Sorry everyone but I have to back in time and fill in some days. Here is a bit of an update.
Tuesday morning we had 8am meeting and prayer. Roberta is reading Nehemiah to us. It is her favorite book in the Bible. It ususally only takes us about 1/2 hr to do morning devotion so from about 8:30am-9am we prepair the room for english club and finish getting ready.
At 9am we had people arriving for english club. Today we had 4 girls and 1 boy. The boy was the brother of one of the girls in the group. He had come last thursday but this was the first time he brought his older sister. They wont be back next week because they are leaving for a vacation in Turkey.
English clubs ends at 11pm and so we clean up and then eat lunch. After lunch I watched Heroes with Jorden. Every one else was going to go to the counceling seminar that Peggy, Heather and Kara were doing but I didn't feel like going because I had already heard the material last week. It was just going to be a repeat of last week for new people. I do want to go for the second session though (tomorrow).
Heather is making dinner tonight and she needed bread from the bakery so I said that I would walk with them so I could bring the bread home. Jorden said he would come too so that I didn't have to walk back alone (actually I insisted that he come with me to which he didn't have objections to). While I was there I bought a sweet bread roll to snack on. It was very good. We got back around 1:30-1:45ish and then I worked in the library. I did all the steps to the books which took a long time. It was kinda nice to be all alone for a while. I listened to my Cowon and worked away. I worked until everyone got back around 5pm. Jorden did help me for the last 1/2 hr (4:30-5pm). After everyone got back I looked at my pile of books and was very sad. It looked like such a small pile!! All the books were thin and it took so long to do each book that when I looked down it looked as if I had only worked on them for about 1/2 hr. I was so sad!! It looked like all that time and effort was wasted. But I know it had to be done by someone! I just wish it had looked like I had done more work when evey one came back. Oh well.
Heather made really good crock pot BBQ chicken for dinner. We also ate the bread rolls I brought home. I didn't really fancy them too much but it is good to try new things. After dinner Amy, Jorden and I got into some really good discussions about Christians and different Bible topics and how differrent people experience God and stuff. It was really good and also kinda fun. We sat on the back porch and told stories and gave our opinions and changed our minds about things. All the stuff discussions are good for. You know, the basics. While we were sitting on the porch (perfect weather by the way, still light outside and the heat of the day is just cooling off) Roberta introduced us to a couple who lives just a few houses down on the back side of the block. You can see back of their house from the porch we were sitting on. Their grandaughter, Aria, will be attending BERC this year. After we met them we also met Aria. She is African American and her grandparents are white. She is 13yrs old and is so cute!! We didn't really talk to them since Roberta was showing them around the house and just introduced us in passing so we continued with our discussion after they went inside.
We were soon inturupted to watch "Luther" the movie at the Hill's house (all our movies are watched there for future referance). Jorden didn't want to but we made him (I promised him I would talk to him during the movie...I didn't really end up doing that though cuz I was busy watching the movie!). It was pretty good. I liked it. Amy fell asleep. Short attention span. After the Luther movie most people went over to BERC to go do other things like go online and stuff (all the computers are at BERC for future referance). I stayed a bit to hang out and Melanie and Heather E. were planning to watch a second movie. It sounded awesome!! "The Wackiest Wagon in the West". How awesome does that sound?? It is a really old movie that leaves you wondering "What did I just watch?".
Jorden didn't want to watch it because he hates old movies. Mel and I were in the kitchen making macaronie, well, she was making it and I was hanging out. Heather was in the other building at the time (she was going to come back later for the movie). It was at this time that we realized Jorden had taken the DVD out of the DVD player and had hidden it!! He was in the bathroom when Mel and I came to this realization. We decide to scare him into giving it back! Melanie and I went up to the bathroom door and just as he opened it she stuck her head in and said "Wher did you hide the DVD?" Ha ha, he jumped back in suprise which was really funny. I couldn't stop laughing. Actually I don't even think she finished her question because as soon as he jumped we were laughing way too hard. He said we were evil but he was laughing too so I know he liked the joke. After we composed ourselves we continued to ask where it was. He wouldn't tell us, even after we gave him macaronie.
