Ceremonial Service

This morning as we approached church, we could tell there was a bigger crowd than normal, and there was also also a big tour bus parked outside.  Tim has developed some theories on factors influencing the length of Sunday morning church services:

Theorem #1 = the more robed pastors who process into church, the longer the service
Theorem #2 = a charter bus outside of the church also results in a longer service
Theorem #3 = the more dignitaries seated in reserved pews, the longer the service

Today's service affirmed these concepts once again!   :-)   The service was only about an hour and 20 minutes, and to be honest it was quite interesting and enjoyable with great music.  

The charter bus was for a military band who played 6-8 selections
during the service -- they were superb musicians!  Dynamics,
articulation, sensitivity --- very well trained and rehearsed.

There was also an honor guard who processed in and remained at
attention with the Slovak national flag through the ceremonial parts
of the service.  (about the 1st 1/2 - up until the sermon)

We didn't find out until after the service what was going on.  Because we knew about yesterday's holiday commemorating the Velvet Revolution, we assumed incorrectly that's what it was about.  But our land-lady, her husband and his brother, and their daughter all sat directly behind us, so after church, Lenka explained to us.  This was an international day of remembrance honoring fallen public protectors such as police officers and fire fighters (maybe soldiers too??).  There were speeches, votive candles being lit, a lot of music by the band, and everything was very impressive and solemn.  Many police (different types), fire fighters, and other military? people were seated in front, all in uniforms.  

After the service, when we were being greeted by the 3 officiating pastors, (one was the chaplain at the military school nearby - he gave the sermon, and one was a military chaplain who has served in Afghanistan), one of our regular pastors had Lenka translate for us since we never can communicate.  He invited us to come Monday night to rehearse Christmas carols with the choir to prepare for holiday special music.  That should be an awesome experience!!  We wonder if they'll sing any carols familiar to us?!?!  The pastor and another lady who had been on the bus tour with us in September both told Lenka how happy people are that we are worshiping with them.  We are definitely feeling like we "belong" to this new church community despite the language barrier!  

All of these emergency vehicles were parked outside of the church after
 the service, they all had their lights flashing, and some had sirens on.
It was fun seeing parents taking their little kids to look inside!  

The pastors and the mayor with some of the uniformed police, fire fighters, etc.
in the square in front of the church.

Apple-oatmeal bars are in the oven for tomorrow's school treats, so the flat smells good.  No big Sunday plans, but Lenka said she may stop up to visit for a while.  (Her mom put one of the Scotcheroos I gave them into the freezer to save for Lenka, who lives in Prague and is just home for the weekend.  She said they really liked the bars!)  

So now I'd better grade some papers for school.  :-)  

A few random things.....

Friday at school, everyone was a little tired after the long meeting yesterday, but it was still a fun day.  Carol (our predecessor) came back from Wisconsin for the Octavas' (one class of seniors) Štuskava party that night.  Everyone was really excited about seeing her again.  A full day of classes went by in a blur -  we have such neat students and wonderful colleagues!!  :-)   

This huge flower "bloomed" inside the pitcher.
It's a kind of herbal jasmine tea. 

It came all shriveled inside a normal-sized foil teabag, and when
hot water was poured in the pitcher, it slowly blossomed!!  :-)
Beautiful!!   (Note the green leafy bottom, the pink flower, and then
the white flowers extending up the top!!)

We watched some awesome Iowa high school football this week.  It's amazing that we could watch online in real time - just like on TV!!  Congratulations to the Wapsie Valley of Fairbank Warriors, the Class A State Champions, AND to the Ankeny Hawks, the Class 4A State Champions!!  Each of those teams had special story-book endings to undefeated seasons.  Wapsie Valley of course is where Tim and I met in our very first teaching jobs, (and where Lute is teaching now, in his first H.S. math teaching job), and the two assistant coaches there have been close friends of ours since then.  They were groomsmen in our wedding!  And this was their last game as coaches after 81 combined years at WV.  How cool to go out with another state title!!  Of course, we both finished our public school careers teaching in Ankeny, so we were excited that both schools won in the finals.  And this is the last year that Ankeny will be unified in one high school, because the second H.S. will open this fall, so the kids will be split into two complete north/south feeder systems.  It's a Cinderella story to have the Hawks win one more state championship too!!  

This morning we were out on errands, and this bank of clouds
was spectacular in ways that don't show on this picture.
There were pastel colors shooting from the bright white edges.

On this one, the rays of sunlight were spectacular coming down onto the buildings.

