Slovakia, here I come!

The end and yet just the beginning

2010-08-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

It is now August, which means summer will slowly start coming to an end. For some students the summer already ended and they are back in school. Others are squeezing the last out of the few weeks they have left before classes start again. Even though the summer only lasts three months the memories will last forever. In the same way that is how it is with my experience in Slovakia.

I left for Slovakia in August, 2008 shortly after receiving my Master of Arts in Mission and World Christianity. Many people ask what brought me to Slovakia and the answer is always the same. I was looking for what to do after I finished my degree and found out about the Teach in Slovakia program and thought it would be interesting, a new experience and a place I haven't been. All of those were true and ended up staying true throughout my two years in Slovakia.

I taught in a town that was in a beautiful location, among the High and Low Tatras of the Carpathian Mountains. The people I met in Slovakia are all great people. I made some good friends that I hope to stay in contact with and see if we can visit each other sometime. I learned from my fellow teachers and I learned from the students. I hope to be able to share with others what I learned about the real Slovakia and the people. Slovakia has changed from what people may know of it 15 years ago, it changed in the two years I was there and will continue to change. Change is inevitable and some changes happening now are hopefully for the better.

I went to Slovakia with the idea I would be there for one year and see what happened. I ended up returning for a second year. However, I decided that after the second year it was time to come home. It is not because of not liking where I was or the people, it was simply time for me to move on. I will miss the school, my colleagues and the students; but I will not forget them. My students have great potential and they grew throughout our two years together. I am excited to see where they head in life. One class I worked with both years will graduate this coming school year. I know they were sad to hear I would not be with them through their leaving exam (Maturita), but I will be thinking about them. The other classes I worked with are part way through their high school experience or still at the beginning. I am sorry I cannot be with them at EGJT through the rest of their years there, but I know they will do great and have wonderful resources available to them through the teachers and lecturers around them. If any of my former students read this please feel free to send me questions you have about things or just notes to say how things are. I'll be happy to help you how I can and let you know what I am up to. For anyone who wasn't a student of mine but has questions please feel free to ask. I would be happy to try and answer the questions you have as best I can.

Now comes the big adventure for me of adjusting to being back in the United States, reverse culture shock. I have gone through reverse culture shock before so have an idea of what to expect, but also know it will be different than when I came back from living in Germany four years ago or when I was home last summer. While going through this I will also be doing a job search. I am trying to give myself sometime to adjust while still doing the job search but it can get a little overwhelming. Thoughts or prayers during this time of transition would be appreciated. I hope you have enjoyed my blog over the past two years. If there is interest I could continue writing during my time of transition. If anyone wants to know what it is like to go through reverse culture shock send me a note or leave a comment.

Once again thank you to everyone for the support over the past two years. They were a great experience I am glad I had and so thankful I got to meet the people I did.

Easter and travels

2010-05-06T02:25:00.000-07:00

I know that Easter was a month ago, but here is a little recap of the holiday and travels over that time. My parents were able to come for a visit, so they made it in time for both my birthday and Easter. They arrived in Vienna, Austria April 1, picked up a rental car and then drove to my apartment.

They had an adventure right from the start. There was road construction I didn't know about, so the GPS sent them on the southern route instead of the northern route. I don't remember what time they were able to leave the airport, but I do remember we had a late dinner that night, around 9pm.

The next morning we left for our traveling adventure. Our first stop was Krakow, Poland. We chose to take the route that was about 20 minutes longer, but went past the High Tatras. My parents were able to get a really nice view of the mountains and also saw the devastation that is still present from a massive wind storm that happened about 5 years ago. The wind was so strong that it uprooted fully grown trees, most of which have not grown back yet. Here is an idea of what the mountains are like here. If we took a train we would have to transfer trains three times and would get to Krakow in 7 hours, I couldn't find any buses that would go between here and there, but with a car you could get to Krakow in 2 1/2-3 hours depending on if you drove up through the mountains or around the mountains.

We arrived in Krakow in the early evening. We found our hotel and were pleasantly surprised at the excellent location. The hotel was just around the corner from the main old town square, and was right next to some great restaurants. The hotel staff was also wonderful. They were very attentive and happy to help us with addresses and GPS coordinates for the sites we wanted to visit, if any of you plan to visit Krakow I would highly recommend Hotel Jan. We were in Krakow for four days and had a great time. We took a tour of the city in a little golf cart (we saw the old town, Jewish quarter and Schindler's factory), went to the salt mine there and visited Auschwitz. We were in Krakow for Easter Sunday and it was a great day. At breakfast there was fresh homemade potato salad, a tradition, and every church was open in the city. Pictures were not allowed, but we discovered there were over 20 churches in the old town alone! We did not see every church, but the ones we did visit were very impressive.

After Krakow we went to Warsaw. We also stayed here for four nights. Warsaw is a very different city than Krakow. It has the feeling of a large metropolitan area with many new buildings. This is probably partially related to the fact that Warsaw is the modern day capital of the country, but also because the city was basically destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. The old town was rebuilt based off of paintings and pictures. When a person sees the pictures of what the old town was like before the destruction, shortly after and today it is amazing. The reconstruction was done so well that it is now on the UNESCO list of culture and heritage. We took a city tour of Warsaw, went to the Uprising museum, and visited a bazaar. The bazaar was an adventure, finding our way to the parking lot and walking around the bazaar. I found a new spring jacket and shoes, my mom found some lace and my dad got a new tie. Basically everything a person could imagine was in the bazaar.

