Ready for a Holiday! (aka Spring Break!)

Yes, our "spring break" is rather early here, but we aren't complaining!  Everyone at school here is eagerly anticipating the vacation time, just like some lucky students and teachers in Iowa will be in mid-March.  (Sorry, Lute!)  We have sleeping berth reservations for the overnight train to Prague Friday, so that will be another new adventure for us.  There is a volleyball tournament at school tomorrow afternoon and early evening, so we will have time to get packed and ready by the time our train rolls out at 11:20 p.m.  

This week has been a blur - Pat'ka took charge on Wednesday and got us hooked back up to the internet.  Evidently there was a sign posted in our building saying they had done some work on the fiberoptic cables, so anyone who was having troubles should call......the only trouble was, the sign was of course in Slovak.  Tee Hee!!  Speaking of Pat'ka (hello there, I know you'll be reading this!), here is a picture taken by the school photographer at the Ball.   :-)  

With Pat'ka at the school Ball last week - she was translating for us during the program.   There are lots of pictures from the ball on the school website, but this one isn't on it!  

This pic came from the school website.  There are a ton of pictures of the ball there.  Here's the link if you're interested:
http://esslm.sk/photo/?level=album&id=224

Singing "God of the City" at the school Ball.

Dancing at the Ball with my Prince Charming!    :-)

At the basic school this week, my classes were in math, science, and English.  I'm learning a lot, meeting a lot of new teachers and students, and having fun with it.  And Tim, bless his heart, has been doing a lot of our lesson planning and class preparations without me, but we've definitely gotten more efficient in those areas.  

Tim had a new experience this week too.  One of his basketball buddies lined up a tennis date for him on Tuesday afternoon.  First they played doubles - Tim and his partner (a gal) won, and then Tim played singles against the better guy - and Tim won that too.  So people here are in awe of his many talents!!  :-)   He said the indoor courts were really new and nice, and it was a fun time.  

Hopefully we'll have some great pictures from Prague - it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.  Everyone just raves about it, so we are really excited about visiting there!  We are meeting Kevin, Catherine, and Kendra Secoy from Ankeny (now living in Hamburg, Germany) for the weekend in Prague, and then my brother Edward's middle son, Andrew (spending a college semester studying in Spain), will be there Mon.-Wed.  It will be so fun exploring Prague with friends and family!!   :-)    

No internet :-(

Just a quick post to say we are doing fine, but the internet hasn't been working in our flat the past two days.  We are at an internet café/bar with free wireless, and this one is non-smoking, which is really nice.  At least we've been able to check emails tonight, but the past couple of days in the flat with no outside communication has really made us thankful that we normally have internet!!  We are so grateful for technology!!  :-)  

Saturday and Sunday were quiet days at home, with our only outing being church on Sunday morning.  As you can imagine, we slept in, cleaned the flat, did laundry, skyped, and I baked treats to take to school (made with care package ingredients from home!), so it was boring for a blog post, but some relaxing and refreshing "down time" for us!  

It's time to walk back to the flat, so that's all for now.  Hopefully you can read something more interesting in the next post!    ;-)

Valentine's Day!

We were in Žilina on Valentine's Day, so the celebration was definitely extended over three days since we weren't at school the actual day.  It started with Tim's stealth actions from the Wednesday post, when he surprised me with the roses.  :-)   I couldn't put it on the blog Wednesday night and risk ruining another surprise, but we also stayed at school until everyone else in the workroom left for the day, and put out fun-sized American Valentine candy bars and little notes on our colleagues' desks for them to find on Thursday when they got to school.   :-)   (Beth sent us some Valentine's candy to share with our students and friends at school!!)  

Then on Thursday, we celebrated with Pat'ka and our eight kids, on our romantic get-away day at Speaker's Corner. :-)   (We had boxes of conversation hearts to give to the students on the train!)  

