Gypsy Music Concert

So here is a report of Saturday, continued!   Tim's teacher basketball team was 2 and 1 on the day, but they are still leading in total wins.  This was the third of four tournaments, so it looks like the 'mature' team may beat out all the young bucks in the end!  ;-)  

At 5:00, we rode our bikes to another big, nice gym in town, where we watched a men's league game that was really good.  One of Tim's Friday night B-ball buddies helps to coach because his son is on the team, so several of the other guys came to watch the game.  

The level of play was really good, and they pushed the ball up and down the floor in a hurry.  

The men's league seemed to range in age from about 19-30 or so.  The Liptovsky Mikuláš team really dominated, scoring over 100 points, and pouring in lots of three's.  

We enjoyed watching the game with some of Tim's Friday night teammates. 

I absolutely  LOVED  this banner under the scoreboard --- a takeoff of the famous Michael Jordan one, but with St. Mikuláš dunking the ball ----  LOL!!      :-)

At an American-style sports bar called Route 66 after the game with Jan and Michal, who play basketball with Tim on Friday nights.  Michal speaks some English, and a lot of the conversation with Jan was in French, with me translating for Tim.  Jan's family has a lot of Olympic history.  His sister competed as a pairs figure skater in Innsbruck (1964), then she coached the men's bronze medalist at Sarajevo (Jozef Sabovčik 1984), and her sons competed for Slovakia in ice hockey at Lillehamer in 1994 (6th place).  Sabovčik also performed in the closing ceremony at Salt Lake City with his son!  Cool!!  
P.S. - this info is all corrected after Jan told me in August that I had everything all mixed up!   Sorry Jan!  I hope it's right now!!   :-)   

We finally called it a night after about 2 1/2 hours there, and biked home.  Sunday morning Zuzka was at church to translate for us again.      :-)     In the early afternoon we caught a train to Liptovsky Hrádok, which isn't far.  We met Katarina and her parents there for an afternoon concert at the Dome kultúry (House of Culture, which every town has).  

Cigánski diabli, (The Gypsy Devils), is a very famous musical group, the best of the Roma, or gypsy, musicians in Slovakia, and internationally renowned.  There was a big crowd, and they were very enthusiastic.  

The instrumentalists are very well-trained technicians, and they played with frenetic energy all the time.  The seven member ensemble had a reed player (clarinets and a similar instrument called a tárogató), two violins, a cymbalist (like a large hammered dulcimer), viola, cello, and bass.  

This is the second viola player I've seen playing in this typical Slovak style - holding the viola perpendicular to the floor against the chest, with the chin resting on the side of the viola.  The guy was amazing, playing the off-beats almost the whole time, as more of a rhythm and harmony player than a melodic instrument.  

The cymbalist and the cellist are husband and wife.  They were all excellent players, but the lead violinist and the cymbalist were absolutely amazing virtuosos - WOW!!
(Note to my musician friends:  the crowd here claps on 1 & 3!!)       ;-)  

Katarina helped me look up some YouTube clips of Cigánski diabli, so you can hear them playing some tunes.  It's very different music than anything we've every heard before, and they are very impressive musicians!!  

This first clip features the cymbalist, just so you can see and hear the instrument.  The whole ensemble comes in after the long solo, so you can skip ahead to hear the whole group playing together if you wish.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sriCWYNvsRQ

This clip is actually a short feature on the Gypsy Devils with interviews (in Slovak, sorry), BUT, it is actually done in the hall where we watched the concert.  It must be from a previous year, because the hairstyles of the performers aren't the same now - HA!  So anyway, you can see where we were for the concert yesterday!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pz0qN74RfQ

After the concert, the Halahijová family took us out for dessert and hot tea at this chata in Liptovsky Ján.  We had such a lovely afternoon sharing the concert and conversation with them!!  :-)   

After the concert, we were invited over to the home of one of our colleagues from school, Peter, and his wife Danka, who teaches English in Liptovsky Hradok.  (Peter played on the teachers' basketball team with Tim and found out we'd be in the town where they live, so he invited us over after the concert!)  We enjoyed spending the evening at their flat, enjoying food and more conversation with them!!  

