Hello to you all!
I am aware that I did not tell you how much Nutella I had consumed in the last post. The reason is that I actually finished the second jar shortly after the last update (yes, I know; make that a whole jar in a week!) and hadn't bought any more yet. However, I have kept both jars...
I am also aware that I told you no less than three times that I was determined to be more pro-active, not just allowing things to happen to me but taking steps to improve my German, have a positive impact on the world and actively seek God, but failed to tell you how I planned to achieve this...
The two beautifully combine in something I like to call... (drumroll)... The Nutella Jar Projects!
So far I have two empty Nutella jars and two ideas for how to use them:
1) The first is simply a prayer jar. I want to make sure that I am praying for the people I care about and that when people ask me to pray for them, I really do. So when I have something specific I want to pray about, I will write it down and post it into Nutella jar number one. I will try to read the prayers regularly, praising God for the ones he has answered, which I can then remove, and praying again for ongoing concerns.
2) The second idea is a savings jar. Euros are quite confusing because lots of the coins look very similar, so putting all my 1, 2, 5 and 10 cent coins into Nutella jar number two will help avoid awkward situations at the supermarket checkouts. Once my jar is full, I will spend the money on rabbits or chickens or other useful things for a family in Asia using this website: http://www.gfauk.org/donate
These are the ideas so far, but obviously I will eat a lot more Nutella this year, so if you have any ideas about what I can do with my next one, please comment! Following on from my last post, how could a Nutella jar help me to learn German, for example?
I have already bought some more Nutella, but it took a great deal of effort. Firstly I went to the supermarket (called Spar; do we have those in England?) and found that they had run out of the big 800g jars and I had to consider whether a 400g one would do. Then I realised that they did still have 800g jars, but they were right at the back of the shelf where I couldn't reach them. So my dilemma was now whether to get a 400g one I could reach, ask someone to get a big jar for me, or leave with nothing. Obviously this was a momentous decision, so I left the Nutella section and got my other groceries first*. When I came back, the situation was much the same. I stood there for five minutes staring at the chocolate spread isle, wondering if in fact I needed Nutella or if generic chocolate spread would do the trick, then finally plucked up the courage to ask a tall man if he could possibly help me because I couldn't reach**. He obliged with a smile and I left with my big jar of Nutella and a small, rather pleasant feeling of whimsical foolishness.
I will leave you with the news that I have also been more pro-active in making friends by inviting some of the other ELAs^ round to make cookies tomorrow!
Lots of love, stay tuned!
*I say groceries, but it was really honey and more chocolate. You know you're living in a German-speaking country when the slogan of your favourite chocolate is, "square. practical. good".
**Actually, I think I asked him to help me because I couldn't "fetch" the Nutella. Unfortunately university German classes have not prepared me for the challenges of being vertically challenged in another culture. A shocking oversight.
^English Language Assistants, of course!
