Easter in Krakow

Going to Krakow
For Easter, Becky, Karin and I decided to go to Krakow. We wanted to rent a car and drive, but didn't know you had to reserve a car at least a month in advance. So, we took the train instead. It was a nice six hour ride - lots of time for talking, reading and watching the countryside go by. It was actually a nice time of relaxing and rejuvenation.

Auschwitz
Krakow is just an hour bus ride from Oświęcim, the Polish town were the concentration camp Auschwitz is located. On the bus ride, they show a video about the history of the camp. It was a sobering ride. Words can not really express the feeling of being at Auschwitz. To be there, standing in a place where history happened. And such recent history. I stood there realizing that this place was a place I had read about in my history books, talked about in history class and yet, people who had suffered in Auschwitz were still alive. So many places in Europe are about ancient history. Not this place.
Our guide was a gentile lady who spoke very with a Polish accent and quietly showed us how important it was for this place never to be forgotten. Unlike most tourist locations, Auschwitz was full of silence. As we were walking through the camp, you could hear the sound of shoes on the gravel road. You can not take pictures inside any of the buildings, for which I was thankful. Because, instead of people focusing on getting a good shot, they were forced to really look at the things before them. The suffering, the pain, the despair.
It is not an easy place to go. It is not for everyone. Children under 14 years old are not allowed. And yet, it is a place that everyone should go. Because we can not forget. We can never forget and we must always remember.
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. " - George Santayana

Auschwitz

Salt Mine
The next day, we went to the Salt mines. It is one of the oldest salt mines in the world and up until a few years ago was still operating. Now it is a tourist attraction. It has a depth of 327 meters (for you not into the metric system, 1073 feet). We had to walk down over 500 stairs just to get to the start of the tour, and many more stairs as we went along. All through the mine, everything is made of salt. There are statues showing the history of how salt was mined, famous storybook scenes (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and famous people (The Pope). I am posting some pictures from the mine, but it is one place you have to see to appreciate. (Since it is all underground, the pictures are all kind of dark.) The coolest thing was that they have a huge cathedral underground, made of salt. Their are carvings on the wall depicting scenes from the life of Christ from his birth to his resurrection, including Da Vinci's Last Supper. The crystals on the chandeliers are made from salt and the tiles on the floor aren't tiles at all but salt. It is truly a sight to see and well worth the long walk down.

Salt Mines

Easter Markets in Krakow
Spending Easter in a country that is 95% Catholic (with 70% practicing) means that Easter is a huge holiday. Krakow had an Easter market, very similar to the Christmas market in Bratislava with lots of little trinkets, yummy food and neat people. We spent time each day wandering around, buying little treats and enjoying the sights and sounds. We bought dinner at the market one night, sausages and rolls, mushrooms and sauerkraut. So yummy.

Krakow

In the square, they were setting up a huge stage and on Saturday, at 9pm, the show started. Of course, it was in Polish, but that did not stop us from spending the next two hours standing (and freezing) watching the show. It was an Easter drama, that much we could tell, but we are not exactly sure what it was about. We are guessing that the majority of the drama was from the 1940's, based on the costumes, and that it may have had something to do with the Jews and WWII. There was a full orchestra and four talented singers, plus two dramatic readers. And near the end of the show they took a man in white (Jesus) and attached him to a crane and lifted him, arms outstretched into the midnight sky. Even though the words were in a foreign language, we could understand the emotion behind the scene. We left the drama cold, but touched and thankful that God loved us enough to send his Son to die for us.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world (that's you and me!) that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."

One Of Those Days...

Yesterday was one of those days. It just felt like everything was going wrong. It started out nice enough. I woke up refreshed (always a good thing on a Friday morning) and the sun was shining. When I got to school, the morning rush started. Copies to make, things to print and gathering everything I needed. Unfortunately, I couldn't teach in my classroom, as they were doing special testing in it. So, I was given one of the Rest Time rooms. A huge room, with no carpet, no furniture, no desks, no chairs, no white-boards. Now, I am flexible and adaptable, and having no desks didn't bother me, as I like to have my classes sit on the floor. The problem came when you put people in the room. There was nothing to absorb the sound, so it was like teaching in a cavern - even a whisper echoed across the room. None of my lessons went quite as I would have liked as it was impossible to keep the noise level bearable. My fourth lesson of the day is with 4th graders, and I have the head director's (think superintendent) daughter, the director's (think principal) son, the deputy director's (think vice-principal) son all in my class. So, when I got to my make shift classroom, there is the director with his wife. He asks if his wife can sit in on my class for a few minutes, as she is waiting for their other son to finish some testing. How can I say no. So, I say yes and in she comes. The lesson is fine, just incredibly noisy. I actually think that the kids are having fun. My only other problem with this room is that it has no clock and of course, yesterday was the one day I forgot my watch. So, I had brought my cell phone to class and was using it as my watch. My least favorite thing about Friday's is that my 4th lesson ends at 11:55 and my 5th lesson starts at 11:55. So, I have to be in two places at once. Usually, it is not that big of a deal, because I can just let the 4th graders walk to their classroom which is on the same hallway as my classroom. But since we are in a different room, I have to go with them. And I had asked my 5th graders to meet in the computer lab since we are working on a computer project. So, as I am trying to herd my 4th graders back to their room and race up the stairs to the computer lab, who do I find corraling my 5th graders? The head director. Great. Just great. He doesn't say anything, but I feel bad. The only good thing is that my 5th graders are good for my lesson and I feel like we accomplished something. Near the end of the lesson, one of my 5th graders stops me and asks, "Are we going to have lunch together?" She has invited me to have lunch with her and her friends every Friday. Now, I am feeling a little better. I buy my lunch in the cafeteria everyday, as it is very cheap, filling, warm and usually good. There are always 2 choices, a vegetarian and a meat. I saw that the vegetarian was a kind of potato paste with a hard boiled egg on top (not my favorite) while the meat option was rice with little pieces of meat in a sauce. So, I had the meat. As I was taking it to my table, I looked more closely at it and realized that it was kind of a funny color. Almost all the meat we have in the cafeteria is pork and this definitely was not pork. When I looked at it more closely, I noticed the texture looked strange. So, I decided just to eat my soup and the rice. My girls and I had a nice chat. They noticed that I wasn't eating my meat and told me that neither of them liked this meat either. They said it was black or purple meat and started pointing to their stomachs. "Liver?" I asked. "Yes!" they said. Yuck! So, I left lunch still a little hungry, but glad to have avoided the liver.

One of those days...