Today was a busy Monday, with Slovak lessons, church choir rehearsal, and volleyball.  It's so nice heading to all of our events on bicycles!  The flowering trees are really starting to bloom all over town now.  I'll have to get pictures this week.  For our choir, the pastor had asked if I could find "Kum Ba Ya" for them to sing, so Dave Swenson emailed me an SATB a cappella arrangement that we tried for the first time tonight.  It's WAY out of their comfort zone, but we're off to a good start.  We even started with some vocal warm-ups for the first time too, so that was kind of cool to hear the tone quality change a little.  

Well, tomorrow, our 'baby boy' will be turning 23.  WOW!!!  How time flies!!  Happy Birthday Lute!!  We're glad you are doing such a great job at Wapsie Valley, as the "New and Improved Version" of Mr. Olson, the mathematics teacher!!   LOVE YOU!!  

Club Volleyball Tourney: Slovak Style!

Friday was a quick day at school, and I even talked Tim into taking a class outside in the beautiful sunshine!   :-)  One period, we each have half of the I.A5 class (freshmen), and we were both doing the same lesson plan, so we merged the classes and sat in the grass to soak up some rays and fresh air.  We also had a nice visit with a British couple who were registering their daughter for the Prima class (8-year program, she's 11) next year.  Then after school, we stayed an hour or so later than everyone else and got a lot of work done.  We all scan cards on a time clock at school, but there's a "working at home" option that is used by most everyone on Friday afternoons, so we generally have a quiet and productive work time prior to the end of the normal workday at the end of the week.  

Tulips in front of the next-door block of flats.  

Yes, there are even dandelions here!    :-)

Volleyball was fun Friday evening, though I just kept score since there were 12 players without me, and I had a little issue with a jammed finger and sore wrist from last week.  I had 'buddy-taped' the finger, but it was probably better to give it a rest to heal.  I biked to get groceries on the way home, and stuffed our big backpack as full as possible.  :-)  Tim and his basketball buddies celebrated another Names Day with lots of food at the pub after they played.  

This morning Tim headed to school for a basketball tournament, playing with the teachers' team from our school.  I did a lot of laundry - sheets and towels as well as clothes - and hung them outside on the line to dry since it's such a warm day again.  Then I took a bus to Liptovský Hrádok, about 20 minutes away, to watch one of my I.A5 students in a club volleyball tournament.  

Miška had emailed me with today's game time and walking directions from the bus station to the gym.  I went early to be sure I'd find it, and her instructions were perfect, so I got there just as the teams were taking the floor for warm-ups.  

It was a nice hall - wood floor, well-lit, and a spectator area at each end.  It was so much fun being back at a volleyball tournament, after all those years coaching and following Beth's teams!!  I felt right at home!!  Miška's team is on this side, in pink warm-up shirts.  

Miška is #7 in green, at the net.  I tried to get a picture of her hitting, because she really gets up high, but I was too slow with my camera delay.  She's a middle blocker/hitter.

The introductions were very formal.  Quite impressive.  

The fans for Liptovský Hrádok were awesome!  It sounded like a European soccer match with all the noisemakers and rhythmic chanting.  There were lots of those loud plastic horns, a big tom-drum, and many wooden ratchets - very noisy!!   :-)  

The starters for Liptovský Hrádok - Miška is third from the left - in the braided pony tail.  She reminds me of Peggy Ross - another favorite student from the beginning of my teaching career at Wapsie Valley.  Things they have in common - very smart students, quick with a smile, big brown eyes, and sweet as can be!  

Miška serving.  The Liptovský Hrádok team is really good, and she does a really great job as a front line starter.  

