I cannot speak French.

This year, I decided to take piano lessons! Every Friday from 4 to 5 I go to the art school and trade places with Claire for our teacher. Claire had a year of piano with Mr. Saniter, an amazing teacher and pianist, and loved it so much that I felt I had no choice but to try as well!


Today I had my fourth lesson, and I was not disappointed. Fridays usually end up being a difficult and tiring day at school, but lessons with Mr. Saniter always brighten up my day.

One thing I love about my teacher is that he teaches the person, he doesn't teach material. Every person to him is an individual who requires different learning methods. For me, we will focus in the future a lot on improvisation with chords and getting a feel for the piano, instead of playing complex classical pieces (I'm really bad at reading notes!). It's great to have someone who understands me musically and allows me to learn what I need to learn, but also what I want to learn.

The first song I chose for him to teach me is "Lost!" by Coldplay. Ever since I heard it I knew I wanted to be able to play it. Now, three weeks later, I can! It's not the most difficult song, but I learned a lot along the way.

My next song is "Complainte de La Butte" by Rufus Rainwright. Some of you may have heard it in the movie Moulin Rouge (in the very beginning when they're showing Paris and Christian's father is shown in a flashback). I'm really excited about it!

A great thing about "Lost!" is that I can sing along with it. However, "Complainte de La Butte" is, as the name implies, in French. Heh. I cannot speak French. But if I ever do figure out the words i will feel very good! :) (Luckily there is a "nananana" part...)

Looking at old photographs is an interesting experience for me.


It's almost as if I'm recovering from a light case of amnesia. There are a few moments and experiences I remember, but overall it's a fog.

Somehow, because I have trouble remembering what it was like before moving to Frydlant I imagine that it must have been a traumatic experience that is better left untouched. In psychology we learned about a "self-fulfilling prophecy" - something comes true precisely because you believe it. Over the years I've created a mental block which makes it difficult to remember good memories of living in Havirov. My beliefs are therefore fueled by the creations of my mind.

A few evenings ago, after a family conversation, I put on some music and cracked open a photo album. What I found shocked me!

In almost every picture of myself I am smiling! Not the "let's take a picture!" smile, but a pure, happy, untroubled smile. Trust me, I know how I look when I'm not enjoying something! (and surprisingly, I am completely comfortable with daddy cutting my hair!) ˅˅˅˅



It's gotten me thinking. A lot. And that's where these pictures help, and that's why they mean so much to me now. Who knows, I could have carried that burden with me all my life. But God sent several things my way to make sure that didn't happen:

1. Great parents who despite their increasing age still have sharp (and wise) minds!

2. Photo albums untouched by my hands for MANY years and

3. People.

The people are the ones who have helped the most. Not just any people - but people my age, who I used to know as a little kid. People who I used to go to Sunday school with, or who went to kindergarten with my brother.

2008 has been a year of reconnecting with my past. The bad experiences may have been aplified for the past 7 years, but God is helping me make sense of what has happened and the fog is lifting. And wheras a year ago I would have attempted to distance myself as much as possible from life in Havirov, now I am filled with a fire to reconnect with old friends, visit the city I grew up in and regain as much knowledge and memories from that era that I can.

Many of you may know the reasons behind our moving and the difficulties our family faced, but as my dad recently said:

"The end may have been bad, but it doesn't mean the rest of it was."

Today was a very exhausting, but really cool. I'll tell you what made it a good day:

1. Cloudy weather = shade
2. Short day in school (11:30!)
3. Good friends Patrick and Adam
4. Skateboards
5. Skatepark in Trinec

Adam is two years younger than me and lives in a town 35 km away called Trinec. Every day he gets on a bus...which takes him to a train...which he rides until he reaches the good town of Frydlant, where he walks to our beloved Beskydy Mountain Academy. Then, after school has ended, he does the same thing (except in reverse order)!


Today Patrick and I got a taste of what it is to live so far away and have to spend almost two hours travelling there and back. I don't know if I would survive! More than half the students have to take a train or bus to get to school. It's too bad for them...but it should show you how unique BMA is that students would sacrifice time, money and energy to attend it!


