The Week in Review

What a week we've had!  It's been very busy at school, and we've put in a lot of long days, going in early for meetings or rehearsals, and staying late getting work done.  Three days this week (two for Tim), we've been involved with competitions instead of teaching our classes, which is kind of a double-whammy.  For those days, we lost all our preparation time during school, plus we had to spend a lot more time preparing for subs than if we were just getting ready to teach our classes ourselves.  On top of that, for some reason, our semester grades were due on Friday, even though the semester doesn't end until Jan. 31.  But, the week is behind us, and we are doing fine after a restful weekend!  

Monday was the Speaker's Corner competition at our school, which we are in charge of.  We heard some good speeches, and we'll now begin preparing the winners for the next round of competition in Žilina on Feb. 6.  Wednesday I went with Saška and two primary school students to the area English Olympics competition, where I was the native speaker to help with the oral parts of the testing.  I read aloud the listening sections for each of the three levels, and then I did role-plays with all the students.  In one of my scenarios, I was a parent who had cut off the electricity in my teen's bedroom because he/she kept playing music too loudly.  I actually had one student yell at me, "I HATE YOU, Mom!!", which was great!!  LOL!!   Then Thursday, Tim and I both did the same thing for a secondary level English Olympics area competition that was hosted at our school.  It's fun seeing how kids from our school stack up against kids from other schools --- ours are super!!  :-)

The primary school competition day went by really quickly, and this is the only picture I got.  I was just coming into another room to read the listening section out loud, as these students were finishing up the written grammar section.  

In the evenings, we gave some lessons and played some volleyball - it was great seeing our friends again after Christmas break.  Tim played basketball on Friday night, and the guys were glad to have him back.  Saturday, we went on a long walk and got a lot done around the flat - like washing sheets, towels, and rugs, and baking some cookies too.  

But today was the first truly blog-worthy day since we've been back.  Lots of photos coming……………

We went to church at 9:00, and Zuzana was there to translate.  She had gotten the scripture verses from the pastor ahead of time too, which was helpful!  For the first time in our experience here, they eliminated a hymn and cut the service short, so that anyone who wanted to make it to the ecumenical service at the Catholic church at 10:00 could get there on time.  So the three of us decided to at least go and check it out.  

As we approached the church, we were surprised to see a whole bunch of news media vehicles all around the church, and many people heading towards the doors.  

Zuzana had heard that the service was to be televised live, because it was a really big deal!  Wow!!  

When we got around to the front of the church, there were a bunch of official-looking cars, men in suits, and police officers all around, so we assumed there must be some V.I.P.'s inside already.  

There were people still crowded around the front door trying to get in --- mostly all the Lutherans who had just gotten out of church.  LOL!!  

We finally got inside just after the officiants all processed down the center aisle, and there were about 16 of them, including the bishops of both the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches in Slovakia sitting at the front.  The place was packed, so we finally found a place to stand in the far back corner of the church. 

That's one of our pastors giving a welcome to everyone in attendance.  (He's the one who started up the choir I direct at church, Pastor Bochnička.)  The next speaker introduced the mayor of Liptovský Mikuláš, the director of this region, and the President of Slovakia, Gašparovič!  So this was a really big deal!  

The top leaders of most, if not all, of the churches in Slovakia were taking part in the service.  This is the group that was in my camera range, but an equal number were on the other side.  In addition to those from the two major churches, the pastors were Baptist, Methodist, Brethren, Seventh-Day Adventist, Reformed, Greek Orthodox, and many others listed in Slovak.  

I took this picture just to show the circus atmosphere with all the TV cameras inside.  There were lots of cameramen plus still photographers everywhere.  The big boom camera on the left was moving up, down, and all over the place!! 

Ivan Mráz is the husband of my good friend and student, Eva.  He conducts the Catholic church choir, who sang at the service.  (He's in the black, with dark hair.)  Their son Ondrej is at the back left - a beautiful singer!  We were glad to be able to hear Ivan's group perform and lead the congregational singing as well.  They even did "How Great Thou Art" in Slovak as a choir anthem.  :-)   We got to join in singing with the congregation: "Kumbaya" and "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love" and "In Christ There Is No East or West"  --- of course all in Slovak too.  

There was a small string ensemble from L.M. playing Purcell's Trumpet Tune for the processional and a Vivaldi concerto for the recessional.  Nice!! 

We had to duck out just a little before the end (it was an hour and a half long), to make it to our next engagement, but it was really a wonderful experience to attend this ecumenical service!  Zuzana couldn't translate every word for us, like she does at our church when we're tucked up in the balcony away from other people, because it was so packed that we would have disturbed other worshippers at this service.  But she did share quite a bit of overview, softly, and it was neat that all these different church leaders were emphasizing our one-ness in Christ and encouraging everyone to overlook differences and past grievances in order to join together to spread God's love throughout the world.  It was such an uplifting service!

When we left, I noticed these two obvious secret-service types just outside the church doors.  I couldn't resist taking this picture for our family members in close contact with the FBI!   :-)   (I told Tim and Zuzana to pose for a picture, but I'd really be focusing behind them at the presidential security guys!!  

O.K., now the real picture of Zuzana, our wonderful translator, colleague, and friend, and Tim too!   

And Zuzana took one of me as well.  

We walked home, changed clothes, and were soon picked up by Michal, one of Tim's basketball buddies, for Sunday lunch at his place.  Michal, his wife, Bibi, and daughter, Kristina, greeted us, then we went to the flat next door where his parents, Ján and Eva had the table set up.  The meal was delicious - mushroom soup for the first course, then a roast duck dinner with red cabbage, stuffing, and knedla (kind of like slices of crustless Wonder Bread), followed by yummy desserts, of course!    

Michal and his family after dinner.  The artwork is by Michal's sister and her husband.  Michal's mom sings in my choir at church!   

We asked about all these trophies in the living room and found out that Michal's father is a champion model airplane maker!  

We got to see some of his light-weight planes.

This box holds parts for about six of his planes --- notice the Slovak flag decals!!  Ján flies his planes and competes internationally all over central Europe.  

We really had a nice time visiting with Michal and his family, though there was a lot of translating throughout the meal.  He had picked us up at our flat in his car, but we ended up walking home, which was good after such a big meal.  It took about 1/2 hour, since they live in Vrbica, near the basketball gym where Tim plays.   (Vrbica is actually one of the oldest sections of Liptovský Mikuláš.)

On our walk home, we passed by the infamous Vrbica pub where Tim goes for a pivo with the guys after playing basketball every Friday night, so I just had to get a picture of it in the daylight!  :-)  

After we got home, we had about 15 minutes until it was time to be picked up again by Saška, to go for a short hike near her village of Bobrovec.  Our weather has been unseasonably warm here, and today it was about 50º F --- almost springlike!  So it's nice to get outside and enjoy the fresh air.  

It was getting towards dusk by the time we reached our destination - a really pretty waterfall up on a rocky hillside.  It was about 20 feet high.  

Our hiking group - Samuel (a family friend), Zuzka (one of our seniors), Terezka (a freshman), Tim and Saška (our primary school Principal).  

Saška and her husband Ignac have just finished remodeling their house, and everything looks really spacious and nice.  This is their new living room, where we had hot tea and cake, then played a trivia board game.  It was in Slovak, but they were super translators!  It really reminded us of our Sunday evening "Game Nights" back home in Ankeny!!  :-)  

So there you have it, our fun-filled Sunday in Slovakia!