Our front line at the net.  Unfortunately, Liptovský Hrádok lost the match in 3 straight games, but it was exciting play, and in the third game it was neck-and-neck up to the end!  The day before, they had won one match 3-0, and lost a close one 2-3, so they should be playing for 5th place tomorrow.  (Two 4-team pools.)

Playing defense.  The team they played today really had some big hitters and were much taller.  It turns out, they are from a special volleyball school from Nitra, so they practice together all the time, instead of like a normal club team.  The caliber of volleyball was definitely like Iowa H.S. teams.  Fun to watch such a good match!!  

 I didn't realize that there's another girl on the team from our school, Nikola, from Tim's section of the III.B class.  Afterwards, the gals came and chatted for a while, and I got to meet Miška's family - Mom, Dad, older sister and younger brother.  

Yep - she would fit right in with Kelly and Carly, Peggy's daughters!   

We might be going to a basketball game tonight, and then there's a possibility of THREE events tomorrow.   So there will probably be another blog post tomorrow already.     :-)   Never a dull moment, that's for sure.  

Church Choir and Cotton Candy

Another school week has flown by, and we continue to enjoy the glorious spring weather!  For a while there, we had clouds and fog a lot, but now the views of the mountains surrounding Liptovsky Mikuláš are beautiful again.  It is really warm in the afternoons too!

This week, some of our students had a taste of America.  One of my goals this year is to bake cookies for all our classes, but obviously it has to be done in shifts!  It was fun surprising a few classes with chocolate chip bars and Hershey-kiss peanut butter blossoms!  The kids decided they like American "cakes" (which they say instead of "cookies"!!)  So now I only have 5 of our 11 classes left - plus my after-school class at the Basic School.  

O.K., it's story time.  Monday night at church choir rehearsal, Tim was afraid I would get kicked out!!  I think I've mentioned that I've become kind of the de facto director of our little a cappella ensemble of about 16-18 singers.  I have been running the rehearsals anyway.  They hand out music, look at me expectantly, so I rehearse the number, work on parts, etc. until it's dobre ("doh-bray" = good), and then we all pass in the music.  Next tune, same routine.  Well, I was working on dynamics a little too exuberantly, evidently, because I almost knocked over a 2' high cross on the pastor's desk.  I whacked it accidentally, it wobbled and almost fell over, so I made a mad grab to keep it from toppling!!  Whew!  The tenor and bass sections were singing at the time, but the women all saw it and were laughing hysterically.  Of course I was mortified!!  And then later, I pulled out a classic Everett Johnson line during rehearsal, and Tim figured that really sealed the deal that I'd get sacked!  The tenor section (including the pastor) had a rough time on one phrase with two B-naturals that they kept singing as B-flats.  The pastor finally got it, but the other tenors kept singing a half-step flat.  It was even more painful for a while with the dissonance.  (Which is really unusual - the men are actually quite good singers!)  So anyway, eventually they all nailed it once, everyone else smiled, said "ahhhh", nodded, and looked pleased.  That's when I asked the one guy who speaks English and can translate, to tell them: "Let's try it again now, just to make sure that time wasn't just an accident."  (Thank you, Everett!)  Well, the place went up for grabs.  They were laughing for a long time, so we couldn't even sing for a while!  Afterwards Tim said they'd either fire me or keep me around just for entertainment value.  Thanks a lot!!   ;-)  

Today's school lunch involved liver, so some of us decided to forgo that menu and head out for lunch instead!  Katarina and I had delicious salads, and Tim had pork - all yummy!

Janka joined us later, since our lunch times didn't align very well.  It was interesting to note that going out to lunch in a REAL restaurant with a fresh flower on the table and a quiet, peaceful ambiance, brings the same reaction to Slovak teachers as to American ones........we felt like 'real' human beings!!  ;-)   

Some of my wonderful Basic School kids in my Thursday after-school class, playing a vocabulary game, kind of like "Go Fish" - fun times! 

Today after school we were able to get the bikes out again, and we headed up the hill where we used to go running last fall, to the little village of Trstené, a few kilometers away.  It was neat seeing the houses and gardens in the village as we pedaled through, and then the ride back down the hill was awesome with the views of the mountains.  

