Cabbage soup party

It is the time of year where people start having many Christmas parties to go to. I have had one, it was for the school I am working at. Every place of business, or most every place of business, in Slovakia has what is called kapustnica. Kapustnica is the name of a cabbage, or saurkraut, soup; it is also the name for the Christmas party. Some fellow teachers were telling me about kapustnicas their husband or boyfriend went to. One teacher's husbands business had its kapustnica in Bratislava because the business is headquartered there. They had the typical dinner of cabbage soup and then went out to a club. Another teacher said her boyfriend's work had its kapustnica at Route 66 Bar and Grill, yes that is one of the restaurants here in Liptovsky Mikulas. The gymnasium and basic school had a joint kapustnica since we share a principal.

The canteen, cafeteria, was all decorated, the tables had white table clothes, there were many bottles of wine and everyone had a shot to start the evening off with. We all brought a secret Santa present, we were supposed to bring something that started with the letter "a" and it should not have cost more than 50SK (roughly $2.36). I brought a fake apple like you can find in the floral section of a store and a box of apple Cinnamon tea (apple in Slovak is jablko, but I was told I could use English or Slovak for the gift). The gift I received was a bottle of Nivea lotion and a bottle of Nivea body wash. Neither start with "a" in Slovak, which many people pointed out to me. They also pointed out that it is a good product.

We did the exchange of presents after our meal of soup and bread. We had some desserts too. While we were eating the bottles of wine were opened. There were probably about 18-20 tables, each with three or four people, and each had either red or white wine. After the gifts were opened and some visiting started our entertainment for the evening started. Two teachers from the gymnasium played guitars and sang for us. A number of people sang along with the songs, I sat and listened since I did not know any of the songs. It was fun to hear songs in Russian, Czech and Slovak. There were even one of two Roma (Gypsy) songs played. It was fun being there, experiencing this event and seeing my colleagues really enjoying themselves.

One of the things I found most entertaining about kapustnica was that the school day was shortened because of it. Classes were five minutes shorter, lunch period classes were cancelled, 8 year program classes meeting 7th period were cancelled and 5 year program classes meeting 8th period were cancelled. All so the teachers could have a party. I have never worked in a school in another country, so I do not know if this would happen, but I cannot imagine it would happen many places.

Oh! I have some exciting news. This morning the other two lecturers and I woke up early to catch a train at 6:42 to go to the town of Ružomberok. We had to go to the Foreign police this morning for some special business. I now have my working visa! It took a really long time, but now I am kind of a European Union (EU) citizen until the end of June. I can now sign books and such at school. This is very important and exciting.

Later I plan to write about my Christmas experiences. I will not be back in the USA for Christmas, I will be staying in Europe. I will not be in Slovakia though. I was invited by a friend to go to Denmark so I will be with him and his family for Christmas. We will fly out together on Sunday, December 21 and fly back Tuesday, January 6. I also have plans to visit a good friend of mine who is from Denmark. We met while I lived in Germany, we were in the same seminar group and worked and lived at the same place. We are very excited because we have not seen each other since we each left Germany in the summer of 2006. I am really looking forward to my Christmas break in Denmark.

Pictures from Kapustnica can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5119927&l=6c3ef&id=682430592

St. Nick's in Mikuláš

For those who are not familiar with the holiday of St. Nick's Day, it is a celebration that takes place on December 6. The night of December 5 children put out shoes or socks and hope that St. Nick comes and leaves them goodies. Usually the goodies are candy or other types of presents. In my family we would always leave wooden shoes by the front door. When I went to college my St. Nick goodies came in the mail instead. Well, Slovakia also celebrates St. Nick's Day, but instead of Nick (Nikolaus) they use the name Mikuláš because that is the Slovak form of the name. Does that name sound familiar? If you answered yes then you are right! The town I live in is named for St. Mikuláš, so they have a celebration each year at this time. The whole country actually celebrates the day, but not everywhere has this particular celebration. Some Slovak families use St. Nick's as a day to gather and open their presents. One of my friends who is Slovak, I met him when I lived in Germany, called on his way to his parents. He showed some real dedication because he had just gotten off work and was going from Bratislava to his parents (I think it is about an hour away), opening presents, going back to Bratislava that night, sleeping a little and going to work again. I am not sure if it is as big a tradition in every one's family, but it is in his.

OK, so you might be wondering what Liptovský Mikuláš does for its celebration. The name of the celebration is Mikulášsky Jarmok. It went from December 4-December 6. There were carnival rides set up in one square in town and there were booths set up throughout the entire downtown area of Mikuláš. The people at the booths were selling crafts and some sold food and drinks, Medovina or Punč. The market and carnival opened Thursday and Friday there were different performances happening on stage in one of the squares. Since Saturday was the last night and the actual day of St. Nick there were big closing performances. The first performance at 7pm was a fire show. There were a number of performers who did routines with sticks on fire. After they were finished there was a concert of the band Desmod. They are a Slovak group that does hard-rock, soft-rock and I was told punk too. I went to both of these and it was a lot of fun. I could not really understand the songs since they were in Slovak, but I recognized a couple from the radio. It was a lot of fun to be around for something that is special like this.

For pictures from Mikulášsky Jarmok visit the following site: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187008&l=ade98&id=682430592

Video of the Fire Show and Desmod.

