another week has gone by...and we're getting closer to Christmas! Even though there's STILL no snow, the Christmas spirit is coming upon us and i'm getting more and more annoyed with the fact that we still have a week of school! This week is crazy because we have a ton of tests in all kinds of subjects, so i'm not looking forward to that. Pray that i will not procrastinate and will actually study for them! =)

so yeah, i'm trying to think of what happened this week... Oh yeah! On friday Caleb and Tensing (a youth choir here in Frydlant - Caleb plays bass and sings) had their Christmas concert! It was really cool! Caleb sang and played bass on the opening song - Jump by Simple Plan. He did great!

Then on Saturday we went over to the Ellenwoods' house! Mom and dad were going to a birthday party for Mel in Poland, so we hung out and watched movies. We ordered pizza too...yum yum. One thing that us and the Ellenwoods do every year (at least i think every year) is that we exchange Christmas gifts! None of us Pattys had our gifts with us, but the Ellenwoods were gracious enough to forgive us and let us open ours! Claire got some socks and cool boxes from Hayley, Caleb got a cool poster of a saxaphone player for his wall, and i got something really cool from Hannah... I guess she had been talking and figuring out with mom for quite some time something cool, and they accomplished it! As many of you know (or don't know, but now you do know), Switchfoot is my favorite band of all time and Jon Foreman (the singer and guitarist) is a big example to me in a lot of ways. So, mom sneakily took some pictures of me outside a few days ago (I had also asked if she could sometime so it worked perfectly) mostly with my guitar. And what Hannah did was get one of those picture frames with the three spots for pictures, and on the right and left side pictures of me, and in the middle two pictures - one of Switchfoot, and another of Jon! It looks really cool!!! =) I don't know if you completely understood my description, but hopefully you did (if not oh well)! =) Anyway, many thanks especially to Hannah, and some thanks to mom as well! =)

Today I led worship up at the hotel today again. We sang two Christmas songs and two normal worship songs. Then Mom and Katka (some of you may know her...others may not!) had a program ready! It was so elaborate that i won't explain in detail about it, but it was about Mary and what part she played in Jesus' life. They did all kinds of creative thingys and it went great!

So yeah, that's about it! Here are some pictures that mom took of me, hopefully you will be able to see how my hair is awesomely growing out! Doesn't it look awesome??? =) I'm so proud of myself... =) Don't forget to leave a comment! Enjoy!

hello faithful blog readers!

This week has been really full of school work etc so that's why i didn't post on sunday like i normal... And i need to go study soon so this will just be a quick post! (we'll see how it goes)

So yeah! Last Saturday and Sunday i was in Slovakia after a three month period of absence! I went to take Hudson's jeans (which he mysteriously left at my house sometime) over to Dawson so when he goes to visit his family over Christmas he can take them and Hudson won't have cold legs for the winter! (not that they'll get any snow anyway! Ha! Well, actually, we don't have any snow yet either so i shouldn't be the one being mean...sorry dudes and dudettes from Arkansas) =)

So yeah, i hung out for saturday and sunday morning i took a train back home! Then in the evening i led worship at church! It went pretty well, except it was a little hectic at first and i was getting stressed...but in the end it went fine. Next week i'm leading again and i'm going to do some Christmas songs! It'll be fun!

Today (wednesday) was the “Darkness” episode of Exit! It was a really powerful one and very well done. We had a great discussion afterwards too! Oh, and dad was the “mentor” in this episode! So he talked! Go dad! =)

Okay, well that's all that i can think of for now... Oh yeah, for those Switchfoot fans out there, you should be happy to know that they just released the music video for Oh! Gravity. on iTunes! So go check it out, it's awesome! I also just learned to play Awakening from their new album (which releases December 26th!) from live performances taped and put on YouTube! Here are the lyrics and the best version of it! It's an awesome song! (note for Hudson – i can ALMOST sing that high on the chorus – can you go through a few times and tell me if you can??? I'm really curious to know if you can... Probably by the time you get back i'll have practiced enough that i can get the pitch right!)



Awakening

Face down with the LA curbside endings
With the ones and zeros.
Downtown was the perfect place to hide.
The first star that I saw last night was a headlight
Of a man-made sky, but man- made never made our dreams collide,
Collide.

