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!!

Eisenach = Wartburg Castle, Luther and Bach

The previous post ended with our morning visit to Martin Luther's house and museum in Wittenberg the day after Reformation Day.  We said a fond farewell to Arden at Colleg Wittenberg, and then Rachel, Tim and I headed back to the train station.  We were all taking the same train, but Rachel continued to Dresden to visit a friend there, and we went on to Eisenach for a couple of days.  I had booked a room at City Hotel online, and we were very pleased to find that it lived up to the advertising.  It was a very short walk from the train station, so we checked in, dropped off our luggage, and headed into the city center.  

We were SOOOOO excited to have this view of Wartburg Castle
from our hotel window!!  What a nice surprise!

The first view was a close-up .....  this one is the whole view.

St. Nickolas gate - the only remaining medieval gate into Eisenach.

St. Nickolas Church - adjacent to the city gate.

Another view of the gate, from the other side.

St. Nickolas church - we went around to the other side to try to get inside,
but no luck......it was all locked up.    :-(

St. Nickolas church and gate

Statue of Martin Luther in the center of Eisenach

I had been really looking forward to eating a real bratwurst
in Germany, and we finally bought them from a street vendor.
It was DELICIOUS!!!  (And huge too, sticking out of a yummy roll!)

St. Elizabeth Church, on the main square.  

After scoping out some of the sights until it got dark and started to rain lightly, we tried to find a restaurant.  Since we had already eaten the bratwursts, we just ordered soup, veggies, and wine.  It was such a nice place with a friendly waitress and some locals who were having a great time, so we lingered, eventually ordering dessert and hot tea as well.  

Our hotel breakfast was amazing - cereals, yogurt, fresh fruit, eggs, big trays of assorted cold meats and cheeses, wonderful bakery-fresh rolls, and juice, milk, coffee and a variety of tea bags.  We each made a sandwich to pack for lunch as well.  

The next morning, we took a bus to Wartburg Castle in eager anticipation of finally making the trek up there!  The bus took us most of the way, but it was still quite a climb up stairs and steep cobblestone driveways.  A young German family was wrestling with a large stroller (toddler inside), so Tim helped the man carry it most of the way up while I walked with his wife.  We found out that most of Europe was on holiday this week, so that explains why the trains were so crowded for our travels.  (We got seat reservations for all the long legs of the trip, which ended up being a great decision!!  Many people were standing a lot of the time on our trains.)  

Tim, on the drawbridge, ready to enter the gates of
the famed Wartburg Castle!!  

Entrance to Wartburg Castle - Eisenach, Germany!!  

Inside the first gate (there are several!)

The massive doors to the first two castle gates

Inside the first courtyard area

Beautiful well inside the courtyard

The South Tower --- we climbed up to the very top!

A view outside from the oldest part of the castle.
This shows how thick the walls are!

My Wartburg Knight, in the Knight's Hall at Wartburg Castle!!

Period furniture in a dining hall

St. Elizabeth's rooms

The chapel

I'm always fascinated by the beautiful doors.
This door led into the chapel.

Another doorway!  

Mural in one of the castle rooms.

Doorway leading into the concert hall

WOW - this was really impressive!
The Wartburg Castle concert hall!

This one is for all the Siefkes relatives --- Tim had me take a picture of
these two ---- Hermann and Elizabeth!!   :-)

The armrests on all the benches in the concert hall
were carved in animal shapes

View out the king's window

The king's bedroom

My Wartburg Knight again, in the museum.

Like I said - I enjoyed all the castle doors!!   :-)

View of the surrounding countryside from on top of the South Tower

View from the South Tower - the oldest part of the castle is on the right

The sunlight was glinting off the cross on the top of the castle tower.  

The eagle motif was on columns throughout the castle

Yep, another cool door!  

So now Tim can cross one thing off his "bucket list" ----
visiting Wartburg Castle ----- check!!!    :-)

We had a guided tour of the castle which was all in German, but they did provide us with a written English script, which was great.  We saw the room where Martin Luther stayed while he was in hiding, translating the Bible.  It was too dark for photos, but cool to see!  After about 3 hours at Wartburg Castle, we took the bus back down into town and enjoyed our sandwiches for lunch.  Next we headed to Lutherhaus, which is now a museum of course.  Martin Luther stayed there as a boarder when he was a young choirboy going to school in Eisenach.  

Daytime photo of St. Nickolas Gate and St. Nickolas Church

Luther on the square in daylight!

Lutherhaus - where he boarded as a choirboy.

View from Martin Luther's window.  (Steeple of St. Elizabeth's in the background.)

Then, we experienced our "Eisenach Bonus" - let me explain.  When we first planned to visit, we didn't realize that Eisenach is not only home to Wartburg Castle, but it is also the birthplace of J.S. Bach!!  So, needless to say, we also visited Bachhaus, which is now a wonderful museum!!  

Statue of J.S. Bach, in the square outside the museum

Bachhaus!    :-)

Our tour included performances on several period instruments.
This one was like an organ - the guy from the audience is pumping
it, and watching that the bag in the back stays filled properly.  

We also heard this keyboard played

The only item in the museum absolutely known to have belonged
to Bach -- a trophy cup he won in a music contest.  

Hymnbook from Bach's era - containing many
hymns by Martin Luther.

Period furniture representing Bach's birth room.

Bach family tree ---- oodles of famous musicians!  

We also heard a performance on this keyboard.

Bach's study - again period furniture reminiscent of what it might have been like. 

A book from Bach's library - that's Martin Luther!  

View from inside Bachhaus, into the garden in the back - also the well

There were many displays of artifacts, but also many stations where
visitors can listen to Bach's music on top-quality headphones.  We sat in many of these
acoustic "bubbles" and listened to examples of Bach's musical genius.  There were little
pamphlets in each bubble to explain the particular characteristic for each selection.

At our hotel's tourist information center, we found coupons for a free hot tea
with admission to Bachhause, so we enjoyed a relaxing break after touring the museum.
   

On the way back to our hotel, we passed through the city center again, and we couldn't resist having one more bratwurst!  It started to rain, so we decided to just eat some soup for supper at our hotel restaurant.  In the morning, we did a little shopping for some bread, cheese, and wine to take along and enjoy for supper later on the train.  (We packed sandwiches from breakfast again for lunch, but planned on two meals before arriving in Bratislava!)  

 

Arden had told us about these small brass plates in the cement in front of businesses and homes
throughout Germany.  They are engraved with the names of Jews who were removed
from those locations and killed in the Holocaust.  We noticed many of them in Eisenach.
It's a tribute and a remembrance that really sticks in our memory.  

One last view of Wartburg Castle in the morning before we headed to the
train station for our journey back to Bratislava.