Thanksgiving...Slovak style

This time of year brings many traditions and is the start to the holiday season in the United States. One of those traditions is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not traditionally celebrated in Slovakia. However, this did not stop there being various Thanksgiving celebrations around Slovakia. The school I work ar had a special Thanksgiving worship service. There is usually one church service for the whole gymnasium once a month, and November's theme was Thanksgiving. I helped one class learn two songs for the service, "Lord, I lift your Name on High" and another song I can't remember the name of now. They did a good job with the songs and motions. The service was held on Tuesday and was the kick off to Thanksgiving festivities around Mikulas anyways.

It was decided that the English department would have a Thanksgiving dinner, so myself and the other two volunteers were incharge of this. Our Vice Principle knew where to get a turkey and assisted Carol with the baking of the 30lbs. bird. I was in charge of mashed potatoes and ended up making 3kg. (6lbs.) of mashed potatoes and put together a relish tray. Jenny was in charge of the squash and corn. The Slovak teachers all brought food as well. They brought food such as bacon flavored chips, brownies, various cakes, cheese and ham rolled sandwiches, wine and soft drinks. We ended up having 15 people or so at my apartment for the dinner. We had a lot of fun, but Jenny's and my fridge became stuffed with leftovers...which still have to be eaten.

We cleaned up the apartment Friday night, packed and got some sleep for the early train to Bratislava. We had tickets for the 7:22 train, which actually left at about 7:20 so it was a good thing we were there in time. We had our second Thanksgiving dinner at 1pm in Bratislava and our train was to get us there in plenty of time to prepare our food and get ready for the dinner. I made a fruit salad with vanilla pudding for this dinner, it turned out well if I don't say so myself. The train arrived basically on time, around 10:30. Preparations were in full swing when we arrived. There were four or five turkies for the dinner. There ended up being 32 people at this dinner, volunteer teachers, ELCA personell, YAGMs (Young Adults in Global Mission) and some volunteers from Germany. We all had a fun time and ate too much.

After eating and cleaning up some there was a skit about the Macy's parade that takes place in NYC each year. The skit was very entertaining. We also played the "IT" game. It is a really fun game that is pretty easy to play. People are told ahead of time if they want to play they are to bring three wrapped gifts for the game. Everyone puts their gifts on the table and people sit around the gifts. Dice are needed for the game it is best to have multiple pairs, especially if there is a large group. The dice are dispersed in pairs throughout the group. Each person is to roll the dice and pass them to the right. If the person gets a pair they can take a gift. This continues until all the gifts are claimed. Then everyone opens the gifts they have and go around telling the group what they have. This is so people can know what the options are for stealing. The dice are to be rolled and passed again, but this time if a person rolls a pair they can "steal" a gift from another person. The "IT" is also put ino the mix, but is not revealed what "IT" is. In order for a person to claim it they must roll two 6s. This round happens for three minutes. At the end people can keep whatever they still have. I ended up with a vanilla sented candle, a make your own pom pom pets craft set and a 2009 calendar with a different flower for each month.

After the game we finished any dishes that were left, moved the food to the various fridges and got ready to go to the Christmas Market. There was a large group that went so we set a time and place to meet and went on our way through the market. Of course before we did that we all got a glass of punč, it's a warm wine drink. There were a number of booths selling various items. There were some trees decorated with lights too.

There has been a large amount of work going on in Slovakia preparring for the Christmas season. This past week decorations were put on the light poles outside my apartment building. The schools have also been getting in the spirit too. The gymnasium has a Christmas tree already up near the entrance. The canteen in the basic school has garland and lights up too. It seems Slovakia is getting ready for Advent and Christmas. The snow has come for the season too.

Mikuláš with the first real snow.

The Mikuláš Thanksgiving dinner

Bratislava Thanksgiving

Bratislava (Blava) Christmas Market

The beginning of winter

Last weekend was a long weekend in Slovakia. Monday was the Day of Freedom and Democracy which is a national holiday. My flatmate and I were discussing the holiday and what it could mean. Freedom and Democracy, which freedom would be celebrated? Freedom from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, freedom from the Soviet Union, or freedom with Slovakia becoming its own nation state? I asked students what the day was for. They told me that it commemorates the day Communism left Czechoslovakia. This is not the same time as the Velvet Revolution. Communism left Czechoslovakia in 1989, I think, and then in 1993 the Velvet Revolution happened which separated Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (aka Slovakia). I asked if there were any special celebrations that happen, but they said no. The day is simply a state holiday and so everyone has the day off.

I was not sure what I would do for the weekend at first, but I was invited along on a trip and said yes. Last Friday, Jenny, Carol and myself boarded an IC train for Bratislava and were on our way for an enjoyable weekend. Jenny had plans to visit her sister in England who was there at the time and so she rode with Carol and I and then made her way to the airport. Carol had plans to go to Vienna, Austria and asked if I wanted to join her. I said OK and we made the plans. There is a Vincent van Gogh exhibit at the Albertina Museum until December 8, so we planned to go see it. We found out that some other lecturers were planning on going to the exhibit as well. We were able to meet up in Vienna and go to the exhibit all together. There were a lot of people there, and it was really warm in the exhibit. The paintings and sketches were amazing though. I recognized some of the paintings, but not all of them. On Sunday Carol, a lecturer based in Bratislava and myself went to an exhibit on Georges Barque who was a cubist painter. I do not think I had seen any of his paintings before, so it was very interesting to see his work.

