Have you made your list of New Year’s resolutions yet? I thought about it and decided not to make a list for 2007, it’s just too intimidating.
Instead, I sat down this morning and wrote out my 2006 resolutions. It was a lot more fun. Plus, I have everything checked off already! And everyone knows that the fun of making lists is checking things off of them.
To Do in 2006:
Move a LONG way from home and family.
Fall in love with a city you have never heard of before.
Realize there is nothing wrong with asking how to flush the toilet. (Do this more than once)
Make all new friends with wonderful people.
Learn fun and useless Slovak words: “soldering pen,” “better than having wire in your eye” and “I am a confused blueberry”.
Find a great Slovak teacher and learn Slovak. (I’d learn more if I studied like I should.)
Thoroughly embarrass myself with the help of the language barrier multiple times.
Cry a fair deal.
Laugh a whole lot more.
Acquire a passable skill and tolerance for using public transportation.
Feel glaringly out of place.
Feel like I fit right in.
Hike up a few mountains and through a river.
Travel to Prague, Berlin, Budapest and all over Slovakia
Visit my first Castle. Don’t stop at just one.
Experience God’s faithfulness first hand over and over again.
Get engaged (Micah visited twice and the second time he brought a ring. I said yes)
Make a number of videos that I am proud of. (They have been shown to literally thousands of people and we just sent one to Slovak National Television!)
Become a Jane of all trades. (I have done everything from making video clips and nametags, to cutting out admission tickets. From setting up projectors, photographing and cutting video, to wrapping cable.)
Eat a TON of ice cream!! (2 scoops, 45 cents!)
Pray a lot (I knew I was prayed for even more.)
I worked and lived in a construction zone. (I learned and grew so much that I might as well have been a construction zone.)
Celebrate Easter, The 4th of July, Thanksgiving and my Birthday in a foreign country.
Get my hair cut in a foreign language.
Switch to speaking about Presov as “home” and YFC Slovakia as “we”.
Be a part of something big that God is doing in Slovakia
So, that’s my list AND I still have 3 and a half months left here in Slovakia!
This has been a big year for me. I have had more blessings and stretching opportunities that I could have ever imagined. I hope that your year has been as blessed as mine and that next year will be even more so.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
January 1, 2007
December 30, 2006
the really important news from Svarin
I just staved off a friendly attack of balloon wielding preschoolers. you know the long skinny balloons that clowns make into swords and flowers and flying mice. well these were just blown up and handed to the darling little hoodlums.
Subsequently 5 or 6 of them decided i would make a good target. At first, i played along and laughed a bit. when it got annoying i ignored. then i threatened, then i sucked up my language self-consciousness and i asked them to stop. then i told them to stop (at least i think that's what i said). i finally ran into the other room and hid behind Iveta. Thus getting the attention of the parents and a bit more fluent and authoritative order to stop the attack. A bit underhanded i know, i'm nothing but a grown up tattletale running to tell their mommys :)
At any rate, they are mostly leaving me be now and i am threatening any comers with my knitting needle. it is of course not sharp enough to be a real threat. but the popping noises i make when i poke at the balloons has them convinced for now. but when the munchkins figure out that I'm bluffing....I'm in big trouble
Subsequently 5 or 6 of them decided i would make a good target. At first, i played along and laughed a bit. when it got annoying i ignored. then i threatened, then i sucked up my language self-consciousness and i asked them to stop. then i told them to stop (at least i think that's what i said). i finally ran into the other room and hid behind Iveta. Thus getting the attention of the parents and a bit more fluent and authoritative order to stop the attack. A bit underhanded i know, i'm nothing but a grown up tattletale running to tell their mommys :)
At any rate, they are mostly leaving me be now and i am threatening any comers with my knitting needle. it is of course not sharp enough to be a real threat. but the popping noises i make when i poke at the balloons has them convinced for now. but when the munchkins figure out that I'm bluffing....I'm in big trouble
December 22, 2006
weeks and weeks and weeks
I’m not even going to try and catch you all up on what has happened the past weeks. Partly because it’s been so long and partly because after I finish writing this, I’m leaving the office for Christmas vacation time!!
The past few weeks were a really mixed bag. There were a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes I was very busy and some days all there was to do was wait. We captured the video from CampFest to a new hard drive, the attic will be new offices and a conference room by the new year, and the recording studio downstairs is still moving along. The video of the CampFest Hymn is officially finished and sent to the Slovak TV station. The Worship Festival here in Presov the beginning of the month was a huge success. There were about 2,000 people and the atmosphere was very worshipful.
