A New Day: Coffee, God, and Adventure

Faithful slacker/procrastinator

2008-04-29T21:51:00.002+02:00

So the only thing that I am faithful to do is not do anything. umm... maybe not so much of a strength. But I have some good ideas for posts and will hopefully share all my new adventures and amazingly awe inspiring thoughts shortly all about: lambs/goats/white things wandering in pastures and how the shepards/owners mark them with colored stuff so they know whos is whos (interesting, I'm sure you are intrigued), also about how french fries/belgium fries (a student here actually thought americans called them by the same name they do, pomme frites) are not truely scrumpious if not eaten with a toothpick and some varying white sauce (mayoniasey/tartery stuff), umm.. how we had some great sport events with students and some good eatin bbq afterwards and our bbq on the beach, which the rain held out for the entire day (praise Jesus for our two rain free days!) and I guess upcoming is our fabulously exciting student weekend to the island of Krk where we will be staying in Baska, prayin that many students will come and that they will hear more about what it looks like to practically follow Jesus, and connect with other students also, more elaborate posts must wait though as my computer has come to wage war against me and decided that it can't read the harddrive and therefore will not load, it wasn't enough that the cd/dvd drive had quite working, the battery had died a couple months ago, and the little line on my screen a few months before that, I guess it just struck a final blow and took it's own life, sad day. So I will hopefully share more soon. Till then Matt's blogg of showing that it had been two long months, maybe three now, since I had posted help inspire me. Thanks! Peace out.

New Year Serbianess

2008-01-07T21:19:00.000+01:00

So we headed to Serbia for New Years. We hung out in Belgrade for a couple days then headed to Novi Sad to hang out with the STINT team there, where we had a blast and we were really encouraged.

***Check out my shutterfly page to see all the photo's and some from our team reatreat to Slovenia (link is on the right side and says my photos).*** I think we came back from Serbia with some great stories, far too many to tell. We took some time at a cafe to try and recall all of them and Allison took notes so hopefully she'll blog about some of them as well, but I just want to share one of my favorite.

The guys headed to Belgrade a day before we did, because they wanted to have some extra time to see the sights, so Allison and I headed to Serbia on a Friday night train that was supposed to get us there the next morning, I wasn't too excited about a 7 hour overnight train but it was gonna be okay since we could nap a little in our seats. We had a lay over in Zagreb and got to spend a couple hours at our favorite restaurant with Petra and then arrived to board our train about 15 minutes till it's departure. When we got there their were people all in the aisles of the train and we could hardly get past, as we did we were informed in many languages that there were no seats available and we should just hang with some people, have a couple drinks and smokes and enjoy the train. We decided to check another train car, but it was to no avail as it seemed all the cars were packed and the train was about 50 or more people overbooked. So hoping that after a couple stops we might get a seat we hung out at the end of the train, where we had about five feet of space. This however put us smack by the WC, or toilet. Basically as no one got off the train and over the next two hours as people continued to drink they continued to need to use the toilet. It was great fun as I ended up being the toilet attendant. People would see us standing there and ask "Kaldjkfaijifewja akldfjkla" or that's what it sounded like since it was maybe a couple different languages used to basically ask if the toilet was free. After using English a couple times and getting strange looks I asked Allison what to say, and I spent a couple hours getting to practice my use of the word "Slabadno" or "Free" in Croatian. At one point we almost started charging people to use the bathroom, we estimated we could have made around 20 or so USD. So the night continued with great stories but basically we moved to a packed hallway where it was a little warmer, two hours later, and chatted it up with some girls who progressively got drunk. We did get to sit for about an hour each for the 7 hour train ride. Oh and the last great thing is at about 4 am as we talked to these drunk girls one of them was introducing us to someone else and told this other person "this is Kali she's from Utah, and this is Allison, she's from Idaho" and we shake our heads, yep, good job. then she says "Yes, I rock!" my response "nope, I-raq is no where near Idaho". funny, funny. probably funnier if you were their but what was great is it took about 5 minutes for the blank looks to come off their faces. So besides that, we really did have a great time hanging out with the Novi Sad team and getting to see new places.

