We're so back!

Hey. So sorry we took a break. Truthfully, being an expat got really difficult for the two of us for a while. We are feeling much better and give you a brief update on everything that we've been working on over the last few months!

Thank you for the kind notes and messages from everyone! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hey babe.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Hey.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

How are you? Good.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Good. We're so back. We're so back, baby. It's been a long friggin' time.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

It has. Hi everyone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

We've missed you.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

We are sorry.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

But it's for good reason.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

We're pregnant. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Haley's got a drink. I've got a beer. Yep. No. We left off on what did we call it? Like mental health deep dive, episode one.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Like part one.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

And then we took our own mental health break.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

We took our own part two.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

So we're sorry, but we're also not sorry because life got hard.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

We were taking care of ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Yeah. Life got hard. Life got busy. And it was um it was really hard like stepping into the space when like we just weren't feeling it. Yeah. And we were tired and all of that. And so this was like the easy thing that like kind of got put to the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

It was an easy thing to pause. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

And we haven't talked about where we are now.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Oh yeah. It's a new space.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

It's a new space. So we're in our office.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

And it's gonna keep getting better because we like we want to spice it up a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Make it all cute and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, and now it's more now the setup's more convenient because I don't know if you've we've ever talked about it, but for those of you that don't know, we would have to like take everything, all of like Miles, gadgets, and gizmos of plenty, out into the living room and set it up after we put the kids down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Which took at least like a half hour. Yeah. And so it was just super tedious. We're like permanently set up in here. Yeah. And so we've got these cute little not so comfy chairs, but we've got chairs in here.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

It'll work for now.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

It'll work for now. And we'll just like keep upgrading and making it all cute. It's a work in progress. And they can't see all of the cords though.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Yeah, but it's nice because then it's nice because um yeah, we can just leave it and then come back. And that feels way like even that feels more manageable. Yeah. To just be able to come in and sit and chat. So we're glad we're here. We're glad you're here.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Thanks for talking with you again. Yeah. We've had a lot of people reach out.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

It's so sweet.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

And it's we don't it's not like we we don't feel guilty like that we took the time for ourselves, but but we do feel bad that there were people that were excited about it and and wanted to listen to us talk, which is so sweet.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

It actually was like super heartwarming to know that like it has reached people. Yeah. Um, because like we talk a lot about like this being like a living journal for us, but I think it's become more than that for people. And so that feels super rewarding to like have people be like, we miss you, and be like, oh my gosh, thank you. That's so sweet. That's so sweet, so sweet. So we're glad we're back.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

People, yeah, people like to listen to us, which is cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

And we will work on consistency, yes, and we promise. Yeah, we promise. We're in a good space. We're doing it. We're in a much better space.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah, we need to work through our own stuff. Like, I I was just talking to my therapist today about expat life and how it is not easy. Um and I think we definitely went through the throes of a uh without even really realizing it. Like, I think that we got into the holiday season, which is always hard, which is always hard. Uh much harder when you're away from this many people, you know, and and missing home and missing the convenience of a car and missing the convenience of you know being close to mom and dad and grandgrandpa and all the aunts and uncles and cousins, and all of that was hard. And then, you know, it just kind of got like gray and foggy and just like gross outside. And I think that did have like an effect on us.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

It always does, yeah. I mean, we're Iowa people, so we're used to like the cold and the but like Iowa like still does stuff where Croatia, if you don't know, it's just like gray and foggy. And so like I was like yearning, yeah. I was like yearning for to at least like rain or snow for it to just like do something other than like gray, yeah. Lots of gray. And so like that that just gets like gets rough like February, yeah. And if I don't know about any other like um jobs, oh sure, but if you're an an educator or like you work with kids and like people, like you know how hard like January, February gets. Yeah, for sure, and then putting like the expat cycle on top of that. So for those of you that don't know, I think we talked about the cycle a little bit, but like we were in the throes of what comes after the honeymoon phase, which is um called crisis and culture shock, which we we absolutely were. Like it would be absolutely were, and so like that's like we're good, everything's fine. It's not like a crisis, like we're like it's safety, it's like a crisis of like our like our identity, our yeah, our identity, our purpose, like the feelings of like, oh my god, what did we do? And like we're tr going through that in our own journeys, yeah, supporting each other. Okay, so then yeah, so we've got each other, ourselves, each other. We've got a almost three, almost five-year-old. We're both in education, um, where our our work is important and our jobs are heavy. Um, speaking for myself, we like the counseling department has just been like kind of going through it. And booming. And by that, yeah. And by that, I just mean like we had a lot of like heavy things in school. And so, um, yeah, so we were in like the throes of that. Um, but I am happy to report that we are we have moved through that phase, and that was kind of like the in February our school has what's called a ski break. And instead of going to the mountains like everybody else, we went to the beach. We sure did. We lived our best beach lives with our babies. Um, but I feel like that I just talked about in my new blog post. Um Letters from Elsewhere, the blog. Yes, letters from elsewhere. I've I promised to try to be more consistent on that as well. Um, where like that trip felt like a really big turning point for us, and it was like such a good reset, and we came out of that trip just feeling like more confident and um just feeling like a little bit more like ourselves because I think we just kind of lost ourselves along the way, and it's that's really hard. It is.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Um and to like still be uh be like at the top of your game as an educator, be at the top of your game as a parent.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Like a partner, a partner, a good person for yourself, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