We then traveled to Berlin. Even though I have been to Germany a few times and even lived there I had not been to Berlin, except for the airport. We spent three days there and had an apartment. The apartment was huge; two bedrooms, a large living room, kitchen area (but nothing to cook with) and one and a half baths. It was a former communist apartment, we were in East Berlin, but it impressed my parents. Our hotel apartment was located one or two blocks from checkpoint Charlie, so we of course went there. We took a hop on hop off tour of the city and that was very helpful. We were able to see the main tourist sites and discovered we were within walking distance from the Brandenburg gate. It was chilly there and one day when we were at the Brandenburg gate stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts for some warm drinks to warm up and a donut. They tasted good and helped us warm up.

It is a long drive from Berlin to Mikulas, so we broke the trip up into two days. We spent an afternoon in Potsdam seeing the city and then went on to Dresden. When I was living in Germany one of the memories I have is listening to the radio and hearing the first church service in the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) after it being rebuilt. The church was not destroyed by bombing during WWII, but collapsed as a result. A fire started inside the church and was so hot that the cathedral collapsed in on itself. A story says that the ruins stayed where they were because it was turned into a memorial with flowers all around the cathedral until it could be rebuilt. The rebuilding process involved some very high tech processes, a computer program was used to figure out where the usable stones were and would be once again and new stones were used for the open spaces. It is amazing what was done with the church.

We ended up getting into Mikulas pretty late and spent the next two days looking around the area here. We saw an old Celtic settlement from a distance, went to a traditional village where people still live. It was interesting to see traditional houses with satellite dishes. We also went to a wooden church that is not far from here. During the counter-reformation Lutheran congregations could only build churches out of the cheapest building material, which was wood, Swedish ship builders even came to help. Even wooden pegs had to be used in place of nails. There are around six of these churches listed on a historical registry, but this church is not one of them. The church we went to was moved because of a dam being built. When the church was brought to the current location and was put back together people could not figure out how to put the church together without using nails. The last place we visited around here was the Cave of Liberty. I forgot to tell my parents we would have to walk part way up a large hill/small mountain to get to the cave, so they were surprised by the path. The cave was very nice. There were a lot of stairs, a little over 900. My dad even saw a bat in the cave, but my mom and I missed it because we were trying to figure out the number of stairs we had climbed.

After our tour around the Liptov region my parents and I headed to Bratislava. We were planning on being there just for the weekend. A nice, low key end to their two and a half weeks in Europe. Well, I ended up being in Bratislava for the weekend, but my parents stayed longer. They were supposed to fly out April 18 out of Vienna, but all the flights were canceled. They ended up staying in Bratislava for a week longer than planned. Thankfully the apartment we had used over the weekend was available for them to use during the week. They made their rescheduled flights and made it home safely and are currently working on figuring out what they missed, catching up on things and getting back on track with their everyday tasks and appointments.

Here is an album with a number of pictures from the trip. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=425137&id=682430592&l=36fb683414

End of winter adventure

2010-03-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

It is now truly spring, the snow has melted away; except on the mountains, and the temperature is above freezing. It is a nice time of year when we get to see everything coming back to life again. At the end of winter/beginning of spring I had a little adventure. As most of you know, this is my second year in Slovakia and I live in a town really close to the High and Low Tatras, they are part of the Carpathian mountain range. Anyways, skiing is very popular in Slovakia especially around here. Schools even take one or more classes of students for a ski week. My school actually has two ski weeks, one week is for the Second year and Sexta students (about 15-16 year olds) and the second week is for the Tercia students (around 11 years old).

The students and most of the gym teachers go and stay at one of the ski resorts from here and ski or snowboard all week. A week or so after both ski weeks (two weekends ago) one of the largest ski resorts had a special, 15 euros for 2 1/2 days of skiing. That is a really good deal since it usually costs around 20 euros for a day. I decided I would go skiing with the group going from school. I had my jacket, hat, gloves, layers, sun glasses and some borrowed snow pants. This was my first time skiing in March and my first time skiing on a mountain. I was excited, but nervous too.

The ski resort was really crowded and when I saw where we had to go just to get to the runs I knew I was in for something very different than I had ever done before. You see, there is a chair lift part way up the mountain to get to the first level of ski hills and then more ski lifts to get to other parts of the mountain. I had skied before, but it had been a while since the last time and so I was nervous. I ended up going with a group of friends who are also teachers and we were having a good time. However, my day of skiing came to an early end. During our second run of the day I was going faster than I wanted and when I tried to slow down I lost control and ended up crashing, but the ground broke my fall nicely. I got pretty banged up but was able to walk away from it, though no one would let me walk on my own. The ski rescue person who came after one of my friends called them was very nice. He didn't speak much English, but he was very helpful. My friends also took good care of me. After I was released from the ski rescue people we returned my skis, boots and poles and they took me for some lunch. Then we went to the hospital for an X-ray just to make sure I was really alright. My face stung a little and I had a slight head ache that would come and go and my left wrist hurt, but the rest of me felt fine.

The X-ray showed that my wrist was not broken so it was sprained. They wrapped me up and told my friend who told me what I should do for it. They took me home and I took it easy for the rest of the day. The next day I was pretty sore, but within two days I felt fine except for my wrist. It is still healing, but I have full motion and can use it some, it hurts from time to time so ice and Ibuprofen help with that. Hopefully whenever I end up skiing on a mountain again I will have get to really enjoy the day and not get injured.

Winter/spring activities

2010-03-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

My oh my, it is now March. When I woke up Monday morning it was hard to believe that it was the start of a new month. There have been some fun and interesting things happening here since the last time I wrote.

