TeachOverseas

2009 Winter and Spring in Pictures

2009-05-16T23:51:00.001+02:00

Winter and Gas Crisis

2009-01-18T12:46:00.006+01:00

Winter
So, it is winter, which means freezing temperatures, cold, snow and ice. Fall was relatively nice and warm, and people were beginning to wonder if winter would ever show up. Christmas lists all included, "Snow, White Christmas and Snowmen." Then, it snowed the weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving (one weekend before the real Thanksgiving). Everyone was very excited and out came all the winter garb. Big fluffy coats, mittens, scarves and hats. But, it warmed up, the snow melted and that was the end of that. Back to mildly cold and no snow. Christmas came and went with no snow. Rain, yes, but no snow. We went to Turkey for our vacation, where it snowed (or rained), and was miserably cold, for our whole trip. Coming back to Slovakia was wonderful because it actually was warmer. But a few days later, came the snow, cold and ice. It started to snow and hasn't let up. We have had snow on the ground for more than two weeks. Just when I think it is beginning to melt, I wake up to a fresh blanket of snow. The canal by our flat is completely frozen over in spots and is being used for ice hockey and ice skating by all the locals. This morning, snow is dusting everything. Not big snowflakes, but tiny little ones, just enough to make everything white. And it is cold. Everyday is in the low 30's or high 20's. Going out means putting on leggings under your pants, 2 or 3 shirts, a jacket, a scarf, a winter coat, mittens, a hat two pairs of socks and winter boots. And even then, I am still cold. Walking to school it is dark, snowy and cold, and my jeans are always wet on the bottom. Coming home, it is dark, snowy and cold, and I can't wait to get out of my cold, wet clothes and change into sweatpants and a sweatshirt. But I am learning to like the snow to. It makes everything glisten, shine and look so beautiful. And when the snow is shining, it is glorious.

Snow and Ice

Gas Crisis
So, about a week and a half ago, I noticed a news story on my iGoogle homepage with Slovakia in the headline. I opened it up to read about a major crisis facing most of Central Europe. If you haven't heard, we (Central Europe) depend on Russia for most if not all of our natural gas supply. This gas provides heat and even electricity. The pipelines for this gas go through Ukraine and the Russians decided that the Ukraines were cyphoning off their gas, and so turned off the supply. Now, as I said above, it is cold. The coldest winter since I have been here. Bulgaria and Slovakia both rely 100% on Russia for natural gas. Maybe not the best idea, but fact. So, now many countries are in serious crisis. Slovakia's president has declared a state of emergency. Some factories have given workers mandatory time off without pay. However, we still have electricity and heat. We have gotten enough gas from neighboring countries to last through the end of January. So, while I am cold, we are not freezing. We keep talking (actually, hoping, for a gas crisis holiday), but so far no luck. Some countries have turned off gas to businesses and schools, so that gas can go to homes and hospitals.
This is a serious problem. The Russians don't really seem to want to budge and the Ukraines are sticking with their story. Central European presidents and secretaries of states have been meeting almost daily to try sort out the mess and get the gas flowing again. The EU is also invovled and it has seemed many times like they brokered deals, but they have fallen through each time. Please pray that an agreement will be made soon. While Slovakia has been able to pull through with little or no discomfort, that is not true of all countries. Some are hurting very badly, especially as temperatures stay so low.

Christmas at Home

2009-01-04T09:50:00.003+01:00

So, a Christmas post. For those of you in the US, I was incredibly homesick this year. If someone had offered me a plane ticket home, I would have jumped at it and not even asked if it was round trip. I had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit and just wanted to be home in the States for Christmas. Becky was able to go home again for Christmas and I think that just made my homesickness even worse.
Thankfully, all of that changed thanks to wonderful friends and "family" here. For starters, Karin and I were able to attend a performance of the Nutcracker, thanks to one of my students, Mišo, who sang for one of the dances. We had a hard time finding the performance at first, but it was worth all the wandering around in the cold and dark.
The next day was Christmas Eve and I had no time to be homesick. I had to be at the bus station to pick up our first guests, Laura and Sarah (teachers in Czech), at 9am. We went into town and I showed them around before heading to the train station at 1pm to pick up our next guests, Steph, Jason and Jon. We all headed back to our flat then, where Karin was making her famous Texas chili. She and I had been shopped all day the day before to make sure we had enough food (and miraculously, we did!). At 5pm Kate, Katie, her parents, her brother Evan and his girlfriend Lindsey arrived. Finally at 5:30 the D'Ettorres (Vic, Darla, Dominic and Ana) arrived, bringing our grand total to 17 people. We feasted on backed potatoes with all the trimmings, Texas chili, hot wine, cornbread and an array of baked goods and candy. We pulled out Apples to Apples and had a large, rousing game, using up all of the cards. The families left around 10 and we found beds for everyone else.
Christmas morning, Laura and Sarah left early to catch a train to Prague and Steph, the boys, Karin and I had a late breakfast of eggs, bacon and cranberry scones. I went to my Slovak family's house to hang out and play games. They gave me a handpainted flower pot and wire jewlery they had made themselves. I was so impressed with the wire jewlery that they pulled out all the materials and taught me how to make it myself. We played Settlers of Catan, drank tea and ate Christmas goodies for the rest of the afternoon. When I came back home, we opened the few gifts we had (Karin and I haven't yet gotten our packages from our families). We both got beautiful earings from Steph. I was able to talk to my family and found out the wonderful news that I am going to be an aunt! Yeah! So, at the end of the day, I was still a little homesick, but very happy to be here in Slovakia.

Christmas at home

Camels, Mosques and Kebabs

2009-01-03T23:25:00.006+01:00

Bratislava to Goreme

The day after Christmas, we woke up and packed our bags, ready to head off to Turkey. Our friend Steph, who traveled to Spain with us last year and teaches in Czech came with us, along with her brother Jason and his college buddy Jon. We had a noon flight and everything went smoothly. We landed at 3 and easily found our city bus which would take us to the main bus station. We were a little concerned about how we would know where to get off as the stops didn't seem to be marked, it was raining and getting dark. Not to worry, though. When we arrived, the bus driver loudly proclaimed our stop, put on the brake and stepped out of his cubicle to make sure we had all gotten off. Our first taste of Turkish hospitality. We then marched off to the bus station, which was actually just a collection of offices for all the different bus companies. Each company had one or two reps out front loudly hollering where they would take you. Coming from Central Europe where you have to ask to get help, it was quite overwhelming. We finally found the bus company we were looking for and booked tickets on the 9:30pm bus to Goreme. We had a few hours to kill so decided to look for dinner. We asked the man who sold us the bus tickets and he escorted not just to a restaurant, but to our table, where he shook the waiters hand and we figured there was some kind of deal going on. We feasted on Turkish food, wandered back to the bus station, where we had Turkish tea and finally got on our bus. Females can not sit by themselves on a bus, as then there is the possibility that a stranger could sit next to them, so Karin and Steph sat together, Jason and I sat together and Jon had his own two seats. It was not very comfortable. Jason and I talked for quite a while and tried to sleep, but it was not easy. The bus stopped every couple of hours for a bathroom/food break and everytime it started up again, we would get this lemon oil/hand sanitizer. At one point, the man sitting behind Steph and Karin took Steph's purse out from under her seat and started to go through her wallet, but thankfully she noticed and got it back intact. It was a good reminder that we needed to be careful. At 8am our bus arrived in Aksarary, where the bus driver told us we must get off. At this point we were all so tired and weren't sure what to do. Thankfully, he walked us into the bus station and got us tickets to Goreme. We had to wait for an hour, which was painful because we were so tired. Finally our bus came and we made it to Nevsehir. At this point, we were left at a travel agency that promised us a free shuttle bus to our hostel. They also wanted to sell us tour packages and book a direct bus for us back to Istanbul. We decided to go with a one day tour, a half day private tour and the bus tickets. Soon we were on our way to Goreme. We made it to our hostel, Elif Star Caves. Hooray!

Travel From Bratislava to Goreme

Goreme

After checking in, we were again escorted to a table in a local restaurant. This time it paid off though, as we got a discount. We spent the afternoon wandering and then the boys, Steph and Karin went 4 wheeling while I had apple tea with the owner of the 4 wheeler shop. We went to bed early to try to catch up on our sleep.
The next day we had our half day private tour of the underground city. It was 8 stories deep and miles and miles long. In fact, at one point in time, it connected to the neighboring town several miles away. We stayed in for over and hour and our guide was wonderfully patient, letting us explore, take pictures and act crazy for as long as we wanted. Afterwards, we went to a goverment sponsered carpet store where we saw the process of Turkish carpets being made, starting with the silkworm cocoons all the way through to the sales pitch. Karin and I ended up with a nice salesman who lives in the DC area who could tell we weren't going to buy and so showed us the most expensive carpets - pure silk - for $77,000USD. It took 2 and 1/2 years to make. We came back to town, did some shopping and explored the town of Goreme, climbing up in the cave dwellings. The owner of the 4 wheeler shop, Atilla, had invited us for dinner at his shop, so we hiked down the road for a real Turkish barbeque. The man working at our hostel, Rami, also came, with baked potatoes. Atilla had marinated his own chicken and vegetables for us and along with the potatoes and the good Turkish bread, we had a feast.
The next day we took the tour of the open air museum, which was crazy because there was so much snow on the ground and we were climbing up these steep stone steps, slick with snow and ice. We started taking bets on who would be the first to fall. On our walk back to the bus, we were all tripping, slipping and sliding. We also went to a pottery shop, a Turkish cafeteria for lunch and an onix factory. It was cold and snowy the whole day. We returned to our hostel to pick up our luggage and then went back to Nevsiher to wait for our night bus to Istanbul. We found a brand new Italian restaraunt next door and had pizza and pasta for dinner. The place was so new that they were still hanging pictures on the wall and the waiter had to read the menu to tell us about the food. But it was good!