It’s only in the past week I have finally started really feeling like Christmas. I finally stopped coughing (mostly) and feeling worn out from the cold I had while Micah was here last month. The temperatures finally dropped below 45 and we had a little snow. This Sunday was the children’s program at church and I helped Paly and Klara decorate their tree. I don’t have a tree per say but I got some lights to hang in the rubber tree plant in my room, and I have been burning the pumpkin spice candle that Micah’s mom sent so my room has gotten festive.
Last night we made and decorated sugar cookies. Trees, shooting stars, candles, and fish! Fish is the Christmas meal here. My mom sent a tree cookie cutter and the others were Ivetka’s. It was a very fun and messy time. Just like decorating cookies should be!
I will celebrate Christmas with Paly and Iveta and their family. And the end of the week I’m going with them and some others from church to Svarin. Paly is horrified that I have never cross country skied so I think that will be in the plans for my new year celebration (that and a bottle of ale-8!! :))
My holiday is going to look very different this year. I am excited to experience it, I may never have the chance again, but at the same time, there are a million things that will be different. Some are inconsequential like fish for Christmas dinner. And some will be harder to deal with, like not watchign “The Muppet Christmas Carol” with my family, not having sticky buns for breakfast and missing the candlelight service at church. But I know that Christmas is more than the Muppets, sticky buns and singing silent night at the candlelight service. In fact it’s not about any of that. I just have to keep reminding myself to put it all in perspective. I will be fine, but it will be hard and I’ll be counting on your prayers.
I hope you all have a great Christmas.
:)Stasi!!
The past few weeks were a really mixed bag. There were a lot of ups and downs. Sometimes I was very busy and some days all there was to do was wait. We captured the video from CampFest to a new hard drive, the attic will be new offices and a conference room by the new year, and the recording studio downstairs is still moving along. The video of the CampFest Hymn is officially finished and sent to the Slovak TV station. The Worship Festival here in Presov the beginning of the month was a huge success. There were about 2,000 people and the atmosphere was very worshipful.
It’s only in the past week I have finally started really feeling like Christmas. I finally stopped coughing (mostly) and feeling worn out from the cold I had while Micah was here last month. The temperatures finally dropped below 45 and we had a little snow. This Sunday was the children’s program at church and I helped Paly and Klara decorate their tree. I don’t have a tree per say but I got some lights to hang in the rubber tree plant in my room, and I have been burning the pumpkin spice candle that Micah’s mom sent so my room has gotten festive.
Last night we made and decorated sugar cookies. Trees, shooting stars, candles, and fish! Fish is the Christmas meal here. My mom sent a tree cookie cutter and the others were Ivetka’s. It was a very fun and messy time. Just like decorating cookies should be!
I will celebrate Christmas with Paly and Iveta and their family. And the end of the week I’m going with them and some others from church to Svarin. Paly is horrified that I have never cross country skied so I think that will be in the plans for my new year celebration (that and a bottle of ale-8!! :))
My holiday is going to look very different this year. I am excited to experience it, I may never have the chance again, but at the same time, there are a million things that will be different. Some are inconsequential like fish for Christmas dinner. And some will be harder to deal with, like not watchign “The Muppet Christmas Carol” with my family, not having sticky buns for breakfast and missing the candlelight service at church. But I know that Christmas is more than the Muppets, sticky buns and singing silent night at the candlelight service. In fact it’s not about any of that. I just have to keep reminding myself to put it all in perspective. I will be fine, but it will be hard and I’ll be counting on your prayers.
I hope you all have a great Christmas.
:)Stasi!!
December 13, 2006
conversations you wont find in a textbook
Exercize 1:
R: "Stasi crazy lazy daisy"
Me: "co"
R: "nic"
Me:"preco"
R: "preto"
Me:"dobre"'
R: "Stasi crazy lazy daisy"
Me:"what"
R: "nothing"
Me:"why"
R: "because"
Me:"ok"
exercize 2:
"co? mas problem?"
"ano ty si moj problem"
"nie som problemm ty si problem"
"nie som ty si crazy"
"nie ty si crazy"
"what? you have a problem?"
