The past 2 weeks.. in a nutshell.

It has been a solid 2 weeks since my last post. It hurts my brain to think of all of the things that have happened.. and then try to break them down into things that might be substantial enough to share with you. I will try to cover all of my bases in this. So just bare with me, while I regurgitate the past 15 days.

life as a school promoter: So as I may have already covered, the first part of my time here was spent going into schools and promoting camp. Well we have 3 different host cities so that means 3 stints of quality school promotion time. As much fun as that was, I am so so so glad that it’s over. I have probably been in more Slovak high schools than American high schools. During our host city visits, we had 3 days that were used for school promotions. Meaning we started in the mornings at 8am in the schools.. and ended around lunch time. Going from class to class, usually doing several classes within a school period. But of the cities didn’t even make us go to schools all 3 days. But in our last city, we had 3 full days of schools. We had to split our team and do 2 schools at once with 2 Americans at each. And we had full class periods which meant that we essentially taught the class for 45 minutes. Yay for being an awkward American! As scary and intimidating as it was.. we found great success in all of our school visits in all 3 cities. It was a great experience and I even got a job offer to teach english.

life as a camper: Camps actually start in a few days. On Saturday we leave to go to Plejsy to train the American team coming from Arkansas and the Slovak team from Roznava. And not to mention all of the Slovak Intern Teams are training their first camp teams together. (So let me elaborate on this a little… The intern teams consist of 12 loud and outgoing people that are pumped about camp. All 3 intern teams are leading 3 camps at the same time, so each of the hosts cities camp teams consist of an average of about 8 or 9 Slovaks. And then each town has one team from America coming over to help with their camp, each American team consist of an average of about 9-10 jet-lagged Americans. We will all be together to do our camp training under one roof.) The interns will be given the responsibility of teaching the camp dance, which is awesome. I am really excited about camps starting, it will be so great to meet the kids and just see the change that can happen in a week. The second camp training starts on the 13th, the day before my 21st birthday! Then our last camp training starts on the 27th, the day before my dad’s birthday. This month is going to be pretty hectic since, we have training for 3 days, camp for 7 days, follow up for 2. We literally have a camp every 2 weeks. This might be when my blogging becomes super slack. I apologize in advance.

life with the Slovaks: It’s funny because I have learned to talk slower and articulate. I have also been trying to learn some slovak, so I am more understanding of people trying to speak my language… it’s hard. Not only is there language, but Slovaks are more athletic. Athletic and really competitive. In our 3rd and final host city, Levice, they wanted to take us on a “walk” through the mountains in Nitre (not sure if that’s correct spelling). Little did we know, that this walk was a 8 or 9 hour hike. We would seriously go up one mountain, go down, and then about an hour later up on the other one. They weren’t big mountains, but they weren’t hills either. Around the 7 hour mark, we all ran out of water. Definitely made it through, and I definitely wasn’t the last one to the car at the end either. I wasn’t last at all the entire hike. Which made me feel a lot better about myself and less like a lazy American. The next day was their church family day. During church we had translation through headphones… hilarious, but I didn’t get a picture, unfortunately. But at this family day, we were asked multiple times to participate in competitive volley-ball or soccer. Luckily we escaped both my taking a 1km walk to the river. My teammate, Sarah, and I got in the water fully dressed… and bonded with their youth group. Needless to say, Levice wore my intern team out.

life as a nomad: So apparently my team is the one that travels the most. Not the tourist kind, but the host city visit kind. We have honestly had extensive train time all across Slovakia. The best part about this is the view. Slovakia is known for their castles. Some that are in good condition and in the middle of a city, some that are run-down and in the middle of the city, some just on random cliffs in the Tetras Mountains, and then some that have been in movies. Not only are the castles beautiful, but the mountains and foothills are incredible, sometimes with sunsets that make me wish that my camera was a magical one that could capture the unmeasurable beauty. My pictures just don’t do them justice. This wasn’t a sunset or one of the absolute gorgeous castles, but it was a nice one on a really pretty day!

