"Owl Smart" and other events!

O.K., O.K., I'm sorry that it has been so long since the last post.  Yes, I know some of you have been checking every day for something new, so now, finally, here you go!!     :-)

Starting from last week, I'll try to get caught up, but this may be a longer than normal post.  I'll let the pictures do the talking for the most part.   

Thursday afternoon, instead of having a normal English lesson with Marian, Tim went on a road trip with him!  Their first stop was at Marian's father's cabin, which they are building.  

Marian and Tim outside the cabin.  Tim said the woodwork is all gorgeous, and it will be quite an impressive place when it's finished!!  

They also stopped to meet this neighbor.  

Their next stop was the factory where Marian is a manager.

Tim and Marian have talked a lot about Marian's business over the past two years, so Tim really wanted to see the operation.  We included these pictures especially for Paul, because it reminded us a little of Ag Leader, since this company also manufactures component parts for high-tech electronics.  

A quality control guy checking to see that the parts function correctly.  

Tim said everything was really high-tech.  

Friday after school, there was one more performance of the Drama Club play, a little later in the afternoon this time so that more parents could attend.  "Owl Smart" is our original adaptation of the "Snow White" fairy tale!  Everyone has heard the fairy tale, "Snow White", with the beautiful princess, the wicked step-mother who wanted to be the most beautiful in the land, the magic "mirror, mirror, on the wall", and the seven dwarves.  Well, here at EGJT, the Drama Club came up with their own adaptation of this story.  This fairy tale, written by Pat'ka with many ideas from the students, is about "Owl Smart", the intelligent (and handsome) prince, a stupid step-father, the king, who wants to be the most intelligent in the land, the magic computer "notebook, notebook, on the wall" (really on the desk, but that's just a detail), and the dwarfettes.  Of course their were other characters like the beautiful princess from a far-away kingdom, the king's loyal butler, a palace guard, and a hunter.  The Drama Club has been preparing this production for most of the past two years, and I've helped as an English consultant and assistant director.  There were even musical numbers!  

Zuzka, (the "Magic Notebook/Laptop" who was like the Magic Mirror-Mirror-on-the-wall,) Nikola, (the King's loyal Butler), and Roman (the palace guard) in one of the early scenes.  Notice our high-tech backdrops projected on the screen on the back of the stage!!  Such a great idea! 

The play was an adaptation of "Snow White", and these were our "Dwarfettes", since we had more females in Drama Club!  

Of course we had a handsome (and highly intelligent) prince, who fell in love with a beautiful princess from a far-off kingdom.  

The prince's step-father, the King, wanted to be the most intelligent one in the kingdom!  

This was a musical number, and the gals (Ester and Nikola) sounded super on their duet, accompanied by Roman on the guitar.  

Eventually, through some magic, the king (Juraj) finally realizes that his step-son (Rene) is truly the brightest one in the kingdom.  

The poor unfortunate hunter (Mary) was the only casualty in the play ---- executed for mocking the king --- oops!!  

And in the end, the prince was crowned as the new King, free to marry the Princess, and the Dwarfettes' mission to restore education and libraries in the kingdom was ready to be accomplished!  So everyone lived happily ever after.     :-)  

The cast of "Owl Smart"  Such great kids, a talented director (Pat'ka), and a fun original script to work with!  

Friday evening after the performance, the 5.AP class, who just graduated, held a farewell party at their class teacher's house.  Juraj, the King in the drama production, is one of the 5.AP class, so the others got things ready before the arrival of those of us who were at the play.  

The party was at Katka's mother's house, in Demänová, not far from here.  This is her beautiful garden, full of flowers, as well as many vegetables, fruit trees, etc.  

Miška, Juraj, Minka, Doda, Ika, Jully, Sisa, and Dominika, with some of our teachers on the swing behind the students.  It was a great place for a garden party!  

The teacher end of the table --- Daša, Miro, Tim, and Katka, the class teacher.  We had perfect weather for an outdoor barbecue party!  

Eva (teacher), Denisa, Laura (teacher), and Sisa. 

Juraj transitioned beautifully from the lead role as the King in our play, to serving chicken hot out of the oven!!  

Matej, Juraj, and Nikol with Katka

Seated in front circle:  Ika, Veronika, Eva, Denisa, Laura
Standing in back:  Charlotte, Jully, Caroline, and Nad'a (teacher)

It was so amazing to see a stork flying overhead!!  We have seen them sitting on their enormous nests before, but never in flight.  