Well, Friday when we got to school, I could hardly see my desk because of my piles of work to do and the Valentines on top!!  There were candy and cards that were all so thoughtful and sweet --- such a nice surprise to 'feel the love' from friends, colleagues and students!  We took SweetTart conversation hearts to all our classes for our students, and they had to read them out loud --- conversation practice - LOL!!  We did have to explain about XO XO!  We also had some extra Dove chocolates and candy bars for the rest of the teachers, secretaries, custodian, etc.  Here are a few of our Slovak Valentines ........   

Hand-made card and heart ornament from Lenka, our Speaker's Corner student!  

These are the jars of cranberries from my student, Eva, on Thursday night!!  :-)

And this is the hand-made American Valentine that came in the mail last week from Curran, our favorite Ankeny neighbor!!  :-)

These Valentines are from one of the basic school classes, which I taught on Wednesday!!  :-)   I think they are about 3rd graders.  

The organizer of the school ball gave us these tulips, some chocolates, and a bottle of champagne as a Valentine's thank-you for singing at the ball.  Tim says it's the first time he's ever come home from school with champagne!!  :-)  

After school we played volleyball with the other teachers and some students in our gym for about an hour before coming home for a little "down-time" before heading to regular Friday night volleyball.  There were actually 16 there tonight, which was kind of fun.  We'd rotate in for whole games instead of on side outs, so I enjoyed watching the excellent play when I was on the sidelines.  :-)  Now Tim is still at his basketball/pub evening with the guys.  What a busy and fun week, leading to a "take-it-easy" weekend starting with sleeping in Saturday morning.  We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day too!!   :-)   

P.S. --- O.K. Tim just got home from basketball.  Erik had told me that they had a surprise for Tim tonight, and not to tell him.  Well, one of the guys celebrated his 60th birthday tonight, so they had a big party with lots of food.  Tim doesn't really understand why, but Tim also received gifts.  These guys are just awesome, and they were really pleased they surprised him!!

Back of the T-shirt he received from the basketball guys tonight.

And the front has the Slovak emblem, the Liptovsky Mikuláš emblem,  the "Vrbica Bulls" Senior Basketball emblem, and the picture is of a math teacher spinning a basketball on his finger.  We figure they must have specially designed the graphic, because the guy is wearing a tie and a sweater vest, which Tim wears to school all the time, and his hair is red, bushy eyebrows, etc. --- it's unbelievable!!  I'll never let him wear it, because I'd be afraid that washing it will damage the colors or iron-on transfer!  

Speaker's Corner

Finally, the day arrived for Speaker's Corner, which we have been preparing students for since early January.  We have to say, we have the most amazing, wonderful, delightful students!!  They were awesome to spend the day with, and we were so proud of how much they learned, how hard they worked, and how much improvement they made during the past month!!  We have terrific kids at EGJT!!  

Our day in pictures, starting out waiting for our train ......

Thursday morning, bright and early, we met Pat'ka and our 8 students at the train station.  Everyone was excited on the way to Žilina for Speaker's Corner!

We took the trolley from the train station to the bilingual school where the competition was to be held.  (Tim bought fresh, hot pirožky for everyone at the little kiosk that we love!)

EGJT students and Pat'ka on the walk to the school from the trolley stop.  

We ran into the Fredells (American lectors in Bratislava) in the morning, since we were all judges and had students entered in the competition.  It was great to see them again!  :-)

Lenka, one of our WONDERFUL students, made decorated Valentine cookies for all of us, personalized individually, including her "th" reminder for pronunciation!!!  :-)   They were so cute, very delicious, and it was so sweet of her to do all that work!!  

We had a busy day - Tim and I judged speakers in different rooms/categories all morning, then everyone had lunch in the school cafeteria.  (Our school lunches are better than at either of the other two schools we visited this week!!)   They announced the winners, and we had several students just barely miss out of 3rd place, and one who won her center and made the finals.  

Waiting for finals to begin in the auditorium.

More of our students awaiting finals!