I went to my office and straightened up, getting ready for the next day. I checked my email and found out that some friends of ours in Hungary may have to leave the country 2 months early because of problems with their visas and plane tickets. So, I just was feeling really down. And like I hadn't done my best teaching. And wondering why I was coming back for another year. So, I packed up my things and decided to head home. But on the way, I stopped by the secretaries office (up 3 flights of stairs) to ask her something and ended up staying for 20 minutes or so. I went downstairs to sign out and ran into one of the rest time teachers who was brining a group of kids inside. I had wanted to ask her something, so I stopped and talked to her for a moment. Two of my third graders saw me and grabbed my hands, and started talking to me about čaj (tea). Then Andreka, the rest time teacher, said, "We welcome you to tea with us." My girls wanted me to come and have tea with them. So, of course I did. We talked in a strange mixture of Slovak and English. They wanted to sit by me and share their tea. One little girl, Maťa, even gave me some special tea to take home with me. And all of a sudden I knew why I was staying. This was why. I am building relationships, and with younger students, who don't have a lot of English, it takes more time. I am their teacher, and yet, much of the time, I don't understand what they are saying, and communicating with them is hard work. And yet, here they were, asking me to come to tea and sharing their snacks with me. So, as I left school, I took the opportunity as I was walking, to thank God for reminding me why I had come, why I was staying and for opening doors for me. Please, please, join me in praying that God will continue to open doors for me to build relationships with my students and share who I am and what I believe in with my students.
I serve an amazing God who promises that He will do abundantly more than we can ask. Now, all I have to do is ask....
(Ephesians 3:20 - Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us).

German Coast Guard - Lost in Translation

A good example of why what I am doing is so important!

Family and Friends

The BatCave is Full!
Our flat has been full for the past month and a half. We have had visitors nonstop since the beginning of February. It started with our friend Jen from Hungary just kept going. We had a teacher from Minnesota stay with us for a week while she was visiting our school to see about setting up an exchange program for students and teachers from her school. It was fun having her and she brought us a HUGE jar of peanut butter and a HUGE bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yum, yum. After that we had a couple of girls from a traveling drama group at our house for a few days. After that, it was our friend Matt from Hungary who cooked some amazing curry chicken for us. Soon after, my sisters came (for TWO whole weeks). The day after my sisters came, a friend of Karin's came. The day my sisters left, Erin,from Hungary came for the night. Then the next night, the Kellum family (a family of 6) and Jen came for a couple of days. The next night, Heather from Hungary came. So, for one night, we had a grand total of 11 people staying in our two bedroom flat. Five in one bedroom, four in the other and two in the living room. Amazingly, we had enough beds for seven of our guests, so only the kids had to sleep on the floor.

Sisters
Kacie and Hannah came for two weeks. They arrived on a Thursday, which is a story in itself, and stayed for my spring break and left the Wednesday after my break. We had a great time - how could we not - three sisters bumming around Europe. We hit four countries in their two weeks. And we have the pictures to show it. Kacie was the official photographer of the group and blessed us with gazillions of photos.

Sisters

Arrival
I said it was a story in itself and so, here it is. Thursday. 8am. I arrive at school and teach my only two classes of the day, finishing by 10. I get a quick snack from the cafeteria and go catch the 95 bus. From there I catch the 70, which takes me to the autobus station, arriving with just five minutes before my bus leaves. Hannah is scheduled to arrive at the Vienna airport at 12:45, so I need to catch the 11am bus which will get me to the airport by 12. So, I literally run in to the ticket counter and ask for a ticket. The lady at the counter refuses to sell me a ticket for the 11am as it is so close. I take the ticket for the 12 bus, but run like crazy to try and catch the 11. I do! So, I arrive at the airport and check the board. So far, so good. Planes are both on time. I sit down and eat some lunch and at 12:45, I stand up so I can be right at the front of the gate. No Hannah. By 1:45, I don't know what to think. I wonder if maybe she didn't make her connection but see that the next should arrive shortly so I decide to wait. Besides that, her cell phone doesn't work, so there is not much I can do. By this time, I can see that Kacie's flight is also delayed. So, I wait some more. After the next flight comes in and no Hannah, I go to the information desk and have her paged. No luck. But, in another 30 minutes or so (almost 2 hours late), out she walks. It turns out that she was waiting for Kacie at baggage claim and when she didn't show up on time, she decided to come and find me. So then Hannah and I wait for Kacie's 4pm flight. By 4:45, no Kacie so I have her paged. A couple minutes later she walks out. Lost luggage. We get that sorted out, buy bus tickets and find a bench as the bus doesn't leave for another 45 minutes. Thankfully the bus ride is easy. No problems. However, we have more problems when we get into the bus station. Both girls brought my parents luggage, from the 80's with teeny tiny wheels and no real handles for pulling it. And of course, the luggage is heavy. So, we half drag half carry it to the next bus stop. We buy tickets and somehow lug it on board. Three huge suitcases and two backpacks. We get off two stops later and have to drag the suitcases four or five blocks to the next bus. By this time, we are all dead tired. It is almost 7:30 and it has been a long day for all of us. We again lug our the suitcases on. The next stop we get off is the closest one to my house, but that is not saying much. It is quite a hike when you have so much luggage. Across a parking lot (this is where the handle broke), down a flight of stairs, down the bike path, across a dirt path (this is where we drug the suitcases on their sides through the mud, got the wheels clogged with pebbles and dirt and almost fell down the hill because we were so tired), across the canal, up another dirt hill, across the street and finally into my building. By the time we finally got all the suitcases into the house, it was 8pm. We had just enough energy to make introductions, scramble some eggs and make up the spare bed, before the girls crashed. What an adventure.

More adventures...
My sisters came to school with me for a total of three days. They were able to meet all my classes. They all had lots of questions, and one of them even fell in love with one of my beautiful sisters! During our week off, we went to Vienna for a day (did lots of shopping, visited St. Stephens Cathedral and the catacombs underneath), went to Milan for two days (more shopping), went to Budapest (saw Hero's Square, House of Terror and Castle Hill - no shopping) and toured around Bratislava. We saw as much as we could, but the best part was just getting to hang out with two of my best friends. Gotta love sister time!

Italy!!!

Two Weeks Off... What shall we do?
With Christmas vacation fast approaching, this was the question that my roommates and I kept asking ourselves. We finally decided to go to Poland, but then a week before vacation, a Slovak friend told us that Poland wouldn't be the best as we would need visas, everything would be closed after Christmas, and it would be hard to get train tickets. So, after scouring Sky Europe for cheap airline tickets, we settled on Italy. We decided to go to Milan first, then head to Florence, then to Venice (for New Year's Eve), to Verona and then back to Milan. We booked hostels for all the cities and let our friend, Mel from Czech Republic, know our plans and she decided she would come with us.

Bags packed... We're off!
We decided to be very European and pack light. Just two sets of clothes- the one we were wearing and one fresh one in our bags. That way, we could easily carry everything with us if we needed too. We left Bratislava as the sun was setting (about 3:30pm), took the bus to the airport and flew to Milan. We found Mel, our hotel and dinner that night before heading off to sleep.

Milan and the Duomo
So, unless you are really into fashion, Milano doesn't have a lot to offer the average tourist. There are lots of expensive shops (Prada, Louis Vatton, Armani anyone?), but not many sights to see, except the Duomo. The Duomo is an amazing basilica and the third largest church in the world. We toured the inside and then climbed up what seemed like a million stairs to the roof. Truly awe inspiring! You can walk around the entire roof, climbing up even more stairs until you feel like you are on top of the world. It gives you a beautiful view of the city and an up close view of the amazing architecture, statues and carvings on the roof. We spent over and hour, walking around the roof, marveling at the amazing amount of work that went into the design and construction of this amazing building.

