Grillfest with the Neighbors
The day Thadd came home, we had a grillfest with our neighbors in the evening. Thadd has been looking forward to this for sometime and I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about it. We see our neighbors periodically when coming or going or when we’re in the garden, but having dinner and conversation with them for 4+ hours is a bit intimidating! But as always, God is good. We sat next to one neighbor we rarely see that loves to practice his English and was very excited to speak with us. So it was nice to be able to go a little deeper in our relationships because we were speaking English instead of getting 75% of the story in German. And he sat me next to our downstairs neighbor who speaks English as well so we spoke about half the time in German and half the time in English. While it’s good to practice our German, it’s honestly better sometimes to allow people to speak English to us so that we can go a bit deeper in our relationships. So all-in-all, it really was a great evening. A few of the neighbors expressed how much they’re excited we’re here and they hope we’ll be staying for a while (evidentially, the guy who lived in our apartment before was a bit strange, so I suppose by comparison, we’re the lesser of two evils 
Some things I learned that I didn’t know before:
- In the region we live, it is mandatory that schools teach a religion course
- Our apartment building was built in 1992 and it was promised that no apartment building would ever be built that would block the view of the city – 3 years later, the apartment building behind us was built blocking the view of the city
- There is an English speaking theater group in Basel – they only do English plays (www.semi-circle.ch)
- The neighbor on the end of the building speaks REALLY fast
- Our landlord is a really nice guy (we’ve never met him so we have no idea)
- Tuition at private schools really isn’t all that high compared to what private schools in the states can cost
I’m sure there’s more, but that’s off the top of my head. We just feel so blessed to have great neighbors who really do want us here and are interested in our lives. They’re all very excited to meet our baby and always ask how we’re doing. One of our neighbors regularly brings over food they’ve made for dinner for me because as they say “when a pregnant woman smells food, she needs to eat it”. Not sure if that’s really correct, but hey, not going to turn it down – it wouldn’t be neighborly
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catching up..been on vacation..How fun to get to know your neighbors..more of a community. here in the States it is sooo different. Then again, I do have to admit, I do like my SPACE since I work with people ALL day long..that is another thing I experienced here is that other “cultures” always want to FEED me. I have learned to be gracious and accept and to return the favor too. Definately a different mentality. Glad you had such a nice time..the Lord was GOOD!
I like the idea of eating all the food you smell. Especially when Thadd isn’t home – you must not have to cook!
By the way…you WERE the well-liked neighbor until you had a crying baby at night! Just kidding, I’m sure you’ll have an angel! Sometimes I think about that and I’m glad I live in the country.