And the Mountain Peaks Belong to Him!

So, first a quick 'catch-up' from the last post...... (before diving into our very full weekend!!) 
Thursday's classes went fine, and we went out to lunch with a bigger group of colleagues.  We'll miss the fun of restaurant lunches!!  After school, we went for an hour walk, just around town, because it was a gorgeous day and we wanted some exercise.  It was kind of comical, because it felt just like being in Ankeny ...... we kept running into people we know and stopping to talk all along the walk!  Students, friends from church, colleagues..... fun!  Then we had our adult student lessons, and it was great getting together again!  After lessons, we went out with Marian and Susan, and we all shared a pizza. 

My girls - Tana and Eva - brought birthday flowers and a bottle of wine!   :-)  

Friday was a full day, and we stayed late at school (again - so much to do!)  I walked Tim to basketball, just for some exercise, then I stopped on the way home for groceries.  Both of us also packed for our weekend trip to Spišská Stará Ves, in far NE Slovakia, near the Polish border.  Way back last December there was a holiday party for one class, and the father of a student invited us to visit their village sometime.  Well, they specifically invited us for a weekend in June, but our time was all booked, so they emailed over the summer to set up this past weekend - they were very persistent!   :-)  

And now for our most recent amazing weekend adventure!!  

We took an early train to Poprad, where Martin and his Dad met us at the station.  Then we headed to their home in Spišská Stará Ves for a delicious breakfast.  

After breakfast, we drove to the river to take a 2-hour raft ride on these traditional vessels made of five individual (long, narrow, rectangular) canoe-like boats that are fastened together into a raft.

As we waited, we saw some boats coming by from upstream on the scenic Dunajec River.

They add bench seats across the boats for passengers.  Tim got to wear the boatman's hat for the picture!   :-)

Tri Koruny = Three Crowns just across the river into Poland, but visible from the Slovak side --- very majestic! 

Looking back up the river behind us to the High Tatras in the distance - beautiful!!  

The rafts went through these steep canyons - supposedly the steepest in Europe. 

There were really nice trails for bikers and hikers along the river, originally built by Empress Maria Theresa's workers for her enjoyment.  

Just like at any American tourist attraction, there were photographers stationed along the route taking pictures that were developed and ready to hand to visitors as they got off the rafts!  So we have a fun souvenir of our raft ride along the Dunajec!

Martin's Dad, Ondrej, put us all on a horse-drawn carriage to go back up to Chata Pieniny, the restaurant a few kilometers from the raft docking area.  

Enjoying the views along the river, this time by horse-drawn carriage!  

The views behind the carriage - the rafts on the river - carriages on the road - walkers on the path - all enjoying the beautiful day.  It was a perfect fall day; not too hot, not too cool!

When we got to the Chata Pieniny, our table was right in front of the musicians.  It just so happens that Ondrej sometimes plays with the folk music combo here, so he sat in for a few numbers playing the accordion!  On the right is the manager of the whole complex - restaurant/pub/campgrounds/tennis courts/playground.  Quite an entrepreneur!!  

Ondrej is an amazing musician with a beautiful singing voice as well.  He was playing bass in rock bands in the 70's (with long hair), and has played about every kind of music since then!  What an entertainer!!  :-)

This poster of the Pieninsky National Park shows most of our raft journey, from just beyond the lower left corner, winding around the mountains to the top right corner.  

The owner/manager of the place was a good friend of Ondrej's, and when he heard that we were American lectors at Martin's school, he brought us gifts!

The wooden raft model, the CD of regional folk music, and some other brochures were all gifts from the gregarious owner of the restaurant and recreation area!  

After a delicious fresh trout dinner at the restaurant, we walked along Maria Theresa's path from Slovakia into Poland.  

There was a small historical museum along the path, with displays of wildlife and plants typical of this region.  There was also a neat set of 'then and now' photos of the river, before and after a hydro-electric dam was built upstream.  This set shows the same style of river rafts, before and after a footbridge was built across the river between Slovakia and Poland, about 5 years ago.  

Just outside the museum, along the path towards the Polish tourist town of  Szczawnica.

This peacock flower sculpture was amazing!!  

Heading into the picturesque Polish village of Szczawnica, along the banks of the river.

The river was really low, but still very pretty as we headed into town. 