Lake Como and George Clooney
As previously stated, Milan really does not have much to offer, so when we found out that there was a lake, with hiking trails nearby, we decided to hop on the train and check it out. We arrived at Lake Como and enjoyed walking around the town and the lake. They were offering hour long boat rides and so we decided that would be fun. Being brave, we decided to sit outside, which was definitely the best choice. The lake is narrow and very long, so we only went around a small portion of it. We were able to take lots of pictures and see many picturesque Italian towns. Only later on did we discover that Lake Como is where George Clooney lives. We are still trying to discover if we have a picture of his house...

I just want to get to Florence...
Our plan was to leave to go to Florence on Friday and spend two days there. We headed to the train station in the morning and tried to buy a ticket. And tried, and tried, and tried... To no avail. All the trains were sold out. So, we tried a bus. And they were all sold out too. So, after racing around Milan trying to find something, we finally decided to just go to Venice early. And we had no problems getting tickets to Venice, so voila, off to Venice.

Gondolas, Ferry boats and New Year's Eve
Venice is truly amazing. A place not to be missed if you are going to Europe. We took a bus/boat to our hotel and spent our time in Venice walking through the streets by the canals and over bridges, or taking boats to explore some of the surrounding islands of Venice. We were able to see glass blowing on one island (something Venice is famous for) and the real Venice Beach on another. All in all a magical time. We spent New Year's Eve on St.Marks Square along with 35,000 other people. It was packed so tightly in places that the crowd just carried you along. They had tables and tables of white wine and bellinis - free for the taking, and a amazing fireworks display set to music. We ended up walking the streets of Venice until 2am, along with many other tourists and Veniciens. New Year's Day it was drizzling, so we just wandered around the city and did a little shopping.

Fair Verona...
Verona was our last stop on our Italian vacation. Their is a coliseum in Verona that is so huge and amazing. Walking around such huge ruins was breathtaking. It is like stepping into the movie the Gladiator. I couldn't help but think about all the Christians who boldly walked into a coliseum and faced the hungry lions, rather than deny Christ. Praise the Lord!

Back Home...
We spent our last day in Milan and couldn't wait to leave. We got up early, though, and went to see "The Last Supper." I never realized just how big it is. Unfortunately, the building it is housed in was damaged during the Second World War, and part of the roof was destroyed, so the painting is badly damaged. However, just standing near it and trying was breathtaking. Although there were probably around 30 people in our viewing group, it was silent. Everyone was taken with the painting. You are only allowed to view the masterpiece for fifteen minutes and then you are ushered out. There are no other works of art. Just one. Simple and yet magnificent. After our fifteen minutes were over, we headed back to our hotel room. We still had a couple of ours before we had to check out. Which we spent watching CNN - in ENGLISH! For those of you who don't know, it is absolutely amazing to hear the news in English (even if it is British English). After we checked out of our hotel, we wandered back to the Duomo and sat on a bench watching people pass by. When we were cold and hungry, we found a Burger King and had lunch and sat their for our last four hours in Italy. Tired of traveling, tired of eating out, tired of carrying all our possessions on our back, tired of hotels and just missing home.

Home, Sweet Home
We arrived back around 10pm and were very glad to be home. While traveling is great, the sights are thrilling, the food is amazing and the people are friendly, it is always the best to walk up to your front door, put the key in the lock and know that your bed awaits, that you can pull fresh clothes from the closet and you can walk around in your pajamas. Ahhh... home, sweet home.

Italy - Milan, Venice and Verona

Interesting Fact #7

Pandemic vs. Epidemic

No, I don't really know the difference (and I have not yet pulled out a dictionary), but these are the two words I heard over and over today. Last week, all of our classes were visibly smaller. Instead of 10-13 to a class, some classes were as small as 4 students. But you know the saying, "The show must go on." And so we did. But today (Monday), when I went to school, three of our English teachers were out sick. Usually this means that we have to figure out a way to cover all the classes they would normally teach, but, since the numbers were so low, we just ended up combining classes to make almost normal size classes. Around lunch time, my boss came to tell me that Narnia had cancelled school for the rest of the week. In Slovakia, there is a law that if 20% of your school population is out sick, you can cancel school. Well, on Monday, there was only 50% of the kids in school (and about that many teachers), so they cancelled school!

Hip, hip, hooray!
I felt like one of the kids I was so excited. I do have to go to school, but can focus on things like long term planning, organizing my cabinet (office) and getting caught up on things. And I can come in an hour later and leave an hour earlier. So, while words like pandemic and epidemic usually cause me to feel a sense of dread, today, they brought nothing but joy.

Baking Day

It has been a while since I wrote and part of the reason is that life has fallen into a routine after Christmas and it seems like I am super busy. That said, I wanted to write something fun, but couldn't quite figure out what. So, I am going to write about Baking Day, that we had before Christmas.

To bake or not to bake...
Baking day is inappropriately named, if you ask me, since there is not actual baking going on. The premise is that the students will bake treats for the Christmas House program. The goodies will then be purchased for a small price and the school will benefit. So, Jayne, the head of Narnia's English department, is in charge of the baking day for the English department. However, she admits that she is really not a baker (or cook for that matter). So, I am given the task of coming up with four different no-bake recipes that we can make with first through fourth graders, using ingredients we can find here. Why no-bake, you ask? Well, because we have no ovens or stoves to use. Only one microwave. And for those of you who have made no-bake recipes, you know that you have to melt things (butter or chocolate usually) for all your recipes. Well, I am not daunted (yet!) by my task. I scour different websites looking for recipes and finally find 3 (Jayne has 1 recipe): rice crispy treats, haystacks and mini cheesecakes. Everything is fine until the Friday before when one of the teachers asks me to help her make a shopping list so that we can make sure we have all the ingredients. I have to explain each ingredient, and when she says they don't have that (i.e. - chow mien noodles), I have to give her a substitute (such as ramon noodles). So far so good, I think. But... as the saying goes, don't count your chickens before they hatch. Come Monday morning, I am faced with all the ingredients. Instead of crispy rice, there is puffed rice, instead of coco crispies, there are coco puffs. And the marshmallows! They are half white, half bright (neon) pink! And they are fruity flavored. Great! But again,... the show must go on. So, I look at our recipes. They all have cups and ounces measurements, while all of our ingredients are in grams and milliliters! So, I have to hastily convert things (going by sight and feel mostly). Then I realize that we have no measuring cups or spoons. So, we borrow some spoons from the kitchen and find some little plastic drinking cups which are about a cup and a 1/3, we guess.

Well, here goes nothing, I think, as the first group of students comes parading down to make rice crispy treats. It goes fairly well, although, with only one microwave and three batches of marshmallows to melt, it takes way too long. So, we send Erika (the 2nd grade English teacher) off to see if she can find another one. We finally borrow one from a neighboring organization, and with two microwave's, things are in full swing. The first group made rice crispy treats from puffed rice and I took a taste as I was putting them in the pan. Gross! They are called rice crispy treats (not puffed rice treats) for a reason. But they have a nice neon pink color, so at least the kids will think they look good. The second batch we use coco puffs and they look even worse. Brown cereal coated with hot pink goo.... Anyone want to try?

