A hard days night

So I'm officially tired, which I knew I would be. I have been getting up by 6 am and going to bed about 1 am for the past couple days. We work hard (all of the volunteers and staff) from morning to night and in the end it is so worth it. My tasks have varied from registration to interviewing scholarship winner to monitoring lectures to spending 13 straight hours by myself at the airport greeting participants when their flights came in.

It has been really amazing so far. The people I have met have the most extrodinary stories and experiences. So many of them have lived with persecution for their whole lives. We take for granted the freedoms we have and the money that we have. It may sound cliche, but hearing about their lives and struggles is so eye opening. There are people here from everywhere, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, all over the place.

The speakers are all brilliant indivduals who spark discussion and thought. I am the room monitor for the artist network and so all of my lectures I attend have to do with painting, music, sculpting, and more. It's wonderful! Todaz's sessions included a Slovakian music critic who spoke about the role music plays in our lives and the fact that there is amazing music out there that isn't Christian that we can learn so much from and enjoy. Anyway, it's hard to explain, but it was a great session.

In addition to meeting and talking with all of this fascinating people from around the world I have been able to become friends with a lot of my fellow volunteers on the trip. Volunteers are as young as 18 and as old as 70ish. And they all ahve great things to offer the group. Last night a bunch of us who were younger hung out for awhile, in the precious minutes of time between jobs, and we have all gotten to know each other more.

On a slighty down note I seem to have gotten sick, which might be from the lack of sleep thing. I got a bad head cold which has turned into an ear infection and so of course I am bit terrified that it won't be gone before I have to fly home. Since my ear drums have burst on flights when I had no head cold or ear infections I know that with those things it inevitable. A Hungarian doctor who is attending the conference took time out of attending lectures today to get me a perscription for antibiotics and pain medicine for the ear infection. So I started taking that today. I just hope it is gone before I fly home. Luckily that isn't for a little while.

So, until next time folks. I hope you are all having wonderful Mays and that the weather in your respective states is perfect. Love you all!