Ahoj (slovakian salutation. Pronounced: ahoy)!
We made it safely back to Cieszyn, Poland from Slovakia. I had a marvelous time in Slovakia, with the people from the church there and with the group of Americans. If you want a little more detail on our travel back from Slovakia (and see a few pictures I don't have on my blog) you can read carrie's blog (on my blog list).
It's morning--Annie and Alana left already to go to the little market and to bring something back for breakfast--and the weather looks beautifully cool. I've been surprised how cool it's been all summer with only a few really warm spells...
I uploaded the pictures small, because it was taking a long time to upload them the other way...
Here we go...

This is the city square in Cieszyn, where I am now. It's the beautiful little city on the Czech border. The church where we are staying is about 1/5 blocks away from here...

There's Jane and Ray walking along...

When we arrived in Slovakia they had dinner and the youth group waiting for us!!!

This is the sign on one of the bathrooms in the mission house that belongs to Mata's church where we were staying for the first few days in Slovakia...

The guy playing the drum is Mata's brother. He's pretty talented and musically oriented. This is in the mission house called Escape. It's a really great idea. The church actually bought the house with the money they made from producing christmas-cassette tapes after the fall of communism. They sold around 80,000 of them and purchased this house which is now used for all kinds of events with the church and youth, as well as housing people who come to help or visit or anything. It has a kitchen upstairs and downstairs and lots of rooms and sleeping accomodations. It's a really great idea, anyway, and they really use it!

Mata and some others took us on a walk through the little city of Partizanske. You can see the fountain on the right..this whole wide plaza/park thing runs to that apartment building and then there is about 500 meters more of park and grass on the other side of the building. Marina, one of the original christians in this town who started the church, told us that they build that apartment building during the communist era to block people's view of the church at the end of the parky thingy. It's so true. That building is like an ugly, un-matching mass in the middle of the open space of the city...

We went for a walk to this little cafe/pub thing and had to walk by the Gypsy section of town.

The Gypsys are the social outcasts. Mata told us that the Slovaks don't like the Gypsys and the Gypsys don't like the Slovaks. They live in this ghetto (picture makes it look nice) with no doors on their buildings. (I think the no-door thing is cultural...)

Here is the backyard of the Escape house in Partizanske. It was really beautiful. You can see that the whole little town is surrounded by mountains. And back in the back of the picture you can see apartment buildings. Mata's grandparents live in ones like those on the edge of town and we were invited there for lunch. They served us amazing food (lots of it) and we talked to them for a while. They told us cool stories and we had a really great time. Everywhere we went we were singing for people...lots of spirituals and gospel-type songs...



This is Alma, the missionary from Mexicao, and Denis the translator. Alma was intense and fun to be around and Denis is a really good translator.

Here are four of the five ladies who started the church here about 20 years ago. They are all musicians and worked or went to the music school in town. Marina, the lady with the guitar, was the first christian and then the others followed and banded together. They went through hard times and persecution but stayed firm in the faith....

Hilary, Jane, and Annie on the balcony at Escape.

Carrie, Annie, and Alana eating slovakian wafer thingy.

Here is a view of the city where the castle and the zoo are. Slovakia is very mountainous and lush...beautiful countryside.

Here is the little train station in Chynorany, Mata's village where we stayed for the last few nights.

We had a bbq at Mata's house. [I'm getting hungry for breakfast and don't feel like writing so much.]

But we had a really good time, lots of good conversations and singing, and lots of food.

Mata and Esther

Me and Mishko, Mata's little bro.

Ok, I'm going to go make some tea and try to survive until Annie and Alana come back with breakfast, which shouldn't be long!

Slovakia 2

I'm sorry everyone, that I am not going to be able to post pictures right now. It takes so long to upload them. I will do my best to eventually get them on there though.
We have been having a good time. Today we:

ate food
went to a castle
ate food
walked a bit
ate cake
went to the zoo
ate food
came home
ate food

They feed us a lot here, but they are wonderfully hospitable and generous. I love the people here at Mata's church!