A good friend. Like all of that was all of that was was really, really tough. But I I do agree when we went to Kirk Kirk spelled KRK.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

KRK.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

R works as a vowel, I found out, but you gotta roll that R. You can do it.

unknown 7:21

Kirk.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Yeah. I know. Getting better. Okay, show off. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Um But yeah, so that was like a really big turning point, and then I feel like we've just felt more settled and more confident and at peace than we have since we moved here.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Day by day.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Yeah, and so that feels really good to be able to say.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Um we're super excited about something that we did a couple weeks ago uh on the back patio.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Not on the back patio.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Speaking of springtime.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Gardening. I have oh I okay, so those of you that know me know that I had a really beautiful garden in our backyard in Enola, and I I miss it so much. And so I have just been like pretty bummed about that. So we're in an apartment, and so we have like our like patio, which is actually like an okay size. Um, and so when the first like full week of like big sunshine and warmth happened, we went to our local garden center, Bauhaus.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yes. And which is like Home Depot and Lowe's. Yeah. And Menards. Menards, all thrown into one.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah. Um we went as a family and we like picked out gardening stuff, and like that was oh, it was so nice, and the kids were so excited to help me.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

And they're still excited about it.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah, we check on, we check on the growth every single day. They help me water. And so that felt really uh that was like a small thing for me. Um, but yeah, like gardening was is was a really like big self-care thing for me. So losing that, like you just like along this journey, yeah. You like recognize and realize like the little things that meant so much to you, yeah. And but those also sometimes take like the biggest toll of like where I'm like, oh, I just want to go sit in my garden. Yeah, um, but yeah, so I'm growing flowers and we're doing some veggies, and then um there's still space out there, so we can just make it so we can't walk out a jungle, yeah. Um, but yeah, so gardening, what else is new? We've had quite a few trips since last talking.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

I'm trying to think so. The first one that the first like trip that we would have gone on would have been Ljubljana Bled.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Yeah, for New Year's. Did we talk about that?

SPEAKER_01 9:47

I don't think so because I think it was like the last episode we repeated.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

It was before Christmas, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah, it was like November. It was like before your birthday, I think. I know. RIP to those podcasts. Just kidding. We're back, baby. Back. We're right. That's all princesses. Right for a podcast.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Your mom and dad.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Love you, mom. Um the front sauce. So yeah, so we took the train to Ljubljana. Yeah. This was okay, so we did one night in Ljubljana, we did two nights in blood, and then another night in Ljubljana. Then another night in Ljubljana, and we found out that our max vacation days with these kids right now are four. Is four.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Maybe four.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Maybe four.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Well, okay, what we did find out four is great. Yeah. The issue with the traveling. Yes. To be fair, Lyra is still dependent on like that afternoon nap.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

And the travel days are not so great. So we missed out on Ljubljana. We'll go back because it's only a two-hour train ride.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

We're going back this next Christmas. Yes, with your fam. With my mom. Yes. And my papa.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Um, and so we'll get, I'm not, I don't feel bad about that. Yeah. But we just realized like when we vacation it with the with the kids right now, we yeah, we need to stay in one place and then like travel from places. Um, so blood was incredible, and we had the best time. Um, Ljubljana was kind of a wash.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yep. Because it was like, so the first day was a travel day. Two days in blood, two days in blood, and then another day in Ljubljana, but we traveled that morning, so it was also kind of a wash.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

But we still were able to get out a little bit. It's still beautiful. Yes. Yeah, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Uh Blood is a fairy tale. Blood is a fairy tale. Um, you will want to go back every season. Um, Christmas was magical though, and it was warm enough that like we could still be out. Yeah. Because like we climbed the hill to the castle, to Blood Castle, and the kids did it on foot, so that was incredible. Well, you carried who did you carry, Lyra? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

She just like she did it, she did more than I thought.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

She did, yeah. She she took like a hill.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

And then all the stairs were dead. Yes. That was great. All the stairs up, all the stairs down.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Um yeah, and then so like by day we were exploring, and then at night we would go to the local Christmas market and eat really amazing food and drink mold wine. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

The kids had the first mold white wine there.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Mold white wine, which is a new fave. We I also had uh what did you have? The blood cake.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Oh, shut up.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

That was so What was it called though? Was it blood cake?

