The sun's U.V. rays work just as well in Slovakia as they do in the U.S.

When I woke up this morning, Ed and Wendi had already left to drop off Ed at the train station en route to Vienna. Ed will be in Vienna for about a day and a half, picking up the summer interns and dropping them off at training camps. He's due back tomorrow evening.

After a hearty breakfast of ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches on the amazing rolls that we used for hamburger buns last night, Phil, Grant, and I got started on mowing the lawn. It was a very interesting experience as the mower was electric powered and we had to run an extension cord from the garage out into the yard. Phil raked, I mowed, and Grant stood there looking cute holding the extension cord (in all honesty it would have been about a hundred times harder without Grant. He served a valuable purpose and did a great job of keeping the cord out of the way of the mower).

Wendi and Shaylee returned from the train station as we were getting started with the mowing. She was able to snap a few pictures of our motley yard crew at work and provided us with some valuable insider info on where stuff was/how stuff works.

It was a hot day, so I decided to mow shirtless in order to increase my comfort level and maybe soak up a few rays. You've probably already guessed what the end result of this decision was (maybe because you read the title of this post or maybe you're just really smart). Well, I'll just cut the suspense now and tell you........I got burnt. As the title of this post so aptly explains, the sun's U.V. rays work just as well and are just as strong here as they are back home. You'd think I'd learn my lesson about being outside shirtless without sunscreen after 23 years of existence, but I swear I've got burned about every Summer I've been alive. As the Cub fan in me likes to say, "maybe next year".

After we finished mowing the lawn I took one of my, now customary, afternoon naps. When I awoke, the older kids were home from school and were watching a video of "The Lone Ranger". Man, this brought back memories from my childhood! I still remember listening to the cassette tape we used to have of "The Lone Ranger" and the classic "William Tell Overture" theme song. Hiyo Silver!!!!!

Dinner this evening was a tremendous meal of chicken noodle casserole, fresh veggies, and chocolate muffins! Wendi whipped up a rather large batch of muffins, so we have the glorious opportunity to enjoy those for the next several days!

After dinner we all walked down to a park to enjoy the early Summer evening. Wendi, Phil, Grant and I enjoyed conversation around a park table while the kids all played on the slides, swings, and whatever else kids play on at a park (it's been a while for me, I'm getting old).

When we returned from the park, Wendi got the kids ready for bed. In Ed's absence I was given the opportunity to pinch-hit and read the Bible story for the evening. After the kids were all settled in for the night, Wendi, Phil and I watched the inspirational short video, "The Butterfly Circus" (If you've never seen it look it up and watch it right now. It's very well done and moving).

After some good nighttime conversation in the living room, we're all getting ready to hit the sack. Grant's sitting a couple feet to my left reading "Green" by Ted Dekker and Phil just checked in for the night. I'll probably be out as well soon after posting this. It's 12:50 here and my internal clock requires more sleep here than back home.

I was just reminded that about RIGHT NOW marks the one week mark since we arrived at Ed and Wendi's. Tomorrow's promising to be the start of another great week.

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.

Bell towers, Train-tracks, and Burgers!

Well, there's about half an hour left of Monday night here in Bardejov. It's hard to believe that tomorrow will mark the end of our first week here. I guess we're finding the old saying to be true: "Time flies when you're having fun" Today was no different..........

Around 11:30 this morning, Ed and Wendi took us (along with Shaylee as the older four kids were in school today) down to the town square to tour the huge vintage catholic church. We first stopped at the famous Bardejov underground restaurant to sample one of Ed and Wendi's favorite lunch spots. Of course the food was nothing short of incredible! I had halusky (a traditional Slovak dumpling/noodle) with paprika chicken in a gravy sauce. I also had bubbly water, which was similar enough to tonic water that it made me think of Uncle Hod.

After we finished at the restaurant we began our tour of the church. The catholic church at the bottom of the Bardejov town square is gigantic! It is definitely the landmark you look for to orient yourself anywhere in the city. Its bell tower can be seen from miles around.