TeachOverseas

All in all the day goes well. Everything we make has a small problem or two, but nothing too bad. We have to wash all our bowls and utensils in between every project, and it seems like we just finish cleaning when the next group comes, but I like staying busy, so it's all good.

My favorite recipe we made was the miniature cheesecakes. We had all the right ingredients, so they turned out good and they were fairly easy to make. The fun came when we had to mix the whipping cream and cream cheese together. I had brought our mixer from home (which I had used before). However, when I turned it on, it started spattering little drops of cream everywhere. Soon, I was covered in little white dots, as were the kids who were standing close to the bowl. Ester, the 3rd grade English teacher, saw my problem and came up with a solution. She took the big role of plastic wrap that we had and started wrapping me up in it! She started at my waist and went halfway to my knees. I was laughing to hard to convince her to stop... and besides, it was working. The dots were on the plastic wrap, not me! The kids thought this was hilarious and soon half of the class, boys and girls, were wrapped up in plastic wrap. (Side note - the cheesecakes were delicious!)

So, all in all, it was a successful, productive and hilariously fun day. While I don't recommend baking with one hundred children in one day, it makes for some great stories and plenty of laughter. I only wish that all of you could have come to the Christmas house and sampled our wonderful treats.

SNEŽENIE!

Snow! Finally, after a non-white Christmas, we have had our first snowfall of 2007. (We had snow in November, while we were in East Slovakia, so this is also my first Bratislava nowfall). As we left for work yesterday, Karin said that it was raining so we should take umbrellas. But, as we came out our front door we realized that it was snow falling, not rain. Big white flakes. They didn't stick much - just to car windows mostly. But there was just enough for one student to make a snowball and throw it at my office window and for another student to make a miniture snowman on the back of a car! Fun, fun, fun!

Štastné a veselé Vianoce

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

So, true. This year is the first possibility I have to celebrate a White Christmas and it looks like the weather will not cooperate. I still have my fingers crossed, but it is awfully warm today, just 5 days before Christmas. Almost 40, I believe.

Christmas Spirit

Christmas Spirit is alive and well in Slovakia. While I often felt that the Christmas spirit was overpowered by the spirit of commercialism, here everything is simpler and less commercialized. On all the major streets, the light poles have beautiful Christmas lights in the shapes of stars or shooting stars, hearts or snowflakes. When you are standing on a street corner, you can look all they way down and see a whole row of stars or snowflakes. Since most of the housing is blocks of flats, there are very few other Christmas lights. However, the big Catholic church next to our house has a huge evergreen tree and has it decorated nicely. We can see it out the bedroom window and every time we walk home from school.

Christmas Spirit

Christmas Markets

If you have not been to Europe, you should definitely come in December. While you may have to wear six layers, a scarf, a hat and gloves, it is all worth it. Most major cities have a Christmas market. Words can really not do a Christmas market justice, but I will try. Christmas markets are little booths/kiosks set up in a square. Each booth sells either food or small gift items. The smell of sausages and pork greet you as you enter the square. Of course, you head straight to one of the booths and get a pork sandwich or a sausage and bread and a cup of mulled wine, which warms you from the inside out. Next, while balancing your plate and holding carefully onto your plastic cup, you squeeze your way through the crowds to one of the tables. The tables are more like very tall benches that you stand at. So, if you can find one with a few inches... er, centimeters of space and set your plate down, you can enjoy the wonderful food. Each market has a stage set up with either live or recorded Christmas music. After you have finished your meal, it is time to venture out into the crowds to do some shopping. Each booth has a variety of items, ranging from homemade paper and candles, to hand crafted wooden spoons and dolls, to hand stitched textiles and knitted scarves. Although it is crowded, there is no pressure to buy and no one will pester you about to try to make a sale. After you have made your purchases you must make a stop at one of the booths selling sweets and enjoy a fresh pastry.

Christmas Markets

Christmas House

On Thursday, our school had their Christmas House. Christmas House is a major production that the entire school (1st grade through high schoolers) puts on. The theme this year was Narnia (appropriately enough). There were four parts each with a different topic, but since it was all in Slovak, I didn't quite get what the four parts were. It was narrated by CS Lewis (a student from the high school). There was singing, dramas, musical instruments, and dances. The English department got involved and got our students to sing in English. My fourth graders sang "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer," my third graders sang "Jingle Bells," my second graders sang "Away in a Manger," and the first graders closed with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." My fifth graders illustrated "The Night Before Christmas" and I put all their pictures into a Power Point presentation. They then did a dramatic reading of it as the Power Point played. It was amazing to see. It is a difficult poem to read, even as an English speaker, and they did a great job. I was most impressed with the entire show as it reminded me more of a Broadway performance than a school performance.

Christmas House

Christmas Eve

We got together with the D'Ettorre family (the American family with ESI living). They came to our flat and we made Texas chili, cornbread and baked potatoes. Not very Christmasy, but so yummy. (We all miss spicy food the most.) Then we watched "Over the Hedge," and had birthday cake for Jesus. We enjoyed just hanging out, sharing Christmas memories and laughing. Although we weren't with our families, it was a perfect substitute.

Vesele Vianoce!

Today was Christmas day! And it was wonderful. Not white, but very nice. (It has taken me a few days to write this!) We woke up around 8 and lazily got cups of coffee and tea. We decided to have blueberry muffins (made by Becky) only we ran into problems when we remembered that we had lent out our muffin tins. Oh, well. We are getting used to improvising here, so we just poured the batter into a pie tin and made one big (very yummy!) muffin. While the muffin was cooking, we opened presents. We all had packages from home and gifts for each other. It was fun to get gifts from Hungary and Slovakia and also from the US. Karin's family sent lots of food and several small gifts for Becky and I. My biggest present from my parents will not be here until March. They bought Hannah a plane ticket to come see me! Hip, hip, hooray! After presents, we had breakfast and then got ready for our day. Karin went to a friends house for lunch and Becky and I went to Kristina's house. Kristina is a teacher at my school. Her family is wonderful. She lives with her parents, her grandmother, her sister and one of her brothers. They made the traditional cabbage soup, potato salad, turkey and pork. It was delicious. After lunch, we gathered around the piano and sang Christmas carols while Kristina's mom played. Then, we got out a game and played. This was fun, even though I did not understand everything going on. Kristina's whole family speaks some English - her mom, sister and brother fluently, her dad fairly well and her Grandma learned when she was a young girl, so can understand more than she can speak. Playing games with her family reminded me of being home and playing games with my family.

Once again let me wish you a Vesele Vianoce (Merry Christmas) a Štastné Novy Rok (and a Happy New Year)!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, my friends, supports and family! (I know I am a little late, but I know it is never too late to give thanks for those you love!) I hope that you had a joyous, refreshing and relaxing thanksgiving.

