LT in SK

Oh man...

2009-06-24T16:27:00.002+02:00

So, clearly a lot has happened since my last post, but I'm not even going to go through my usual apologies at this point. I figure whatever readers I do have are coming to expect these periods of blog silence from me, so I'll just continue living up to those awesome expectations. Bring them on!!

Right now I'm sitting in Zilina at our conference table in Kompas, where we usually have our team meetings, listening to some of my favorite music. At this moment a sweet Under the Influence of Giants jam came on and I'm loving it. My brother just wrote about their awesomeness in one of his bloggings, so you should probably skip over there and check it out after you're done with mine. But not before you're done reading mine, because then I'll be offended.

As I'm sitting here I'm realizing how exhausted I am in every since of the word - physically, mentally, and spiritually. This summer has been thus far the most difficult summer I've ever experienced in Slovakia, for a multitude of reasons. And the funny thing is that I knew it would be. Back in April I was praying with 2 of my friends in Bratislava, about the upcoming summer and what it held, and we all received the same thing from God on that afternoon. He told us that yes, this summer would be very difficult for me, but that I was not alone. And this is the truth that I've been clinging to over these past weeks. I'm not alone. He is with me always. And not only is he, but also a host of amazing friends and family that have me in their prayers. Praise God.

But, although this summer has been difficult, there have also been some really sweet moments throughout. Over the next few days I hope to fill you in on those.

South Carolina has never seen this kind of snow...

2009-03-03T11:04:00.004+01:00

Sick and Tired.

2009-02-24T11:43:00.001+01:00

Part of the reason I didn't write anything in January is because I was sick on and off for weeks. Then, the mother load hit and I was in bed for a week with some nasty mix of a sinus infection and strep throat. Thankfully the Lord has blessed me with doctors for roommates, so I was able to get diagnosed from home and then treated with free antibiotics. Yay for at home treatment!

The weeks prior to this I had been dealing a lot with feeling like I wasn't doing enough here as a "missionary." I call this the missionary guilt. It's this resonating feeling that you need to prove yourself to everyone who is supporting you at home. That you need to have all these amazing stories to write about in your updates, or on your blog, and if not you aren't doing your job. This feeling was coming to a climax right before I got really sick. I hadn't been very healthy all month, which was keeping me home on the couch when I wasn't traveling, which was then making me feel like I wasn't connecting with people in Bratislava, which was then making me feel like I didn't have purpose... and you get the picture. Then came January 26. I had a fully packed schedule here in BA, and I was feeling really good about that... Feeling like I had purpose. But of course, what happens? I wake up sick... again. I was so pissed. I had to cancel most of my meetings on Monday, stayed in bed Tuesday, Wednesday we had our girl's small group, and on Thursday I was supposed to go out of town to visit a youth group and be a part of their Kecy Club. I totally remember telling the girls Wednesday night, "I'm really looking forward to going to Levice tomorrow because I've felt really lazy all week, and this will make me feel like I'm doing something..." And of course I woke up even worse Thursday morning, had to cancel my trip, and was then in bed for 5 days.

During this forced time in bed God began to show me how ridiculous I had been. How I was working for man, working for my salvation... I had totally taken everything into my own hands and was living in fear of other people's judgment. He reminded me how He is the one who called me here, so I should rest in knowing He has a plan and is in total control of it all. It was a much needed wake up call. And although I can't say now that I've totally shed the missionary guilt, it definitely sneaks up from time to time, but I do remember to check myself each day: I am only where I am because of God, to serve and glorify God, not for myself or for men.

2009-02-24T09:55:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago I received this note from my blog:

Hello, Laura. This is your blog speaking. Please update me because many of your friends and family like to read me. If you don't update me, I will be sad as will others. The fate of many of your relationships lie in whether or not you update me, your blog, your outlet to the world. Thank you and have a nice day.

You know, not many people are blessed with a blog who speaks so honestly. Most people's blogs just feed them complements all day long about how awesome they are, but not my blog. My blog keeps it real.

Anywho, I'm sorry dear blog that I have ignored you so for the past 2 months, and therefore have ignored updating many of my friends out in cyberspace. I will try to sufficiently give an update of what has happened these past 2 months in the following few posts. I hope you can forgive me.

Christmas in Slovakia

2009-01-02T17:56:00.008+01:00

This year I celebrated my first Slovak Christmas. Last year, I went with Katka to Paris for the holiday, which was super fun, but this year it was nice to stay in Bratislava and be with "family." I spent Christmas with my Slovak family, the Kriska fam, whom I'm incredibly thankful to have in my life here. I first met them in 2005, when I moved in with them for the whole summer. I had no idea then that they would become an integral part of my life, and love looking back at how God has worked through these relationships. Especially my relationship with Noemi. She has definitely become the little sister that I never had. Anyhow, I could keep going, but I'll stop. Basically, just know that this family rocks and are part of what makes my life here in Slovakia so beautiful.

SO, Slovaks do a few things differently at Christmas than we do in the States. For example, their main celebration is on the 24th of December, not the 25th, and many consider this Christmas day. Also, their traditional meal on this day consists of fish - more specifically, carp - and potato salad. As an appetizer to this meal, they eat honey and fresh garlic on top of a big piece of wafer (kind of like Baptist communion wafers). This is for hopes that the next year will be sweet (honey) and healthy (garlic). It wasn't so nasty as one would think, but I didn't go back for seconds. However, the tradition with the carp has to be my favorite. They'll buy the fish, living I might add, a few days before they intend to eat it, and will keep it swimming around in the bathtub until cooking time. This is to insure it is as fresh as possible. I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of the fishies hanging out in the tub for you, but they were already in the fryer when I arrived on Christmas eve. Sorry to disappoint.

However, I did get plenty of other pics from the night! So here you have it,

The Feast... and you can see some of those carp bones on Noemi's plate. Poor little guys didn't even see it coming.

The Kriskova women checking out Noemi's Christmas gift from her boyfriend:

Isn't Grandma Kriskova (or as they call her, babushka) just too cute?

Tomas sharing some wisdom with me, Jakub, and Noemi:

Gimme those tasty Christmas treats!!

Jakub is amazing on the piano. One of my highs that night was just sitting there in a food induced coma listening to him play.

Ester and I. You have no idea how hospitable this woman is.

That night I stayed at their home, intending to go to church with them the next morning. Unfortunately I woke up with a nasty cold and was instructed to take some meds and get back in bed. When I woke up a few hours later, a full spread of breakfast was prepared and waiting for me right beside my bed. It included orange juice, hot tea, a freshly peeled orange, and a stack of blueberry pancakes - which don't really exist here in SK. The night before Ester had been asking me if we had any special breakfast on Christmas day, and I told her that sometimes we had pancakes, and just mentioned that my mom made some mean blueberry pancakes. That Ester is sneaky! And I don't know how she made that happen - I'm telling you, you can't find pancake mix over here - but the whole thing was truly one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me. So, although far from home this Christmas, God certainly made sure that I felt very loved. And I did.

Yep, I'm a quarter of a century old...

2008-12-20T10:20:00.002+01:00

Throughout high school and college, my friends and I have been big birthday people. So I've had all kinds of things happen for me on my birthday. A few of my favorites include a surprise party when I turned 17 (I seriously had NO idea), a birthday WEEK when I turned 19 (which included a scavenger hunt all around Columbia, many celebratory dinners, and 4 of my friends from out of town coming to spend a weekend with me), and being kidnapped (literally blind folded and shoved into a car) and taken to Atlanta for my 21st. Since moving to Slovakia, I've had to readjust my expectations for this day, knowing I'm not going to be surrounded by my best friends or family. And last year was pretty miserable to be honest. It included my friend's dog leaving a big pile of crap for me to clean up on the kitchen floor, a morning of staff meetings in Zilina, me missing lunch because I had to rush to catch my train back to Bratislava, subsequently starving through small group, and then pretty much going to bed hungry because I was too tired to bother with going to the store for food. It was a little depressing.