With the bell tower being the main attraction, we decided to see that first and started the long trek up the narrow, winding, stone spiral staircase. After climbing the stairs for what seemed like several minutes we finally arrived at the top. We had a wonderful panoramic view, high above the city, of everything from the town square to the rolling hills and the countryside stretching all the way to the horizon. We all took lots of pictures from the top of the bell tower, capturing the incredible beauty of the aerial view from high above Bardejov.

When we finally descended the spiral staircase we took another half-hour or so to look around the ornate catholic sanctuary. Once again, many pictures were taken (especially by Phil) of the many beautiful statues, paintings and decorations crowning this cathedral-like room.

The older Rumbold kids got home from school around 3:00 in the afternoon and upon Gage's suggestion we all got out the train-track set upstairs and went to work creating a masterpiece of a rail-line. With Phil's engineering skills coming in handy, we put together many twists and turns, ups and downs, and overs and unders before stepping back and taking a few more pictures of the finished product. Oh, and I think the kids had as much fun playing with the train-tracks as we did building them.

Dinner tonight was a classic outdoor cookout! Ed grilled burgers and Wendi made party potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, a fresh veggie tray and homemade hamburger buns (Mom, if you're reading this you NEED to get that hamburger bun recipe from Wendi).

Tate commented that he felt like he was at a Getz picnic! Everything about this meal was incredible! Even the weather was about as ideal as you could ask for for an outdoor cookout! (After a week here, I'm not entirely convinced that they ever have anything but perfect weather in Bardejov).

Tonight, Grant, Phil and I did a little more research on our destinations for the post-Slovakia part of our trip. Grant was able to skype a little with his friend from Paris who's planning on showing us around when we're there and we worked towards shoring up some connections we have for our time in Germany as well.

As I was typing up this post I just finished talking to my cousin Jon Getz on facebook. He'll be leaving in about a week for an engineering trip with Vanderbilt University to Northern Ireland. If any of my readers are interested in following Jon's adventures there, he's also chronicling his travels at http://jongetz.blogspot.com/.

We'll that's all for tonight folks. It's about 12:30 and time for me to hit the hay. I've been sleeping over 9 hours a night here and often times napping during the day. All that fun and excitement can wear a guy out! Wouldn't have it any other way though. I'm loving Bardejov and will be forever grateful for the tremendous hospitality and cultural experience that the Rumbold family has shown us.

This is definitely a once in a lifetime trip!

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.

Our first Sunday in Bardejov

When I left you all last night we were winding down for the night and getting ready for some late night ice cream. After homemade hot fudge sundaes complete with peanuts and whipped cream we realized that Phil and Grant had never seen Kun-fu Panda. Of course the only solution to this problem was to watch it, so Ed, Wendi, Grant, Phil and I settled in for a hilarious nightcap of epic proportions. Now I remember why I laughed so hard when I saw that movie in theaters!

We got up this morning and went to church with Ed at 9:00. Since part of the church recently suffered from fire damage, Sunday school was canceled so Wendi stayed home with the kids (it was mainly an adult service with no small children). The church was a beautiful Lutheran church right next to the town square (read one of my first posts where I describe this immaculate feature of Bardejov). When we arrived a little before 9:00 the church was packed so we sat in a bench on the outside of the aisle near the back of the sanctuary.

It was very interesting being in a Lutheran church service in Slovak. While I had absolutely no clue what was being said, I was able to gather context clues about what was going on that made the experience enriching and definitely positive and enjoyable. Another interesting aspect of the church service was the fact that we happened to be there on their conformation Sunday. The young boys and girls (8th grade I think) were ushered in to the church in an elaborate ceremony and took vows and communion in front of the entire church body (I'd say around 500 people).