At the end of January and the beginning of February is ball season here in Slovakia. My school held a ball January 29 that I went to. It was fun to get dressed up and having fun. The school here had two different balls, one was the one I and many teachers and parents and a few students went to. The other ball was a ball for all the students of the various High Schools in Liptovsky Mikulas. That ball was the weekend after the ball I went to.

Around the time of groundhogs day in US there was a Slovak spring tradition happening. I went to run some errands and as I was getting closer to the town square I head a cow bell. I was wondering where the sound was coming from and then I found out. There was a small parade of people dressed in traditional clothes ringing cowbells and singing songs. I met a student on the street and asked her what was going on. The student explained to me that it was a tradition going back a number of years and would usually happen in villages. People would go from house to house asking for bread and sausage as they prepare for the Lenten fast and to celebrate the coming of spring. Unfortunately I did not have a camera with me so I could not take any pictures of this, but here is a site that has examples of traditional costumes from around Slovakia. http://library.thinkquest.org/22618/1e.html

Last week was Spring break for Central Slovakia. I know, it seems a little early but Eastern Slovakia had Spring Break the week before my school and Western Slovakia has Spring Break this week. I'm not sure if it is true, but I was told once that Slovakia divides itself into three weeks for break so the ski resorts are not overrun with people; I was also told this is why the breaks happen so early. The weeks rotate throughout the country each year so one area does not always have a really early break.

For my break I went to Konstanz, Germany to visit a friend. It was a great time in a beautiful area. Konstanz is located on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and on the Germany-Switzerland boarder. The week there with the natural beauty, my friend and the German language and food seemed to go too fast. It was very relaxing and enjoyable and should have helped to rejuvenate me for the remainder of the school year.

Here are some pictures from the ball and my spring break trip.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=378572&id=682430592&l=36110f15c1

A recap of the holidays, happy 2010!

2010-01-23T11:10:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone. Is it really mid January already?!? My how time can pass quickly. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year!

I enjoyed my Christmas and New Years a lot. I was fortunate enough to be in Denmark again this year. Christmas break started in Slovakia after school on December 22, so I got to Denmark on December 23; just in time for the festivities to begin. The family I was with was so friendly and wonderful again this year. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.

This year I was able to see some areas of Denmark I didn't see last year. I spent a day in Odensee and went to the Hans Christian Andersen museum. I learned somethings about H.C. Andersen I didn't know. Did you know that he also wrote novels and plays? I did not know that about him. I also got to see Copenhagen this year, last year all I saw was the train station and airport. It was nice to see the city, even if it was only for a few hours. I was able to meet up with a good friend of mine who is from Denmark, we met while I was in Germany in 2005-2006. It was nice to be able to visit with her some.

New Year's Eve this year was spent in Aarhus. The fireworks were not as scary this year as they were last year. It didn't seem like there were as many, which might have had something to do with that. Oh, there was snow this year too! I was told that this was the first time in about 10 years that there has been snow for Christmas.

School started again on January 11. It was a time for final projects and tests. The semester officially ends at the end of January and the next semester starts in February, but grades were due the 21st, at least at my school. Some classes might be taking it easy for a class or two while others just keep chugging along.

Oh, I have had the chance to try out the Slovak medical system this year. I had some problems with my right ear from the flight back from Denmark, it would not pop. After close to a week of no luck popping my ear I went to see a doctor and a fellow Slovak teacher came with to translate. The doctor popped my ear and we all thought that was the end of the problem. I was given a prescription for some drops and was told to come back if I still had problems after 4 days. I gave the doctor my insurance card and so all I had to pay was 17 cents for my drops. Well, my ear was still hurting, so I went back to the doctor and found out there was a small problem of inflammation. I was given three prescriptions this time and paid a little under 6 euros for the medicine. I have to say, it was nice not having to fill out any paperwork and only paying a small amount for medicine. Slovakia has a government run/supported system and I would say it worked well for me.

Here are some pictures from my year so far, various trips including Christmas and New Years.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=324612&id=682430592&l=eeef317ca6

Time flies

2009-12-05T09:19:00.001-08:00

It is hard to believe it is already December. I looked and my last post was all the way back in October. Sorry for letting it go so long in between posts. So, what has happened between the last posting and now?

Well, in the last post I told about the snow we had. That snow melted away a week or so after it stopped snowing and we haven't had any more snow since. The mountains do have snow on their peaks, but not enough for the ski season to start just yet. People are starting to think there will not be much snow this winter. I remember some people saying that last year too but we ended up with a pretty decent snowfall, so we will see what happens.

At the end of October every school in Slovakia has a long weekend for Fall Break. It happens to coincide with Halloween, which is kind of nice. Halloween is not celebrated in Slovakia, but they have a tradition for All Saint's Day where people place candles and other decorations on the graves of family members. The cemeteries around Slovakia look very pretty this time of year.

For Fall Break this year myself and four other lectures took a trip to Dublin, Ireland. That was a very nice trip. One thing that was kind of cool was getting to spend Halloween in the birthplace of Halloween. There are many activities for kids and then Halloween night in the Temple Bar area there is basically a huge block party for adults. It was neat to see and experience some of that, but the crowd can be an interesting one. There are people in all sorts of costumes there and street performers as well as kids trick-or-treating for money.

The five of us were all interested in seeing the city and some of the sights around Dublin. We walked a fair amount and took tours of the Guinness Brewery as well as the Jameson Distillery. We also took a bus tour along the Southern Coast which took us to an old mansion which is now full of boutiques. There is a huge garden in the back that we were able to walk through. Even though it was the end of October the grass was still very green and some flowers were still blooming.

