Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!

Last Sunday after church, our online sermon, and lunch, we relaxed a bit before taking a train to Ružomberok for a concert.  Our friend Ivan Mráz conducts a choir at the Catholic University there, so we went to hear their music department performance.  

The pole from May Day was up in the center square of town!  (It looks like a tall pine tree, stripped of branches up to the very top, which is decorated with many colorful ribbons.)

Tulips on the square of Ružomberok on our way through town.  

The train schedule worked out so that we had about an hour to wait before the concert, so we discovered this wonderful tea house with a huge menu of exotic teas from all around the world.  Our individual tea pots each had a candle underneath to keep it warm.  Nice!  

The Catholic University on the left, and the Jesuit church beyond, where we attended the concert.  

The first performers -- this was a smaller choir.  The acoustics were awesome in the church!!  

Recorder duet, accompanied by harpsichord.  It was such a lovely sound in this venue!

There were a couple of soloists - I'm not sure, but I think they were faculty members.

The final choir has two directors.  

Ivan's portion was the last, and the ensemble was amazing under his direction.  Their pieces were very difficult and superbly performed!   The group is much smaller this year, and there are many new members, but they still did a great job!  

Click here for a link to a short video clip of Ivan's group singing:

Ružomberok Catholic University Choir - Ivan Mráz

Eva (Ivan's wife, my student and good friend) had extra room in her car after the concert, so we rode home with her.  The canola fields are in their prime now, and the contrast with the green hillsides in the distance is so pretty, even through the car window!   

Tuesday was a big day after school.  The Drama Club presented the premiere performance of our play, "Owl Smart", which is an original adaptation of "Snow White".  The twist is that Owl Smart is a young Prince who is highly intelligent, with a stupid and jealous step-father, the King, who has a magic notebook computer to whom he poses the question, "Notebook, notebook on the wall, who's the brightest of them all?"  And the Dwarves are "Dwarfettes" instead.  Anyway, it's really cute, lots of fun, full of humor, and there are even a couple of musical numbers.  Pat'ka wrote the script, with ideas from the kids and some editing from me, and the whole group has worked really hard to pull everything together.  There were many photos taken, so I'll post some as soon as I get them from the photographer.  For once, I just sat back and enjoyed the performance.  (In other words, I forgot to bring my camera --- HORRORS!!!  Thankfully there was a photographer there shooting lots of pics!)  

Here's a photo of the cast and directors that Juraj, the King, sent to me.  Thanks, Juraj!!  The performance went exceptionally well, and the audience enjoyed this entertaining performance in English!!

The flowers which were presented to me by the students.   :-)   I love Gerbera daisies!   

On Wednesday, our school hosted a day of fine arts competition, and many of our students prepared and performed for the awards ceremony.  

Our school pastor and Headmistress opening the program and welcoming everyone.  

Another of our students performing an original composition.  She was one of the winners of the music competition, which I had helped judge earlier, from recorded entries.  The photo behind is one of the art entries, also by one of our students.  The original painting is huge - about 4' X 8', and it's beautiful hanging in one of our classrooms.

Wednesday after school we were headed to another event, and we walked through the town square where we saw this crowd gathered.  There's a band in the center background.  We assume that this was a remembrance for the national holiday on Thursday, Freedom from Fascism Day, commemorating liberation after WW II.

You can see the war monument in the background with the soldiers at attention.  

Our destination was the yard behind the church hall, where all the Basic School staff were invited for a birthday barbecue hosted by Saška.  Her birthday was during Lent, so she decided to wait and have an outdoor party later.  She grilled up kielbasa and chicken for everyone.  Delicious!  Others brought salads and snacks to share, and I brought a pan of chocolate chip bars.  

Some of the young teachers who I work with at the Basic School.  Fun gals! 

More of the gang celebrating Saška's birthday.  

It was awesome to have time to relax and enjoy the fun company of wonderful colleagues on the afternoon before a day off from school.  

This captures the formal speech and presentation of a group gift to Saška.  The spoken word is definitely more important here, and we have really grown to appreciate the heartfelt expressions of appreciation, good wishes, and love that we have witnessed.

We left the barbecue party early because we'd been invited to attend a piano recital at the gallery just across the pedestrian walk-way from the church hall.  This is Pastor Bohnička's son, Filip, playing his recital piece.  Darling!!  

And this is Nikola, one of our favorite students, performing a Chopin Nocturne.  She plays with incredible passion and sensitivity!!  Nikola also played one of the major roles in the drama the day before - she's so talented!!  

After the recital we walked back to see if the barbecue party was still going on, and it was!  Peter got out his guitar, and we all sang together in English, Slovak, and Czech, thanks to the songbooks that Peter brought!!  

It's been a fun week so far, and now it's Thursday, our day off for the national holiday, and we'll report on today's adventure later!!  

Here's a special shout-out to all of our teaching colleagues, past and present, on both sides of the Atlantic!!  God bless you for planting seeds of learning in your students.
Happy Belated Teacher Appreciation Day!!!