My First Visitor...

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...

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

Camp Time!

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...

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...

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.