Friends, Grandma O., and Choirs!

Picking up from where we left off on Thursday evening, Tim and I each took our adult students out for supper as a substitute for our last lessons for the year.  It was great just sitting and visiting with my gals in English, relaxing over pizza, and sharing with one another about our lives and families.   :-)   They are awesome women!!  

Tana and Eva, my Slovak girlfriends!!  :-)  

This is from Eva and Tanya --- it means "thank you" in Slovak.  There was a town celebration in L.M. starting Thursday night, so the entire square looked like it did for the Christmas market, with vendors' booths everywhere, including pernicky.    :-)  Marian and Susan also gave Tim a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne!

These are the two little kids who we greet almost every morning on the way to school!   Cuties!!   :-)   (They go to a different school, so we cross paths, and I think it took a few months before we didn't appear to be "creepers" by saying "dobré ráno" each day in a strange American accent!! - LOL!)   But now they try to beat us to the punch and say it to us even before we get the chance!!  

Tim and Erik in the teacher workroom with hardware from the last basketball tournament.  Erik has the team trophy  for 1st place, and Tim was also awarded the trophy for best free-throw percentage for the tournament.  

  I've mentioned that it has been REALLY HOT all this past week - like 90 degrees or more every day.  Well, mid-morning Friday, this sign went up in the teacher workroom:   vyučovanie konči = "instruction is terminated" - - - because of the heat!!  The building had gotten really hot after so many days in a row of heat, especially on the top floors.  Sounds like Iowa sometimes in August.   :-)  

That meant my very last class of the year was cancelled, so I'll have to say good-bye to that group next week sometime when they are in their classroom with their class teacher.  Tim, Janka, Katarina and I all went out for lunch to celebrate the end of our teaching year.  Then I went with Pat'ka to put gas in her car and get a quick tutorial on her vehicle, since she has graciously asked us to look after her car while she is in England for a week with a student travel group.  It will be really handy to drive while Tim's mom is here visiting!  

Then I went home and did housecleaning - major stuff like washing windows, scrubbing floors, and rearranging cupboards - all in preparation for being gone this summer, AND for Mom Olson's arrival!!  I also did some laundry, which I've been doing on almost a daily basis this week since we've been sweating through our clothes every day in this heat!!  I also rode my bike uptown on a few errands, so I had a busy and productive evening!

Meanwhile Tim went to watch a folk dance performance that was part of the opening ceremonies for the town celebration.  The granddaughter of Stefan, the basketball buddy who invited us over on Wed. night after our grocery store encounter, was in the group.  Tim then took a train to Ružomberok for the dance recital of one of his students, so he saw more dancing in one night than he has since back when our kids were in show choir!!  :-)  Then he went to meet with the basketball guys after they played, since he was late.  

I also watched C-SPAN and saw my sister's husband's nomination as the new FBI director, in the White House Rose Garden.  WOW!!  You can check out this link to see the ceremony. Congrats to Jim Comey!!  He will serve our country with integrity and honor!!  
CLICK THIS LINK: JIm Comey - FBI Director Nomination

We got up early Saturday morning to catch the train for Bratislava, on the way to pick up Tim's mom at the Vienna airport.  I had packed breakfast including a thermos of hot tea, so we had a delightful time on the train.  After arriving in Bratislava, we actually had an hour to kill because we were meeting a taxi driver to take us from there to the airport and back to the B'slava train station, which saved a huge hassle of getting from the train to the airport bus, etc.  Tim surprised me with these arrangements after one of his Friday night basketball buddies heard what we were doing in the morning, and called to arrange a super low price for this with a good friend of his who drives a taxi in Bratislava.  It was soooo nice of him!  

One tourist spot in Bratislava that was still on our "must-see" list, was the Blue Church.  So we went looking for it, and after asking for directions three times from friendly people, and getting closer each time, we found it!  

The church was closed, but the outer doors were unlocked, so we could look inside from the back.  It's really beautiful with all the baby-blue!!  

Katie, our friend who teaches at the Bratislava Lyceum, calls this "The Smurf Church", and we were glad to finally get to see this very BLUE attraction.  (Note to Alana:  you would absolutely LOVE this place!!)

The decorations between all the bricks are crystals - so pretty!