Slovakia

Well folks, we made it to Slovakia! This keyboard is strange, but I just switched it to English. So it's better now.
I spent last night in Cieszyn, Poland at the church there. We had a nice time and the set-up is really good. The church has places to stay, like dorm-ish places, showers, kitchens...the whole works. It's really practical and cool. Plus, the people are very generous.
Now we're staying at Mata's church's Mission House. It basically has places to stay and is utilized by the church. The youth group hangs out here.
Interesting comment of the day: There is a bathroom here in the Mission House in which the toilet doesn't work. On the door it says in Slovak that you aren't supposed to do your business there and the English word they use for 'business' is a profanity. We all got a laugh about that, especially because it's in a church-ish building.
Mata is doing super!
We made music and sang this evening...
I'm going to go to bed!

End of the Semester

Hey! I'm posting and I've got some pictures. I'm trying to take pictures, and it's working to some extent. Alright! I'll do them chronologically-ish.
Let's see, yesterday was Wednesday. Wednesday, Wednesday, what did I do yesterday. Hold on. I'm thinking...I mean, I have a picture from yesterday, but I thought I wanted to say something else about the day...
Well, I had a test that went really well, and I bought a cool brown little sweater. And realized that, although I am not at all superstitious, there would seem to be some sort of connection between me not having an umbrella and it raining. I decided yesterday that I didn't want to run back inside and grab an umbrella. Alas, it poured rain. Then today I was like, 'aha, I'm not going to forget this time' and it looked as though it would start pouring all day, but it didn't.

Yesterday evening was the Navigators end-of-the-semester get together. We met at Kelley's house (American who's been living in Germany for something like 18 years. She's cool) and ate food and talked and had a good time.

Me, Alex, Hanna, and Kelley

Alex drove me home late last night. This morning I woke up and was like 'hey, I'm all alone here. What can I do?', and so I got up and made pancakes. They were delicious. It was like a special little Hilary-eats-American-breakfast-for-the-first-time-in-5-months.

There they are. Lovely, lovely.

Then I put water on to boil, tons of it for a bath, and began to study for the test that I was supposed to have. I studied, took a nice bath (!), and then studied some more--not realizing that I was actually studying right through the time that I was supposed to be taking the test. I realized this only after the professor didn't show for what I thought was a 1:30 appointment. After recognizing my error I emailed the professor, apologizing and asking if he had time on Friday. He wrote back shortly that he we can do the test tomorrow! Thanks for praying, and praise the Lord. I'm very grateful for this.

By that time it was late enough that I didn't want to go home and then all the way back to Bonn again to meet my friends from class, so I went to Leonie's house...

Leonie and me

Then I went to Bonn and met up with Shotaro, Chris, Moei (I don't know the spelling.) and another nice girl--whose name I cannot remember.

We ate ice cream and then went to this Tex-Mex sort of place. We had a good time talking and hanging out. It's strange to think that I probably won't see some of these people ever again...

nice girl, Moei, Chris, Shotaro, me

Moei and Chris

And that was my day today. Oh yeah, besides buying beets! Yay!

Now this is something completely unrelated, but oh well.

Annie took this picture of me, but it was very discriptive of how I feel after sight-seeing for too long on an empty stomach...

Accompanying thought: "This is a really nice old city wall gate thing. If we don't go soon, happy thoughts will no longer be going through my head."

Though I must say, the whole Trier experience was much better than I thought it would be. The Roman Amphatheatre was cool...

I can hear the rain dripping outside the window. I love that sound. I'm going to try to get some sleep and be fit for my tests tomorrow!

Rainy

It was rainy again today, but I see the sun beginning to shine through the clouds...
Thanks to everyone for praying for my exam today. I am so grateful that it went so well! Thank you Lord!
I'll try to take some more pictures soon to put up...

The Rhine

Today, after not having a test due to a miscommunication with the professor, I spent the afternoon with Angelika. This evening we went to the Rhine together, took the Ferry across, and had a lovely time. The sunny weather makes for beautiful evenings on the Rhine.

Here we are on the Ferry...

And there she is looking like her cute artistic self...

So I'm planning on flying to Poland on Saturday to meet up with Jane, Ray, Carrie, Annie and Alana. I'll also be done with tests on Friday!

Tests

Praise the Lord I'm done with two of my tests. Thanks so much for praying, everyone!!!