Carol and I spent Sunday evening in Bratislava at the apartment of some of the lecturers, one of them was my roommate at orientation. We had dinner at the apartment of a friend of the girls there who works at the US Embassy. He, the Embassy employee had come to speak at my school about the new Visa program between the US and Slovakia, so we had met before but it was nice to chat again. Monday was a low key morning, Carol and i got our things ready for the trip back to Mikulas. We had lunch with a few of the lecturers in Bratislava and then caught our train. We got back to Mikulas around 4:30 and it was already dark like night. I looked out the window and commented on it raining. When Carol and I got off the train we realized it was not rain, but snow. We were surprised at that. By the next day we had about an inch of snow. Wednesday it rained though and the snow disappeared. However, it has been snowing again. There was some snow yesterday and it was cold, the high was -1 C and has been snowing all day today so far. The grass is still peaking through a little, but it makes the area look pretty. I am guessing the mountains have more snow on them, but I cannot see them so do not know for sure. They have been covered by clouds since yesterday afternoon. If the weather continues like this it brings hope of a good ski season.

Election results

News of the results of the US Presidential election have been talked about around school. The day after the election a few teachers were talking about the results. One teacher actually congratulated myself and another lecturer on the President-elect. Some of my students have asked my thoughts, if I am happy with the decision. I said that I am happy, and feel confident that if Obama knows what he is doing and surrounds himself with people who know what they are doing he will do a good job.

I have asked students for their reactions and thoughts. It has been interesting to hear what my students have to say. Some of them are fairly well informed on what Obama's views on different topics are (e.g. views in Iraq and Afghanistan, economy, etc.). All the students think it is a big and good step for the United States to have an African-American President. They think this will help to change them view of some people around the world, being able to see a person for the individual and not how the person looks or the color of their skin. They think it will take a while for a person to be elected a leader of a European country whose origins may not be European. One student made note of an interesting perspective. He thought that Barack Obama will have a difficult time making and keeping a good name. This is because he, and other students, feel people will be more critical of Obama because he is African-American. They feel that if something goes wrong people will blame it on Obama being African-American and then people may feel they do not want to vote for an African-American president again. I think this is an interesting point, and may hold true for some people. It is unfortunate, but often times people will blame something going wrong on what is new or has changed. I hope that this does not happen this time though, I am sure many people will be watching the President-elect closely though.

As the time goes by bringing us closer to winter. The leaves have changed color and many have fallen off the trees. Fog has been coming in too. When I was playing football and baseball with my first year students fog started to role in. We were outside for period 1 and 2, 7:45- 9:20. The students all had a blast though. The most telling sign that cold weather is coming arrived this morning. When I was walking to school today I noticed the grass was covered in frost. This is the first frost I have seen. This seems to mean that winter is on the way. It will be interesting to see what winter is like when surrounded by mountains.

Hiking exchange: bridging Mikulas and Tisovec

The last week in October brought different events and happenings to Slovakia. Two of my classes had Halloween parties, cleaning day at the local cemeteries throughout Slovakia and Fall Break.

First I'll talk about the Halloween parties. My 1s are currently in a unit about US Realia; Fall Sports/Halloween. What better way to talk about Halloween then have a party, right? My students had a lot of fun and so did I. I made black cats, bats and ghosts to be hung around the room and pumpkin cut-outs for my students to decorate. Some of the class took over putting the decorations up while others were playing bat trivia. I cut out bats and put trivia questions as well as Halloween jokes on them. We also read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and played the mummy game. If you're not familiar with the mummy game I'll explain. I brought 4 large rolls of toilet paper and had the students break up into teams. They were to choose one team member and see how fast they could turn their teammate into a mummy. That was a favorite. What would a Halloween party be without candy? I found a nice supply of candy over the weekend and brought it to class. The students were excited and shocked that they each got a handful of candy, after saying "Trick-or-treat".

The first day of November brings a special tradition to Slovakia. On October 31 (maybe starting on the 30th?) families travel to the cemetery where relatives are buried. They help to clean up the cemetery and decorate the graves. The graves are covered with flowers, real and fake, and candles. I was able to visit two different cemeteries after this happened, one in Tisovec and one in Mikulas. They were both beautiful sites. In Tisovec I went with the volunteer teachers there. We went Halloween evening, around 9:30. It was very dark out, but the glow of the candles and the various flowers were moving and a site to behold. It felt very special to be able to experience this way of remembering those who have past.

For students this weekend brought Fall Break. The break technically started Thursday, but I didn't teach Wednesday. Students had classes periods 1-3 and then a church service, which I attended. After the service they were free to start their break. One of the teachers from Mikulas, Carol, made plans to meet some people in Venice for the weekend. Jenny and I made plans with the teachers from Tisovec. The Tisovec group had been at a teacher retreat and so came to Mikulas after their retreat. They came to town Thursday afternoon and we showed them around and went out to dinner. Friday was an early day. We wanted to go on a hike, but were also planning to go to Tisovec that day too, so needed to be ready to catch the bus at 16:10 (4:10pm). So, we all woke up around 5:30am to catch a bus at 6:20. We were all a little groggy, but got ready and made it to the bus station, which is thankfully not far away.

