May is Okay!

So, so, so, much has happened since I last emailed and I will have to fill you in…I’ll try not to bore.

Poland

Sarah and I travelled to Krakow, Poland this month and made a day trip to the infamous Nazi concentration camp: Auschwitz. Krakow was one of our favourite cities to visit. We are really becoming fans of Eastern Europe. This city reminded us of Prague because it was easily manageable and complete with history, art, and culture. We took several walks around the city and learned so much about the Polish. One of the most interesting things that we found was the story of the trumpeter who plays every hour from the church bell tower.

Legend has it that during the Tartan invasion of Krakow, a trumpeter blew the warning song from high atop the church bell tower to warn Krakowians that the invasion had begun and because of his warning song, the citizens of Krakow were able to defend their city. Then an enemy arrow pierced his throat before he was able to complete the song. Therefore, every hour on the hour, a trumpeter plays the same song from the same location and stops before he finishes…calling to mind the time that Krakow was almost overtaken by the Tartan’s had it not been for one brave trumpeter who gave his life to save many.

As I mentioned before we took a day trip to Auschwitz concentration camp. It is hard to put into words exactly what you feel as you walk around an international monument to the cruelty of humankind. It feels odd to smile in pictures or even to take pictures. And although the site is in ruins, we found the entire day to be emotional and stirring. If you get a chance, while it may not be the most exciting of vacations, it is a day to remember… “lest we forget…”

Somerset

A friend of Sarah’s from work had mentioned to her a long time ago that she had a place for us to stay in Somerset, if we were ever up for a weekend away. Well, all of the UK had a bank holiday on Monday the 7th; so we decided that we would use that long weekend to go to the beach in Somerset. Now, when I say beach, British beaches are not all fun in the sun type experiences, but they are nice in a different sort of way. Taking costal walks, for instance, is one of our favourite things to do.

One of the main highlights from our weekend was going on the old fashioned steam train that runs along the coast. We made a day of it, taking the train to a nearby village and having a meal. The stations and the train itself are all well preserved and they take you back to the times when steam trains would have been the new and only way to travel in style.

Friends

We have had the pleasure of opening up our home, once again, to some friends from the States. We have had three young ladies staying with us for a few days. The girls are all at the beginning of what will be a summer abroad for all of them. Kim and Jody are off to study music in Florence and Cat will be studying French in France. To be honest we only knew Kim before this trip. Kim is girlfriend to one of our nearest, dearest, and closest friends Stateside, Mr. Patrick Peringer. Kim and Pat are both in the music dept. at Bowling Green State University…and Jodi and Cat are her friends. Now that they’ve been snoozing on our floor for the past few days, we feel we know each other really well. And Kim was able to go into Wales and see some live music performance, which was great because she is writing her Thesis on Welsh Music…cool, huh?

Justin Timberlake

That’s right…Justin Timberlake! You see, as a partial joke and partial curiosity our friend Claire got her husband Jez tickets to see Justin live in Birmingham. Jez claims that he, not Justin, originally brought Sexy Back (Jez has actually registered the domain name “ibroughtsexyback.com” although he hasn’t done anything with it yet). So, we quickly decided that we wanted to go and see Mr. Super Bowl Controversy himself with our friends.

I have to say, it was a fantastic show! He was an excellent showman and he made the ticket price worth the experience…once we got over the screaming teenage girls surrounding us!

What’s Next?

With a month that had so much going on, how will we ever top it? The next email will include our trip to Norway, which we leave for later this week! And we will be informing you as to how our Youth Weekend goes. Youth Pastor Claire has again roped us into helping her with this event and we must say that we are looking forward to this event with great expectations!

From us to you, that’s all for now…

OK, Happy End (for all you Eurovision fans!)

Jason and Sarah

Pics: 1. Artist's wall in Krakow 2. Auschwitz rememberance cards. 3. Auschwitz monument. 4. Sarah in Somerset.