'Tapas'

I know, you didn't think I had it in me, right? Well, guess what. I am too EXCITED to sleep, and must tell you about another amazing night. 

After a minorly grueling day at work (I am always thinking of my work in context now, as one of my roommates is doing construction work, aka ridiculously laborious physical work, all day long. Typing and mouse-clicking by a window with a soft breeze doesn't seem so bad then...ever.), I was excited to walk home with some Toblerone, and see my roommates, and then head off to Liestal, a neighboring town where my new small group would be meeting. I needed to take the train from the main station, and got a chance to start my new book Irresitible Revolution, as I just finished The Learners by Chip Kidd yesterday. Mom, I think I might ask you to restock my English book supply when you come to visit :). When I reached Liestal, I took a bus just a few stops, and I was practically at the doorstep of Chris and Lisa's. Liestal is beautiful, as it is nestled in the mountains, very cutesy and cozy, tucked away from Basel yet just a short train ride away. Oddly enough, I wasn't at all intimidated by going to a random town, to meet people that I had just met less than 24 hours prior. I was greeted with open arms, smiling faces, and English!

The group: Darryl, who is from New Zealand; Dave, an English street musician; Lisa and Chris, who have Australian connections; Lana, who is from Canada; and Mike, who is Swiss and is studying English in school. 

I cannot tell you how awesome it was to hang out with these people. I have not laughed this hard in a long time; these people know sarcasm, and I love it! We had a lot of social bonding time in the beginning, where I had the opportunity to embarrass myself right away. I was trying to describe 'edemame,' to no avail, and was telling them I had it in a 'tapas' bar, but all of them heard, 'topless' bar. There was this uproar of laughter, people keeling over, and I was utterly confused, but then Darryl starting breathing enough to explain. I am sure I am never going to live this down. We drank syrup water, which was a first. It is a concentrate that is in a one or two liter bottle, and you add it to water, and it kind of tastes like kool-aid or lemonade. I think I will always prefer a good stiff espresso, but it was still good. We talked about the Vengeance Psalms, or pretty much all of the angry parts of Psalms that you generally skip over, and wonder, hmm, how is this in the Bible? We learned that they are ways that David and other psalmists were giving their frustrations with injustice to God, and to let Him deal with it, rather than try to decide justice themselves, that it isn't really hatred and anger, but more of an honorable thing, giving it to to God, and being truthful and real about your human emotion. One thing that caught me off-guard was something Darryl had said, which was, "Wow, so you have been a Christian your whole life? You must know so much about the Bible!" I didn't know what to say, because I feel very insufficient when it comes to knowledge of the Bible, even after years of Summer School and Sunday School, and time with the Navigators. The Bible has never really latched on in my mind. I looked at Dave, for instance, who is a born-again Christian at age 55, and has known Jesus for five years, and he can easily recall Scripture. I don't understand this; why can I not recall the Bible like I can recall typefaces, and Eames, Raymond Loewy and Marcel Breurer?

Mike gave us all a ride back in his car. They were all asking for my phone number, so that we could hang out sometime this week or weekend, but I do not have a phone here. I am starting to question whether I should invest the 40CHF to get one, so that I can meet up with these people more often. Email can only go so far, really...

Have a wonderful Monday.