Day 6 (aka "Screeching Reunions") (aka "Cherished Memories Part 4") (aka "THE FIRST DAY OF CAMP!")

Today I'm combining my "daily journal" of the Slovenia trip with my "Cherished Memories" series because, well, why not?

Day 6 of our trip was amazing.  Like, the whole entire day.  Like, this post is going to be long because it was so awesome.

The morning started off with a great team devotion at the top of the hill at orientation.  We talked about Philippians 4:4-9 (my favorite verses and verses that we talked about during morning devotions on our last trip to Slovenia) (I'm looking at you Travis).  Afterward, we took some group pictures and enjoyed the view.  We then walked back down to our rooms to get ready to go.  We packed our bags, drug them down the stairs, and loaded them in the cars.  We then took turns getting rides down to a rest area where the bus picked us up.  Then we waited and waited and waited.  FINALLY, the bus showed up and I flipped out.  I ran and jumped and screamed and hugged my friends that I met at Winter Camp last year.  It was so wonderful.  It was amazing.  This is the "cherished memory" of the day.  It was great knowing that the students missed me as much as I missed them.  We immediately got to hanging out, talking, laughing, telling (bad) jokes, and singing songs.  I also started meeting new students and tried (and failed) to learn their names.  We then boarded the bus and embarked on the long drive to the castle.

Once we arrived, we walked up the hill and immediately got to work. The students signed in, received their shirts, wrist bands, and journals and went to get interviewed for English classes.  I went upstairs and started organizing all of the supplies that we would be using for the rest of the week.  This is where my first, last, and only emotional breakdown would happen (which is a success in my book).  Luckily, I had Becky there to keep me calm.  Once we finished, we got settled in our rooms, played games, and continued to try to learn names.  The biggest hurdle was trying to pronounce their names correctly (they roll their R's).

At night program, we started learning the camp dance, the camp songs, and talked about what we would be discussing the rest of the week (God and life).  We then broke off into discussion groups where we would get to know the students in our classes.  Once discussion groups were over, we went back into the main room to play circle games (I freaking love circle games).

Eventually, we all went back to our rooms and got ready for bed.  I did a small devotion, freaked out at the fact that I was in FREAKING SLOVENIA, and then, finally, fell asleep.

I don't think I could have been any happier in that moment.

-Ashley

(The lake.  I'm not sure what that dark spot is.)

 

(Walking up to the castle.)

 

(The castle we lived in for an entire week.)

 

(Another view. Josh took this picture from the villa where the guys stayed.)

 

(Hanging out at camp.)

Day 4 and 5 (aka "orientation is da bomb dot com")

So, I decided to combine day 4 and day 5 of our trip into one post.  The main reason for doing this (besides laziness) is because I can't remember which day we learned certain things.  Orientation kind of blurs together for me, so just having one "Orientation" post sounded like a good idea.

Now I realize that most people hear the word "orientation" and probably shudder and, honestly, I usually do the same.  Orientation is usually synonymous with boredom, facts, rules, and being talked down to (like, "I have information that you don't have and you have to listen to me to get this information that you don't have.").  BUT, I was excited about this orientation.  This one meant seeing friends, laughing A LOT, pranks, gag gifts, dancing, singing, praying, interesting information, chocolate, bonding, unity, and coffee (lots of coffee).  Obviously, the thing I was excited most about was seeing friends that I haven't seen in months (Dan and Barbara), in a year (Brad and Laurel), or in a year and a half (Andrej and Nina).  These people mean a lot to me and the chance to get to reconnect with them was thrilling.

One thing I would like to note is that our camp was not the only camp that was being held the following week.  So at orientation, the workers of multiple camps were being trained there.  It was really cool being able to hang out and learn with others who have a desire to serve in Slovenia.  So, because of that, there were a lot of people there.

At orientation we learned about the cultural differences between Slovenes and Americans, we learned about the history of Slovenia and how it affects Slovenes today (probably my favorite lesson at orientation), we learned how to teach our English classes (this was the most helpful talk), we learned how to lead effective discussion groups, we learned how to share the gospel without speaking "Christianese", and we learned how to reach out to the students using our fingers to remember (thumb = next step discipleship, pointer = direct with respect, middle = listen to Jesus and respond, ring = watch your language dude, pinky = it takes a village to raise a child).  [Note: We actually learned a lot more that just that, but 1) I can't remember it all and 2) this post is already getting too long.]  I really didn't expect to learn as much as I did at orientation.  It went really well.  As a matter of fact, we were asked after camp if there was anything at orientation that we would change, and I couldn't think of anything.  Every lesson was necessary and important and was communicated excellently.