Since the Dublin trip things have been pretty normal, but sometimes it seems the weeks go by very quickly. Last week the Primary school I teach at once a week had their English Olympics, it is a scholastic competition with various parts such as reading comprehension, listening, vocabulary, grammar, a role play and a picture story. As the native speaker I read the text aloud for the listening comprehension section and also took part in the role plays. In one scenario I was the parent of the child and they were to convince me they should have a room to themselves even though that wasn't really an option. In the other scenario I was also the parent, but this time the student was to convince me they should get to spend their summer holiday on their uncle's farm instead of on a family trip I found even though they were at their uncle's last summer. This week the High School has its English Olympics. I don't know the role plays yet, but I wonder if I will be a parent again. Maybe it will help prepare me for the future if I have kids.

We also have a kind of open house this week. It is a day for parents (parents of current students can come too) and prospective students to come to the school. I found out on Friday that myself and the other two lecturers here will be interviewed during a session that day. I was given some possible questions, so now just need to figure out what I will say.

This weekend Liptovsky Mikulas had a Christmas market and festival. There were many artisans out selling their work, rides, food, drink and concerts. Since the town is named after St. Nick they have the festival the weekend of St. Nick's Day, December 6. One tradition they have with St. Nick that I was not aware of before is that he goes around with a little devil. The good kids get a present from St. Nick and I think the bad kids are taken away or something like that.

With the start of this week it will be two and a half weeks till Christmas break. Our break start December 23 and classes start again January 11. I think the time leading up to break will go quickly. I am currently thinking of Christmas oriented plans to do with some of my classes. I am looking forward to the Christmas season and break. I will not be traveling home for Christmas, but will be with a very nice family. Last year I was able to spend Christmas in Denmark and will be doing that again. I am looking forward to learning more about the Danish traditions and the new experiences that will come with the trip.

Here are some pictures from my adventures so far this year.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=324612&id=682430592&l=eeef317ca6

The First Snow

2009-10-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

It is October, right? So what is all this white stuff on the ground and falling from the sky?!? Why is the high for the day 2 C? We had what in Slovakia is called an Indian summer, warm summer like temperatures in the fall, for about a week and then the weather changed. For close to a week, maybe a little longer, it has been cloudy and rainy here in Mikulas. Then the temperature dropped and the rain changed to snow right before my eyes. The snow started on Monday and it is still snowing.

Most of the time it is flurries, but there are times when the wind starts blowing and the snow gets really heavy. I can't remember how many people told me today that this has never happened before, snow in early/mid October. The grass is not completely covered yet, but you can definitely see the snow. At some point I want to play Baseball with my first years as a part of our conversation class, but that will have to wait until it is warmer outside. Can you believe I get to teach how to play baseball and American football as part of conversation class? It fits in with US Realia, which is basically a unit to talk about the US and what life is like there. Since sports are presented as a major part of life and society in the US my students get to learn about two of the most popular sports. One student asked me which was more popular, football or baseball. I told the student it would probably depend on who they talk to and where they are in the country. Any other answers I can tell my student?

At the end of the month comes Halloween, as I am sure students in the US are well aware of. I plan on having a Halloween party with both of my first year groups. I think it will be fun to plan. It was a lot of fun last year. I was able to purchase a printer this year with the assistance of my church back home, Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, maybe I can put it to use for the parties for games and the like.

A snowwoman in the field near my school.

One of the damaged trees on the walk to school.

Some of the students are a little shy to speak in class still, but I hope activities like these help make them feel a little more comfortable with their English. I know some of the students are worried about making mistakes, but I told them it is a part of learning. They all have a lot of potential, they just need to use what they have.

My other classes are going well. I taught all my other students last year. It is nice to be with them again. It will be interesting to see changes from what they were like last year and what they will be like this year.

One goal of mine this summer was to learn how to look older than my students. I thought I was doing a decent job so far, until one of the football days. My students kept yelling back and forth in Slovak even though they should have been speaking in English. A student informed me they couldn't tell who was their teacher and who was their classmate because I look so young. She is 16 and her classmates are 14 or 15. I guess there are worse things then looking 10-12 years younger to some people. I got a good laugh out of it anyways.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. If anyone has Halloween party ideas please let me know.

A month in

2009-10-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

A little over a month of school has gone by. How does time go so fast? I guess that must mean that things are going pretty well. I am enjoying things this year so far. I have some great classes. We are having a good time so far. Students can be very entertaining.

I have also been able to do some traveling already too. I have gone on two hikes since returning to Slovakia, visited another town (Basnka Stiavnica) and gone to Germany for Oktoberfest. The hikes were fun and a good workout. Banska Stiavnica is a town about two hours away. It is an old mining town and very hilly. The group I was with had a great time. We took a tour of an old castle, toured a mine and had fun visiting around lunch too. We left Mikulas about 8:30am and got back to Mikulas about 9pm or a little latter.

The Oktoberfest trip was a lot of fun. I also got to visit Nuremberg that trip and just look around the city some. When my group arrived at the beer tent around 10:30 there were already plenty of people there and enjoying beer. I had a liter beer and half a chicken. Then that evening it was time to head back to Slovakia and get ready to teach again.

The next big things happening this month are planning Halloween parties for a couple classes as part of US Realia and a trip to Dublin, Ireland with some fellow Americans over our Fall Break. I look forward to fun times and great memories with both of those.

The summer is over?!?

2009-08-26T02:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! How time flies. The summer has come and gone. I left for home on July 2 and arrived back in Slovakia August 19. As is the same with many people I had a full summer. I was happy to see a number of relatives and friends while I was home.

I have arrived back in Slovakia and have been at school for planning the next school year for two days. The class schedules are still being figured out, so I have been creative figuring out what and how to plan. It has been nice getting to see my colleagues though and catch up a little. All of the teachers here have extended a very warm welcome back.

