Bogged Down in Bureaucracy

Bottom line for today is ----- we were not allowed to even apply for a work visa again today.  :-(    Like last week, we traveled to Zilina, this time by car, and due to one small detail, everything was not in order, so we were sent away empty handed again.  This time the document concerning our housing was not sufficient.  The school arranged the flat and is paying the rent (and has been doing so for quite a few years for the American teachers in this same flat), but the signature of our landlady, Luba, now needs to be notarized.  SIGH!!!  So we will go back again on Friday and hope that the third time is a charm.  

That being said, we once again enjoyed our day, and the drive through the mountains along the Vah River was truly beautiful!!  Our companion, driver, and translator this trip was Miro (Miroslav), a bilingual teaching colleague at school.  We got to know him better, and since he teaches history, we learned much about Slovakia as we drove.  Miro was a great tour guide!  We also stopped by the railway station area after our disappointing time at the immigration office, the guys parked, and I ran over to the little kiosk selling pirosžky's and bought a bag of them for us to eat in the car, and enough to take back to school and share with others there!  :-)  YUM!!  (They are the donut-type rolls filled with poppy-seed jam.)  

A castle sighting across the river

Such a beautiful setting on that rocky hill

We drove closer and closer, and eventually almost underneath the castle! 

The camera was in my backpack earlier on the drive, and I couldn't get it out in time for one of the most amazing sights we've seen here.  There on the river was a flock of huge, beautiful, white swans - about 25-30 of them all swimming together in a group facing the same direction.  We've never seen more than 2 swans together in one place in Iowa - (I seem to remember hearing that trumpeters may be territorial when they are nesting??) - but these were so graceful and lovely it took my breath away to see them all!  Pat'ka says they migrate here from Scandinavia for the winter, so we should see more sometime.  Maybe I'll get a picture of them yet!!  

Yesterday was a good teaching day - love that whole concept of actually being with our students - LOL!!  And this afternoon after we got back, we did some more work with Carol in planning.  We also learned more specifics about the formal "Class Books" that teachers have a responsibility to fill out.  You American teachers take note.... EVERY teacher has to write in the class book (in blue ink) EVERY day in TWO different places.  1.)  any absent students for your class need to be marked in the attendance area, and  2.)  a one-line summary of EVERY class lesson must be entered every day.  These books are subject to examination by the state education officials so must be kept up to date continuously.  Now, the only the way this system works is that the actual class group of students stays together for all their subjects.  It's the teachers who move from classroom to classroom for the most part, except for things like science labs and computer classrooms, etc.  Interesting stuff!!  

The American lectors at work in teacher room.

With our colleagues Zuzka and Katarina.  

Carol busy working on supplemental materials for our curriculum!