"yes you are my problem"
"i'm not the problem you're the problem"
"I am not youre crazy"
"no you are crazy"
R: "Stasi crazy lazy daisy"
Me: "co"
R: "nic"
Me:"preco"
R: "preto"
Me:"dobre"'
R: "Stasi crazy lazy daisy"
Me:"what"
R: "nothing"
Me:"why"
R: "because"
Me:"ok"
exercize 2:
"co? mas problem?"
"ano ty si moj problem"
"nie som problemm ty si problem"
"nie som ty si crazy"
"nie ty si crazy"
"what? you have a problem?"
"yes you are my problem"
"i'm not the problem you're the problem"
"I am not youre crazy"
"no you are crazy"
November 27, 2006
33 34 35....and counting
Prayer warriors and friends
I am so sorry that I have not written for 3 weeks (and a half) let’s see if I can catch you up to speed on life in Slovakia:)
Week 33 started spending the day with the O’Connell’s in Kosice. It had the benefits of getting me out of the house and I got to visit them before they headed home for the holidays. I have not had so much fun with legos in a long time, thanks Will. The rest of the week was fairly borring. I was worn out an homesick with a long to-do list and little motivation. I did another round of edits on the CampFest Hymn video and not much else. I spent a lot of time waiting for people to look at what I had done. I baked a lot of cookies, baking cookies is a relaxing thing for me to do even if I have to use someone else’s kitchen and convert all my recipes into Metric. I was antsy all week because week 34 meant my birthday and Micah!
I spent the weekend cleaning and trying to get the video from the wedding captured to my computer and edited. It was a project that involved buying an external Hard Drive (in Slovak!), and dealing with a lot of switching video formats since I used one European camera and one American :). The video did not get finished before Micah came. I’m still working on it.
Monday of week 34 the YFC staff went to Svarin (the new ranch) for a annual 2-day vision casting meeting. We spent most of the day with everyone sharing about what they do on a daily basis, where they see their ministry going and what God has done in the last year. It was a very encouraging time. And in the evening after the meetings were done it was nice to just hang out there. Since the meetings were announced with short notice, I was not there for the second day since that was the day that Micah was flying in.
Tuesday I woke up very early, took a bus and then a train to get to Kosice to pick up Micah from the airport.(I bought the train ticket all by myself for the first time!! Let’s do the public transportation success dance!) Andrea took me from the train station to the airport and when I got there Micah was waiting with his suitcase the size of a house (he brought my birthday and Christmas from my family). Big smiles. We took a bus back to Presov and then a city bus to my house. Micah stayed with Martin in the room next door. We had a very relaxing time, watched black and white movies, ate pizza by candlelight and talked a lot.
The highlight of his visit was on my birthday when we went to see some castle ruins and had a picnic, Micah surprised me with Ale-8. And as if Ale-8 and a castle for my birthday weren’t enough, that evening we danced on my balcony and he asked me to marry him. I said yes :) (as always, pictures at Flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/stasigh )
(side note: the highlight for Micah was the coffee shop in town that had good coffee and chocolate cake)
Toward the end of his trip, I started loosing the battle with the cough I was fighting so we didn’t do a lot of exciting stuff mostly hanging out and I took a lot of naps. We spent Sunday in Kosice where we went to a church that feels a lot like Mars Alliance and an American spoke.
By the time Micah went home, on Wednesay morning, I had totally lost the battle and spent the rest of the week coughing my lungs up, sick in bed. My plan had been to make a few of my favorite thanksgiving dishes to share with the Biros family, but since I was too dead to get out of bed to shop for what I needed and no one would have wanted anything that germy me cooked anyway, I celebrated Thanksgiving in bed and let Mrs. Birosova feed me Haluski.
Today is Monday and I am finally back in the office. It is good to start getting back to my regular routines. I am still feeling a little sluggish but I think a bit of Pepsi will help with that :) (i am my mother's daughter!)
This week I’ll be capturing CampFest video so that we can edit the 2006 DVD and I’ll also keep tweaking the Music Video and CampFest hymn video as suggestions keep coming. This weekend is a big worship festival/conference here in Presov and we are having 24 hour prayers leading up to that. There will be a lot of little details and technical things to get done.
Please continue to pray, especially for:
-Worship Conference/Festival in Presov this weekend
-My being all here (homesick, distracted with being engaged, on the downward side of my year, trying to find out where God wants to send me next -- all of that might distract me from beign where I am)
-Slovak learning (I’m getting into the more detailed grammar stuff and its complicated!)
