Vino Festival

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



The girls (Lto R) Becky, Maika and Rachel




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

Two long weekends in three weeks...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The start of school, a physical and preparring for classes

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

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

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

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

Pictures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arrival in Liptovsky Mikulas

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arrival in Slovakia

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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