The last two months have been full of all kinds of other things besides just outreach! I mean, we LIVE in Slovakia, people. Here’s some of the team stuff that happened on this great adventure we call STINT…
Ukraine trip
The Cathedral in Uzhorod, Ukraine
One of our teammates, Aaron, had his passport stamp expire before his visa got rolling. According to European Union rules, you cannot stay in the EU for more than 90 days without a visa of some kind. You must leave the EU for 90 days if you wish to re-enter without a visa. When we were at the foreign police station, they said they could not begin work on Aaron’s visa without a new, valid, stamp on his passport. So we risked leaving the EU by going to Ukraine for a day! We hopped the border to a small town called Uzhorod. We made it back into Slovakia and thus the EU just fine and Aaron got his fresh stamp.
Aaron and Biba in front of the restaurant called "Nyum Nyum". It was yum yum. It was fun to practice my cyrillic.
Thanksgiving in Prague
For most of us, it was our first Thanksgiving away from family. But we celebrated it as a team by going to Prague for three days. Although we were sad to be without family, we truly had a great relaxing time during the holiday.
The Old Town Square in Prague
Folk Dance
One of the guys I have been meeting with, Mat’o, let me know that the universities were holding a folk dance and he invited me to meet him there. So Stephanie, Amber, and I went… and walked into a room of about 400 Slovak college students dressed in traditional folk garb dancing to a live folk band! It was quite the cultural experience! On top of that, we learned a lesson about being “in the culture” because Mat’o, and other students we met there, expressed how deeply touched they were that we came.
Standing in a room full of traditionally-dressed slovak students sitting for a folk dinner.
A Knight of Murder…
During one of our staff socials, we were whisked back in time to the Medieval Era, where knights jousted for the hand of a maiden, lords and ladies ruled their manors, sherrifs collected taxes, and the king and queen reigned over all. We had a murder mystery dessert, where we solved the case of a mysterious death of a knight during a wedding festival. Turns out, it was the bride who was the murderer!
Everyone came dressed as their role. I was King Kyle!
HC Kosice Hockey
One of the fun things about Kosice is that they have a premier league hockey team. The US Steel hockey areana is just as modern as anything in the states. It was truly yet another culutral experience to sit in a crowd of 50,000 slovaks cheering, and jeering, the hockey teams.
Lindsey, Stephanie, and Aaron are obviously enjoying the hockey game!
Thanksgiving/Christmas party
We had a team Thanksgiving dinner after we got back from Prague. As a team, everyone brought a dish or two… so altogether we had turkey, stuffing, fruit salad, green salad, cranberry sauce, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, and cake. After dinner was over, we kicked off the Christmas season by setting up our team Christmas tree! It was a very fun night for all.
Mikey, Aaron, and Cindy enjoy their Thanksgiving meal...
As do Stephanie, Bronny, Amber, and Lindsey
Merry Christmas from our STINT team!
