sunday morning 11:AM (Pacific time)! Which means, you'll probably be able to see the back of my head on Wednesday nights. I usually sit in the second row.

Anyway, here was today's awesome sermon on how Jesus heals the brokenhearted. You will be blessed!

Where are you getting your bread?

I've been very privileged to sit under the teachings of my pastor, Art Evans. He's awesome, mostly in that 75% of his sermons are quoting Scripture. I've got a backlog of sermon notes I want to blog on, but thought I'd start with this one from Luke 11 as Jesus is telling a parable:

⁵Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'

⁷"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' ⁸I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness^a]">[a] he will get up and give him as much as he needs."

1. You, by yourself, have nothing to give. "a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him." We're like the man who has no bread. By ourselves, we really have nothing to offer. If I'm just counting on my own smarts, my own experiences, and my insight to help people then I'm in trouble.

2. You have to get your bread from Him. The only way the man was able to feed his friend was because the neighbor gave him "as much as he needs". He sought out the neighbor and was annoying enough that it caused the neighbor to act. How much more will God, who is our Father and Friend, act on our behalf and give us what we need so that we, in turn, can feed others!

3. You get bread from Him to give to others. The man didn't get bread to feed himself or his family. He got bread to help his friend. Even if we think, "Gee, I'm feeling holy today. I don't need to read my Bible," it's not for you! You are getting "bread" to share with others. Now interesting enough, when the man did get bread, he got "as much as he needs" meaning even though it was for his friend, his family did not go hungry.

So press on! Keep asking, keep reading His Word because without His "bread", we have nothing to give.

Unexpected gift

In January while in London, I found myself saying, "God, this is enough! You don't have to do anymore than this! This is more than I hoped for!" From meeting an amazing new friend to being affirmed to being forced by a snowstorm (Act of God!) to spend two extra days in London, I just could not believe that God would bless so abundantly.

Well, here I am again. I have my dream job. And God is working out details in ways I never expected or even asked for. Traditionally, one of the most difficult aspects of moving to Germany is housing. It's scarce, you don't know what is typical for the area and it is expensive. My school said they would help me search, but I wasn't looking forward to the whole search.

God knew that. I got an email three weeks ago from my school secretary saying that two single teachers were moving out of their flats (apartments) and were wondering if I would like one of them. Woohoo! Both were nice, but it was this email that clenched it for me:

I'm glad that Gerhild asked you to write. I was actually going to ask Cathie if it was ok for me to contact you to give you some insider information. I'm not sure where you are from but I believe she told me you were from California as well.

"As well." I couldn't believe it. He, Evan, is from California, went to UC Irvine and surfed in San Diego. He gets me. He gets the culture I'm coming from. Not only that, his flat is 100 euros cheaper than the other one, is on the first floor and has a renovated kitchen. That in and of itself would have been more than enough.

But God wasn't done.

Since then, Evan has emailed me about 10 times, giving me insider hints on where to buy a used bike, what cell phone company to use, what to pack, etc. Everything I wanted to know, but didn't know who to ask.

What a blessing. God, this is enough! No more blessing! I can't take it anymore! :-)

Learning the language...

I have four months to learn German...in southern California! You must understand the hilarity of my situation. I live in San Diego, California, a mere 20 minutes from Mexico. I live in a community of mostly immigrants from Iraq which means my neighbors speak Assyrian, Aramaic, Kurdish and Arabic. Our immediate neighbors of 18+ years speak Greek and Czech. Our community college gives classes on Spanish, French, Italian, Assyrian/Aramaic/Arabic and Kumeyaay(our local Native American dialect). But no German.

So it's just me, the library and the internet. And you know what? I'm a little disappointed.

Before you start shouting, "Rosetta Stone!", realize that the program is $600 and consists mostly of vocabulary. Even when I had free access last year to R.S. through a friend's library account, I got bored fairly easily and remember almost nothing.

So far here's what I've discovered about language programs:
1. If it has fun games and cool graphics, it's just vocabulary.
2. If it has good grammar information, it's boring and dry.
3. If it has fun games, cool graphics and good grammar information, it will cost you a month's worth of rent.

But after looking for over a month, here are the resources that seem to be working out okay:

1. Book: really old conversation textbook from the 70's a friend loaned me. So the spelling hasn't been updated yet(did you know German people decided to standardize their spelling in '96? That's crazy!), but I can deal with that. It's good solid grammar and reading practice.
2. Web: www.babbel.com A great web site for learning and reviewing vocabulary and common phrases. It keeps track of what you've gone over and has you review every two days.
3. Web: http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/ Free online grammar course that goes over the basics and gives you a chance to practice. Did I mention it was free?
4. Web: http://www.lingorilla.com/frontpage It must be good because the web site is completely in German! You watch a video and then do exercises based on grammar concepts in the video.
   
5. Web: www.youtube.com Yes, Youtube! I found some easy language videos that a bunch of university students in Muenster made that are fun and informative. You get to hear real people speak.
   

There are other more advanced programs I'll have access to once I get the basics down and there are plenty of web sites I can read for information (reading the T-Mobile website to try to figure out what cell plan to get is insane!). But for now, I'll plug along and hopefully by the time I get to Germany I'll be able to sound respectable!

Tschüss!

Moving forward

I cannot believe it has already been a month since getting my job in Germany. It has been surreal. My church often talks about how we get paradigms or thought patterns stuck in our brain and how we need to seek God to help us renew our minds and get into new paradigms and thought patterns that He has created in us.

I found this happening to me this month. After nearly two years of job searching, I still found myself with the old paradigms. I would catch myself checking the same websites for job openings and then go, "Wait a minute! I already have a job!" I had received a gift from God so great, but my mind was still back in old patterns, out-dated worries and non-existent problems. How often does that happen to Christ-followers today. You've been saved from death, hell and the grave and yet, we sometimes still feel like we don't deserve it, we're not worthy, "Well, I just don't feel saved." Thank God, His salvation doesn't ride on our feelings! You're saved! He's already done the heavy lifting so live! Live as if you have been saved from death, hell and the grave!

You know what it took to destroy some paradigms? Two things: His Word and praise. If I'm not reading the Bible every day, I mean really reading the Bible, not just skimming, I'll fall back into those old thought patterns just like that. Also, I need to praise Him daily, one the who gave me this awesome job! I've been telling everyone I know about His goodness, His faithfulness, His timing, His glory, etc. and when your conversations are dominated by that, your brain cannot hold on to those old thoughts. When you praise God, He shows up in a big way.

So, what paradigms do you need God's power to slay today? Start reading and start praising!