Goreme

Istanbul

The next night bus was better than the first. The seats were more comfy and this bus had televison. It seemed to be playing the Turkish version of Grey's Anatomy. All of us were able to sleep a little better on this bus. It was also nice because it dropped us off in Istanbul. We were then coached to get on a free bus to the center of town. We weren't sure about this, but we decided to try it and it dropped us off a half a block away from our hostel. So, by 9am, we were in Istanbul. We had breakfast at our hostel and then wandered around trying to get our bearings. We had lunch at a cute little Turkish place and then Steph and the boys took a nap while Karin and I explored more. Everyone we talked to seemed so helpful. Shopkeepers constantly called to you to come and visit their stores, which was a little unsettling at first, but finally I realized that I could just say, "No thank you," as everyone in Turkey spoke very good (American) English.
Our second day in Istanbul, we went to the Hagia Sofia, constructed as a basilica, looted by the Crusaders, turned into a mosque and is now a museum. It was so different from all the cathedrals and basilicas and churches that I have been in. You could see how it was built as a basilica - the right shape and the domes - and also there were mosaics and crosses on the walls, but it also had the Muslim influence. The stained glass windows had Turkish writing. There were more geometric patterns and very vibrant colors. It just had a different feel.

Mosques in Istanbul

It was raining when we were finished but we didn't let that deter us from our plans of going to the Spice Bazaar. So, with Jon leading the way and a sketchy map, we set out. We tramped up and down, in and out, back and forth, with Jon saying, "According to the map it is right here," and pointing to the closest building. He was successful however and got us there. I was so excited. Since I love cooking this was a treat for me. And what a treat. Store upon store of spices, barrels upon barrels, and oh the smells. Rich, vibrant, yummy. Each vender would call to you to come and see his wares. They would hold huge scoops of spices or teas up for you to smell. I was taken. I ended up buying more tea than spices, but was so happy with all of my purchases. Karin was able to find pine nuts, which was a real treat.
Afterwards we went out to find a place for lunch and ended up in a Turkish cafe, where we were served a huge platter of meat and a huge plate of bread. Yum... When we left, we passed a house of tombs, so Karin and I took off our shoes, covered our heads and looked at the above ground caskets of some Sultans and their children.
We then went to the Grand Bazaar where we spent a few hours shopping for Pasminas, jewlery and so many other cool things. We went back to our hotel to drop off all are purchases and rest a little for the long New Year's Eve before us. We had tried to find out about New Year's Eve in Istanbul before coming, but hadn't been very successful. The guy at our hostel said that the city did a fireworks show by the water, so we decided that we should be near the water.
As is becoming our tradition, we headed out to find some Chinese food. Last year in Barcelona, we couldn't find any reasonably priced food (under 100 Euros a person), so we ended up at Chinese. This year, we just decided to start with the Chinese. We had been scouting them since we had arrived and had seen 3 Chinese/Korean restaraunts within walking distance. And all of them were closed. We couldn't believe that last year it was our last resort and this year, we were searching for one. After almost giving up and heading to McDonald's, a nice Turkish man pointed back towards our hostel and a very good Chinese restaraunt. We were the only customers. It was definately a memory.
After dinner, we thought it would be best to go to our hostel to watch fireworks since it has a nice rooftop balcony and it would be warmer than going down by the water. So, we sat on the balcony and played cards until midnight, toasted with Raki (the Turkish drink) and stood on the balcony watching fireworks. The ones the city set off were very few and far between, but thankfully the citizens knew this and bought enough to light up the sky. The people on the street below us were shooting off the fireworks, so it was very loud and they were right above our heads. Very cool. After a few more rounds of cards it was off to bed for us.

The Sights and Streets of Istanbul

The next day was our last in full day in Istanbul so we decided to cram as much in as possible. No, actually, we were all really ready to go home, so we had a very relaxed, low key day. We wandered down by the water, took in the view, walked in the park, visited the Blue Mosque, ate at a Southwest Grill restaurant, went to the Spice Bazaar again and even went to Starbucks (oh, how I miss my Tazo Chai Tea Lattes). We ordered in pizza and again played cards.

Turkish School and Home Again

On our last day, we decided to walk down to the water again, since our bus didn't leave for the airport until 1. On our way there, Karin pointed out an elementary school. I really wanted to go in an look around and so we both gathered up our courage and marched inside. Once inside, we were greeted by 3 students, wearing name badges and looking very official, who I think were the hall monitors. We tried to speak with them but they didn't speak much English. Finally, we got them to understand that we wanted to talk to the director (principal) of the school. We were shown into his office and told him that we were teachers from Slovakia who would like to look around his school. His English wasn't very good, but he understood us and asked one of the hall monitors to show us around. The girl appeared to be in about 7th or 8th grade and her only word in English was "Welcome," so everything was welcome. Welcome to this room, welcome to leave this room. She happily took us into one of the 1st grade classrooms, where the teacher proudly had the students show us how to write their names on the board. Then we went to a pre-K classroom. The music teacher gathered all the students around and had them sing a cute song about a fish. Then we went to see the computer lab and the library. At that point the bell rang and we were mobbed by middle school students who all wanted to shake hands, try out their English and have their picture taken. At this point, we realized that we were bringing chaos to the school, so we decided to leave. Thankfully recess ended and so went to say goodbye to the director. He invited us in, gave us chocolates, pens and pencils. We asked for the school's address so we could send them pictures. Being able to see a school was really a highlight for me.
We walked down to the water one last time, had one last kebab and then it was off to the airport for us. Since our airport was on the Asian part of Turkey, we were able to drive over the bridge that connects Europe and Asia. Very cool. We arrived back in Bratislava safe and sound. Jon and I went to the store to pick up food for dinner and then Karin and I taught Jason and Jon how to make Bryndzové Halušky. While Turkish food was great, it was good to have a home cooked meal.

Turkish School and Home Again

Year 3hree

2008-11-14T23:02:00.004+01:00

So, year three. This year has brought many new changes for me. This year I returned to the same flat we were in last year and then moved the last weekend in September to our new flat. I posted pictures of our new flat. We decided to call it the Penthouse, in honor of the new Batman movie (where he moves into the Penthouse), but have now decided that we should keep Wayne Manor or go back to the BatCave. Such serious things to decide.

I started two new roles at work. First, I am now the head of the Languages Department (English, Spanish, German) at my school. Basically, I am now an administrator. I must hire and fire teachers when needed, hold staff meetings, attend millions of administration meetings, answer questions, deal with unhappy parents, defend teachers, observe teachers, deal with grade problems, and any other things that comes up. Basically, put out fires all day long.
This year was especially hard as we started the year short one teacher. We put out ads, asked friends and colleagues and came up with no one. So, we started the year with everyone subbing more and having the special ed teacher working part time for us. We finally got a few applicants and I excitedly started interviewing. Only to be amazed when the first had to ask our principal to translate for her and the second could only speak in the present tense. So, we kept searching until another canidate appeared. She seemed perfect. Her English was good and she really wanted the job. So after doing the interview, watching her practice teach a lesson, we hired her. Well, long story short, things did not work out. So, in December we told her that we would be letting her go at the end of January. So, we started the hiring process again. Thankfully, last week, we hired someone. She will start this week. I am praying that everything will go smoothly this time and I will be done hiring for a long time.

The second big change is that I am now a class teacher. This is kind of like being a homeroom teacher. Which means that I have opening (15 minutes) with them each day, and deal with any problems that come up with them. For the first week of school, before we had regular classes, I had them all day. And again at Christmas time and I will at the end of the year too. Thankfully, I have a Slovak teacher who helps me with this job. I also have to fill out the classbook. This book is where every teacher must write down every lesson they teach. Kind of like a plan book for the grade. So every day my students take it to every class. The teacher must fill in their lesson plan (ie - Past Continuous), mark down who is absent and sign it. If the teacher forgets, which happens more than it should, I have to track them down and get them to sign. And you cannot mess up. If you do, it may mean you have to get a new one and start all over. So, not a fun part of being a class teacher.

Year 3hree has been rough, but I see how God is working in it. I am continuing with my Slovak lessons and just this week I had a wonderful blessing. I have two Slovak tutors who come to school every Monday for 2 hours to work with me. We only speak in Slovak and they prepare lessons based on what mistakes I made the last week. I brought a children's book in Slovak to my lessons in September, so we have slowly and painfully been reading through it. The language in it is very difficult and I only understand the very basics of the storyline. In December, my principal brought an "Our Daily Bread" devotional book for 2009 to a meeting and gave one to each administrator, so I got one for the Languages department. So, I decided to bring it to my tutoring lesson. When I showed it to the girls, they got really excited about it. So, I read the devotional for that day. And amazingly, I could actually understand most of it. I really do not know what kind of relationship these girls have with Christ, so it was a great open door. I will bring it again this week, with the hopes that it will be a way to promote some good dialouge.