At the bus station we ended up splitting into two groups, one doing a long hike and one doing about half the length of the long hike. Carsten, from Tisovec, and I ended up being the only ones wanting to do the longer hike. We started in the Prosiek Valley and hiked up the valley and made our way to the Kvacany Valley. Depending on the way people go the hike takes 4-6 hours. We ended up finishing in 4-4 1/2 hours. Once we started hiking though I realized I forgot my camera. We decided once the weather gets nice again we'll do the hike again and make sure we have a camera. During the hike there is walking on dirt paths, across rocks holding on a chain as you walk along a river, climbing ladders up cliffs and we went through a field and town. The Prosiek half of the hike was very breezy. We met up with the rest of the group when we came up from a spot we stopped at to snack. We ended up getting done earlier than planned, and so had to wait an hour or so for a bus. We had plenty of time to get ready for the bus to Tisovec though.

The trip to Tisovec was a success. We made it to the bus from Mikulas on time and could get on the transfer bus right away. We got into Tisovec around 6pm and it was already dark. Rachel, Becky and Carsten took me to where they live and pointed out things along the way; Jenny decided she would stay in Mikulas and travel to Tisovec another weekend. We split up for dinner, but made plans to meet up later which is when we went to the cemetery. The next day we were going to take a hike, but Rachel and Becky decided they needed to work on things, so Carsten took me on a hike where I could see all of Tisovec. It was really pretty, we were planning on going further but turned back when it started to rain. We thought that rain and walking on rocks didn't mix to well.

The weekend was full of activities, and was a great weekend. It was a chance to learn more about Slovakia, see a part of Slovakia I had only briefly seen before and catch-up with fellow volunteers and see what their lives and school are like.

Jenny, Rachel, Becky and Carsten having fun at Olympia Sport Bar.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=174403&l=3a696&id=682430592

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=174430&l=8d8f7&id=682430592

Voting, elections and Halloween

I was able to register as an overseas absentee voter, and received my ballot. I put it in the mail today, so it should have no problem making it to the US by the deadline, 14 days after the election is the cut-off for overseas ballots. I used this experience, me receiving an absentee ballot, as an example for two of my classes. I told them the process I had to go through to get the ballot and the process for mailing in the ballot.

With my 3s, we are currently discussing politics and the election that will be held in the US. I first asked my students what they could tell me about their own political system. I learned that Slovakia is a democratic parliamentary state. There is a parliament in Bratislava, the capital city, and a type of parliament for the various regions of Slovakia. There is a President as well as a Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is connected to the parliament while the President is a kind of figure head, but is the one other foreign dignitaries would meet with when coming to Slovakia. I believe both the President's and Prime Minister's term of office is four years, elections are not held at the same time though. Elections for the President happen one year and two years later there are elections for the Prime Minister. People must be 18 years old to vote and register by signing a paper stating they are 18 or older and show an ID card.

I asked my students what they know about the political system of the US. They knew a little, that we have a President and Vice-President, they knew that George Bush is currently the President, they didn't know Dick Cheney's name. They also know of Barack Obama and John McCain. My students knew that the term of the President is 4 years, they did not know that there is a term limit, there is not one in Slovakia.

So far in class we've talked about the history of the political system some. Such as, how it started and why there are only two major parties and not more. We are currently discussing the process it takes for a person to be nominated to run for President. They thought the process of having a popular vote and an electoral college is confusing. I'm trying to explain how this works and how there are special shows that report on the polls and who has won which states. I'm not sure they understand yet, maybe I can find something on line. If anyone has suggestions please let me know. Tomorrow there is a woman coming from the US Embassy to talk to students about the visa process for going to the US and also about the election. Perhaps she will be able to explain things a little more clearly.

My 1s are getting ready for a new unit in our class. Today they took a test over a play we read, "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street". They all seemed to think the test was difficult. I told them that next Monday we would be having a special class. It is the class closest to Halloween for them, and we are supposed to talk about Halloween as a US custom. Therefore, we are going to have a Halloween party. They were all very excited to hear that, even though they don't really know anything about Halloween. It isn't celebrated here so it will be a new experience. I told them to think about what they would want to do for the party and to let me know Friday when I meet with them again. I gave some ideas; games, favorite candy, etc. I'm trying to remember fun and easy Halloween games to play with them. Once again, if anyone has suggestions please let me know. I asked if we should dress up in costumes, some wanted to and one or two said no, I'll have to check on that again.

The other classes are going well too. My 2s are starting their music unit. They are to choose a favorite song and bring the lyrics to class to share with everyone. We'll play the song and the students will tell us a little about the artist and the song itself. Kvinta is working on describing people. Last class we talked about personalities. I asked them to write about the personality of a person they know and then share what they wrote with the class. It was entertaining, but I don't think there was a good understanding of what a personality is, I'll have to work on that one. My basic students are talking about interests. Last class we named off different interests or hobbies. The students are all well behaved and helpful, which is good. The class itself will be a challenge to plan for because of the different English levels in the class. Some students are just beginning to learn English while others have had English classes for two years. I guess it is similar to teaching in a one room school house, but for 90 minutes a week. It can be difficult to get much done in 45 minutes Thursday and 45 minutes Friday. It is working so far, so that is good.