This year I was planning to take it easy on my birthday, which was this past Thursday. I was going to finish Christmas shopping, hang up some more pictures around my flat, meet with a few friends... really just enjoy doing whatever I wanted. But then Tuesday evening I received an email about our staff meetings in Zilina on Thursday... WHAT!? I had no idea this was coming, and was super frustrated at the idea of reliving the horrid experience of last year. The reason I didn't know I was expected there was a classic case of miscommunication between my boss and I, so I put on my best happy face and got on my train to Zilina Thursday morning.

The day started out rocky with the crap weather I stepped out into. It was that nasty mix of snow and rain, and it was not only coming down hard, but it was coming down pretty sideways thanks to the constant windiness of BA. So you can imagine what help my umbrella was to me. None. But once arriving in Zilina, my sweet teammates Maruska, Anka, and Janka really tried their best to make the day great for me throughout our day of meetings. Unfortunately for them, my poor attitude was pretty fixed all day, but I really appreciated their effort and need to apologize for my grumpiness. Part of the reason I couldn't shake it was the fact that in the evening we were having a Christmas party with the architecture firm that works below us. The idea of being the only foreigner (Zac and his wife, Kim, couldn't come) in a sea of alcohol and older Slovak men was not what I had planned for the evening of my birthday. Thankfully I was able to side up next to my friend Miska during most of the party, and ended up having a really great conversation with her that made being there worth it. Then I went to bed early, and thus was my the end of the day of my birth.

Last night, my dear friend Noemi threw me and her brother, Jakub, a birthday party. Their mom, Ester, made lots of amazing food, including a sacher tort and tiramisu for desert, which was fabulous because I hadn't eaten all day. The thing is though, I was turning 25, and Jakub was turning 18. So, next to Ester, their MOM might I remind you, I was by far the oldest person at my party. At one point they were playing a Dave Matthews song, and I just laughed and said, "This song came out when I was 11!" One of the girls then said, "that means I was 2!" Oh my.

This post may seem a little bitter to the untrained eye, but really I'm laughing at myself. I know how blessed I am. Especially at how much my life here has transformed over the past year. I'm touched by how many people wanted my day to be great and feel very well loved. However, I must admit that I still have the desire to do something selfish for myself. So, in honor of turning 25 and the desire to celebrate like an adult, tomorrow I'm treating myself to a trip to Czech to visit my close friend Katka for a few days. And I'm desperately looking forward to it!

The Team Comes to BA

2008-12-10T20:16:00.007+01:00

On Monday, my team and I had meetings in Zilina all day long. We started at 10am and finally finished at 10:30pm. I do not lie. Yes, we had breaks in there, but regardless I was a little brain dead by the end of the day. Thankfully, for Tuesday we decided to have a fun day!! So the next morning we all loaded into our van and headed to Bratislava. Woohoo!! It was the first time for my whole team to come and visit where I live, and I have to say it was quite the pleasant day. After visiting my flat, and of course fitting in a quick meeting, we grabbed lunch at one of my favorite places and then headed to the open-air Christmas Market on the main square. Later we came back to my flat, relaxed, ate some ice cream, and then they were off for Zilina!

Peto H. just bought a new camera, so we got some great shots during the day.

Here we are meeting in my flat before lunch...

A cool pic of Maruska taken at the restaurant. This was just one of many taken during the day though... homegirl LOVES to get her picture taken!

A team photo in the empty fountain outside the Presidential Palace... I don't think we were supposed to be there:

We all stared as we saw this little man carrying this HUGE instrument just outside my flat. This photo doesn't do it justice:

Janka caught me taking a photo with my own camera. And you can see one of the many sculptures placed throughout the old town in BA. During the summer there is some stupid street performer trying to mimic the sculpture. He paints his face gold and has this cardboard box that he's made into a manhole... I'm glad it's winter and I won't have to see him for a while.

Here are some of the pics I took...

This is the picture I was taking when Janka caught me:

Michalska Brana/Michael's Gate:

A tram passing by:

Some shots of the Christmas Market:

US Trip: High/Low Time!!

2008-12-05T17:15:00.005+01:00

In college, my roommates and I would incessantly play the game High/Low. It’s incredibly simple really. All you do is select your best and worst moment(s) from the past month, week, day, hour, or any other time period you feel like. So often in life we just live and keep on living without ever reviewing what we’ve lived through. When we don’t stop we miss out on valuable lessons, themes, blessings, etc. that God may be trying to communicate to us. This activity is a way to stop and reflect. Of course journaling is another way to do this, which I also highly encourage you to do, but High/Low involves others, which is always more fun. So, here is my US trip in High/Low form:

HIGHS:
1) Family Time – My family pretty much rocks. I mean, yeah, we totally have our dysfunctions, but what family doesn’t? And whether I was bumming around the house with my parents, crying on the couch with Liz, or singing to ridiculous songs with Will and Sarah – it was so great for my soul to just be with them all.

2) Saturday, Nov 22nd – This day involved a lot of my favorite people: Steph, Mere, Christian, Addy, Katie… I love each of them a lot and this day was both super fun for me and spiritually refreshing. I constantly feel blessed with the depth of friendships that the Lord provided for me in college.

3) Corporate Worship in English – Singing worship songs in my native tongue rarely happensanymore, so I was soaking up each opportunity I had.

4) Driving – I never drive in Slovakia, so it felt great to be able to go and hop in the car whenever I wanted to go somewhere. Thanks SO much to my gracious parents for allowing me to use one of their cars for 3 weeks!

5) Breakfast with Susan – Susan and I have known each other since we were six. Seriously. We were out of touch for quite a while, but God brought us closer together after graduating from high school. Since then we’ve been through some crazy intense stuff, which has really tied us together for life. I adore my friendship with her, and it was a gift to be able to sit in on her couch in our pajamas, eat oatmeal, and pour our hearts out.

6) FOOD – Sushi, Indian, Mexican… oh, the list goes on!

7) Starbucks in ATL – One evening while I was in Atlanta, I went to Starbucks with my friends Margaret, Steph and Brett. And I honestly think this is the first time we had all been together since maybe late 2005. We had a ton of fun just reminiscing about funny stories from college, as well as talking about some of the things God had recently been teaching us.

8) The Clash of my Worlds – It was a joy for me to have my family get to know my Slovak team. I now feel a little less like I’m living two separate lives.

9) Asheville – Maruska and I traveled up to see my friend Elisabeth there, and it was so great to see her. I would have been severely upset if I had been home and hadn’t! It was also super fun to see Maruska enjoy the city, considering she’s a lover of all things art, like myself. And, before leaving we got to drive through the Biltmore grounds, thanks to Liz being an employee there!

10) Publix – I know, this may seem ridiculous, but grocery stores just aren’t the same in Europe! The last time I was in the States I cried the first time I stepped into one. Literally. And poor Will was with me and had no idea what to do. It was just so spacious and clean, and I could find just about anything I wanted there… so different from what I have become accustomed to here. I mean, come on, they have SUSHI people!! I desperately wanted to take one (yes, a whole Publix) back with me to Bratislava. This time around I didn’t let the huge differences get to me and just enjoyed the perks!

11) Danielsville with the Halls - My aunt Marla and her family live about an hour outside of Atlanta in the town of Danielsville. It's basically in the middle of nowhere and that's EXACTLY what Maruska and I needed after being in Atlanta for a week. It was such a needed escape for us to be able to just walk around their property, and then to come back to a home cooked meal of southern fried chicken! It was glorious. Here's a picture of what we were surrounded by:

LOWS:
1) Jet Lag – Wow. I continue to misjudge just how horrible I can be when I’m jet lagged. I need to send a blanket “sorry!” to my Slovakia teammates.

