Invitation to the Ball!

This is Radka, my Basic School colleague who led our school's group at the English Olympics last week.  After church Sunday, I had Tim get a picture, since I didn't get one of her on the day of the event.    :-)   She's a sweetheart!!  

I baked four batches of goodies Sunday afternoon and evening - spritz, fudge, scotcheroos, and chocolate chip cookies - and packed lovely boxes heaped with American treats to take to our IV.AP and V.AP classes on Monday.  Alas, I forgot to get a photo, but they looked so pretty, with the cookies all lined up in a typically "OCD" fashion - LOL!!  Our students were delighted by the surprise.  The cookie boxes were both "thank-you's" - to the IV's for the huge box of their mothers' and grandmothers' Slovak Christmas treats they gave us for when the kids were here - and to the V's for treating us royally at their stuškova.  

Last Friday, we were called up to the Headmistress' office for a special presentation of our tickets to the school ball which will be held in February.  Evidently it's quite the gala event of the year, with students, teachers, administrators, and others there.  It will be at the House of Culture, where the school anniversary celebration was held in the fall.  
We are really looking forward to it!!  

Tuesday morning before school, Tim played a short basketball game on a school teacher team, against the best school student team.  The teachers had only four players, but they still won the game.  I guess experience goes a long way on the basketball court!   :-)   

Monday night - school/church volleyball, Tuesday afternoon - Slovak lesson, Tuesday evening - English tutoring, so it has been a normal week for us.  Today there was a school Bible study which was changed to a time when I could attend for the first time, so Peter (the drummer who was at our party and who we saw in the concert on the square) translated for me - it was interesting and cool to study and share with colleagues!  

These are a few of my I.A4 kids (first-year students in the new 4-year program), after school in their changing room.  Each class is assigned a "cloak-room" for their coats, shoes and boots during the day, instead of lockers.
Anna, Vera, Zuzka, Michal, Philip, Jan, and Nastasia!  

More of the empty cloak-rooms.  All of the students are required to go immediately to this area and change out of their "outdoor" footwear, and put on shoes/slippers/Crocs/sandals that stay inside the school.  Sometimes it's interesting seeing the fun fashion choices on their feet!

Teachers also change into shoes at school.  It definitely keeps the classrooms and hallways cleaner at school, when people aren't tramping all over with mud or snow on their shoes!  I just leave one pair of shoes on the rack in the teacher cloak-room, in case I forget to bring shoes to match my outfit!  We definitely need to wear boots when we walk to school through the puddles and slush, and now through the snow again.  We got about 4" last night, so it's much better walking now.