The Journey Begins

Here we are, blogging from Slovakia as promised!!  It seems surreal to actually be here at last, after so much planning and many preparations.  We arrived in Bratislava around 4:45 p.m. (which would be 9:45 a.m. Iowa time) and are staying in a dorm room at the Lutheran seminary during this first week of orientation and training.  Tim and I quickly showered and met some other new teachers and local staff at 5:30 to walk to a nice pizza restaurant for supper.  We all ate on the patio outside, and it was a beautiful, warm evening to enjoy our new acquaintances.  There was actually "homework" during our walk - an assignment to match Slovak and English words for pizza toppings, to prepare for ordering from the menu!  LOL!!  

The American teachers and trainers out for pizza the first night

The pizza place within walking distance from the seminary.

View overlooking the city of Bratislava and the castle, on our walk to the pizza place.

The front entrance to the seminary - we are staying in the dorm behind.

Others will be arriving tomorrow, but tonight's group included  a young gal from Ohio, a married couple around our age from N. Carolina, and a 30-something guy who just finished seminary in Pennsylvania, who are all new teachers this year, plus a young guy from Illinois who was here before.  In addition, there were some other teachers and ELCA folks who will help with orientation - a group of 12 in all.  The pizza was good, and we all enjoyed our time to get acquainted.  The walk was refreshing, and the seminary is located high above the city, so we had some beautiful views of the Danube, the castle, and downtown.   After we returned to the dormitory, we finally received the internet password, so now we're connected to wireless as promised!!  :-)  

At the Des Moines International Airport!

Backing up to the beginning of our trip, we left home a little after 2:00 p.m on Friday, with Paul and Alana and all our luggage in the van.  My parents, brother Edward and fiance Kristin, as well as P and A were there to see us off.  We called Beth on the phone and texted Lute one last time before I left my cell phone behind to get on the plane!  All our flights were on time, food was good, and we had great views of scenery when we were awake!  Des Moines - Chicago - London's Heathrow - Vienna ---- all connections went smoothly for us, but not for our luggage.  Tonight we read (too late) an email from our travel agent about flight numbers out of London changing, so our bags evidently missed that last flight.  The agents said they'd deliver the bags here to Bratislava tomorrow.  Fortunately, we had been advised to pack extra clothes in our carry-ons, so we are fine until then.  





Our Airport Send-Off Crew!

View of downtown Chicago as we circled.

Tim in Heathrow - London airport   :-)