I made an incredibly delicious applecake yesterday with Angelika.
The weather is sunny, which is another praise.
I saw this really cool pair of shoes today in Bonn. (the wonderful little brown ones you bought me along time ago, Mom, are finally biting the dust). Alas, they were 120 euros. Maybe they'll go on sale, you never know.
Felicitas made this runny yogurty stuff and you can make tasty yogurt drinks with it.
The corn is now above my head.
Oh yeah. I figured out that the my shower in the basement has a plug that allows you to fill the shower with about 5 inches of water. So I can take a warm mini-bath and I don't have to heat up mega amounts of water to get it good temp. Warmness.
Oh, HUGE BREAKTHROUGH Amadeus and I had a good time this morning together. And I mean, I didn't just survive, I enjoyed it! We talked and he tried to help by doing his chore while I was cleaning, and he shook out a rug for me and ran around while I weeded the garden and sat (voluntarily) in my lap... Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Amadeus.

Milk

Maybe I never new how meaningful milk was to me until I opened the fridge this morning and discovered that someone had purchased milk and not only that...they had purchased 1.5% milk.

Let me explain...
I really love the fresh, whole milk that we get straight from the farmer. It's creamy and tasty--it defines milky-goodness. But it's so much! I mean, I can't imagine something better for Tea, but having it all the time in my cereal and stuff is just a little much. Plus, having 1.5% milk reminds me of my home.

I guess I'm not going to church with the rest of the family today. I left my bike in Bad-godesberg on Friday night because...well I'll have to explain that one too.

So I mentioned that it's been raining on and off for pretty much the entire week. When I say it rains, I mean it POURS. It doesn't sprinkle, it's like you're-drenched-in-two-minutes rain.
Scenario:
My friend Andrea calls and lets me know when the movie we want to watch is playing. I, living quite a distance from the city, look at my watch, run like a flash upstairs, scrummaged all my stuff together with speed like never before, and asked Vincens when the bus comes. Perfect: 2 minutes ago.
I look outside and see a few drops starting to fall. In less than a minute it's precipitating full-force. Reality hits me. If I wait for the rain to pass, I'll miss the train in Bad-godesberg. So, off with the bike it is. I don my bright-yellow, water-repelling poncho and head out.
Before I get to the bottom of my hill my face is completely soaked, and before I get to the top of the next slope I've got about a liter of water collected in the poncho-created lake between my handlebars.
I drive harder, determined to get to the train on time, but have to stop about 5 minutes into it because 1) I can't see very well, and 2) the lake between my hands is getting really heavy and I'm afraid it's all going to spill on me. I stop and dump out the lake which, to my great dismay, lands primarily on my left foot. Drat. Oh well.
Water is running in cascades from my knees down (where the Poncho doesn't cover) but I press on. I realize that I am creating some kind of airflow that is causing the poncho to fly up in the back which is 1) very intelligent looking, and 2) isn't very practical. It's probably just due to my terrific speeds.
I am nearing Bad-godesberg when it occurs to me that the rain is letting up. Letting up very fast. I make it to the train station with time to spare and the weather is normal: a few little rain droplets lingering in the air--and here I am, absolutely soaked through from the knees down.
I park my bike at the station, slop and sludge in and take the train to Bonn. And that is the saga of howcome my bike is not here to ride to church. I'm going to go to second service with either the bus or by foot.

In Bonn I watched Kung Fu Panda. It was quite clever and funny. Andrea and I both laughed out loud in the theatre...
Then I went and joined the Navi-women for the evening. We talked and had a great time. I had this really interesting drink. I had one of these for the first time when I was with Alex and Angela in March. Are you ready for this?
It's called cherry-banana juice. Yep. I strongly dislike artificial cheery flavour (though I LOVE real cherries) and I usually don't go for banana-ey things, but it--whatever it is--is made of not-artificial flavours. It would be really good to mix with yogurt and make a yogurt drink, I was just thinking...

I see blue skies out the window this morning, which is wonderful.

Today I'm going to spend some time studying for my Phonology test tomorrow. I can't really prepare for the writing one that I have because we're writing in class. That's another nice thing about language learning. It's so cumulative that if you learn steadily all the way along, then there's not a whole lot of studying you have to do at the end...or studying that you can do at the end.
I'm really excited about this week being over with. I'm dreading and looking forward to it--sort of. Part of looking forward to it is the knowledge that once I've done it is over...

Tomorrow is Mrs. C's birthday!!! Happy Birthday Mrs. C!!! Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! From the land of your birth I wish you: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!!!!!

cold

It's July 12th and my feet are freezing. It's been raining on and off pretty much all week. I do like several things about rain, especially the smell of the ground right after it rains, but it would be nice to have so sunshine!

I'll try to write more sometime after I warm up a bit...

