days nine, ten, and eleven: debrief and a journey home.

Finally, the long awaited conclusion to my trip to Slovenia!  That is, if anyone even is reading...

As was mentioned before, Thursday was our last day with the kids, so Friday morning we were all packed up and leaving the hotel at 9am.  A bus was picking us (and all of our luggage!) up and taking us to our next destination.  It was a tour bus that normally makes a loop from Portoroz (where we were) to Ljubljana (the capital...and no, I didn't have to look that up!) to Lake Bled and then back to Portoroz.  Here's a map if you want to have an idea of where we went.  However, Bled was our final destination, so they dropped us off there.  Since it was a tour, the guide talked as we made the two-hour (by bus) drive to Ljubljana.  It was interesting, informative, and her voice lulled pretty much everyone on the bus to sleep, at least for a short time.  Well, it was interesting, except for the beginning, when she talked about the weather for a good 5-10 minutes.  When she finished with that, she moved on to the climate.  Ok, lady, let's get to something a little more interesting!  After that she told us all kinds of facts about the country, talked about them gaining their independence, etc.  What I found to be interesting was the distinct types of architecture as we moved throughout the country.  Near the coast, the buildings/homes looked pretty typical of what you would think of Italy's coast.  Very Mediterranean looking.  As we moved north and inland, the style was much more what you would think of as Austrian, living in the Alps, type of look.  Contrasted with those both were the many apartment buildings in the northern part of Ljubljana that were built during the Communist era.  Bland and square.  It is a gorgeous country, though, and I enjoyed getting to see much of it!

Once we got to the city, we got off the bus, made a bathroom break (think: 23 people, 1 bathroom...it took awhile).  Then we began a walking tour around the city.  Here's some of what we saw:

Standing in the city center.  The circle on the ground shows the city center and the rest of the city is built circularly around it. 

This part of the city has no cars in it, so we were standing in the middle of the street, city center.

We walked a little way until we came to this cathedral dedicated to St. Nicholas (or Santa Claus).  Apparently this door was put in a few years ago when the Pope visited the city and the carvings in it depict the history of the country. 

It was beautiful inside.

This is the outdoor market just down the road.  This was Friday late morning, so it would be much busier on Saturdays.

Loved this old street.  Plus you can really see the curved street in this picture.

Loved this green door in the middle of this street.

Straight ahead you can see a hill.  We took a tram/cable car up the hill to visit the castle overlooking the city.

Going up! It had glass walls.

Courtney and I in the courtyard area.

Looking down to the city center.  That open area in the middle is where we were all standing before.

The view to the north.  The mountains you see in the distance are the Alps.

The stairs inside the castle.  It was actually two staircases that spiraled around each other, one for going up and the other for down.

Just an old street.  Love it!

Along one of the rivers. 

Beautiful river.  Don't remember the name, though...

Me, Kristen, Courtney, Erin: The young ladies on the team!

You can see how parts of the city are inspired by Italian architecture.  This was inspired by Venice.

At the end of our waling tour, we ate lunch at this restaurant.  It was a 4-course meal.  We were told that this was one of the first restaurants in the city.  When it was opened, they didn't realize they needed to name it so it became 6 - the street number of the building!

On to Lake Bled! This was the villa that we stayed at.  It was tall and narrow, quite modern inside, and we had the whole place to ourselves.

My room for the last couple of nights.  Rille and Jeannette's bed.

My bed in the corner.  (I was thrilled to have my own!)

It was getting to be evening by this point, but we wanted to take a walk to the lake before it was completely dark.  Here's one shot from the northern end of the lake.  You can see the castle overlooking the lake.  Lake Bled is quite famous for the island in the middle with a church on it.  By the time we walked close enough to see it, it was too dark for pictures.

This is what Lake Bled looks like not at night. A gorgeous place!  (This shot was taken from the southern part of the lake.) 
A couple more views: one and two!

We had a lovely dinner Friday night...another four-course meal!  And not too many hours after lunch, too...we were stuffed.

The view from the second floor balcony where we were staying.  Nothing like a gorgeous view of the Alps in your backyard on a Saturday morning...

Saturday morning we had our team debrief.  Then we had the rest of the day to do what we wanted before meeting up our big, final dinner that night.  A group of us opted to go back into Ljubljana and do a little shopping and sightseeing.  I didn't really take any pictures since we visited most of the same places as the day before.  Before our taxi picked us up, we had a little time to kill, so we visited this wonderful coffee and dessert shop.

Enjoying a little gelato!

That's pretty much the end of my pictures, but there's still a little bit more story to tell.  That evening we went to our team dinner (yes, another four-course meal!) and had a great time together.  We went back to the hotel and packed our things in preparation for an early departure the next morning.