Heather had come in by this time and we explained to her what had happened and then while he was sitting on the couch eating Heather and I hit him with pillows from the couch. It was really fun. He still refused and then it got interesting! Roberta came in and we complained to her about how mean Jorden was being to us by not telling us where he put the movie we wanted to watch. She pulled out a meat tenderizer and started backing him into the kitchen door with it. It was the best sight ever!! He was cowering with his macronie bowl trying not to get hit with a meat tenderizer and having 4 women yell at him (we were all laughing). Eventually Roberta locked him out of the house until he told us. He just sat out there eating and not saying a word while we looked for it. I went up to the door (made out of glass) at asked him politely to tell us where it was. Eventually he gave in and shown us that he had hidden on the table under some papers.
We put it on and he made it clear that he wasn't going to watch it. When he went into the kitchen to put his bowl away Mel and I draged him out (Roberta with the meat tenderizer as a threat) and made him sit down. When we were all settled he got up and left though. We said "Please stay" but we let it go after that (too much effort to put into some one who's determined to get away). Eventually he came back and watched it with us. HA!! We win. He said it was because he couldn't go to sleep if he felt like he made us feel bad/sad but I think he really wanted to see it but didn't want to admit it.
It was great. The movie made no sense and had no story or plot. I have no idea how people watched these kind of movies seriously! Heather fell asleep 1/2 way through it and Melanie closed her eyes for a bit but Jorden threw a pillow on her and she swore she was still listening to it with her eyes closed. After it was over I woke up Heather and we went to bed at about 1am.
End of day
Monday morning I tutored Alexa in math again. She is supposed to come every Mon, Wed and Fri but last week she was only able to make it to the Mon session. It is very challenging to get her to concentrate. Other than that not much happened in the morning.
For lunch we all had to find our own so I made myself left over Holoushky. I love Heather Hill's Holoushky!! It's the best thing ever!!
I was feeling unusually tired after lunch. I think my body is readjusting from being sick so I took a nap from 1-2pm. I didn't want to sleep too long but when I woke up at 2pm my body was so exausted that I literally couldn't move. I didn't want to sleep anymore because I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep later that night if I took a long nap. I layed there on my bed (couch) completely drained from 2-3:45pm. Afterwards I got up and had a snack to give me some energy.
I went downstairs to BERC and into Jorden's comp. room and watched him play World of Warcraft. I'm not personally into it or any type of comp. game for that matter but I just wanted some company and every one else was being boring and reading a book in the library and being unsocial. So naturally I was going to bother anyone who would stand me...not that he did but you get the idea. He was very polite and explained the game and his character and what not. It was fun to see the costuming and scenery in the game. Very artistic.
His brother plays the game too so I got to learn a little about Jorden's family too. He has an older sister and brother and a younger sister. Elodie is the younger sister who is in Serbia right now with Amy Hill. Jorden's family parents live there with the older sister. The older brother, Frans, lives in Holland. Elodie lives at BERC with the Hill's but is visiting in Serbia right now. I will get to meet her before I leave since she will be coming back.
Amy cooked dinner tonight and I was so excited because stuffed bell peppers are my favorite dish!! Unfortunately she made them terrably wrong and used chili powder from here which is so spicy and concentrated! I don't even like regular chili powder and if I were cooking with her, which I was supposed to be doing, I would have advised against it or tasted it first. I was on to cook with her tonight (which I was excited about) but Kara wanted to make a spinish dish so she took my place leaving me with no influence in the kitchen. This I regretted even more at the dinner table. We could bairly eat the peppers which was sad because I was really hungry!! Not to mention looking forward to it. Jorden and Heather E. liked them but the rest of us had a hard time choking them down. I was sad. Jorden was so sweet though telling her every 15 min or so how good they were so she wouldn't feel bad, even after the meal. I wasn't going to lie so I said nothing except that I thought they were extreemly spicy. Jim's ears were turning red along with the rest of his face. That was funny. Kara didn't even make her dish so I don't know what she did except help Amy which I could have done just as easily. This leaves me to do the dishes yet again. But I must say that Kara's home-made crutons were so delicious. Thank goodness for the salad.
After dinner and clean up we went over to BERC and Jorden and I went to his computer room to watch Heroes. A TV show that I really like. We watched 1 episode and were on our second when Roberta told Jorden he need to go over to the other house. He sleeps at the Hill's house and he needs to be in the house when they lock up or he'll get locked out. He usually gets kicked out of BERC at 11pm but tonight it was 10:30pm and so we couldn't finish our second episode. Too bad. So sad.
