Teacher Appreciation Day

Last week was a short school week with only three teaching days, but I'm sure it won't surprise anyone that it was a really busy week anyway!   Tuesday there were no classes because we had nearly 200 students in the building who took entrance examinations as part of the application process for our incoming classes next year.  We helped 'meet-and-greet' in the morning, were introduced and spoke briefly at a parent information session while the kids were taking the tests, then assisted with grading the English exams afterwards.  

Wednesday morning was our monthly all-school worship service at church, and we got to sing with the praise team.  There were songs in both English and Slovak which we had practiced with the student-led group, and it was awesome to sing with them.   They also asked us to help in the service - I read the scripture in English after a student read the same thing in Slovak, and Tim said a prayer in English after the Slovak prayers.  

Thursday morning we again did the student devotions in English in the chapel.  We hope to involve other English-speaking teachers in upcoming weeks, so the students hear a variety of approaches and perspectives from different staff members.

Friday was Teacher Appreciation Day in Slovakia, but there were no classes that day, so on Thursday our students gave us flowers and were even sweeter than normal!  

On Friday, all the teachers from the Lutheran schools in the eastern district of Slovakia were invited to a special event to honor teachers, held in Martin.  We boarded a charter bus in the morning, and from the bus window, this was the view of our beautiful Liptovská Mara and the Tatras behind.  I had baked Snickerdoodles to take along and share on the bus, for another new traditional American cookie sample!   

When we arrived at the school in Martin, we were treated to delicious sweet rolls, sandwiches, and coffee or tea.  It was fun enjoying this opening reception with our colleagues before the worship service, and we were looking forward to also re-connecting with some of our American lector friends too.  

We knew Matt would be there, since his school was hosting the event, and we guessed correctly that he would be rehearsing for musical parts of the service.  When we got into the church, we found Matt for a big welcome hug!!  :-)  

The Bishop (with the large gold cross) and the other pastors participating in the worship service at the church, which is right on the school grounds in Martin.  

The glare from the windows in the background made for a poor photo, but the praise band sounded awesome.  See below for a link to a short video clip on YouTube!  Matt was absolutely amazing on the trombone.  As I told him afterwards, the trombone has never been a favorite instrument of mine, but I could listen to Matt's gorgeous tone and expressive playing all day long!!  Wow!! 

Click here to listen to Matt playing trombone with the Martin school praise band: 
Matt on trombone!

They had their preschool kids sing a couple of songs too - very cute!!  This one was "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock" -  in Slovak of course. 

Here's a better picture of the praise band playing.   It was awesome hearing familiar hymns during this service.  Even in Slovak, "A Mighty Fortress" and "How Great Thou Art" are wonderful songs to focus on our faith and God's greatness.  

The Bishop delivering an inspiring sermon about the mission and calling of teaching, and how we have many opportunities to impact kids' lives.  (Somehow the sermon always seems really impressive from the lofty wall-mounted pulpits!)  

After the church service, we all moved over to the school auditorium for a program.  The kids were really well prepared, and we enjoyed the skit about Nicodemus and Jesus.  

Matt and the band performed a couple of numbers too.  ROCK ON, MATT!!    :-)  

A view from the balcony during the program.  We are in the second row on the bottom, listening to Pat'ka translate for us.  

The Bishop presented us with awards in recognition of our service at our school.  Each school had a couple of representatives nominated by their administrators.  We felt that we were merely representing all of our wonderful colleagues at EGJT and ESŠ.  

The award presentation ceremony at Martin.
Thanks, Pat'ka and Viki for the photography!!   :-) 

The group of teachers who were presented with awards.  (Obviously, I did NOT help with the photo arrangement - much as I wanted to organize it, I resisted the urge.  LOL!!)

We had a brief reunion with some of our Global Missions family -- Jacob from Košice and Matt from Martin.  It was fun seeing the guys from the schools in our district.  

And this is the group from our school --- they are such awesome friends and colleagues!  

Ready to get back on our bus for the ride home.  

We were each given a flower during the awards presentation, but afterwards, our Headmistress gave us each ENORMOUS bouquets on behalf of our school.  The flowers were absolutely gorgeous!!  WOW!!  

On the bus for our return journey.  Smile, everyone!!  

And now for the back of the bus --- watch out for the two guys in the way back!!   ;-)  

It's a good thing that there are a lot of vases in our flat!!  I don't think we've had this many flowers all at once since the birth of our children.  Left-to-right:  my bouquet, our two apricot colored calla lilies from the Bishop's office, Tim's bouquet (with the biggest bird-of-paradise I've ever seen!), two sweetheart roses from the student council (hiding in the back), and some gerbera daisies from our I.A5 class and one of my elementary students.  

Our awards came in these beautiful velveteen folders (this is the front of one and the inside of the other.)  Very classy!!  

 After we got back to our flat, we had about an hour to change clothes and get ready to take a bus the other direction to meet Katarina and her parents in Liptovský Hrádok for a concert that evening.  