I had to take this picture because it brought back memories from our 1976 Clarke-Loras Singers choir tour in Poland --- my first foreign ice cream was 'lody'!!  :-)  Tim wanted to buy us all 'lody', but Poland doesn't use the Euro, and we didn't have any zloty's, so Ondrej treated us.   Yum!  

After going through the pedestrian area, we got on a chair lift and rode up to the top of a mountain.  It's an unusual lift because it goes right up from the city center, across the river, and the ski slopes are actually on the back side of the mountain.  

The ski lift took us to the top of the hill where the red roof is, then we walked down the ski slope and up the next hill for some breath-taking views of the surrounding area.  

More views from the mountaintop.  Our leader (Ondrej) decided it would be fun to just hike down the mountain back to the restaurant, where we could catch a shuttle van back to where the car was parked before the raft ride.  It was a long trek down, but we found the right path eventually!

 

This is the recreation area across the road from the restaurant - with wooden sculptures, a playground, tennis courts, camping and picnic areas, etc., etc.  

After getting back to the car, we drove to the hydro-electric dam nearby.  This is the lower lake, looking down the overflow spillway.  (We walked up all those steps on the right to reach the dam from the parking lot below - who needs stair master??)  

The two castles, one in the foreground and one to the right in the distance, were fortresses guarding the edges of each kingdom, across the river from each other.  Now they are across a lake, formed by the dam.  

On top of the dam is a street painting that is foreshortened to create an optical illusion of the lake being filled with water.

After our big day of sightseeing and riding multiple modes of transportation, (train, car, river raft, horse-drawn carriage, ski lift, transport van, and of course our feet!) we went back to the Marhefka house for a delicious supper, conversation, and music.  Finally, Martin and his dad walked us to the Penzion where we stayed (owned by a friend of theirs), but first we went down into the cellar bar area in the building.  I didn't get a picture - bummer - but it was really neat!  It was all original stone, and the walls/ceiling were shaped in an arch.  After a glass of wine, we all headed to bed about 9:30 for a good night's sleep. 

They picked us up at 7:45 to go to mass at the nearby village of Majere, where Martin was the acolyte and Ondrej played organ.  It was so nice - the priest welcomed us in English and wished us a good Sunday too.  And Martin read the scriptures in English after they were read in Slovak.  

As we headed back into Spišská Stará Ves, mass was just ending there, so we went inside the Gothic church there.  (It's a town of about 2,500 - about 99% are Catholic, and the mass was packed!)  It is a beautiful, ornate church and altar.  

The organ is huge, and it is in the process of being refurbished, but it still sounds awesome.  Martin's brother was finished playing organ for mass, but his dad had him play something for us just to hear the instrument.  He played our wedding recessional!!  :-)     

Then we went back to the house for breakfast - kielbasa, bread and veggies - delicious!  We had to be well nourished for our day of hiking ahead.  

We parked on the Slovak side, then headed across the footbridge to Poland on a bright, sunny day perfect for hiking!

There were many big houses in Poland, with beautiful flower boxes.  

When we saw these two women in traditional costumes, Ondrej explained that it is normal attire for going to church on Sunday.  

Starting our ascent - at first it was easy walking through the canyons.

As we continued, the path got steeper, and steeper.  We were moving right along, and I didn't even get any pictures of the really steep parts!  

There was a clearing near the top with beautiful views of the High Tatras.

The final portion of the hike was up this metal staircase - one way traffic only!  

And here we are with Martin at the very top of the peak!  We made it!! 

It was a clear, beautiful day to see views in all directions!

Looking down at the river below, where we had floated the day before.  Červeny Kláštor ('Red Monastery', which we visited with Marian, Janka and Livka) is below, on the left, with the red roof.

Trying to capture how steep the slopes were, nearly straight down!  

Looking out across the lake where we were the day before, at the dam.

On the way back down on the metal stairways and walkways - gorgeous views!

Martin's mom brought us all sandwiches and cherry tomatoes for lunch on the mountaintop.  

We made it to the top of the Three Crowns (Tri Koruny)!!  

Heading back down the path through the woods.

Finally back down at the bottom again - whew!!  See that tallest peak on the right?   Yep, that's where we were!!  

At the bottom, there was a little restaurant with outdoor tables, so we rested a little while after our descent.  The two tall, thin peaks in the middle are the tallest, and the next picture will show a close-up shot of them.