School starts on September 2 in Slovakia, for religious schools as well as state schools across the country. Classes do not actually meet on the 2nd though. My school will have a church service that day to open the school year. We also have a “new” building; the interior was being renovated over the summer. One floor of the building is ready for use, so the General Bishop of Slovakia and the Eastern Bishop of Slovakia are coming to officially open that building for the school year. There will be some classes using that building and the rest of it will be worked on gradually so the school can use all of it at some point. I am looking forward to what happens this year.

Time to travel

2009-06-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that a year has almost gone by. I should have no problem believing this since classes are finished and school is almost done, but it is seems like it is not the end of June. Maybe all the rain and 18-23 degree weather has added to it not feeling like June. With the end of the year has come some opportunities for travel.

A friend from back home had a work related event in Hungary and Romania and was able to come a little early so we could visit. I took a train to Budapest and met up with my friend for the weekend. It was nice to be back in Budapest and be able to see some familiar sites, but also some that I had not seen before.

The weekend after I found myself in Bratislava to help say good-bye to the couple that has been the in country directors for teachers in Slovakia for the past five years. It was nice to see the Schicks and fellow lecturers, but it was also sad. Having to say good-bye to people is always difficult. I hope that our paths will cross again sometime in the future.

The last full week of school was this past week. Monday and Tuesday were the last days of actual classes. The rest of the week was made up of classes taking their class trips and teachers doing work to finish up the year. Since there were no classes to teach two teachers decided to take me and the other two lecturers sight-seeing on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday we went to Kezmerok, the hometown of one of the teachers. We saw a wooden church, Lutherans were only allowed to build churches out of wood for a certain period in Slovakia and Swedish ship builders came and helped them; a Lutheran church not made out of wood and of course the town. Kezmerok is surrounded by the High Tatras, so if anyone likes views of mountains you would really like this town. On Thursday we went to Oravsky Hrad which is a castle. This is located in far northern Slovakia, about 40 minutes from the Polish boarder. The castle was pretty, it is still in very good condition. The area is very pretty too.

This weekend my big task is to work on packing things since I fly out July 2. Some of you may know, and some may not know, that I have decided to return for a second year. I am lucky that I will get to have the same apartment, so I can leave most of my things here for the summer. While at home I am looking forward to visiting family and friends. I will also be trying to raise some money to help with the cost of my plane ticket and possible supplies for the school year. If anyone is interested in helping please let me know. I would also be more than happy to visit congregations or groups that would like to hear about what Slovakia is like or what teaching in Slovakia is like. For most of my time in the US I will be in the Chicago area with a little time in the Twin Cities area before I fly back to Slovakia.

For pictures from Budapest with my friend check out the following link.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=270373&id=682430592&l=b10cbe352f

What to do in a weekend?

2009-05-31T01:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went on a hike with a small group to Žiarska Dolina (Žiarska valley). There had been an avalanche there this winter, it is called the 100 year avalanche. It was so large that there is still snow left from the avalanche. The damage that can be done by mother nature is amazing. I was told an area we walked through was full of trees before the avalanche, now the trees are knocked over. We got to walk on part of the avalanche, that was pretty cool. I have walked on a glacier before, but I do not think I have ever seen an avalanche before, so have obviously never walked on one.

This week was an important week for the students who were in their last year of study at my school. They had their maturita (school leaving exam) this week. The exams took place over four days, Monday through Thursday. Each student had three exams to take, they could choose two of the subjects. Since EGJT is a bilingual school they all had to take an exam in English. As a part of their last year each class makes a collage of their pictures and displays it in a store window in town. This is one from one of the graduating classes from my school.

I helped with this section of the exam by doing role plays with the students. We were given a scenario and had to act out the scenario. The English exams took place Monday through Wednesday. Each day there were 19 students, so 57 students all together graduated this year. The class did very well, 222 tests were given and the average for all the tests was 1.6, a 1 is the highest a person can get.

Graduation was held on Friday at the Lutheran church in town. I was excited to see what a Slovak graduation would be like. Since the service was held in a church it is probably a little different from other graduations in Slovakia. There was a church service as part of the ceremony. At the end of the service the two classes, 5A and 5B were each called to the front of the church and the names were called one by one to be presented their diploma, a gift, and a record of all the classes they had taken.

The 5A class waiting to receive their diplomas.

Here is a link to the pictures of graduation from my school's website.

http://esslm.sk/photo/?level=album&id=64

This weekend there was also something happening in town with old cars. I am not sure what was going on, I found the event while walking around town. Here are some video clips of the event and a couple pictures too.

Guláš

2009-05-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had a three day weekend. This is because Friday was deň vit'azstva nad fašizmom, which means the victory over Fascism day. It celebrates the day fighting ended in Slovakia for WWII. May 8 is a National Holiday, which means schools and businesses are closed. However, there is no public celebration that I know about. I asked some Slovak friends and colleagues and none of them knew of celebrations. So people make their own celebrations.

The Vice Principal for the English department had a family gathering and invited myself and the other two lecturers to come for a guláš party. Her husband and friends were the chefs for the day, grilling meat and cooking the guláš in a pot over a fire.

The family started cooking in the morning and we started eating around 2pm. When the guláš is ready it is taken off the fire and set on the ground for serving. Some friends of the family came after we had finished eating and had even gone on a walk, but they were offered some guláš too. Even though it had been a few hours the pot and guláš were still nice and hot. The food was delicious and and the company was great. It was a great opportunity to learn about why today is a holiday and to have some authentic Slovak guláš.