This morning we slept in after our late-night football viewing this week.  After breakfast and a cup of hot chai tea latte, we headed out on some errands.  Many of the shops were closed do to a national holiday for the change from socialism to democracy.  We are very relieved because we FINALLY found a room in a pension for kids to stay over Christmas.  We had been checking places for a while, but all the hotels are closed on the 24th and 25th of December.  It will be so fun to have them here!!  :-)    

Longest Staff Meeting EVER!!

Required.
2:30 - 4:55
Enough said.  

Dinner Guests

Tuesday after school was our Slovak lesson with Maria, and it's nice that some things are starting to "click" a little.  Not that we are really capable of using much Slovak yet, but some things are making sense, and we are able to recognize patterns and phrases that are becoming familiar.  We had sandwiches for supper after a stop at the grocery store on the way home from lessons, then my student, Eva came for her lesson at 6:00.  Volleyball at school was after that, and as always, it was a fun time.  

Today at school we filled out more paperwork related to our official employment status - insurance forms, signatures by the "x", our time-clock cards were issued, etc.  Thankfully, Pat'ka and Zuzka walked us through it all and translated between us and the wonderful school secretaries.  We also found out yesterday about the electronic grade book.  Which we haven't even accessed until now.  Which we have to use to enter grades for ALL of our assignments, for ALL of our students, for ALL of Sept.-Oct.-Nov. so far!!  It will take a little time transferring from our spiral teacher grade books, but we'll get it done, and actually it will be a very efficient system for us - much like Infinite Campus - once we get caught up!  (To be honest, I think it's better than Infinite Campus, simply because after a quick tutorial by Katarina, I'm already able to use this one to set up assignments and a point system for classes - IN SLOVAK!!  This is definitely more user-friendly!)  

This was the poster at school for the "welcome/initiation" event
at school on Monday.  

This evening, we had our first Slovak dinner guests -- Janka and Katarina -- the two English colleagues who sit next to Tim in the workroom.  We were so excited to have them come over!  I made chicken-broccoli stir fry, a carrot-apple salad (new internet recipe!), and brown-and-serve baguette rolls.  They were appreciative eaters!  And they brought some delicious chocolate cake and some special Slovak dessert wine.  So sweet of them!  It was so fun sharing fellowship and conversation with "the girls" - who remind us so much of our Beth.  We hope our kids get to meet Janka, Katarina, and all our wonderful friends here!!  

Dinner at our flat with Janka and Katarina
(They had to help with the directions for baking the rolls!!)

We walked the gals to the bus stop after dinner!  

Welcome to the Newbies

Sunday we woke up to a bit of a surprise --- no hot water!!  Our shower is the type that's a hand-held attached to the wall, so I took it off and washed my hair in cold.  Brrrrr!  We heated up water on the stove to use for sponge baths, then hurried off to church.  On the way out of our front lobby, a guy we've never seen before and wearing a tool belt, was coming in, so we figured the whole building is without hot water.  (We don't have a separate hot water heater in our flat.)  

It was a beautiful morning, and not cold at all outside.  After church we chatted a while with Zuzka, a colleague from school, then walked home.  Still no hot water!  We listened to our sermon online, which actually talked about Martin Luther, Wartburg Castle, and Reformation Day (Cool!!), while drinking hot chai tea lattes again.  :-)   After lunch, we studied our Slovak lessons for a while, using an online program as well as material from our teacher.  

Then at 3:00, we walked to the town center to meet with Marian (Tim's adult businessman English student) and his wife, Susan, for a "coffee" date.  They asked if we had time for them to take us elsewhere, and of course we agreed, so they drove us to a nearby village called Liptovsky Jan.  It's in a beautiful valley in the Low Tatras, fairly near Poludnica, which we climbed in October.  It is quite a tourist destination with hotels and cabins because of the hiking, skiing, caves, and mineral hot springs there.  We walked to the springs - it was amazing to see the pool of water bubbling because of the carbonation.  It looked like a hot cauldron boiling, but it's not nearly that hot - just warm really - but the water is supposed to have many health benefits when you soak in it or drink it.  Another nearby location had a fountain where people were filling up water bottles, and it tastes just 
like the bubbly mineral water served bottled in all the restaurants.  

Tim, Susan, and Marian in Liptovsky Jan

The view of the Tatras on our walk

Gorgeous!!

The pool where people bathe in the spring water.
See it bubbling up??  It's very clean in this pool.

This is the fountain in another location, where you
can drink or bottle the spring water for free.  

The sign by the fountain describing the mineral content
and characteristics of the water here.  

We walked back to the village and relaxed in a beautiful coffee house / chalet for some hot tea and conversation.  They are a delightful couple, and it was a really fun time!

When we got back, we had sandwiches for supper, did some skyping, and graded papers from school.  I have always had sympathy for English teachers back home because of all the reading of assignments, and now I'm doubly convinced that's a tough gig!!  But it's fun and interesting to read our Slovak students' perspectives on life and various topics.  

