First I wake up, typically around 7am to get ready for my day. I don't live at the castle where the majority of my day happens, I live in the apartments in town. I have to leave the apartment by no later than 8am to get to the castle in time for morning activities. Since breakfast happens from 7-7:30, I usually don't make it in time, so I will stop at the local bakery to pick up a tasty pastry or bread roll to eat along the way. I get to walk through the forest to the castle every morning, which is absolutely beautiful. Living in town has it's disadvantages, like no internet, 1 washing machine and 2 bathrooms for 40 girls, etc, but some of it's distinct advantages include the forest, being closer to the Penny (the local grocery store), being closer to the Döner (the "hangout" spot in town), and having an excuse to walk off all the carbs we eat at the castle.
So since I'm on the topic, a typical meal at the castle includes either bread, pasta, rice, or potatoes. It's a carbohydrate overload all over the place. According to the Germans here, we're not really eating typical German food. We're eating food that will feed a lot of people for a less money. So sometimes it tastes really great, like when they make us mashed potatoes. And sometime it's not quite so much to my liking, like when they serve mushroom soup. But I'm trying to eat everything, as a practice for outreach where I probably won't have the option of being very picky. So I've eaten more mushrooms int he past 3 weeks than I probably have in my entire life. I still don't like them though...
So back to the normal day. Things start happening at the castle at 8:30am. On Mondays and Fridays we have an hour of worship, on Tuesdays-Thursdays we have times of prayer and intercession. It was during this time that the 15,000 euros were raised for the Justice DTS teams. These times end around 9:30, and then we'll take a 5-10 minute break before we begin lectures. Each day is broken up into chunks for lectures and art tracks and work duties, 9:30-11:00, 11:30-1:00, 2-4, and 4:30-6.
Every week we have a different guest speaker who does lectures. This week we have a woman who our guest speaker last week called the Ninja Grandma. Her name is Donna Jordan and she's teaching us about hearing the voice of God. Normally the speaker will have the floor until 11:00am, and then we'll get a coffee break and then art tracks will begin. However, sometimes the speaker will just have lots to say (like Donna this week) and so at 11:30 we will reconvene to have another session until 1:00 pm. When this happens, all the art tracks meeting that day just meet at the 4:30 time slot instead of some meeting at 11:30.
My art track is the hand-made art track, and we meet at 11:30 when the speaker doesn't take that time slot. We don't meet every day, so far it's been at the beginning and the end of the week. I know I came into this DTS thinking that I would be following the photography track, but I decided to switch about a week in. I just felt very torn between the two, wanting to do both, and so I decided to go with hand-made because I felt it would be more of a challenge for me, and that I could finally have the time to do all the things that I've always wanted to do but never had the time or resources to do. So far I've made a journal, and later today we'll be starting stamp making/linoleum printing.
Lunch begins at 1:30 and is the big meal of the day. When it's warm outside we sit outside the castle, but when it starts to get too cold we'll all eat in the dining hall, which is also where we have lectures. It's not a dining hall with chairs and table though, it's just a big room where we all sit on the floor.
From 2-4 most people have work duties. My work duty is a little different, however. I work in the café here at the castle. That means my work duty is any 2 hour time slot between 11:30 and 6pm every day, some days as late as 8pm. It's more work than most other work duties, but I think it's more fun. I'm starting to get the hang of making the espresso drinks and getting to just sit and talk with people is always a pleasure. Sometimes in the evenings I'm by myself which is great too, because it gives me time to just think and process and talk to God.
More art tracks happen from 4:30-6, I usually get some time to get on the internet or work in the studio or just hang out with people around the castle. And then at 6pm we get dinner, which is more like an American lunch during the week. It's almost always the same, bread, cold-cut turkey, cheese, and salad. It's not very exciting, but I try not to complain.
There's usually people to hang out with and talk to for a few hours after dinner, so I'll normally leave the castle to head back to the apartment between 8 and 9pm. Then it usually takes a long time to get ready for bed just because there's always someone in the bathroom and someone to talk to. But eventually things quiet down and we go to sleep, ready for a new day.
On weekends things look a little different, there are no lectures or art tracks, and breakfast runs a little later. You pack your lunch at breakfast, bread and cold cuts and cheese, and then dinner happens at 6pm, and it's a hot meal, vegetarian on Saturday, meat on Sunday. Other than that, the day is yours to do whatever.
So that's a day in Herrnhut. I'll leave you with a few photos.
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