Slumblog Millionairre

Hello!

I am back from SLOT festival. It was an amazing week! It is based in a HUGE abandoned and run-down monastry where they have a big main stage in the courtyard, lots of ehcoey empty rooms and an empty cathedral with live music, cafes, and art everywhere!

There are 120 different workshops that happen in 3 shifts in the morning and afternoon. These range through juggling, singing, painting, poetry, robot building, sword fighting, Irish dancing, ancient Greek, film etc.

Me and Luke did an English conversation workshop in the 1st shift which went very well. It was challenging to create a group dynamic where people felt confident enough to talk, but all the same it was very positive over the 4 days.

In the 3rd shift i went to Ballroom Dancing classes. i am NOT a good dancer but i wanted to try something new and I wanted to learn so that i could dance with Ruth when i get home (ah)!

So thanks to my poor trampled dance partner/translator, Julia, I am now fluent in the language of dance. Jive, salsa, rumba, cha-cha, and the English waltz. The whole experience was fairly harrowing but i had a good time!

In the evenings thay have live concerts on several stages. I spent a lot of time at the hardcore metal stage which was quality! ROCK!! I participated in my 1st brutally violent mosh pit and have my 1st mosh pit injury/trophy (a broken toenail-- dedicated to JoshB, Tim and Alex!).

Of course there was the traditional festival mud, bad bad toilets, no showers, and I have had most of the blood sucked out of my body by mosquitoes (Polish mozzies are like tigers with wings!!)

I have lots of other good stories but i can never think of them sitting at the computor!

Now we are back home at Luke's place in Olawa and teaching 4 nine yr olds English every morning. Kids are hard work. And the next few weeks will be spent catching up on some of the meaningful friendships we have made over the last few weeks! Im just about to head out to hang out my new friends Matteusz and Dawid-- we will probably play some pool, then kick a football around, and chat in broken English. If you are a praying person, these meaningful friendships would be good things to pray about.

I hope you are all well. Thanks for reading the whole long blog, its a long one!

Yours mosquito-bite-itchingly,
Jonny