Day #2 in Bratislava - Monday

Our Monday in Bratislava was full of activities and fun! We arrived at the C.S Lewis School in the morning (they start school at 8:00 am) and met with the school administrators that have arranged our visit here, Zuzana and Peter. They welcomed us to the school and told us they were happy to have us visit them for the week. We also met with the Slovak students that are still here at the C.S. Lewis School that have attended Minnehaha in the past - Megi, Jack, Hana, Tatiana, and Karolina. Some of those students then took us on a tour inside the school and outside on the surrounding grounds. We then received a history lesson on Slovakia from one of the resident administrators and history experts. It was interesting and we heard a lot in a short period of time.

After that our students went to lunch in the cafeteria, and the principal and Peter, one of the staff members and coordinators of our trip, took Dr. DiNardo and I out to lunch at a nice restaurant on the Danube river. We talked about our schools, what our hopes are for our institutions looking forward to the future, and the relationship that MA and the C.S. Lewis School has cultivated over the past 14 years. We then went to meet up with our students, who were touring the Bratislava Castle, and we took a tour around the old town, did some shopping, got some gelato, had some free time, and ended the evening with a traditional Slovak dinner at a local restaurant.  It was a fun and full day! Below are some pictures from our Monday adventures - enjoy!

This is what we saw when we walked into the school to meet our students - a coffee shop! Pretty cool to have in a school.

Ping pong tables in one of the main hang out areas of the school - fun!

Some of our students and Megi hanging out.

Our first welcome meeting at the school.

The coordinators at the C.S. Lewis School who worked hard to make sure we have a great visit - Zuzana and Peter.

The WICK mural and area. WICK is a weekly student body gathering that is similar to MA's assembly time.

The gym!

The art room

One of the music practice rooms - Asa decided to try out his keyboard skills while Soren supervised. 

Lexi and Hana trying out one of the Chemistry lab spark machines.

Chemistry room

I saw several of these Slovakia flag pictures in many of the classrooms.

History room

History room

History room

The cafeteria

Watching a historical film before hearing from Daniel, the resident history expert.

This map is right in front when you enter the school. It shows all of the countries and universities, including Slovakia, where their alumni are studying.

The Danube River

The beautiful Bratislava Castle

At the Bratislava Castle... what a good looking group!

Bratislava Castle

Map and info about the Castle.

The "UFO" bridge. If you look carefully beyond the bridge you see a huge area of apartment buildings.  These are the formerly drab housing from the communist era. They have been painted brighter colors in the past 20 or so years so they look more vibrant than the dull look they had during the communist years.

Our group of 11.

Look carefully in the distance - see all the windmills?  That is Austria!

A statue commemorating the former Jewish area of town that was destroyed in WWII.

It says, "Never Forget" in Slovak and Hebrew

The cathedrals in Europe are stunning!

Walking around Old Town

Free time with shopping and more.

See that black dot to the left of the window? That's a cannon shot by Naploeon that they decided to leave in place to remember the event.

The American Embassy in Bratislava

Gelato stop! Doesn't that look delicious?  :)

Mmmm... gelato.

Ben and silver statue man. The story goes that this was modeled after a man that was always in the streets being cheerful and friendly to everyone around him. When he passed away they put up this statue in his memory. I love that story!

This restaurant that we went to was fun and very european looking inside and out.

Happy table! On the left is Jano, one of our C.S. Lewis host students, and Tatiana is next to Ben and Elsie.

I wasn't sure exactly what I ordered, but Jano told me it was tasty so I went for it. My host family later told me that is is a traditional Czech meal - beef in a vegetable cream sauce with dumplings (that are pretty much like soft pieces of bread).

Elsie had a salad with what I thought looked like a chicken breast on top, but I was wrong! It was a delicious, fresh piece of cheese.

Lexi with her dumplings (that she gave names to... funny).

Most of us ordered Kofola, which is a soft drink that tastes similar to Coca Cola, but it has less carbonation - it tastes a bit like flat pop, actually, but it is good!  Kind of a cross between root beer, coke, and ginger ale.

Day #1 in Bratislava - Sunday

Today we had the whole day with our host families. This morning started with a worship service at a church in Bratislava called Zbor Cirkvi bratskej v Bratislave. The theme of the sermon was "How to be a good neighbor in a global world" - very fitting indeed for MA's Cultural Field Experience program! The service was entirely in Slovak, however we were able to wear headphones to hear the service translated into English - extremely helpful to follow along and understand the message given. Something I took away was the idea that we like to get to know someone and then show them love after getting to know them - not always the other way around - loving our neighbor even before knowing them. Jesus calls us to do just that - love first and love always. That resonated with my heart.