I did a bit of bloging here with Heather E. and then went to bed at about 12:30am or so.
"Oh no my boobs are full of hair!!!" - Heather.
It's sunday!! Church day. We got up and got ready for church and left at 9:30am. We all went to church (except Frank who lives in the apt above us and we don't know him. he is in Germany right now). It took two full vans to get us all there. We also have two new people with us. I kinda met them in the car. They arrived last night. Uli and Michael are here I think just to visit. They are engaged and Uli sleeps down in the cool basement room while Michael sleeps in Jorden's room at the Hill's. They aren't really talkative. They seem to want to keep to themselves and I think they are here so Michael can visit the Hills. They don't really seem like they care to know any of us. Which is totally fine, I would probably be the same way if I only had a few days to visit some one...ok well maybe I'm not a good example, but I understand anyways.
The church is in a really old building that looks like it should be a musium where rooms are roped off and you can only look in them. Amy has a video of it if any one cares. www.beloved123.vox.com It was really pretty. Not too many people go to that church. Besides all of us (us five girls) and the Hills, Jorden, Bonnie-Marie, Ann and Ron, Uli and Michael and Alexa's family there were only like 6 other people. It was a very small old fashioned room with a piano in it. Roberta Hill played the piano and Heather Hill sang. Peggy and Heather (our Heather) were supposed to sing but Heather couldn't sing right with her back pain so they didn't. Jim Hill kinda led singing worship by telling us what number to go to in our hymn book and praying and stuff. (I call it "singing worship" because it is misleading to imply that the only worship we do is through singing. I believe listening to a message is also worship. So is fellowship...etc).
After singing worship we listened to Ron who preached a message. Even though the weather has been a bit cooler it was still hot. After the message we sang another hymn and ended. We went back to the Hill's/BERC and had lunch which was like make your own taco (but without the taco shell). It was like taco salad. Very good. There Michael and Uli talked a bit and we all went around and talked about ourselves for them. They are from Germany. I was hoping to get some contact info for their ministry but all I got was "Well, you can look on our website...Maybe they have a page in english..." Not too helpful so whatever.
After lunch I was tired and so I fell asleep for a few hours. BTW, I hate to have to say this but I just realized that most of you think I'm lazy because I sleep so much lately. I should let you know that when I am on my period I have to rest more because my body gets exausted easily. WTMI? Too bad. It is my journal after all. :) Anyways, I woke up and helped out in the kitchen and was doing stuff and realized that it was almost 7pm. I said to Amy "Wow, do you realize that when we eat tonight it will be the latest we have ever eaten?" To which she replied "Oh, dinner was on your own tonight. You must have been asleep for that part". ...Well thanks for telling me now! So I went over to the Hills to find left over Holoushky from last night (my favorite dish so far). By this time everyone else had eaten and no one else thought about Holoushki so I had no trouble getting it. Also, Heather Hill had just mad bacon and had everything out for a BLT. So I made myself one of those and had Holoushky as a side dish. A very good meal.
After dinner Melony asked us if we were going to the Jazz Club with her (I was asleep when she invited us too). I didn't know what she was talking about but I did want to go so I told her yes. Amy and I were the only girls from our group to go since Heather, Kara and Peggy had to work on prepairing for their Biblical counceling class. That is one of the things they will be doing here. Amy and I will learn too when they teach the class. They all went to Seminar. But since Amy and I have no idea about Biblical counceling we were able to go to the Jazz club. Hooray!! We went with Melony and Heather Hill, and Bonnie-Marie. The 5 of us rode the bus and then walked to the Jazz club.
It was really fun. We got a table and listened to the live band. Amy and I ordered B52 which sounded interesting since it had Kaluah, Balies and something else that I had never heard of before (absint). I don't know about that other stuff but I like Kaluah. When we got it it was just a shot which was disapointing so we got something else to sip on. I don't remember what it was called since it was in Slovak but had grapefruit juice and some other stuff in it. I didn't really like it. It was too grapefruity for me. The waitress brought us a pack of matches and an extra cup with the B52 and we were like "Um...are we supposed to lite it on fire?" We have no idea what to do, but we figure that's what it's for so Amy lites it on fire and pours into the other glass.