Sunday morning came quite early.  Most people rolled out of bed and got ready.  Me, being who I am, I guess, wanted to take a shower.  Mostly because my hair needed to get the day before's gel out and to be rescrunched.  For some reason, though, that morning there was no hot water.  I mean none.  Thankfully the shower head came down so I could just get my hair wet.  Plus the frigid water running down my back.  Think the coldest, iciest water you've ever felt showering over your head.  I got an instant brain freeze.  It was delightful, really.  (If that part of the story sounds bad, just wait...)

I get ready and finished packing, as does the rest of the crew.  We had a bus that was supposed to be picking us up, I think it was around 5am or so, maybe earlier.  I don't really remember now.  Anyhow, the bus arrives and they start loading and quickly determine that there is no way all of us and all of our luggage are going to fit on this small  bus they sent.  So the bus company calls someone and they send another van.  We put four bags in the back, as well as six people.  We loaded up and I got in the van.  It was only about a 30 minute or less drive to the airport.  And, even though it's the capital city, their airport is very small.  Like Bakersfield, if you've been here.  Anyway, we're driving along and suddenly our driver tells us something is wrong with the van and he has to pull over.  In the process of figuring out what was wrong with the van, the driver basically opens up all of the doors and we are freezing inside.  It was freezing outside, plus I didn't have my warm coat (packed it) and just had on flats with no socks (I didn't want to wear my boots because I didn't need them on the plane...I made that mistake on the way there!).  So, he calls the bus driver who drops his load of people off at the airport and came back to get us.  It only took us another couple of minutes to get to the airport, as the van had broken down literally yards before the exit to the airport.  We arrived, quickly unloaded most of the bags (only a few had been unloaded when they dropped everyone off originally), and we were able to start checking-in.  Unfortunately only a couple of people could get checked in before we got there because the bags weren't there.  It's a long process to get 23 people checked in individually, get the bags checked, wait for a group of 5 or 6 people, then move through security.  We all got through security (the gate was just on the other side) and had enough time to run to the bathroom before it was time to board the plane.  We were so thankful we had made it, especially since there was only one more flight out of there to Zurich that day.  And I'm assuming reaccommodating 23 people would have been nothing short of a nightmare.  But, praise God we made it, made our connection with no problems, and made the 12 hour flight home.  I was able to sleep a little bit on the plane this time, but mostly just a series of short naps, so I didn't feel very rested. 

We made it to LAX, got all of our bags, and made it through customs with only one person being stopped.  My parents, as well as a couple of other vehicles were there to take us home (yay, another 2 hour drive plus a looong stop for dinner).  We finally made it home and I was in bed shortly thereafter.  I didn't suffer from the normal jet lag experience of waking up in the middle of the night.  I had the opposite problem, actually, and slept between 10-12 hours every night for a week.  I think I was exhausted.

And this concludes the Slovenia saga.

(Thanks for being patient!!)

one hundred.

Today I subbed in a 5th grade class.  I went at 11:00, had the kids for about an hour, had an hour for lunch, then had the kids for 20 minutes.  And the day was over.  I love Wednesdays!

Anyhow, as I was leaving the school, the principal was in the office, asked if I had subbed today.  I told him yes, shook his hand, and introduced myself.  His reply, "Hmm.  I've heard that name... Good things, don't worry."

And that was it.  What? What does that even mean?!



(This is post 100, by the way...)

psalm 84.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

my week of teaching.

What an adventure this last week was in substitute teaching.  It seemed like a long week because I actually subbed 4 full days!  Normally I'm only able to do three, but I did my observations on Monday morning before heading down to LA for my class.  It made for a long day, but it worked out well.  I'm doing the same this week, too.

Anyway, my adventure in subbing began on Monday when I was asked to sub in a district I had never even applied to sub in.  Definitely a first!  So Tuesday morning I arrived with my paperwork in hand.  I gave them my application and they handed me the keys.  That day I was in a 4/5/6 combo class with about 25 kids in it.  They were a good class, with only a little bit of attitude from the 6th graders. 

Wednesday I received a call at 8:04am to sub that day.  The start time was 7:50, so I called the school and told them I was going to be a little late.  I ran to the shower, got dressed and presentable, and then drove between 15 and 20 minutes, making it to the school by 8:40.  I was definitely my personal best when it came to getting ready and getting somewhere.  I was in a 1st grade class that day that were a handful.  One little boy peed his pants, not once, but twice.  Seriously? How does that happen?  The first time it wasn't very much, but that afternoon was a different story.  Those kids were a crazy bunch, 30 of them total.  They all wanted to be very "helpful."  It wouldn't have been so bad if the teacher had actually left me the books that I needed out, too.  Between the aide and myself we couldn't find the teacher's edition with the answers in it for a worksheet that made no sense without some sort of guidance.  So we skipped it.  Sorry, lady, you should have left me the answers!  By that afternoon I had those kids figured out, had them a bit more under control, and when they weren't, made them do another worksheet instead of playing a game.  I know, I'm so mean...