Welcome to the Penthouse!

2008-10-28T17:27:00.002+01:00

I am long overdue on this and although I started it weeks ago, it never got very far. So, click on the link before to see our new flat, lovingly named the Penthouse. (If you have seen Dark Knight and have kept up with the names of our other flats, hopefully you will understand this one.) Click on the link below for a pictorial tour of our wonderful new home.

The Penthouse

Camp Again... x2

2008-06-01T21:39:00.004+02:00

Day 1 – Slovakia Day
 Highlight: The hour that my team spent together making a company. Each team had to make a company, decide what its product was, design a poster for it, and decide where it was located. My team had the distinct disadvantage of having to speak in English. For half of my team, it is not a problem since one is American, two have an American parent and one has grown up in a bilingual family. For me, it was fun to watch them come up with ideas and share them all in English. Our team was dubbed, “Super Star Air Kids,” and our company is an airline whose airplanes double as submarines and takes kids on deep-sea adventures.
 Lowlight: The five-hour bus ride to get here. I had heard it was only three but that was not the case. We hit traffic getting out of the city, had to make two bathroom breaks, and stop once to pick up supplies. And trying to keep 43 wiggling, hyperactive kids sitting and quiet is no easy thing. But, we did survive and the adventure begins….

Day 2 – China Day
 Highlight: This was my day to lead and the theme was Beijing, China and the Summer Olympics. We spent the morning preparing for the Olympics and then in the afternoon we had six different Olympic Games (variations of real events, such as the javelin throw with chopsticks). So, there were really two highlights for me. The first was the awards ceremony. One of the preparations for the Olympics was making medals. The kids had sparkly paper, pens and ribbons and they made some great medals. In the afternoon, we sat outside in a big circle and each teacher called their group up and awarded a medal to each child, some for best in an event, others for good attitudes, encouraging teammates or being a good sport. It was fun to see the smiles on the kids’ faces. The second was in the evening, when we lit the Olympic torch. The kids lined up from the front of our hotel all the way to the campfire. Then Andreka lit the torch and a great cheer went up. The kids then passed the torch all the way down the line to me, the last person. I held it up and they again cheered. I then used it to light our campfire. And we roasted marshmallows and made s’mores, which was a first for many of these kids’ as they don’t have marshmallows here. It was amazing to watch their faces as they enjoyed this new, sticky treat. (Thanks mom and dad and Patrick for the marshmallows and graham crackers. You made many kids day!)
 Lowlight: The thought of making it through so many more days. This day was actually one of those days without any clear lowlights. I was busy (since it was my day to lead) and I had lots of fun.

Day 3 – Hollywood Day
 Highlight: We spent the morning creating movies based on children’s movies (Shrek, Aladdin, The Incredibles). My team had Shrek and we made a movie about the dragon and Donkey’s children. Mama dragon and the children went on a picnic and the children got lost in the woods. A year later, when their wings finally worked, they were reunited with their mom. It was complete with a narrator, costumes, props and sets. The highlight however, was winning the Oscar for Most Original film. According to my kids, this was the best award you could win. We had Oscars made of chocolate bars, wrapped in tin foil to look like an Oscar. The kids and teachers all brought fancy clothes, wore make-up and did their hair fancy. The upstairs room was decorated beautifully and was complete with a red carpet.
 Lowlight: For me, it was the same thing, the Oscar night. I was sitting with my team, all dressed up and my team was the last one to get their Oscar. So, when the teacher announcing started talking, she was looking at my team and I knew she was talking about my team. However, I couldn’t really understand her. Then when my kids got called up, she asked them if they had anything to say. One of my kids gave a speech and again, I couldn’t understand. I just felt so frustrated because I wanted so desperately to understand. I was so proud of them, but I felt so much like an outsider. This is when I am so frustrated with being the foreigner.

Day 4 – Paris Day
 Highlight: This day was supposed to be our Canada day, but we had to change it because it rained on and off all day. Instead we learned about the Versailles Gardens and created our own of scrap materials and things from outside. The highlight for me was during this time. After we collected all of our things from outside, I had to get something from my room, so I sent the kids upstairs to get started. We had done some work, but they were not really getting into it and I felt like I was pushing, pushing, pushing. It took me a few minutes to get what I needed and I was a little worried at what I might find when I came upstairs. But, they were working happily and had created a really fantastic garden complete with planter boxes around the trees and little tiny flowerpots. It was fun to see them working together so well.
 Lowlight: This was a hard day for my team. Three of my boys share a room as well as being on the same team and it is a lot of together time, and they got in their third fight of the day. And at dinner time, they were using bad language and saying mean things to and about each other. So, after being formally rebuked by the director of the camp, two of the girls were in tears and everyone was very sad. Not a good way to end the day, but hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Day 5 – Canada Day
 Highlight: Today we went on a trip to the forest. We rode on two different open-air trains, which felt very much like we had gone back in time. We walked for an hour or so through the woods, stopping to look at different things in nature as we went (my favorite was the four foot high ant hill. We stopped in a meadow and played soccer and other games for about an hour or so before heading back. The highlight for me was getting ready for bed at the end of the day – not me getting ready, but 4 of my boys. I was assigned to look after one of the rooms with four of my second grade boys in it. This involved me sitting in their room for an hour or so, making sure they showered (with soap) and washed their hair, brushed their teeth, got pajamas on and got into bed with the covers on properly. This was quite a challenge and very funny to watch. I had to say everything multiple times and very slowly. Meanwhile, my boys (who have no shame) were running around their room (before and after their showers) with no clothes on. And after their showers, they didn’t dry off, just put on their pajamas. So, I tried my best to towel them off, especially their hair, as our school nurse says that if you go to bed with wet hair, you will get sick. It was fun to bond with my boys in this special (although silly way) and feel like I was just one of the teachers, instead of the foreign teacher.
 Lowlight: At the end of the day, all the teachers were sitting in our little room getting things ready for the next day. I was helping and listening to the banter around me. They were laughing and telling stories and having fun and I realized how much I missed being a part of a group like that.

Day 6 – Vienna Day
 Highlight: This was a really fun day. We set up a carnival for the kids outside while they learned about Mozart inside. We had six different games/booths: a hit the prize game, a scary forest walk, a tattoo parlor, a strong man/arm wrestling, a tumbling and a Frisbee game. Each kid got 20 Euros and could buy tickets for 2 Euros each. The kids had a blast running from booth to booth, playing games, winning prizes and just having fun. I ran the tattoo parlor, which was a huge success. However, the highlight for me was connecting with two of the teachers, Katka and Vierka, that have very limited English. First, when we were getting ready for the carnival, they asked me to do their makeup, which I did very garishly – bright pink circles on their cheeks and bold purple, blue and green eye shadow. They were so happy to have me do it. Yeah! Later, Vierka noticed I was pink (okay, red) from being in the sun and offered me after sun lotion. So, I went to her room and put some on her back and then she put some on mine. And then, when they found out that I could french braid, they wanted me to braid their hair. So, in the afternoon, while the kids were playing outside, I sat with both of them and braided their hair. We talked in Slovish – my new favorite language, a combination of Slovak and English. These two teachers had not really talked with me before because of the language barrier but now have each talked to me several times. Praise the Lord!
 Lowlight: Today was really a great day. The only lowlight was realizing that I am not even half way done with camp as tomorrow we get a fresh group of children and start all over again.

SvP 2 & 3

Day 7 – Slovakia Day
 Highlight: Today was the last day for our kids. We finished the week by watching a slide show of pictures of the week. Then we gathered outside and the kids took turns praising each other until each of the children had been praised. Even though I couldn’t understand all of it, it was very precious to see the kids telling about who had helped them during the week, who had played well and who had made their week better. But the highlight for me was when the bus pulled up and my fourth graders and Magda got off the bus. I was so happy to see all of them.
 Lowlight: So, while today was the last day for my first group, it was the first day for my second group. When the bus pulled up and the kids piled off with all of their bags and we helped them carry their bags up to their rooms, I had the strangest sense of déjà vu. Only, it was real. It was only a week ago I had done the exact same thing, but with my first group of kids. Then, when the bus left with the first group and we started the program with the second group, I just wanted to scream, “But we’ve already done this!” There are six of us teachers who are staying for the full two weeks (with two new and rested teachers). We all were a little crazy tonight as we are pretty exhausted and know exactly what we are facing for the next week. I hope we can all survive….