life as a tourist: So we are given the golden opportunity to have travel days. One to go to Budapest, a couple of days in Poland, and then a few days in Vienna before our plan flies out in August. The trip to Budapest was much anticipated. For good reason I believe, because I have always heard great things about the place. Our trip really began the night before when we looked at the weather forecast online. 102 by the heat index for Budapest, not a cloud in the sky. I know some of you are thinking, “no big deal, SC’s heat index is like 10 million degrees.” please realize, they don’t have air conditioning here. So we knew that Budapest was going to be roasting hot. Awesome! Also in order to achieve optimal tourism, we had to catch a train at 6am. I am not a morning person, so early things are always a challenge. Not to mention you wake up sweaty here, so there was no way I could think cooler thoughts with a tired brain. Our tickets ended up being almost 100 bucks for 1 ticket to Budapest, it was only a 3 hour train ride, this was a pretty ridiculous price considering public trains are the main method of transport here internationally. So we arrived and ran all over the city, taking pictures, and trying to soak it all in. Around 5:15 or so we made our way back to the train station to purchase our tickets back to Bratislava in Slovakia (where we are staying). Our train was supposed to depart at 7 so we planned to get our tickets and then enjoy a coffee and relax before the train. Instead our team leader went to go get our tickets and had to wait 45 minutes without moving a step in line. Apparently they only had 2 international ticket lines open, Budapest is a huge tourist city, there should have been more than 2 lines open. And not to mention the woman at the head of the line, was getting hand-written tickets, about 10 of them, for no obvious reason. So 45 minutes later, Laura (leader) gets to the desk where a Hungarian woman tries to tell her something in hungarian, and eventually the lines of communication were managed and we got our tickets about an hour later than expected. We then boarded our train, to depart at 7. It didn’t leave until 8 due to electrical problems later down the track. So at 8, we began our 2 hour ride completely exhausted. Then when we got into Austria, we had one minute to get from our platform to the next one over to catch our train to Bratislava. We didn’t make it. As we were running up the last 3 stairs the train was briskly making its way toward our beds, without us. So we found ourselves in this middle-of-nowhere train station in Austria, with a couple of young kids, and one old man, with his shirt off, just hanging out in the station. Our train would arrive in an hour. Awesome. We tried to lighten the mood by reading german signs with an enthusiastic accent. Then it started to pour.. It was a huge thunderstorm that managed to find us in Austria. By 11, we were on our train back to Bratislava. Little did we know that the monsoon was flooding the streets of Bratislava. We found ourselves running in the rain to the flat. By this time the day was just to ridiculous to not die laughing. We ended the night with a photo shoot in our wet clothes and discussing the other possibilities that would have made the day less exciting. Good times in Budapest.

life back at home: So there is this incredible invention called Skype. I am able to talk to my family, on their computer with video and sound. Its like being in the same place except not really. Mom, Anna, and Rob are all in New Orleans right now doing missions work, and Rob took is Mac, so we were able to chat tonight. I got the absolute joy of seeing Rob, Anna, Mom, and my favorite girls in their youth group! The girls, Clair and Hannah Miller and Rachel and Sarah Snyder have been emailing me and been super encouraging since I’ve been here, so it was incredible to be able to see their pretty faces. I also got to video chat with the whole family on father’s day. Which was awesome since I couldn’t be there to celebrate with the best dad on the planet, but I was able to see him, which made things a lot easier. I miss everyone so much so it’s great to be able to see and hear. Rob is so great for letting me use his computer.. (shout out on the blog.) I’m not really homesick, but I do miss everyone way more than I miss ice and air conditioning.

I think that is pretty much it for now. Camps are about to start and am excited to see what God has to teach everyone. Please be praying for the students in the next few weeks, the leaders, and the safe travels of all the American teams. It will be a whirlwind, but I am so excited. Caute!