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