SPEAKER_01 12:32

That was just blood cake.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Okay, so if you ever go to blood, you have to get the blood cake. So at the cr they were selling it at the Christmas market, but because if you're not going during Christmas market, you're gonna be like, where do I get it? There's a local bakery that sells it, but then they also, which is even cooler, that's like one of the only things they were selling at the castle at the castle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we had blood cake at the blood castle. We had multiple and it was delicious. If you follow me on Instagram, my letter, my yeah, my blog on Instagram. I posted the cake on there. So it was really good. That was so good. Um, but yeah, it was more like it was we just realized that like we're um in the time with the kids and the family that like our vacations just have to be like kind of chill and flexible. Yeah. Which is fine. Which is great. Um and so we kind of just like go with what the kids need.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Where I struggle with that is like my mind automatically goes to like I have to plan out our itinerary and it has to be to the hour, and I know exactly when we're going, and that that just doesn't work for toddlers. That doesn't work for toddlers.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

But if anything, that's made you more flexible and patient. So let's go. Look at us. Yeah, so that was a really great, and then we uh came back and had a had days at home, which was great. So we always start our vacations off by traveling, and then we always end at home to get back into routines, which is great, which works really well for us, and that's what we're doing next week. Yeah. For our first we have spring break next week. Yeah, so we've had we had New Year's, we had ski break, which we went to Kirk, and we did three full beach days with our babies.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Awesome. And they were so tired, yeah, which we should talk about. Um the I want to come back to Blood, don't let me forget about it. Um there was oh, the first night that we were in Kirk, so we did not take any swim gear because we were not planning on them getting February, and then we were like, it's gonna be way too cold to get in the water, maybe they'll throw rocks, whatever. Great.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

Oh, they did.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Oh, they threw rocks. So we got we got down to the ocean for the first time. The adriotic. Right when we got down there, and it was gorgeous and perfect blue.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

The most beautiful sunset I have ever experienced was our first night.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

We pulled up at like postcard hour. It was like golden hour, but at like the most perfect view that you could ever imagine. It was incredible. But sweet, sweet Rory, we go out and Rory's like all pumped about throwing rocks, right? That's amazing. Let's go skip rocks in the frigging ocean, dude. Yeah, let's make some memes. I'm all about it. That's great. So we go down, and he's like, Okay, I'm gonna take my shoes off. Great, let's go check it out. And he's like walking around, checking it all out. And then he starts to get his pants a little wet and he gets a little like kind of frustrated about it, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

And they hate their clothes being wet, so then they feel like they have to take them off.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Absolutely understand. Yeah, okay. Picking up rocks, throwing rocks, checking it all out. Gotta find the big ones, throw the big ones in. Great. Keep walking around, and then he's like, I'm gonna go see mom. And this is like close to the end of our night. This is this ended our night. This ended our night. Rory goes out and starts, he's like, I'm walking towards mom. I'm like, okay, buddy, keep walking towards mom. And he walks in the water and doesn't realize that right in front of him is a very deep part of the water.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

And he trips and falls into the very deep part of the water, and he's wearing his Jurassic Park sweatshirt, sweatpants, sweatpants.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Like they're layered.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, because it was it was chilly, chilly. And your boy is soaked head to toe, soaked in water.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

And he was fine with it.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

He was fine with it until we had to start walking up the hill. He's in soaking wet clothes, and that's pretty.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

But then, so then me, mom, I'm on the other side of this huge rock, and I hear Miles giggling, and then just been like, Yep, go see mom. And so I'm like waiting for him, not realizing, oh, he's fully in the water and he's walking around, so like, and he's like smiling because he knows he got his way of like being in the water when like we didn't plan for it.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

And so then it's going to be a natural consequence, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

But it was fine, and then they we were cozy up for the night, and um we went back each day and spent like over half of our day just sitting. I was looking for shells and sea glass. Yeah, you were skipping rocks, yeah. The kids were so content. We got sunburns, like it was cherry. It was warm and yeah. We need to get shoes before we go to spring break, that reminds me.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