I haven't gone on anymore hikes recently, but that will soon change. The end of October brings Fall break to Slovakia. That means there is no school the 30th and 31st. Myself and a volunteer teacher in Tisovec, a town 2 hrs South of here, are making plans for a hiking exchange. He, Carsten, and the other US lecturers are planning to come to Mikulas on the 30th and we will do a hike here. Carsten, myself and maybe Becky plan to do a hike from valley to valley which takes about 6 hours. The others plan to take a less intensive hike, no ladders and not lasting 6 hours. Then we will go to Tisovec and the people there will take us on a hike around the area. I am excited about this and Carsten is as well. This is his third year in Slovakia and he has yet to come to Mikulas. I will have to write how the hiking exchange goes after that weekend.

Slovak lessons

I have had requests from some people to learn some Slovak words and phrases. I am still very much in the learning stage myself, but will write some of what I know so far.


Basic phrases

Áno (ah-no)= Yes

Nie (kneeh)= No

Ja som Američanka. (Ya som Americhanka.)= I am an American. (feminine, masculine is Američan.)

Volám sa... (Vo-lahm saw)= My name is...

Greetings

Dobré ráno (Doe-breh rah-no)= Good morning (used till 8am)

Dobrý deň (Doe-breh den)= Good day (used from 8am-dark)

Dobrý večer (Doe-breh ve-chae)= Good evening

Dobrú noc (Doe-breh nos)= Good night

Ahoj (Ahoy)= Hello, good-bye (informal)

Čau (ciao)= Good-bye (informal)

Dovidenia (Doe-ve-den-ya)= Good-bye (formal)



Wishes/Salutations

Dobrú chut' (Doe-bruh huch)- Enjoy your meal

Na zdravie (Na stra-vhey)= Cheers, to your health (when toasting) or bless you (when someone sneezes)

Ďakujem (Dya-khu-yem)= Thank you

Prosím (Pro-seam)= Please or You're welcome (when referring to Ďakujem) or Here you are or Please help yourself or After you.

Nech sa páči (Nix sah pah-chee)= Here you go or Please help yourself or After you.

Ako sa máte? (Ako sah mah-te)= How are you? (formal)
Ako sa máš? (Ako sah mah-sh)= How are you? (informal)

Vel'mi dobre, d'akujem. A Vy? (Vel-me do-bray, dya-khu-yem)= Very well, thank you. And yourself?


Slovak uses formal and informal, as is seen in some of the phrases. There are also genders in the language. The ending of a word changes depending on the gender and it seems the structure of the sentence as well. I do not know much of the grammatical rules yet, but am trying to learn them. I hope you enjoy these Slovak phrases!

Creativness

Things in Slovakia continue to be going well. This past weekend a former teacher from EGJT, my school, wanted to take myself and the other two lecturers on a hike. Jenny was really sick with a cold, so she did not go on the hike. Carol and I went and were excited to see where we would be going. We took a short bus ride to a town called Kvačany. We hiked in a valley on a trail for about an hour and twenty minutes and visited two old mills and got to see part of a path that is taken when a person does the whole hike. The whole hike involves going up one valley and down another valley, it is said to take about 6 hours. I plan to do this hike sometime, but am not sure of when yet. Plans will be in the making.

After the hike back the three of us stopped at a microbrewery to have something to eat and for our guide to meet with her new boss. Tereza is teaching English through a private business now. We all had a very good time, a little too much fun because we missed our bus to get back to Mikuláš. Thankfully Pat'ka, our trusty VP was able to send her husband to come and get us.

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People may be wondering what is happening at the school I am teaching at. We have had classes for about a month now. Because of this things are starting to pick up in the classes with giving students projects and writing assignments. My students are very creative. For my 2nd years we went over "Little Red Riding Hood" and I asked them to rewrite the story as a news story. There have been a couple students who did theirs as gossip, a couple wrote the story as a crime report and others as an article. Some even changed the characters from a woodsman to a police officer for example. I have enjoyed reading the different perspectives and also enjoyed the words that some of the students come up with.

My 3rd years have been going over inventions, so they had a small group project to research an invention and tell about the inventor, what the invention does, the history and process. I now have a model toilet made out of paper sitting on my desk at school because one group decided to research the flushing toilet.

I haven't been able to do any real projects with my 1st years or Kvinta yet, but I can tell they will also be creative.

Starting tomorrow I will also be teaching in the basic school connected to the gymnasium. My class will be made up of 14 students from four different classes. They're ages will range from 11-14, so are in the upper section of the basic school. It should be interesting with the various English levels. I think it will go well, I'll see tomorrow what the students are like.

Vino Festival

This past weekend, a fellow lecturer from Mikuláš and I went to Bratislava for the weekend. Four of the twenty American lecturers had birthdays between last week and this week. Carla's was the 17th, Carsten and Laura’s were both the 21st and Sean’s is the 29th. Carol, Jenny and I were invited to Bratislava to celebrate and go to a wine festival with the crew. Jenny decided to stay in Mikuláš for the weekend but Carol and I went on our way.