If you look closely, you can see the teeny-tiny people at the very top of the smaller of the two peaks, which is the tallest spot on the Tri Kurony.  WE WERE THERE!!  

Heading back across the bridge into Slovakia, we saw more rafters going by.  

The hike took about 2 hours up, and of course less time on the way down, but we were really moving at a pretty good clip.  It was amazing to see how many people were making the trek and enjoying nature's beauty along the way!  After the hike, we were treated to yet another delicious home-cooked meal, this time a Goral region specialty which Ondrej cooked - potato pancakes topped with pork pieces in gravy, then another pancake and a dollop of sour cream on top.  And finally, it was time for the 50-km ride to the train station in Poprad for our journey back to Liptovsky Mikuláš.  What a wonderful weekend!  

Štrbské Pleso and the High Tatras, as seen from the train window on the return journey.  We really love train travel, watching the scenery go by the whole way!  

Our daily devotional for last night happened to be from Psalm 95.  Verse 4 says ".... and the mountain peaks belong to Him."  How meaningful those words are after all the mountain peaks we saw and climbed this weekend!!  God's beauty in His creation was so awesome and so obvious for us as we spent two amazing days surrounded by the mountain peaks!!   

P.S. - Please forgive any typos tonight - it's late and I'm too tired to go back and proof-read such a long post tonight, but I wanted to publish the post anyway.  I'll proof-read tomorrow, but in the meantime, just ignore any goofs!!  Thanks!   :-)

And Awaaaayyy We Go!!

The school year is only three days old, and it's already been a blur of activity.  Last year at this time, every day after school we were busy foraging for necessities and trying to figure out the local stores, and this year we've been, well, just plain busy!  :-)  

Monday morning was so awesome meeting all our students on the square in front of the church before the service.  Instead of being overwhelmed by a sea of unfamiliar student faces like last year, we were so excited to greet our kids by name and talk to them about their summers.  They all gathered with their class teachers, then we went in for the school opening church service.  Janka and Zuzka both came up to our balcony seats, with Janka taking translating duties this time.  

At the end of the school-opening church service, the first-year classes at the Basic School and the Secondary School both came up to the altar for special blessings as they begin their education at our Lutheran school.  

Katarina is the "Class Teacher" for the new incoming I.A5 class (first year of the 5-year bilingual H.S. program), and she had her sign all ready so the students could find her in front of the church!  

After church, we went back to school and worked a while before going out to lunch using our meal vouchers.  We are definitely all feeling very spoiled, and much like 'normal' professional workers, getting to go to restaurants every day until the school canteen opens next week.   :-)  I'm still not done with the year-plans yet, but at least the teaching schedule didn't start until Wednesday!  After school we biked to Tesco for a few things - not that we needed anything special there, but it was a longer bike ride for some exercise.   :-)  Since Monday was the Labor Day holiday at home, our kids had all been at the Riverside Bible Camp all-staff reunion, and they were all staying at Paul & Alana's overnight.  So we got to talk to everyone but Alana (she had to work).  It was fun talking to three of them, all sitting on the couch together back in Iowa, reporting on Olson Family Games!!  

Tuesday the students met with their class teachers all morning, so we asked to go meet our new classes of students.  We just did a quick stop-by to say hello and welcome the kids.  We actually left school early to go home and change clothes for an instructional field trip for the rest of the day!  Erik had arranged this outing with the headmistress last week, so we had permission to miss the afternoon staff meeting.  

Stefan and Jan, two of the basketball group, picked up Erik, Tim and me at school for a trip to tour the power plant facilities at the reservoir near Vychodna.

We got the most amazing, informational and unique personalized tour of Čierny Váh, because Stefan spent years of his professional life as the engineer in charge of constructing the facility back in the 1970's.  

This graphic shows the concept - a lower reservoir (at right) was created by damming the river - from there water is pumped horizontally, then up through the mountain at a 45 degree angle to be held in the upper reservoir.  The pumping happens at night when power isn't needed by factories and people in cities.  Then, when power is needed at peak consumption times, the water is allowed to flow back down the pipe, turning turbines to create electricity as needed.  

After donning hard hats, we were allowed into the tunnel used only by workers - definitely not open to the public or other visitors!  We were only allowed there because of Stefan and his accomplishments in building the facility in the first place!  

We entered and walked 500 meters (aka yards) in a tunnel parallel to the horizontal pipe.  

