Programs: Pre-school to Seniors

First I'll share a few more pictures from our Pieštany fall break weekend.  These are courtesy of Matt, the American Global Missions teacher in Martin.  Thanks, Matt for emailing these to us!!  :-)

This shows some of the beautifully manicures gardens on the spa island in Pieštany.

And this is the fountain where you can get spa water for drinking.  This is where I learned to NOT put my hand under the water and try to drink it, since it's 60° C, about 140° F!!   But it's supposed to be extremely healthy despite smelling like rotten eggs!

The swans under the bridge over to the spa island.  

The accordion player who serenaded us on our bike rides and walks across this bridge to the spa island.  He was really an excellent keyboard player!  

In the dining car of the train, having a cup of tea with Matt on All Saints' Eve, and seeing the cemeteries out the window, all lit up with candles for the holiday.  

The week at school was, as usual, very full.  During our Slovak lesson on Wednesday, Janka mentioned she was going to her daughter's first-ever preschool program, especially for grandparents because November is the month to honor the elderly.  But Livka's grandparents all lived too far away to attend.  Since we absolutely adore our sweet Livka, we immediately decided that Tim would ride to the program with Janka after school and be a stand-in "Grandpa" for the afternoon.  I was really bummed that I couldn't go too, since I had to teach my elementary teachers' class after school.  

Tim took some pictures of the program - that's Livka in the pink dress, looking precious!

Tim said she knew all her lines perfectly, and she was a wonderful little performer!!  

Janka, Livka and Marian after the preschool program.  Livka had made two paper flowers on stick-stems, which she sent home with Tim.  She was really excited to have him there!  

Friday night was our first stužkova of the year, for the Oktáva class.  Tim taught them last year as Septima's, and this year he is doing an extra voluntary conversation class with them on Friday afternoons since they don't have a native speaker teaching them now.  Pat'ka picked us up and drove us to the big event, and Peter, my new office partner was an awesome translator for the evening's speeches and action!  

The first part of the evening was the formal stužkova ceremony, when a green ribbon signifying their upcoming Maturita (the state exams required for graduation) is pinned on each student.  (The ribbons are on the red satin pillow at left.)  These ribbons are worn by all seniors, at all schools in Slovakia, until they finish their exams in May/June.    

A delicious dinner followed the ceremony.  We had salad, soup, and then a main course.  Dessert was later after the rest of the program which included a fun video the students had made, and some comedy skits.  This is the table for the Oktáva students, so beautifully decorated. 

Some of the parents enjoying the program.  On the left are Filip's parents (we were at Filip's flat for tea one afternoon this fall), and on the right are Zuzana's parents (who have taken us hiking, to spas, and for other fun times).  One neat part of the stužkova was seeing how seriously the students took everything, and how proud the parents are of their children.  This is a really important event in the lives of Slovak people!  

The first dance was a father-daughter, mother-son dance for the Oktávas and their parents.  Here are Zuzana and Filip getting ready to dance with their parents.  

Next, the students each came to ask a teacher to dance, so of course Tim was fortunate to have the lovely Zuzana as his partner.  I also had a very nice dance with one of the young men, Stano.  I think he was a little nervous, but he did a really nice job!  After the formal dances, everyone was out on the dance floor for a really long time - it was fun!!  There was a lot of music we were familiar with - from Abba to Queen!! 

 After all that dancing, it must be assumed that the guests might be hungry again - LOL!!  (The dinner was huge and delicious, and later there were big trays of amazing sweets, treats, and cakes on every table, so we were definitely not hungry at any point!)  But at midnight, a second supper came out, served buffet-style, which in Slovakia is called a Swedish Table.  There were schnitzels, chicken skewers and other meats, pasta and potato and veggie salads, and some fruits, among other things!  We shared a plate with a few small dabs of things, just to taste it - and of course everything was wonderful.  

Then, after midnight, there were more rituals to be observed.  A bottle of champagne was emptied into this earthen jug held by the class teacher, and it was passed around among the class until it was empty.  (Oh, and the guy opening the champagne bottle was my student dance partner earlier.)

After the jug was empty, the class teacher wrapped it in a tablecloth and smashed it on the floor until it shattered into pieces.  

Then, each student came and picked up a piece of the shattered jug, to save as a keepsake of their special stužkova evening.  

And finally, the class teacher cut this beautifully decorated cake, and pieces were distributed by the boys in the class to all the guests.  Oh my - we were already stuffed, but we shared a piece of cake, and it was scrumptious too!!  

We left fairly early, at least by stužkova standards, and we were in bed by about 1:00 a.m., which was good because the alarm had to be set for 8:00.  Tim played in the once-a-month basketball tournament at school, and I was at the bus station by 9:20 to meet visitors.  

Blog readers will remember Emily, Nina and Courtney from our visit to Tisovec in September.  We always greet any fellow American lectors with a sign similar to the one we all saw when we first landed at the Vienna airport to begin orientation in Bratislava for our teaching mission in central Europe!  We can all remember how comforting it was to see that sign and know someone was there to meet us and take care of us after our trip over the Atlantic!  

We walked over to the school, saw Tim briefly at the gym, and luckily were able to get inside to show the girls around our school building.  It was only unlocked on a Saturday because the pastor had a worker there installing new flooring in his new office.  It's fun to compare facilities, and it was a classic case of "the grass is always greener".  Back when we visited the Tisovec school, we noticed all the things our school didn't have that they did have, and when the girls saw our school, they likewise noticed all the things we have that they don't.  So after laughing about it, I think we all ended up feeling blessed with the positive aspects of our own schools!!  Lesson learned!!  

After sharing some conversation over coffee/tea/cakes for about an hour, we met Krystal's train together.  She came down from Poland to meet the gals here for the day, kind of in the middle for them.  

While Tim was still playing basketball, we had a fun time together sharing stories and laughing at our flat, and then we finally went on a walking tour of Liptovsky Mikuláš.  It was awesome getting to spend time with these beautiful Christian women!!  We have no doubts that they are an incredible blessing as they serve in mission at their schools!  

On our walking tour, we went around to the back side of the Jewish synagogue, which we had never really seen or noticed before.  

Tim's basketball tournament finished much later than normal, unfortunately, due to a team arriving late and an injury that stopped play for a while.  So he finally joined us for a late lunch around 2:00 p.m.  The girls left by train at 4:15, so it was a short but really fun day with them.  Their exuberance and zest for life was invigorating to us, and we know they'll have a fun rest of the weekend together in Tisovec.  

Last night we did some skyping - always one of the highlights of our weeks!!  I also got several loads of laundry done, so the drying racks are full now.  This morning Zuzka translated at church, and then we listened to our online sermon.  More later on all the remarkably 'coincidental' messages we've been hearing lately in sermons and Bible studies from two continents.  Our minds and hearts amazed with God's goodness, his graces extended, and the many ways that he touches our spirits!