aboard the 'Titanic'

what to say? where to start? the first line or paragraph is usually the tricky part. once you're on a roll...
what can i say that's not gonna end in a tirade of complaints and moans about work,accommodation or the 'lovely' English weather... all i will say about this for now is that i've been here almost 4 months by now and i cant wait to get out of here... i dont care where or how anywhere has got to be better than this. :) see, there we go again... but i'll try to stop now. honest. cos all it does is pull me down further.
so instead i'm gonna try and hold it with the words of psalm 103 "Praise the Lord, my soul!
Praise his holy name, all that is within me. Praise the Lord, my soul, and never forget all the good he has done!" believe me it's not easy. Especially when everywhere i go everyone i talk to seems to be inviting me to join into the 'bitch fest' oooh, it's so tempting.
However, if I have made it this far I know I can hold on for another couple of weeks - until the end of September to precise. At least Franzi and I have promised ourselves to hold out until then.
But let me tell you a little bit more about what’s been happening here in Henley:
2 Regattas, 1 Festival, about a dozen Functions and 4 Weddings or so later we are already a third of the way through August. At the moment we are in a kind of summer lull. Have been for a couple of weeks now actually. It’s kind of weird though, ‘cause the other places I have worked at summer or vacation time usually meant more people, more work, more stress and here it’s just the opposite. Well, I guess it kind of makes sense, since most of our customers are business people and for them this IS the holiday/ vacation season. So everywhere in town things have quieted down – including our hotel. The only thing that’s big in hotels at the moment are weddings. It is definitely the ‘wedding season’. Sometimes we have a wedding each weekend, 1 night we had 3 brides staying with us. That was funny, because people kept getting quite confused. And mind you we are a small hotel with only 30-odd bedrooms.
This week there seems to be a German invasion in town, a school kid’s invasion to be exact. I swear everywhere I turn I see and hear German. Sometimes I wonder if I got teleported back to Germany by accident. I guess that means summer break is over or maybe it’s some sort of summer language program.
By the by its my sister, Damaris’, Birthday today. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS! Glad to know you, glad you are in my life and in my family. Miss our ‘coded’ talks and our very own version of Genglish. :)
so long my friends,
hanna in henley

the Regatta season has begun

Everywhere in town you can feel this sense of preparation and excitement building up. The streets, cafes and shops are becoming more crowded and more international by the day. People from all over the world are flocking into Henley to either take part in the competition themselves, cheer on loved ones or to simply enjoy the show. And this feeling is contagious! I mean, before I came here I'd hardly even heard of the Regatta... and now I'm just as curios and excited as the rest of them. :)
I guess, its one of those things that is only really a big deal if you move in those circles or if you happen to live or work in Henley. Two of my co-workers actually came to Henley for the purpose of rowing and more precisely of rowing at the world renowned Leander Club. Both of them will be competing this year. So cool! Gives us the inside scoop! :)

Apart from the Regatta I am afraid there isnt a whole lot else goin on in Henley. Saturday night we went to check out the local "club". Which isnt really a club at all. You see, once a week, on Saturday night one of the hotels here turns their entire first floor (ground floor for my European friends) into one big club with DJ and dancefloor... very entertaining I can tell you that! All in all it was actually quite a good night, if you dont take into account a slight falling out i had with one of my male colleagues. :)

This Thursday I had a special treat. I attended ROYAL ASCOT!!! That one I've heard of before! :) and to make it even more special. This year Royal Ascot is celebrating it's TRECENTENNIAL!! 300 years! And as one of my fellow on-watchers noticed I even got to witness it with the traditional English weather. :o) rain, rain, a little sunshine, rain, rain, some more sunshine, followed by even more rain. The only thing missing was the HAT. I'll get one for next time...

it's almost 10pm over here, which means its about time to start the End Of Day and then i can finally go home (which incidentally is a 2 minute walk, down the corridor and out to the courtyard into the annex building) in 62 more minutes.
xoxo,
Hanna

for a special friend

This song goes out to a very dear friend of mine. I hope this blesses, encourages and strengthens you tonight. I wish with all my heart that I could be there with you, hold you, cry with you, pray with you. But since I can not I trust that OUR FATHER will do His BEST:

The light at the end has faded away
One terror after another
Somewhere in the fire
The embers of faith
Will burn through tomorrow
You're breathing

It's worth the pain
God's in the rain
It's not too late to start again
It's worth the pain
So hold on tonight

Your passionate eyes try to explain
All the blindness you're feeling
The six feet of lies exposed in His fire
Resurrecting your sunrise
You're breathing

There's grace
When you're at your wit's end
Begging for it
He'll take you by the hand
There's grace...

