More Thankfulness!!

I didn't finish the entire THANKFUL post from last time.......

We were very thankful that we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our "Thanksgiving Weekend" in Bratislava.  While we were gathering for the Thanksgiving meal on Saturday, the choir director from the church had rehearsed us to join the choir for Sunday morning.  Tim and I were so thrilled (and thankful) to be singing with a church choir again!!  And of course worship in English with the international congregation there was wonderful (thankful for that too, for sure!)  To top it all off, Arden gave the sermon, and his messages are always such a blessing.  (Same pastor who preached Reformation Day in Wittenberg.)  

Eating lunch after church with some of the youngsters -- YAGM's
(Young Adults in Global Mission) in Hungary, Carol, and two of
the gals we trained with in August who are in Bratislava.

The view from Katie, Sue, and Alice's apartment, where we stayed.

We were thankful that we had booked a later train back to Liptovsky Mikuláš this time, so we were able to attend a concert of Renaissance music at the castle with Bill and Kathy Fredell and Carol Anderson.  

With Bill and Kathy (American teachers in Bratislava) at the castle

With Kathy and Carol - before the concert.

Tim heading up the beautiful staircase inside the castle.

We were early for the concert --- really comfy chairs in the performance hall!

This painting was from a church altar - 1700's - and was in the concert hall.

The performers assembling - dressed in Renaissance costumes.

The concert hall and the performers were quite impressive!  

One of the performers is a student of Kathy and Bill's - lovely gal!  

This is a photo from an earlier blog, but it shows the Bratislava Castle,
where the concert was.   Nice venue!!  :-)  (Hrad Bratislava)

And finally, we are VERY THANKFUL to announce that we finally have our Slovak identity cards / work visas in hand!!  Patka accompanied us on one more trip to Žilina on Monday, where we sailed through the pick-up-the-visas process at the immigration police.  YAY!!!  

On a side note, there was no school here on Monday because the teachers were on strike.  It was nice that we didn't have to do lesson plans for our trip to the immigration office this time.  In some schools, teachers are striking two or more days, and in some, all week.  We do sympathize with their plight, as teacher pay is ridiculously low here.  Of course we aren't allowed to be involved in anything political, so it's probably just as well we were out of town for the day.  

The main lobby of the train station in Žilina has stained glass windows
representing each geographical region in the area - this one is Liptov.
(As in our town!!)

This one is for Žilina.  We had always exited the train to the outside before,
so we had never been inside the main part of the station.  

The artwork was really pretty - these are just a few of the windows.
The were really huge too - high up.  This is Orava - where the really big
castle we visited is located.

The church on the square in Žilina.

We are also thankful that Slovakia celebrates CHRISTmas!
This sand sculpture is in a mall by the town center.