It's crazy how fast time goes! At the beginning of this week, we were halfway through our month of being here and now as I write this, we only have one week left! So here's what's been going on this past week! Sunday, I went to the first church service and rested in between that and going to Zivko's parents house for lunch. After we ate, we just talked and looked at old pictures of their family. Then we hung out and waited until it was time for us to meet some of the youth at church. When we all got there, we walked to the park near the center of Strumica. We found a nice spot under some trees and we sang a few worship songs together. It's really cool hearing people sing in two languages and both worshipping God at the same time. After that, we walked through the park to one of the restaurants. We hung out there for a while and I tried the Macedonian version of pizza, which was pretty good!
Monday, we just hung out at home and watched movies. Stephanie and Zivko went to the spa to relax for most of the day so us 3 girls spent time together. Tuesday, we went to lunch with Stephanie's sister, her husband, and their daughter. Then for the rest of the day we hung out around here again.
Wednesday, we left early and drove to Thessaloniki, Greece! There wasn't much to see from what you read about in the Bible, but we did get to go in the White Tower, which is the only thing still left from the old city. There was a small museum inside and at the top, you could look out over part of the Mediterranean Sea. Then we sat down and relaxed at a coffee shop near the water. After that, we drove to a beach on the way to Philippi. Even though the water wasn't as clear as usual, it was still so pretty and we actually got to swim for a while. Then we ate lunch by the water and tried real gyros. After a tasty meal, we drove to Philippi to see ruins from the old city. It was really cool, especially seeing the spot where they believe Paul's prison was. We spent a good amount of time there just taking it all in and walking around the ruins. When we left, we headed home and planned to go through part of Bulgaria. We missed the road we wanted, which added an extra 2 hours to our trip back, but it was definitely a God thing because we had a really great conversation that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise. It was one of the best days I've had here so far.
Thursday, we met some of the youth at the church in Strumica to watch the movie, "God's Not Dead." Before we left the church, it started storming so bad that the streets were flooding. Friday, we were going to go to a waterfall, but it was still rainy so we stayed at home until it was time to go to youth group. We went to the city first and got dinner with Filip. Then we practiced our skit and we all hung out and played games together for the rest of the night.
Saturday, we went to see the waterfall in the afternoon. We took a taxi to the city and then we all walked up the mountain to where all the waterfalls were. There was the biggest one that everyone comes to see and then there were 9 more smaller ones that you have to climb up to. Four of us decided to climb up to at least the fourth waterfall, which was a lot of work but worth it! After that, we went back home before church and then we went to youth group. It was Lindsey's night to share and it went really well! My favorite part about being here are the people I've met and the new great friends I've made. The youth have been so welcoming from the beginning and I already know that some of these friendships will last a lifetime!
And by the way, shoutout to my Macedonian brother, Kiko!
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