Day 8 – China Day
 Highlight: This one is easy. Marshmallows. The day was pretty much the same as the week before with all the same events and such. The kids seemed to really enjoy everything. Again, we lit the Olympic torch and passed it down the line of children to light the campfire. I explained again about how to make s’mores and we got started. This time however, I had each 4th grader pair up with a 2nd grader and cook their marshmallows together, since we had two pronged sticks to cook on. This worked very well and we made our way through 3 bags of marshmallows, 9 bars of chocolate and 2 boxes of graham crackers. Each time I emptied a bag of marshmallows, one of my 4th graders would come running up and ask if they could have the empty bags. They are very impressed with those American marshmallows.
 Lowlight: My team this time around is much more difficult. They are not team players and I have too many leaders. In addition, they don’t want to use their English and so are reluctant to do things. I feel like I am constantly the bad guy. Hopefully things will get better as I had a small chance to talk to them about their behavior today.

Day 9 – Hollywood Day
 Highlight: There were several. First, in the afternoon, we had free time and several of my 4th grade girls invited me to play games with them. We ended up playing 3 different games, and they spoke in English the whole time. Second, I got to play hairdresser. Tonight was our Oscar night (because we had made movies in the morning) and it was announced at lunch that I was the best hairdresser. So starting at about four in the afternoon, I did girls hair straight until about seven (with a small break for dinner). I did crown braids, French braids, side braids, farmers braids, fish braids, ponytails, up-does and whatever else I could think of. It was lots of fun and good bonding time with my students, and even one of the teachers. Third, after our Oscar night (my group again won the award for The Most Original film) one of my 4th grade boys started crying in the corner. I went over to him and put my arm around him and started to talk to him. (He had been struggling the previous day with homesickness.) I asked him what was wrong and he said his stomach was hurting all through the Oscar night. I asked him if he wanted to go to his room or to see the nurse. He told me he wanted to go see the nurse. I offered to go with him or to have one of his friends go with him. He said he wanted me to go with him. This meant a lot to me as so often it seems that my kids would rather have one of their friends or a teacher who speaks Slovak than me. It was nice to be chosen.
 Lowlight: I am tired. And I know that I won’t get any less, even if I get a good night’s sleep, as it is just so tiring. And I know that me being so tired is effecting how I am relating to my group, to the rest of the kids and to the other teachers. I really am enjoying camp, but I am ready to go home. Jayne (my boss) sent me a text message yesterday that I need to dwell on, lean on, and have faith in: Matt. 11.28, Jesus said come to me all who are weary…, and I will give you rest. Just the words I need to hear as I am so very weary.

Day 10 – Canada Day
 Highlight: Today was one of those days when I just marveled at this beautiful country that I live in. Slovakia is so amazingly beautiful. I don’t know if the photos we took will do it justice, so if you want to know how amazing it is, you will have to come and see for yourself. Today we again went by an open-air train to a national park. It was one of those perfect days. The sun was shining, but it wasn’t too hot. We had an ongoing game which lead to one of the highlights of my day. The game is called “spnka,” which means paperclip in Slovak. Each teacher had 30 paperclips and the kids each had one. If you were asked a question, you had to answer with more than one word or you had to give the person who asked you the question a spnka. I had forgotten my spinkas at the hotel, but the kids kept trying to collect them from me anyways. My group was last along with the principal. I told my group they had to speak in English as our principal is going to Wheaton College for 6 weeks this summer and needs to practice his English. So, two of my boys kept up a steady stream of conversation with us for over an hour. Much of it was aimed at getting spinkas but I didn’t mind as it was nice to have someone spending time talking with me. I ended up losing more than 45 paperclips, even though I didn’t have that many. The second highlight was when we stopped to play soccer. Not all the kids wanted to play, so one other teacher and I decided to play Frisbee. Two of our second graders soon joined us and kids kept coming and going. We had twelve kids playing at one time or another. It was fun to see them trying to throw and catch the Frisbee and get excited when they succeeded.
 Lowlight: There wasn’t a really clear lowlight today. Maybe just that fact that I haven’t slept well for the last three nights and two nights in a row have woken up in the middle of the night with very painful leg cramps. I have also been waking up at 4, 5, 6 and 7. I think my body is trying to tell me that it has been pushed too hard. Only two and a half more days to go!

Day 11 – Paris Day
 Highlight: I have begun to realize how much these two weeks have been about building relationships with the other teachers at my school. When you are cut off from all the normal people that you depend on, talk to and laugh with, you have to find someone else. And it is not always easy when you have language and culture barriers to overcome. But God is good and has allowed me to build many, many relationships during these two weeks. Case in point, today’s highlight. After the kids went to bed, the teacher’s gathered as usual to talk about tomorrow. When we were finished, we all gathered some sweets and headed up to the upstairs room where we have the projector set up and watched a movie on the big screen. We watched an American film in English with Czech subtitles. It was fun to hear my colleagues talking throughout the film and to be able to understand that they didn’t like the boss’ nephew and that they thought the star was cute and that one of my colleagues, Magda, looked like a girl in the film. It was nice to be one of the gang and not have language be a problem.
 Lowlight: I found out today that when I get back to school I have parent’s night. We will get back Sunday night around 6 and then Tuesday and Wednesday I have parent-teacher conferences from 3-7pm. I feel so exhausted already I almost cried. The good thing was, I also found out that I don’t have to work on Monday, only a half-day on Wednesday and then Friday is a big game day (Day of Children), so I can choose if I want to come in or not. Next weekend, I also have a retreat with TeachOverseas, so no break then either, which is why my boss here is giving me as much time off as she can this week. I am going to need it!

Day 12 – Vienna Day
 Highlight: Carnival! We had another carnival today and it was so much fun again. I did make-up all around again and then Katka did mine. I was the tattoo artist again and did as many as I could. Then, in the afternoon it started to rain, so we stayed inside and had clubs. Mine was a hair salon, which I supplemented with art supplies. I did French braids for an hour and a half while the girls waiting or finished drew pictures. Later, the teachers got in on the fun too and I braided Andreka, Katka, Magda, Vierka and Mirka’s hair. My hands are tired, but my heart is happy. The whole day was so good that I can’t pick a highlight.
 Lowlight: Maybe the lunch (although I ate most of it). It was pizza with ham and cheese, but the sauce was just ketchup. I know I am becoming more and more Slovak as I finished most of mine and found it really wasn’t that bad. One more thing, is that I have found that not wearing shoes, inside or outside, is a no-no. I was barefoot outside during the carnival and several teachers mentioned it. Then, at dinner, I was walking around inside barefoot and several more teachers shared their concerns. I just told them that I am a crazy American and they laughed. One more day. Less than 24 hours to home!!! Yippeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

SvP 2 & 4

Day 13: Slovakia and FINISHED!!!
 Highlight: This day ended differently than I had hoped, but better than I had imagined. After watching a slide-show of our week together, saying thank you's and talking about what we liked best, we climbed on the bus for our trip home. It only took 4 hours and it seemed to pass fairly quickly. When we pulled into school however, there was not a big crowd of parents like I had imagined, just one of the teacher's boyfriends. No parents at all!!! Now, after two straight weeks of camp, it was very disappointing, but we just did what had to be done - unpacked the bus. Slowly parents came trickling in and we cheered whenever one arrived and tried to guess who would be the next one. After about 30 minutes of this, it started to rain. Big drops. So we took cover under a overhang and it stopped in a few minutes. Only to start up again in a few minutes, but this time it poured. And poured, and hailed, and poured. It continued like this for the next 20 minutes until everything was soaked and all of the children were finally gone. I had to carry my bags home in the rain. Yuck! However, saying goodbye to all the teachers was the best as we laughed and hugged and talked about getting together again soon. I think that I have made some good friends this week. It is so wonderful to see God working through every event in my life.
 Lowlight: Nope! Not on this day. Maybe just the huge pile of laundry currently sitting on my floor.....

škola v prirode

2008-05-16T22:47:00.004+02:00

A week at camp
I just got back (5 hours ago) from camp. This camp was with the 5th and 6th graders. Every year, all of our students get to go for a week or so to škola v prirode - school in nature. It is a like summer camp, but with all your classmates and teachers along for the fun. And it was fun. Sit back and remember how much fun camp can be.

Theme of the Day
Every day we had a theme for the day. For each theme, we had a song, a movie, a drama (preformed by the teachers), a game and a night talk. Then, at the end of the day, the kids would have to use all of the clues we had given them to guess the theme. Monday's theme was prejudice, Tuesday's was Courage and Image, Wednesday was Grace and Consideration, Thursday's was Patience and Perseverance and Friday's was Friendship. Even though these were hard words, our kids really caught on. The song of the day was a huge hit and we would listen to the same time over and over and over and over again. Each evening, we would show a power point with the words from the songs and pictures from that day. By the end of the week, the kids knew the words to all the songs (and the teachers were being driven crazy by the songs).

Workshops
Between breakfast and lunch, we would have workshops for the kids. Each teacher prepared one workshop for each day, and then did it three different times. The workshops were varied from first aid to Frisbee golf, doll making to dancing. We tie-dyed t-shirts, learned how to survive in the wilderness, played board games, did origami, made paper flowers and played kickball. We had a total of thirty different workshops, all varied and all enjoyed by all.