When we arrived back at Ed and Wendi's house around noon, Wendi had prepared a coffee cake and a delicious lunch of Chicken, rice and cooked carrots! After we ate, the Rumbold kids performed a skit for us in the living room which they had prepared while we were at church. It had a very good moral lesson to it, as we learned never to ride your bike over wet cement (played by Gage) and that our hearts should not be hard to Jesus like the cement was hard after it dried. After this production, we were treated to several other improv skits with Shaylee even making a cameo.

This afternoon we went back to the park with the basketball court and played a few 2-on-2 games (every conceivable combination of Ed, Grant, Phil and I) and then decided to play H-O-R-S-E. Ed won the first two games we played but was one letter from elimination in the third when Jayce asked when we were going home. We decided to go home when Ed lost, because that looked like the inevitable result of that game. However, he ended up coming back to win that one and the next 3 after it (even with us shortening H-O-R-S-E to P-I-G, E-D, and I) before Phil beat him to halt his winning streak at 6!

We returned to the Rumbold home for pizza and some other great leftovers from earlier in the week! This evening has been very relaxing, filled with after-dinner adventures on the trampoline, good conversation around the dining room table, an hour long nap, and a little post-Slovakia trip planning.

We're winding down day #5 here in Bardejov and I've been loving every minute of it. "Everything's better in Slovakia" has become a catch phrase for us over these few days. If any of you are looking for something to do in the near future, you should really come check out this beautiful city!

I didn't take any pictures at the church or the park today, so this will unfortunately be a picture-free blog post. As I've mentioned before, if you want to check out all the pictures I've been taking I've got them all uploaded on my facebook page.

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.

The Slovakian youth group, great food, and a castle!

So it's now 10:30 on Saturday morning. I realize I didn't fill you all in on Friday's happenings last night, so I'm going to throw Friday and Saturday morning into one blog post.

Yesterday's highlights included going to a Slovakian grocery store, Phil speaking at Ed's youth group, and Grant sleeping until 12:30. I'll fill you in on these events in order of importance/excitement factor.

Grant slept in until 12:30..........there's not much more to it than that. I guess I could tell you that we decided he had slept long enough and took Jalen and Shaylee in to jump on him, but unfortunately (for our enjoyment) he was already awake.

We went to a Slovakian grocery store. This was definitely a neat experience. While the store closely resembled a Meijer or an Aldi, it was interesting to see all the labels in Slovak and the prices listed in Euros. All right, your probably thinking, "that wasn't very interesting either, get to the good stuff". Don't worry, our next event was pretty awesome!

At around 5:00 in the afternoon, Grant, Phil and I went to the youth group meeting with Ed at their local church. Phil (with the help of a translator) was the featured speaker for the evening. He gave a very well done and insightful lesson on Godly relationships. I think it was well received by all but one student (I'll get to that later).

When we first got there, Ed had to meet with the other leaders and Phil had to go over his talk with the translator. This left Grant and I to fend for ourselves among the 30 or so high school aged students. Since I only know about 3 words of Slovak (and I'm lucky if I remember two of them) I decided to see if I could engage any of the students in a simple English conversation. I noticed a young girl was sitting by herself and wasn't presently engaged in a conversation so I tried my luck with her. I asked her if she spoke any English. She stared at me blankly and made a hand-motion that indicated very little. Not to be dismayed, I held out my hand and said, "My name is Ben". She understood that, and shook my hand and gave me her name. As this exchange was taking place, the students in the 4 or 5 separate conversations around us must have heard English being spoken, because they dropped what they were doing and swarmed around me and my Slovakian conversation companion. Here I was, now attempting to converse with about 10-12 young Slovakian girls who spoke very little English. I tried a couple of simple questions speaking very slowly (what's your name, how old are you, what year in school are you in, what's your favorite color?) and we went down the line with each of them giving me their answer (if they understood). Thankfully, by this time Ed had noticed my predicament and came over to bail me out.

I then went over and joined Grant in a conversation with a young man named Jan, who spoke very good English. He turned out to be a great friend for us throughout the night and continually was willing to help us with translation and just overall knowing what was going on.