2) Overindulgence – I hate how overindulgent I become when I’m home! I think, “Oh, I’m never here, so it doesn’t matter!” But then after 2 weeks my body regrets it big time.

3) Losing My Voice – The last week of my time in the States, my one week at home, I conveniently got sick. And, to add to the lameness of being sick, I lost my voice for the first time ever! So for my last 2 days home I could only speak in a glorified whisper.

4) Atlanta – Although many people I love live there, I really dislike how freaking huge and spread out Atlanta is. Why is this necessary? And if it has to be this way, can’t they figure out how to make a better public transportation system than the marta?

5) Not Enough Time – This time around was such a tease. I hardly got to see everyone I wanted to, and definitely didn’t get enough time with the people I did see. Hopefully next time will prove better in this area.

6) FREEZING Weather – Um, who told Columbia to get so freaking cold in November?!? I get that enough here!! At least it was still sunny…

I could totally go on with my highs, but thankfully these are about the only lows I can think of at the moment! So, there you have it. An overview of my US trip High/Low style... Now go grab a friend and do some High/Lowing for yourself!!

Kukova Trip

2008-10-19T19:54:00.008+02:00

Last weekend Noemi and I traveled out to the eastern part of Slovakia. We were invited by my teammate, Maruska, to come be a part of the Kukova Kecy Club, and we made a weekend of it while we were there. Kukova is the small village where Maruska is from, so we stayed with her family while we were there, and were treated with the most amazing hospitality... which basically means we were fed until we thought we might explode. Or give birth. Or something. It was a lot of food.

Anyhow, Noemi and I felt like we were little kids who had never been in the country before. We were so excited to just be out in the open country, instead of surrounded by buildings like we are in Bratislava. Don't get me wrong, I love BA and can't see myself anywhere else at the moment, but it was good for my spirit to just get out and breath. To be surrounded by God's beauty. To hear only the nature that was surrounding me, instead of the traffic that I'm hearing out of my open window right now.

Overall the trip was really amazing. Traveling 7 hours to get there isn't amazing, and me getting sick (via the incredible hospitality mentioned earlier) wasn't a perk, but I'd do it all over again. I can't wait until my next visit.

Me with the village of Kukova behind me. Yeah, that's about the whole village.

Maruska and I. We basically walked up this hill in our pajamas... one thing you could NEVER do in Bratislava. It was glorious.

These are a few pics from Kecy Club the night before. The topic was on "Identity." Basically how when we put our identity in things apart from Christ, our foundation will always be unstable. I shared a little testimony about something I experienced in high school pertaining to this topic, and also taught the students there a few new phrases in English. It was fun.

My SK Fam...

2008-10-08T11:12:00.003+02:00

Here are the latest pics of my Kompas coworkers/family:

From left to right, top to bottom...
Peto, Draho, Mike, Noah, Zac
Janka, Me, Maruska
Peto, Jany

Yay! We love each other!

And here's the whole Josiah Venture family from our fall conference:

Josiah Venture's 2x3 Campaign

2008-10-03T14:31:00.003+02:00

Josiah Venture is heading up a campaign to see the fruits of our ministry double in the next 3 years. Some of you may not know this, but Slovakia is just one of eleven countries that JV serves in. The others are the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, and Albania. I am extremely committed to the vision of Josiah Venture, and I'm incredibly excited to see what God will do through this campaign. Here are some videos that give you a taste of what we hope to see happen in this area of the world, and to find out more about the 2x3 Campaign go to http://www.2x3campaign.com.

Next Generation from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

One Percent from Josiah Venture on Vimeo.

(The pic of the group of people waiting at the tram stop was taken in Bratislava, just minutes from where I live.)

Levice KECY

2008-08-21T13:27:00.005+02:00

So, our third and final camp this year was with Levice. To be honest, our team was incredibly burnt out at this point. We had just had an amazing camp with Bratislava, and the idea of having to do it all over again with a completely different group of students was a little stressful. And at this point in the summer all of our immune systems were slowly shutting down, so we were all feeling a little sick. But, we knew we had to do it, so we rallied as best as we could.

Now, I'd love to say that this camp was a breeze for us, but in reality it was the most difficult camp we had all summer. I've never experienced the amount of spiritual warfare that we encountered during this week, especially on the day that we were going to present the Gospel. However, we definitely saw God move more in this camp than any other time this summer. We were completely honored and humbled to be a part of this camp, and especially to work with this Slovak team. They were phenomenal all week, and I know that I have made some true friends from among them.

As always, here are some pics from the Levice KECY:

Here we are teaching the camp dance on the first night:

And here are the students learning it... It was awesome how excited they were to do it! Sometimes we just get blank stares, so it's always nice when students WANT to learn it.

This is Laci and Edita. They were our camp leaders this week, and they are officially 2 of my most favorite people in this country:

Some tug-of-war action during activity time. Here are the girls kicking butt! They killed the guys, but the guys were also drastically outnumbered:

Us with all the girls on the Levice camp team. These girls are all so amazing, not to mention gorgeous:

A picture of all of us at camp... Check out those sweet carpets!

Some BA KECY pics...

2008-08-13T18:45:00.003+02:00

These are a little late, but I still wanted to share them with you. Here are some of my favorite pics from the Bratislava Kecy...

A pic of me and the new sis... It was soooo good to have her back on this side of the ocean:

This was Will and I's English class. It was pretty much the best class ever. But you can see that from the pic:

Gotta love all the blindfold games at camp. Here Will decided to make it a little more interesting, so he danced while having no idea what the heck was going on around him. I LOVE that Sarah captured it:

Sarah and I figured we'd give cheerleading jumps a go at the top of the mountain:

Janka, Paja, myself, and Noemi on the hike. Noemi and I made the time go by quicker by retelling fairy tales with our own spin on them. My favorites included one of the 3 little pigs having ninja skills and Little Red Riding Hood dating the Big Bad Wolf.

A pic of one of our night programs:

Our whole camp... all 106 of us:

Striking my favorite pose with students back in BA after camp:

Our intern team with the Kriska family... my home away from home:

I need to give some extra thank yous to Nina and Will for providing me with a few of these shots. So, uh... Thanks!

THANK YOU SARAH!!!

2008-08-13T18:35:00.002+02:00

I just realized as I was working on my most recent post, that I haven't given credit where credit is due. You should know that I have barely taken a single picture this summer. The majority of all the pics you see on here from the summer are straight from the camera of one fabulous little lady named Sarah Kean. However, I did take this one... Yay for being a cheesy tourist!!!

SO excited!

2008-07-25T08:47:00.003+02:00

We just finished up camp with Bratislava a few days ago, and it was so great. I don't even know how to communicate the excitement that I have for what God has in store for this Fall, but if I could put it in a picture it might look like this. Really, I feel ridiculously blessed by what God is doing in this city, and I am completely humbled at the thought that He wants me to be small part of it.

Game time!

2008-07-11T12:00:00.004+02:00

This was the first time Roznava did Kecy camp, so our intern team took more of a behind the scenes role to make sure that logistically things went well at camp. This meant none of us were actually part of English classes or activity groups, and instead we helped prepare and run all the initiatives and games/activities. It was a bummer that we weren't available to be as relational with the students as usual, but I really loved walking alongside this Roznava team and getting to spend more time with them.