Katarina giving her speech in the final round of competition.

YAY --- she won second place!!  Congrats to Katarina!!  :-)

Outside the train station in Žilina after the competition, with some time to kill before our train ride back to Liptovsky Mikuláš.  This was supposed to be the "crazy picture", but evidently Pat'ka was the only one who understood that term - LOL!!!  :-)  

This is the beautiful square in Žilina, which we have now visited in three different seasons.  We can hardly wait to see it in the springtime!   :-)

On the train ride home.   :-)  

It was a long and tiring, but very fun day!   :-)

Such awesome smiles from our sweet students!!   Congratulations to all the EGJT Speaker's Corner competitors for doing such a terrific job!!  

What a Guy!! :-)

Tuesday was a regular school day, plus one final mad scramble to organize all the last-minute information for our Speaker's Corner competitors and arrange a large-group practice for everyone to run their speeches in front of an audience.  The snow days on Thursday and Friday, plus being gone for English Olympics on Monday, really messed up our planned rehearsal schedule and communication with the kids, but it all went fine on Tuesday.  It was a lot like preparing for Opus with the memos about schedules, instructions to dress nicely, what to bring, etc. etc.!!  LOL!!  

Today I started out at the Basic School again for three classes (2 math, 1 religion), then hurried over to the H.S. for 3 more classes.  Then I had Drama Club after school.  Meanwhile, Tim did some scheming, and unbeknownst to me, made a quick trip into town, over to our flat, and back to school again, all within one class period while I was teaching!!  So when we finally got home, with barely enough time to drop off our bags, change into our "church coats", and head out again to the 5:00 Ash Wednesday service, he gently nudged me into the kitchen when I tried to leave the flat...............

.......and there, sitting on the kitchen table I found a hand-made Valentine card and a dozen beautiful red roses!!  We will be in Žilina all day tomorrow for Speaker's Corner, so Tim surprised me early!!  This is the 31st year he has given me roses for Valentine's Day.  What a guy indeed!!!    :-)   

We had been joking for the past couple of weeks about what a romantic Tim is, taking me on an all-day trip to Žilina with Pat'ka and 8 students for Valentine's Day - HA!!  

The Ash Wednesday service was at a church farther away than ours, so it was a longer walk.  On the way back, we decided to have an early Valentine's dinner at Soda Club, and it was a relaxing meal.  Then we stopped by HyperNova for just a few groceries and a replacement lightbulb for one that burned out.  It was a lot warmer today, so it was a beautiful night to be out walking --- but that also means we had to dodge a lot of slush and puddles!  Oh well!!  

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!!    <3   <3    <3   

Catching Up

For a while there it seemed there wasn't anything interesting to blog about, but now I can't seem to keep up with everything - HA!!  Saturday we slept a little later, but then got up and did some skyping.  We also made a trip to TESCO (our version of Wal-Mart) and found a set of computer speakers to use in our classroom - using more of the money from our church back home.  We also picked up a few groceries while we were there.  (It was pretty cold, so we took the local bus out and back since TESCO is a little farther away.)  Then in the late afternoon and evening, it was more skyping, some laundry, and baking a batch of cookies with ingredients sent from Iowa.  

Sunday was a good day!  First off, at church, Zuzka came and sat with us, and she offered to translate the sermon for us.  We changed pews a couple of times to find the best place to NOT disturb others, and it was great to understand the message from the pastor!  (Jan, a nice young man at church, had tried translating a couple of times before, but people who didn't realize what was happening "shushed" him sternly each time, so he stopped.)  Well, this week, during the announcements the pastor thanked Zuzka for translating so that we could understand along with the rest of the congregation --- how cool is that?!?  We are really trying not to be a distraction to others, but it's nice to understand.    :-)  

After church we were invited to Erik and Jana Jusko's flat for Sunday dinner.  (Erik was in pics from the ball, teaches P.E. & computers with us, plays basketball with Tim, and both of them play volleyball on Friday nights.)  Erik and their two darling kids picked us up at 11:00, and we went sledding while poor Jana was home cooking!!  :-(   