We arrived at an elevator shaft, also going parallel to the water pipe, where it goes up to the upper reservoir.  It's a LONG way up!!  

It was cold in the tunnel, so we were all bundled up.  Cute hard hats, eh?? 

Stefan and Erik kept grabbing my camera to take pictures with me in them too!  This was the worker who accompanied us on our tour.  

I'm bummed this wasn't a good picture of Stefan too - he kept us fascinated by stories of the difficult construction process and the complex engineering behind the whole operation. Erik was awesome as our translator, especially considering all the specific technical terms Stefan was using!  And Jan was our geography expert, telling us all about the mountains surrounding the area, again with Erik translating.  

After a lot of cloudy and gloomy weather since we arrived back in Slovakia, our day at the reservoir was sunny, clear and beautiful!  

Tim with our engineering expert and our expert translator!   (Stefan and Erik)  The top of this mountain was actually sliced off to make the reservoir, and the rocks were used to make the road up the mountain to transport materials up for the construction of the reservoir and tunnels / pipes.

The Vysoké Tatry mountains in the background.  Some of the mountain places we've visited were behind us in this picture.  

This is actually a 'typo' in Slovak, which just made me giggle!!  'Nosnost' is actually a word I recognized because we see it daily in our elevator, and it was also correctly written in many places in the reservoir facility.  But here, spelled incorrectly, it looks like 'No snot' - LOL!!  The worker couldn't figure out why I took the picture, so back in the elevator he kept pointing out the correct spelling there, and explaining the 's' was missing upstairs.  (All in Slovak, but I could tell what he was saying!)  Silly American!!  

I forgot to mention that the elevator ride up through the mountain at the 45 degree angle lasted for 15 minutes each way ---- it's a LONG way up!!  The workers use it on a daily basis to go up and check to make sure everything is working O.K., but like I said, no tourists get to take it like we did.  

Back down on the lower level, we toured the power plant portion of the facility.  These are the tops of the 6 turbines.  

The worker had Tim stand right next to this machinery to show how enormous it is.  

Explanations about how the turbines operate - they go one way to pump the water up into the reservoir on top of the mountain, and another direction to create electricity as the water flows back down to the lower reservoir.  

The diameter of the water pipes is over 2 meters - huge!!  Because of the enormous weight of the water, the bottom of the piping is thicker (and stronger) than the top.  

After leaving the hard-hat area, you won't see me in any more pictures.  I had to get really stern with the guys, and they finally understood when I refused to be photographed with a severe case of 'helmet-hair' - LOL!!!!   :-)   (Even without a mirror, I knew it had to be bad, because when I asked Tim for an assessment, he just stifled a laugh and agreed that I shouldn't be in any pictures!  I have always appreciated his honesty in situations like this!)

Walking out onto the dam at the lower reservoir.  Ahead of us you can see some wide-spaced railroad tracks.  The contraption down at the end is a crane that moves along the tracks so large pieces of debris can be removed from the water above the dam.  

The water spillway beyond the dam.  Beautiful scenery!!  

The power station distributing the electricity generated by the water-driven turbines.  It was really an amazing tour, with so many explanations and stories from Stefan!  

A little ways upstream from the lower reservoir, we went to a forest church and cemetery, where this statue and bell tower are located.  The statue commemorates the King of the Hungarian Empire visiting and hunting in the area.  

The last thing we saw driving around the lower reservoir was the water ramp down into the reservoir from the river bed above.  The structure on the right serves as stairs for the fish to go upstream.  

All in all, it was a really interesting day, and it was fun being with our three awesome tour guides and companions!  Tuesday evening we had another 'programme' - the British term that is often used here for itinerary, schedule, plans, etc.   Eva, my adult student, had invited us over to her flat at 6:00 for wine, cute little open-face sandwiches, tiny fresh wild cranberries, and delicious cakes make by Monika, her daughter.  Along with her husband, Ivan, the four of us had a delightful evening chatting and enjoying refreshments.  Later, Ivan's mother stopped by for a while, and then two of their kids came home too.  

OOPS - I guess I didn't have the camera's timer function set properly the first time!  But the smiles from Ivan, Monika, Eva and Ondrej were so nice!!  They are such a neat family!

I won't even mention the number of 'fails' that happened before I finally made it into place in time for this picture --- HAHAHA!!!   