And, let's just be honest, I also loved sitting back and being entertained by everyone else participating in these hilarious games that we set up. Here are some pics from this time at camp:

However, we did not get by without being pulled into one of the activities, which was so cleverly called "push the trabant." It involved each activity team pushing our camp leader's trabant (which is small European car) as far as they could on a grassy hill in 1 minute. After each team went, we got heckled into doing it also. I wasn't laughing as hard after we did it...

Here we are in the process of pushing the crap out of that trabant. Right as we started the song "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz came on... it was perfect.

Post push we all immediately passed out. It was a lot harder than we expected!

Roznava Camp

2008-07-11T10:44:00.002+02:00

Camp with Roznava was so great. However, we dealt with a lot of spiritual warfare leading up to the camp. Rumors spread that the Roznava camp was a cult, so many students dropped out of camp from fear, but in the end we had a group of 12, and we knew they were exactly who the Lord wanted there. About half way through the camp the students that did come began to realize that we weren't trying to manipulate them into anything, but that all we wanted to do was show them love and to communicate what we believe to be true about Jesus Christ. From that point on the walls fell down and we became one group, not two. And by the time camp was over, no one wanted to leave, and students were already trying to reserve their spots for next year! Quite the transformation from day one.

Host City Visits...

2008-06-27T20:51:00.005+02:00

Over the past 3 weeks my team and I have traveled to 3 different cities in Slovakia to help their teams prepare for camp and to promote camps in the high schools. I have completely loved this time, because ultimately building relationships is what I am passionate about. So, it has been a joy to get to know these different youth groups and to encourage them during this process of getting ready for Kecy Camps.

The first city we went to was Roznava, which is a city closer to the eastern side of Slovakia. The team here was so amazing, and I have truly never felt more welcome, both in Slovakia or in the States. During our time there, the camp leader and his family took us to see a palace that had the most beautiful grounds I've ever seen. Here is a pic of Robby (my co-leader) with Rudo (the camp leader) and his 2 year old, Ema:

Next we were in Bratislava, my home city. It was so great to be home after being gone for close to 3 weeks, and I was excited for the interns to get to know the people in my life here. We didn't do as many high school visits as we did in Roznava, so most of our time was spent just hanging out with the team and other youth that went to camp last summer.

Leila, Sarah, and I with Barca and Marica:

Our final visit was in Levice, and we had such a great time with this team. But dang, they worked us to the core! We taught a total of about 15 to 20 full English classes in the high schools (which is how we promote camp), went on an 8 hour hike Saturday, and then on Sunday we attended the church's family day which was filled with sports. We were exhausted by the end of this visit! But we also left with a huge love for this team, and a ton of excitement to do camp with them.

These are some girls we met in the high schools who came to hang out with us one afternoon:

The peak of our hike:

A 13th century chapel we stopped at along our hike:

One funny thing about our intern team is that all three of these cities are in very different parts of Slovakia. So, we've spent A LOT of time on trains, so we've actually already looped the country twice... and we haven't even started camps yet! SO, tomorrow we actually leave to start our first term of camp with Roznava, and therefore begin our next loop. Woot woot! Thank goodness Slovakia is so beautiful!

Intern Training

2008-06-27T20:27:00.004+02:00

Intern training is always one of my favorite times during the year. It's so fun to be around all of my friends from the other JV countries, along with all of these college students from the States who are eager to serve in Eastern Europe. This year was great as always, and especially intense for me. The Lord really spoke to me through friends and spiritual teaching, and it was clear that He was pursuing me to really face head on some issues in my own life.

One other amazing thing from intern training was a new game that Sarah and I made up. Well, I don't know if you can really call it a game, but you can call it fun! (insert cheesy laughter) All you have to do is try to do your best cheerleading jump. Awesome! And this fab game did not just stay between Sarah and myself, oh no, it spread amongst the whole training...

Sarah showing us how it's done:

Brittney shocking us with her skills:

Chris casually dominated all of us:

Jay continued to prove to me that I had no ups at all:

Us getting one last jump in before parting ways for the summer:

And we couldn't resist a pyramid:

Amazing Race

2008-06-27T20:10:00.004+02:00

So as you know I was a little anxious about the race this year, but it ended up being a bunch of fun. My interns were just as chill as I was about it, so we ended up taking it easy... and by taking it easy, I mean that we even took 4 hours to just sightsee in Prague. Yeah... we were that group. Later on in the race we met up with another Slovakia team and a Czech team, and with our powers combined we became TEAM CZECHOSLOVAKIA!!!! Here are some pics from the race:

Here are me and my interns, Leila and Sarah, enjoying Prague:

Here Team Czechoslovakia is trekking through some random Czech city to yet another train... I'm hiding behind the guy in obscenely short shorts.

The race this year centered around taking millions of trains to random destinations. Well, clearly not million... but a lot. On this train there were no open seats, so we had to sit in the aisle. Literally.

A busy June....

2008-06-27T20:03:00.004+02:00

Ok, so a lot has happened over the past month, so I'm going to try to fill you in as quickly as possible with (hopefully) a visual feast for the eyes! Here we go... (And this pic is just a taste of what's to come... get excited!)

It's that time again...

2008-05-23T11:18:00.000+02:00

So, this coming Wednesday our summer interns arrive. Very exciting! But this also means that in just a few days we start the JV Intern Race. For those of you who don't know, it's basically our own version of that show, the Amazing Race, where we have each JV intern team travel across Czech doing different challenges and what not until they reach the final destination, Malenovice, where intern training is. That was probably a run on sentence.

Anyhow, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Intern Race. You see, 2 years ago, when I was an intern, I had to go through this, and lets just say I was the only one of all 50 or so people that cried during the race. Yep, I was that girl. The tears culminated after one unreadable astronomical clock, a twisted foot, us getting extremely lost, more walking than should be humane (on my twisted foot), a meal of grotesque cheese and onions, and me slipping down a muddy bank. Falling down in the mud is what pushed me over the edge... I was just done after that. And what is amazing is that I have my little breakdown caught in photos, thanks to the paparazzi, also known as Gavin Desnoyers.

Pre-Fall: Laughing it up with Amy

The Fall: Just before I had literally said, "I'm probably going to fall down this, and when that happens, I'm probably going to cry..."

Post-Fall: We had to raft down this river. If you look, you can totally see that I'm crying. Classic.

Earlier I wrote that I had a love/hate relationship because although I desperately hated being lost, and my feet felt like they should be amputated, I arguably laughed more during these 3 days than any other time in my life. So, I'm really hoping that this year I have all the laughs, minus the throbbing pain in my feet and the lame tears.

Oh, and just so you know, 2 years ago my team came in dead last by hours. Impressed? You should be.

Timing...

2008-05-16T15:45:00.004+02:00

As I continue to live over here in SK, I'm becoming more and more aware of the fact that God really does have perfect timing.

Many of you know that these past 15 months have fallen very far from what my expectations of this life would be. For example, the day I moved to SK my closest friend here, Amy, told me that she would be moving back to the States in just 6 weeks. Shocker to say the least. And since then the hits have just kept coming. The most recent being the departure of Paige. Paige was not only a dear friend for me, but she was my support system, my family here in Slovakia.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to get into a sob story here. I actually want to communicate how amazing God has been throughout it all. I have been broken over here, broken and left to get completely real with God. And it has been phenomenal. I wouldn't change any of it. I've learned that no matter what happens, God will always fill what my true needs are, and that is something I pray that I never forget.

-------------------------------------

A couple weeks ago we had the Josiah Venture Spring Conference. It was a week after Paige had left, and it proved to be exactly what I needed. At the conference I was able to connect with the other single females serving throughout Eastern Europe, which was such a great reminder that I am in no way alone on this journey. I have an amazing community that God has given me, and even if it isn't in my city or country, it is there. And it is very good.