Christmas a lot of traveling and random thought

2008-01-05T16:34:00.000+01:00

Though this year was an enitrely different experience for me in celebrating Christ's birth, I think I really enjoyed it and had an opportunity to really reflect on Jesus's birth. It seems like the bible and the stories I've known for a long time continue to come to life as I experience life in a culture that isn't my own and find God here, it seems so much closer to where the real "action" and events took place. Though I know it, I see that my "Christmas" isn't just something in the US but that it happened far from where I call home and is celebrated by people all over the world. We got to have a fun family celebration with the Kneeshaw's three kids on our team and we headed to a family's home who is american-croatian, and have three kids as well. So we got to enjoy an amazing christmas play, have some scrumptions turkey with all the fixins and play up some team scrabble.

The fun all probably started the day before as we had a good christmas eve dinner, watched Elf while the christmas presents were wrapped and then Jon and I headed with Zoran to Christmas Eve midnight mass. This was an interesting experience. The entire cathedral was packed with standing room only, and Zoran translated for us so we got to understand most of the message. It was neat, and then as we headed home around 2 in the morning, we asked Zoran for a history lesson. : )

And to just end this post, I'll do multiple so you can space out the events, I've found out that I have DD, or departure disorder. Probably not a debilitating disorder but it has caused some anxiety and an occasional bonked head. Basically anytime people say good bye to me, I'm unsure if they are leaning in for a hug, a side hug, a cheeck kiss on both cheeks or just one, or if they just want to shake hands. I tend to do that whole unsure movement thing, it's like ah hug, no, move a little, uh side, uh no, uh cheek kiss, move face, nope, I just don't know what's going on, and it's just a moving twisted mass of weirdness. I think it would all be a whole lot easier as I say goodbye if the other person would just shout out what they are gonna do. For example, I'm saying bye to Bob and he says "side hug" then we side hug, or Jenna shouts out "double cheek kiss" and then I know what to expect and can execute the departing protocol. I just hope there is help for me.

Fillin the time bucket

2007-11-19T00:49:00.001+01:00

So the weeks have just flown by and the time has been filled with meaninful meetings, good coffee, and great conversations. Really it doesn't seem like we've been here a full two months and that we have met lots of students, made hundreds of phone calls and drank too many cups of coffee, I'll probably go home with kidney stones, brown teeth and a full heart, awesome. We've had little get togethers, simply with the intention of finding a tall person and getting our light bulbs changed. This night we were entertained by Davor who decided to stop by for ten minutes and give us a little magic show. Which was a good laugh. And now as Hrv describes it we hope that our ministry wheel has gained enough momentum for our big week of the semester, our English Workshop. Tomorrow is the first night of three where we will present our topics of Masks, Identity, and Trust and using multimedia tools have the students discuss these topics and practice their english. We are praying for around 60 students to come, this is the max amount that will fit in the cafe we are having it at. It will be a great event to generate conversations, meet new students and on the last evening have a gospel presentation. I'm a little nervous because I volunteered to do tomorrow night's "talk/presentation" and it is pretty much the first talk, of it's kind, that I will have given. I'm excited to be sharing some stories from my adolescence of the "masks" that I wore during this time and just be very honest and open about who I was with the students who will be there. We get to end the week with a little Thanksgiving social night, where we are going to have many different pies for the students to have and we'll give a little background on Thanksgiving. This week is also special as a team from University of Montana has come to visit and are giving some of their time to help us advertise and also help lead the tables discussion in the evenings. We also get the chance to duplicate our English Workshop because we get to help the team that is in Spit, Croatia with their English Workshop the following week. very exciting, we will be pro's at the end of this and can take our show on the road.

Did ya'll see my favorite friends. I just go around petting stray cats in my spare time. I'm hoping to bring home some kind of rare European cat disease and spread it. Can I say that?

The search for Cottage Cheese or Ricotta Cheese!

2007-11-07T18:10:00.001+01:00

So I discovered all the different types of cheese and milk products that are available in the local market today. I promised the guys some yummy lasagne tonight and the only ingredient that evaded me was Cottage or Ricotta Cheese, hoping to find Cottage cheese since Ricotta cheese is the entire reason why I don't like lasagne in the first place. Yesterday I bought a tub with the word "Sir" on it, since this is cheese and Allison didn't know what it was so I thought it would be a good chance that it is some kind of cottage cheese? When I opened it to make the lasagne it tasted like some kind of sour cream, but not quite. We have bought sour cream before and that is under a different name. When I'm almost done making the lasagne and I am determined to find this stuff. The search was on. I set out to the local market to buy all the possible cheese/milk tubs, I had decided that I would find my missing ingredient by golly jee wiz!! I opened them at home and to my utter dissapointment I found, some kind of sweet cream, and two more variations of sour cream? I have no idea why they all taste like sour cream but the names are clearly different. So I have made my lasagne with the original sour cream purchase and we shall see if it is edible tonight.

