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.)

Day 1

Here we go. In an attempt to talk about my trip and all of the awesome things that happened on it, I am going to go through each day and talk about what happened on that day.  I will also post pictures for your viewing pleasure.

June 25, 2013

At about midnight, Josh and I finally went to bed after frantically cleaning our house and packing for the trip.  Then, at about 4:30 a.m., our alarm clocks go off.  We got up, got ready, and drove to Fanning Springs Community Church to meet the rest of the team at 6:00 a.m.  Here is when the first bummer of the trip started.  Jesse forgot to grab her awesome professional camera when walking out the door.  She was pretty upset.

Then we packed up the trailer and drove to Miami-freaking-Florida.  This drive was about 6 hours long.  We checked in our baggage, I was yelled at by the German employee for not buying my ticket under my maiden name, and we boarded our plane at 3:55 p.m.  We were all super excited about our trip and we were ready to go!

This basically concludes our first day.  We flew overnight to Dusseldorf, Germany and landed there early the next morning.  My next post will be about the flight and our next day in Europe.

-Ashley

 Bobby asleep in the van on the way to Miami.

B.J. asleep on the van on the way to Miami.

 Josh and I showing our excitement for our trip to Slovenia.

 Becky waiting in the airport.

 Kiara waiting in the airport.

 Jesse making a face while waiting in the airport.

Tori (aka Skittles) waiting in the airport.

I think I just made a hasty decision...

Lately, I've been looking at my old blog posts and thinking, "Ugh! Did I really post that? I hope no one reads it because it is so embarrassing!" The more I thought, the more I hated them. So, in an effort to make this blog have one theme, I reverted all of my old posts back to drafts (so they are not permanently deleted, but you cannot see them) and I have decided to make this my Adventures in Slovenia blog. This blog will be about all things Slovenia. Examples include:

Stories from my first trip.

Stories from my second trip.

Fundraising for future trips.

Stories from future trips.

Prayer requests for Slovenia.

Praise reports from Slovenia.

My "Cherished Memories" series.

People that I have met through my trips to Slovenia.

And much much more!

I'm probably gonna regret this decision later. Most likely I'm gonna change the name of this blog and create a new Journey (the way up is down) blog and start that one fresh. We will see.

-Ashley

(Josh and I at orientation right before English Camp in Slovenia)

I'M BAAAAAAACK! (Cherished Memories part 1)

OH EM GEE!  I absolutely, 100 percent, cannot believe that I made it through my trip to Slovenia.  Craziness!  Let me tell you, it was a whirlwind of a ride.  So many memories will be cherished forever.  Because of that, I will start a new blog series called, "Cherished Memories in Slovenia" (original, I know).  Today will be my first post:

I know this sounds backwards, but I cherished seeing all of the students that I met on the last trip that were not at English Camp on this trip.  Let me explain.

This girl's name is Karmen.  She went to Winter Camp last year.  I loved getting to know her and the friendship we made there, but she was unable to go to English Camp this year which was a total bummer.  BUT she made a special trip out to Ptuj just to see our team!  What a special treat!  This is a cherished memory that I will never forget.

Other teens that I saw that were not at English Camp were Simona, Urška, Mateja, Tina, and Lina.  I'm sure I am forgetting others, but it was so sweet seeing this ladies!  The fact that they took time out of their busy schedules to come see us was an honor.

More cherished memories to come next Monday!

-Ashley