Brno...
I was able to spend Thanksgiving with other American teachers from Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic. On Thursday morning, (after sleeping in, Yeah!) we took the train to Brno in the Czech Republic. It is in the south of Czech, about an hour and a half from Bratislava, and is the second largest city in Czech, after Praha. On the train, we met up with all of the teachers from Hungary and had a very joyful and fun ride to Brno. Once in Brno, we made our way to the hotel. This was an adventure in itself as we had two families with us, with seven kids between them. It took us quite a while, but it was nice to visit with people and enjoy a nice stroll in the short daylight hours.

Pumpkin Pie!!!
After checking into our hotel rooms, we had a short meeting and then dinner. It was not like the dinners that I was used to (much simpler), but still good. We had a green salad, mashed potatoes (very yummy) and turkey. To make up for the simple dinner, we then went directly to desert. Which, since we had brought ourselves, there was in abundance. We had pumpkin pies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cake, apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, Hershey kisses cookies, and spice bread. Yummy! And we all filled up on as much dessert as we could hold. Finally, it was feeling like Thanksgiving.

Phone Calls and Pictures
Then it was off to bed, or at least back to our rooms, where we caught up with friends we had not seen since training in California. I was able to call my family and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving (Thanks Taunya!). Even though it was not home with family and the traditional feast, it was a very wonderful day. Check out my Thanksgiving pics here:

Thanksgiving

I Am Thankful For...
There is so much for me to be thankful for this year. On the top of my list are my wonderful roommates, Karin and Becky. They are amazing women of God and the most amazing roommates a girl could ask for. Also on my list is my computer, internet, e-mail, blogs and Skype, which all enable me to keep in touch with my family and friends. Other things on my list: family, friends, Jesus, my new school (Narnia & CS Lewis), my students from San Jose and Slovakia, letters and packages from home, snow, warm boots, heaters, hot chocolate, good books, movies, LOST (and the brother who loned it out over many miles), buses, cell phones, dark chocolate, music, English, Slovak, new foods, and good health.

You Are Thankful For...
I would love to hear from all of you about your lists of things to be thankful for. Feel free to post a comment on my blog containing your list. God is good and has blessed us with amazing gifts according to His goodness… let’s share them with each other too!

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Philippians 1:3

Eastern Slovakia Trip

An Amazing Adventure
November 1st-3rd was my school’s Fall Break and we decided to take advantage of the time and go to East Slovakia. Karin, Jen (our friend who lives in Budapest) and I made plans to travel to Kosice, Presov, Levoca and Bardejov. Kosice is the second largest city in Slovakia and is a six hour train ride from Bratislava. We arrived in Kosice around 8 at night and after wandering around in the dark for a about an hour, we finally found our way to our hostel which turned out to be only a five minute walk from where we had gotten off the bus. Oh, the joys of being illiterate.

Kosice to Presov
Our time in Kosice was somewhat disappointing as we were there on a holiday- which in Slovakia means that everything except for the churches and some restaurants are closed. So, we were not able to see much. By this point, I was not feeling good and was pretty sure I was coming down with a cold. And of course, since we had to lug all our stuff around, I had packed light and had not brought my Vitamin C, Airbourne or Kleenex. So, after having coffee and a snack at a café and lunch at a Chinese restaurant, we decided to continue our journey to Presov. We arrived at Presov, wondering how we would find our hotel. Karin had made the reservation at this particular hotel, and the man she had spoken with spoke almost no English.

Very Long Side Story
(Side-story here of how the reservation was made: Karin called and asked the man if he spoke English. He responded with no in Slovak. She then asked, “Reservation?” He said “Yes” in Slovak. So, she told him two days in Slovak and told him Wednesday/Thursday in Slovak. He responded with Yes in Slovak and then proceeded to say the days of the week in English, as if to confirm. “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday.” Karin said, “No, Wednesday, Thursday” and he again responded with, Yes, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday. After going back a few times, Karin heard him trying very hard to say the “th” sound, which does not exist in Slovak. So, hoping for the best, she thanked him and hung up. End of side-story.)

Man at the Hotel
After taking the long, long, LONG way around (the hotel had moved to a new location, we found out when we went to the old one), we called a taxi and found our way to the hotel. The man Karin had talked to came to the door and ushered us in. He was very pleasant and helpful, asking us which room we wanted and making sure we had everything we needed. This was all done with him speaking Slovak, us speaking English and LOTS of hand gesturing. When we explained (i.e. gestured) that we had not eaten, he drew us a map of how to get to old town where there would be restraints or the grocery store, both a ten minute walk. We decided on the grocery store and I decided to stay behind as I was really not feeling well. While we were talking about what to do, he came in and offered (gestured) that he would walk us there. During the walk there, Karin and Jen discovered that the man (we never quite got his name- Opps!) he spoke Hungarian (which Jen is beginning to learn) and understood some German (which Jen has a basic knowledge of). This made our conversations with him easier, but no less comical. Lots of “What did he say?” and “I don’t really know, but I think maybe…” After the trip to the grocery store, he offered us some of the chicken he was roasting and three pickles. And of course, Turkish coffee, blacker than black and thicker than mud. The next door he walked us to the bus station, helped us figure out which bus to take, and even spoke to the bus driver about us. Our guardian angel!

Spissky Hrad!
We went to the quant town of Levoca and wandered around until we were too cold, then took a bus up to Spis Castle(Spissky Hrad). I think this was the highlight of our trip. It was a long and daunting hike to the top (especially when you are sick.) Jen was a history major and she was practically running to the top while I was struggling to put one foot in front of the other. Karin was in the middle, wanting to share in Jen’s excitement, but not wanting to leave me in the dust either. When we got to the top, we found the gate closed and a picture of guard dogs and guns on the gate. Jen was frustrated and ready to climb the wall. We noticed someone inside though and they gestured that we could get inside if we walked around the castle. So, we went hiking again. (My face felt like it was frozen as the temp was nearing 0°C. When we finally got around to what we figured out was the main gate, it was open. We paid a nominal fee and were told to stay on the main path. We had the entire castle to ourselves. (We figure this was due to the freezing temperature and the biting wind.) Since there was no one there and the main path was not clearly marked, we explored every nook and cranny of the castle. We peeked in every room, poked our head through every window, climbed every staircase and took every path we could find. We had a glorious time and took tons of pictures. If you ever come to Slovakia, you must make time for Spis Castle. It is the largest castle in Slovakia and one of the largest castles in Eastern Europe. Well worth the hike, the cold, the wind and the cost.

Bardejov and Pastor Jan
Our last stop on our trip was Bardejov, a charming town that has been carefully restored and renovated to preserve the old town feeling. There we met up with a Lutheran pastor (a friend of a friend of a friend who spoke fluent English), who invited us into his home, shared with us the history of the town and took us on a tour of his town. It was absolutely gorgeous and made me feel as though I had stepped back in time. It was also my first snowfall and that added to the charm. The snow was brilliant white and still falling as we were walking by the old city wall, the town hall and the basilica. After our walk, we returned to his home, where his wife had made an amazing lunch for us. We had a great time of fellowship and enjoyed being able to converse and talk with Eastern Slovak people.