Pictures and Book

2007-11-06T22:37:00.000+01:00

Take notice that I added a link to my photos on the right side. Hopefully ya'll can navigate shutterfly and check em out.
Secondly with not time to think of "real" things to blog about I decided to start including excerpts from books I'm reading that really speak to me at the time. Here is one of the latest.

"True spirituality is kingdom living, which of necessity means that we can see
God in the whole of our lives, in private and in public, at work and in the home, in the church and in the street, and even at play -- whethere with children or in sports activities or in some form of healthy entertainment. The kingdom becomes the unifying or umbrella principle that brings together every dimension of our lives. Consiquently, we are freed from the oppressive burden that religious activities are somehow more important than domestic activities and work. If all that we are and do comes under the kingdom, then religious activities are surely important. But not all life is religion! We are members of families. We have occupations and responsibilities in our places of work. We have leisure time to enjoy friends, hobbies, and the arts. If we deny or undermine the other dimensions of our lives, we subtly ignore the centrality of the kingdom in God's redemptive plan. It means that my work at the office is just as important as my participation in worship; both are lived under the reighn of Christ Jesus." -On The Way by Gordon T. Smith

Smooth Move and other unsafe activities

2007-10-25T00:42:00.001+02:00

So this evening we were enlightened as to ways that some guys, specifically Pete, think are a good way to let a girl know you like her. It’s pretty simple, which might be helpful for guys? Anyhow, a guy just kicks (gently? In a footsie rubbing slash brushing sort of way) the girl under the table, when they are out for coffee one evening. Then the guy can tell if she likes him back by her response. It’s a sure way to tell if she immediately comments on the fact that he kicked/brushed/footsied her or just looks under the table and questioningly at him that she doesn’t really have any interest in the guy, however, (according to Pete) if she doesn’t say anything then it is suggested that the guy does this kick/brush/footsieness again and if she says nothing it is most likely that she is “twiterpatted” and likes the guy. Pradags response: “Where did you learn this, kindergarten?”

New form of Communication.

2007-10-22T01:07:00.000+02:00

So we are proud to say we found a new form of Communication in the city. Out with the old and in with the new. And as Prof. Samuel Finley Breese Morse asks, "What Hath God Wrought?" From what we can tell it is some type of Morse Code of sorts. Tapping has been taken to a whole new level of communicating with your fellow man, or woman. Basically what happens is if you say something to someone and they simply ignore you, or by chance don't speak your language and have no idea that you are talking to them, you can simply let them know what you want to communicate by tapping them on the rear. However, we did find that the cross cultural barrier is still in place, as we have no idea what the message relayed was intended. But we are now aware of this new and improved form of communication between people.

Trains, Smells and Males

2007-10-12T16:00:00.000+02:00

I find myself continually choosing to embark on new adventures. Recently I headed out with 4 guys from my team and 1 croatian to Ljubljuana, Slovenia for two days. One of my main draws of going was that we were going on a train, and I hadn't been on a train yet (besides small electric trax trains and such). Also I'm always up for more stamps on my passport. : )

You can't really see in this picture but the train conductor is sticking his head out the window.

Jon, John and Pete. Enjoying the sweet ride.

Kevin and Zoran. Oh they are so very excited for the journey ahead.

So it turned out that a train ride is only as fun as you make it. And I have to say we had a pretty good time. Throwing our sandwich wrappers into Kevin, Zoran and Pete's window from our compartment. Talking about God, reading the bible, and just having good convorsations. Then a little nap (where I did break the rules by putting my feet on the seat, whoops!)

As we arived I was just so surprised by how there was a whole lot of green, with the trees and the beautiful buildings and such. It was great. The colors were also magnificent. They were so good for my heart. I had been missing fall in Utah, my favorite season of the year and not very many leaves are changing here in Rijeka, something about dedicuous (?) trees.

The day we had was a little crazy as well because as we traveled and walked around the city we continued to take breaks for good food and good coffee. It was fun to explore all the neat little cafe's with different themes and to try some new food, Kabob's (which are a lot like Gyuros) and some mexican food! So it seemed that our day surounded a lot around walking and tasting. It was a lot of fun though, to see the city and try new things.

The Rijeka team!

2007-10-08T23:23:00.000+02:00

The official "team" picture. Fabulous!!
Top: Hrvoje, Petra, John (from previous 2 stint teams, leaving us soon), Isabella, Tori, Kevin, and Caden
Bottom: Pete, Jon, Allison, Mia, Me, and Kristi

Fun things that I've noticed thus far....

