I lied, it's not the end... Just the beginning!

ok, you're wondering about the flip-flop? I've had time to digest the experience I had in Slovakia... I'm getting ready to see my dear friend leave for Slovakia for 2 years... and I realize that I loved the experience and want to do it again... but what's even better, I'm planning to extend my experience by two weeks... WOW a whole month off... now that will make for a tough time going back to work!!!

Mary and I are challenging ourselves to get in better physical shape for next summer... a doable challenge... Yesterday, without really planning it, we started with a hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls...

yikes, now that was a hike!!! it was two miles round trip and it about 2 1/2 - 3 hours - I'm going to have to challenge myself to fix that time!!
ok, so we are a "posing" fools... it's like we had to get as many pics as possible before Mary leaves.
here Mary & I pose about a quarter of the way up... you can see the falls in the back ground.

even out in the beautiful wilderness, cell phone service can be found!!!

Here I am at the top - a little sweaty but no worse for wear... wow what a climb!!!! thank goodness I feel fine today, but wow, a totally uphill hike that wiped me out!!!

no rest for the weary though - Mary's going away party was later in the evening... fun... we didn't leave Diana & Steve's until 2:15am!!!! it was good to spend time with friends and reminisce about all the good times...

the end...

I'm home! what a marvelous vacation! Friday night was the final good-bye party... pig roast and marvelous gypsy music... lots of food, lots a singing and lot of friends, new and old...

Boadon dancing with his daughter...
Dancing kids and adults alike...
singing (Mark joins in with Adrian)... Tomas, pastor (not sure of his name), Boadon and Adrian... their voices were so amazing... I wish I had a video so you could hear them...
Early Saturday morning we got on the bus and headed for Vienna... a long 4 hour bus ride I might add... We got to the hotel too early to check in so many of us took the train into Vienna City Center...

the first view of Vienna when came up the steps from the train - the center was a flurry of people, activities, food... it was amazing...
this catholic church was right there in all it's beauty...


me in front of the church... inside beauty...

there was a mass in process and in English, which really surprised us (the English, that is)

Here's Mary and I in front of the palace...

Dinner was marvelous... I had weinerschnitzel... very good!

The flight home was long, but a lot of fun... I sat with Patty and Becca... we laughed and laughed (hope we didn't disturb the people around us too badly)... Anyway, like I said, we're home... it's rather a let down... for two weeks I was surrounded by wonderful people - my new extended family... and now I sit here at my computer... no one around to share the experience with except with you, the reader... I thank you so much for reading this and sharing in my experience... there was a lot of growing for me... a lot of self evaluation... and hopefully a lot of reshaping of my life...

If every you have a chance to go on a mission trip like this... don't worry about the expense, you could never put a price tag on an experience like this... though I have to say I was very blessed to go an this trip with the most marvelous group of people from New Heights church... the WOW factor will be with me a very long time! --Kim

Graduation...

Well we just finished the last day with the students... very sad to say goodbye... This trip has been an amazing experience... the kids in my class were younger, and they just tug on the heart strings... I'm hoping to have made some lasting friendships through this experience (with both students and teachers alike)...

Here are me and Eva... I showed you a pic of her the other day...
Eva hopes to be a foreign exchange student when she turns 16 (I think she's 13 right now) Isn't she such a doll? She has the most beautiful blue eyes...
Above is Eva with Becca, Matt and myself...

Then there is Sonia... She a little younger than Eva... Sonia was a little shyer, but as sweet as can be...
And here's a picture of our small group with the kids... we did have 5 kids, but two left last Friday... Martin, who's sitting down didn't want to have his picture taken... I think he was a little rebelious, but in the long run wanted to belong...

This me and Dona... She was also in the beginner class... we connected because we are both knitters... She was there with her whole family...
Here's a picture of Me, Donka, and Mary at the graduation ceremony... (Donka was with me when we were at Krakow). Mary and her connected and she's invited Mary to come visit her later when Mary moves here...
this is the beginner class singing "He's got the whole world in His hands" for the graduation... each class did a performance... it was amazing the talent and the English learned...
Well it's time to pack... this evening we're having a big end of the trip celebration with all the teachers from America... (Did I tell you that not only New Heights group of 30 was here... there were also others from Chicago, California and North Dakota... I think a total of 70 of us).. --Kim

it's coming to an end...