Friday after school we packed and went to the train station hoping to get on an IC (InterCity) train, but it was full. We were able to get tickets for a regional express train that left at 14:14 (2:14pm). An IC train stops only at major stops; Mikuláš is fortunately one of those. A regional express train makes more stops so takes a little over 4 hours instead of 3 hours to Bratislava. Our timing ended up being perfect though. When we got to the apartments in Bratislava and made it up stairs the group was just about to pray before they started the Fiesta, it was Mexican night.

Saturday morning some of the girls and I went shopping at the local mall. I wanted a fall jacket and Becky was in need of some hiking boots. We looked around for a little while and were successful. In the early afternoon, around 2, we meet up with the boys to head to the wine festival. There ended up being about 12 people in the group.

We walked to a tram stop and took it into Rača which is kind of a suburb of Bratislava. We arrived at the festival around 2:30 and ended up staying until about 8:30. There were a lot of booths set up. The wine that is sold at this particular festival is called burciak. It looks somewhat like juice and also tastes like juice but with an added fizz, which is the alcohol. The way the wine is made is different than normal wine though. Burciak needs to be drunk in 3-4 days otherwise it goes bad.

The wine festival was a lot of fun. We all tried wine from various booths and had some food as well. I also tried Metovina which is a warm honey wine. It was very good, but does not taste as good once it gets cold. This was a good drink for the day because it was cool and rainy.

After the group left the festival we headed back to Bratislava and hung out at one of the apartments before going to find some more food. We thought it would be a good idea to have something since none of us had eaten since around 3 and it was now close to 9. We went to Pizza Pan (Pan means man or Mr. in Slovak) which I was told used to be Pizza Hut. The food was good; we ended up ordering in pairs because none of us could eat a whole pizza ourselves at that time. Overall the weekend was a lot of fun. It was nice to see people from orientation again and to help people celebrate birthdays.

Some of the crew (L to R, back row) Jon, me, Carsten, Larry, Maika, Becky and Jana.



The girls (Lto R) Becky, Maika and Rachel




Leaving Rača on the tram: me, Carsten, Larry, Jon and Becky

Two long weekends in three weeks...

This past weekend was a pleasant surprise in that it was a long weekend, again. The weekend wasn't as long as the first long weekend though, we only had Monday off as an extra day this time. Monday was a national holiday because it was, "The Day of Mary's Seven Sorrows." Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the patron saint of Slovakia and so there was a national holiday because of this. We were told somewhere in the Bible there is a list of the seven sorrows of Mary, neither myself nor the other two American teachers knew what they were or where one could find them in the Bible. We did not mind having the day off though.

On Thursday Jenny and Carol found out that a Slovak English teacher would be taking us to the High Tatra's on Saturday. Jenny called me with this news, I was not at school because somehow no classes were scheduled for me Thursday. I ended up at school later because I locked myself out of my apartment, I was let back in later though.

The Slovak teacher met myself and the other two around 10 Saturday morning and we left for a short drive to the High Tatras. Marek, the Slovak teacher, led us on a walk and what he thought was a short-cut to some stores. Well, the path was a short-cut, but it led to a hotel and we couldn't go anywhere else from there. Jenny and Carol hadn't climbed all the way up though so they got to watch Marek and I climb down, it wasn't very far but the dirt was very loose which made climbed down interesting.

After walking some more we drove to another area around the mountains and had lunch. The food was very good and very filling. After lunch we went to a Folk museum and were able to see how people lived 200 years ago. This was fun to see, life was not very different from lives of those in other European countries.

Sunday and Monday were days spent hiding inside the apartment. Outside was cold and rainy. The temperature was, and still is, a little less than 50 F. I know in a few months that temperature will feel very nice. Right now with the rain it is a cold that chills to the bones.

Marek is the second teacher to take the three of us somewhere for the weekend. It has been nice being able to get to know some of the teachers outside of school and being able to see a part of Slovakia with a native guide.

Some pictures from the weekend and Mikuláš
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158190&l=2bc6d&id=682430592
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158201&l=8cca8&id=682430592

The first week

This is the end of the first week of teaching for me. I was a little nervous to begin with, but it wasn't anything too bad. I had many classes of introductions of myself, classes to me and class expectations. I am teaching six different classes: 1a, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b and Kvinta. The way the school here works is that there are usually two classes per year of the five year program, i.e. 1a/b, 2a/b, 3a/b, 4a/b and 5a/b. In each class is normally no more than 30 students, the 2b class has 31 students though. For conversation classes the class is split into two groups so I usually work with 15 students per class hour. This year is a little different in the system set-up because there is only one first year class, there is no room for a second group of 30 students for first year so there is only a 1a.

The 1s are basically the equivalent of freshman in the US High School system. They have English conversation three times a week. The rest of the years have English conversation two times a week. The 5th years are the seniors but tend to be 18, 19, 20 and sometimes even 21 years old when they graduate. At the end of their schooling they have a test called the Materita to take, it is their graduating exam. Because of this the 5th years have special seminars to prepare them for the test.

There is also an eight year program in the school here in Mikulas. Kvinta is the fifth year of the eight year program. Their English is at a similar place of the first years in the five year program, but I do not think they are the same year. I believe a student in Kvinta is usually 12 or 13. The eight year program is made up of prima, sekunda, tercia, kvarta, kvinta, sexta, septima and octava. Students tend to be 18, 19 and maybe 20 when they graduate from this program, they also take the maturita.

