Bike Ride

Monday was chilly, and there was snow up on the mountaintops again.  (The previous snow had melted soon after it appeared.)  We enjoyed our Monday Slovak lessons and are appreciating the patience of our teachers.  :-)  Tonight I gave an English lesson, so we are seeing both ends of the teacher-student relationship with adult second-language learners.  

Tuesday mornings we have chapel for the staff, and it's good to share that fellowship time with our colleagues.  Tim and I both ended up having some extra prep time today at school because of some special session for a couple of our classes.  Of course I didn't know anything about it until I showed up ready to teach and walked into the room with the other activity going on.  Ooops!!  And poor Tim was in an empty room with no students coming to class - HAHA!  That's O.K., because we both had a lot of papers to grade, so we got caught up.  Then Tim found out about an hour before basketball practice that it was cancelled because new windows are being installed in the gym today.  So then we we were both free for the staff Bible study this afternoon.  The pastor had provided his notes to a couple of our colleagues who translated for us during the message.  It was really nice to actually understand along with everyone else for once!  Our colleagues are so great!!  After the Bible study, Zuzka (English teacher), gave us a huge crate of apples from her parents' garden.  We told her we couldn't possibly eat them all, but she said they'll keep for a long time since they are fall apples, so we can certainly eat them all!  They don't use any chemicals in their garden, so the apples are organic, and they are huge, shiny red ones too - very delicious!!  

After school today, we decided to go on our first bike ride together, even though it was a little cold.  We bundled up and were just fine!  First we went to the bike repair shop again to get my tires pumped up and to buy Tim a helmet.  There was already one helmet left here with the women's bike for me, but Beth convinced us that we both HAVE to wear helmets after she assisted with a surgery for a bike accident victim, during her current P.A. rotation with a surgeon!!  It was really fun to cover ground faster than at a walking pace, so we rode out to Tesco (like WalMart or Target) to pick up a few groceries.  Tesco is across the Vah River, and the view back across the town to the mountains is really beautiful from there, especially in the afternoon light.  We are hoping the weather cooperates so we can still get in a lot of bike rides before the snow flies down here in the valley!!