Thanks for reading this long and boring post.  I promise that Day 6 will be exciting because it will be the first day of camp (woo-hoo)!!!!

-Ashley

What do you think of when you hear the word "orientation"?

(Josh's room at orientation. Exciting, huh?)

 (Our team had morning bible studies at the top of a hill near the hostel  This was the view from the top of that hill.)

 (This was right in front of the hostel.)

(Apartments right across the street from where orientation was held.)

(The morning bible study on the last day of orientation.)

 (Josh and I being awesome at orientation.)

(Jesse and Sam are awesome too.)

(So blessed to have met these two ladies. Vanessa and Vesna are super awesome.)

Cherished Memories Part 3 (a little late)

Hey there.  Ummm... so it's been a while.  Sorry about that.  I could use the excuse that life got busy, but that wouldn't be true.  Yeah, so here we go...

Ugh!  This is already starting to get difficult.  I have so many cherished memories that choosing JUST ONE is not fun!  But if I were to choose just one, it would have to be my last English class session.  I mean all of them are a cherished memory, but the last one was very special.

Let me go back and explain.  The main purpose of the trip was to help run an English camp.  Everyone on the Florida team was divided up and given different jobs.  My job was to teach an English class.  I had 6 students in my class (Jan #1, Jan #2, Janja, Rene, Nejc, and Primož), 1 assistant (Bobby), and 1 translator (Karmen).  We spent the entire week together doing English lessons in the morning and discussion groups in the evening.  Throughout the week we were also working on a presentation to preform for the parents.  On Saturday morning, we were to have one last lesson to prepare and practice our presentation.  Before that lesson, I decided to do a little exercise with a ball of yarn.  This is how it works: one person would hold on to the end of the yarn and throw the ball to someone in the room.  The person who threw the ball would then give the person who caught the ball a compliment.  Then the person who caught the ball would throw the ball to someone else (while holding on to the string).  Then that person would receive a compliment from the person who threw it.  We basically did this a few times around until it created a cool looking web.  This moment was very special to me.  At first, I was worried at how well this exercise would go over.  I figured that my students would think it was stupid and would not want to participate.  Boy, was I sorely mistaken.  The things that were said in that room were the most well thought out, kind, encouraging, and meaningful compliments that anyone could ever hear.  In that moment, I knew how important my job was at camp and was extremely thankful for it.  The bonds that were formed that week are the kind that cannot be replicated.  No one will understand the unity that we had in that room in that moment.  And honestly, my words will never be able to describe what I felt (pride and joy are two words that come to mind, but even then, they aren't enough).

If you were in my class and you are reading this, thank you.  You guys and gals are very special to me.  :)

-Ashley

P.S. These pictures were taken with Bobby's iPod, so the quality of the pictures aren't that great.

Take #2

So, I decided to remake the video that was in the last post.  I think this one is better.  I even put some outtakes in the end (go me)!  I hope you enjoy it.  :)

-Ashley

Do you have any experience with iMovie or Windows Movie Maker?  Which one do you like better?

P.S. If I haven't explained yet, this is the dance that we learned at English Camp.  That is why it is on this blog.  It's totally Slovenia related.

No "Cherished Memories" this week

So, I totally forgot to post a "Cherished Memories" blog this week.  Well, actually, I remembered, but I have been busy since Saturday and haven't had a chance to write one.  So, instead, I will post this video for your viewing pleasure.  It's a video of part of the Florida team doing the camp dance.  We made it today and I'm proud to say that I did the editing on this video.  The first video I have ever edited and the first time I have ever used iMovie (considering that I use a PC, I'm pretty proud that I figured it out).  I hope you like it!!

-Ashley

Have you ever learned a "camp dance?"  If so, what song did you dance to?

Day 3

June 27, 2013

Phew! Yesterday was a long day, wasn't it? I can't believe I made it!  I was touch and go for a while there.  haha.

