Zwolle

This weekend was another wonderful weekend in Zwolle.  I took advantage of a few sunny days to explore the trails outside of Zwolle and just run in the country for a while.  Thursday I lost track of time and ended up running for nearly an hour and a half.  There's so much to see - sometimes I feel as though I'm running through the zoo, as I run past storks, sheep, and even just the canals and beautiful spring flowers.  And it's funny to see the curious looks I get from wearing shorts.  The locals don't think that even 60s and 70s are warm enough to wear shorts :).

Friday night, Nicole, Melodie, and I settled down for a girls night at Nicoles with Aloisa (her host mom).  We had gone to the bibliotheek to pick up a movie, but they didn't have much for options.  They had tons of movies (and they were in English), but we'd only heard of about four of them.  After the movie, we talked for a good while before I hit the road for my long, rainy ride home.  I kind of like biking in the rain if I know I can change into dry clothes as soon as I get home!

On Saturday, Chelsea and I finally went out with Joleen, Roel (Joleen's boyfriend), and their friends.  It was great to meet them finally, and we had a fun night.

Despite being out late, my ridiculously strong internal clock still woke me at 7:30 Sunday morning, so I got to enjoy a few hours of morning sun before the service.  As usual, Joleen translated parts of the sermon on her notepad for me.  There was a guest pastor speaking about the transfiguration, and Joleen wasn't writing anything more than I was catching myself.  She finally turned to me and whispered frustratedly, "He's not saying anything!"

Chelsea and I went for a long walk around the park behind our house Sunday afternoon before meeting up with some of the girls for our first English church service of the semester.  We found an Anglican church service that meets twice per month in Zwolle.  We were looking forward to it all weekend.  "I'm going to sing so loud," Cheslea said.

First hymn?  "Just As I Am."  The organ blasted a few notes before the congregation tried unsuccessfully to join.  The organist stopped and began again.  Nope.  A woman towards the back turned around and told him to speed up.  We eventually managed to complete all 6 stanzas and sat down, relieved and smiling.  Counting the five of us girls, there were probably 30 people in the tiny church (that still managed to have a balcony for the organ).  The other parts went much more smoothly, but let's just say we didn't sing too loudly.  After the service, I think that pretty much everyone separately invited us to coffee time, so we split up to discover where all these English accents came from.  The service began at 4 and lasted only about 45 minutes.  An hour an a half later, we had finally escaped to our bicycles to head home for supper after promising to come back soon.

I've never been to an Anglican service before, but it's remarkable how nice it is just to understand every part of the sermon again.  And it was nice to be in a smaller church again (really small, actually).  But no one really talks to us at the Koningskerk simply because it's a bit of a mass exodus to get the large congregation out after the service.  It was so nice to actually meet some people at church again.

Church is a bit different here.  You attend the church based on the area in which you live.  If you move to a different section of the city, you also need to transfer membership to that church.  In some ways, I can see some huge benefits to this - puts an end to our church shopping problems and also places you in close proximity to others in your church.  But they approach church a bit differently.  You go.  You go twice (the second service is filled, too).  You go to the service they assign you (early or late service depending on where you live).  You arrive 5 minutes early, find a seat, pass out drop-flavored mentos at the sermon, sing loudly 2 seconds after the starting beat of each stanza, and smile as you head out the door right after the service.  There's a special person assigned to speak to the visitors so that the majority of the congregation doesn't need to bother.  And the new members are new because they've moved to the area from another church.  Just some interesting observations.