Tour de Slovakia...

This week Paige, Katka (my friend from Czech) and I went on a little excursion around Slovakia. We left Zilina Tuesday morning and drove east to Presov. There we picked up Ryan, our one intern this summer, and then drove to Kosice. We had four reasons for our trip. The two legitimate reasons were to meet up with a group from Paige's home church who was there doing a work project, and to have a meeting with a local youth pastor. The other two reasons were to have a fun road trip, and for me to see Kosice (which is known as the most beautiful city in Slovakia). Thankfully, ALL objectives were accomplished. Here are some pics from Kosice.
Ryan, Katka, and I by the fountain:


Us sitting four deep on a bench while some stranger takes our picture:


The cathedral at night:


Some big bell:


After the night was done, we had to drive BACK to Presov to drop Ryan off, and then us three girls drove another hour or more to Poprad to spend the night. We rolled in right at midnight and crashed. However, the next day we were well rested and able to enjoy the beautiful High Tatra mountains of Slovakia. Yay for nature!

Mystery Neighbor...

This is the view directly across from mine and Zuzka's balcony. Well, actually, that's a lie. You do see see this from our balcony, but this is if you are looking out my bedroom window. I didn't exactly know how to take this picture without looking completely sketchy, so I had to do it all stealth-like from my window. Don't worry, I don't think anyone saw me.

Anyhow, in reality this balcony is directly across from ours. So, you can imagine that we kind of feel like we share our kitchen with these people, considering they can basically see right in. We used to see right into their living room, but then they so cleverly put up that bamboo stuff which provides them with a little more privacy. Maybe one day Zuzka and I will get around to doing something like that, but probably not.

So, let me finally get to the point of this post. And that is that Zuzka and I are completely intrigued by the people that live there. Specifically the man that lives there. We see him the most, because he is ALWAYS on the balcony smoking. And I'm serious when I say always. Its like he never has to go to work. Either that, or he gets paid to smoke on his balcony. The other day I was sitting on our balcony journaling and out he came. It took everything in me not to just yell across the way, "Hey, What's your deal?" But something tells me he probably wouldn't have thought that was as funny as I would. Zuzka and I have finally come to the conclusion that we think he is part of the mafia here in Zilina. I'm serious. Because he also drives a really nice car for someone who never seems to work. And clearly that's the only logical assumption for why.

There you have it. You people thought me moving to Slovakia would be safe... but little did you know I'd be living across the street from the Slovak Sopranos.

I'm exhausted...

So the past 2 weeks I've been running around Slovakia and Czech like a madman... woman... whatever. I was in Bratislava for a few days, then back to Zilina, then to Cesky Tesin, then to Prague, then to Ostrava, back to Cesky Tesin, then to Malenovice for a week, back home to Zilina, off to Bratislava again, and now I am officially home for the next 2 weeks. YAY!!

Besides my time in Bratislava, most of this time has been devoted to the arrival of our JV summer interns. My friends Gavin and Nate created a 2nd annual Amazing Race for the interns, and thankfully this year I was able to help out instead of go through it. Last year my team came in a very distant last place, AND I managed to be the only intern who cried during the race. Yeah, I'm never going to live that one down. But however tiring this time has been, it has all been well worth it. Here are a few things of note that I've done during this time:

1) I rode a bike for the first time in probably over 10 years (I'm not even joking... it's totally been that long). I went with my dear friend Liba when I was in BA 2 weekends ago. It was stinking hillarious. I was riding a guy's bike because the tires were flat in the girl's bike, so not only was I super rusty at riding but the bike was a little too tall for me. Great combo. The majority of the ride I was yelling "I'm gonna die!!" At one point we were going down this narrow path beside a pond and I thought for sure I was going to end up in it. That would have been bad.


2) I visited the bone church in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. The inside of this chapel was decorated with the bones of 40 thousand people by a half blind monk. Depressing and disturbing you say? Yes. But totally worth seeing.

3) I watched 3 turkeys reach the end of their short lived lives. This was one of the stops on the amazing race. The teams had to either kill a turkey (cut its head off) or gut the turkey after its been killed. And these weren't baby turkeys either. They were monster turkeys. When I saw them I thought there was no way anyone would do it... it would be like killing a pet or something. But what was hilarious was that the teams didn't see the turkeys before agreeing to kill them. All they could see were baby turkeys, so when we opened the door to the pen where the real turkeys were being held the reactions were classic. Sorry if this one grosses some of yall out... but I hadn't laughed that hard in while.

4) I met and reconnected with some of the greatest people I know. Seriously, I continue to be amazed at how God provides me with people over here that even though I've only known them for a short time, it feels like I've known them for years. It makes this life so much easier. Here are two of my favorites, Katka and Leah. They both live in Czech.

5) The day I came home from intern training I went to take a nap (and I never take naps) at 3:30 in the afternoon and basically slept until 9 the next morning. I've never slept like that in my life. I was pretty impressed.

So, there you have it. 5 nuggets from my past 2 weeks. Hope you enjoyed! If not, well, go read someone else's blog.