That's gone. I was just at Decathlon today. Should have gotten that. What else has happened? We have the gala. We have the galaxy.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Yes, okay. So we're bumping to like new. Is that too far? Well, we missed what did we miss? I guess it was just my trips.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah, talk about your trips. Talk about Prague, baby.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yeah. Well, so I went to Vienna. Yeah. Um, I shop around a math competition. Um, shout out to my but good old partner Rory, who's a math teacher at AISC. Hooray math. Hooray math. Um, we bonded. Um, so we got to take some 10th graders to math competition in Vienna, and that was really fun. I it's like a fun way for me to interact and with different kids.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

With different kids, but also kids really talk to you.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

And someone's oh yeah, yeah, but also just like see them in like a non-counseling setting, which is really fun. Um yeah, it was kind of crazy because we actually drove through a snowstorm on the way there. Yeah, right. And so there was like questions if the math competition was like canceled and we were we were like an hour out. Um, so they ended up holding it for everyone that could get there. Um, but it ended up being like not as many kids, but it was still a really fun experience, and the kids did great. Um, yeah, so I was there in Vienna for like three days. I love Vienna. We traveled there when we were in it in the Warburg choir. So it was like going back in it's just beautiful. Getting to relive it a little bit. Yeah. And then my big trip that I just took um was the annual International School Counselors Association conference in this year, so they go back and forth internationally between Europe and Asia, I believe. And they did Pra this year. Beautiful. So I was in the Czech for five full days, the most I've been away from you and the babies. Ever.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Ever?

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Ever.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Is it ever?

SPEAKER_02 19:29

I think it was ever. Oh my gosh. Um, but you did great, and the kids were fine. And I did great. Explore girl. Yeah. So I by day I was filling my brain and school counselor, yeah, school counselor by day and explorer by night. Um that was cool. No, it was so cool. Um yeah, and I was actually like weirdly, I remember like calling you and being like weirdly emotional after my first day because I like walked in and could just like feel the school counselor energy, and I was just like, oh, my people! It's a vibe. Well, it is, and like, and I I've been telling more people like who've asked about how the conference was, like, I didn't realize how isolated and lonely I had been feeling until I was there.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Because there's only one of you, there's only one of me.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

So I have a counterpart. Shout out to Susanna, who I love dearly. But she's in the she's in the lower school, yeah. And so um, recapping what that looks like lower school, she does preschool through fifth, and then I do sixth through twelve. Yes, and so we support each other, like, and we're great, and we're we got each other, but like we live in very different worlds, right? And so it is very isolating for us because like we have nobody to talk to counseling-wise that like truly gets like a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

You're speaking kind of two different you're like playing two different games, kind of.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Yeah, and like I think she's worked with older kids, like middle school age, and then I my first counseling gig was preschool through sixth grade. So like I've been there, whoo, pleasantville, children. Um so I've been there, but it's been a while. And um, yeah, so it was so like my heart is was just full, and it was so great connecting with school counselors like internationally worldwide. It does like make you a little sad to be like, Oh, I just made these friends and now I have to say bye. But it's really validating to know that I can yeah, now I can like pick up the phone and like I can talk to them, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

You know, and I have people and then ideas off of to just like talk to you about what's going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Just have people who get it. Like, you know, I have great partners here at AISC, but like, you know, counselors know counselors and know like how. heavy our how heavy our work is.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Um and so that in itself is like it's great to feel like I have a team behind me. Yeah. Um but yeah and then exploring Prague, oh Prague is just chess kiss the for all my gothic girlies boys out there.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Emo.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Prague Prague is for you. It's so pretty. It's so the like the gothic and Baroque like Renaissance architecture is just oh it's so good. Um like there's so much history um I can't say that I had a great like I wish I would have done like more like Czech food and drink.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Sure. What is Czech food and drink?

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Well like there are a lot of people that were like saying like schnitzel and like I think like meat and potatoes. I could be wrong. Don't hate me. Tell us if you know yes tell us because I feel like I did miss out. I feel like I missed out on Czech beer but beer is also just kind of not my thing. So I think you would have really loved like the Pilsner like Pilsner's huge in there. Um but yeah and so I got to explore tons and that was like really nice and just being able to go out and do something that I think that was important for me. And filled your bucket filled my bucket but just like I needed to do that yeah for myself. Yeah. Yeah so those were my big trips. That was great. And I'll photo dump and all of that on my social media so if you want to see my pictures and some of my adventures stay tuned on there. But yeah so then gala gala I'm trying to have anything else happen Mew started a podcast at school and doing more content you should talk about the choir. I should talk about the choir okay so we're starting a choir with I think I like kind of like hinting at it.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