It was Slovakia's best a cappella group, called Fragile.  We were very impressed - they are an excellent group, and thanks to Katarina's translation, we also appreciated their humorous banter between numbers.  It was an awesome concert!!    :-)

Click here for a link to a short video clip of Fragile singing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Fragile Concert

After the concert, we all went to a restaurant in Závažná Poruba for a light supper and fun conversation.  Congratulations go out to Juraj, who was recently re-elected as the Východná city manager!!  :-)  We really enjoyed this fun evening with our Slovak family!!  

Hanging Out with Mr. Ambassador

Last Friday at school, our I.A5 classes put on American-style skits as part of our current unit on arts and entertainment.  It was a new experience for most of our students to do skits!  

These girls did an extremely short version of "Cinderella" with each character popping up from behind the sheet to deliver one line at a time.  So cute, and it reminded us of Paul's famous Riverside skits of 1-minute Disney!!  

And this group is trying to act totally nonchalant as they are unexpectedly stuck to a chair for some unknown reason.  Very funny!! 

These guys were sitting on an invisible bench until someone came along and told them she had moved it elsewhere.  At which point they all tumbled to the ground!   LOL!!  

Saturday morning, Pat'ka and Rivi picked us up for an overnight trip to Banskà Štiavnica.  A close friend of hers from university and from early teaching in this town, is now a marketing director for a group of hotels, and she had planned a special event - American Week!!  The featured guest was the American Ambassador to Slovakia, His Excellency Tad Sedgwick.  (Note:  American citizens are to address American Ambassadors as "Mr. Ambassador", but foreign citizens use "Excellency" - pretty impressive!!)

Our hotel was a renovated OLD building (formerly some rich person's house back in the mining heyday of this town), near the town center, and it was absolutely charming.  We were on the top floor, in kind of a loft type room.  

The view out our window down to a statue on the square below, and up to the new castle high on the hill.  We had visited this castle, now turned museum, when we were in Banská Štiavnica about a year ago.  

We got a tour of the hotel when we arrived.  This is the beautiful suite where the American Ambassador would be staying for the weekend!  

And here is the little tower nook in the suite, looking out over the town.  How I'd love to sit here and read a book from this romantic little spot!!  :-)  

Downstairs there is a nice wine cellar.  (Tim with Beata and Pat'ka.)

At the far end of the wine cellar there are doors leading into a former mine.

The mine area is dark and damp, but Beata told us that one couple held a wedding there.  

And finally at the far end of the mine opening, there is another tunnel, leading to the back side of some other miner's house!  

Then we headed out for a walk over the cobblestone streets and sidewalks of the town.  

Here is a link if you're interested in learning more about this fascinating and historic town.
Click here to read about:    Banská Štiavnica

A statue honoring the miners who helped put this town on the map.  

The Catholic church and the town hall.  

The yellow building with the red roof is our hotel, and the little tower on the front of the second story is where I was sitting in the Ambassador's room.  (We arrived before he did, so that's the only reason we got the private tour of the suite!)  

After lunch in a restaurant high on a hill overlooking Banska Štiavnica, we hiked across to the far edge of town to climb the Calvary hill.  

Three of the chapels near the beginning of the hill, with the chapel at the very top visible far beyond.  

Looking up the Calvary Hill from just past the chapels.  

These purple trumpet-shaped flowers were blossoming everywhere on the hillside!  

Rivi's only time to actually pose and smile for a photo!  LOL!!  

Another view up the hill towards our destination  Each of the small white structures held stations of the cross along the zig-zagging path up the hill.  The original painted wood carvings of the scenes have been removed because of weather damage and vandalism, and we saw those in the museum when we were here last year with Zuzka.  

After returning from the Calvary Hill, we walked back towards the hotel.  There were many spring flowers beginning to pop out!  

There is a very old forestry school in Banská Štiavnica, with a lovely botanical garden outside it.  One of the old trees, planted in the 1700's, is this American sequoia.

This is the gate leading into the botanical gardens and the forestry school, with dragons (or maybe swans) guarding the top of the gate.  

When we returned to the hotel, Beata told us that Ambassador Sedgwick had arrived and wanted to meet us.    :-)    So after introductions, he asked if we wanted to take a walk around this lovely town.  And off we went!   

This is the new castle on the hill (from the 1500's - yep, that's the 'new' one!), framed by the church steeple and the town hall steeple, seen in an earlier picture.  

Here we are with Ambassador Sedgwick, in front of the old castle entrance. 

The Ambassador with Rivi and Pat'ka.  After all our previous hiking with the gals to the restaurant and up the Calvary Hill, they were tired, so Tim and I continued our walk with the Ambassador a while longer.  

These bas-relief sculpture is part of a larger one incorporating landmarks, symbols, history, rocks and minerals in the Banská Štiavnica area.  

This picture shows a good view of the Calvary Hill we climbed earlier.  Shortly after taking this picture, it started to rain enough that we decided to hurry back down the hill to find shelter.  We went to a local brewery that the Ambassador had been to before, so we had a beer and some hot salted almonds together there.  As someone who normally doesn't like beer much, I was surprised that it was actually good!  