Here we are now with the falling sky and the rain,
We're awakening
Here we are now with our desperate youth and the pain,
We're awakening
Maybe it's called ambition, you've been talking in your sleep
About a dream, we're awakening

Last week found me living for nothing but deadlines,
With my dead beat sky but, this town doesn't look the same tonight
These dreams started singing to me out of nowhere
And in all my life I don't know if I've ever felt so alive,
Alive

I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want a heart that I know is beating,
It's beating,
I'm bleeding
I want to wake up kicking and screaming
I want to live like I know what I'm leaving
I want a heart that I know is beating,
It's beating… it’s beating…
I'm bleeding


 

well! I had quite the weekend! This time Patrick, Jonny and I DID get to Budapest! =) It took about 10 hours of training there and then 10 back, and the whole trip went great.

We stayed in a hostel in the center of Budapest, right by the Christmas Market, Burger King and McDonalds! What more could you want!? =)



so yeah, we got into the Keleti train station at about 11:30 and walked over to our hostel to check in. I went to bed, but Patrick and Jonny scouted out Budapest for about 2 hours. The next morning we got up at 9 and had McDonald's breakfasts. =) Then we walked around town till 12, when we got a little hungry...so then we searched in vain for affordable food for about two hours and eventually found it in Burger King. During the time where we were walking around we saw the churches (they are being restored and cleaned, it's really cool), saw the Danube, walked over the bridge across the Danube, walked up to the citadel (where we got hungry) and walked along the castle walls up on the mountainside. Then we walked back down the mountain and found a Burger King. So overall it was a lot of walking... It was a pain at first but eventually i was concentrating too much on all the beautiful architecture that i forgot about the pain in my legs!

We then returned to our hostel, got our swimsuits, and headed to the bathhouse! We spent two hours there laying around and half-sleeping...it was really relaxing. We left at 5 and went back to our hostel again, and decided to take a nap! =) So we slept for an hour and then walked around a bit. We got some more food, walked over to the Danube, where Jonny took pictures of the bridge, and hung out and talked. Then at 8:30 we slowly made our way over to a Live Jazz Club i had found (on a map)...That was my favorite part of the whole trip! They had a pianist, a drummer, a standup bassist and a woman singer. It was the most fun two hours of sitting i've had in a long time! I wish we had a jazz club around here somewhere! Unfortunately it's not really the Czech kind of thing... I proposed to dad that we should make a jazz club though! Then i could go every day! =)

After Jazz we walked around town a bit, then once the lights on the castle were out, we walked up there and walked along the walls looking out at the lighted city. That was an awesome time too. We talked about politics and musicals for about an hour, then got cold and walked around some more. On the way down from the castle we told jokes, and i almost didn't make it back because i was laughing so hard! =)

At around 1:30 we decided we were tired and went back to the hostel and went to bed. The next morning we woke up at 8 and went to another bathhouse (not as fun as the other one, but really big). Our train left at 2:30 so after three hours we walked back over to the Christmas Market and bought some shishkebabs (don't know if that's how you spell it...oh well) and some Christmas presents. Patrick's headphones had broken the previous day so we spent our remaining time looking for some he could buy, and right before we got to the train station he found some! And i found something extra cool... A Coldplay - Rush of Blood to the Head poster! (for those of you who don't know, it's one of my three most favorite bands) I was so happy!!! They had a really cool Jamiroquai one too but i ran out of money.......... Oh well, something to look for when i go back! =)

We then spent another 10 hours on the train back, most of the time we slept and talked about all kinds of stuff. Overall it was an awesome trip and something i'll remember for a while! Have any of you guys ever been to Budapest? It was especially cool 'cause this is the very dead of the tourist season so it seemed like at times we had whole streets to ourselves! It was crazy how few cars were on the roads!

And then i had to return back to normal life...which wasn't so bad. Today was a good day, but nothing much happened. I'll be back with more info on my very interesting life hopefully on Sunday! =) Don't forget to comment! (by the way I look strange in that picture 'cause we were just in the bathhouse and so my hair was everywhere and i combed it kinda weird =P)