It was really fun because the flame was blue and dripping down the shot glass as she poured. She had to blow it out so her hand wouldn't catch but the flame in the new cup kept going and melted the straw that was in there. Ha, why was the straw there? We figured out that absint is illigal in the US. I don't know why. After we blew out the flame in the new cup we let it sit because we didn't know how hot it was. During that time our other drink arrived and we also ordered nachios. The other girls got drinks too by the way, I just don't know what they were. Melony ordered a second after the nachios arrived by which time we had tried our drinks. We all tried sips of each others drinks to see if they tasted good or not (you know girls, always doing that kinda stuff). I liked theirs better then our grapefruit one. The nachios were good to but they were more like zesty cheese flavored chips with salsa. No actual cheese on them.
We hung out a bit and took pictures and stuff and then when we were done we left (we paid of course). We left about 10:30 and took the bus home. When we got home Bonnie-Marie asked me if I wanted to watch "One Night with the King". I had mentioned earlier in the week that I wanted to see it. So, we watched it. Amy said she was going to bed so she didn't but Jorden, Heather, Uli and Michael joined Bonnie-Marie and I. We watched it and then went to bed. I got in bed around 1am. Amy got caught up in a conversation down stairs so she came to bed the same time I did. See? She could have watched it with us. Oh well, at least she tried to go to sleep.
End of Day 11, Sunday, July 22 2007
I woke up at 8:30am and got ready for breakfast. Today we were invited to the Hill's for French Toast at 9:30am. When we got there it was Christmas!!! Hooray!!! They had a Christmas table cloth and candles and decorations and Christmas music. Heather Hill said "You have to have Christmas in July!". So we had a lovely Christmas breakfast and talked about the Christmas traditions in Slovakia. It's very interesting. They buy live coi fish and keep them alive in the tub for about a week and then kill them and eat them on Christmas eve. Fresh fish. That's a tradition mom would never do even if we lived in Slovakia. Ha ha.
After breakfast we sat around and talked. Well, they talked, I listened and didn't feel like joining in. They were talking about church matters and my old church and such. I didn't really want to open that can so after a long time of sitting there feeling tired I left. I came in and wrote on the comp and then Roberta told us a story about something or other, I didn't really pay attention because I was trying to get caught up on this journal for you :) Then we got to work.
We corrected some flyers that we were planning to pass out today. They are flyers for our English camp. We got over 100 and went outside to pass them out. Peggy and Heather took one side of the neighborhood and Amy, Kara and I took the other. We went door to door and put them in people's mail boxes. Some times we talked to people. We got through our side of the neighborhood and still had a few flyers left. We came back to BERC to freshen up and ask where we should take the rest. Heather and Peggy came back with no more flyers and Kara, Amy and I went out again. We took the rest of the flyers to houses kinda outside the neighborhood until we had non left, then we came back.
When we got back we got ready to go out. Bonnie-Marie was reading Harry Potter last night before dinner (friday night) and I told her how badly I wanted to see the movie. She had seen the midnight showing the night we arrived!!! And she didn't even invite us because they assumed we would be "too tired"! Too tired for the midnight showing of HP??? No way. So she promised to take me saturdat night (tonight). Originally it was just us two, then Kara wanted to come and then every one else. So we all got ready when we were finished with the flyers. Our show time was at 6pm so we had to be there at 5:30pm since the tickets were reserved. Here if you don't claim your reserved tickets 1/2 hr early you give them up.
We ate dinner around 4pm because we thought we were going to have to take the bus. We had a Slovak dish called "Holoushky". I have no idea how it's spelled. It was so good. Better than a lot of meals I have had here. I really, really liked it. We would need to leave by 4:45pm if we had to take the bus, that's why we had a late breakfast and an early dinner (no lunch). Luckily Jim said he would drive us (after he made us convince him). So we left about 5:10pm or so and got there about 5:30pm. It was really fun! I sat with Jorden on my right (I warned him I talk through movies) and Amy on my left, Jim was to the left of Amy (we also convinced him to see it with us even though he refused). I was so happy.