Some pictures from the party and adventures around Slovakia can be seen here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=249104&id=682430592&l=d7e758ddc8

Easter Adventure

2009-04-27T13:17:00.001-07:00

It has been a really long time since I wrote anything. Sorry about that. There have been a few activities happening here in the time between my posts. First of all, we had April Fools Day, which was crazy day at school. That meant that people dressed up from various decades (50s, 60s, 70s and 80s). I went through the clothes I have here and found something that worked. It was a lot of fun. A few teachers dressed up and a number of students.

I also had my birthday, I am now the ripe old age of 26. I know it is really not that old, however, I no longer qualify for many youth discounts. For instance, multi-country train passes have one price for under 26 and another price for 26 and older. That was a nice discount to have. Oh well, I guess it is a part of growing up. April was a busy month of birthdays here in Mikulas. Two Slovak teachers had birthdays this month as well as the other two lecturers here. One of the lecturers, Carol, had her birthday the same weekend as mine. We ended up having a combined birthday dinner to celebrate. We invited some friends over to my apartment for a Mexican dinner. I made tacos and Carol made fajitas. It was a fun time had by all.

Easter also fell in this month. My parents decided to come and visit over Easter. They arrived the Tuesday before Easter. They had a little tour of the town that night and came to school with me the next. We had a church service for school so my parents were able to experience what church is like in Slovakia. There were two styles they experienced; the student service and Holy Communion after the service. In Slovakia Holy Communion typically has a separate mini service after the regular church service. This happens once a month, in Mikulas it falls on the first Sunday of the month. Easter break for schools in Slovakia was Thursday-Sunday, the 9th-14th.
Thursday morning my parents and I woke up bright and early to catch a train to Praha (Prague). There was a group of lecturers going there for Easter as well and we were able to meet up with them. Thursday evening we walked around the city some and had dinner together, a nice evening to get settled into the city for a few days. On Friday we went to the town Plzen which is home to Pilsner beer. The seven of us took a tour of the brewery which was interesting. At the end of the tour they gave us a sample of their beer, unfiltered. I was not a huge fan of the unfiltered beer, but the rest seemed to enjoy it. After the tour we checked out the gift shop and enjoyed some food and beer at the restaurant on site.

Saturday was a tour day for my parents and myself. We decided to do a walking tour of the city. It was supposed to be a six hour tour, but ended up being a seven hour tour. We had to wait for a boat and that set us behind. The group was fun and friendly, the tour guide was nice and knowledgeable and so it ended up being a great time. After the tour my parents and I decided to go to the Communist museum. The four other lecturers ended up coming to the museum 10 minutes or so after we got there. It was a nice surprise that we were able to see each other again and wish each other a Happy Easter before my parents and I left for our next destination....Budapest.

For those who do not know, Budapest is made up of two cities- Buda and pest. I really enjoyed my time in Budapest. My parents and my hotel was in an area called Hero's square. There are a number of museums there, and as we found out a few embassies as well. Walking around the city was really nice. We took a hop-on hop-off bus tour around the city. For anyone who is not familiar with what this is, I will explain. You buy a ticket that is good for 24 hours and you can hop-on and hop-off any of the tour buses as many times as you would like within the 24 hour period, when the buses are running of course. The tour guide is automated so there are a variety of languages to choose from. My parents and I all agreed this was a great way t have a tour of the city, the only draw back was not being able to ask the guide questions. Well, I guess we could have asked questions, but then we would be talking to a box. I will get to go back to Budapest in June with a friend who has a work project there. I am really looking forward to that.

After a quick stop back in Mikulas my parents and I headed West. We stayed in Bratislava but had a day in Vienna and took an overnight trip to Salzburg. In Vienna we took a tour that went to the Schonbrun palace. The last royal family member to use this as a summer palace was Maria Theresa. She was also the longest ruler of her family, 40 years. The palace was neat and we were able to look around the garden a little too. We also spent some time looking around the city of Vienna. We discovered that a race for the cure, Breast cancer, was happening the day we were there. We found this out when we walked by one of the water tables. There was a huge ribbon balloon outside of the Hapsburg palace and even some of the S-bahns were supporting the cause. There was a little festival happening outside the city hall that we checked out. There were a number of booths set up and everything from two men building a mini cabin to log tug-o-war with axes.

After arriving in Salzburg and finding our way to the hotel we decided to see what tours were available. We decided to take the Sound of Music tour. This took us around the city some, but also outside of Salzburg. On the tour you hear some of the behind the scenes stories as well as some of the major sites of the movie. We were able to see the gazebo from the movie, but could not go inside. A couple years ago an older lady decided to reenact the 16 going on 17 dance number. When she leaped from the bench at the entrance to the other bench she missed and fell breaking her hip. Now the gazebo is locked so no more leaping and singing. Even though we had a short time in Salzburg we were able to see parts of the city. We went to the museum at the birth house of Mozart. It was very interesting, there is a museum in a house he lived in as an adult across the river too. Salzburg is a city that I would really recommend. I wish we had had more than 24 hours there. Hopefully I can go back sometime in the future.

The last city we toured around was Bratislava. I know the city a little, but not super well. We were able to find where we wanted to go without any major problems though. We took a little car tour around the city the first afternoon there. That turned out to be a good idea because it started raining during the tour, so we were nice and dry in the car while learning about the city. My parents were amazed at the varying degrees of security at embassies depending on the country. Some have no visible security outside while one or two have visible security. The various between the two is surprising.
After two weeks visiting me my parents had to leave to get back to the US. It was nice to have them visit and to be able to see some great places. I hope you enjoyed reading about them and enjoy some of the pictures too.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6697123&l=53a5d30de6&id=682430592
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=247823&id=682430592&l=5083c79016

The house builders.