Big Games, Crazy Games, Water Games
After lunch, it was game time. First, we would play a big game - one that everyone, all kids and teachers - could play. We played human foosball, crack the code (the code was hidden on trees in the woods), capture the flag and a scavenger hunt. It rained on our crack the code day while we were traipsing through the woods, but the kids were good sports and we just finished quickly and ran to our chatas (cabins).
After the big games, we would have crazy games. These were smaller games (for 7 or 8 kids) and the groups would rotate through 6 different crazy games. The kids had to eat jello with a nylon over their heads, pick marbles out of a tub of water with their toes, throw chips at a partner who had shaving cream on their face and other such crazy things. These games were a huge success as kids really like being silly and laughing at each other.
On Thursday, we played water relay games instead of crazy games. One was a sponge relay, where you had to get water from one bucket to another but you could only use sponges. Another you had to carry water in a cup on your head, but the cup had a hole in it. They were all crazy and most of the kids were soaked by the end of it. So, to make it even better, we filled up two big buckets with water, gave each kid a cup, divided them into boys and girls and encouraged them to soak each other. Three of us teachers played and got completely drenched by kids who were amazed we wanted to play.

Eat, Eat, Eat, Eat, Eat
Camp food is always interesting and when it is Slovak camp food it is even more interesting. But, interestingly enough, it doesn't seem very strange to me any more and I ate almost everything. Breakfast was bread with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, with either butter or soft cheese or tuna spread. Another day it was hot dogs with bread and veggies. My favorite breakfast however was sweet bread with jam and hot chocolate.
Lunch is the main meal and always included soup. After soup was some kind of meat (pork or chicken) with either potatoes or rice. However, one day we had spaghetti with a choice of sauces - tomato sauce or ketchup. Yuck!
Dinners were very Slovak. One night we had a big piece of sweet bread with plums and a struessel topping on top. Another night it was a potato casserole made with sliced potatoes, sliced hard boiled eggs, pieces of bacon and chopped pickles. Different, but very good. For dinner on Thursday night, we had pasta with a big scoop of melted butter, topped with hot chocolate mix. At one time I would have thought this was very strange, but I ate it with gusto. Seems I am becoming more and more Slovak every day.
On Thursday, we also had our campfire, which means sausages. After we had finished out night games (at 10:30) we started our campfire. We broke out the sausages, bread and mustard and roasted them over the fire. Yummy! After sausages were finished, I brought out the marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolates and we made s'mores. (Thanks to my mom and cousin Patrick for the marshmallows and graham crackers.) The kids were so excited and within minutes all the marshmallows were gone. I had one s'more and it was the best thing I have tasted in a long time...
Each day the camp served us rajnaky (breakfast), deciataj (morning snack), obed (lunch), olevrant (afternoon snack) and vecher (dinner). In addition, there was a snack bar where the kids could buy snacks even though most of them brought enough snacks to last 3 weeks. So, the kids were eating constantly.

Evening Program
Each evening we would have a program about the theme of the day. We started with a skit. Each of the teachers took on a new persona, crazy-happy, clumsy, goth, shy, super-organized, queen bee. We then performed a skit about the theme of the day. For example, for courage, we went mountain climbing and our crazy-happy got scared and didn't want to climb, so Shy showed courage and climbed down and helped Crazy-happy climb up. Then we went canoing and Super-organized and Clumsy were together. Of course Clumsy tipped the canoe and Super-organized fell in and couldn't swim. Queen bee, who had all the best clothes and dressed perfectly jumped in and saved him, showing that image isn't important.
We would then listen to the song of day, while a power point with the words and pictures from the day was playing. The kids were then invited to guess the theme of the day. Then one of the teachers would give a talk, explaining why the theme of the day is important, and how we can put them into practice in our everyday lives.

5th and 6th SvP

Looking Back
Looking back at the week, it was easy to see God's hand at work - in the teachers and the kids lives. The sixth graders were really not happy about having to go with the fifth graders and many even threatened to not go. In the end, though, they all went and by the end of the week, the sixth graders said that they were glad for the friendships they had made with the fifth graders. Each day, we had opportunities to talk with our students and share life lessons with them. My cabin had all the sixth grade girls and I spent a lot of time in their cabin, telling stories, doing hair and just listening to them. They were very happy to have me there and asked lots of questions. My sixth grade boys loved the songs and were always asking if I could play one song or another. We went to a castle one day (Cervny Komen) and one of my boys asked me if he could translate for me. I said only if he wanted to, and he spent the entire hour and a half tour by my side translating everything. What faithfulness! I was worried about this camp as my sixth graders can be very moody, but it turned out to be the best week of camp ever! Praise God!

4 Countires in 8 days!!!!

2008-03-21T22:55:00.002+01:00

On Friday, I left school at 11, took the bus to the Vienna airport, waited for a hour and a half and then watched my parents walk through the big doors, on their first trip to Europe. They stayed for two weeks and it was an amazingly wonderful time.

Days 1 & 2
Friday evening, we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, "The Meat Place." (Not it's real name, just what we call it because of the Ribs and Wings Platter they serve with BBQ sauce.) I had told my parents they could not go to bed until 9, but by 7:30 mom could barely walk, so we headed home. They unpacked a few suitcases before crawling into bed at a quarter to 9.
The next morning, we got up and headed off on the train to Vienna. Once there, we went to the Belvadere Palace. It is really magnificent with two huge palaces and gardens between the two and a huge private garden beyond. As it was too cold and wintery for the gardens, we toured the inside of the palace and were equally as impressed with the art inside. It was a very impressive palace with huge rooms, painted ceilings and all the other things that make palaces imposing places.
We then went to the shopping district, had some schnitzel, saw St. Stephens cathedral, and my favorite, the break dancers. Mom found a really cute knit hat for Hannah. We walked and walked, and saw many big impressive buildings. Unfortunately, I am not up on my Viennese architecture or history, so I wasn't very helpful with naming the buildings or the importance of them, but it was still fun to just wander around and see the beauty.

Day 3
I took my parents to church with me which was very special for me. Dad greeted everyone in English and so got himself introduced to the church by the pastor. A lady sitting in front of us offered to translate for us. Afterwards we went out to church with the D'Ettorres, the family that also teaches at my school. We walked around town for a while as it was a nice day and then headed back to relax and pack for our next adventure.

Days 4 & 5
On Monday, we left early for our 8 hour train ride to Cesky Krumlov. According to the schedule, we would first go to Vienna where we would switch train stations to catch our next train. (Check. Smooth and easy.) Second, we would go to the border town of Austria and Czech. (Check. Smooth and easy, even had time for lunch while we waited for our third and final train.) A little tiny, one car train pulled up and was sitting on the track we were leaving from, but I didn't think it was ours. However, turns out it was. The conductor told us that we would have to get off at the next stop however. (A little about Europe, you don't get told why, you just get told what to do, if you are lucky). Our conductor and engineer got off the train and followed us onto another train, where we were again told to get off at the next stop. Only this time, waiting for us was a bus. I was actually glad for the bus as it wound through this picturesque Czech countryside, full of old houses, farms, and animals. Finally, we arrived at yet another train, which our first engineer and conductor got on and this train took us all the way to Cesky Krumlov - and amazingly enough, we were on time. Once there, we went to our pension and met Michal, who told us where to go for dinner. It was a superb recommendation, with huge portions and wonderful atmosphere, and we had the whole place to ourselves. The next day we wandered around Cesky Krumlov, went to the castle, tried to find a hardware store, and just enjoyed the beauty of the area. Cesky Krumlov is an idyllic little town. What you imagine when you think of European towns. Like a postcard. Add this to your list of places to go when I go to Europe. And in the summer, it has rafting and bike riding.
We sadly said goodbye to Cesky and headed out to Praha.

Days 6 & 7
Praha (Prague) is the Slovaks favorite place. And with good reason, although I will always be partial to Bratislava myself. We arrived in Prague and found a cute restaurant, bicycle themed to have dinner at. Afterwards, we walked over the Charles Bridge, as it is beautiful to see the city all lit up at night. The next day, we headed over the bridge again and spent the day wandering through the castle district. We arrived at the front of the castle at a quarter to eleven, so we decided to hang around for a few minutes and watch the changing of the guard. Mom and Dad wanted a picture with the Castle Guards, so we went to the gate and had our picture taken. As we were standing looking at how stoic the guards were, never smiling, we noticed a group of girls, who were trying to get their picture taken with the guards also. They were being crazy, trying to touch the guard, so he took the butt of his gun and slammed it on the ground, causing everyone to look. I had never seen the guards do this (or anything) before, so we kept watching. The girls were not discouraged, but kept at their antics. The guard again slammed down his gun. Again the girls did not get the hint and kept trying, so the guard one more time slammed down his gun, but this time spoke in Czech while doing it, and both he and his partner stepped back into their little guard houses. We started listening to a tour guide who was explaining to her group that this was very unusual and that we would probably see some action. Strangely, the girls had not taken this retreat as a clue that they had overstepped their bounds and should leave, but continued to hang around, still wanting to get their picture. In two minutes three more guards came, talked to the guard who the girls were pestering, and marched up to the girls and told them that their behavior was not appropriate and that they would have to leave immediately. They did, and within a few minutes, the guards came back out and it was back to normal. After wandering around the castle for a few hours, we headed into the old town. We took in the astrological clock and had fun just wondering through one of Europe's oldest and most unique cities. The next day we traveled to the old castle, just down the river from the newer Prague castle. I really like the old castle as it seems more out of the way, has less tourists (and more Czechs), is less touristy, has an old cemetery and is just a great place to stroll and enjoy a few hours at a slower pace. We wandered up and down and all around Prague, soaking up all the culture. We took a train back to Bratislava later that evening and were able to enjoy a good night of sleep at home.