When the night officially began, we started off by playing a classic youth group game out in the field. Everyone had a piece of paper taped to their back and the object of the game was to run around and pull the paper off of everyone else's backs while protecting the paper on your own back. It was a lot of fun and left us hot and sweaty as we headed back indoors for worship and Phil's talk.

The worship part of the evening was very interesting, as many of the songs were familiar U.S. praise songs (so I was able to recognize the tune) but the meter and flow was very different with the words being in Slovak. I attempted to sing along in Slovak (the words were on a screen up front) but I'm sure my pronunciation was really weird because I kept getting strange backwards glances from the people sitting in front of me.

Next up came Phil's talk. He'd speak for a sentence or two and then pause as one of the students translated what he just said into Slovak. He was rolling along like this for about 15-20 minutes when all of a sudden, one of the male students sitting in the back of the room decided he had had enough. He got up, opened a window and noisily jumped out from the first floor opening. Confusion ensued for several seconds before I turned to Jan and asked if this kind of thing normally happens. He got a big smile on his face and said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear him, "Welcome to Slovakia".

When we returned to Ed and Wendi's at around 8:00, Wendi had amazing homemade pizza prepared for us! We had a wonderfully relaxing evening with Ed and Wendi complete with Pizza, ice cream, and a new card game called 65!

This morning (being Saturday morning) I had a very enthusiastic and effective wake-up call. I awoke to all 5 of the Rumbold kids jumping on my bed!:) Apparently 8:45 was sleeping in a little too late for a Saturday morning. They were all ready to get the day started!

And boy am I glad they got me up! We had a fantastic breakfast of traditional Slovak pancakes (the name escapes we right now) filled with whipped cream and cocoa. It's now after breakfast and........................hold on we must interrupt this blog post to bring you an important announcement:

It has just been decided that we are leaving imminently for Spissky Hrad, the largest castle in Slovakia! I'll get right back to this post when we return....................

Alright, I'm back! It's now 9:00 pm and we have just finished an amazing day exploring a castle and eating at a very traditional Slovak restaurant!

We arrived at the castle at about 12:45 and hiked up a steep incline to get to the mountaintop entrance. The remainder of the afternoon was spent touring around one of the most breathtaking places I have ever witnessed! Some highlights included the dungeon, complete with medieval torture devices, a huge tower overlooking the entire valley and countryside, and a castle museum which featured everything from a authentic castle kitchen to a catholic church built into the side of a stone wall.

After a full day of walking all around the castle, we had stoked up some pretty ravenous appetites. We found the solution to this problem in a authentic Slovak restaurant which Ed and Wendi suggested. The food was fantastic and the outdoor restaurant atmosphere was so classically European. I was definitely pleased with every aspect of our Saturday adventure. I really feel like I can't adequately express in words the full range of experiences we.......experienced today! I invite you all to check out the pictures I've taken thus far on my facebook page.

We'll we're winding down for the evening now. Ed and Wendi are upstairs putting the kids to bed (my prediction is they will sleep VERY well tonight). Grant is taking a nap 3 feet to my left and Phil is outside the doorway doing an insane number of push-ups and ab exercises (he fittingly calls this workout insanity. I did it with him the other day and I almost died.)

Since this blog post is already getting up there in length, I'm going to call it a day and wind down for the night myself. We're going to church at 9:00 in the morning tomorrow.

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.

Soccer and Basketball on day #2!

Well, it's 11:00 pm here on Thursday evening. Grant, Phil and I are wrapping up our second full day here in Bardejov. I slept great again last night, going to bed around 12:30 and waking up around 10:00. Since I was wide awake all day today I'd say I have officially conquered, defeated, mastered, and overall just put jet lag in it's place!

We all had a very relaxing morning and early afternoon with Ed, Wendi, Jalen and Shaylee. Since it was absolutely perfect weather once again today we spent a lot of time out on the trampoline either bouncing with the kids or longing around enjoying conversation with Ed and Wendi.

