Peter Roberts heartily endorses his brother's crazy dancing.
I posted a lot of the following bit previously, but then removed it shortly afterwards. Howard has the original. I've reworded it slightly from the first version:
I had a really fantastic time here in Germany. If you don't know where I was, I was at the office of a missionary organisation in Mosbach, south Germany.
I missed my flight originally, and had to wait 12 hours at the airport for the next one, but it turns out I was really blessed. My mum said the flight transfer should have cost 500 pounds, but it cost me nothing. They just gave it to me. Go helped me not to panic either. I nearly cracked up, but I didn't ACTUALLY crack up. I don't doubt God was helping me though, because the things I hate most are:

• Not being able to sleep


• Not being able to do anything


• Having to wait

That's exactly what I had to do for 14 hours (I wasn't just waiting on the airport, the train as well), but I didn't collapse into tears which usually happens to me with tiredness+waiting+frustration. There was a guy on the plane I sat next to who I got on really well with too.
God knew that was going to happen, and so he must've put it in my mind to learn Psalm 37 (which I learnt the first half of), where it says 'do not fret, it only causes harm'. That's one of the things it says. Everything else is brilliant too. You should read it You can do so on [link] I haven't given the full link, because it's too long, and dA doesn't like it.
My mum said that if I got lost, I should pray, then ask for directions. Obviously, I'm male, so his took some getting used to, but it helped every time. Zum Beispiel, when I was at the wrong station, I didn't know the place and I didn't know I was about 15 minutes walk away from where I should be. I thought I was where I should be, because the train’s doors hadn’t opened previously. I prayed and asked for directions, however, and fortunately, there was a taxi driver there at just the right time, and he didn't charge me much. The problem is that Mosbach is a place where the streets have no name, or, they do, but I spent ages looking for a street sign, and I still couldn't find what I was looking for.
The OM Mosbach offices were very confusing, and since I hadn’t slept properly for over 30 hours, I was not really in much of a mood to interpret them. As it turns out, I couldn’t get to my dormitory because I had taken the wrong staircase. Everyone was trying to speak German to me, but I was just too tired. For about a week afterwards the personnel person was convinced I could barely speak a word of German. Of course, this isn’t miles from the truth, but it’s still annoying when you know you can.
I was sooo tired. I felt like saying, “My name is Peter Roberts, this is the longest day of my life,” but Germans probably wouldn’t understand the 24 reference.
After watching the first half of the Cup Final that night, I decided to just get to sleep, which I did for about 16 hours. This had the pleasant effect of meaning I suffered no ill effects from being up so long, which was a real blessing.
The next day I started work at 9:30 (although 8:00 was the normal time). Just to clarify, my work was really boring. I washed up twice a day every day, laid the table, peeled spuds, that kind of thing. However, after work I was able to talk with a lot of people, which was great. I got on really well with a lot of people there.
I think it must have been Tuesday that I had my second experience of talking with Germans in a group (I had had a morning bible study with other people on OM on Monday morning). I assume it was Tuesday because Jessika (my sister-in-law’s sister) wasn’t there (and she arrived on Wednesday), and I got to bed really early on Monday, just to make sure I wasn’t shattered the next day. I can’t guarantee any dates, Anyway, we had a bible study group, and sung some songs. No-one was really concentrating though, and we spent most of the time talking, although we did get to have a fairly good time of singing at the end. It is incredibly difficult (read that as impossible) to understand Germans speaking together fast, and I must say, if I wasn’t confused before, that certainly did it for me.
After that we walked up one of the hills near the mill (the OM offices) it was a beautiful day, and it was great to be up there. We had a good prayer time on the hill, and talked for a while again (in German).
I believe the next day was Wednesday. This was the day that Jessika arrived, and probably marked the end of when I practised German properly. She can speak very good English and German, and we talked a lot... In English. It was really funny seeing someone feeling exactly the same as I did after I arrived: extremely confused. I spent most of my evenings for the rest of the week speaking to her. I decided later that I should do something else, and spent a lot of time talking to God instead.
On Thursday I went into Mosbach town centre, which is beautiful, and I’ve brought back some good photos. However, I did have to pay the price of going there with Jessika and Cecelia (a French girl who spoke no English, couldn’t understand my German, and spoke complex German with a French accent), who were shopping for clothes, well, Cecelia was shopping for clothes, but Jessika didn’t like any of them.
I really have no idea about dates, so I suppose I’ll just start talking about events I can remember in no particular order.
One of the most shocking things that happened the next week was my being invited around to someone’s house so we could have a time of getting to know people. As I was walking to their house, I realised that everyone except for me was a girl. This made me worried.
As it turns out, my fears were justified, and I had to listen to a typical girl conversation for 5 hours in German. As far as I could tell, it was about the usual stuff:

