Names Day and Skiing

Thursday was the day all grades for the semester were due to be recorded in the electronic grade book, so I spent a lot of time on the computer screen when I wasn't teaching or subbing.  Tim and I had recently discussed another major difference in teaching here in Slovakia - no parent/teacher conference marathon nights at school!  Well, Thursday I also had one impromptu conference with a parent.  Let's just say that some Slovak parents are just as interested in their child's grades as some American parents are.  'Nuff said.  Since Thursday was also Tim's "Names Day" on the official Slovak birthday calendar, we brought a couple of containers of homemade fudge to share with the teachers.  The fudge was a big hit!  :-)  

Friday was definitely a TGIF kind of day after the long week, and we had a really fun time at volleyball.  We don't always have enough for two full teams, but this week there were 6 guys and 6 gals, so it was very even gender and ability distribution, and everybody played 'team' volleyball particularly well.  Fun!  

Slavka, our colleague who helped arrange our ski equipment rental when the kids were here, told us Friday at school that all the snow we've gotten this week has created the perfect conditions for cross-country skiing, so she suggested that we should go this weekend.  We took her advice, looked up bus schedules, and went to Zavažna Poruba for the morning.    :-)

On the walk up the hill from the bus stop (at the end of the line at the far end of the village), I asked another young man who had gotten off the bus with us to take a picture of the two of us together before our morning of skiing!  :-)

This same young man turned out to be working at the ski rental place, so he helped us get outfitted with our skis, boots, and poles.  And his English was super too!!  :-)  

Ready to get the skis on and hit the trail!  The day was forecast to be sunny, but it was still pretty cloudy in the morning.  Eventually we did get some sunshine later in the morning, but we never did have clear views of the High Tatras.    :-(

This one is for Steve Doeden, our cross-country-ski-racing friend!!  Tim is ready to roll, since we have so much beautiful new snow now.  Hopefully Iowa and Minnesota will get some snow soon too!!  :-)  

Since we were out for 3 hours this time, instead of only an hour with the kids, we went much farther on the trails.  They were all groomed trails in great shape.  This trail goes around the mountain to Ilanovo, so it was a bit more hilly than we expected.  Some skiers were really flying down some of these slopes --- we had to walk down some of the steeper hills (skis perpendicular to the slope) in order to avoid excessive uncontrolled speed and potential crashes!!   LOL!!  

The trails through the woods were really beautiful, and once we got up on this ridge, it was a bit flatter terrain.  It was really fun seeing another part of Poludnica.  (The mountain we climbed last fall with Katie --- we actually started in Zavažna Poruba that day and finished in Ilanovo, so we've been up & down, and now around the side of the mountain!!)  

These bright red rose hips were a pretty contrast to the snow along the trail.  

After skiing from about 9:00 a.m. until noon, we went up to the restaurant (chata) above the ski rental shop.  We warmed up with a light but delicious lunch there, and watched some world cup downhill skiing race on TV.  We didn't feel so badly about our "wipe-outs" earlier in the morning after watching a wild crash by one competitor.  :-)  Then we headed back down the hill to the bus stop and rode back to the L.M. station.  We took showers and got ready to head out again on another bus to Podbreziny, on the eastern edge of town, for a Names Day celebration for "Timotej"!  Since Zuzka's son, Timko, and Tim share the same name, and their special day was Thursday, she invited us over to their flat for the afternoon and supper.  The meal was scrumptious, and the four of us had a delightful time!!  (Zuzka's husband, Ivan, is posted in Hamburg, Germany now for his job, so we missed him.)  

Zuzka ordered a special "Names Day" cake from a bakery for Tim and Timo (aka Timko) - it was beautiful!!  

This was the inside of the cake that Zuzka ordered - delicious vanilla and fruit layers with jam filling - YUM!!  She sent some leftovers home for us too.   :-)  

After a full day, and all that physical activity skiing, (and crashing), we slept well last night.  HA!  It was pretty cold this morning walking to church and back, but the hot chai tea latte while listening to our online sermon back at our flat warmed us up again.  I've been doing several loads of laundry today to catch up from the week, and because we had so many "exercise" clothes Friday night and Saturday.  We enjoy quiet Sunday afternoons in our cozy little flat on these cold winter days.  :-)  It's still not as cold as a normal Iowa winter though.  Today at church people didn't stand around chatting as long as normal, and they mentioned it's about 10-below.  Of course that is centigrade, so really only in the teens fahrenheit --- not too bad really!!  Now if it ever gets lower than 20 below here, we'll agree that it's COLD!!   :-)