When we came back Jorden showed Amy and I some Dutch rap and a Russian guy that can sing higher than any girl alive because of some nose cavity. Then Jorden tried to get music from Cowon and his comp. crashed. :( I guess it happens sometimes. We had a lot of fun though. Amy wrote a bunch of stuff on the white board in Jorden's comp. room and we made a lot of jokes. It was really funny. Around 11pm (that's about the time Jorden gets kicked out of BERC and has to go back to the Hill's) we went to bed.
End of Day 10, Saturday, July 21 2007
I woke up at 8am when Kara came down and told Amy and I to get up. We were supposed to get up at 7:30am but Amy didn't set an alarm. We got up and removed our bedding from the downstairs basement room and put it back up in out apt. We quickly got dressed and ate and went downstairs. I only got a couple hours of sleep last night but I wasn't too tired. I did the breakfast dishes or whatever was in the sink and then planted flowers on the pourch.
Roberta was able to show me how to enter the videos into the comp. I cataloged them and entered about 3 series of videos with Kara. It took a long time to get it all in there. Well, at least it kept us busy until lunch. For lunch we went to eat over at the Hill's. We had hot dogs and chips and when we were done I helped with the dishes. Heather wasn't feeling well and so she went to lie down in the cool basement room. After most everyone had left (I was still there doing dishes) I hung out with Amy, Jorden and Heather. It was really fun we hung out in the living room and Amy got her finger stuck in a bottle...twice. You think she would stop sticking it in there after the first time. Ha ha, it was really funny.
Amy and I went over to our apt to burn some music and DVD's onto her comp. The DVD's were supposed to go onto my Cowon but Amy couldn't get them onto her comp so it didn't work out :( I was tired since I hadn't slept much so I layed down for about 2 hrs until 5pm. No one else did any thing of importance anyways otherwise I would have helped them. I came down and checked e-mail and then had dinner at 6pm. Kara and Heather were supposed to cook but Roberta wanted to make lazignia and garlic bread so she cooked this evening. Kara and Heather probably helped though. Since Peggy and I were still on for dishes we did them after dinner. While Peggy and I did dishes in the kitchen Kara and Jorden (the only ones left) had a fun debate about the body vs. soul and what not. I got into it too. We had fun talking and soon left to join the others at BERC since they were waiting for us to finish so we could get ice cream.
We came into BERC and found Heather laying on the floor. She was having a lot of back trouble and couldn't stand up strait. She didn't go with us to get ice cream :( We gave her advil. I didn't really feel like ice cream but I wanted to go and hang out so I went. Also, I did want to try the Blood Orange flavor!! But, when I got there they didn't have that flavor anymore. So, since it was the only flavor I wanted to try I didn't get any. I'm not really too much of an ice cream person anyways. Once in a while is good, but not too often. I like the ice cream here a lot better though. It tastes less artificial and less of that gross sticky sweet feeling. It's pretty good.
After that we came back and I probably went to bed.
End of Day 9, Friday, July 20 2007
We woke up at some time in the morning and had a meeting with Roberta about stuff and the plans for the day. It was Amy's Birth Day which she did not plan on letting us forget. Amy, Peggy, Heather and I attempted once more to get to the lake and this time succeeded. We took the bus and got there in the afternoon. I didn't have my swim suit so I swam in a tank top and shorts. When we got there we had to pay 40 SKK (about $1.60) to get in. It's not a water park, it's just a lake but it is really well kept up and there are things you can do there. In Europe you everyone has to pay little fees like that so they can pay some one to keep the place nice. It's worth it because if you go to the other lake that is free it's a dump so $1.60 is not bad at all for a resort type lake. Once you get in the place is huge.
There are parks and lounge areas and little places to eat. The lake is really big and on one side they have a water ski course set up. I think you have to pay extra to use it so we didn't. Plus we just wanted to swim and hang out so maybe next time if we feel like it. The water was perfect! Just cool enough and not freezing. People had ski-do's and pool toys and a bunch of different stuff there. Also, I think people thought I was odd to swim in so much clothing. Even the old fat ladies wore 2 pieces. I think I only saw a 1-piece twice the whole time! And there were a lot of speedos too. Europeans are more open physically here. We were also warned that some women go topless here but thankfully we didn't see any of that. Every one just wore a 2 piece, old or young, thin or fat...and most of them were old and fat and wrinkly. Oh well. I think our group was by far the most conservative. I was swimming fully dressed, Peggy in a 1-piece and Amy in a Tankini. Heather didn't want to swim.