This is our bike storage room on the ground floor of our block of flats.  LOTS of bikes!!  

Some grape hyacinths right outside our block of flats, which remind me of our garden back in Ankeny!  

Forsythia in bloom outside our building.  And there are many violets sprinkled in the grass too, but they don't show up so well.  

This is the first flowering tree we've seen this spring.  We imagine the trees will soon be spectacular, judging by all the apple and other fruit trees that were bearing fruit last fall!!  

We saw this unusual flowering tree in the town square area - the top part of the tree was budding out with leaves, and the bottom half had branches which drooped more like a weeping willow, and those hanging branches were covered in these lovely lilac colored blooms.  And it was just outside a flower shop, so it was really a pretty scene!  

More flowers bursting with color in the sunshine, in the town square area. 

I thought I heard live music, so we headed towards it and discovered this accordion player.  So we decided to just sit on a nearby park bench for a little while and soak up the sun while people watching.  The hustle-bustle of people being outside walking is always amazing to us, and with the weather so nice, it seemed like the entire town was there!  Families with small children and strollers, older folks with canes, people on bicycles, dogs on leashes, and many, many people walking --- with ice cream cones, with brief cases, with grocery bags, with back-packs --- wearing shorts and tank tops, jeans, business attire, and everything in between!!   And we were listening to live music in the background the whole time!  

Well, while we were sitting there on the bench, the guy running this little stand came up and spoke to us in Slovak, and without waiting for a response, he started heading the other way and waving to us.  From the few words I understood, I was pretty sure he wanted us to watch his stand for him just for a few minutes while he went somewhere, so I just smiled and said, "Ano" (= yes!!)   So here I am monitoring the candy stand!!  :-) 

When he came back, he told us to wait, then made us some cotton candy, Slovak style!   We tried to pay for it, but he wouldn't let us.  He made it fresh - there was none of that nasty, granular, pre-made bagged stuff they sometimes sell in the U.S.  

This guy's spun sugar definitely has a different texture than American cotton candy.  It is much finer and more delicate, and it isn't so overly sugary sweet either.  It was amazingly light and airy!  While he was gone, we just shook our heads in amazement that here we were, watching over a candy stand in Slovakia for five minutes.  We must have looked trustworthy!!  :-)  

The other big news for the week was that there were TWO letters in two days waiting in our mailbox at the flat!!  Tim always checks the mailbox as we come in, and sometimes he teases me, as if there might actually be mail for us instead of just junk flyers and advertisements.  But the past two days he was truthful, and we were really excited about letters from Ankeny and Boone!!  Curran's butterfly drawing is now on our refrigerator, and we have photos from days gone by of Tim's golf buddies!     :-)   

And in just a month, we'll be winging our way back to Iowa for a few days to celebrate Beth's graduation from DMU as a physician assistant!!  It will be great to see family and friends, even very briefly!  Hopefully by then, Iowa will be having warm, beautiful spring weather too.   :-)  

Biking and Kayak Races

We don't want to make all of the Midwesterners reading this jealous, but we've really had some beautiful spring weather here.   :-)   Friday was gorgeous, and I ended up taking two of my regular classes outside to have conversation while sitting on the grassy area in front of the school.  It just so happened that the lesson plans didn't involve any written materials, so it worked out well to soak up a little Vitamin D!!  


I rode my bike alongside Tim as he walked to volleyball, since my trip home would still be in daylight, but it would be dark for his return trip after basketball.  It's nice to be riding again!  

On my way into our block of flats after volleyball, carrying bags of groceries and pushing my bike through the lobby and into the storage area, one of our neighbors from upstairs was also heading into the storage area.  We rode the elevator up together, and she randomly gave me these two jars of home-canned produce.  I think one contains some pickled peppers (eat your heart out, Peter Piper) and the other may be red cabbage.
How sweet of her!!  (And of course our conversation was lively, but without much mutual understanding since my Slovak is so minimal!)  