Some ladies showing their skills.

Possibly the largest glass of Coca-Cola in Austria.

Benelux

2009-03-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, sorry that it has been a while since I have written. Things in Slovakia are going well. The past week or so I have learned that Slovakia has strange weather during the change from winter to spring just as the US. We had a number of days that started clear with a gray sky, then there would be a light snow that turned into a heavy snow that a person could hardly see through, and then it would stop. This cycle happened a few times a day, but the snow has now disappeared again. We will see what comes with spring now that it is officially here.

Some of you may be wondering what the title of this entry means. Benelux = Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. These were the destinations of the spring break trip I took with two other lecturers. Each of these countries was a new country for the other two lecturers, Luxembourg was a new country for me. In Slovakia when a school has spring break depends on where the school is in Slovakia. Western Slovakia had spring break first, the second to last week in February; Eastern Slovakia had spring break the next week and Central Slovakia (where I am) had spring break the following week, March 2-6. The other two lecturers, Becky and Carsten, also teach in central Slovakia, so we decided to travel together.

We met in Bratislava and flew out from Vienna, Austria on Monday, March 2. We flew to Amsterdam and stayed there for two nights. I had been to Amsterdam before a couple of years ago, so I knew the city a little. It was neat to walk around and see something and be able to say, "I know this!" Seeing Amsterdam in the off season was also nice. We all had a great time there, there is a lot to see and do. We took part of a city walking tour, we did not realize at first that it would be a three hour tour. After an hour and a half we decided to break off from the tour so we could find something to eat and rest a little, we had to wake up at 3:30am for our flight. We also went to the Van Gogh museum, the Heineken brewery and other sites of the city.

We took a train to Brussels, Belgium which was a new city for me. We stayed in Brussels but took two day trips from there. We went to Bruges and Luxembourg. Bruges is a city on the northern coast of Belgium. We spent the day walking around the city and saw a Salvador Dali exhibit. I would like to go back to Bruges someday to see the town again and maybe experience it without as much construction. Even with the construction there is a lot to see.

Luxembourg was also a new city and country. We took a train there, I think it was a three hour ride one way. Unfortunately it rained almost the whole day we were there, so we did not do a lot outside. We did find some interesting museums. One was a national history of art museum. There were exhibits from the stone age to modern day. We also found the city museum which had a special exhibit on religion. There were video and audio clips of a few different people talking about what religion is to them and if it is important for them or not. There were also different exercises for visitors to do and at the end would find out what type of religious view they hold. After the museums the rain had stopped so we walked around the city some. From what I saw I enjoyed the city, and country; hopefully I can return sometime and be able to see more of the city and possibly the country.

The next big event here that I know of is Easter. I will have some visitors, my parents. Hopefully our time together goes well and travels go well. April will also be an interesting month because many teachers at my school, at least four, have their birthdays that month. I actually get to start the celebrations with my birthday at the beginning of the month. Now to figure out how to celebrate and what snacks to bring to school. Any suggestions are of course welcomed.

Some pictures from my Benelux tour. Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=227616&id=682430592&l=1c31ba4c7c

In with the new...

2009-02-04T11:50:00.001-08:00

It has been a little while since I wrote anything here, sorry about that. Well, as you can see by the title of this entry there are changes happening around Slovakia. Probably the biggest permanent change was the change in currency that happened at the beginning of January. Slovakia is now one of about thirty countries that uses the Euro. I do not know when the change was voted on, but there has been work happening for this change since I arrived in Slovakia. Some of the preparations became more apparent when it was closer to the new year. A set conversion rate between the Slovak Crown and the Euro was in place when I arrived. Starting in December every place that sells goods had to have prices displayed in both Crowns and Euros. The prices are still displayed in both currencies. I learned from one of my student's speeches that both currency prices being displayed will last until December, 2009. The last day Slovak Crowns were accepted as payment was January 17, 2009. Banks will continue to accept Crowns for deposit for a few months though, June or July I believe.

Another change that happened is hopefully not a permanent change. This has to do with Slovakia's gas supply. Some of you may have heard mention of this in the news. If not, I will briefly fill you in on what has happened there. Slovakia receives most of it's gas supply, for heating and such, from Russia. The gas is sent through a pipeline system that runs through the Ukraine. There was/has been a dispute between Russia and the Ukraine. Russia had been allowing the Ukraine to receive it's gas for a price lower than the rest of Europe and wanted to start charging the Ukraine the same as the rest of Europe. The Ukraine did not want to agree to the change in price. Russia then accused the Ukraine of stealing gas. Supplies were limited, but then were completely cut off starting January 7. This cut-off affected the Ukraine as well as a large section of Europe. Many countries were without any heat or had to minimize consumption. This happened when temperatures were below freezing, a few days it was as cold as -18C at night or a little colder. Slovakia was not impacted as much as some countries, but some people did lose their jobs because of factories not being able to have all their shifts. There had been an agreement for Slovakia to receive gas through pipelines that run through Poland and the Czech Republic. I am not sure if there has been any form of agreement reached between Russia and the Ukraine up to this point.

Another change that has happened did not affect the whole country or other parts of Europe. This change did affect the school I work at though. We started a new semester and with that came a new schedule. I still teach the same students, but the days and times I meet them, as well as the rooms we meet in, have changed. I am almost through my first week with the new schedule. So far it is going well, it may take a little time to get used to.

