Back to Work I Go...

The Lovely Lake Bled

For those of you who are eagle eyed, you'll have noticed that I missed a week. Well I would be sorry but I'm not because I was on holiday. September has been quite a quiet and easy month for me for a variety of reasons. Firstly I was ill straight after coming back from England in August and then I only had a week of work before I joined a group from Oak Hall in Lake Bled for a week. Although term has started, things have yet to settle down into a regular routine. Whilst the beginning of term is incredibly busy for all the youth and their parents, that has meant that things have been slower for me whilst everyone works out their new routines.

To give a bit of explanation of how crazy things are for the youth, I need to give a bit of detail on their schooling system. When I was at school in England, it started every day at 8.45 and finished at 3.30. If I went to any after school clubs or orchestras or music lessons, these were always at the same time every year. Although my lessons may have changed within this structure, the structure itself didn't change. Not so here. Every year, everything changes. This includes what time they start and finish school every day and what time all their extra curricular activities are on. They could start school at 7.15 and finish at 2 on one day and start at 8 and finish at 4 another. This has made it interesting trying to find times when I can meet people so that all the schedules mesh together. It has taken a bit of time but I think it's finally all organised.

Another reason it has been quiet is that many of my weekly evening meetings have not yet started up again this term. After a busy summer I'm actually quite grateful for a slow start to the term as the number of Bible studies I will be preparing each week has tripled... One of the teenage girls I meet with has asked for an extra separate meeting each week and due to the loss of our youth group leader, I will be leading it every other week instead of once a term. I've also been asked to meet with another teenage girl to give her some English practice with a native speaker. I'm due to start at the language course again next week (if they have a class for me), so I'm enjoying the calm before the storm!

The view from my hotel window

I won't go on too much about my holiday, except to say that it was exactly what I needed. (Ok I did succumb and add a few photos from my time there!) I had a great time with the group from Oak Hall and really appreciated the fellowship with them. It also gave me the opportunity to visit a church in the nearby town of Radovljica. I know the pastor and his wife there and it was a great time seeing how another church works in Slovenia. I was also quite proud of myself since I understood about 80% of what was going on. This was especially good for me considering I'd been functioning in English and with British people for the past week so it was interesting to switch back to my Slovene brain.
 Well I'm now back and although things have been quieter, I'm now back into work mode and am fully prepared for the term to come! (I think...)