The 3 of us went in for a bit and then decided to get a paddle boat. We thought it would be fun. We had to pay 200 SKK (about $8) for 4 people per hour. Heather and I split the cost since it was Amy's b-day. Peggy was off floating in the water some where. We got on with all our stuff and paddled over to Peggy. She got on too and we paddled over to the little island. In the middle of the big lake there is an island. It was fun. Amy and I also jumped off the paddle boat on our way over. We pulled into the island and went exploring. It only took us about 10 min to walk all the way around it. There were lots of trees and sand. It was pretty. It even had a cliff on one side that people could jump off of, but you had to jump pretty far out to not hit the bottom so we didn't.
We paddled out to the middle of the lake in the direction that we had come and hung out. Amy and I did back flips off the paddle boat. Mine was more like a back flop so they tell me. It felt fine. We turned it back in and kinda hung out a bit. We went to one of the little snack shops and got drinks. I got iced green tea. We just sat there. We were tired and soon after we left. We rode the bus back and then walked to BERC. We got back about 3:30 ro 3:45pm and took showers and got ready to go. We were going to go out to dinner for Amy's B-Day.
We wanted to leave early too because the shops close up and we wanted to look around down town before dinner. I was the last one in the apt. so I rushed to get ready only to find that they were all down stairs doing make-up! I had done mine so fast and the apt was so hot that it was like dripping off my face. GROSS! It was totally melting. We were all hot and sweaty...but clean. We left about 4:30 or 4:45pm and took the bus down town (only some of us- the others wanted to meet up with us at 6pm for dinner, they didn't want to shop).
We saw lots of cute kiosks that sold lots of trinkets but since we didn't have much time to look around before we had to meet the others we just looked at the kiosks. We didn't go in any real stores. The others met up with us soon after at the cannon ball in the wall and we went to dinner. We went to a really cute place to eat. You had to walk through a building tunnel and then on the other side there is an area outside to eat. It's outside but kinda behind the buildings. Hard to describe. Very pretty. I had salmon and ice coffee (which is more bitter and less sweet than in the states). The salmon was so good!!! Fantastic. Amy got a birthday smoothie type drink, very fancy, with a strawberry on the side of the glass and all. This was instead of the traditional ice cream/cake restaurants give out in America.
When we were done with dinner some people rode the bus back but we got a ride in the car. We got back before the bus riders. When every one was back at BERC they suprised Amy with a cake. It was also very good. When every one was done eating I did the dishes. Afterward I went up stairs to collect my bedding. Since Carol's downstairs room was now free we were allowed to sleep down there. Amy and I wanted to but the others didn't so I moved my bedding down there. It is much cooler down there. After I set up my bedding I went over to the Hill's where some people were watching Anaconda. I came into the movie late and watched the parts where every one dies and then I was getting tired so I left before the movie was over.
I went down stairs to sleep in the cool room. Amy had brought her matress down so I got to sleep in the bed. I was so tired that I couldn't sleep. Don't you hate that? Amy came down about 12am or so and fell asleep. I couldn't sleep and so I stay there awake and tired until after the sun came up. I feel asleep around 5-6am.
Monday has been revised, and tuesday has been added.
On tuesday morning I was supposed to go with Amy and Roberta to some supermarket/really big shopping place. They had to wake up at 6am to get there so when I woke up at 6am I told Amy that I was too tired and would go another time. I went back to sleep and got up later at 7:45am and took a shower. Lucky for me I found out that they didn't end up going. After my shower I left with Carol, Bonnie-Marie, Amy, and Roberta to meet a guy who works with non-profit orginizations. Every one thought he was really cute but I just didn't see it. Even if I wasn't dating Kyle I still wouldn't have thought so.
After that we came back to BERC around 9:45am or so and Roberta and Amy left to go the the market place that they didn't go to this morning. Now that I was awake and was able to go I found out that it would have been of no use this morning any ways since you need a club card to get in and then only one guest can accompany you. Basically only 2 people per club card can get in so I would have waken up this morning for nothing. Thank goodness for exrta rest! :)
Also, I wasn't feeling well (cramping) so I took a nap until about 1pm. Amy and Roberta had come back with lots of food by the time I woke up and I fixed myself a hot dog for lunch. At 3pm Ron and Ann (the elderly couple who live in the apt across from us) came and Ron gave us a Bible study. He used to be a pastor (or still is or something- once a pastor always a pastor? I don't know how that works). Peggy and I were on for dinner but since she had put every thing in the crock pot early while I was sleeping I just help set the table. She said there wasn't much I could have done anyways so I didn't feel too bad about it.