But it's like official we're we're doing this thing. Lana Skrgitch and I was pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Pretty good not bad. I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Sorry Lana We love we love she's the music teacher at the upper school at AISC and I are working on a choir that is going to be kind of a pop rock choir. She is currently a performer of pop music on a regular basis um not just pop music she does she does jazz she does rock she does a bunch of different stuff she does a lot of Croatian stuff um and so we are going to combine our skills and we're putting together an ensemble um kind of a y'all come once a week for an hour and a half and we sing some pop music together. I think we've decided that we're going to do at least three Croatian songs. That's great and we're going to do at least three not necessarily like American songs but English pop chart stuff. Stuff in English but from the pop chart. Stuff that people know at least stuff that that I would know. And she's going to take over all the Croatian stuff and I'm going to take over all the English stuff. And we're going to work together on that um we're going to talk more about that and I'll I'll be sure to like pop more into my social media as that's as that's coming out. But that's going to be we're really going to start plugging it probably in May June July and then get enrolling in it probably like the third week of August. So we're going to get into the throes of it which is cool. Lana's incredible I love working with her and just such a sweet lady and um she's got such a musical mind on her which is so fun to work with.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

And you get to work with her partner Yvonne.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Yeah Yvonne and I too so this is I told you this this was like probably about a month ago I finally got a key to the black box theater and I was able to start doing some more technical stuff. I think I just the black box is your classroom. The black box is my classroom yeah so I got to like kind of have more ownership of over that um and I think back to you know my time at Enunola when I was work actually I think back to when I was at South Hamilton. Do you remember when I had to like help put together the whole sound system from scratch when we were doing Little Mermaid it was nuts. So that's where I like first started getting some of this knowledge but anyway how long ago was that like 13 years? Sound of music would have been 2018 spring of 2018 no the fall of 2017. Yeah when we got married almost 10 years ago oh it was only 10?

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Almost were you in Enola in 10 years for 10 years?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Yeah 2018 no no no I'm at South Hamilton. South Hamilton was almost 10 years ago I've taught for 10 years total I'm on my 11th year teaching. I taught for seven years at Enola that's right that's right but anyway I was doing a lot of technical stuff there and then through show choir actually I did a lot of technical stuff because all the musical theater stuff that we were doing at Enola was taken care of by Pitt and Brandian who were also awesome. Yeah I also had an email drafted to them I got a drive I have to send it to him of just like help with a couple with a couple things.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Brandy and I talk sometimes do you yeah Miss Brandy um where was I going with that?

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Oh Yvonne so Ivan and I have been working diligently on repositioning all of the lights not all of the lights but a lot of the lights in the black box theater because the orientation of how they originally had the stage set up was so if this is the black box theater if you're listening to this this doesn't matter to you if you're watching this you get it. You just have your hands up uh it'd be like uh on one end of the rectangle is where it is now right and then in the center of the rectangle is where it originally was and so all the lights were pointed at the center of the rectangle and so it doesn't work for where we currently have the stage so we had to move all those things around. But anyway so Yvonne's helping with the choir as well which is going to be super fun. Good bond and way too long of a story to talk about the choir. The choir's going to be super fun I'll keep talking about it more in in in more bite sized segments put some plugs in. Put some more plugs in because it's going to be fun. Yeah I'm trying to think I'd be curious to see like what is the what is the demographic that's actually going to come to this like like is it expats? Is it going to be mainly Croatians? Is it going to be you know people in their 30s is it going to be grandmas in their 70s? Who's going to come to this?

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Yeah exactly I hope you get I hope you get a a mixture.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah I hope we get some like um parents from AISE I think that'd be super fun. Yeah teachers I think teachers burped sorry I didn't want to burp in the microphone that's gross yeah I'm trying my best um but yeah that's gonna be a fun project and then I just went and worked with Vox Artist didn't really work with them but I sang with them collab. It was kind of collab um they were super sweet uh Vox Artist is a group uh led by Ivana I can't pronounce her last name but she's great um and they have five choirs uh one of them is a children's choir one of them is a men's choir and then the rest of them are are um trouble choirs and they combined for this on for this rehearsal that I went to uh this was last week actually the night of the storm which don't let us forget to talk about the storm that was bonkers um but went there and they're singing all Beatles music right now which was super cute and I like cried over Hey Jude because I miss what are the odds that you go to that practice and they're singing Hey Jude. And they weren't planning on doing it. They just like kind of popped it out.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Also maybe like tell people why Hey Jude is significant. I don't know if you've talked about that.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