 Wednesday (today) was the first day of regular classes, so Tim and I were excited to finally get going with our students again.  We really enjoyed it, and it was nice because we each only had 3 classes today.  For lunch, we tried a restaurant we hadn't been to before, and it was really good food, yet less expensive than other places, so we may go back again tomorrow!  (Lunches have been mostly with just our two Slovak daughters - Katarina Joy and Jana Elizabeth - since Slovak people don't have middle names, we christened them both with American middle names that suit them perfectly!!  And our Slovak younger sister has been dubbed Zuzana Marie!!)   After school, Janka drove us to see her recent house renovations, but she made a quick stop at a darling little bakery shop we've seen but have never gone into.  

The bakery selections were amazing - cookies and cakes by the dozens!!  

We've noticed this little shop from the road, all decorated like a gingerbread house! 

Janka has a beautiful, big garden, and the first thing she did was pick some fresh mint to make us a cup of tea.  It was delicious with lemon and brown crystal sugar.   Mmmmm!!

And the cakes from the bakery for Janka's little housewarming party were awesome too!  Walnut cake on the bottom, some sort of rich cream-cheesy sweet layer, and fresh peach slices in a peach gel on top.  Amazing!!  

The house had new floors, windows, some walls knocked out to make more open spaces, and fresh paint everywhere.  It looked great!   And her garden was full of produce - like this heavy laden pear tree.  

After we got back from Janka's 'paradise' overlooking the Vah River and beyond to Puludnica - so beautiful - we decided we needed a little exercise.  We got the bikes out and did a few errands, dropped stuff off back at the flat, then headed up into the hills on our favorite route to Trstene.  Of course the views were magnificent, and the whole way home was coasting downhill!  Gotta love living in the mountain valley!  

There is no one like our God

Back last February when we were making our decision on whether or not to return to Slovakia for another year of teaching, the lyrics to this Chris Tomlin song kept rolling through my brain.  It's the song that Tim and I sang with the students at the opening of the school ball last January, and even at that time it sounded prophetic for us.  And now, as we begin our second year of teaching at EGJT here in Liptovsky Mikuláš, I hear the song in my mind often again.  Any time we've started a new teaching job, the second year has been infinitely more productive after learning lots the first year, and we hope that will happen again here.  Also, we feel very called to our new responsibilities as 'lead teachers / coordinating teachers' for the Central Europe program, and we pray that we can make a difference for the new American teachers as well.  

God of this City
You're the God of this City 
You're the King of these people 
You're the Lord of this nation 
You are 

You're the Light in this darkness 
You're the Hope to the hopeless 
You're the Peace to the restless 
You are 

There is no one like our God 
There is no one like our God 

For greater things have yet to come 
And greater things are still to be done in this City 
Greater thing have yet to come 
And greater things are still to be done in this City 

(If you don't know this song, here is a link to it on YouTube - awesome song!!)

Chris Tomlin: "God of This City"

Thursday was a school holiday, so we hopped on an early train to Košice to visit Jacob, one of the new American teachers, who is the only one of the new group placed there.  It was great to see his smiling face in the train station when we arrived!  

With Jacob in front of St. Elizabeth's cathedral - the biggest gothic structure in Slovakia.  He hadn't been inside yet, so we took a peek in it as well as another big, beautiful church on the square in Košice.  

A neat scene on our walk around town - the little kid on the bicycle has a red balloon!  

We walked around his beautiful city a little, then stopped for tea and breakfast.  Then we headed to Jacob's flat on the Lutheran school grounds, and we spent a long time talking about school stuff.  He hasn't received much concrete information or direction yet, so we brainstormed some ideas for starting the school year, and I put a bunch of documents on his computer that I'd brought along on a flash drive.  It was very productive!  We went out to a late lunch after that and had a terrific time just spending time with Jacob!   

The sign on Jacob's school is in both Slovak AND English   -    Nice!!!   :-)  

This picture is especially taken for Lute, our Ultimate player!!    Jacob has been there only a week, and he's already playing for a team entered in the qualifying tournament for the Slovak Nationals!  His team is Ke Fear, which is a play on words for an arabic sour milk drink called 'kefir'.  (Full of probiotics I guess!)     GO JACOB!!!   :-) ≈

Jacob had an Ultimate practice at 5:30, so we got back on the train and headed west again.  We rode on our first FREE WIFI train!!  O.K., the connection was pretty spotty, but at times we could actually check emails on the way home!!  LOL!!  