Since my school is a bi-lingual school various subjects are taught in English. Occasionally a native speaker will teach a subject other than conversation, but not always. Myself and the other two teachers from the US only teach conversation though we may be asked to substitute for another subject.

This week has been interesting getting to know the students a little and see the difference in English skills and confidence between the years. I hope to be able to see and experience changes with both, skills and confidence, within the students throughout the year.

Wednesday brought the first "real" day of teaching. That is, I had classes other than introductions to teach. I was more nervous for this, but I think I did alright. I changed somethings from when I taught 2b to 2a for instance. I have even come up with an idea for my 3rd years to do for their first project. I discussed the idea with the other teacher of 3s and after some editing came up with the project. I think it should be interesting for the students and will have them practicing their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of English.

The schedule for classes is not yet finalized. For example, we were given the schedule for Wednesday Tuesday afternoon. Because of this we had classes, or didn't at times that will most likely change. On Monday I had two classes, Tuesday I had two classes, Wednesday I had four classes, Thursday I had no classes and Friday I had four of my own classes and substituted for a class. I taught for five straight periods today. It wasn't too bad, but I don't think I would want to do that every day.

This weekend is a long weekend again. Monday is the day of Mary's seven sorrows. She is the patron saint of Slovakia and it is a national/bank holiday so there is no school. Tomorrow a Slovak English teacher will be taking myself and the other two teachers to the High Tatras. We are going to walk around a lake area some and the rest of the area. It should be very nice, hopefully the weather cooperates. There were going to be some students taking us somewhere on Monday too, but the plans have not yet been made. It will be interesting to see what all ends up happening this weekend!

The start of school, a physical and preparring for classes

This past week was the official start of school in Slovakia. The first day of school was Tuesday, though classes did not really start until Thursday. Tuesday there was a worship service in the local Lutheran church for the staff, students and families. Wednesday was a day for the students to receive their books and learn their class schedule for the next day. Scheduling here is an area where people need to be flexible. All of the teachers have their schedule for classes tomorrow, but none of us know the schedule past that day yet. We should find out more tomorrow.

Wednesday, while the students and teachers were busy the American teachers were on a trip to the Doctor. Patricia, the Vice-Principal took us to Martin to the hospital where we had our physicals. The tests were pretty standard; blood was drawn, our hearts were listened to, they felt around our stomachs and we had a chest X-ray. I caused some concern for the Doctor, nurse and Patricia during the first item.

While my blood was being drawn I let them know that it hurt. The nurse finished the tune she was filling and told Patricia, she was our fearless translator, that my vein was destroyed. I think what they meant was that my vein collapsed. After that Patricia was making sure I was fine after every other test. I was except for my arm hurting. Now I am the bearer of a large bruise (roughly 3"x3"). It seems to slowly be getting better, which is good. It should make teaching on Monday interesting.

Thursday and Friday were observation days for myself, Jenny and Carol. We went to classes that we would be teaching. It was a way for us to see the students and have an idea of what teaching in Slovakia is like. I enjoyed all the teachers and the students seem to all be very good too. Some are talkative and others are a little unsure of their English. So far it seems that it will be a good year.

Pictures

This weekend was full of hiking around different parts of the Liptovsky area. There was a long weekend in Slovakia because of two holidays which happened to fall on Friday and Monday. Friday's Holiday was more of a remembrance than anything. It is a day to remember a battle that happened during WWII and served as a turning point in attitudes of the people. The holiday on Monday, September 1 is Constitution Day.

Before the weekend, myself and the other two teachers from the U.S. asked if stores would be closed for the holidays and what would be good to do on our days off. We were told that stores would most likely be closed, a few big supermarkets might be open though. As for what to do, a couple teachers had plans for us. One, who is the school Chaplin, invited us to her house on Friday for lunch. She lives in a village near Mikulas, about 7 miles or so. Patka, our assistant principal picked up myself and the two other teachers and took us to the Chaplin's house. She and her husband were very welcoming and happy to have us visit.

We had a wonderful lunch of chicken and noodle soup, "American" potatoes, a chicken and vegetable dish and crepes for desert. In between the lunch and desert Darček, the chaplin, took us on a short hike to see parts of the village and countryside.

Saturday the day was spent with Anka, my mentor teacher; her boyfriend, and a school friend of hers. We went to a near-by town where there is a castle and was a festival happening. There were people dressed up as people from the Middle Ages and there were sword fights and archery competitions. We all walked up to the castle ruins as well. The path was a little steep at some points, but we all made it fine. Overall it was a nice weekend to be able to see parts of the surrounding area.

Here are links to where on-line albums of the pictures can be found.

Pictures from orientation in Bratislava are at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150661&l=a862f&id=682430592
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150743&l=1fa3f&id=682430592

Pictures of my apartment are at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150747&l=2e3c5&id=682430592

For pictures of a castle I visited Saturday the link is:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=152523&l=163ef&id=682430592

Pictures of hiking around Liptovsky are at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=152511&l=385e0&id=682430592

As I post more pictures I will add the addresses to the blog and may add pictures directly to the blog.

Arrival in Liptovsky Mikulas

I had a week of orientation in Bratislava with the fellow English teachers. I think there were 13 new and 3 returning teachers. The group seems great. Between all of us there are four different towns that will be receiving teachers. Those are Bratislava, Kosice, Liptovsky Mikulas and Tisovec. There were also two teachers that were with us for a day that will be in Martin at an Elementary School, I believe they are from the Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod.