Between the end of the previous semester and the start of this semester we had a half year break. Last Thursday my school had a church service at 8am and then that was it for school until Monday. Since I had a long weekend it seemed a good time to do something. Jenny, my flatmate, had a friend that was visiting for two weeks and was going to be flying out of Krakow Saturday. They asked if I wanted to go with to Krakow, and I said yes. The three of us left Thursday afternoon for Krakow and arrived there that evening. Jenny and I headed back to our apartment Saturday and spent the day traveling and resting. A seven hour train ride and getting up at 3am to go to the airport can take a lot out of a person.

I am looking forward to what this semester brings for myself and my students. At the end of the semester I asked for feedback from my students and was very surprised and happy with some of their responses. Many students said how my class was their favorite, they like the relationship I have between myself and the students in that I actually listen to and ask for their opinions, one said the thing they did not like from the semester was when our conversation classes were cancelled and another said they thought our conversation classes were not long enough. Can you imagine, a student wanting to be in class longer, I guess I must be doing something right. I hope I can continue what I am doing and that my students continue to give their thoughts and opinions in class.

Christmas break adventures

2009-01-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

A late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all had a great time over the holidays and were able to enjoy celebrations with friends and family. From what I read on the internet, and heard from some people, it was very cold in parts of the U.S. It has gotten colder here in Slovakia. The high the past few days has been around -4C (~24F). As I said in my last blog entry, I had plans to travel to Denmark over my break. I traveled to Bratislava in the morning of December 20th. I was met at the train station by two fellow lecturers and we went to where I would be staying overnight to drop off my bags before traveling to Vienna for the day to visit the Weihnachtsmarkts there, Christmas markets.

The next day was Sunday so those of us in Bratislava went to church and I made a brief stop at the coffee hour afterwards. But then Carsten and I had to get ready to leave for the airport. Our flight was at 3, so we wanted to be at the airport around 1 to make sure we had enough time for check in and such. We had to wait for a little while but it gave us time to arrange things in our bags so we could store our coats in our backpacks for the flights and grab a little something to eat.

We had two flights to get to Denmark. We flew from Bratislava to Prague to Copenhagen. When we got into Copenhagen we bought train tickets to Middelfart where Carsten’s aunt and uncle met us and they took us back to their house in Strib. We stayed there most of the time we were in Denmark. Carsten’s family is very nice, friendly and a lot of fun. I really enjoyed my time there learning about Denmark, meeting Carsten’s family and getting to know Carsten better.

I was able to see many sites around Denmark. We were on Fyn which is the island just east of the Jutland Peninsula. We visited Ribe, Middelfart, Koldinghus, the West Coast of Denmark, Vejle, Legoland and a few other places. I was able to experience Danish traditions for Christmas like holding hands and walking around the Christmas tree while singing. I also helped with some of the food preparations and so learned how to do things I had never done before like peeling boiled potatoes, making a carrot-cabbage-orange-raisin salad and making marzipan candies. There were others too, but those a just a few examples. I was informed by various members of Carsten’s family that I was now a part of their family too, which was very nice to hear. I also received some very nice Christmas presents that were unexpected. I have many pictures from my time in Denmark and I will post links at the end for many of them.

At the end of the time in Denmark Carsten and I traveled back to Copenhagen to see my friend Ditte. Ditte and I met and became good friends while I was living in Germany. We were in the same seminar group and worked/volunteered at the same place in Germany. Ditte was the only person in our group from Denmark and I was the only person from the U.S. in our group. Carsten and I spent the night at her apartment and she and her boyfriend took us to the airport the next day. Our flight was at 9:30am and we were told the Copenhagen airport can be busy so we aimed to get to the airport by 7:30am. Ditte and Uffe were not sure what rush hour would be like so we left at about 6:50am and ended up making it to the airport around 7:20. It was a good thing we got to the airport with a little extra time because of what happened at check-in. When we went to check our bags and get our boarding passes the clerk told us we needed to go and pay for our bags. We were both surprised and perplexed by this. When we flew out no one said anything about needing to pay. We each had one bag each and had a limit of 20 kilos (44lbs.), Carsten had 16 kilos (35lbs.)and I had 15 kilos (33lbs.). The man that was assisting us at the window we were sent to was very confused by this situation as well. He told us we did not need to pay and stamped and signed where he needed to so we would be sure to have our bags on the plane with no problem. We were both relieved by this and thanked the man for his assistance.

We arrived in Slovakia with no problem, as did our bags. We went to the bus stop and were glad we had some Euros on us. On January 1, 2009, the Euro became the currency of Slovakia and the ticket machine no longer took Slovak crowns. However, at stores people are able to pay with crowns until January 16. Once we got to the train station we said our good-byes and I headed for my train while Carsten went to see some fellow lecturers until it was time for him to catch his bus. I ended up making it back to Liptovský Mikuláš with no problem on a very warm train. Carsten did not have as much luck. None of the lecturers ended up being home but he caught an earlier bus only to end up waiting in 5F (-15C) weather for 105 minutes or so. He was very cold when he got home and could not warm up until the next day.

I had a wonderful time in Denmark. I had a lot of fun, learned a lot about Denmark and was able to experience some new traditions. I was also able to talk to some family members during the time too when they were at family Christmases. That was very nice. Once again I hope that you all had a wonderful time over the holidays and that 2009 is a wonderful year. I look forward to finding out what will happen this year and adding more stories to my blog.

Sites in Denmark-http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200654&l=580e6&id=682430592
Christmas-http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200585&l=5279e&id=682430592
Sites in Denmark-http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200691&l=611cf&id=682430592
New Year's Eve-http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200714&l=4b6d3&id=682430592

Cabbage soup party

2008-12-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-07T07:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-23T03:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

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.

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Voting, elections and Halloween

2008-10-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-24T11:13:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-09-17T11:53:00.001-07:00

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
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The first week

2008-09-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

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.