• Material possessions


• Clothes


• Getting a BF/GF


• Getting married to one’s BF/GF


• Photographs

This conversation re-convinced me marriage was not for me, which was good, because my views on marriage had shortly before been changed radically by this article, and I wasn’t thinking as straight as I could have been. It helped me to look at me again and see just how not the marrying type I am.
Another crazy thing that happened that week was a trip up the aforementioned hill by the mill again, where I slept out on the side of a hill with no tent, a sleeping bag, and a lot of crazy people (a French girl who spoke German with a French accent and a German who spoke so fast even Germans had difficulty understanding him. There were also a couple of other Germans). It was a beautiful night, and it was great to look up at the stars and that. Only problem was that I didn’t have a pillow and slept really badly. I tripped up twice on the stairs the next morning, spilt my cereal at breakfast and broke a bowl washing up, but it was worth it.
On Friday I went to Heidelberg. That was a great craic. I spent about three days trying to get people to come with me, but everyone was either too busy or didn’t want to come. Jessika was just too lazy. After talking to Mark about it, I decided to go by myself, but when I got to the station to book my ticket, my train was on the platform, but I didn’t know where it was going. I missed it, and decided to take the one going an hour later. I went back to the mill and finally convinced Jessika to come along with me in the hour I had left. No-one else was free, and these places just aren’t as fun on your own.
Heidelberg is a beautiful place, the castle is the highlight, though, of course. I took a load of pictures in and around the castle, and I will be posting some of those I hope, but I still have all my pictures from Devon and Wales to sort through. I definitely have my work cut out. Heidelberg isn’t a huge place, but they actually have a Hard Rock Café. I was seriously considering buying a HRC Heidelberg T-Shirt, but they were playing American Idiot in the place. It must have been a sign. It turns out I needed the money later anyway.
On the way back, I went to the station and bought a ticket straight to Frankfurt. However, looking at the ticket, I realised that I could only use regional trains with that ticket. This was obviously a pain, as I knew nothing about German geography, and knew only the simplest route involving an express train. However, I got on the train and an Indian ended up sitting in front of me. I asked him if he spoke English, and he spoke it very well. I was able to travel on the same train as him for a while, because the train he was on was going to Frankfurt. He left half way through the train’s route. About an hour later, worrying messages started appearing on the train’s notice thing about a train not having a stop at Frankfurt. I got off the train. Soon enough I realised a train to Frankfurt wasn’t coming any time soon, so I prayed again, and asked a guy on the platform (in German ^__^) when the next train to Frankfurt would come. He looked worried, and showed me the timetable, which clearly indicated that this event would never happen. This was two hours before my plane should have taken off, and I was at a random station in Germany.
Anyway, he showed me to the bus stop, where a bus was conveniently waiting, and took me to the town’s Hauptbahnhof. From here I got a train to the main Frankfurt station.
This is where I think I went wrong, because although I hadn’t worried before, I started worrying then (I should have remembered Psalm 39). It was an hour and ten minutes to take off, and I wasn’t at the airport. I could have taken a train directly there, but it was ten minutes late, and the other one was on platform 105 (I kid you not, I was at platform 19) or something. I ran to the taxi rank, and got the nearest taxi. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell him to put on his meter, and he charged me €25, although I only paid €23 of that. He put it down after I told him €25 was extortionate.
I got to the airport an hour before my flight (normal check-in time is 2 hours before). An American woman gave me a euro to carry her stuff up the escalator (because apparently the previous time she had tripped up and hurt herself). At the check in desk they were pretty worried about the Birmingham flight, but I got on there on time, which was a fantastic blessing, considering everything that had happened earlier. I was thinking that if I missed my flight this time, I’d just go back to Mosbach.
The travel on the English side was pretty straightforward, and I’m now at home... w00t.
I loved Germany so much, I wish I was back there. There were other things that happened which I haven’t mentioned. These include a barbeque, and several other things. The food there was fantastic, like eating in a good country pub every day, though I did get fed up of Käse and Aufschnitt for both breakfast and tea after a while.
I’m thinking of going back to Mosbach for a year after I’ve finished my A Levels. FYI, I am currently planning on studying Maths, Physics, Geography and German. This is, of course, a fair change from what I originally wanted to study: Maths, Physics, Graphic Design, Engineering and Photography.
It was just so fantastic to be in Germany, I felt so blessed, and made loads of friends. People who know me quite well will know I’ve had serious problems with obsessional thoughts, but I was just so at peace in Germany, even when everything went wrong with the travel. Especially when everything went wrong with the travel.
Well, God Bless,
Peter.