That was that was the song that we sang as like our kind of hype up warm up every time the uh for chokeir competitions uh sometimes chokhir rehearsals but that was like the big last thing that we always did before we went out and performed which is so special it's all those kids um I think they're still doing it too which is so cute. But uh and then the the one of the more exciting ones was doing it with all of the Ascension crowd. Yeah yeah yeah so the show choir competition that we hosted we had you know because you put it on your TikTok and then it blew up too yeah there was like 2,000 people in this audience that were all singing hey Jude. So it just felt like it was meant to be belted like that.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

So it just like felt like universal the universe was telling you you're supposed to be there. So that's been fun and I think I'll get a chance to go and be uh do like a little guest spot with them which we can do a little collab with you have some like fun people reach out and want to collab with you. Like not that you want to like some of those things aren't like in place yet so not that you want to talk about them but I think it's like it's validating it's validating and you need that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Because I well I I don't know if I've talked about Carnegie Hall in here but I was originally planning to go and conduct in Carnegie Hall and then um I didn't have enough registrations and that's a whole situation in and of itself um but something that I was super excited about and then when that ended up falling through I for now falling through for now it's not a it's a post it's not a for shirt but that that hit me hard. Yeah that was like what am I doing? Who am I? Do I even deserve to be like recognized like this so that was like a hard that was a hard thing to go through but um you know to have other experiences like this and you know just to kind of like get to the core of like okay why why do I like doing these things? What are what is it what does it bring me? What do I bring to it? You know all of that.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

It's um I spent some good like soul sh soul searching a little bit because of that which has been fun um we should talk about the the storm before we get to before we get to the Gallic we'll just go chronological yeah yeah yeah so then like I think caught up yeah we are um that's pretty good it's proud of us there are a couple things in between there a couple things yeah yeah um but yeah and then this week no not this week sorry it's only Monday um Friday third Thursday night we biked home through some monsoon sketchy weather so rough um that was like the only ride that I've been like maybe we shouldn't have done kids are being pulled in the cart just yeah they were having a blast yeah um we got home it was fine like we got home before the crazy stuff we weren't even like really rained on like that hard it was the wind like the gusts of wind were horrible so then we got home and we just like hunkered down um well then you went to choir that night that night and like I kid you not so like something very European as the metal shutters on all of the windows um so like the the apartment was like shaking yeah the whole night because the the wind gusts we actually ended up finding out like the gusts of wind between Thursday and Friday we were experiencing were hurricane level yeah gusts of wind um which were crazy um and so then you went out and then you came home and I was already asleep. Yeah so then we woke up Friday morning.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Well and while I was out so I was at that rehearsal and I like left the rehearsal and I was like God it's still really nasty out here. And then I look over and there's full tree just down on a car and then I get in to a ride home with uh Martina Sluzzo who's one of the one of the language teachers at the at AISC.

unknown 34:13

Poop poop.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Whoop whoop um and she like she's driving through this and her whole car is just shaking the whole way it was like so sketchy.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah mind you the one tree you saw on the car was like that was happening across the city and we didn't know that until Friday.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

The next day so then I came to bed it was probably like 11 o'clock when I when I officially got home and like got in bed and then about two o'clock in the morning I was like God this wind is so crazy. Like it's blowing hard and I can like feel it just like shaking the shutters and it's going crazy.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

Oh man that was a really loud one like whatever just happened at two o'clock in the morning and of course Lyra then toddles in and gets in bed with us and the next morning we get up and it's like okay well God we're not gonna make it to we're not gonna make it well I was like questioning you in the morning because you were like hey we should probably bolt this school and I was like why would you why would we do that and so then you're like Stop being a pussy bleep that out oh my God there are little ears little ears um no that is not the thought that I had I just thought it was wild and so then I was like why would we bolt and thinking like it's just rain and it was not just rain yeah the wind was so horrible and we ended up Yvonne came to our rescue and picked us up in his van and the kids were super pumped Lyra loves Yvonne don't tell him that's a secret Yvonne you're listening we did not tell you um but he picked us up and then we went to school like the whole our whole neighborhood and neighborhoods leading up to the school were just trashed and like when I say like trees were broken in half tornadoes like I felt like we were back in Iowa in like tornado season and the trees not only were broken in half but so we have what's this huge beautiful parked Boondack Park across the school and it's just full of trees and those poor trees they're not just only broken in half but the wind was so strong it had totally uprooted and pulled these huge trees huge old trees and there's broken glass everywhere and there's it was insane.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Okay so insane so we get there we get to school as we're as we're going to school we're riding with Ivan and he was like and all and all the other schools were closing.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Yeah so then we were like oh my gosh like this is really wild.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