Tim with Erik, Miška and Ričko

It was snowing most of the time, as you can see from the flakes in the picture!   We all took turns sledding down the hill with the kids -- it was such fun!!    :-)

Miška, age 2, and Riško, age 4,  (pronounced "Meesh-ka" and "Reesh-ko")  were absolutely adorable!!  They had a ball sledding down the hill over and over again, racing us, their Dad, and one another.  There were a few crashes and wipe-outs, but lots of laughter!  

One of the few times Miška wasn't smiling!!  

Before going inside their flat, we went on a walk to see Podbreziny, the part of town where they live. It is a community within itself, with grocery stores and other shops, a nice park area, & a hockey rink.

We brought Miška a "Winnie the Pooh" stuffed animal and story book, which she loved.   :-)
In Slovak, he is Macko Puf  ("Mahtzko Poof")   We also took some cookies I'd made for them!  

Jana made a delicious dinner, which we enjoyed so much!  It was fun just hanging out together with their family and such darling kiddos!!  Sunday evening I worked on some grades, we skyped some more, and we headed to bed early because of our Monday.......

..... when the alarm was set for 5:00 a.m. - UGH!!  We had to be at the bus station at 5:50 to take the charter bus for the English Olympics.  It was COLD and windy out, and the bus didn't arrive until after 6:00, so we were really glad when we finally climbed aboard!  I had brought along breakfast to eat on the bus, with a thermos of hot tea --- nice!!  The bus picked up more teachers and students at several stops in towns on the way to Čadca, where the bilingual school hosted the competition.  We met two British teachers from other schools, and the four of us served as interlocutors, reading aloud the listening sections of the test, and doing the role-plays with the students.  It was an interesting day, and one of our students placed 3rd in his division.    :-)

 English Olympics at the bilingual school in Čadca - in the mountains north of Žilina.  
(This is Zuzka, our student --- we didn't get a photo of Katka, the head of our English department, and Alex, the other student from our school, who were also with us all day.)  

When we got back, Katka came over to our flat until it was time for her bus.  It was fun relaxing with her over a cup of tea.  Then we went over to volleyball at school.  It felt good to get some exercise after sitting on a bus for over 4 hours total today.  It seemed like a LONG day after being gone for nearly 12 hours.   :-)   

So, now we're all caught up on the blog!    Whew!!   

At the Ball!!

What a day!!  Friday we started out by sleeping a bit later than normal, since the teachers only had to be at school 8:00-noon.  We got a little work done before walking to the House of Culture for our rehearsal - this time with mics.  We ended up being there almost 2 hours, but in the end it sounded fine.  

Nikola on keyboard, Miloš on guitar, (both students) and Peter (teacher) on drums.
 Also Betka on cello!  (We also had a student playing bass who came later during rehearsal.) 

While we were waiting for the tech set-up, I learned to fold these napkins.  Gotta admit, my first one was a dismal failure and was rejected!!  LOL!!  

The hall being prepared in the morning --- it was just beautiful!!  Like a fancy wedding reception!

After rehearsal, we headed back to school for a little more work time before going over to the elementary for lunch.  (Delicious, as always, I might add!!)  Finally, we got a lot more work done for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and we felt prepared for the upcoming week with lesson plans and sub plans.  :-)  

Then we had another "first" in our educational careers.....we got locked INSIDE the school and couldn't get out!!  Nope, no crash bars on the doors here, just locks, and bars on the ground floor windows as well!!  Here's the story....  
We were contentedly working away, alone in the workroom, when another teacher popped her head in and teasingly told us we should go home, it was late, and everyone else had left already.  :-)  Well, after about 5 minutes, she came back in and said there was a problem.....the school was officially closed for the day, the doors had been locked, there were only four teachers still in the building, and we were all locked in.  We of course thought she was kidding, but no, it was all true!  They finally called a deputy headmistress who came over with the key and let us out.  But we couldn't stay to do any more work - we had to leave immediately!!  LOL!!    :-)  