Survival

I didn't perish from Tuesday, although I thought I would.
I wrote this Haiku during the first 1.5 hours of tutorial misery

My Cool Watch by H. Boothman

Mom gave me this watch
Multi-functioning coolness.
Mom: woman of wisdom

Sorry, my Haiku is deficient, but my watch is really super. Thanks again mom. I use the 3 alarms quite frequently. And it get's wet a lot too, and it still works because it's water proof.

I took a long walk up on my favourite place up behind the Sportplatz (dirt soccer field). It was beautiful and windy and I was by myself. My day is way better. Plus, the v. Bibras have a harmonica.

Tuesday!

Today is Tuesday. Tuesday is my least favourite university day of the week. I dread Tuesday. I was so happy to miss Tuesday last week. Ergg. I hope I survive--I will survive, but I usually feel frazzled and done-for by the end.

This morning we went to the Frau Güster's (the neighbor lady's) garden and picked Johannes berries. We picked a ton and then took them off the little stems and now we are going to make jam....some frozen and some cooked. I also got stung by stinging nettles while picking them and they made a bumpy raised patch on the top of my foot--it was more shocking than painful...and I got stung on the back of a couple of my fingers and they are itching...

Here we are taking the little red Johannes berries off the stems...Felicitas just put a johannesberry pie/cake type thing in the oven. Yummy.

And here is the picture of my stinging-nettle-wounded foot.

Mengni is frantically learning English. So I've begun talking some English with her, but it's really strange. It's like I have to force my self to consciously speak English with her, because we've always spoken in German. Our entire friendship is completely in German. That's pretty rad.

Tea, Coffee, Wind, Rain

Monday, Monday. Today I got up, ate breakfast, read my bible, drank a cup of delicious Tetley tea, took a cold/sponge shower, cleaned the upstairs bathroom, and intensively delved into the task of cleaning my basement responsibility--though I didn't finish--and wrote a short paper in German for my Textproduction class all before 11:12am. Then I hopped on my bike and rode to University.
The weather has been extremely capricious today: Rain, shine, wind, rain, wind, clouds, sun.
Today we had grammar/study for only half the time and then we went to a beer garden to finish off our last official day of learning for the semester in our textproduction class. Next week we have the test and then we're done!
Anyway, I drank a coffee--which is still making me sort of shake. I guess I'm out of the habit of drinking coffee...it didn't used to affect me so much. Actually, it doesn't always--maybe it was because I didn't eat anything shortly before, after, or during the coffee drinking. I had the best time talking with a few Japanese students and a chinese student from my class. They are a lot of fun to talk to, and they can speak really good German. Then I went again with one of the Japanese girls and a guy named Shataro to drink some Japanese tea. It was really good--not green tea, but roasted tea or something like that. (It's called Hojicha, with a line over the 'o').

And, I just came home and Christoph and Felicitas were arranging for Mengni to go to England for a couple of weeks to learn English in Canterberry. So, Mengni is going to England next week!

class again tomorrow

Today was beautiful. I took a long walk this afternoon up to my favourite place up above the village where there are wheat and Rye and corn fields. It reminds me of Pullman, where I can see for a long ways without trees obstructing my view...fresh and refreshing.

Anyway, here is a picture that was taken in the little apartment that we lived in in Paris. It was in the latin district (there were about as many latin people there as there are in greenland). Trude and I made these beautiful salads one day for lunch. I didn't really take many pictures...

And I took this one right after the Marston's flew away and I was back in the city. I tried to get into the Museum d'Orsay to see some van Gogh, but they wouldn't let me in with my pack. So I walked along the river for a while, trying to find a place to buy an almond croissant. Mrs. M opened my world to almond croissants, they are excellent.

The sky would also get this colour, I think it is called Parish Blue.

Paris...

Well, I spent last week in Paris. It was really really great. The city is cool, but what actually made it a good time was being with the Marston family.

We stayed in a small apartment in the Latin district, maybe a 10-15ish minutes south of the Seine River (I think that is how it's spelled), on the 7th floor (6th?). We had a little balcony and an amazing view.

We went to the Louvre, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, the Eifel Tower, and Sacre Coeur, but much better than all of that was spending time with Marstons...going to little markets and grocery shopping with Mrs. M, taking walks and seeing amazing things--Paris is full of them.

I think we are going to eat breakfast soon. I hope to get some pictures up sometime.