We were getting the like it sounded like an amber it was like the all about the Croatia emergency system. But as we're going to school he was like yeah and we had an earthquake last night and I was like what so that two o'clock time when I woke up and I felt the wind like crazy like I thought it was the wind going crazy.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

It was like a 2.4 but they said we would have still felt it shaking like shaking and so we probably wouldn't have been able to tell because the wind was so bad but it's probably why you woke up and probably why Lyra woke. For sure yeah but anyway yeah so we had so we went to school and it was a weird day because obviously like kids were told that we didn't have to come in. Yeah um and because of all the trees down there were like trams that weren't working and it was actually like pretty dangerous for some people to try to come in and so for the I don't know what the lower yeah I don't know what the lower school numbers were but for the upper school I think out of like 250 ish we were told there's only like 60 kids. Yeah. So we actually ended the day at senior class I had three kids there. I would have stayed home yeah uh so we ended the day at noon yeah and so it was just like a weird day um memorable though memes and the kids were super excited Lyra was like um why are you guys here but then Ivan picked us took us home so she was like oh thank you at him from the back of the van it was so cute. But yeah so that was wild.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

And then Saturday we had the gala which is great got to celebrate 60 years of American International School of Zocrab. Yeah which has been fun. That was a cool event I got to be an auctioneer. Hamana Hamana Hamma Hamana Hamma shout out Elliot Stern. Yeah I forgot you talked about that he did that at last I don't remember what the auction was for but I remember just dying laughing because you know it's like the one and the two and however whatever the auctioneer does. But he would he just kept going one hamma hamana hamma two hamma hamma and like kept going through that and so I did that and the crowd went wild. I made the crowd laugh I like making people laugh yeah I was I was like I'm just gonna go make a fool out of myself and people laugh at it and that's okay. I'm good I'm good with being a little clown for a little bit if I need to but that was fun and it was a beautiful event very well done. And then now we're tomorrow Daylight savings kind of kicked our buttons punched me in the mouth thank you for that correction I wasn't you almost said it.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

I was gonna say teeth I promise promise I'm looking into the camera right now at people like that's not what he was going to say.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Um so let's uh let's talk about what's what's coming up big things that are that are coming up soon so we've got we spring break we have we have planned our we've planned our trip home oh yeah yeah yeah yeah we got our flights home which is great got all that planned and then coming back early August and we're gonna bring our next clarify yeah yeah yeah so going back to America in June and we'll go see all our peeps stay with the fang figure out what we're gonna do with a car oh can't wait we sold our cars before I came here we're just gonna walk from from Manchester to Polk City.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

It's like a three hour drive we'll so sorry you guys if we don't have a car and we have to make you guys come see us we love you.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

We'll figure it out promise or we'll walk to you yeah thank you public it'll be fine we'll figure it out it's just a lot of money to rent a car to rent a car for that long yeah that'll be fine I think that I think I'm just not looking in the right place.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

Like I think there's a way to do it for like a couple if any of y'all listening got contacts June 23nd to August and then when we come back in August we're bringing Lance Joseph with us which pretty my Lance Joseph he's the one who made me an auntie old niece he's our oldest nephew yeah niece or nephew oh my gosh and he is graduating from our alma mater West Delaware Gohawks um he is graduating this year and he's going to Warburg baby where we also went to college you rah rah um we bleed that orange and black sure do um anyways I got excited there with us for love you Lance where he's gonna come back with us so we sell we celebrated we surprised him with an early graduation gift as a Christmas gift um and he's gonna come and spend a week with us here for his present before he goes off for his first year of college he's gonna be a real human I know he was just bored yesterday so I'm so excited for that and then I think Zach my brother in Dallas Texas whoop whoop is planning to visit at some point whoop whoop yeah I'm excited that's great yeah excited to be back has he planned to come we've just like tentative plans cool cool he might come at the same time as Lance but he's also flexible oh we gotta talk Ash is gonna come see us too yeah yeah yeah yeah she's currently doing the cool wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait what so let's play this no no no no okay let's go but let's finish with the like the family people coming and then go to Ash because we're it's gonna take longer to talk about Ash sorry um thank you um whisper but then your family's coming yeah so my mom and dad are gonna come over Christmas Christmas break and also my uncles Dave and Dave who are currently living in Provence Provence are gonna come see us check them out Le Farmhouse on Instagram they are incredible they're verified and they are an inspiration to us we love them very much so freaking cool I'm so excited to go see their place too Dave and David were hosts for our wedding and then Uncle Dave officiated for us so they are very special people to us and um they kind of like help inspired our like journey abroad. Yeah yeah and just yeah they're cool they're cool they're so cool okay now going to Ash now would you talk to Ash talk about Ash okay so Ash hey Ash I hope you're we love you what's going well if you're listening to this on your trip I think they're in Spain right now. France oh they're in France yeah because they were just in petty no but they've moved I'm pretty sure they're in Spain now they're already to Spain. Yeah they they're right next door that's crazy I'm gonna I'm gonna track Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