This morning we woke up to ---- no hot water again.  Boooo!!  I did look up how to say, "Is there water in your flat?" in Slovak, so we could ask neighbors if we saw anyone.  But after school today, the hot water was back on again, much to our relief.  

School was fine - Mondays and Fridays are our busiest days.  After school was a special school function to welcome all the newbies to the school this year, including all the first year students in the building as well as the new teachers.  We were told that we would have a part in the program, but everything was pretty secretive.  As it turned out, it was kind of like "initiation" with all sorts of funny pranks on the younger students.  It was pretty messy in some cases, but thankfully, our part was tame.  We were taken into a room and provided with Slovak traditional folk costumes, as well as the lyrics to a Slovak folk song.  The IV's students (like our junior class) were in charge of the whole event, and a couple of them helped us learn the song.  They were surprised that we weren't horrible at the pronunciation.  LOL!!  There is only one other new teacher at our school this year, so she got to sing along with us, which helped a lot.  She didn't have to wear a costume though!  

The new students were all "decorated" when they came in.
These guys are some of my students!!

These are some of the IV's who were all dressed as Police and
planned, organized,  and ran the entire event.  

Our faces were decorated too!  This is Katka, the head of
our English Department.  

L to R - Our Headmistress, Jana, two colleagues, Danka and Janka,
and Rivi (Pat'ka's daughter)  

These are three of my awesome students!  

Each of the new students was introduced, then had a
"mug shot" taken.  :-)  

The gym was all decorated for the event.  (This is also where
we play volleyball on Tuesday nights.)

Janka - such a sweetie!  She's the one who took us to our
medical exams in Martin in September.  

Heading back into the gym after our costume change!

This was really a funny prank - the blindfolded student stood on a plank, which was lifted up by
some of the older boys.  (only a couple of inches up.)  The girl in front held the student's hands to steady him.  

Then she crouched gradually lower and lower, making the student feel like he was
being raised up really high, even though the plank was never more than a couple
of inches off the ground.  Then finally, they made him jump off.  Of course he thought
he was really high, but it was just a small jump.  LOL!!!

And here we are, singing the Slovak folk song.   :-)

So what do you think of the costumes??   :-)

I especially like Tim's hat and the red bow in my hair.    HA!

Tonight I made Tim his request - goulash - almost like his mom's.  For dessert we had 1/2 of our "sweet lunch" from today's school lunch.  It's always delicious, but too much, so we bring the rest home.  Then I made a couple pans of apple bars with the latest gift bag of apples from a colleague at school.  The flat smells really yummy.  I tried a new recipe online - hope it's good!  I'm pretty sure the teachers at school will be happy to taste-test the results tomorrow.   :-)   

Our Week - Condensed! :-)

Monday morning came pretty early, but it was great getting back to school and seeing all our colleagues and students again.  And we had a huge surprise when two big boxes from my folks arrived at school!!  Everyone at school was really curious about the contents.  :-)   There were several fun surprises inside, and lots of ingredients for baking American goodies to share.  THANKS, Grammy and Papa!  

I made Scotcheroos (peanut butter rice krispie bars with chocolate/butterscotch topping) and brought them to school the next day, and they were a BIG hit!!  No one here had ever tasted them, and they wanted the recipe, but of course most of the ingredients aren't available here.  It was a really big pan, cut into small bars, so I made sure everyone got to taste one - secretaries, administrators, custodian, etc.  :-)  There were even enough to share with our landlady and the neighbors in the next flat who help translate between us and our landlady.  

We had volleyball Tuesday night at our school, and it was fun again.  Thursday we had our English students, and Friday was the other volleyball group then Tim's basketball with the guys.  One of the other players had a birthday, so he provided pizza for the BB group at the pub afterwards.  He and Tim are only a couple weeks apart in age, so he feels like a kindred spirit with Tim, that they would have been H.S. classmates if Tim had lived here then!!  :-)  

They do hit the ball hard at volleyball - my latest bruise after digging
up a spike from an aggressive hitting guy!  :-)  

We also had really good news at school on Wednesday --- our deputy headmistress (on her birthday!) got a phone call from the immigration police saying we are both officially approved for our work visas!!  YAY!!!  So we signed our contract with the school, and we "officially" started teaching on Thursday for real.  We went back to Žilina on Friday by train with Pat'ka, and this was the most hassle-free and pleasant visit of all at the immigration office - it was quite friendly!  We had our fingerprints and photographs taken for the ID card, which we can pick up in a week or two whenever they call again.  What a relief.  

These pictures look a little surreal because they are taken through
the train window, on the way back from Žilina.

