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.
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 t
he weekend brings!
he weekend brings!
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