It almost looks like it's a marzipan decorated cake!  

This is from the back, and the roof was glinting like silver in the sunlight!  

This is across the street from the Blue Church, and this is a secondary school (we think) which is also very beautifully constructed and decorated.  

As we walked back through Old Town Bratislava to meet the taxi driver, we saw many men dressed up in vintage military costumes - we presume for some battle reenactment event or other history-related event.  

Here's Jarko, our wonderful taxi driver.  We had such a nice visit with him in the car and here in the Vienna airport.  Of course Tim pointed out that Jarko's shirt was "authentic American", while Tim's was Slovak!!  

O.K., so Tim's mom had told us she requested wheelchair assistance, but lo and behold, there she came all by herself wheeling her big suitcase AND her carry-on one, and looking fresh as a daisy after traveling all the way from Forest City to Des Moines by car, then flying to Chicago (after a delay), rushing to barely catch her flight to London, and then on to Vienna.  She's a trooper!!  

First time ever to Europe!!  It was great to welcome her here!  

Tasting delicious Slovak cakes at the coffee shop in the Bratislava train station while waiting to leave for Liptovsky Mikuláš.  

Walking to our flat from the train station!   Welcome to Slovakia, Mom Olson!!   We just dropped off her things, then headed downtown to see the L.M. town center.  We all needed a nice walk to stretch our legs after sitting so long on trains (and planes!)  

After following all the textbook advice on avoiding jet lag, Tim's mom is doing great!  We all got up bright and early for church, since we had to be there at 8:15 for choir warm-up and rehearsal.  Zuzana translated for us, and my choir sang "Kumbaya" which the congregation seemed to really like.  (They actually applauded during church!)  Afterwards we chatted a bit outside and introduced people to our American visitor!  

We came home and listened to our online sermon with cups of hot chai tea latte, and Mom got a feeling for our "normal" Sunday mornings here.  After lunch, our landlord's daughter, Lenka stopped by with her boyfriend for a visit.  We always really enjoy talking with her, and we really liked her boyfriend too!  Then we headed back to church where we met the choir again for another rehearsal before a church choir festival in Liptovsky Ján (nearby village) this afternoon.  

Here is our little group singing "Kumbaya" in a nice 4-part a cappella arrangement, courtesy of Dave Swenson back in Boone!  It was very different from anything sung by the other choirs, for sure!!  The audience really liked the song, as they applauded very enthusiastically.     :-)   

The second song was accompanied by guitar, and it was in Czech.  I had to sort of direct a few spots that were rhythmically complicated, but mostly I just sang with the group for this one.  It had a contemporary feel to it, and the audience even started to clap along in time to the music about half-way through.    :-)  

Well, there it is in print, my name in a Slovak concert program!   :-)  

This is one of Tim's students, Dominika, and she was a soloist for a children's/youth choir.  She really has a beautiful voice!!  There were 12 choirs there, and each choir sang two selections, plus there was some speaking, etc., so the concert lasted almost 2 1/2 hours.  There were cakes and beverages served outside as everyone left the church.

Some of our group outside the church after the concert.

When they saw we were taking pictures, most of the rest of the group came over and joined us.  Marianka, one of the sopranos, gave Tim, his mom and me coffee mugs with scripture verses on them.  So sweet!!  :-)  

We had one more Sunday event planned for Tim's mom - dinner at the home of our Headmistress, Janka Chaloupková.  We were treated royally here when the kids were with us in Slovakia for Christmas, and it was the same this evening.  Dinner featured fresh trout caught in the Váh River right behind their home!!  YUM!!  Everything was delicious, and we had such a fun time!  

I had to include the picture with me in it this time, because Grandma didn't smile on the first one!!  LOL!!!   :-) 

Tim and I had commented recently that we had never seen a rainbow in Slovakia yet.   Well, it rained during dinner, and then this beautiful, full arching rainbow appeared above Podturen, outside the Chaloupka windows!  

We were too close to capture the entire rainbow in one photograph, but it was truly a magical sight!  

Another mystical sight on the way back home after supper  - the mountain peak showing above the clouds!  

Tomorrow will be another full day --- another train trip  --- a new social event that we know little about --- we'll see what all happens --- but we are sure of one thing...... God's plans for us are amazing each and every day!!