My JV Family

Some of my girls: (L to R)
Leah (Czech), Brittney (Ukraine), Jaycee (Latvia), Katka (Czech), Me, DU (Romania)

It's a must...

2008-05-16T15:42:00.003+02:00

Well, it's safe to say that somebody - me - has been a little slack on their blog. Actually, I'll be surprised to know if anyone is still reading this thing. BUT, for those of you who are, you'll be glad to know that I am determined to revive this thing! I must bring new life to LT in SK!!! So, here we go...

A little late, I realize...

2008-01-21T16:31:00.000+01:00

So, I went to Paris for Christmas with, of course, my dear friend Katka, and life got too crazy for me to ever post anything about it. So in a few bullets I'll sum up our trip:

- It was great fun, but we both agreed going to Paris in warm weather would have been better. There are so many things to enjoy outside, and when you are freezing your butt off you don't get to enjoy them as much.

- The area of Montmartre was by far our favorite.

- The subway system there is amazing and makes getting around Paris extremely easy.

- Lemon tarts (or torts, whatever) are super tasty.

- Paris is freaking expensive.

- Beware of sketchy Frenchmen... they want kisses. Seriously. We got accosted twice. Gross.

Alright, now I'll leave you with a few pics from our time there. Actually, I'm just leaving you with a little montage we made when we were at the Louvre with the Mona Lisa. We took too many pics for me to weed through them all, so I figured I'd just leave you with ones that make me laugh. Because, as a guy I went to high school with said, "Laughter is the best medicine. Unless you are a diabetic, then it's insulin."

The lovely Katka:

I'm pretty sure if Davinci was living today that I'd be his muse...

What? This smile isn't mysterious enough? Fine.

2007-12-04T12:22:00.000+01:00

Today I received a text message from my old Slovak tutor in Zilina. It read:

Hi, I just wanted to tell you that there was a research of almost 8000 languages in Berlin. The easiest was Spanish and the most difficult Slovak.

You can imagine my joy/despair from reading this! I felt joy because of the validation it gave me: "I'm not crazy, this language is freaking hard!!!" But I also felt despair: "Great. I'm trying to learn the hardest language ever. Yeah. That's going to happen."

Anyways, upon further research I found this:

On September 27th a linguistic consortium in Paris has come up with following results:

the easiest languages to learn:

10. mongolese

09. aramaic

08. greek

07. norwegian

06. italian

05. romanian

04. croatian

03. bulgarian

02. english

01. the easiest language in the world spoken by more than 300 million people is spanish

the most difficult languages: (linguists examined complexity of grammar, syntax, historical development, pronunciation, orthography, letter styles, signs, etc.)

10. german

09. french

08. chinese

07. japanese

06. korean

05. persian

04. arabic

03. finnish

02. hungarian

01. the most difficult language is Slovak

The most difficult is grammar structure. Slovak language is the only one with seven grammar cases (nominativ, genitiv, dativ, accusativ, local, instrumental, vocativ), exquisite words, soft and hard "i", declension of adjectives and verbs, in other words almost each and every word in this language is being declinated. There are many other characteristics which are not found in other world languages. It is said, or estimated, that it takes about 12 years to learn it completely, but the linguists say, that there is no one on this earth who can speak this language perfectly knowing all the grammar rules.

So, this new nugget of information comes to me at the perfect time. Today I start studying Slovak again. I've been on a break for the past few weeks due to moving, but tonight it all begins again.

Bring.
It.
On.

My first JV Thanksgiving

2007-11-27T13:04:00.000+01:00

Why, you ask, do I have a photo of the Pirate's of the Caribbean in my Thanksgiving post? Well, I'll tell you. Our annual JV Thanksgiving conference is our most relaxed conference all year. It's mostly about fellowship and food and "family," with a few sessions of Biblical teaching mixed in. One of the activities we all take part in during this conference is the "Family Frenzy" time. This is an allotted time when there are lots of different games, sports and activities for us to sign up for and enjoy. Well, Katka (Yes, the same one who helped me move, and who is in the senior photo shoot. I know, we spend a lot of time together.) and I decided we wanted to find something low key so we could just chill during that time, and, sure enough, there was a puzzle to work on. Perfect. Or so we thought.

Above is the puzzle we took on with our bare hands that fateful day of the 23rd of November 2007. I'll tell you what. All that green mess = impossible. I became slightly obsessed once we began the project and found that it stole many minutes of my life away from me this past week. And I say stole because, you guessed it, it was never finished. NEVER FINISHED!!! You might as well tell me my dog died, because an unfinished puzzle sucks just as bad. Okay, maybe not just as bad, but it's not fun.

Besides the unfinished puzzle, the retreat was great. And so was the FOOD! Before we started eating on Thanksgiving day I started to get a little sad, not just because I was missing family, but also because I was missing good Southern cooking. You see, in JV, Southerners are a minority. In fact, besides my friend Brittany who is heading to Ukraine, I think Slovakia is the only JV country that has any Southerners! Such a shame! So as I sat there preparing myself for the feast, I started to miss 2 things that I know I would have gotten at home: sweet tea and cornbread dressing. Well, the sweet tea was unavailable, but my amazing teammate, Kim (from Arkansas), filled my need for cornbread dressing. She had made one and it just wasn't out on the table yet. And it was glorious. I don't know if many of you know the joys of a good cornbread dressing, but I know my brother does, and I hope he is delighted when reading this.

The Move

2007-11-14T12:59:00.000+01:00

Clearly lots of things have happened since I last wrote on here, but I will simplify it greatly for two reasons:

1) I don’t want to bore you with tons of details.
2) I don’t want to bore myself with having to write those details.

So, here we go. Most of my October was spent trying to find a place to live in Bratislava, and, after finding one, the beginning of November was spent trying to find a way to move my junk there. And this past Saturday it finally happened! I moved my butt to Bratislava!

Here’s a little recap of how the day went:

6:00 am – Woke up to a bunch of snow in Zilina. Great. Snow + Moving = Gross
9:00 am – A few friends came over to help move stuff out.
10:30 am – We are already done, and (by the grace of God!) all my junk fit in the Kompas van and Mike’s car. Woot woot!
11:30 am – On the road to BA.
1:30 pm – Arrive in BA and begin moving my stuff up 4 floors, with no elevator. And what really sucks is that the building has an elevator, but you have to have a special key for it to work. Well, we don’t have a key, and it seems all of my neighbors decided to leave town the day I arrive with 2 car loads of heavy stuff. Thanks for the warm welcome guys.
3:00 pm – Finished moving in!!
3:30 pm – Katka comes up with the amazing idea to hit up Ikea since we have the van until the next morning, and there are lots of things my roommate and I need get soon.
4:30 pm – Arrive at Ikea. I could spend days there.
7:00 pm – Arrive back at my place with 6 heavy boxes and no guys to help us carry it up. However, after circling the block for 20 minutes, we have to stop in the middle of the road (with 3 cars waiting behind us) and “quickly” remove all boxes from the van and onto the side walk.
7:30 pm – Katka and I stare at what we have to carry up 4 flights and wonder what the heck we were thinking.
7:35 pm – All of my neighbors are still mysteriously missing/ignoring our knocking on their doors, so, yet again, no elevator for us. Curses!
8:00 pm – After 3 boxes I literally think I’m going to pass out. This is when a single girl wishes she had a husband to take care of the heavy lifting. We decide to open up the rest of the 3 boxes and carry the pieces up individually.
8:30 pm – With one box left I try to persuade Katka to just leave it down there and we will get it in the morning. Thankfully she smacks some sense into me. It wouldn’t be fun to only have half the pieces to my new bureau.
8:45 pm – We are finally done. We quickly get into our pj’s and reward ourselves for this impressively productive day with last week’s Grey’s Anatomy.