While Grant napped this afternoon, Phil and I walked with Ed down to Gage's school to escort him home. Most things in Bardejov, I've discovered, are within walking or very short driving distance. It's one of the many nice things I've noticed thus far about the city.

About mid-afternoon Ed took Grant, Phil and I along with his three boys to a park on the top of the hill (most of the city is in a valley). There was a basketball court there, so we decided to play a couple of games of H-O-R-S-E. Ed won every time (we're chalking it up to home court advantage) but we all had a great time playing on the Slovakian hoops with chain metal nets (gave it a very European feel in my opinion).

As we were getting ready to leave, Ed started into a conversation in Slovak with several of the kids who were playing with Jayce and Tate. I've learned maybe ten Slovak words since I've been here (maybe two of which I remember) so I tried to listen in on the conversation to see if I could pick up anything or discern what was being spoken about from body language, expressions, etc.... It's really an interesting feeling to not have a clue what people are talking about in a conversation unfolding right in front of you.

We arrived back at the Rumbold home for another amazing dinner that Wendi had prepared! If you guys don't recognize me when I get home because of a few extra pounds, you'll know why (and it'll be well worth it!) We are eating VERY well!!!

Phil, Grant, and I sustained a sound beating from the Rumbold children today in the after dinner Bible story quiz game. To the victors go the spoils, so we ended up doing all of the Rumbold kids post dinner chores! A well deserved break for our younger hosts as they completely spanked us in tonight's game. We're definitely bringing our "A" game tomorrow!

This evening, after the kids went to bed, we went with Ed to his Thursday evening men's soccer night. There was about 8-10 Slovak guys there besides us, playing indoor soccer in a basketball gym. It was a blast! We played for over 2 hours and I used muscles I don't think I've used since the last time I played soccer, maybe 4-5 years ago.

I had another humorous language moment while I was sitting on the bench with one of the Slovak guys during the game. Ed had earlier in the night explained to me how to talk about the score of the game in Slovak. Since I was sitting by this guy in awkward silence with each of us well aware that we didn't speak the same language, I decided to try out a simple conversation. I tried asking him what the score was, but I think all I really got across was something along the lines of "for us or for you". Of course this guy was very confused and gave me a sideways look that expressed exactly how he was feeling. Since my plan A didn't work I decided to fall back on plan B before realizing a slight problem.......I didn't have a plan B. We looked at each other for several seconds while I thought about what to do next (you can't really ask about the score of the game with hand motions) then he finally spoke up and said, "in English....go slow". Turns out the guy knew a little bit of english (probably about as good as my spanish) and we carried on a slow simple conversation for the next several minutes.

Now we're back at Ed and Wendi's place winding down for the evening. Day #2's been a blast! Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.

Our hosts!

I just realized that for some of you following this blog some explanation and clarification may be needed. I mentioned the Rumbold family members by name in my last post before realizing that not all of you know our gracious hosts here in Bardejov.

Wendi and Ed (through marriage) are cousins to both Grant and I. While they lived in Tremont they attended Northfield church with Phil. Their family of 5 children consists of Jayce (10) Tate (9) Jalen (6) Gage (5) and Shaylee (2). We are very thankful for the kindness and hospitality of the entire Rumbold family!

Now you all can continue following our adventures with a greater degree of understanding and appreciation.

It's 12:02 on Thursday afternoon.........this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.

And so it begins.....

Friends and family, I am starting this blog for the purpose of keeping those of you who are interested updated on the current happenings befalling myself, Grant, and Phil as we travel through Europe. This being my first post, I will attempt to fill you in on the adventures of our travels thus far.

We departed from the Peoria airport at 2:30 pm CT on Monday (that would be 9:30 pm here in Bardejov). It is now 8:30 pm on Wednesday here so we started our travels about 48 hours ago. After transferring to a larger aircraft at O'Hare in Chicago, we began the 7.5 hour flight across the Atlantic to Amsterdam. The long overseas flight was fairly uneventful, but I only slept for about an hour total (I was hoping for a lot more in my attempt to ward off jet lag).

