Palm Sunday

Sunday was a busy day.  We started with our regular church service and Zuzka translating the sermon.  Then we continued to the catholic church for mass, so we could hear my student Eva's son sing the Pašie, or Passion story.  He has a beautiful voice, and we also enjoyed the service which was oriented towards children.  After that we listened to our online sermon, which featured Simon Estes' story - very cool - and another beautiful voice!  

The organ in the catholic church

The front of the church before mass.  

This is a picture from last fall - just to show you the catholic church, St. Mikulaš - from the 13th century as I recall - maybe older!  

I made brynzová halušky for Sunday dinner, this time from scratch, and it was better than my first attempt using a box mix.  (I got tips from Katarina's mom and Zuzka!)  

Slovak national dish - halušky - YUM!! 

In the afternoon we went to a traditional Slovak folk dancing competition at the House of Culture here in town.  Children of some of our colleagues were participants, so that was neat!  

Some of the younger participants - so cute!

The dancing was really enjoyable!  

The accompaniment was all live performers - lots of accordions!

We have seen similar folk dances with the traditional axes before.  

Some of the dances were quite athletic for the boys! 

This is an effigy of Morena -  the dance symbolizes the end of winter and the beginning of spring as the effigy is burned and thrown in the river.  

I kept thinking the whole time --- this is traditional Slovak 'show choir' --- singing, dancing, beautiful costumes!!    It was quite an impressive spectacle!   :-)  

Then later, Tim helped me dip chocolates by tossing the maple creams and peanut butter balls into the bowl one by one.  He's a pro!  (I had made the centers the night before since it was cold enough on the balcony to freeze them - all covered up of course!)  

Monday we had one final church choir rehearsal before the Good Friday morning service when we'll be singing.  Towards the end we moved into the sanctuary for a final run-through there.  It should sound pretty good!  Then we went to volleyball.  We took some chocolates to school, to church choir, and to volleyball, to share a Pekny Pondelok.  (The wonderful Slovak alliteration for "Happy Monday!"  

Tuesday at school there was some sort of Teacher Appreciation Day.  A parent came into the workroom with a large bouquet of flowers and gave a nice speech to the teachers thanking everyone for working with our students.  Then there was an assembly where awards were presented to the most popular teachers.  Yes, really!  

Dasha receiving her award from the students.

Miro received the top prize for the history department.  

And Katarina also received a top award and beautiful purple flowers - her favourite colour.
(Our school teaches British English, so we have to get used to some different spellings!)
LOL!!

Today there were no classes, but we were busier than ever at school!  It was a day of entrance examinations for students who are applying for admission to next year's new classes.  As we understand it, there were over 150 kids there, so it was kind of crazy early in the morning as parents were dropping off their children.  But the school staff was incredibly organized, so it all went really smoothly.  During the 2 hours of testing, we had our school Slovak lesson (on past-present-future tenses --- fun!), and then we were busy proof-reading, editing, and making suggestions for more of the tasks on the oral Maturita for English.  Next, we were part of a team of English teachers who graded a big stack of tests.  Evidently there were four parts to the entrance examination, so other teachers were grading the other subject areas.  Each test paper had to be graded by two different teachers, with our initials on each paper, etc. --- very official!!  Then Tim and I went back to doing our Maturita work again until we were told to leave, as the doors would be locked for vacation at 3:50.  Well, this time, we didn't mess around.  We remember they mean business when they lock up for vacation, so we headed out in plenty of time to NOT get locked in this time!!  

This beautiful Easter egg was made by a colleague of Eva's, and she gave it to me Tuesday night at our lesson.  So beautiful!!   :-)   I think it is made of a styrofoam egg, with strips of satin ribbon folded and pinned into these geometric patterns.  

The alarm is set really early for tomorrow - it's our bus trip to Prešov - Lutheran school teachers from eastern Slovakia will all be getting together for some special day.  We'll learn more about it, like everything else, as we go!!  :-)   And we'll go at 6:00 a.m. - yikes!!