Days 8 & 9
After sleeping in some, changing dirty clothes for fresh ones, we headed off to the last of our countries, Hungary. We arrived in Budapest to a cloudy, slightly drizzly afternoon. We went to my friends, the Ballentyne's, house and dropped off stuff before heading off to the castle. We walked down Andrassy Ut, the most famous Hungarian street, a wide avenue with trees lining either side. We walked all the way down this street, stopping to admire the opera house and national bank, then on to the chain bridge, with its stoic lions guarding the way to Castle Hill. We strolled across the bridge, and hiked up to the castle. We wandered around the castle, and all around, leaving only when it started to rain. We enjoyed dinner at a nice restaurant with Susan and David. The next day, we went to the indoor market where Dad found a wallet and we enjoyed some yummy Hungarian sweets and Mom got some authentic Hungarian paprika. We walked down the shopping street and when we got caught in the rain yet again, decided to call it quits and head back to Bratislava. We made it to the train station in time to catch the 3 o'clock train, only to sit on the train in the station for 2 hours. A Greek man informed us (and the rest of the train) that there was a tree on the tracks and they were working on removing it. When we finally did get going, it was stop and go for an hour. Mom and I went to the dining car to get some tea and the waiter didn't speak much English (so incredibly, my Slovak was better than his English). We played cards and enjoyed riding in a train (the last train trip for Mom and Dad). We arrived home much later than we expected, but safe and sound.

Days 10 - 14
Sunday we slept in and had a lazy day wandering around Bratislava. Karin and Becky made a yummy dinner and we played cards and talked and laughed and had a great time. It was fun for me to have my parents get to know my new "family" here. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we headed off to school. My students thoroughly enjoyed questioning my parents, asking them everything they could think of to ask in English (favorite everything). On Tuesday and Wednesday, I put my parents to work. On both mornings, my dad did openings, for 4th and 6th graders, which is kind of like a 15 minute devotional/discussion time. He talked about running the race well. On Tuesday, my mom shared a writing game with my 6th graders that is a favorite with her students. On Wednesday, we made insects out of wire, which Dad was wonderful at assisting with. Later on Wednesday, we played Apples to Apples (my favorite game to play with English language learners. Thursday morning, it was a bright and early taxi ride to the bus station and a bus ride to the Vienna airport. Everything went very smoothly and after a tearful (and quick - I can't take the long goodbyes), I headed back to Bratislava.

It was amazing and kind of unbelievable to have my parents here. This side of the world and time of life for me is so far removed in so many ways from my life back in California that when the two collide, it is a little strange. Wonderful, but strange. It was so great to get hugs from Mom and Dad, to catch up on all the little things in their lives and to get so many treats from home. To all of you, if you would like to come for a visit, I love to play hostess and tour guide, so just let me know when you want to come!

Central Europe in a Week... Almost

Blue and Red Knight Restaurant

2008-03-21T22:54:00.002+01:00

During the month of January, our second graders had a unit entitled "Food, food, food." So, Miss Mirka and I decided that a nice culmination to our unit would be to have a restaurant. We asked all the parents to help by sending in food and paper products. Mirka and I got table clothes, fancy napkins, flowers in silver vases, and even mood music. One of the 8th graders and a fellow English teacher made a gorgeous sign to welcome our students. Mirka and I put all the desks in groups of 2 or 4, laid down the table clothes, napkins and vases, plugged in our flower lights, and set up the food in the back of the room. All was ready.

Now, a little background info. In our textbook, was a dialogue about a forgetful waiter. It went something like this:
Waiter: Here you are (handing the customer a menu)
Customer: Please can I have a tuna sandwich?
Waiter: Certainly (goes away)
Waiter: Here you are. A delicious cheese sandwich.
Customer: Oh, no! Not a cheese sandwich - a tuna sandwich.
Waiter: I'm very sorry.

My second graders had really liked taking turns playing the waiter and the customer, especially being the customer and saying very loudly - "Oh, no!" So, we used this dialogue as the basis for our restaurant. We asked parents to send in cheese, chips, bread, apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, cereal, cookies, apple juice, orange juice and milk. Our students had created their own menus which we used for our restaurant.

So, half the students were waiter/waitresses and half were the customers. The waiters would bring their menu to the customer and say, "Here you are." The customer would then peruse the menu and decide what to have. For instance, "Please can I have chicken with rice?" The waiter would respond, "Certainly," and go to the food tables and choose one or two of the food items to bring back. "Here you are. An apple and a cookie." To which the student could respond one of two ways. "Oh no!" and the waiter would take the food back and try again, or "I like apples and cookies. Thank you." The customer would then eat the food.
It was amazing to listen to all of these mini dialogues going on in English. My second graders are not very comfortable in English, but to listen to them this day, you never would have guessed it. Our principal, Rado, the secretary, Katka, both of the second grade teachers, Zuzka and Veronika, and one mom all showed up and took turns being customers. The kids were delighted and had a great time.

2nd Grade Restaurant

The LITTLE town of Kremnica

2008-03-20T18:02:00.002+01:00

For Karin's birthday, and our February 3 day weekend, we went to the little town of Kremnica. It was about 3 hours by bus and we left after school on Thursday. We got into town around 9 at the bus station. Except that it wasn't really so much of a station as 4 bus stops in a row. And it was dark, and snowy, with no one in sight. And we only had a really bad map. So, we approached one of the buses waiting nearby and asked the bus driver for help. He didn't speak any English, and he didn't know where our privat (private house that we had rented) was located. We had the phone number of the man we rented it from, so we called him and the bus driver spoke to him for us. Karin and I were sure we heard him say soup, although Becky didn't think so. He told us to wait for 5, 10 or 15 minutes and someone would come. Then he left. Karin and I were joking that he told the man on the phone that he had better have soup for us because he didn't give us directions or have a plan for our arrival. In less than 10 minutes, a little red car pulled up and a young man got out and started talking to us. He asked if we spoke German, we said no and asked him if he spoke English to which he said no. He again asked if we spoke English. We said no, then piled into his car. It may sound strange to get into a car with a perfect stranger, especially when you can not understand what he is saying, but we did. His girlfriend was with him and we drove for about 3 minutes before arriving at our privat. We got out, he spoke to us in Slovak, we said yes, yes and he got back in the car. We understood enough to know that he was going to get a key for us. What we didn't understand was that he told us to go around to the front of the house where there was a porch light. So, he got out of the car and took us around to the front of the house. About 10 minutes later, he came back with his mom who would be staying with us. She was the very motherly type and just talked to us while showing us around the house. The next day, she walked with us into town, invited us to have soup with her in the evening, and introduced us to her niece. We wandered around the town, went up to the castle and just wandered around. We stopped in a little cafe and had warm drinks. That evening our hostess gave us a big pot of soup, which was enough for two nights. Yummy potato soup with sausage. The next day we again wandered around the town and went to the money museum. Kremnica has one of the oldest (if not the oldest) working mints around. They have printed money for many major European countries. It was amazing to look at all the different money that Czech, Slovakia and Czechoslovakia have had over the years. The next day we left and caught a bus back to Bratislava. We had a wonderful restful time. Happy Birthday Karin!

Kremnica

Barcelona Baby!!!

2008-01-06T22:30:00.000+01:00

La Rambla
So, on the day after Christmas, Karin, Steph, Joe and I went to Barcelona. Steph and Joe are fellow teachers from the Czech Republic who also did not go home. We flew into Girona, about an hour from Barcelona. Immediately upon getting outside, we noticed a huge change in the temperature. It was at least 30 degrees warmer. (Bratislava has been in the low 20's and Barcelona was in the upper 50's, even low 60's). Off came the winter coats, hats, scarves and gloves. That in itself was a Christmas present. We go to our hostel, checked in and then decided to wander the streets. We took off and just walked for several hours, finding our way around the neighborhood and eventually finding the touristy/main street, La Rambla, in Barcelona. The next morning we again took off for La Rambla and just soaked it in. There are kiosks up and down the street selling souvenirs, flowers and (my favorite), pets. Yes, you can buy birds, mice, lizards, hamsters, even rabbits. We found an amazing outdoor market that you could tell the locals frequented. It sold all kinds of food. ALL kinds of food. Check out the pictures for the incredible but true facts.
La Rambla is also famous for all the street performers it has. I saw angels and demons, soccer stars and headless men, Elvis and Michal Jackson, clowns and magicians. Most just stand still, ready for pictures with tourists. David told me that a few years ago, the mayor had outlawed all the street performers, but they protested, so he relented. Now they have strict laws demanding that each performer have a permit, be in his/her place for a certain number of hours, rotate with other performers and so on. La Rambla would certainly not be as colorful without all of the street performers.
We wandered down the pier, saw the statue of Christopher Columbus pointing towards the Americas. While Columbus started his journey to the Americas farther south, Barcelona was where he sailed into port at the end of his journey. It was also where the Indians from America were first introduced to European culture. Seeing the ocean was therapeutic for me. It is one of the things I miss most about home. We took a cable car up to the Barcelona castle, which overlooks the ocean as well. We wandered around, looking at the different views of Barcelona. Steph and I ended up just sitting on the castle wall, breathing in the ocean air and watching the water. After our time at the castle, we decided to get dinner. Spanish culture however, has a very relaxed time schedule. Most restaurants close around 3 or 4 and don't reopen until 8 or 9. Even in the tourist part of town. We quickly adjusted to this schedule, sleeping in late and staying up late. Not a bad schedule.