As the evening went on, Nad'a and Miro passed the guitar around, and all the Slovaks joined in singing.  It is so neat that there is almost always music spontaneously at parties here!!  

Click here for:       Music at the 5.AP Farewell Party

Saturday morning bright and early, we could watch from our flat window as the school's special "Day of the Children" activities were held on the field.  There was music playing loudly, and it looked like the kids were dancing, playing games, racing, and having a lot of fun.  There was even a fire engine there later, with sirens blaring!  

Later in the morning, after some laundry and housecleaning, we rode our bikes to the town center to see some more of the special Children's Day events, including these firemen putting out some fires with water and this foam.  

Janka (Erik's wife) and Miška, their daughter, painting some blocks at one of the booths.  

Some of my kids from the primary school had prepared a one-act play to perform on the stage during the entertainment segment of the day's festivities.  

I'm pretty sure it was some sort of a Smurfs theme, but it was in Slovak, so we're not sure!  

The actors were really enthusiastic and entertaining, in any language!!   :-)  

Next there was another group of performers from our school, this time dancers.  

They were just soooo cute!! 

And the choreography was darling too.  

The boy in the blue shirt in the middle is Katka's nephew, Miško, who has English lessons with Tim once a week for a half hour.  Miško is 5, and cute as can be!!  He was performing English songs with his English class - a special program in the town.  

Riško (Erik's son) is in the plaid shirt in the middle, and he was also part of the English kids' class too.  

Miška was enjoying watching her big brother up on the stage!!  

We ended up knowing more kids on the stage than we expected when we came to watch. In addition to Miško (left side), the darling little girl in the green dress and pink hat is our next-door neighbor, Betka.  Her parents speak excellent English, and Betka will shyly try out a few phrases with us when we see her!  This was "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"

The final performance we came to watch was the rock band from our secondary school.  The lead singer (in pink) is Saška's daughter, Terezka, and the guitar player at right in the black top is Katka, who lives in our block of flats. 

Terezka really has a nice voice, and the band really sounded great!  Peter, my office partner, directs this group as an after-school class.  

Gotta love it that we have an all-girl band!  (The bassist is an adult helping out!)  

The day ended up heating up, so after the performances in the town center, we went home and changed into shorts, then headed out to explore another mountain valley on our bikes.  

The views from the Ilanovo valley were beautiful, and there were lots of fragrant flowers.  

We saw this really BIG bird flying, and this is the best photo I could get of it when it landed.  We checked with Peter, our resident amateur ornithologist, and he thinks it was only a buzzard.  I was thinking maybe an eagle, but I guess not!!  :-(  

These flowers growing on large bushes were really different and beautiful.  Each blossom was made of many smaller blossoms, and the whole thing was as big as a salad plate!  

Our total bike ride lasted about 5 hours, but of course we made a few stops along the way for short rests, bird watching, photos, and something cool and refreshing to drink, sitting outside with beautiful mountain views.  When we were heading through Zavažná Poruba, we saw Vlado out in his yard, so we stopped by there for a while too and got a tour of their reconstructed house.  Vlado and Zdenka are the friends who are snowbirds in Egypt, whom we visited in Hurghada over spring break.  

As we biked through Ilanovo, I heard a group of people singing, so we turned and headed towards it.  The firemen were putting up a maypole, though we're not exactly sure why they were doing it in June, except some friends guessed it may have something to do with Pentecost.  I took a video of the action, but since it was almost over, I really hurried, and the video isn't very good at all.  But, it does capture this local Slovak tradition a little!  (It's even sideways at first - sorry!!)  

Click here for the singing in Ilanovo:    Maypole raising in Ilanovo, Slovakia

Right after church on Sunday, Tim headed to the gym for the last league basketball tournament of the year.  They played about once a month on Saturdays, there were four teams involved, and they kept cumulative season game records and individual stats.  Because of the Children's Day events on Saturday in our gym, this one time they played on Sunday after church instead.  

Tim came home with two trophies --- the teacher team won the "Bomba Liga" league championship for the second year in a row, and Tim won the award for best season free-throw percentage, also for the second year in a row!   So the guys want him to fly back once a month to play with their team again next year!!   :-)  

Sunday night as I was shaking some flour out of my pastry cloth after making homemade rhubarb pies to take to school on Monday, I saw this view out the window - some towering pink clouds over the Low Tatras.  The picture can't do it justice, but it was lovely!!
Thanks, God, for all the beauty You surround us with here in Slovakia!!  

So, I made it to last Sunday night.  There was a lot more to our busy week, but the rest will have to wait for another post!!  Thanks for reading!!