Friday was another busy day at school, but there's still a lot left to do with the year plans.  We won't be teaching any classes until Wednesday, so we'll be ready to go by then!  (Monday will just be church for the students, and Tuesday they'll be with their class teachers all day.)  We had another nice lunch out with our 'Slovak daughters', Janka and Katarina too.  :-)   Friday night was mostly just skyping with family at home, which was awesome getting caught up on news from Iowa!  

Saturday was another morning train trip, this time to visit Matt, another new teacher alone in his new school in Martin.  This school has been an elementary / middle school for 10 years, but this will be the opening of the secondary school, with only one first-year class of about 50 students.  Matt was waiting at the station when we pulled in, and it was so fun spending the day with him exploring his beautiful city!!  We had tea / coffee / blueberry muffins in a really nice, modern coffee shop, which Matt says caters to the 200 or so Norwegian students at the medical university in Martin.  

Matt has a juicer back home and had found one already here, so we went along with him to purchase it as well as visit the local farmers' market for some fresh fruits and veggies!  

Tim and Matt in front of the beautiful Lutheran church in the school complex area.

Peeking in through the back doors of the church.   So pretty!!  

Matt said as he entered the church his first Sunday for worship, a woman greeted him by saying, "Wait right here!"  (Not even "good morning!" - just wait!)  Evidently he had "NEW AMERICAN LECTOR" written all over him - HA!  And he had an interpreter of his own, since he was the only English speaker that day.  But otherwise, they use headsets for the English speakers, and an interpreter speaks to them all!   Sweet!

This sculpture commemorates a significant treaty signed by the Hungarian rulers and the Catholics and Lutherans, back in the 1800's, allowing some new religious freedoms.  The treaty was signed right there on the church grounds in Martin, and it was a big deal!  

 After the short walk down the square to his apartment in the school/church complex, we got to work on school stuff, just like with Jacob.  There are always so many questions and uncertainties, so it helped to talk about what Matt's schedule, classes and duties will be.  Matt is a community college music teacher on sabbatical, and he gets to teach some music classes - cool!!  My trusty flash drive was handy again to download materials which might be helpful.  Later, we went out for lunch, then on an exploratory trip to find Kaufland (like a small version of Wal-Mart, but with a bigger variety of stuff than where Matt had been shopping before.)  We figured out the local buses with the help of some other bus riders, and it all went smoothly.  

Matt has a really new, nice apartment with lots of skylights.  We really liked it!!  (It's right next to the bell tower of the church, so he hears them pealing every 15 minutes ---
24 hours a day!!)  

Well, just like Jacob did, Matt had other commitments later in the day, so we headed back to the train station when Matt went to a band rehearsal for church tomorrow.  It's so cool that both of these guys are already getting connected with locals in the community in such a short time.  They will both do great in getting adjusted and as awesome American lectors in their schools.  And we really enjoyed getting to hang out with each of them for a day and get to know them better - they are both neat people who will be a blessing to their new students in Slovakia this year!!

As we were leaving Matt's, the church bells were pealing, and this beautiful bride was preparing to walk down the aisle.  It was fun to walk by and take in the last moments before the wedding.   :-)  

This made us chuckle, because it reminded us of a similar sign in Taiwan that also had a typo for the word 'fire'.  Here it's 'fir', and in Taiwan it was 'flire' --- a little dejá vu moment!  

This was the sunset over the mountains as seen from our flat window on Saturday night!  

This morning we were delighted to see Ján at church - he's back from Africa, so he came up to the balcony and translated for us during the service, which was great!  He and a group of young people, including some of our students, also sang a couple of familiar American contemporary Christian songs with guitar during the service - in Slovak though!  After church we stayed for the Holy Communion service that occurs once a month or so.  Ján helped us out by showing us where the liturgy was in our hymnbooks, so we were able to better follow along this time.  

We had planned to take the bus to Vychodna today after church for Sunday dinner and an afternoon with Katarina's family, but she called early and told us her mother wasn't feeling well, so we'll do it another time.  So instead, we listened to a sermon online over hot chai tea, then had soup and dinner here, Slovak style.  :-)  It will be nice to rest and relax before our school year starts tomorrow.  We are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us this year, and we are eager to begin year #2 of our Slovakia Service Stories!!