Almost home...
Our train ride home was another adventure with languages as we started out having a compartment to ourselves and slowly found it filled to the brim with elderly Slovaks. We again found ourselves communicating with hand gestures and German (thanks Jen!) and ended having a whole car full of Slovaks who were looking out for us, making sure we knew what we were passing, who was coming to check for tickets and just when we needed to get off.


Hmmm... Wherre to next?
We got home on Saturday evening and had Sunday as a day of rest and planning for the upcoming week. It took me most of the next week to recover, but it was well worth it. Eastern Slovakia is a beautiful place. The Tatra Mountains are glorious, the fall colors and the snow were brilliant and the people were genuinely friendly. I am looking forward to the next trip!

PS - If you would like to see pictures of our trip (and the amazing castle!) you can check out all my pictures of our Eastern Slovakia trip at:

East Slovakia Trip

Ignorance is ????

So, last week, I was having dinner with some other teachers from the states and we started talking about how nice it is to not know the language sometimes. You walk by a group of “punk” looking teenage boys and think, “What nice young boys,” because you have no idea what they are saying. They could be talking about the beautiful blue sky, how lovely the flowers smell and how they are going to go home and clean the house for their mothers. Or they could be swearing and talking about how much they hate school, teachers, parents and everyone older than them. The great thing is, I have no idea. So I assume the best and think that the punk teenagers are talking about flowers and house cleaning. Ignorance is bliss.
And when the telemarketer calls, you can just start talking in English and they are sure to hang up on you. Ignorance is bliss.


Interesting fact #6
Stop lights here work differently than in the States. They still go from green to yellow to red, but instead of going straight from red to green, they have this “get ready to go” function. So, when the light is red, and about to turn green, the yellow light goes on as well as the red. Then the red and yellow lights change to green. Although it is supposed to be just a get ready to go light, the red-yellow combination light seems to mean give it as much gas as you can so you can scream through the intersection as fast as you can. Or, if you are a bus, the red-yellow means go, since it takes you so long to get going.

Ignorance is bliss… Or is it…
On the other hand, sometimes I feel like a dope. Our school announced that they were holding a bowling event for all the teachers. Kind of a teambuilding thing. Great, I thought, I love to bowl (even if I’m not very good at it). We found it with relatively no problems. We got there and put our stuff in the locker and another teacher took us to get our shoes. She asked us what size shoe we wore. Seems like such a simple question. It’s very humbling to have to say that you do not know your own shoe size. We had to pull off our shoes to see if the European size was written on the inside. Ignorance is humbling.
Or when I went to a café and confidently ordered my drink in Slovak, after all it’s only a hot chocolate. And then, the waiter asks something. Something simple like, “Would you like whipped cream on that?” And I ask, “Co?,” (what in Slovak). He repeats and of course I don’t understand, so I have to say that I only speak English and he just shakes his head. Ignorance is humbling.

On a simpler note, having to ask someone what is on the lunch menu everyday, getting someone to write down exactly what to say when you go to buy a train ticket and then after practicing it, ending up having to give the paper to the ticket agent or having someone buy you baking powder so you will know what it looks like.

Interesting fact #7
Related to the fact above, right of way on the streets. Vehicles have the right of way. No questions asked. If you are a pedestrian, watch out. Cars actually speed up when they are approaching a person crossing the street. No kidding. They have no mercy on the elderly, children, dogs, even mothers pushing strollers. I have seen buses honk at an elderly man crossing the street. And while there are zebra crossings (crosswalks), it seems like it is an optional thing. I have learned to look both ways, two or even three times and when in doubt… RUN!

Lessons in ignorance
So, I have come to believe that God has something to teach me in all of this ignorance. First and foremost, to depend on him. I am realizing more and more every day how completely I need to depend on him. Second, to depend on other people. I like to be independent. In the States, it is a quality that is valued quite dearly. It is good to be independent and not good to be dependent. God, however, is teaching me the beauty in being dependent on others. Sometimes it is for something as simple as choosing something off a menu, other times it requires a leap of faith, such as signing a power of attorney over to someone I met only a month ago. Please pray that these humbling moments would be for me opportunities to rest in the fact that God is in control and not get frustrated by the lack of control. Thank you for all of your prayers. They have not gone unheard.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

More Space Pictures

I just finished putting up this bulletion board today. Yeah! I am so proud of my students as they worked really hard, and had a lot of fun with this project. They made "Planet Earth Space Capsules," filled with things from earth that would be important for aliens to know about. They then wrote letters to the aliens explaining what they put in the capsule and asking the aliens questions. An explanation for the aliens... An look at what is in the capsules. Lots of sweets, a bus ticket, some alien vitamins, "nature" (acorns, pincone and stick), and toys.

Something to drink, something to eat, something to play with, a lock,

a coin, and some school supplies.

We decorated the outside of our capsules with pictures of important people, places and events.

A sample of the letters, this one is from Daniel.

A letter from Paulina.

And one from Miso Toman.

Michaela put her letter in this box, so creative.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Blast Off!

In fifth grade, we have been studying space. We are learning space vocabulary such as astronaut, weightlessness, and Star Trek. We have been having heated debates about such topics as “Is Pluto really a planet?” and “How many planets are there in our solar system?” We have also been designing our own aliens and Planet Earth Space Capsule. My fifth graders have a very good command of English and for the most part, are able to understand and make themselves understood. So, we are really able to do some fun things.

Last week, I decided it would be fun to try our hands at “being” astronauts. So, I set up three different stations, each one a simulation of what it would be like to be an astronaut. The first station was how it would feel to be an astronaut sitting in the space ship, waiting for hours (sometimes as many as seven or more) to blast off. To accomplish this, we took the classroom chairs and sat them down with the backs on the ground. My students had to take turns sitting on them for 10 minutes at a time. It didn’t take long for them to complain that their legs hurt. And I let them know that to be an astronaut they would have to sit like that for a really long time.

The second station was what is like to sleep in space. I had them wrap a scarf around their eyes, stand against the wall and fold their arms across their chests. Astronauts sleep this way because there is limited room and they have to cross their arms so they don’t float up as they sleep.

The final (and my favorite) was what it is like to wear a space suit. I brought in three of my sweaters (white, black and purple), my heavy wool coat and two pairs of gloves. The students had to put on all three sweaters, the coat and finally the gloves. Miso (pronounced Misho), one of my boys, started modeling in my sweaters, doing a very nice cat walk impersonation of a model. The last task was to get out their exercise books, open it up and write, “My name is…” This was to help them realize how difficult it is for astronauts to do repair work on a space ship. We had a grand, somewhat chaotic, but definitely bonding time.

This week, we are completing our Planet Earth Space Capsules. We are designing them so that the aliens would know what Earth is like. They decorated shoe boxes with pictures of important people, things and events and then added some fun artifacts inside. The last step is to write a letter to the aliens that will be included in the box, explaining life on earth to an alien. Since, I have a boy heavy 5th grade class, this unit has been fun for them. They are broken into two groups, each with 10 students. One group is even, 5 boys, 5 girls, but the other group is 2 girls, 8 boys.

