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.

My 3 Month Battle...

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...

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...

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...

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.