During the week orientation was geared towards teaching us how to survive in Slovakia, shopping trips, language lessons, etc. The larger group was split into four smaller groups, we were given 200 SK per group and sent on our way. With the shopping trip my group and I found out that there is no vanilla extract in Slovakia though there is vanilla sugar and vanilla beans. The list of items my group had to find were: vanilla or 00 flour, 2 cucumbers, lettuce, an adapter and Smedny Mnch (it's a beer called the thirsty monk). Well, we found the vanilla bean but did not buy it since it cost 99.99 Slovak Crowns; we bought the flour instead. We found everything else except for the beer. We looked around a good part of Old City Bratislava, I even used my German to talk to a bar tenders friends to see if they knew of the beer and where we could find it. We eventually gave up and bought ourselves some Coca-Cola instead.

When August 23 came it was almost a week since I arrived in Slovakia. This was also the day that the group would be heading to the various towns. We had a commissioning service in the morning/afternoon which was done by Arden Haug and the Bishop of Slovakia. The service was nice, and of course we took group pictures. I have to see if I can get a copy from someone. After the service we all had lunch together and then the groups began to leave.

There was a slight change in plans for my group and the group going to Tisovec. We were going to have separate drivers, but then one of the drivers could not come so the six of us went in a van together. First we went to Tisovec, that was between a 3 and 4 hour drive. The drive was nice, many corn fields were seen along the way. As we got closer to Tisovec we began to see the Low Tatras. They looked very nice and I am told there are many good places to hike and ski in them.

After the people in Tisovec had their paperwork filled out the rest of us left for Mikulas. Our route to Mikulas was changed slightly because of a road closer. Luckily the driver knew another route. It took us about two hours to Mikulas. Carol, Jenny and I were ready for an adventure because none of us knew where we would be living until we arrived. We were all happy with our arrangements. Jenny and I share an apartment and Carol has her own apartment in another building. We live about 5 minutes from the school and 5-10 minutes from the town center.

This weekend is a long weekend, we have Friday to Monday off. It will give me and the others a good chance to explore the area. Tomorrow, Friday, the three of us are invited to lunch at the Chaplin's house from our school. Saturday we will take a train to a near-by town an explore a castle and other activities with a fellow teacher. School starts on Tuesday with a church service and myself and the other two teachers will be taken for our check-ups as well as other appointments that need to be taken care of. It will be interesting to see what the weekend brings!

Arrival in Slovakia

The adventure begins on August 16, 2008. I left for O'Hare airport with my parents where they said good-bye to me as I took of to my second foreign country of residence. When I checked in at the ticket counter everything was going well. The worker told us that my bags were over weight so needed to pay a fee, there turned out to be other people in the group that also faced this problem.

After the bags were checked my parents and I headed towards security so that I could reach my gate in plenty of time. We said our good-byes and I headed on my way. My first flight went to Stockholm, Sweden so i got to see part of a country and airport I had not been in before. I left the U.S. around 4:30pm CST and arrived in Stockholm around 7:45am their time (7 hours ahead of CST). I had about two and a half hours in the airport, which was very nice and clean. In the gate area there was a TV where Olympics were playing. The time went by quickly which was nice because I was fairly tired.

My next and last flight was on Austrian Air which took me to Vienna, Austria. The plan landed around 12:30pm and I made my way out to the lobby area. I saw another girl that had been on both of my flights so I asked if she was going to Slovakia and it turned out she is another teacher from the group. We talked for a while and each watched each other's bags when we went to call home or use the restroom. After an hour and a half or two hours our in-country person made it to the airport and we went on our way to Bratislava. Vienna and Bratislava are not far apart at all, it probably took us about an hour to arrive at the seminary I am currently staying at.


Rebbecca, the girl from the flight, and I brought our bags to our rooms and came to find the people who picked us up had left already to meet more people at the Bratislava airport. We then decided to walk around the town some since we did not know who the other teachers were or where they were. We had a nice walk and got slightly lost but found our way back to the seminary. We arrived just in time because we saw people heading downstairs and they were from our group. We met the teachers who were here and two more arrived that evening. The two who arrived later each had delayed flights and both arrived without any luggage. Thankfully one has been reunited with all of her luggage and the other has one suitcase and the other is to be delivered tomorrow.

This week in Bratislava is meant as an orientation for us to Slovakia and to teaching in Slovakia. With this comes lessons on teaching, tips on what to do and what to expect. We also receive Slovak lessons, my vocabulary is slowly growing but I need to study so I really remember the words and numbers.

On Friday I will have a meeting that will talk about the school I will be at in Liptovsky Mikulas. There will be three teachers from the US there; myself, Carol and Jenny. They both seem nice and fun, I think we will have a good year together.

Saturday everyone will leave the seminary and go to the town they will live in for the year. Some will stay here in Bratislava but will move to an apartment. The other towns people will be in are Tisovic, Martin and Kocise. We all plan to travel and hope to visit one another in our respective towns.

So far things have been good. It is different to be in a country where your knowledge of the language is very limited. I am sure I will pick up more as the year goes on. I look forward to the rest of the week and to see what comes.