2007-10-01T17:45:00.001+02:00

So I was noticing some things that can make living in Croatia a little different and hopefully more interesting this year.

-There are no lines to wait in. However, this isn't necessarily good cause everyone pretty much butts you and just stands really close to you in a big huddle like thing so hopefully you get to the front of the line, and hopefully there is a front cause the guy behind you is probably getting there first. We learn to be patient
-Laundry is interesting. First I just learned that it is better to not wash stuff for a couple weeks, Allison notes that she wears jeans about 5 times before washing them, yikes I hope I learn not to spill. Then drying clothes is a lot of fun cause ya get to hang em and then wear some stiff clothes, but I guess if I wear them 5 times by the 3rd or 4th time they probably won't be as stiff right?
-It is always an adventure when you go to a new bathroom, or toilet ( you can't call it bathroom they don't have showers or baths for you to use just toilets). You must discover a new lever to make the toilet flush, do you pull, push or do a little dance?
-I found it interesting to find out the alchol limit for driving is 0.00% . You can have absolutely no alchol in your blood, yet drinking is a pretty important thing here, especially when people want you to try their home made alchol and wine.
-The crazy keys that are on doors to balcony's or on bathrooms, I've found myself not able to exit a bathroom cause I can't figure out which way the key goes. They are like huge keys that are crazy hard for me to understand and figure out.
-I just got a haircut and it was very special. It was more of an art then I have ever experienced with a haircut before. I found that at home they are very precise but here hair was flying and I didn't know if it would all be straight or not, but it was a great adventure and turned out fine.
-Laundry also can be washed twice and the second time is more God's doing. Rain can defiently hinder the drying process.
-Planes, trains, busses and automobiles.
-The whole no tipping thing is pretty exciting. But it also means that nothing is customer service. So it adds a whole new reason why everything is a little slower and that's not necessarily a bad thing, we should all take time to enjoy our meal and company.
-Making a small drink last for over an hour can not only be a challenge but also more enjoyable, it's been funny when the waiter has noticed we're american so they give us ice occassionaly.
-The love/hate relationship between wedding parades. Cars drive around town after weddings in a parade/caravan and honk their horns. It can be cool the first time but after they do it 4 times and it happens almost every week it tends towards the hate.

I'm sure there are so many other fun things waiting for me to discover. Yeah for adventures!

Me Casa.... uh... Moj Dom

2007-10-01T17:10:00.000+02:00

It's kind of hard to give a good tour of our apartment, cause it is pretty large and hard to tell where the best view is.

This is my room. I have the pages that I'm going to keep prayers on hanging on my wall and as they get answered I can cross them. Just a cool idea I heard about that helps me remember how God is working.

Our sweet balcony.

Our dinning room. This is soooo huge. You can pretty much have 8 people at the table. it's fun how it wraps. great for us playing games too. I think I already have learned how to play like 4 new games in the three weeks that I've been here. Settlers isn't as bad as I thought it might be.

Part of our living room. It's hard to get a good feel for it in pictures because it is sooo large.
There is the wrap around couch, and two smaller couches. It is supposed to be a great place for us doing ministry with and having students over and using for outreaches, though too many students have come lately to use it for bigger outreaches.

special picture by our entrance door right next to the kitchen table.

This is how we make coffee in the morning. I guess it is Turkish coffee. So we put the water to boil and then you add the coffee grinds after it has boiled. I found out that a key part of this is to remove the pan from the burner before you add the grinds otherwise they all boil over. Fun smell.

Campus Days in Zagreb

2007-09-26T23:27:00.000+02:00

So firsts things first. Pronunciation can be soooo difficult. The "a" in Zagreb is said with an "ahh" sound. So try saying it Zahhgreb. Cause if one is praying and says Zaahgreb I guess you pretty much sound like a hill billy and a crazy person. Hopefully God will forgive my mispronounciation. : ) Also in case you haven't heard it said, Rijeka is said Ree-yah-kah. And I'm not a pronounciation artist so I have no idea how the heck you say things out and type them out but this looks good for me.

So we went to Zagreb for Campus Days which is to meet with the National team and all the other Crusade teams in our areas. These are teams in Croatia: Split, Rijeka, and Zagreb and the team in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It was a great time of connect to the other teams and for sure a great time of connecting with the Lord and hearing from people who are very wise speak from the word.