Soon the rain stopped, so we headed back to our hotel to change clothes for dinner and walk together to the restaurant about 10 minutes away.  

"Good Food, Good Mood, Good Cause"
This was the poster advertising the event, featuring an American style band and the Ambassador, who was to do some cooking and discuss American cuisine.  Ambassador Sedgwick was the headliner for the evening, but as a diplomat he obviously can't participate in any for-profit event, so all the proceeds were donated to the restoration of the Jewish cemetery in town.

Ambassador Sedgwick asked us if we would like to wear some American accessories that he had brought along.  Tim looked really sharp in his stars and stripes tie, but the Ambassador's bow tie was the bomb!!  One half was the U.S. flag, and the other half was the Slovak flag --- sweet!!  

The three Americans represented the U.S.A. well in our patriotic attire!  It really was a fun evening, and we were honored to spend time with Ambassador Sedgwick.  He's really an interesting and engaging guy.  Tim had Googled him and found out a lot about his background and interests, so there were a lot of conversation starters!  

Ambassador Sedgwick with Pat'ka's friend Beata and the Czech chef.  The cuisine was all supposed to be American, but it definitely had some gourmet European touches!  

The band was excellent, and of course they played all American music.  After dinner, we were all dancing and had a great time!  

Pat'ka translating for Ambassador Sedgwick's remarks.  He talked about how Americans love to grill meat -- so true!  

Although the chef actually did all the food preparation, Ambassador Sedgwick was billed as being the cook, so he did grill some veal to help out!  

The menu was varied, but some of the items/names/combinations were new to us!   Everything we tasted was delicious though!  

Ambassador Sedgwick had hired a private guide to take him hiking in the morning, but we had planned on going to church on Sunday, so we declined his kind invitation to go along.  We did have breakfast together though, so we shared more conversation.  We were really impressed by how down-to-earth, gracious, and fun Ambassador Sedgwick is, and he also did a terrific job of working the crowd Saturday night and making each person feel welcomed and special.  Our country should be proud of its ambassador to Slovakia!    

Before church, we had some extra time, so we gave some billiard lessons to Rivi and Pat'ka.  We hadn't played pool in a long time, but it was a good, level table, so it was great fun!  

The Lutheran Church was huge, and we sat in the second balcony so that we wouldn't disturb anyone by having Pat'ka translate for us.  

It was hard to show much from where we sat, but the sanctuary was a unique oval shape.

After church we walked back to the restaurant where we'd been the night before, and along the way we saw many newly-planted spring flowers.  

It is really starting to look like springtime in Slovakia!

Yay for spring's arrival!!

The low gray building that is barely visible at the top of the hill in the center of this picture is the restaurant where we had lunch on Saturday.  It was quite a hike to get there!  

The American Week featured bowling --- yes, bowling!!  The night before, the lanes were covered up by a raised floor, so we didn't realize they were there.  We had been dancing on the bowling alley Saturday night!  Rivi and Pat'ka had never bowled either, so we again gave them lessons on another new American sport!  

There was some good 'body English' going on!!   The lanes seemed a little shorter than normal ones, but it was a lot of fun for all of us, and we even had real bowling shoes to wear, in normal American sizes!  What a fun surprise to get to go bowling!!    :-)  

It was raining off and on all day Sunday, so our potential outdoor plans were changed.  Pat'ka and Rivi got together with some old friends to talk, and Beata made an appointment for us at a nearby thermal hot spring spa.  Pat'ka let us take her car, so we headed down the valley to Sklené Teplice.

We thought this round building was our destination, but after a phone call to Pat'ka so she could talk to the receptionist, we found out we needed to go down the road a little farther! 

The Cave Bath building was built right into the side of the mountain, and after entering we headed down some stairs deep into the rocks.  

There were quite a few buildings around this beautiful spa setting, with different types of treatments in thermal waters of different temperatures.  I didn't want to take our camera into the hot and humid spa areas, so the rest of the pictures are borrowed from the internet.  

We were in the Cave Bath, which had tile around the front entrance area, but the back was into the rocky cave.  The water was 42º C which is converts to 107.5º F, so it was really HOT and very relaxing.  We actually went back into the narrow passageway at the center left, and the water was even hotter back there.  It was definitely another new thermal spa experience in Slovakia!  

After 20 minutes in the Cave Bath, we were moved to the "relax" area, where we were wrapped in these soft, thick blankets to just rest and relax, all cozy and toasty from our own body heat after coming out of the hot water.  The fish tank (at left) was a nice touch!

Our last treatment was 20 minutes in a massage chair, and was it ever great!!  The picture is a little blurry, but it was a really pretty wood-paneled room with statues and fountains, and the facing side of the room was all floor-to-ceiling windows, so we could look outside at the stream flowing by next to the building.  By the time we left Sklené Teplice, we were very relaxed!!  It was nice of Beata and Pat'ka to plan this nice spa outing for us!  

After another game of pool with the gals, we headed back to Liptovský Mikuláš after a fun weekend filled with new experiences.