Our Week - Condensed! :-)

Monday morning came pretty early, but it was great getting back to school and seeing all our colleagues and students again.  And we had a huge surprise when two big boxes from my folks arrived at school!!  Everyone at school was really curious about the contents.  :-)   There were several fun surprises inside, and lots of ingredients for baking American goodies to share.  THANKS, Grammy and Papa!  

I made Scotcheroos (peanut butter rice krispie bars with chocolate/butterscotch topping) and brought them to school the next day, and they were a BIG hit!!  No one here had ever tasted them, and they wanted the recipe, but of course most of the ingredients aren't available here.  It was a really big pan, cut into small bars, so I made sure everyone got to taste one - secretaries, administrators, custodian, etc.  :-)  There were even enough to share with our landlady and the neighbors in the next flat who help translate between us and our landlady.  

We had volleyball Tuesday night at our school, and it was fun again.  Thursday we had our English students, and Friday was the other volleyball group then Tim's basketball with the guys.  One of the other players had a birthday, so he provided pizza for the BB group at the pub afterwards.  He and Tim are only a couple weeks apart in age, so he feels like a kindred spirit with Tim, that they would have been H.S. classmates if Tim had lived here then!!  :-)  

They do hit the ball hard at volleyball - my latest bruise after digging
up a spike from an aggressive hitting guy!  :-)  

We also had really good news at school on Wednesday --- our deputy headmistress (on her birthday!) got a phone call from the immigration police saying we are both officially approved for our work visas!!  YAY!!!  So we signed our contract with the school, and we "officially" started teaching on Thursday for real.  We went back to Žilina on Friday by train with Pat'ka, and this was the most hassle-free and pleasant visit of all at the immigration office - it was quite friendly!  We had our fingerprints and photographs taken for the ID card, which we can pick up in a week or two whenever they call again.  What a relief.  

These pictures look a little surreal because they are taken through
the train window, on the way back from Žilina.

The water was completely still and glassy, so the reflection was
just like in a mirror.

The sun was hitting the trees along the shore just perfectly
to illuminate the last bright fall foliage.  

These rays of sunlight hit the shoreline like a spotlight!!  Beautiful!  

The trip to Žilina was fun (except for the hassle of making sub plans for all our Friday classes - my busiest day).  We got piping hot pirožky's again at the kiosk by the train station, and had a tasty lunch at a restaurant on the way back to the train.  We also made a quick stop in a second-hand store where I found an outfit for Stuškava (the November party given by this year's seniors when they receive their green ribbons honoring them as upcoming graduates. 

And that brings us up to today.  It goes without saying that we slept in this morning!  (We were up skyping a little late after VB and BB.)  Then we had a cup of hot chai tea latte - with tea bags from Iowa of course!  (BOTH of our moms sent chai tea bags - we feel spoiled!)  After all that relaxing, we did give the flat a thorough cleaning, which takes much less time than back home.  :-)   I also did several loads of laundry, including sheets which dried out on the line.  In the afternoon, we walked out across the river to Tesco, which is a lot further than our normal grocery store trips, but it was a nice day for a walk - windy but not too cold.  This place is more like a Wal-Mart or Super Target, so we found some things we'd been looking for.  

On the way to Tesco, I noticed this sign in the middle of an island between the 4 lanes of traffic,
 so I ran across to take this picture.  :-)   

Most of the trees have dropped their leaves, except for some beautiful
white birches with bright yellow leaves.  

Snow on the mountains again --- more soon perhaps?

We don't mind our long walks with views like this!  

Tonight we're planning on doing some skyping.  It's been a full week back at school 4 days then going to Žilina, and things continue to go really well.  Everyone here is pleased with the weather since it has only snowed that one time - but I'm sure we'll get plenty of snow any time now.  We still haven't turned the heat on in our flat, because it is plenty warm with the valves into our radiators turned off.  And we're no longer illegal aliens!  Life is good!  God is great!!  :-)