love you lots, my dear friend
Hanna

a blessing in disguise

in form of a demotion? who would have thought! but let me start from the beginning.
it is may 15 and today is my 32nd day in henley - making it a whole month in england. i have to say there were days were i wasnt sure if i was ever gonna last this long. :) not to give excuses or anything but my predecessor only lasted a month as well and my colleague's predecessor only lasted about 3 weeks. We call them 'the lucky ones' because they got away.
For today let me introduce you to my two colleagues, my fellow sufferers.. ;)

First, there is Franziska, 23, from Northern Germany. sweet girl, great co-worker, very professional and efficient at work, kinda reminds me of myself at that age and the best thing is we have a very similar taste in food - so after traveling the world for i-dont-know-how-many-years i have finally found someone i can actually share a plate with!
Like the other night we went out for dinner together and were both trying to decide between two dishes as it turned out they were the same ones so we simply ordered one each and shared them and the same thing went for the side orders. So cool! And makes eating out soo much more fun.
Then there is Sabrina, 26, from Eastern Germany. Very nice girl as well, and a bit of a travel buff like myself..., but other than that i or we cant really get a read on her. i mean, we know things about her like that she is sort of a buddhist (its more like her philosophy rather than her religion) and she's a vegan - sometimes. but you know, those are just facts, they dont really tell as who she is and that's exactly where we are having a hard time trying to figuring her out.

But now let me tell you about my demotion. Not that i was surprised really. Basically it's just that i was downgraded to regular Receptionist. Which, truth be told, is what i applied for in the first place. i knew, that i wasn't/ am not ready to be a Head Receptionist. I mean, I'm only just beginning to find my professional feet again. I guess, when they asked me about being Head Receptionist, my predecessor had just handed in her notice and so they thought they might as well give it a try.
I am telling you, even though it naturally stung a little to be put down a paygrade, i mainly felt reliefed and at least one chip less on my shoulder. :D
enough for today.
i hope you are doing well wherever you are and may HIS light shine brightly upon you this day.
in his grace
hanna

Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, England

my new place of residence - at least for now. I've been here close to three weeks for now and it already feels like forever. Not a good sign. :)
Don't get me wrong. The town is lovely. Just big enough that it doesn't have me running screaming for the hills or the next big city in my case. lol.
And I've even been blessed with unusually good weather both for England and for this season. Still I can tell in my gut that this is not the place for me. and i was sooo much looking forward to it.
But there is no church to speak of, no chance of developing any kind of social life outside of work. Which incidentally is exactly what I'm looking for.

At least work is not so bad anymore. The first couple of days were a nightmare where I honestly I thought I was never gonna get the hang of things. But once again I managed to land in a place where they dont proberly train but just let you sort of figure it out by yourself and hope for the best - so to say.

And I have to say its not very encouraging to find out that your the replacement of the replacement's replacement or something like this. My entire department has had 2 or 3 complete turnovers within the last couple of months!! Meaning none of us have been here longer than 3 weeks and now we are supposed to train and teach each other. :)

But you know the amazing thing is that even, in spite or maybe it is because of all this I get to rediscover Gods goodness, grace and mercy everyday anew!
Of course it doesnt always feel or seem that way. Take yesterday for example. After having worked my morning shift from 7:00-15:00 I was gonna treat myself to a nice Sunday Afternoon Tea and en route buy a new speaker-headphone to skype home that night. No such luck. The first store closed shop right infront of my nose and the next two stores didnt have it, but only referred me to the first stop. Than when I came to the Tea place, I first had to wait forever for anyone to wait on me only to find out they were fresh out of scones and thus were unable to serve me the long-awaited Afternoon Tea!

new country, new town, new job - new adventure!

Once again I packed up my bags and moved to a new country. Only this time I have hopefully come to stay - at least for awhile. :)
Like so many times before my trip over had a few unexpected changes. Only for once it was to my advantage rather than my disadvantage. Actually the story is quite simple. Lufthansa had overbooked the flight or maybe they ended up with a different aircraft than expected. Eitherway they had more people waiting than they had available seats and they were looking for volunteers to go on a later flight, promising compensations, etc. Anyway I thought it was worth a shot and as it turned out the alternative was only an 1.5 hours later and they were offering a reward of 125.- Euros (my ticket had only been 118.- Euro plus 20.-Euro in fees).

The cab driver that picked me up at the airport turned out to be from Punjab (India), so naturally we immidiately connected over the time i'd spent in India myself and as you know cabbies know everything and so I received the complete 411 on Henley. :)

Well, my new place of residence is Henley on Thames
and my new employer is the Red Lion Hotel here in Henley, where I'll be starting work as a Head Receptionist later today.

Talk to you soon.. once I know more about the job, Hotel, coworkers, etc.

Love,
Hanna