Interesting Fact # 5
Bratislava has four bridges, the Stary (old) bridge, the Novy (new) bridge, the Koaická bridge and the UFO bridge. This bridge looks has what looks like a flying saucer suspended above it. It is actually a restaurant and café inside the saucer and on the top is an observation deck. For just 100SK(Slovak krowns), you can ride a super fast elevator to the top. It feels very strange as the elevator does not go straight up and down, but has a gentle slope. From the top, you can see all of Bratislava and into Austria and Hungary. It is a beautiful sight, especially at night. I went to the top with our head English teacher and my roommates. After spending 20 minutes at the top, we went inside and had coffee. That was where we found the best view of the city. But, it is something you have to experience for yourself. So, for those of you who are planning to visit, we will definitely go and I will show you the best view of Bratislava from the UFO.

Having fun in Space!

Patrick pretends he is steering the space shuttle into space.

Pretending to sleep on a sapce ship is harder than it looks Miso.

Nina takes a turn napping.
Patrick is catching some zzz's in style.

How many sweaters and coats do you need to feel like you have a space suit on?

Now for the gloves... Jakub smiles Simon because he thinks purple is his color.

It's hard to write neatly with so many layers on. Good job, Peter!

Food Pictures

Tradtional slovak meal of meat (chicken and sausages) and potatoes.
Hungarian dish of fried cheese, potatoes(like tator tots) and rice
My other favorite, hot chocolate, so thick you have to eat it with a spoon.

Kind of like a melted candy bar. Yum, yum!

Food

Food

Such an interesting and yummy topic. And when you live overseas, it is even more interesting as the simplest things, such as grocery shopping, cooking and going out to eat become adventures.
Grocery Shopping
Grocery shopping is great fun for many reasons. First, you have to pay to get a grocery cart. The carts are all locked together and you have to pay 5 or 10 crowns to unlock one. You get your money back when you return your cart. Not a bad idea really as no one leaves their cart in the parking lot. You also have to bring your own shopping bags to most places, otherwise you have to buy bags. Sure cuts down on waste. And shopping by pictures is always fun. Sometimes you guess… and sometimes your wrong. (We washed our clothes with fabric softener for several weeks before figuring out it wasn’t soap.) I am very used to pricing things to find the better deal, and as Cosco/Sam’s Club knows, bigger is cheaper. Well, not true here. I have slowly been figuring out that the big jar of jam is more expensive per gram than the little jar. I believe this is because it is more convenient to go shopping more frequently. Carrying your groceries home and small refrigerators/freezers cut down on the amount you buy. I like shopping more frequently as we can always get fresh produce, although remind me again of that when there is snow on the ground.
My favorite grocery store story… so, all three of us went shopping as we were stocking up for the week. We got in line and the checker was an older man who seemed fairly jovial. He was saying things in Slovak so I just kept smiling at him. We had gotten two different cans of beans and the first one he scanned just fine. However, the second would not scan for some reason. He tried several times before he looked up at me and asked me something in Slovak. I gave him an unsure smile and said “Ne rezumium,” – I don’t understand. He looked at me, repeated himself and I just shrugged and shook my head. He started shaking his head and mumbling under his breath “Ne rezumium, ne rezumium.” I can only imagine that he asked me something simple and he thought I didn’t understand his question. “Dumb girl, doesn’t understand, ‘How much are these beans?’ Young people these days. What are they teaching them in school.” As a last resort, he took back the other can of beans and scanned it again, mumbling the entire time.

School Lunches
So, at Oster, my school in San Jose, I never ate at the school cafeteria. The food was greasy, micro-waved and barely food like. Here, employers are required to provide discounted lunches for their employees. So, I can eat in my school cafeteria for less than a dollar a day. And, WoW, is it good food. Every lunch starts with soup, made fresh that day. There are always four choices for lunch. One is a meat dish, (usually chicken or pork) in some kind of a sauce with either rice, pasta or potatoes. The other is a vegetarian choice. This is my favorite as the vegetarians in the States would cringe. Sometime it is really good, like the broccoli soufflé. My favorite vegetarian are what I would call the kid friendly dishes. They include: noodles with chocolate sauce, bread squares with vanilla pudding and dumplings filled with jam. What a meal those are! The third choice is a vegetable plate, which is just a strange assortment of minced veggies such as peppers and carrots. The fourth is a fruit plate, which is actually a plastic bag with four or five pieces of fruit in it. The best part about cafeteria eating is that the menu is posted each day and you stamp your meal ticket with the choice you want. And, seeing that I don’t read Slovak, I try to read what little I can, and then just guess at what I’m getting. Sometimes I will ask a student to translate and get such wonderful translations such as “sliced with kakoa.” Huh? Maybe not tomorrow. Sliced with kakoa is noodles with chocolate, which I passed on. Overall though, I am thoroughly pleased with cafeteria food. And it is all served on china with real silverware, no Styrofoam trays and plastic sporks here.

Restaurants
Restaurants are also great fun. The menus, at least in old town, are often in several languages, or they have an English version. The English versions are funny , as they often don’t make sense. There is no waiting to be seated, just find a table you like and have a seat. The wait staff will come when they are ready, and often it takes a while, so plan plenty of time. Water does not come with the meal and when you order they will ask if you want it with gas or without. All of the water is mineral… umm, umm. I am learning to like it. The food is delicious, if a bit heavy. The national Slovak dish is Brynzova Hylushci, which is little potato dumplings (like small gnocchi) with a sheep cheese sauce, sprinkled with bacon. It is very delicious. After your meal, you can sit and visit for as long as you want, as your waiter will not bring the check until you ask, “Uchet, prosim.” Check, please.

Zmrzlina Prosim!
My favorite Slovak food is zmrzlina. Yes that is right, five consonants in a row, two of them z’s. It is a mouthful to say, but a good word to learn. Ice cream. Ice cream is a treat to be eaten at all times of the day, morning, noon and night. There are little shops on every corner and people walk around with ice creams cones everywhere you go. The ice cream is lighter and much cheaper. For less than a dollar you can get three little scoops. The cookies and another one I can’t pronounce, but is a kind of chocolate, are my favorite right now.
Well, with all this talk about food, I am getting hungry. I think maybe a dish of zmrzlina and maybe a cup of chaj are in order….