So anyway, today i took the train and bus to Trinec with Patrick and Adam. Our destination was the Trinec skatepark, which is in the middle of nowhere, but definitely the coolest skatepark I've ever skated at.


I've been skating for about 3 years, and I don't nearly skate enough, but I'm pretty proud of what I can actually do! It's a great way to get outside and get some exercise, but I'm not such a fan of the sweating-like-a-pig part. Hmm.


It's sad that fall is coming, which means less skating because of rain. But hopefully I'll get some good days in, as soon as I rest my poor legs and feet from today! And you know what winter brings........snowboarding!! I hear there's supposed to be a ton of snow this year...

Today is the 2nd of September, the 2nd day of my last year of High School! It has started off magnificently, and I am very excited about some things.

One cool thing is that Caleb is at school with me at BMA, starting his first year of High School!


But in order to move on and look to the future, I feel the need to review some highlights of the summer for you! You may now proceed.

To start where my last post left off, I turned 18 on July 20th! I got some great gifts and spent the day with awesome people. I am so thankful to everyone for being so thoughtful and generous with your presents! My parents (especially my dad) were especially generous, and bought me a new electric guitar!! I am so excited to be able to use it this next year as we put together a worship band in our youth group. I will have it for MANY years to come. Thank you!!


To celebrate my new era of life, Caleb, Seth, Hudson and I underwent a "hike of manhood" at 1 AM on July 20th. I will forever remember this as the first thing I did as a man! It was an incredible time as we hiked the tallest mountain in our mountain range, Lysa Hora. We spent the time talking about life, love and memories. After 2 and a half hours we reached the top, watched the sunrise as we froze, and prayed for each other. I'm so thankful for these three friends.


Saying goodbye to Hudson, Corrie, Seth, Alex and Kari after spending two weeks together was a sad but good moment. Though afterwards I felt completely exhausted, every moment of those 14 days was blessed with smiling and good times. Two days we spent recording songs, which was so much fun! Here are two songs that turned out especially well for your enjoyment! Both are songs from movies - Falling Slowly from Once, and Come What May from Moulin Rouge. You may remember hearing Falling Slowly on my blog before, but this one's a lot better =)

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

We also recorded a few songs that I've written, but I still need to do some work on them before they are ready for the public ear! Maybe you'll hear a short preview sometime soon. ;)



On August 9th our family joined the Hash and Ellenwood families as we drove down to Croatia! This was the 6th year of doing vacation together, and it keeps getting better and better. Our destination was the island of Hvar, the sunniest island in Croatia!

I am usually not a beach person, but I really enjoyed Croatia this year. The location was incredible, and the nature stunning. I only swam twice, but the water was very alluring as well! Most of my time was spent in our hammock! I brought 8 books and read 7 in the ten days we were on Hvar. I'd say that was time well spent!

As on most of our vacations, I was dubbed official photographer, something I look forward to every year. Here are a few pictures I'm especially proud of!






After ten days on Hvar, we drove 7 hours north to the city of Zadar, where we hopped on a ferry and headed to Josiah Venture Kids camp! Becca did an amazing job once again, and Andrea's (or I should say Queen Blue's) teaching was so inspiring. I was especially blessed to have Ben Williams as my "personal" counsellor! As last year, Hannah and I led worship every evening by the sea. It was a great way to use our gifts to bless the other kids and be good examples to them! Not to mention we had a ton of fun.



However, one sad part about camp was the fact that it was my last JV kids camp! I've been one of the few that's been going steadily for the past 6 years or so. I am feeling less and less like an actual JV kid as I'm getting older, but my love for JV kids just continues to grow. I'll enjoy watching some new changes for JV kids from a distance for the next four years as I'm in college!



It's been great being back home in Frydlant. There are some big things coming up in my fourth and final year of high school, but I can talk about those later. Now that I'm caught up posts should be shorter and more regular (hopefully several times a week), so be sure to check back every once in a while!