We got to hang out a little in the city, especially when getting familiar with the transit system, as the center of town is a ways away from where we had our meetings at the office. This is just a picture of two of the guys on my team, one guy from last years team and one of the guys on the Bosnia team. The other is of Allison, she is the third from the left, or right I guess : ), and me with the Sarajevo stint girls.

The guys on the Sarajevo team hanging out with Hrvoije, our team leader. I guess once you start hanging out in europe you become a little less worried about personal space. I can hardly wait : ) (grimace). The whole touchy feely and less personal space is very intersting. This reminds me of the fun fact that there are no lines in Croatia, this doesn't mean you don't wait for things it just means Croats have a problem forming a line and waiting, you pretty much just get butted if you form a line so you push your way and get as close as you can to the person in front of you so no one can get in front of you. It turns into a mass of bodies pushing to the front. Fun times.

I think this is a really cool picture cause for worship at the Campus Days Hrvoje, our Croatian team leader lead us and all the women who sang with him are Croatian staff as well. It was all a testimony of God and how He is bringing Croatians to Him and how they are joining staff and giving their lives so other students can have the same opportunity they have to know Christ.

Sweet. So the few days were great to just connect, like I said to God and to other believers, Americans and Croatians. I'm excited also to just be starting doing ministry, a little this week and more next week. Yeah for feeling like we're doing something besides just settling in. Oh I think I might try and get my first European hair cut tomorrow. So fun.

Day in Slovenia

2007-09-26T22:49:00.000+02:00

Sunday I took the risk of taking an adventure and it turned out pretty sweet. My entire team had to be in Zagreb for "Campus Days" sunday night, but Jon (one of the guys on my team) wanted to go early cause he has some family in Slovenia that he wanted to visit since Zagreb is so close to their home. So I went early with him and his family picked us up from the bus station and drove us back to their home in Slovenia, which was about 45 minutes away. We had these bowls full of fruit with ice cream on top and then stopped at one of their homes that was nearby.

This is at the first house we were at. It is a grape press. It winds the grapes around it and then pretty much squeezes them so that you can have the juice to make wine. The enire bottom chunk/block thing is the grapes after being squeezed. There were a ton of fruit flies all over it. It was pretty neat to see. From their we went to another family house. Actually a farm with a bunch of animals and a vineyard and a bunch of different trees with nuts or fruit. It was really a neat place and soooo european looking.

This is the house with a sweet tractor outside.

Here are the cows in the farm and a kitten that was absolutely one of my joys of going to this farm, as I miss my kitties.

I don't know if you can tell in this small picture but these are grapes on a 70 year old vine at the farm house. They use them to make their own wine, along with some they have growing in other places.

So basically it was a really sweet time in a different country that was only an hour away. I love that the amount of time it could take to drive in the Western US from one state to another you can pretty much cover almost three countries.

Landing and learning.

2007-09-18T17:25:00.000+02:00

My team has officially landed and started settling in Rijeka. We arrived last tuesday and since have been busy registering with the Police, setting up our homes, and getting familar with the area. It's been kind of fun for me since I was here two years ago for the summer. So I've been seeing things that I remember from my last visit, and remember things that happened on the Summer project that I was apart of.

It's crazy to reconnect with God in another world, where people and things are all so different. I find it is like a bug that was hanging out with me the other day. He got stuck to a sticky paper and his leg got pulled off. I feel like him as he reorienates himself and tries to find new ways to walk with a leg missing. I'm finding different ways of living and connecting with God as my life changes.

To Krk and back

2007-09-18T16:57:00.001+02:00

Our weekend trip to Krk was pretty amazing and fun.

This was a really cool town that we passed on the way there. There was a place where monks, oh convant (?) that was in the center of the town. Really neat looking. I love Europe and all the red, white buildings, green trees and then the contrasting water. Beautiful

This is what it looked like just outside the house we stayed at. Our guys had an interesting experience with a drunken neighbor who swore we were staying in his family's home and he wanted us out. We were a little scared at first but our manly men took care of it and it ended up being more of a joke later : )

A new friend that I made on the beach. This dog must have belonged to a local cause it was just hanging out and wandering around. It was really friendly though.

Some fun pictures on the beach/
cement slab.

A different

day on a different part of the island. It was really rainy.

our splendid day of fish and chips.

The ones with tenticles scare me a little.

but Allison is really brave.

I am Kali hear me roar

2007-09-12T00:14:00.000+02:00

raaarrrrr