Gothic District
The next day, we took a walking tour of the Gothic part of the city. It was a good way to see part of the city and hear about some of the history of Barcelona. One of my favorite parts of the tour was going into a castle, which is know a museum, and seeing the room where Christopher Columbus told the King and Queen of Spain all about the land he had discovered. The old houses in the Gothic part of the city were works of art in themselves. Most had courtyards with fountains, one with a tremendous amount of tile work all around. One had a great mailbox, which you see in the album below. It is about one foot by two feet. The birds symbolized lawyers and how quickly they come out and the turtle symbolized justice and how slowly it moves. Each house that we saw truly fascinating features. That evening, we met up with the Spanish teacher from our school, who is from Barcelona and was there with his girlfriend. He showed us around the city, took us out for drinks and pointed us to a wonderful, little, smoke-free restaurant. Karin ordered the salmon and I ordered the lasagna and we split them both. Yum!

Montserrat
On our third day, we changed hostels and then made our way to the train station to go to a monastery. The Barcelona Montserrat Spain is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat. We took the train about an hour northwest of Barcelona. From there, we took a cable car up the mountain to the monastery. It is high up in the mountains and was started in 880 when a small group of shepherd children saw a bright light descending from the sky in the Montserrat mountains. Their parents and a local vicar confirmed these reports and the monastery was started.
The view from the mountains was breath taking. We hiked around the lower ground for a while and then took a funicular up to the top (at a 65 degree grade). From there, we hiked around and saw the caves where some of the monks lived many years before. The view was so awesome! It confirmed again to me that we serve an awesome and amazing God!
We came down the mountain and visited the church/cathedral there. While it was a beautiful church, it was hard to be very impressed with all the natural God-made beauty surrounding us outside. Our God is an Awesome God!

Sagrada Familia
The next day, we went to the most famous church is in Spain, Sagrada Família. This church was built by Antoni Gaudi. At first look, it looks like so many other churches in Europe, undergoing renovation. However, upon going inside, we found that this was not true - it is actually under construction still. It was begun in 1882 and is scheduled to be finished in 2026. I was not sure what to think of this church at first. The plaques called it a temple and said it was dedicated to Saint Joseph. The price of admission was quick steep and it felt like such a huge tourist attraction that it was hard for me to feel that it was a church. The outside is mostly finished and we ended up spending much time outside looking at the facades. There are three facades, the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory. The Glory has yet to be completed. The Nativity is facade is huge and covers almost every aspect of the story. The shepherds, the wise men, Mary and Joseph, the birth of John the Baptist, the dedication of Jesus at the temple, even Herod's execution of the newborn boys.
The Passion is also quite amazing, with the figures looking gaunt and tormented. The main doors under this scene are towering and etched into them is the entire account of the Passion. The names of God are each highlighted with gold and stand out prominently.
Underneath the church is a museum explaining more about Gaudi, his work and the church. Gaudi was a visionary, ahead of his time. His work brings to mind the verses, "If they keep silent, even the rocks will cry out" and "the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." I do not know what Gaudi's relationship with God was, but every detail of the church pointed to how amazing God is. One part of the museum in particular showed this. It showed how Gaudi got his inspiration for so many of his designs from nature. The columns in the church were modeled after a tree next to his studio. The staircases, modeled after spiral shells. Even small details like door handles were modeled after pieces of wood or shell. This building seems to shout to the glory of God and His amazing creation.

Goodbye 2007 - Hello 2008!
On New Years Eve Day, we went to visit one of the private residences that Gaudi designed. We were able to go inside and see one of the apartments in the house. The house is built in three circles, think a figure eight kind of design with 3 instead of 2 circles. Not very practical to live in perhaps, but a cool design. The roof was the most amazing part, with many different levels and huge towers. You could see out over the whole city and had a good view of the Sagrada Familia church.
We left to find dinner around nine and decided to stick close to our hostel, thinking it would be easier to find a restaurant not so close to the touristy area of town. Not so much. All the restaurants we went to had special menus for the night, with one or two choices, and a hefty price tag (65 Euros a person was the cheapest we found). So we ended up going out for Chinese. Very tasty, loads of food and a great price tag.
After dinner, we took the metro down to the main square, with most of the rest of Barcelona. It was packed. And the police were patting down everyone who wanted to get in, checking for glass bottles. Barcelona doesn't have a special program for New Years, but in years past, it became famous for the amount of bottles broken on the main square and La Rambla. The police were handing out plastic cups for people to pour their alcohol into. It definitely cut down on the glass, but did not eliminate it completely. It was kind of an anticlimactic feeling as there were no fireworks, countdown or dropping ball. After the stroke of midnight, we wandered down La Rambla with the crowd, just soaking up the interesting people, sights and sounds.

Park Guell
This park was designed by Gaudi and was built in one of the more affluent neighborhoods in Barcelona. It was enjoyable just to wander around, soaking up the sunlight and being outside without being all bundled up. We wandered up to one of the highest points of the park and I found a place to sit that looked out to the ocean. Again, I sat and just stared out at the water. It made me a little homesick, but it also did my soul a world of good to just sit and stare at that vast expanse of water. We went back to the Gothic part of the city to do some souvenir shopping, have dinner and taste some Spanish ice cream. The next morning, it was up nice and early to make it to the airport for our flight home.

Barcelona

Christmas 2007

2008-01-06T21:40:00.000+01:00

Christmas comes early in Slovakia. Since there is no Thanksgiving (Yes, it is an American holiday) and Halloween is much, much simpler than in America, Christmas decorations started showing up in October. However, for us, it was hard for us to get in the Christmas mood until after Thanksgiving. I had to work on Thanksgiving, but was able to share the Thanksgiving story with the whole elementary/middle school. And an American missionary family invited us (orphans and homeless) to have a real Thanksgiving with them. It was a blessing, turkey with all the trimmings, Brazilian flan and even a "What are you thankful for" game.

Well, with Thanksgiving behind us, we got into the swing of things. At the beginning of the first week of December however, I got sick. It seemed like just a cold, and as usual, I kept going to work. Eventually, though, I had to take a few days off and even went to the doctor. It took me until a few days after Christmas, and trips to 3 different countries, to get better. The third weekend in December, my roommates and I, along with another American teacher from our school, Katie, went to Germany to go to the Christmas markets. We met up with the German teacher from our school who was teaching in Germany for a few months. We went to Nurnberg for the day, which is where Karin was born. The Christmas markets were amazing! The decorations around the towns were huge and amazing. At the markets, we enjoyed mulled wine, sausages, and sweets. We enjoyed the food and the atmosphere immensely. And the best part of the trip, we rented a car, and I got to drive. On the autobahn! Wow! If you haven't had a chance to drive on the autobahn, give it a try sometime.

The following weekend, Karin and I went to Budapest, to visit our favorite Christmas markets. We took the train with one of Karin's students, Lily, who is Hungarian. We met up with an ESI couple, had dinner and enjoyed an evening of Grey's Anatomy. We spent the next day at the markets, shopping and browsing.

Monday was Christmas Eve and a friend, Steph, from Prague joined us for Karin's famous Texas chili. On Christmas, we opened presents and ate a lazy breakfast. One of my 4th grade students, Jakub, told his mom that I would be staying in Slovakia, and so she invited me over for Christmas day. I went over to their house and enjoyed a wonderful three course meal with their family. They made a traditional soup, pirogies, fried chicken, potatoes salad and carrot salad. Afterwards, Jakub, his dad and I played a game called Niagara. Jakub's grandma was also there, and was so excited that his American teacher would come over for dinner. She talked and talked and talked to me, all in Slovak, and her daughter was kind enough to translate everything. She told me about all of her favorite American movies, none of which I knew. They wanted me to stay all day, and I had a hard time leaving. It was so wonderful to be with a family. When I got home, I was able to talk with my family for a little while, which was wonderful. I love Skype!

Christmas 2007

The day after Christmas, Karin, Steph, Joe and I went to Spain... but that is a whole other post.