It saddens me that tomorrow (Friday) we'll have to say good-bye to our new friends, both students and at the Bible School... The people I've met during these last two weeks have been amazing... Kind, loving, welcoming... what an overwhelming this experience has been...



this is Eva - one of the students in my small group... She's in junior high, plays waterpolo and is just the sweetest kid... she'll be the one hardest to say goodbye to...

we head to Vienna in the morning... hopefully I'll have a chance to add to this blog then... if not, I'll regall you of the traveling adventures after I get home.... --Kim

a time for learning...

I know in the past my posts have been about where I've gone and what I've done... but there's another side to this trip that was unexpected... I'm learning about myself... the insecurities, the strengths, the dreams and ambitions... some of it's good, but some is a surprise (and maybe not so good, in my opinion) I love working with the kids... there's a lot of laughing and giggling... but in the beginning I let me insecurities get in the way (I can't believe I'm admitting I'm insecure - but I think for the most part I cover it up well)...

anyway, no time for pictures this morning... hopefully tonight... Dana (pronounced Donna or Donka) and I are going shopping... she's the redhead in the photo with me in Krakow... She's going to show me to "good" shops to go to... --Kim

Visiting on Sunday...

Wow what a wonderful day today was... started the day with church and communion.... then I was invited to a Slovakian home for lunch... It was a little awkward at first but Martin, the son (in the blue shirt) was pretty well versed in the English language so it made it a little easier... Janet went with me (which was really good)... The food was marvelous... chicken noodle soup to start, then a huge plate of food including 2 scoops of rice, cucumber & tomato salad and chicken cordon blu... very very good... afterwards we had homemade cookie bars for desert...

here are the 5 of us after dinner... then Martin took us to the ecco shoe store and to a castle... a lot of climbing and ok, a lot of stairs to climb... and then, did I tell you we had to climb? this old body was tuckered out, but oh what a view!
here's me, Martin and Janet...
and then some views from the castle...


it made for a wonderful day...

Yesterday we drove over to Poland... to Auschwitz, Birkenau and Krakow... The drive was long... (very long)... though I was glad I saw Auschwitz & Birkenau - I wouldn't go back... it was way too depressing... sorry, couldn't get a clear shot without people in the picture - it was so crowded with tourists!

Here is Auschwitz entrance
Train tracks coming into Birkenau. (Schindlers List was based on Birkenau)

Krakow is beautiful... but again a lot of walking... I went to dinner with some of the gals from Martin:

then Dana (pronouced Donna) and I went searching through the booths (but didn't spend any money)

and then caught a picture of one of the steepls of the castle that was smack in the middle of town...
It's been a good weekend... tomorrow we start classes again... I can't believe that half my trip is over already!... --Kim

Rain, Rain, Rain...

Not that I'm complaining... I like rain, but it doesn't work so well when you forgot your coat back home... though I have to say that with rain comes cooler weather which I'm especially greatful for... there's a lot of humidity here so if it's not raining, it's muggy... muggy and I don't along so well...

Class was wonderful yesterday... it's getting easier each day... two of the girls in my group are from Czech Republic... and Friday is their last day... (they were only able to stay for one of the two weeks). I'll post a picture of them later... (I forgot my camera yesterday)

Last night we got to go on a field trip... to an open air museum here in Martin - it was my understanding this was done to protect the history from communisim influence...

The open-air Museum of the Slovak Village shows the folk architecture, type of dwelling and lifestyle of traditional rural communities in Slovakia from the 19th to early 20th century. The original concept for this exhibition originated in 1930 (D. Jurkovic, J. Geryk). The first objects were acquired in 1940 (A. Polonec). The present-day exhibition began its formation in 1967.

here are a few pictures:

above are a variety of bee hives... the one on the middle top is a face with tongue sticking out!

This church was amazing... it's a quaint catholic church... we had a worship service in there (Lutheran style)... I was having camera/flash problems so no pictures of the inside...

