Poland

I just got back from a week in Wisla, Poland with the other volunteers for our mid year retreat. It was wonderful to see the other volunteers in Slovakia, and this time we joined with volunteers also from America and Germany serving in the Czech Rep. and Poland. All together there were about twenty-one volunteers and then the three country coordinators who led the seminars. We spent a lot of time in discussion and talking about successes and failures with our placements, new relationships being built, stereotypes, conflict management, and so on. We also had some free time when we were able to go hiking, see the town of Wisla, and go on a horse and carriage ride (it was supposed to be a horse drawn sleigh but there was not snow!!)

Some highlights from the week:

-“How can you not have paprika chips in America? Are you stupid!?”
-Performing skits about conflicts we may encounter…”I cannot drink another cup of coffee!!!!!”
-Performing skits about Slovakia and the culture-
*“When you go back to America can you tell Weezer I say hello?”
*“You must wear slippers! You will get sick if you don’t!”
*“You must drink more slivovica for your health!”
*“You can’t sleep in the room with the computer, it could make you sick!”
*”Do you speak English or German?” “No, I speak Slovak, Czech, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Croatian…”
-Arm chair beds
-Hair cutting
-Cooking sausages over the fire
-Singing our original song: The Tesco Tribute
-Drawing the stereotypical German and American
-Hearing all about the tiger pants

The week was so much fun and it is always great to spend time with Danka and the other volunteers. After a week of that it was a little difficult coming back to the village, but I am thankful for that time we had.

Ahoj!
Christmas is over and it is already January! Stastny novy rok vsetci! (Happy New Year everyone!) Christmas was a lot of fun here in Horna Micina and I will share all about the culture in my newsletter, that hopefully will be written and sent out very soon! After Christmas and New Year's I took a short trip with the Pastor's family to Rajec, a village outside of Zilina to visit his family. After that I spent the weekend with Kristen, the volunteer in Velky Slavkov. I returned to Micina and there was snow everywhere! I have had fun with snowball fights, sledding, and of course shoveling the snow on the walkway to the church. It's funny because the translation from Slovak to English literally means "throwing out the snow", so I threw out a lot of snow! As I trudge through the snow and ice Pani Hulinova is always making sure I am okay. She sees me walk by and is so concerned that I am going to freeze to death or slip and fall or something! "Pod, pod dnu. To je zima!"(Come, come inside. It's cold!) she always says. She always asks me if I am cold, if it's cold in my room, and if the walkway from the building is cleared. I tell her I am just fine, but she is always concerned about me. And then she asks me if I have talked to my mom and dad on the phone and makes sure I am doing okay. As I leave she puts some fruit and biscuits in my bag to take with me. She is such a sweet lady!
I have posted all the Christmas cards I got around my room which has brightened things up- Thank you to everyone for all the Christmas wishes! Next week is already the midterm seminar with all the volunteers in Poland, which is hard for me to believe! Hopefully I will send out my newsletter soon and you can read about Christmas and New Year's!