Then on Saturday, Tim and I went bike riding together, doing some shopping and errands at places farther away than our usual walking expeditions.  Along the way, we "stopped to smell the flowers" a few times!!  :-)

A colorful yard through a fence.

The first daffodils of spring will always remind me of Nancy Linden.      :-)                   (Thanks for the bouquets over the years, dear friend!!)

Some pretty tulips!  

More daffodils and tulips.   As we rode, I kept yelling ahead at Tim --- "I'm stopping for a picture!!"    :-)

And yes, my favorite spring flowers are blooming here in Slovakia ---- violets!!   :-)

Today we had a pleasant walk to church in lighter coats and wearing 'normal' clothes instead of extra layers for warmth!  Jan translated for us today, and the new female pastor did a great job.  After listening to our sermon online at home and having Sunday dinner, we did some skyping (so awesome!!), then headed out on another bike ride.  We headed towards the river to see how far the bike path would take us along the Vah.  On the other side of the river, we saw big crowds of people, many cars parked, and a lot of foot and bike traffic heading across the bridge to whatever was going on.  So we decided to check it out!!

We knew there was a white-water area somewhere in the area, and that's where all the action was.  It was evidently a kayak racing competition!

It was quite exciting watching the competitors paddling through the gates, much like slalom skiers go through in races.  

We had heard about this whitewater area, which is a man-made training and competition area.   It's huge!!  

There was a huge bleacher area for spectators too, but everyone was out along the banks watching instead.

There were judges set up in little booths all along the race course, to make sure the kayakers went through all the gates correctly.  

The boulders they had to paddle around looked pretty scary!! 

This area ran parallel to the race area, and it seemed to be more of a training area with less difficult rapids to negotiate.  (The Vah River is over to the left along the treeline, and the race course is to the right of the sidewalk and bicycles.)

There were several bridges over the race course, and it was really cool to watch the kayakers from up above.  Some of the fans would run alongside on the shore, shouting encouragement to their favorite kayaker.  

We just kept walking farther and farther to see the whole race area.  (We started at the finish line, so kept going upstream until we got to the starting line and the holding area upstream from that.)

The whole area was packed with vans and kayak trailers from all over Europe.  This was a Czech team's van.

I got a kick out of the start line - spelled Štart - which would be pronounced like "shtart" in Slovak!            :-)  

When we went across the bridge and over to the official-looking areas, we found the bulletin board describing this as an international competition, and it was interesting that the signage was in English.  Since the competitors were from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, Russia, and Poland, to name a few, the common language is English.  

One of Tim's students is a kayaker, and we even found her name on the results board.  We got to talk to her a little bit, but were disappointed that we missed seeing her compete earlier in the day and yesterday.

Not being kayak experts, we were curious about how the kayaks keep from filling up with water.  These 'skirts' evidently attach to the kayak to seal off the opening.

Another one of our students was working at a vendor booth selling popcorn, and this was delicious!  It tasted a lot like kettle corn, but it was much prettier!!  (Beth, you'd LOVE it!!)  

It was fun getting a close-up view of the kayaks drying out in the sun.  

After we left and were heading back across the bridge to town, I took this picture to show where the whitewater course rejoins the Vah River.  The water is diverted from the river much farther upstream, to flow through the man-made race course.  Pretty ingenious!  

This is taken from the town side of the bridge, looking back towards Liptovsky Mikuláš's old, original part of town, called Vrbica, across the hill with the garden plots, and to the Western High Tatras beyond.  The church in the foreground is where we went to the contemporary service on Easter Sunday,  and to the Ash Wednesday service.  

We continued riding on the bike path down the river, and there was traditional music coming from the other side.  This is the Roma (gypsy) housing area, which is quite a distance away and isolated from any other buildings. 

We really enjoyed our bike tour along the Vah River on such a beautiful spring day!  We hope the rain stops and the temperature warms up soon back in Iowa!