Of course the school Charity Ball was that night, so most everyone had gone home earlier to go to hairdressers and manicurists, and get "gussied up" for the big evening.   :-)   We went home and relaxed a little before getting picked up by Katarina's Dad, our excellent "coach" driver!  It was quite an event.  There was a huge coat check area being run by some of our students, all dressed in finery.  Then we were greeted by uniformed wait staff with trays of champagne flutes, so we could toast with and be welcomed individually by the Headmistress, Janka, and her husband, Roman, as well as the main organizer of the Ball.   

Our gorgeous colleagues/translators/dear friends, Pat'ka and Katarina, with our welcome-to-the-ball flutes of champagne.  (And the servers behind us also collected the glasses onto their trays before we went inside.)

The first thing on the program was our song with the kids....Chris Tomlin's "God of This City"

Too bad there weren't risers --- you can't see the second row of singers behind!!  

Our M.C.'s for the program were super - one is Erik, our colleague/friend who we see every Friday night at VB and BB, and the other is a former student.  

The students also performed another song, with dancers down on the floor in front of the stage.  

This dance looked really fun!!  

The kids changed out of their nice dresses and into costumes for the second part of the program.  

There were even flags in the choreography.  It was an amazing spectacle!!  :-)  

After the student performances, there were welcoming speeches by the Chaplains and the Headmistress, followed by a group toast.  And then it was kind of like a ceremonial first dance with the school dignitaries starting off, then everyone else joining them on the dance floor.  Evidently it's customary to begin with a waltz, and I'm not kidding, the tables were all empty because EVERYONE was out doing the waltz!!  It was so cool.  And it was the longest medley of waltzes I've ever heard - it went on forever - like 8 minutes we think!  Such fun!!  Someone told us after the dance that they were surprised -- they didn't think Americans knew how to waltz.  :-)  (Note:  during the course of the evening's dancing, the music varied dramatically - everything imaginable.  Swing, rock, hip-hop, rap, techno, traditional, slow American oldies, - anything for dancing!!)  

There were buffet lines for the hot food, prepared and served by the culinary school in town.  (Also featured in this pic is Katarina's elegant up-do!!)   :-)

There were also huge tables of salads, cold meats and cheeses, vegetables, and fancy finger-food type sandwiches, sliced roll-ups, etc.  

And another table was set up with fresh fruits, fancy layered cakes and desserts, and a giant bowl of melted chocolate for dipping fruit into.  

Tim with some of our wonderful V students (seniors).  

There was a string quartet dressed in costume and playing traditional Slovak music in the buffet area, and people often joined in singing enthusiastically!  

For my musician friends --- notice the technique of the violist in the back.  I asked a student who also plays violin about it, and she says that traditional Slovak string players played in this style!  

With the "guys in ties" - Tim and Erik!  (Of course, at this event, ALL the men were wearing ties!!)  Erik was our awesome M.C.

With our beautiful Headmistress, Janka!

At 11:30, there was a fashion show up on the stage, with ball gowns and other evening dresses created by a designer/dressmaker in town.  The theme was Venice during Carnival, and it kind of made us think of Mardi Gras.  Then at midnight was the big raffle drawing.  We had all purchased raffle tickets earlier (the event, was after all, a benefit for the school!)  There were lots of really nice prizes.  Our numbers weren't drawn, but the toaster in our flat was won by Carol last year, so we are enjoying a ball raffle prize one way or the other.  LOL!!  

There was a LOT of dancing by young and old alike.  A group of our students pulled us out onto the dance floor again after we had been sitting down for a little while.  :-)

 Katarina's parents came back to take us home again about 2:30, so we were there about 7 1/2 hours!!  Wow!!  It was really a fun evening at the Ball!!    :-)