Basketball and a Salaš

Saturday morning, Tim was up bright and early for this month's basketball tournament at school.   As usual, I did chores around the flat - mending and laundry mostly - during the morning, but then I headed over to the gym to catch some of the hoops action later.

Luckily, I arrived just before the teacher team started their last game of the day.
Go EGJT!!   (Evanjelické Gymnázium Juraja Tranovského is the name of our school.  A 'gymnázium' is a high school, not a gym facility!!)
Tim --- Erik --- ?? guest player --- Peter --- Min'o

And even luckier, their next opponent was the team of students from our school!  So I got to see the only two teams I really cared to watch, completely by chance.  Sweet!!
Marek --- Jakub --- a friend of theirs --- Tomáš --- Tomáš --- and another friend

Tim did the opening toss to get the game started.  

Bet'ka, the scorekeeper on the right, is one of the gals who played in the coed tourney in Martin.  She's a trainer for the Ružomberok women's team too.  

Min'o made this one, and it shows all four of my students, plus Erik and Tim!   This is the gym where we play volleyball on Monday and Thursday nights too.

Tim making the layup!  

Later on he was fouled, so shot 2 from the line.  

Nothin' but net on both shots!!  No surprise!!   The teacher team won a close one, but the whole game was exciting, with several lead changes each half.  They call their own fouls - there are no refs. 

Sunday morning, I was treated to a belated Mother's Day breakfast in bed, to hold up Tim's normal tradition, since he didn't do it the previous week with Becca here.  What a sweetie!! Zuzana translated at church, and we stopped for hot tea on the walk home.  Then we took Zuzana by a monument in a park which she didn't know about.  We had walked by this place many times, never understanding the significance of the monument until this past week when we noticed a sign telling about it!  

Martin Rázus was a Slovak poet, dramatist, writer, politician and Lutheran pastor

We could never figure out this oddly shaped monument, with the guy hiding back beyond these angled walls.   But what we thought were random 'walls' were really the pages of a book, in honor of this famous Slovak writer!  And as a Lutheran pastor, he is in a pulpit!  

The cover of the 'book' at the front of the monument was intentionally made to rust, to represent the leather bindings of a book and the cover.  

Click here for a short video:     Martin Razus monument in Liptovský Mikuláš

After Sunday dinner and our online sermon, I did some more baking.  We're working our way through all our classes, bringing them two kinds of American cookies each, one more time this school year.  They all want recipes, but there are a few ingredients they can't buy here, but which our moms, Beth, cousins, and friends have sent for me to use here in Slovakia!  I'm having fun using up the rest of my supplies before school gets out at the end of June.  :-)

Wednesday was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day, so Tim suggested a bike ride up one of the valleys nearby.  We stopped first to visit Zuzana and Timko in Podbreziny, which was on our way, since she's been gone from school all week running the Maturita exams in a different school in another town.  The views were magnificent!  

This view is back the other direction towards Podbreziny.  Pretty much 360º beauty!! 

On Thursday right after school, our boss from the U.S. picked us up for a drive into the Low Tatras for supper with the lectors at the school in Tisovec.   On the way out of town, Arden suggested driving through McDonald's for a beverage.  It was our first time making a purchase at McD's here!   

This grassy field is right next to the McDonald's drive-through, and I was glad to finally get a photo of a common sight this time of year.  Most everywhere here they let the first growth of grass get really long before cutting it with a weed-whacker.  Then people come and rake it, load it onto carts, and take it away, presumably for livestock.  An ancient cart pulled by a work horse is very typical around here.  

We had a little extra time on our drive, so we made a stop in Brezno and went to see the old Jewish synagogue.  The doors were open, so we went inside and discovered an art exhibition on the main floor, with works by local art students and other artists.   Upstairs on the second floor, there was an exhibit about the history of the synagogue and the Brezno Jews.  

We arrived at the salaš (the name for a sheep farm, many of which now have a restaurant serving traditional Slovak foods) before the gals arrived by bus, so we checked out some of the sheep while waiting.  

They are unusual looking sheep to me with their long, llama-like wool, curly horns and black eyes.  

The Tisovec Trio, as I like to call them, arrived to join us for dinner!
Emily --- Tim --- Nina --- Arden --- Courtney

We ate traditional Slovak dinners with bryndza (sheep cheese) - yum - and we got a table out on the balcony to enjoy the beautiful surroundings while we ate.  

After dinner and good-byes, Arden drove the gals back into Tisovec while Tim and I waited at the salaš, since the car didn't have enough seats for all six of us.  We did the same thing last year on this trip with Arden, so we were actually kind of looking forward to hanging around the salaš, enjoying the peace and quiet on the sheep farm!  

And again this year, we saw a beautiful sunset over the mountains too!!  

This is the view out my office window at school, and today this guy was mowing the yard out front (which does not belong to the school!)  He mowed this whole, huge area with, of course, a weed-whacker!  And, of course, the grass was jungle-length before being cut!  Quite a normal process here --- I'll watch tomorrow to see if anyone picks it up and carts it off again in a wagon.  

Tonight Tim is at basketball.  I rode my bike with him as he walked to the gym (not our school gym on Friday nights - this one is about a 25 minute walk), and then I rode along the bike path next to the Vah river on a round-about route back to our flat.  It was in the low 80's this afternoon, so it really feels like summer now.  And only 5 more weeks of school left - yay!!