Sarah and Keane

One of the best things so far about moving overseas has been to get to explore our new town, Kandern. The town is made up of a few thousand people. It has one traffic light, one pharmacy, and two grocery stores–in which we are basically guaranteed to run into a handful of BFA staff and students.

This area of Germany is beautiful. We are in the heart of the Black Forest; our backyard is literally on the edge of the forest, on the side of a steep hill. We have quite the walk to and from work each day, and thankfully our lungs and legs are acclimating (anyone planning to visit us: you might want to do some hills training first…).

A view from our apartment of the morning light

This past weekend was a town celebration called Budenfest (Booths Fest). For four days straight, the normally silent town of Kandern suddenly becomes alive with people we never knew existed. The town’s clubs each set up a “booth” (Are you picturing a concessions stand? Nope. These clubs basically build temporary restaurants.) and sell local food and drinks to benefit their clubs.

Some of the Budenfest “booths”

One of the coolest booths was run by the Men’s Choir, which served a number of local wines and built a water fountain that pumped in cold water to keep the beverages cold. It was amazing that so much effort went into a four-day event. They even decorated their booth with beautiful arrangements of dried flowers.

Cold water to keep the drinks cold

It’s hard to tell, but most of this festival took place in the town square, called the Blumenplatz (Place of Flowers). Once we were inside the festival, though, we felt like we were in a mini village. Some of the other booths were hosted by local clubs such as the Accordion Club and the Ping Pong Club! There were also several booths hosted by two local Wiccan clubs, which took us by surprise since most groups like that in the States would operate in secrecy. Here in the Black Forest, it seems to be accepted by everyone.

Me in front of the Accordion Club’s booth

We’re really looking forward to sharing more of our new home with all of you. Expect more photos soon. In the meantime, we are keeping very busy with our work and several big volunteering positions we’ve signed up for, including being Freshman class sponsors and Small Group leaders. Please keep us in your prayers as those kick off in the next week. We miss you all and would love to hear from you, too!

sarah and keane