8:00 am – We both wake up feeling every muscle in our body ache.

Here are some pics from the day:

What I woke up to:

Friends that came to help. I was pretty excited everything fit in two cars.

All my stuff.

The four flights of stairs.

My new building. I promise I wasn't lying about being on the fourth floor, you just can't see it here.

The park across the street from my place.

A view from inside the park.

Ok, well I hope this was a sufficient update on my move. On another note, I haven't had internet at home for 5 weeks now, which is extremely inconvenient. I'm kind of going crazy. That's another reason for my lack of posts lately. Yep, I'm still giving you excuses, but this one is pretty valid. I'm hoping it'll get set up here on Friday. We'll see.

A real one is coming soon...

2007-11-13T14:14:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I promise a new blog is coming soon! I just moved to Bratislava, so things have been a little crazy and I don't have internet yet, but I'll get one ready this week. I PROMISE!!! (don't hate me for sucking at this!)

Fall Conference Pics

2007-10-04T18:50:00.000+02:00

I don't really feel like writing today, but I feel obligated to give you some sort of treat since it has been a while since my last post. So, here are some pictures taken while at our JV Fall conference a couple of weeks ago:

This is a picture of the team I work with in Slovakia. The back row is (from L to R): Peto M., Zac, Peto H., and Kenric. The front row is: Draho, Paige, Me, and Miska.

Here is our team photo shoot gone awkward. Um, Kenric, you're a little too close for comfort.

Now these next set of photos could quite possibly blow your mind. They, in fact, are nothing short of AMAZING.

And to clarify, yes, we were going for the "cheezy-senior year-BFF" photo shoot. But I guess instead it should be considered the "cheezy-JV Fall Conference-BFF" photo shoot. The models other than myself are Brittney Boatman (soon to be serving in Ukraine) and Katka Vlnova (serving in Czech). They are my some of my favies.

Who knew I had the secret power to turn into a bunny?

This one actually turned out kinda cute, minus Brittney's "am I really doing this right now?" face.

My personal fave. Seriously, Katka's outstretched "look at me, I'm flying!" arms make me laugh EVERY time.

Oh the beautiful scenery. And the mountains are kinda pretty too. A wink!

NOTE: I realize I seriously overused quotation marks in this post. Please forgive me. But some things just can't be summed up in one word.

Is there such a thing as Autumn Fever?

2007-09-25T16:45:00.000+02:00

Seriously, this is a problem.

Autumn is my favorite time of year, and it is in full effect here in SK. Really, it's quite lovely. But with it being so lovely comes the issue of me losing all motivation to be productive. As I was sitting in language today I just looked at my tutor and said, "I don't want to learn anymore." Thankfully, she assumed I was joking and just laughed, but sadly I wasn't joking.

Ugh. I need help.

Wait... This isn't Disney World?

2007-09-09T13:56:00.001+02:00

While Steph was here visiting, we had the chance to visit a castle here in Bojnice. There are tons of castles throughout Slovakia, but most of them are just ruins. This one has been restored, so I was pretty excited to check it out. We didn't have a ton of time to hang out there, due to the fact we had caught a ride with Paige who had business there. Initially we thought we'd just walk around the grounds and appreciate the beauty from there, but we soon changed our mind when we saw people coming from inside the castle. We thought, we're here, so we might as well check it out.

So, we quickly go up to the ticket window, get ourselves 2 tickets, and start heading inside. Until we look around and see there isn't a clear entrance. I go back up to the window to ask where the tickets permit us to go, when I find out its actually for a tour. "Ok, great!" I say, turn around to go tell Steph, and then I realize it. The tour will be in Slovak of course.

Now, I don't know exactly what I was thinking when I bought those tickets. As if we could just skip around this huge castle, or that the tour would be in English. I think that part of me forgot I was in Slovakia since Steph was with me. And it probably didn't help that Steph kept saying at random points (and especially when we were in Prague), "I feel like this place isn't real, like we are in the international part of Disney World or something!" That made me laugh every time.

So, I go back to the window and ask if they have any English material to go with the tour. Thankfully they did. I go back and tell Steph the news, we share a good laugh, and then we head with the rest of the people for the tour.

Now, what happened next is a good picture of what life is like for me here most of the time.

As we head into the first room of the castle, Steph and I try to hug the back of the group in hopes that we won't stand out, since we'll be reading a little brochure instead of listening to the tour. So, as the tour guide starts talking, Steph and I start reading about the room. Well, after a few moments I look up to see that everyone else in the room has turned around to look at something right above our heads... while we are still just standing there reading our little handout. I try to slowly, and hopefully somewhat inconspicuously, turn around as if I knew what was going on, but it was too late. We had already been outed as foreigners, and I couldn't stop laughing at how absurd we looked.

And such is everyday life for me here in SK. I try so hard to just blend in, but then something happens which everyone else understands, and I'm stuck looking in the wrong direction. I can't do anything but laugh when this happens. Sometimes I cry, but, thankfully, most times I just laugh.

My First Visitor...

2007-09-07T15:55:00.000+02:00

One of the many reasons I have not posted anything in these past few weeks is due to a visit from my friend Steph. Steph and I have been friends since my freshman year at USC, and lived together our junior and senior years with a few other amazing women. Needless to say, she is one of my closest and dearest friends, and I was thrilled to have her visit.

Another reason I was so excited to have her visit was that I was ready for my two worlds to collide. Over the past couple years, and even more so in the past 6 months, I have come to feel like I live 2 different lives. There is my American life and my Slovak life. And it is so difficult to describe in words to people from home what my Slovak life is like. So, unfortunately, more often than not, I don't even try. But with Steph coming, I was going to be able to let someone experience it with me, and that was something that I was really looking forward to.

Steph came to Slovakia after spending 6 weeks in Africa with Young Life. (NOTE: When she arrived at the airport in Vienna, we recreated the cliché airport scene from any classic cheesy movie. I was running late, so I rushed into the waiting area searching for her. I hear her call my name, run up to her, and we collapse in each other's arms crying. Yep. We were totally those girls. I'm getting more embarrassed as I write this. Moving on.) Over the next 10 days we did some fun traveling, a little shopping, and enjoyed some really great meals. However, all of it paled in comparison to the endless conversations we had about what our lives should look like as Christians, how to live a simpler life, and what it means to be fully surrendered to God. Steph had learned and experienced so much during her time in Africa and I was blessed to be able to debrief that time with her. If nothing else comes from her trip, she should at least know that I am changed for the better.

Here is a pic of Steph and I pretending to be normal:

This is more like it:

And here is a retro pic for kicks… We were attending an “Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.” So, no. That’s not how we normally dressed in college. Come on people, you should know better.

So I lied...

2007-09-06T10:52:00.000+02:00

Yeah, so I guess I lied when I promised it wouldn't be another month before my next post. Sorry about that.

Camp Time!

2007-08-07T09:46:00.000+02:00

So I realize it has been over a month since my last post, but for goodness sake people, July was just too busy to stop and blog! The first two weeks were filled with helping plan our pre-camp training days for our camp teams, as well as traveling to Bratislava twice. On the 16th the American team from Shandon arrived, and then began the whirlwind of camp! Everyone had training in Zilina for a couple of days, English camp for a week, and, afterwards, a few days of follow up in Bratislava.

Camp this year was so great, but so different from any I had been involved with in the past. Why, you ask? Well, it's because this year a virus managed to pull a sneak attack on our camp site. At first it was just the camp director's son and one other guy, but by the end of the week I'd say almost half of the camp was plagued with some form of it. Including yours truly. That's right, I got myself a nice little virus. And by little, I mean it took me a week to finally get over. Lovely. So, as you can imagine, camp had a bit of a different vibe this year. It was much more laid back than usual. But, amidst all the sickness, God totally moved, and I am really excited to see what comes of the seeds that were planted.

