We had another short week at school - we've had two 3-day weeks back to back because of our extended Easter holiday. So this week our Wednesday was a "sweet lunch" day (which is normally every Monday.) We always have some thick, hearty soup on sweet lunch day, and the entree is something more dessert-like.
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| This sweet lunch day included a thick potato-pea-hot dog soup, and jam-filled pirohy drenched in butter and cinnamon-sugar. We also had oranges, and some watered-down fruit tea. It was all quite delicious!! |
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| On Wednesday, I was informed/asked to be a judge in a singing contest the next day. So, I taught my normal 1st and 6th hour lessons, but in between, here were my singers! |
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| It was a Christian hymn-singing contest, but for students not attending Christian schools. I'm not sure why, but whatever! There were three age categories and about 20 singers. It was tough to make choices, but the kids were all darling!! |
The Drama Club is getting closer to performing the play they've been preparing all year. It's an original adaptation of "Snow White" - very fun. I've helped with rehearsals when possible, and more often lately, including this week.
As the title for this post indicates, we were privileged to attend our first Slovak wedding this weekend. We weren't sure what to expect, and we certainly didn't want to commit any faux pas, so we asked a lot of questions and found some differences between Slovak and American weddings. First of all, the invitations are fairly general (posted on the school bulletin boards and on Facebook), and anyone who wants to attend the church ceremony is welcome to attend. The reception, however, is usually only for close friends and family, and it's generally a much smaller group. Another difference is that all the guests bring a long-stemmed flower (or flowers) to present to the bride after the ceremony in the receiving line. We don't know what they do with all those flowers, but perhaps they are used at the reception. Also, when we were standing outside the church after greeting the bride and groom in the receiving line, everyone was served cakes - delicious and fancy - all cut to be 'finger-food' size.
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| The wedding was at the St. Mikuláš church on the town square. Here is my office partner, Peter, (the groom) arriving with the bride's younger sister, the maid of honor, who is also a student of mine. |
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| And next, Bet'ka, the beautiful bride, with the best man, Peter's brother. |
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| All of us standing around waiting outside finally went on inside the church to be seated before the wedding party entered. |
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| The priest actually went outside with the bridal party, and he welcomed everyone to the wedding on a wireless microphone from outside. Then he processed in first, followed by the two couples. |
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| The groom read a scripture passage during the ceremony. |
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| The four chairs for the bridal couple and their attendants were set up two and two, behind each other, so we didn't have much of a view for the vows. |
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| The priest accompanied the newly-prounounced husband and wife for the recessional. |
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| This is the front of the church, where the bridal party sat, and the altar behind. |
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| Bet'ka is Lutheran and Peter is Catholic, so the musicians were an ecumenical group too! There was a violin, cello, keyboard, drums, two guitars, and the singers. |
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| Mr. and Mrs. Bernicky!! :-) |
After the wedding, one of our colleagues invited us over to her flat for tea and dessert. It was fun hanging out with some of our teaching friends for a while at Nad'a's place.
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| Nad'a's daughter, Terezka, is also a student of mine, and she did a nice job entertaining us on the guitar! |
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| Zuzka, Terezka, Katarina, Nada, Katka, Tim, and Katka's mother at our post-wedding festivities in Nad'a's flat. We talked, laughed, sang songs with Nad'a playing guitar, and enjoyed Nad'a's delicious dessert with tea. |
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