The water was completely still and glassy, so the reflection was
just like in a mirror.

The sun was hitting the trees along the shore just perfectly
to illuminate the last bright fall foliage.  

These rays of sunlight hit the shoreline like a spotlight!!  Beautiful!  

The trip to Žilina was fun (except for the hassle of making sub plans for all our Friday classes - my busiest day).  We got piping hot pirožky's again at the kiosk by the train station, and had a tasty lunch at a restaurant on the way back to the train.  We also made a quick stop in a second-hand store where I found an outfit for Stuškava (the November party given by this year's seniors when they receive their green ribbons honoring them as upcoming graduates. 

And that brings us up to today.  It goes without saying that we slept in this morning!  (We were up skyping a little late after VB and BB.)  Then we had a cup of hot chai tea latte - with tea bags from Iowa of course!  (BOTH of our moms sent chai tea bags - we feel spoiled!)  After all that relaxing, we did give the flat a thorough cleaning, which takes much less time than back home.  :-)   I also did several loads of laundry, including sheets which dried out on the line.  In the afternoon, we walked out across the river to Tesco, which is a lot further than our normal grocery store trips, but it was a nice day for a walk - windy but not too cold.  This place is more like a Wal-Mart or Super Target, so we found some things we'd been looking for.  

On the way to Tesco, I noticed this sign in the middle of an island between the 4 lanes of traffic,
 so I ran across to take this picture.  :-)   

Most of the trees have dropped their leaves, except for some beautiful
white birches with bright yellow leaves.  

Snow on the mountains again --- more soon perhaps?

We don't mind our long walks with views like this!  

Tonight we're planning on doing some skyping.  It's been a full week back at school 4 days then going to Žilina, and things continue to go really well.  Everyone here is pleased with the weather since it has only snowed that one time - but I'm sure we'll get plenty of snow any time now.  We still haven't turned the heat on in our flat, because it is plenty warm with the valves into our radiators turned off.  And we're no longer illegal aliens!  Life is good!  God is great!!  :-)   

Return Journey from Germany

The last post left off after our wonderful time in Eisenach Germany last week.  On Saturday morning, almost a week ago, we waited for our train which was 35 minutes late.  No big deal, since the connections I booked had an hour to change trains in Dresden.  Except after we got going, the train stopped.  For an hour and a half.  Good-bye connections to Bratislava!!  They made several announcements about our delay, and it seems a freight train ahead of us hit a horse on the tracks.  Really????  Yes, really.  The Germans on the train had never heard of that happening before.  A kind gentlemen we had connected with contacted a train employee and translated for us to find alternate trains back to Bratislava. 

So by the time we finally arrived in Dresden, our tickets were rebooked.  The tracks were being repaired, so we took a bus to a town across the border into the Czech Republic, where we had to wait about 4 hours for another train.  We only had Euros, which aren't accepted there, and no place would take a VISA card, so we ended up at McDonald's - the only place where we could buy food!!  We settled in at a table upstairs for a few hours, sipping on Coke Light, writing postcards, and playing some cribbage!  We finally boarded our train after 10:00 p.m. - which should have been our original arrival time in Bratislava, to spend the night at Katie's flat again.  The train trip was interesting too - very crowded and loud, and not enough seats for everyone because of the holiday weekend.  In Prague, we picked up a bunch of rowdy and happy hockey fans bound back to Bratislava after their team won a big game.  Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep, but finally did snooze a while in the wee hours when things quieted down a little.  

This was the sign for the ticket booth in the station in the Czech Republic.
I'd surely rather say "Tickets" than either Jizdenky or Fahrkarten.
(Just say those two out loud a few times and see if you don't agree!! )
Or maybe I was just a little slap-happy and sleep deprived when I
got the giggles reading this sign.   LOL!!  

We arrived in Bratislava about 7:30 a.m., which was just in time to walk to Katie's flat, change clothes, have breakfast (we had brought some sweet rolls from Germany to share!), and get to church for the English service.  :-)   The service was such a blessing, as understanding every word is nothing to be taken for granted any more!!  Afterwards, there was a fellowship time at the little coffee shop around the corner, so we got to visit with the other American teachers.  After changing into travel clothes again, we went out to lunch with Katie for some Slovak halušky, then headed to catch our train for Liptovsky Mikuláš.  

When we got back, we made a quick trip to pick up some groceries to fill our empty fridge, did a load of laundry, unpacked, and got to bed early.  After missing a night's sleep on the train, we needed to get rested up for Monday morning at school!!  

And that wraps up the report on our Germany - Reformation - Martin Luther - Wartburg Castle adventure over Fall Break!!  Tomorrow I'll fill you in on this past week.   :-)   
Good night all!!