After we had the tour, we went back to one of the buildings and were served a traditional Slovakian meal: Goulash (which was more like an american beef stew with a broth rather than a thick gravy), halusky (a potato dumpling with cheese - it's got kind of a macaroni & cheese taste), then desert was the same potato dumpling but coated with poppy seeds and a sweet sauce and finally a jelly filled donut (yum was that good!) at the beginning of the meal we had a honey wine... here's Mary and I raising our glasses... (I'm looking like a drowned rat from all the rain)
it was a good day... until tomorrow --Kim

aaaaah sleep!

Well looks like I'm on the road to jet lag recovery! yippee... I slept a good portion of yesterday and all last night... except from the body aches of being in bed so long, I feel terrific... Last night Mary and I went to dinner and tried the Slovak pizza... of course Mary wasn't feeling too adventurous, so we had hawaian (I can't remember when they called it) Our waitress spoke English so I asked to which soup was a favorite and she told me garlic... WOW! was it garlic... it was a garlic broth, with melted cheese settled at the bottom of the bowl and large bread croutons... it was quite good though I must have had a cloud of garlic hanging around me (was that why everyone stayed clear?)

No pictures taken yesterday since I hid out in my room... but the night before, when we were heading home from our bbq & snowpark adventures we had dueling cameras...

it's Courtney on the left, Mary the back right, and in front is Matt Johnson...

I also have a couple of pictures from the classroom I'm in (the beginners). I tried posting them yesterday and for some reason had some difficulities...




Well need to get ready for the new day (we have to wait until 6am for the hot water to be turned on... electricity is very expensive here) --Kim

it's the fifth day...

This morning I had a little set back... the last two nights I haven't had a full nights sleep... someone said it's jet lag... I truly thought I was doing fine... after a morning meltdown, I stayed in the room and slept... and boy did I sleep... I'm feeling so much better now...

Being here is more stressful than I realized... I'm in a different country, a different timezone, helping teach, which is outside the box for me... I guess my body knows better about what to do with stress than I do... If you would please pray, please pray for me: to get more sleep, to rely fully on God during this trip and not myself and to just relax...

Ok, on to brighter subject... last night we had a new experience... we took the bus up to a snowpark (of course this summer so there wasn't any snow). We took an hour long hike (here are some pics I took along the way)

I have no idea what they are...


After the hike, we went back down to the village at the base of the mountain. There a wonderful man hosted a bbq pork dinner... we did a lot a eating, laughing, visiting, basketball and even some dancing (ok, Mary and I did some line dancing!!! big surprise!) it was a great evening...
after dinner:


I'm having problems downloading pictures... will post more a little later...
--Kim

First day of school...

It was a wonderful day today... we made it through our first day of school... I'm in the beginner group, where there's about 18 students...
This first picture was taken at the Bible College where registration was occurring... the people in the red shirts where from the New Heights team. There were about 80-90 people that registered for the classes... we have three classes that New Heights Team is responsible for - a beginning group (that's who I'm with) , an intermediate group and an advanced group. After registration, they went through an evaluation to determine what level of English each person was at... this is a picture of our class... the gal in red is Becca one of my teammates...

I Also thought I would add a couple of pictures of the area around our dormitory... (by the way, the dorm is really like a little apartment... 2 twin beds, 2 desks, a small kitchen with dinning area, and entry way and bathroom... really quite spacious...

Across the courtyard is is the Lutheran Church that we went to yesterday morning... very old and quaint...














while I'm showing you pictures, here's a couple I took from the bus on our way from Vienna, Austria to Martin,Slovakia...

sunflowers (sorry its a little blurry... but there were so many sunflowers!! this was one of maybe 20 fields we passed...







and this next picture, also taken from the bus, is one of the castles we passed along the way (though this one maybe be abandoned now... it was sitting on top of a mound - very stratigic...















last night we went out to dinner at a local outside cafe... it was good food and especially good company... I think that 18 of us made it here... Mary was trying to hide from my picture taking... I don't think it worked...







Well I best get going... though not too much jet lag, just an emotional time and it's getting into the evening... until the next time... --Kim