At the end of the service, Dr. DiNardo and I went up in front of the congregation with our friend Daniel Laco from the C.S. Lewis School community and spoke about MA's CFE program and how the message in church this morning directly correlates to what we are hoping for our MA students - to learn, grow, and bring Christ's love to our neighbor, both at home, throughout our country, and to others around the globe. We hope that being in Bratislava and Vienna this CFE week will help us to expand our knowledge and heart for God's kingdom on earth, and to show His love to others while we are also shown love ourselves. After church there was a time of refreshments and we had the rest of the day to spend with our host families. About 1/3 of our group was able to make it to the service, and the other students had things planned in their morning and throughout the day with their host families. I heard from Asa and Beck via text that they had a great day with their host family and got to visit an Austrian castle - how fun!

Below are some pictures from my day (Mrs. Johnson). I should be able to get more group photos tomorrow when we officially kick off our week with our friends at the C.S. Lewis School. Stay tuned!

Zbor Cirkvi bratskej v Bratislave

Elsie and Lexi listening to the service with the help of English translation through the headphones.

Elsie and Lexi with their C.S. Lewis host student, Karolina, who knows MA well -
she was a student at MA in the fall of 2016. So fun to connect with her again!

Refreshment time after church. Dr. DiNardo and I talked to several people after church, including past C.S. Lewis students who have studied at MA, native Canadians that now live in Slovakia, a Slovak man that has relatives that lived in the Twin Cities, and more.  I have found that one of the most meaningful things about these unique CFE trips is the connections that we make with others that we talk to and get to know.

This picture is especially for my girls at home in Minnesota - this is Goldie, the sweet dog at my host home. So cute!  :)

Made it to Bratislava!

Our flight from Amsterdam to Vienna went smoothly, and we made it safely from there to Bratislava.  We've all spent the evening with our host families, which I'm sure everyone is enjoying. Tomorrow some of us will meet for a morning worship service at a local church (and Dr. DiNardo may be giving a greeting from Minnehaha in the service as well, we'll see and I'll fill you in on that tomorrow)! Below are some pictures... enjoy! Time to finally sleep from the long day of travel...

Boarding our flight to Vienna in Amsterdam

Waiting to board the bus in Vienna to take us to Bratislava

On the bus ride we passed the beautiful Bratislava castle all lit up! (I was not quick enough to get a picture out the window, but this is what it looked like... picture from google images.)

This is my very cute and welcoming room for the week. The teenage daughter in my host family gave up her room for the week so I could stay in there - sweet!

And you know I had to live stream the girls state championship basketball game. It was INTENSE! Another nail biter. Congratulations to the 2019 Class 2A Girls Basketball State Champions, with a 72-63 win over Caledonia, the Minnehaha Academy Redhawks!  So proud of you, ladies!

We've made it to Amsterdam - safe and sound...

We are all safe and sound on our layover in Amsterdam. Of course not many of us got great sleep on the cramped flight, but that's to be expected. I unfortunately didn't get many great pictures of our group on the plane because once we got going from MSP I was able to stream the Redhawks Girls Basketball semifinal game on my computer, so I watched the game and then somewhat fell asleep. I was sitting next to Ethan and Tuviah (who may or may not have been smirking at my enthusiasm for the basketball game) and making some big hand gestures and maybe a bit too loud comments... for a few minutes I forgot I was on the plane, I was so into the ultra close game!

Congratulations to the team for winning a nail biter of a game against the tough Albany team, 70-67! On to the state championship game at the Barn at U of M at 2 pm on Saturday against Caledonia - head out to the U to support the girls or tune in to local channel 45 to watch them in action. So proud of these girls... GO REDHAWKS!

We are all here and happy to be one step closer to our final destination, Bratislava. I will post again as I'm able sometime after we arrive. Thank you for your prayers for our group and all of the MA students traveling throughout the Twin Cities, U.S., and the world throughout this next week!

SO fun to follow the game on the plane with the wifi access!  

Go Redhawks!

Thanks to Dr. DiNardo for snapping some pics from his window seat. This one was taken at 2 am Minnesota time... the sun's coming up where we are!

Flying into Amsterdam

We've made it!

A cool bike/work station in the Amsterdam airport. (Can I get one of these at work?)  :)

Ready to go... here we come Slovakia!

At the airport, ready to board our flight!  First stop Amsterdam for a 3 hour layover. Then we fly on to Vienna. Then we have about a 45 minute bus ride to Bratislava to meet our C.S. Lewis School friends. We are so excited!  Thanks to you all for your prayers - we appreciate it!