Here are some pictures from camp. I managed to not take a single picture all week, so I stole these from some of the people who came on the Shandon team. I know, I'm a missionary and I shouldn't steal... sorry!

This is me teaching the camp teams our camp dance. Yes. You read correctly. I taught them all a dance. I've got all kinds of tricks up my sleeve that yall don't even know about! And that's Lenka with me. I promise she actually enjoyed doing this with me... even though this picture might seem otherwise.

I helped create a team building activity for American and Slovak camp teams to do together at training. It was something like a picture scavenger hunt around the city. One of the tasks was for their team to all get into some sort of water. They are in a fountain on the lower square in Zilina, and if you can't tell, Mato isn't so shy.

This is Lenka, Jarka, and Liba. Lenka was our camp leader, and she was actually my translator for my very fist camp in Slovakia. All three of these girls rock my face off.

Look at that fierce card playing face. No wonder I always dominate in these games.

Everyone doing the camp dance.

They are giving you their best American smile. Look at all those theeth!

Alright, that's all I got for now. But I promise it won't be another month before my next blog!!

Slovak for Laura...

2007-07-02T23:39:00.000+02:00

As you all know, I am trying to learn Slovak. In fact, this is a picture of my Slovak text book. Isn't it all nice and colorful? Yes. I think so too. And, like most textbooks (at least the ones I remember from high school), all the pictures inside are extremely outdated. I don't mind though, because they sometimes provide me with entertainment when I'm supposed to be studying. You've got to love that sweet 90's fashion... tapered jeans for everyone!!!

Anyhow, this language is extremely difficult. Well, at least for me it is. I never thought I had a natural tallent for languages, but then again this is the first language I've REALLY tried to learn (I was a bit of a slacker when it came to Latin and Spanish). And it's quite demoralizing to accept that I sound like a 2 year old most of the time. But, such is life when you move to a different culture.

So, the other day I was having lunch at my friend Zuzka's house. She is married to one of my teammates, Draho, and they have 3 little kids. While I was there I started playing with their oldest son, Oliver. Oli is 4 years old, and he actually attends an English pre-school. So, he and I had a nice little communication thing going on. He understood most of my English, and I understood most of his Slovak (considering he's 4 and uses basic words... but hey, that's something). While we were playing, he decided he wanted me to read to him, and brought me a Slovak children's book. However, this was no See Spot Run. This was like a mini novel. With long paragraphs and what not. I was intimidated. But, the kid wanted me to read, and I didn't want to disappoint. So I started reading... or should I say stumbling... through the first sentence. When I finished trudging through that first line, I turned to look at Oli. He had his hand on his forehead and was shaking his head. That's right, my Slovak totally got judged by a 4 year old. Impressive, huh?

And, no. He didn't have me read any more of the book.

Tour de Slovakia...

2007-06-30T09:41:00.001+02:00

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...

2007-06-24T11:19:00.000+02:00

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...

2007-06-11T15:07:00.000+02:00

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.

My 3 Month Battle...

2007-05-18T12:27:00.000+02:00

Every Tuesday at 9:00 we start our weekly staff meetings. This past Tuesday we spent the first hour sharing what God was doing in our lives. As I sat listening to everyone else, I was secretly praying that I would make it through the hour without having to share. I was hoping that if I was quiet and looked really engaged, that nobody would notice I hadn't shared. I looked down at my phone and saw it was 9:45. "Yes, we are almost through, " I thought, "I'm going to make it...." But then my boss, Peto, turned right toward me and asked if I had anything to share.

Dang it.

With everybody's eyes on me I immediately started crying. And it wasn't that sweet cry that you can still talk through, it was the ugly cry. The one where your face makes this weird contortion you never knew it could, and you've lost all hope of forming coherent sentences. And once I started, I had no idea how to make it stop. I managed to stumble through the basic ideas of "I really miss home" and "I'm having a hard time right now," but after that Paige had to start communicating for me.

Once I gained some composure, I excused myself and went to the bathroom in hopes of splashing some cold water on my face. But instead the ugly cry reared its head again. For 30 minutes I stood there. Just crying. Aching to go home, to be with friends and family that really knew me. Where I could go shopping and actually be able to confidently ask for help if I couldn't find something. Where I can walk down the street and smile at a stranger, and actually get a smile in return. Where church is more than just a language lesson. Where I am comfortable.

Everyone says around 3 months is the hardest time - in the area of home sickness and culture shock - and they were so right. Each day seems to be a battle. A battle between staying in bed, or rising to face the day ahead of me. Between running away and hiding, or pushing through the tears with the hope that this will pass. Each day I have to remind myself that God hasn't called me to live a life of comfort. That God has called me to a life in Slovakia. And that my God wants nothing but good things for me. So even though right now this is painful, it is good. And that is what is getting me through this battle right now.

My apologies...

2007-05-18T11:39:00.000+02:00

When starting this blog, I had really hoped to update it often... at least once a week. But then life gets going, and I find myself prefering to do something mindless in my free time than this. So I apologize for my failure to keep you properly updated.

Our Mountain Top Experience...

2007-04-24T17:04:00.000+02:00

The other weekend Paige, Stani, and I decided to take a little day trip. The weather had started to get really warm here, so we figured we would head to the top of a nearby mountain before all the snow melted. So we put on our hiking boots, filled up our nalgenes, and headed out the door. Just kidding. We actually just hopped in the car, drove about 30 minutes, and then took the enclosed ski lift up to the top.

Man was it beautiful. It was extremely beautiful... but it was also still extremely covered with snow and skiers. I mean, it was packed. And there we were in our tennis shoes, light jackets, and with 2 dogs (that's right, we brought both of Paige's dogs, Windsor and India, up to the top of a mountain with us). We stuck out like soar thumbs. So, we awkwardly stood there for a few moments until we noticed a small patch of ground that wasn't covered in snow, trudged over to it, and looked up to see this amazing view.

Well, after a few minutes of taking in the beautiful sight, we started to realize how ridiculously cold it was. And, let me remind you, we were only in light jackets and tennis shoes. But who gets all the way to the top of a mountain just to turn around and go back down? Well, we do. We stayed up there for about 20 minutes trying to enjoy our mountain top experience, but finally had to accept the reality that we were just not enjoying ourselves. So, what we thought was going to be a day trip, ended up being about a 2 hour trip. Oh well.

Here is a pic showing how spring has sprung here. This is about 20 steps from the door of my apartment building. Yay for pretty flowers! They make all the gray communistic buildings not look so bad.

More KPM Pics...

2007-04-03T17:43:00.000+02:00

Here are some pictures from the actual conference. You can see part of the fabulous fruit display I did in the middle picture. I'm so humble.

KPM

2007-03-27T15:34:00.000+02:00

Two weekends ago my team hosted KPM here in Zilina. KPM is an annual conference held for all the youth workers across Slovakia, and this year close to 600 people attended. I had little involvement with the production of this conference (In fact, all I really did was arrange a fruit display on the stage, but it was the most compelling fruit display anyone has ever seen!! Or at least that's what I keep telling myself...) so instead I was able to attend and enjoy all the hard work my team had done.

In fact, there was a whole group of us that attended the conference together: me, Paige, Amy, Bekah, Zuzka (my roommate), Stani (Paige's roommate), and a couple other girls that Paige had taught at the university. We also had two girls from Arkansas, Laura and Hannah, who flew in to experience KPM and have a chance to spend time with Paige's university girls. From the Thursday that KPM began, until the Monday after it ended, we all spent every meal and evening together. We had a great time attending the sessions, playing games, cooking meals... all in fellowship with one another. It was a good time.

Here is a picture of some of us from that weekend.

