Weekend trips to Poland and Východná

Friday was a normal day at school, but very quiet with Maturita completed and the seniors gone.  We did find lovely notes and sweet treats on our desks in the morning from Lenka and the 5.BP class, and two of the Oktáva boys gave us roses and a box of chocolates.  They will not be forgotten!!  And Friday night was likewise normal with Tim playing basketball, but I also did some baking to take treats along for our weekend visits.   :-)

We felt very safe walking to school Friday morning, with our own personal police escort.  LOL!!    (We do occasionally see police around town in cars as well as on foot, but we always feel perfectly safe anywhere in Liptovský Mikuláš.)

The lawn all around our flat is getting longer, and longer, and longer.  It hasn't been mowed yet this spring, and when they do mow the grass, it will be with a heavy-duty weed-whacker.  Then they'll let it dry out, and finally somebody will rake it up and haul it away, presumably for hay for livestock.  This is waist-high on me in some places!!  Small dogs and children could get lost in it.    :-)

Saturday morning we took a train to Žilina, then another train to Česky Tešin (Czechoslovakia).  Krystal and Shirley met us at the train station, and then we walked across the border (the river) to Polsky Češin (Poland), where they are the American lectors at the Lutheran school.   It was a fun day to re-connect with these gals!!  

Heading down the street towards their town square - so picturesque!  

We jumped in with the photographers taking pictures of the wedding party and guests with this bride and groom.  What a lovely setting (and a cool car!) for wedding photos!!  

We had lunch on the town square.  Thankfully there were large umbrellas over us, because there were a few rain showers while we were there.  It was such a relaxing time to chat and enjoy a delicious meal in Poland!  

When we were about ready to leave, it started pouring rain, so we decided to order desserts and linger a while longer.  YUM!!   

We headed back on the return trains about 6:30 p.m., so got home again by around 9:00.  It was a fun road-trip on a rainy day.  

On Sunday we took a morning bus to Východná, about an hour east of here, for church and Sunday dinner with Katarina's family.   We enjoyed the service at the large Lutheran church in the village, and then we had a fabulous meal prepared by Janka.  Katarina's aunt and grandma were there too!   In the afternoon, they decided to drive us to a museum of the Tatra Mountains in Tatranská Lomnica.  

On the drive through the High Tatras, we saw much more evidence of the devastating winds which struck Slovakia in mid-May.  Large areas of forest were leveled, and it was horrible to see all the uprooted and toppled trees. 

From the looks of things, there had been a lot of work done already to clear the train tracks and roads in the area.  

Tim with Juraj, Janka, and Katarina at the museum entrance.  

The first section of the museum was the natural history and wildlife of the area.  These wild boars are common, but we've never seen any live ones.  (Note the little piglets in the middle!)  

There are also many brown bears in the forests, but again, we have never seen any!  

There are chamois way up in the rocky mountain tops - they would be fun to see!!  

The historical part of the museum included many beautiful examples of traditional Slovak clothing.  And some beautiful examples of our Slovak friends posed for this picture!!  

The costumes were very elaborately stitched.  

The wooden mugs are carved by the shepherds for drinking žinčica (a sort of sheep milk of the whey left after making sheep cheese).

With Katarina Joy in the museum lobby with a chamois (like a mountain antelope).  The museum was really interesting, educational, and fun!!   :-)  

This week at school has been going really fast.  After being so busy last week with the Maturita testing, we had a lot of work to catch up on at school this week - papers to grade, marks to put in the electronic grade book, etc.  I also baked two more batches of cookies, and we brought them to the last class of our students, so now all of our kids have had another sampling of American treats this spring.  

Here's another BEFORE picture of the long grass outside our flat.  It's very typical here, all over town, for the grass to grow to "baling" length before being cut.

And finally, the grass was all chopped.  Now it's drying out, and bushes are visible that we hadn't been able to see for a few weeks.  HAHA!!  We suppose the 'hay' will all be raked and hauled away sometime soon.  

On Wednesdays after school, I always have my "Teacher Academy" (as Tim refers to it) at the primary school.  Today I brought chocolate chip bars and Snickerdoodles left over from the treats we brought to our students, and Janka and Vierka made tea and coffee for the group.  We always have a fun time together!  

Here are a couple more of the teachers in our English conversation / teaching class.  We've worked all year on vocabulary needed to teach all subject area classes in English to elementary students, and now we are just having conversation for the last few lessons.    These are some of the teachers I have worked with in the CLIL project for the past two years.  (Content and Language Integrated Learning - a project funded partially by the European Union)  I have so much respect and admiration for these gifted teachers who are incredibly determined to improve their English!!