We spent about an hour and a half at the airport in Amsterdam, before boarding a small plane for a 2.5 hour flight across Europe to Warszaw, Poland. The fun really started to begin when we got off the plane in Warszaw.

After exchanging currency and scoring a taxi to the central train station, we realized that our train for Krakow was scheduled for a 6:00 departure and it was only 1:30 in the afternoon. We decided to take advantage of this extra time by taking the opportunity to explore Warszaw. Some highlights of our several hours in the polish city included: Walking through a HUGE old catholic cathedral with a large statue of Poland's native son, the late Pope John Paul II outside, exploring the Warszaw ghetto, exchanging currency with a friendly Pole who spoke passable English, and eating at an authentic Polish bakery.

Then the time came for us to return to the station and board the train for Krakow. The ride was long and uneventful (so I'm told, as I slept through most of it) and our compartment, which would comfortably hold six people, was packed shoulder to shoulder with eight. However, we arrived safely in Krakow and Ed graciously made the 3 hour drive (6 hour roundtrip) from Bardejov to pick us up.

When we arrived at Ed and Wendi's home in Bardejov at 1:00 in the morning, Wendi was still awake to greet us! Not only that, but she had made us calzones and muffins and sat with us around the table (along with Ed) until we hit the sack around 2:00. Shaylee made an appearance at about 1:45, but she claimed no memory of it in the morning.

I awoke at around 10:00 this morning to find Phil already awake around the breakfast table with Ed, Wendi, Jalen, and Shaylee. The boys were already off at school and Grant had yet to surface (he wouldn't until around 12:30!) After a breakfast of muffins, coffee, cereal and orange juice Jalen and Shaylee introduced me to the main attraction in the Rumbold front yard, the trampoline!

After Grant finally came up for air, the Rumbold girls and Ed took us three travelers on a walk around the city of Bardejov. I was especially impressed by the town square, which is NOTHING like anything I've seen in America. It's wide open and paved in cobblestone with shops and buildings all around the wide perimeter. I took a lot of pictures on the walk, so I'll attempt to figure out how to add some of those on here. If any of you have facebook, they're all already uploaded on there.

Our walk continued, with Ed and Wendi treating us to ice cream and a trip by the school to pick up Gage. He joined us for the remainder of the walk back to the Rumbold house, passing a beautiful fountain display and a skate park. After we got back to the house, Ed, Grant, Phil and I got in the van and went to pick up Jayce and Tate from school.

The evening activities thus far have consisted of a scrumptious dinner of Chili and homemade bread, a Bible story and quiz game (the visitors from afar squeaked out a win against the Rumbold children only after Phil bested Gage in a game of "odd or even" to break the tie) and some wild games of "Hollyball". Yes, you read that right, Hollyball. This game, copy-write belonging to Jayce and Tate, involves throwing a basketball from one trampoline towards a goal on the other trampoline (yes, they have two trampolines). A goalie on the other trampoline attempts to block the ball before it contacts the goal in the net behind him. This game is great! Grant, Phil and I played for a while even after the kids all went in for bed!

Well, now it looks like our first evening in Slovakia is winding down. I feel pretty good, as far as jet lag goes. I wasn't tired all day today and it looks like I'll be ready for bed at a fairly normal time over here. I really can't thank Ed and Wendi enough! They have been so gracious to us allowing us be a part of their family while we are here. I'm having a blast thus far and I can't wait to see what further adventures are in store for us in the days/weeks to come.

I'll try to keep this updated semi-regularly for those of you interested on keeping up with us. If you have any questions/advice/thoughts/words of wisdom/jokes you can leave a comment and I'll attempt to get back to you as soon as I can.

Until next time, this is Ben signing off from Bardejov.