I think she's in Spain.

unknown 44:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Um but she's doing the Camino de Santiago, and so she is going on a very long walk, a very long pilgrimage um through Europe with her father. They're doing a backpacking trip and hitting hostels and walking. I think today they walked like 15 miles and just like visiting all the sites. Did you see the outlander thing today?

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

Yeah, so cute. Um but Ash was our what would you call Ash? Stage Manager?

SPEAKER_02 44:32

She's our stage manager, but she was like just such a sweet kid and one that would uh you just connect with kids, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:42

You know, one of the one of those like third children, basically.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

We just one of those people where like you not only connect with as a student, but like a human being.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

And so we read the same books, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Yeah, some of the same media. And so like she's been somebody who's still like very involved in our life. Yeah, yeah, which is beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

Yeah, we're excited to see her. She's gonna come in May.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

May with her and dad are gonna stay here.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

And I'm gonna go see, oh, I'm not gonna say it. Actually, I'm gonna make that a surprise.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

I'm gonna make that a surprise.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

No, I might actually cut that out.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

I'm gonna cut that out.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

I'm gonna cut it out.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

I'm not gonna cut it out. Um, yeah, so they're gonna stay with us for a couple days.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

We're staying in here.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Yeah, here. Oh god. Yeah, I already told her we're gonna be cozy and so.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

Air mattress.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Air mattresses. Might just go get an air mattress. Yeah.

unknown 45:29

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

We'll be cozy. Yeah. And so we'll get to show them around, I think, before they fly back home. I think we're the very end.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

That's beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Um, so yeah, we've got some we've got some cool stuff coming up, which would be fun. And then we will do a update of part two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll do a part two of the mental health.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

We'll come back to the mental health because that's still we still have a lot to say about that.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

But we kind of figured tonight would be a good just like ease back in catch-up night. Let everybody know what's going on. We're good. We're we're good. We needed to, you know, to take time for ourselves, and we did a lot of just kind of chilling.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

Watching a lot of Lord of the Rings.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

I became a hobbit. I didn't become a hobbit. I've been a hobbit my whole life, let's be honest. But I am fully embraced the hobbit.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Those hairy toes.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

My hairy toes.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Hairy toes, that's what it is.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Don't show your hair. Everyone's got hairy toes. I have hairy toes. It's just a couple of hairs.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

It's just like two.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

I'm I have no shame. False advertising.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

False advertising for the hairy toes. Um I watched all of Pluribus.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Which was super fun. That was a fun show. And I read all of the Red Rising series.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

Since we wait, wait, wait. You finished it, finished it?

SPEAKER_01 46:50

The only one that I have to read is Red God, which hasn't been released yet.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

And I just started The Nightingale by Kristen Hanna. Beautiful. And I heard it's gonna wreck me.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

Yep. It's World War II fiction.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Follows two sisters, and it's turning into a motion picture, which I think the fanning sisters are have been. I don't know if that's true or if that's just rumor, but that'd be cool. That'd be great. Yeah, so that's what's new. Ranger Myers. We both read that. Rocky.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

I hope it's good. I have such high expectations.

SPEAKER_02 47:29

I have heard nothing but good things. Good things.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Good.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

Yeah. And it's Ryan Gosling. He's really great.

unknown 47:33

And Rocky.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

And Rocky. Miss you Rocky. Yeah. But yeah, um, maybe next podcast can be our mental health part two, and then we'll kinda go from there.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

We'll make it more structured next time.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

I wanted this one to just be we both wanted this one to just be easy. Catch up, get get back in.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

We got a lot to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 47:51

Yeah, lots to catch up on. Lots of fun stuff that has happened, lots of fun stuff that is going to happen too. Which is great. Sticking with sticking with drama, doing our music stuff and counseling. Counseling stuff, parenting stuff.

SPEAKER_02 48:08

Yeah, that's good. We're in a good place.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

We are.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

Thanks for being with us. Yeah, thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

It was good to good to chat with you.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Excited to have you here. Excited to talk with you too. You're a cool cat. Thanks. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

All right. Peace out.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Have a good night.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Good night.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

Bye.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

Bye.