Thank you all for being faithful in praying the past weeks even when I am less than faithful in keeping you updated.
:) Stasi!!
I am so sorry that I have not written for 3 weeks (and a half) let’s see if I can catch you up to speed on life in Slovakia:)
Week 33 started spending the day with the O’Connell’s in Kosice. It had the benefits of getting me out of the house and I got to visit them before they headed home for the holidays. I have not had so much fun with legos in a long time, thanks Will. The rest of the week was fairly borring. I was worn out an homesick with a long to-do list and little motivation. I did another round of edits on the CampFest Hymn video and not much else. I spent a lot of time waiting for people to look at what I had done. I baked a lot of cookies, baking cookies is a relaxing thing for me to do even if I have to use someone else’s kitchen and convert all my recipes into Metric. I was antsy all week because week 34 meant my birthday and Micah!
I spent the weekend cleaning and trying to get the video from the wedding captured to my computer and edited. It was a project that involved buying an external Hard Drive (in Slovak!), and dealing with a lot of switching video formats since I used one European camera and one American :). The video did not get finished before Micah came. I’m still working on it.
Monday of week 34 the YFC staff went to Svarin (the new ranch) for a annual 2-day vision casting meeting. We spent most of the day with everyone sharing about what they do on a daily basis, where they see their ministry going and what God has done in the last year. It was a very encouraging time. And in the evening after the meetings were done it was nice to just hang out there. Since the meetings were announced with short notice, I was not there for the second day since that was the day that Micah was flying in.
Tuesday I woke up very early, took a bus and then a train to get to Kosice to pick up Micah from the airport.(I bought the train ticket all by myself for the first time!! Let’s do the public transportation success dance!) Andrea took me from the train station to the airport and when I got there Micah was waiting with his suitcase the size of a house (he brought my birthday and Christmas from my family). Big smiles. We took a bus back to Presov and then a city bus to my house. Micah stayed with Martin in the room next door. We had a very relaxing time, watched black and white movies, ate pizza by candlelight and talked a lot.
The highlight of his visit was on my birthday when we went to see some castle ruins and had a picnic, Micah surprised me with Ale-8. And as if Ale-8 and a castle for my birthday weren’t enough, that evening we danced on my balcony and he asked me to marry him. I said yes :) (as always, pictures at Flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/stasigh )
(side note: the highlight for Micah was the coffee shop in town that had good coffee and chocolate cake)
Toward the end of his trip, I started loosing the battle with the cough I was fighting so we didn’t do a lot of exciting stuff mostly hanging out and I took a lot of naps. We spent Sunday in Kosice where we went to a church that feels a lot like Mars Alliance and an American spoke.
By the time Micah went home, on Wednesay morning, I had totally lost the battle and spent the rest of the week coughing my lungs up, sick in bed. My plan had been to make a few of my favorite thanksgiving dishes to share with the Biros family, but since I was too dead to get out of bed to shop for what I needed and no one would have wanted anything that germy me cooked anyway, I celebrated Thanksgiving in bed and let Mrs. Birosova feed me Haluski.
Today is Monday and I am finally back in the office. It is good to start getting back to my regular routines. I am still feeling a little sluggish but I think a bit of Pepsi will help with that :) (i am my mother's daughter!)
This week I’ll be capturing CampFest video so that we can edit the 2006 DVD and I’ll also keep tweaking the Music Video and CampFest hymn video as suggestions keep coming. This weekend is a big worship festival/conference here in Presov and we are having 24 hour prayers leading up to that. There will be a lot of little details and technical things to get done.
Please continue to pray, especially for:
-Worship Conference/Festival in Presov this weekend
-My being all here (homesick, distracted with being engaged, on the downward side of my year, trying to find out where God wants to send me next -- all of that might distract me from beign where I am)
-Slovak learning (I’m getting into the more detailed grammar stuff and its complicated!)
Thank you all for being faithful in praying the past weeks even when I am less than faithful in keeping you updated.
:) Stasi!!
November 22, 2006
sick in a foreign country
it is 11:30. mrs Biros heard me hacking my lungs up and came in took me downstairs took my temperature (i learned the word for thermometer) (i do not have a fever)she fed me potato pancakes with onions and tried to give me sour milk(it's a normal drink here) i ended up with just plain warm milk and i have no clue what the pill is that i just took. i feel taken care of. and very tired
goodnight
goodnight
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)