Mt 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Vienna
Last weekend, we had Friday off for Mary’s Ascension into Heaven (officially called Our Lady of Sorrows Day). So, we decided to make the most of it and take a trip to Vienna. Vienna is only an hour away by train and costs less than $10. Quite a bargain. We took a fellow American, Heather, along with us. We spent time at the Belvedere Palace roaming through the beautiful gardens. They were very well kept (and free) and seemed to be a popular place for the locals to go running. We headed into the downtown/tourist area after a lunch of crackers and cheese. We had a city guide of Vienna, but not much else to go on. We found our way to St. Stephens Cathedral, a truly magnificent masterpiece of a church. The façade is just amazing. It is still a working church with services held on the weekends. Under the church is a series of catacombs. We could not resist taking the tour offered. It was well worth the $4. At the beginning of the tour, you see the catacombs that have been renovated. The cardinals and bishops are still buried there, some as recently as two years ago. We then saw the room with the caskets of the family who commissioned and built the church. Friedrich Babenberg rebuilt the church after it was gutted by fire in the 14th century. Friedrich commissioned and rebuilt the church by the time he was 25, which was when he died. He married at 14 and his wife was 11! Wow! It is amazing what you can do at a young age. The internal organs of the Hapsbug family (royal family) are kept here in copper urns, while their hearts and bodies are kept in two separate locations. Farther along in the catacombs, we saw the mass graves. Rooms upon rooms upon rooms of bones, some from the Plague. The catacombs were forbidden to be used after 30 years because of sanitation and smell issues.
After our tour, we walked around the town more, going into churches and walking around gardens. We did some shopping at H & M (for those of you not familiar with this store, it is a European clothing shop – a great find!). It is a place that we plan to become much more acquainted with this coming year. We counted at least three, maybe four of them. We had a true Vienna dinner of Weiner Schnitzel and potato salad. Very yummy. And what would a trip to Vienna be like without a stop at a coffee shop. Ours was made in the rain and the dark. We took the train the wrong way, got yelled at and flipped off by a “lady” on the bus and finally found a true Vienna coffee shop, with a wonderfully helpful waiter. The coffee and pastries were delicious and a great ending to our trip.

Interesting Fact # 3

Hair dye. I have never been somewhere where hair dye is so popular, at least among the women. All women, from teenage girls to business women to grandmas. It is not unusual in the least to see a classy lady in a nice pantsuit with red (and I mean red) hair. Yesterday, I went to the notary and the office had three ladies working in it. All of them had their hair dyed different shades of red. One was a true red, one a more coppery red and one a kind of orangey red. I have seen grandmas with purple, teachers with blue and everyone with red. Hmmm…. maybe the next time I am at Tesco I should check out the hair dyes…. blue… red… pink… purple…no, blue, definately blue.

Interesting Fact # 4

Movie theaters have assigned seating. When you go to the movies, they assign you a seat, so there is no reason to get their early to get a good seat. Although I did notice that as soon as the movie started, people got up and moved to the better seats that had not been purchased.


School
So, while our school started three weeks ago, we have only been teaching for the past two weeks. I see my 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders each twice a week and my 5th graders 3 times a week. Each group is broken up into two groups (2nd grade A and 2nd grade B), so I have a total of 18 classes a week. I was told right away that the 5th graders are a handful and that they can be a challenge. So, I decided to go in with guns blazing. I gave them a two page Student Interest Survery on day one to complete. I tried my best to make it at a fifth grade level so that it would be difficult for them and they would know that I meant business. And it worked! They really struggled with it and it took them all of the 45 minute period to complete (and many did not finish). But, I have not had problems with them and they are quickly becoming my favorite class. Their English is fairly good and we can communicate very well, although not always easily.

My challenging class is going to be my 3rd graders. I already had to send one boy to the principal for being disruptive in my class. They act like they have no idea what I am saying and like they can’t speak English at all. I know that it is difficult, but if we struggle together, we can communicate. However, they would rather pretend and speak in Slovak, since I can’t understand them. It is frustrating at times, but hopefully, sending one child to the principal will help the rest realize that while I may not know what they are saying, I still can understand their body language and get the gist of what they are saying. Please pray that I will continue to have patience with them, and that I will be able to come up with creative and fun ways to teach them.

Narnia's needs
On the topic of school, I would like to share with you a need that our school has. The English department’s job is to help all of the students become fluent in English so that they can attend a bilingual Gymnazium (high school). So, starting in first grade (their first year in school), they take five hours of English a week – three hours of English grammer from a Slovak teacher and two hours of English conversation from a native speaker (me!). By the fifth grade, their English is good enough that I can talk at a normal pace and use some pretty sophisticated language. They continue to take English throughout middle school (5th to either 8th or 9th grades). One of the best ways to learn a language is through reading. My favorite poster about reading is one that states the top ten ways to become a better reader: read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read! And for the students at Narnia, one of the best ways to perfect their English is to read books in English. The problem is that there are no English bookstores and very few bookstores with any English books. I was hoping to find English books in our school (since it has such a good English program). However, they have very few books, and the few they have are old and very random. Narnia would love to have more books for their students to enjoy. If you have any used (or new!) books that need a good home, we would love to have them. Please send me an email or post a comment if you are interested and would like the school address. Thank you.

PS. We teachers would love to relax with a good movie now and then, so if you have any videos or DVD's sitting around collecting dust, we would love to add there to our flat for not only us, but all the teachers in Central Europe. Thanks again for all of your support.

Philemon 1:4-7 "I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayer, because I hear about the love you have for all God's people and the faith you have in the Lord Jesus. I pray that the faith you share may make you understand every blessing we have in Christ. I have great joy and comfort, my friends, because the love you have shown to God's people (ME!) has refreshed them." Thank you for refreshing me and keeping me in your prayers.

My flat

Welcome to our flat. Let me give you a tour...

Enteryway

Looking down the hallway to our little flat. Our laundry basket of shoes, since you never wear outside shoes in the house.
Bathroom

Our little bathroom.

Our combination laundry room/bathroom

Dining Room

The right side with the bookcase and piano.

The left side with the piano and the Olivia pictures and the door to the enteryway.

Living Room

The living room is opporsite the dining room. After mutliple attempts to upload the living room pictures I am calling it quits. Maybe another time...
Kitchen

Our kitchen "hutch" and our teeny, tiny oven.

Out little kitchen with our circle sink and our electric teapot.

We actually have a normal size fridge (many people have dorm size fridges).

Our extra table for preping and sitting on.
Balcony

Our little tiny balcony that looks out onto the playground.

The little playground for our building.
Spare Room Our spare bedroom which doubles as Becky's and my closet. We love to have company. (Hint, hint, hint.)
Bedroom When you first walk in our room you can see Beckys bed on the left and Karins on the right. You can just see the corner of my purple comforter on the far right.

Karin's bed and my bed are right by the window, which looks out onto the little playground.

My little corner of the world.

My School!

Welcome to CS Lewis Bilingual High School and Narnia Elementary School

This is the enterance to my school. I live about a 20 minute walk, or a 15 minute bus ride/walk from my school.

Welcome!

My desk with the flowers my principal gave me for my birthday

The front of my classroom.

If you are standing in the middle of the room, facing front, and slowly turn right, this is what you will see...This is the door to my classroom, the sink and my closet/storage area.

The backcorner of my classroom, the bulletion boards and our brand new rug!

The back table for small group work and our wonderful rug!

Our wall of windows that look out onto the entrance of the school.

The teacher's desk at the front of the room. Not that I will sit there...

Becky, Jenni, Daniel (the manager - headmaster) and Karin at the top of Devin Castle. The background is the hills of Vienna

Jayne, my head English teacher, waiting to go down the bobsled.
So fun, but so dangerous! One wrong turn and you go flying off the track and down the hill.