Top row, left to right: Laura, me, Janka, Evka, Paige, Stani. Bottom row, left to right: Hannah, Amy, Zuzka

Who knew TROUTMAN would be so hard to understand...

2007-03-24T11:13:00.000+01:00

In Slovakia it is custom to put -ova at the end of a woman's last name. For example, Mr. Smith's wife would be Mrs. Smithova. Except that you would never, ever meet a Smith over here... that is unless they were American of course.

Well, anyhow, in the month that I have been here - that's right, it's been a month - I have learned that my last name causes some problems over here. And by problems, I mean that most people don't spell it right. I don't mind you putting -ova at the end of my name. I completely understand that. I don't want people thinking I'm a dude either, especially since there are so many male Laura's out there. All I ask is that when I am spelling out my name for you, you pay attention and write it down correctly. Is that too much to ask? I think not.

And the adventures begin...

2007-03-18T08:40:00.000+01:00

Last weekend my friend Bekah and I decided to take a little trip to Bratislava to check out the IKEA there. We took a train from Zilina that morning, then once arriving in BA we hopped a bus to IKEA. All smooth sailing. No bumps along the way. We were totally in control of our destiny.

After a couple hours of perusing, we got our stuff together and headed back to the bus stop. Our bus, bus #64, was scheduled to arrive at 2:45, so we got there at 2:30 just to be sure we didn't miss it. Well, 20 minutes went by and there was no bus. We start to stress. You see, our train was leaving at 3:32, and we still needed to buy a ticket, so time was precious at this moment. Finally, we see bus #64 crossing over the bridge and coming right for us. We gathered our stuff together and are ready to get on...

But the bus sped right past us.

You've got to be kidding me. This is where I start to freak out inside. As many of you know, I am quite high strung when it comes to traveling. I like to be totally aware of what is going on, where I am going, what I need to do to get there... Well, you get the picture. And, yeah, I know. I probably shouldn't have moved to a foreign country if I wanted to avoid such stress. Get off me.
Well, at 3:10 our bus shows up. If I knew any Slovak I might have had a few words for our driver, but since I don't I just had sit down and pout. And at this point we had bigger issues. We were about to miss our train. The whole ride Bekah and I can't decide if we are going to make a run for it or not, but at 3:30 we arrived at the station and had to make the decision. So we run for it.
We got to the ticket counter, bought our ticket quickly, sprinted to the right platform, and jumped on our train. VICTORY!! We made it!! Yay!! The train pulls away seconds after we got on, and then reality hit us...

We got on the wrong train.

Well, at least we were pretty sure it was the wrong one. But, we figured we would just ask someone else on the train where they were going and see....

There was no one else on the train. Not one.

Crap. Crap, crap, crap. Where the heck are we going and WHY ARE WE THE ONLY PEOPLE ON THIS TRAIN??? After about 10 minutes of traveling the train stops. Thank goodness! We'll just get off, go into the station, get a new ticket, and be on our way to Zilina. Easy as that...

There was no station.

That's right. No station. We were stuck at the maintenance yard. Just me, Bekah, and about 15 middle-aged Slovak men wearing bright orange overalls. What have we gotten ourselves into? Well, we jumped off the train and started looking for someone to talk to. You'd probably think that these men would be curious as to why these 2 American girls are wandering around their workplace, but they acted as if it was the norm. I mean, come on. Give us a break.
Well, Bekah finally found someone to talk to, and with what Slovak she knows she explained what had happened to us. Of course I had no idea what was being said, so I just stood there like some kind of mute. Finally, once their exchange was over, she turned to me to share the information she has just learned...

We have to walk down the tracks to get back to the station.

But don't worry, its only a 25 minute walk. Right. Just 25 minutes of dodging trains while trying to avoid a sprained ankle from the oh-so-even terrain. Is this some joke? At this point I'm waiting for candid camera to jump out of the bushes. But no, its not a joke, so we started walking. Just after we made it up this little hill and passed by some creeptacular vagabond (that's right, I said vagabond. But we're talking about walking down train tracks people, when else would you use that word??), one of the men in orange jumpsuits came running after us.
After yet another exchange with this man, Bekah tells me we don't have to walk. He said if we sit on this train (motions left) in about 2 hours it will be going to the station, so we can just ride it back. Well, at this point we didn't know what option was better, walking down sketchy train tracks for 25 minutes or sitting at the sketchy maintenance station for 2 hours. Hmm, decisions. So, we finally decided to call my roommate Zuzka for a little help. After a brief explanation of what we had gotten ourselves into, Bekah set out to find another orange overall man that Zuzka can talk to. Who knows why we didn't do this earlier?
In the end, we ended up riding back to the station - FIRST CLASS BABY- on a different train, which left in 30 minutes instead of 2 hours. Thankfully, we made it in time to catch a 5:12 train, and at 7:40 we arrived safely in Zilina... quite exhausted and scarred from traveling on trains, but safe none-the-less. Oh the adventures of living in a foreign country. Bring it on, Slovakia, bring it on.

When in Rome...

2007-03-09T10:11:00.000+01:00

Of all the places in the world, Rome was the one place I knew I had to visit before I died. It probably has something to do with my love of art history, or the fact that I just wanted to be able to say, "when in Rome..., " but whatever the reason, I have been eager to get there for many years. Last week this dream came true.

As many of you know, I moved to Slovakia just a couple weeks ago. And, conveniently enough, I managed to arrive just 5 days before Josiah Venture's annual Women's Conference, which was... you guessed it... held in ROME this year!! (the above photo is a good example of my excitement about this) The timing of my arrival in Slovakia could not have been better. Not only would I be able to see Rome, but I had a chance to meet and spend time with 30 of JV's women, all who serve in Eastern Europe.

Our time there was fabulous, as I'm sure you can imagine, but the most memorable moment of the whole trip was the time we spent at the Colosseum. Andrea, one of the JV ladies from Czech, had encouraged us to join her there for a time of communion. She felt this would be a way to honor all the Christian martyrs who had lost their lives in that very stadium.

Now all of you reading this right now are probably thinking how special that experience could be, but I have to admit I was not thinking anything like that. I was actually trying to think of a way to avoid it all together. That's right. I'm a Christian, and a missionary, and I was trying to avoid having communion. However, I was not alone in this. My dear teammate Paige was with me (sorry to have outted you, Paige, but I can't be the only one getting judged right now). She and I could not imagine finding a place inside of the Colosseum that would allow for some privacy; a place that would not make us look like some sort of crazies. But, in the end, we stopped searching for the nearest exit and joined or JV sisters for communion.

After everyone arrived, Andrea shared a few words and then asked us to pair up and spread out around the Colosseum. Once paired up, we read aloud to each other Romans 4 and Hebrews 11. Immediately the Lord humbled me. Hebrews 11:36-40 says:

"Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."

Here I was in a place where Christians were mutilated for their faith, and all I was thinking about was how we were going to look weird.

After reading those verses, Andrea came over to Paige and I and served us communion. It was such a beautiful and powerful moment. Paige and I were totally in awe of how God so gently showed us how wrong we had been. Thank goodness for His grace.

This is a picture of all the JV ladies outside the Colosseum, post-communion.

This is a photo of all the women on my team in SK. From left to right it is Amanda, ME, Kim, Paige, and Amy. We were attempting to do something of a cheesy sorority picture, but it looks like only me, Paige, and Amy got that memo.

So I started a blog...

2007-03-09T09:47:00.000+01:00

As you can see, I have started a blog for all you people out there who are dying to know about my life here in Slovakia. Before I wasn't sure if I would venture into such a project, but the demand for one has been high. That's right, I've had AT LEAST 4 people ask me if I had one. So, here you have it. Enjoy.