We at at 6pm and the food was so good. Noodles and leaks and crock pot stuff to put over the noodles and cucumbers in sour cream to put on top. It was good. For dessert we had home made lemon bars which were also good (we also ate them before dinner before Ron came, as soon as they came out of the oven, but eating them again was delicious). I love lemon!!!
After dinner we (Amy, Heather, Bonnie-Marie, Kara and I) did some heavey gardening and weed pulling. After about an hour they all left and Amy and I did about another hour. Jim helped a bit towards the end. We stopped about 9pm and then a happy thing happened when I checked my e-mail. I found out that Whitney had found my bathing suits!!! HORRAY!!! Now mom can send them to me. I thought I had packed them but I didn't so I'm out of luck for now. Mom is sending them though!! Horray!!! Then I took a shower and went to bed.
End of Day 6, Tuesday, July 17 2007
Today we had to be down by 9am to meet and teach Alexa (we had already met her before anyways). She was late in geting to BERC though, since their car wouldn't start. She did show up later just as Roberta and Carol were getting ready to leave. Carol is leaving on wed so she wanted to see some things before taking off. Roberta showed me what to do with Alexa and I did her math with her. It was very hard to get her to concentrate but she does a good job when she wants to get it done. She is easily distracted and every few min would ask "When I'm done with this page can I play with Mocha?" Mocha is the Hill's dog...and Alexa's friend who she loves to play with.
On breaks we would go and play with Mocha, who didn't really play too much. Alexa was actually very good about coming back in after breaks. I think she got tired of me trying to teach her though (I think she needed a change) and so I asked if she wanted Heather to teach her for a while. Heather took over for the last 45 min. Even though Heather was teaching she would still call to me and show me her work and I would tell her to finish her page and what page I wanted to see done next. Heather kinda let her push her around a bit, I don't think she knew how to get Alexa to focus...(not that I did) and they actually got a lot of pages done too, but she did let Alexa run around a bit more and get distracted. Her mom came to pick her up about 12:15pm.
The afternoon was pretty much just the usual. Hot, tiring and getting work done slowly since we all felt lathargic. Peggy and I were on for cooking duty. I made a cooking/clean up schedule for us. It's actually perfectly done with every one included and doing every thing the same amount of times, switching groups...ect. Peggy had decided our meal and I just helped fry chicken and zuchini. Then we baked it into a delicious casserol. It was so hot working in the kitchen over a stove!!! I had to leave and stand in front of the fan for a sec a few times.
After dinner I stayed over at the Hills and we watched "The Last Samurai" projected on the wall. It was so fun. Then we ate chocolate cake! I was the only one from our group of girls that stayed to watch the movie. Heather Hill, Bonnie-Marie, Carol and Roberta (worked while she watched) and I all watched the movie. The others were over doing "work" (how boring!) by cataloging books - a never ending job. I would help them but every time I ask they never need my help. There is only one comp. that the books are entered into, so one person there, then stamping and labeling something, I dunno, but they have a "system" so I gave up trying to help them with the books. I just do other stuff. I think the movie was over around 12am so when it was over I went to bed.
Sunday morning we eat in our apt as usual. Usually bread with jam and a yogurt. Amy, Heather and I are the only ones getting ready since we are leaving at 7am and Kara (pronounced care-a, not car-a) and Peggy don't have to leave until 9am. It is so hot in the back of the car where Amy and I sit but all the windows are open so she falls asleep while I listen to my Cowon. I eventually fall asleep too after passing up our passports to Jim. I wake up before we get to the border and am told to wake up Amy so she can see it (there really isn't anything to see, it all looks the same!). We fall back asleep and arrive at Seven's camp around 9am.