So today is the day!  Today is the day that we finally go to Slovenia!  Our entire group is freaking out!  As much fun as sight seeing in Austria was, we did not come on this trip to see Vienna, we came to go to Slovenia.  Everyone in our group woke up refreshed (I never felt any jet lag from this point forward) and ready to go.  We packed our bags (again) and drove to the airport to board the smallest plane I have ever flown in to fly to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Side note:
When we were leaving our gate to board the shuttle that was gonna take us to our plane, the women scanning our tickets were putting tags on our carry on bags.  I just figured it was some protocol that they had to make sure we weren't trying to sneak bags onto the plane in between the gate and the plane.  So, I boarded the shuttle, got off, then boarded the plane with my bag (like you do on most flights).  When I got on the plane, I tried to put my carry on in the overhead bin, but it wasn't fitting.  Some business man behind me murmured that I should put my bag "downstairs".  I was really confused by that statement.  What did he mean downstairs?  Like, under my seat?  Because it definitely won't fit there.  So, I zipped up the extended part of my carry on (to make it smaller) and shoved it in the overhead bin.  Josh was right behind me and he shoved his carry on in the overhead bin as well.  We sat down (in the wrong seats, because a man made me move) and got ready to take off.  Then, right before we were about to take off, Josh noticed a cart with everyone's carry ons being loaded underneath the plane.  Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!  That's what he meant by downstairs and that's why they put those tags on our bags.  Wow, I'm usually observant of those things, but I totally missed that.  Oh well.

Ok, back to the story.  We landed in Slovenia and decided to try and pull a prank on Brad (one of the missionaries in Slovenia) by trying to say that Kiara didn't board the plane somehow.  When we walked out, Andrej (another missionary) was there, so we tried to prank him instead.  I'm not sure if he believed it or not, but it was still funny.

We all loaded up in two vehicles and drove to Lake Bled.  This was amazing.  Let's just say that if you do an image search of "Slovenia" in Google, you will see pictures of Bled.  We hung out here, took pictures, played with Swans, and then went and got lunch.  After lunch, we walked through Vintgar Gorge.  Words cannot describe the beauty of this place.  I've seen a lot of beautiful landscape in my lifetime (I've been to Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Tetons, the Rocky Mountains, the Smoky Mountains, the Everglades, the Grand Canyon, and so on), but I'm pretty sure this place takes the cake.  It was amazing.  We walked, took pictures, ate ice cream, and watched Nathan (another missionary) do a back flip off of a bridge.

From there, we finally headed to the hostel where orientation was being held.  We settled in and began orientation.  We didn't talk about much the first night, and honestly I don't remember much from the first night.  All I remember is that there was a coffee shop/bar across the street from us that had good WiFi.  This is where we went every night to hang out and check Facebook.

So there you have it.  Day number three of our trip, but day number one of Slovenia.  Things were starting to get real, and camp hasn't even started yet!

-Ashley

Do you have any funny travel stories where you did something that you weren't supposed to do?  I have PLENTY!  Please share them with me in the comments below!  :)

 (The castle on Lake Bled.  This castle and the church in the next picture are the two things that you see when you Google search "Slovenia.")

(The church on the island in Lake Bled.)

(A swan and her babies approached us.)

(They  got so close that we could touch them.)

 (As you can see here, they are used to being fed.)

 (But they also attack.)

(A great panoramic view that Josh took.)

(Sam, Bobby, and Becky at lunch after visiting Lake Bled.)

(These pictures do not do this gorge justice.)

 (I took so many pictures.  I was hard narrowing them down to just a few.)

 (I didn't mean to include this random stranger in this picture.  Oops!)

 (There are tons of this kind of stuff in Slovenia.)

(So beautiful.)

 (Andrej telling some fake story about some ruins.)

 (So beautiful.)

(Jessie and I in front of an old, unused dam.)

 

(Josh and I in front of that same dam.)

 (Cool looking bridge over the same dam.)

(Here is a video of the swan in Lake Bled.)

(Here is a video of Nathan doing a back flip off of a bridge in Vintgar.)

Cherished Memories Part 2

Our walk to town.