Thursday I was in a friend's Kindergarten class.  I know the kids already, which made it a bit easier.  Again, they were very "helpful," wanting to do things exactly like normal, but eventually I won them over to doing things a little bit differently that day.  They are a sweet class and some of them told me that afternoon that I was a good teacher.  So precious!  They also picked me quite a variety of flowers/weeds from the playground during lunch.  It was a good day, but long.  I can't believe those kids have to be in school until 3pm! 

Friday I had received a call at 6am from this same school's principal, asking me if I could come in and sub that day.  I said yes, of course, and then he told me it was for their 7th and 8th grade class.  Awesome.  Can't wait.  So I head off to school in great anticipation of a long junior high day.  It's a small school that has exactly one classroom for both junior high grades.  It's basically run like an elementary class, since there's no switching rooms or teachers.  The class was alright, but the boys tried to push it all day.  They all went by different names in the morning (I could tell they were lying, but as long as the roll was right, I didn't really care).  By mid-morning, their name "game" had fallen apart and they all confessed to it.   I threatened them with calling in the principal to sort out their names and they caved.  That's right.  Don't mess with me, kids.  The rest of the day went fairly well.  I mean it was junior high, after all...

By the end of the week I was exhausted.  I was so happy to sleep in yesterday, and even went to bed a bit early on Friday night.  I know, such a party animal.  I didn't want to get up this morning when my alarm went off.  I think my week really did catch up with me.  Hmmm...I must be getting old.

april already.

Seriously, how is it already April?  The first quarter of 2011 is gone...and it has been flying!  I have just over a month before pretty much all of my classes are finished, graduate in just under two months, and so much to do from now until then. 

This week was an excellent one.  I don't want to get too excited about it, but there's a possible job prospect for next year.  Please keep it in your prayers.  I know that if it's the right thing it will happen.  And if it's not, then there will be something else...eventually.  That's the hardest part, the disappointment, the not knowing what to do if this doesn't happen.  I really don't want to sub for another whole year.

The Lord has surely answered my prayers for friends in Bakersfield, too.  When I moved home, I really only had a couple of friends here, both of whom are busy and in school like me.  Then I got invited to a small group of young adults...of which I'm the youngest...we'll have to change the name in a year or two! ;)  I get to see them every Tuesday night and it has been a wonderful thing in my life.  We are waiting for our new Bible Study books to come in, so this week we had dinner and a game night.  We played Quelf, which was awesomely hilarious.  I'm just glad I didn't get the ridiculous singing or acting ones like some people had to do.  Tonight all of the girls are going to dinner and then hang out.  It should be a fun time...

Well, in a couple of hours my mom and I are headed to a class on how to use her new sewing maching.  I want to use it, but would really prefer not to be going today.  Too much to do!

April is my month to be productive.  I not only want to, but I really have to.  No options.  I'm hoping to blog a little more regularly, too.  I promise to finish my trip update soon, too.  What? It's only been 2 months since I got home...I've still got time :)

the last while.

Life has been keeping me going in nine directions for the last while, so it's been difficult to give much of an update.  I mean, I still haven't finished updating you about my trip to Slovenia almost 2 months later.  I'll get right on that, I promise.

Despite not having updated for awhile, not a whole lot has changed.  I'm working more, which is great, but it also contributes to me being much busier.  Wouldn't it be great to get paid to do nothing sometimes?  I think I did that today.  Well, practically.  I got a call around 8:30 this morning to sub in the afternoon.  I decided 2 hours for $47.50 wasn't too bad, so I said yes.  Even if it was junior high.  When I arrived at 1:20, I found out that they were "Intervention" schedule, which meant that I had a 20 minute class where the students were supposed to read and write in their reading logs.  This sounded great in theory, except the ladies in the office gave me the wrong attendance sheet, so we spent about 10 of the 20 minutes figuring that all out.  Lovely.  I think the kids loved it though.  The next period was U.S. History (one of my personal favorite subjects).  Bonus: the Intervention schedule also meant that all of the class periods were shorter, so 7th period really seemed to fly by.  Last period of the day was called something like Sports Involvement and basically consisted of me taking 9 kids outside to either play basketball, work on their homework, or walk around the field.  Whew, tough day's work.