After meeting Steven he gives us a little tour of his camp and what they do there. It's your basic summer camp for kids with english classes too. Each group stays for one week and the ages are by weeks. This up-coming week they will be having 6-9 yr olds I think. Last week it was 12-18 if I remember correctly. Since it is a Christian camp and a sunday we are able to attend the Church service there. Since there are no campers on sunday (they leave friday or saturday and the new ones come monday) the church is just for the staff. The service was interesting - done in english but with a Slovak translator (he was very funny, young and energetic). Half the staff didn't speak english I think, or at least not too well.
After service (we actually had to leave right before it ended, but it was just about over anyways) we took Steven and his friend, Sarah, out to lunch. We ate in a Czech restaurant. I had a delicious salmon and a greek salad. Amy thought she was ordering horse (we like to try new things) but the english translation was wrong and it was just an assortment of meats (nothing unordinary), bread, sauerkraut and red cabbage. The electricity went out during our meal but the light from the windows was enough to see. They had to turn away anyone elso who came in and paying was difficult since they couldn't take cards due to the power outage (I think they should have given us a discount! And in America they probably would have, but not in Europe). It was sad to because before we sat down to eat Jim made sure that they took cards because we didn't have any Czech money on us, after all we were only planning on being there for 1/2 the day. We ended up paying in Euros.
We took Steven and Sarah back to camp and used the facilities once more before heading out. I fell asleep during the car ride home only to wake up and find out that we weren't going home, but we were back in Slovakia. We stopped by Karen and Lubo's house(I don't remember their last name). Their daughter, Alexa, is one of the students at BERC. She is 7 yrs old and goes to BERC for math. Today they were having a picnic/BBQ at their house and other people were there too. Peggy was there and so were Ann and Ron Clark (the elderly couple who live in the apt. across from us). Peggy and Kara had made their way over there after their church service, but Kara had gone back to BERC by the time we got there. Their house was so beautiful and had a wonderful view of the little city/town. They made food for us but I was stuffed so I didn't eat it, but the iced tea was the best I've ever had.
The adults went inside to have some sort of meeting about Alexa and BERC or something (we weren't really informed) and all who were not involved stayed outside. When all who were left and still eating were done we went out to the grass and sat under the trees. It was much cooler. Alexa came down from her room and informally met all of us. If you remember the list of things we had to do one of them was to meet Alexa and possibly help her with her math. Well, we were briefed on her the day we got the list and she is quite a handfull. She is an adopted gipsy girl and her parents (adopted parents) are Karen, an American woman, and Lubo, a Slovak man. I believe Alexa is their only child.
Alexa is very energetic and distracted easily. She is also strong willed and a few other qualities that could be good if constructed correctly. She is known to keep her guard up and is initially mean to people until she gets to know them a bit better. Even if she thinks you like her she will still be mean to you just to make sure that there is nothing she could do to make you hate her since she doesn't really trust that anyone could love her. She definitely tests people and can be quite difficult. She was fairly nice to us though and seemed to take more of a liking to me than anyone else. She would sit on my lap and give me hugs and tell me to play with her (it was hot and I was tired, but I did). She also asked us later if we loved her to which we said "Of course!". She is very interesting but I have had a bit of experience with this type of behavior before so I think that's how I was able to respond better to her and probably why she liked me the most. She seems very independent in her own ways of thinking and what she wants but mentally depends on other peoples love, approval and affirmation.
After the "meeting" was over (about 1 1/2 hrs) we said goodbye and left. I was the only one she wanted to hug goodbye. Roberta had to chase her down to give her a goodbye hug but after she got off the bike she said "Wait, I want to give Willow a hug!". This made me feel kinda bad for Roberta because she has been trying to build a solid relationship with Alexa for a while and I had only just met her. Plus it's not good for Alexa to get really attached to some one who will just leave in 4 weeks.
We went back to BERC and some of us were so tired we just fell asleep. I got up around 9pm and didn't really do anything. Probably just came online to journal and then went back to bed. No dinner :( Just ate whatever.
End of day 4.
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Recent Comments
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Debbie Springer said:
[this is good]Willow, You look good. Nice to see you having a good time. You will make a good home-school mom someday. read more
on P1010039 -
Vara said:
So… did you like the movie? I was impressed by it very much! read more
on Day 5, Monday, June 16, 2007
Oh, sure, when I want to read a book but you want to be sociable, I'm boring, but when I... read more
on Day 11, Sunday, July 22 2007