Every summer, Josiah Venture hosts their English Camp at a castle in Austria.  This castle is located very close to a town (just a short walk away).  At most camps in America, if it were close to a town, there would be a rule that the students cannot walk to town.  This rule would be set in place for one of two reasons:  to avoid accident or injury which could lead to a lawsuit, or to create an atmosphere of "being away" from society.  Both are good enough reasons to set this rule and I usually do not have a problem with it.  But one thing I think is AWESOME is that at English Camp, they allow their students to walk to town with an adult.  So, on the first day of camp, I walked to town with a group of ladies to go site seeing.  It was a blast!  We asked construction men if we could walk through their construction site (we could), we took pictures of a statue in the middle of a lake, we chatted, and we went souvenir shopping.  And then when we got back, we were so hot and tired, some of us jumped in the lake with all of our clothes on.  It was so much fun!  Walking to Millstat, Austria will be a memory that I will cherish for a long time.

-Ashley

Have you ever had an experience at a camp (as a counselor or a student) where you were allowed to leave?  Tell me about it.

(Our group walking to town.)

(A statue in the middle of the lake.  We couldn't figure out if it was a man or woman.)

(The town is located right next to the lake.)

(We just left the souvenir shop.)

 

(Apparently we walked by a mini golf place.  I just now realized that.)

(A panorama of the lake on our walk back to the castle.) 

(I took one last photo of town during our walk back.)

Day 2

June 26, 2013

Remember, at this point in the trip, I'm running off of less than 4 1/2 hours of sleep and have been awake for 12 hours when our plane takes off.  All nine of us are now officially on our way to Dusseldorf, Germany.  Despite our lack of sleep the night before (no one on our team could sleep), we are all feeling pretty energetic and excited at this point.

I have flown across seas only one other time in my life and it was miserable (the first mission trip to Slovenia).  I couldn't sleep on the plane and I got extremely frustrated.  I started to cry because all I wanted to do was sleep (I even drank some complimentary wine to help me fall asleep).  I didn't even watch a movie the entire flight because I had intentions of reading my Bible and sleeping.  This didn't work.  Knowing all of this, I went into this flight with no intentions of sleeping.  Becky, BJ, and I all started watching Cloud Atlas at around the same time.  At about 45 minutes, I turned it off because it was too disturbing for me.  I watched Legally Blonde instead.  haha.  It definitely passed the time.

At some point on the flight, I don't know when, I got to thinking about camp.  Excitement totally overwhelmed me.  I couldn't stop thinking about seeing the students that I was going to see again and the new students I was going to meet.  I was flipping out.  I then realized that there was a problem.  I saw that my zeal for seeing the students was greater than my zeal for God and telling the students about Him.  Not that being excited to see the students was wrong, but when it surpasses God, I'm in dangerous territory.  I then spent a good 30 minutes asking God to change my heart attitude, to make my desire be for Him alone.  I prayed for His movement at camp and for students to come to see Him.  Boy, did He honor that prayer!  More on that later!

After our long (8 hours) and extremely boring (except for 30 minutes) plane flight, we landed in Germany.  From there we flew to Vienna, Austria.  It's about 10 a.m. in Austria when we land.  So at this point, we are running off of about 4 1/2 hours of sleep and have been awake for almost 24 hours.  We went to our hotel before we could check in and dropped our luggage off.  Then we walked to a nearby restaurant and got lunch.  Here, exhaustion set in.  All I wanted to do was go to our hotel room, get a shower, and sleep.  After eating "wiener schnitzel," Josh, Bobby, Sam, Jesse, and I all went back to the hotel to take showers while Becky, BJ, Kiara, and Tori went sightseeing.  The shower totally reinvigorated our group and we went out sightseeing as well.  The best part was seeing St. Stephen's Cathedral.  It was absolutely amazing and breathtaking.  The other group saw a ginormous palace.  After a long day of sightseeing, we all got pizza and went to our rooms and passed out at about 8:30 pm.  That means, Josh and I were awake for 34 hours when we went to bed (with only of 4 1/2 of sleep before that).  To say we were tired would be an understatement.

Do you have any travel stories where you had to be awake for over 24 hours?  Leave a comment!

-Ashley

(This is the Vienna State Opera [Wiener Staatsoper] House.)

 (I took this picture from the restaurant where we ate lunch.)

(Jesse, Bobby, Becky, and B.J. trying to stay awake at lunch.)

(Sam and Josh looking tired.)

(Graffiti everywhere!)

(Cool looking architecture everywhere too.)

 (Statues...)

 (statues...)

(statues...)

 (and more statues.)

 (The highlight of our day, St. Stephen's Cathedral!)

 (Another view...)

 (Proof that we were there!)

(Josh and I "looking candid" in front of a fountain.)