Last Saturday night was my mom's 35th high school reunion.  While she and my dad reunited with her classmates, I was home doing nothing.  Around 9:00 or so, I heard this loud weird noise, kind of like a really loud clicking sound.  I knew the only other living beings here were the dogs and cats, so I first thought it was one of them playing with something, throwing up, choking, etc.  You name it, it probably ran through my mind.  I cautiously went downstairs to investigate, only to find the lights on the refrigerator quickly flashing and the ice dispenser opening and closing (hence the noise).  I pushed all the buttons I could find, held them, tapped them, tried to find anything that would make it stop.  Nothing worked so I just went back upstairs and ignored the noise, which stopped a little while later.  Just before the parents got home, it started up again.  It was convenient, really, since it kept me from looking like I was crazy.  Dad pushed and poked at buttons just like me (nope, it still didn't work) and then decided to pull it out and unplug it to reset the thing.  Long story a little bit shorter, he plugged it back and nothing had changed.  Turns out the circuit board went out, which also eventually caused the refrigerator portion to stop cooling, but the freezer still worked.  Lovely.  The new refrigerator arrived yesterday afternoon.  It's so clean and pretty, my mom doesn't even want to load anything in to it :)  My dad did end up ordering the part to fiz the other fridge, which we can hopefully then sell.  Any takers?

Ok, I'm going to call it a night.  Even though it's Saturday, I still have to get up by 7:30 to go to a breakfast thing at church at 8:30.  My mom told me I didn't have to go until a bit later, but I decided that 8:30 sounded late as compared to the days I have to be at work at 7:20.  Amazing how "early" is relative! 

days six, seven, and eight: the work continues.

Tuesday was bound to be a busy day since we had an afternoon session scheduled (at 2, if I'm remembering correctly).  We had the typical morning session, only today we taught them about the Han people of China.  One of my favorite moments of the morning was watching the kids eat goldfish with chopsticks for their snack.  I must admit, most of them were pretty good.

 

As soon as the morning session was over, it was time for a little last-minute scavenger hunt planning between myself and two other team members.  We literally put the thing together in about an hour.  The theme was All-American Afternoon so a scavenger hunt was perfect.  We decided to use some of the extra t-shirts we had, pin a note to them, and then hide the shirts.  When the kids found each shirt, they had to read the note and then do what it said for a picture.  The kids had a great time.  Since I was partially in charge of the hunt, I had to run along with each of the three groups that we had.  Only problem: my foot was still hurting.  Nevertheless, I braved the pain and ran along for the sake of the kids.  They quickly got into the competitive spirit and we all had fun.  Besides, how else do you get kids to do silly things and take pictures?

Lie on the ground in a line

Hands on your hips

Do the crab walk

Switch shoes with another person



Do 10 push-ups

Sunset over Croatian coastline

Oh, and a rare moment from the morning:

Facing forward, quiet, listening to the story. A rare moment, indeed.



Exhausted from a busyTuesday, we knew Wednesday was going to be a longer, busier day.  We did the normal morning routine, today teaching the kids about the Fulani people of Africa (I don't remember which country...).  The craft for today was masks!









Wednesday afternoon much of the team met up and put together missionary gift bags of treats we had brought over from the U.S.  We took them mostly food items of things that they can't get where they live, like ranch dressing mix, taco seasoning, mac & cheese, cake mix, pudding mix, etc.  We also put the class pictures into frames for the kids to decorate the following day.  We had a quick break after we finished, then had dinner and prepped for our second movie night that night.  This time we showed Cars, along with a little skit interspersed in the movie to add more of a "message" to it.  The kids loved it!  By that night, I couldn't even sit down without feeling like I was going to fall asleep, so I became the unofficial bathroom runner with the kids.

And here's the view from my room's balcony that afternoon:



Thursday was our last day with the kids.  We had the typical morning session again and this was my day to teach about the Khamba people of Tibet.  I don't have any pictures from the day.  I think I was a) beyond tired by this point and b) was teaching, so I had more up-front time and less time to take pictures.  Thursday afternoon we had a closing program for the parents and we showed them a little bit of what we had done that week.  After they said their thanks and we said our good-byes, we still had one last event to put on: one last movie night.  It might seem like we should have been finished after a "closing program," but that's just the way it worked out in the schedule.  Our last movie night was Toy Story 3, again with a skit, which the kids also enjoyed.  There were many hugs and tearful good-byes that night as we parted ways with the kids one more time.  After the movie night, we had to finish cleaning up and packing our stuff.  Thankfully we had most everything already cleaned up before the afternoon program since we had to turn multiple rooms into one big room, so the clean-up that night was relatively simple.  We were still exhausted, though, so it felt like a lot! 

If you are still reading, good job hanging in there.  Still three more days to fill you in on...stay tuned!