Two weekends in Check... I mean Czech

2007-11-11T23:15:00.000+01:00

First Weekend
The first weekend in November was my fall break. My roomie, Karin, and I went to Praha (Prague) for 3 days since we had never been. It was beautiful. My Slovak friends are always saying how beautiful Praha is and how much they love it and I must agree that it is beautiful, but I love Bratislava. We wandered around Praha on foot mostly, taking in the Charles Bridge, the Praha Castle and the old town. We met up with some other English teachers and had dinner with them one night. It was nice just to be relaxed and taking in the sights of another city.
A story to share with you. We were walking to a restaurant for dinner. It was dark outside and there were six of us. All of a sudden, Karin starts pointing into the window of a restaurant we are passing by and saying, "Texas!!!" She is pointing and very excited. We all, of course, go to the window to see what all the fuss is about. Inside the restaurant, on the back wall, are two Texas posters, one of which says, "Don't Mess with Texas!" The funniest part is that there is a table in front of the window. And the man sitting at the table had this confused and almost panicked look on his face. Imagine this from his point of view. You are sitting enjoying your steak and red wine, when all of a sudden, someone outside the window starts pointing at you and shouting, although you can't make out what she is saying. She is obviously excited (or maybe agitated) about something. She keeps pointing (at me? you think) until a small crowd gathers around to stare at you. I think we creped this poor gentleman out. He will go home and have a story to tell though, that's for sure.
The last day we were in Praha, we went to visit the old castle, which is just outside of the old town. We walked through the ruins, as that is all that is left of the castle. There was an old cemetary and we spent almost an hour walking through it, reading the old headstones and observing all the people who were there cleaning the stones, planting flowers and lighting candles. It was very touching as it was the weekend after All Saint's Day, so there were many, many people there. It think this was my favorite part of our trip. It is always interesting to see castle ruins and I love to meander through graveyards.
If you ever get the chance, I would put Praha on your list of places to visit. There is a reason that so many people visit it every year.

Praha

Second Weekend
The second weekend was our TeachOverseas Thanksgiving. We celebrated with all the TeachOverseas teachers from Czech, Hungary and Slovakia. The Hungary and Slovakia teams met up on the train, where we took over almost a whole train car, with our American hugs and greetings. We had a short ride to the border town of Breclav. There we met up with the Czech team and took over the train station, as there was 40 adults and 7 children. We were the loud Americans while we waited for our bus. We then took the bus for about an hour to a nice hotel out in "the nature." We checked in, got our roommates for the weekend and gathered for the first of many meetings. We were informed that we would be having dinner at six. Those of us who are alums just crossed our fingers, remembering the interesting (processed ham with cranberry juice over it, dry mashed potatoes with no gravy) Thanksgiving dinner we had last year. However, one of the alums cheered us up by saying that Kelly (our retreat planner chief) had emailed them recipes in Czech and had even converted all the measurements for them. Glorious hope of a real turkey dinner!
So, at six we all gathered in the dinning room, which was nicely set and were happily talking, like you would a family reunion/class reunion. And then the wait staff started bringing in the wonderful hot meals.... of wiener schnitzel and cold potato salad with carrots, peas and corn. Say WHAT?!?! What kind of Thanksgiving dinner does Kelly have? Because this was not what we were expecting. But we all decided that we should be thankful for it. We started to eat, and it was very good. A few minutes into our dinner Kelly made an announcement that there was a mix up. We would be having a real turkey dinner.... at 9pm. Somehow the staff got mixed up and thought that the turkey dinner was in addition to the regular dinner. So, we decided to call this dinner the appetizer or first dinner. Even though it was very delicious, I only ate a little so as to save room for the real turkey Thanksgiving meal to come. And it was worth the wait. A real turkey, stuffing (which I normally don't like), mashed potatoes (maybe they were from a box -but no one was complaining) and gravy. Oh, so good. The thanksgiving and jubilation were visibly present in the room.
And after second dinner, around 10pm, we had PIE. Oh, PIE! Everyone brought pies, cakes, cookies and other baked goods. My favorites - a pecan pie (I was in heaven), a pumpkin cheese cake (made with real Philadelphia cream cheese) and a snickers pie. We talked and ate and talked and ate and talked and ate some more. Then off to bed. No sleeping in for these teachers.
Friday we had a time of worship, prayer and devotions, then some classes about teaching, kind of a refresher courses (and how we are able to take 2 days off of school). We had some free time and in the evening, we had first dinner again, followed by the 2nd annual talent show. The talent show featured a lengthy trivia quiz ranging from thanksgiving, to movies, to art history, to churches, to science. My team came in dead last (if you can't be first, be the best at losing, right?) but we had fun. My favorite act was the "I like Toast" song by Amy Mann, accompanied by a toaster drum and two wooden spoons. If you have never heard this song, your life is missing something. I love this song!
Saturday, we had another time of worship, devotions, an extended time of prayer and communion. It was a wonderful time to bask in the presence of the Lord and His family. When we woke up on Saturday, it was snowing. It continued to snow through the day until we were on the bus and halfway back to Breclav to catch our train.
All in all, my two weekends in Czech were a wonderful time. I am thankful for the time off, for the friendships that were renewed an the ones that were made. I am thankful for my Slovak family and my Wayne Manor girls. I am thankful for my students, my colleagues, my administrators. I am thankful for the snow, the sun and the rain. I am thankful for warm boots, wool coats and thick socks. I am thankful for first dinner, second dinners and PIE. I am thankful for all the wonderful friends, family and supporters that God has blessed me with.

Czech Thanksgiving

Spy Kids

2007-10-27T10:26:00.000+02:00

My sixth graders have been working on a unit called spies and I was amazed to see just how excited they were about it. They really got into it. I assigned them a project to create their own spy persona, secret service agency and boss, enemies and mission. I gave them a month to work on it, telling them that I expected to get great things from them because I gave them so much time to work on it. And they did not disappoint. I asked them if I could share their projects with you and they said yes, so here are a few samples to show you.
I am adding pictures of one of the power points and one video. I haven't figured out if I can upload a power point so I just took pictures of it. Please excuse the spelling and grammar mistakes. I did not edit these before they turned them in.

Samo's Project

I will share one of the Lego videos that 2 of my boys made. I am so impressed and I hope that you are too.

This video was created by Šimon and Paťo.

Wayne Manor

2007-09-22T21:17:00.000+02:00

Welcome to the year of the Wayne Manor girls. For those of you who are new, or just didn't catch it, last year Becky, Karin and I were the BatCave Girls. Why? When we were given the report about our school and our flat at training in California, the girls who were here before us said that the section of town we live in, Petrzalka, looked like Gotham City. So, we decided that if we were living in Gotham City, we might as well live in the BatCave. And so our flat became the BatCave and we were the BatCave girls.
When we moved this year, we knew we would have to come up with a new name, but we didn't really want to loose our Batman theme. So, since our new flat has more rooms (same size, just more rooms/walls) and there is paint on the walls(definitely not common in Slovakia), we decided to christen our new house Wayne Manor, in honor of Batman's other home.
Enjoy this quick tour of the Wayne Manor.

Wayne Manor

Update for the new year

2007-09-21T17:51:00.000+02:00

Hello dearest family and friends,
Well, here I am writing to you from Slovakia again. I arrived a month ago (Wow! Time flies when you are starting school) and I hit the ground running. School started two days after I arrived and I have been getting back into the swing of things ever since. Please pray that God will give me wisdom, patience and endurance this year. I am teaching more classes and am working hard at building relationships.
This year I am teaching 4 groups of 2nd graders (who are new to me), 2 groups of 3rd graders (last year's 2nd graders), 2 groups of 4th graders (3rd graders from last year and my favorite class), and 2 groups of 6th graders (last years 5th graders and my other favorite class). I am also teaching science in English to the 4th graders once a week. As an added bonus, I am teaching two openings a week, one with 4th graders and one with 6th graders. Openings are the first 15 minutes of the day and are designed to be a way to bring religion into the classroom on a daily basis. It is a great opportunity for me to share Jesus with my students (and their teachers) in an open environment. I am currently doing lessons about bullying with my 6th graders as this has been a big problem for them.
Last week with the 4th graders, I taught about how the Bible is like a mirror using the verse in James 1:23-25. I read a paraphrased version of the verse in English and talked about how we need to hear things more than once to remember them. Then, I took out a small tray that I had with 25 different small school items (paper clip, glue stick, pen, etc). I had them look at it for 30 seconds then covered it up. I then had them write down as many things as they could remember. None of them could remember more than a few. So, we liked that to English class and how I always present the new vocabulary and grammar many times. And the related both to how important it is to read the Bible and listen to the stories many times. They seemed to understand and enjoy the lesson, which is really neat for me to see. This is my class that last year thought they could fool around in my class because I didn't speak Slovak. It is so amazing to see how far they have come. And their teacher, Magda, who speaks very little English, told me later in the day that she understood it in English. It was a wonderful moment. Please pray that I will have wisdom and creativity to know how to present Jesus in a way that my students will understand.
It is amazing to think that I have already been here a month. When I left California, it was hot and definitely summer. I arrived here to much cooler temperatures, rain and the smell of fall in the air. The heaters have turned on in our building and while it may be warm during the day, it is best to take a sweater just in case, and at night a jacket. I am not really looking forward to a long cold winter, but I now know that I can survive.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. I love getting emails, phone calls and skype/yahoo/google chat messages. Please keep me in your prayers.

Coming Home!

2007-06-28T21:45:00.000+02:00

Well, the time has finally come. I can officially say that I have survived my first year living overseas(Barring any complications in the next 3 days). More than survived though. Enjoyed, accomplished, loved, and learned. When I came, I was still unsure, was this really what God wanted me to do? Was this where God wanted me to go?
Now, I am certain I have been in the right place. They say hindsight is 20/20 and things are definitely looking clearer, now that I can look back. I can see now that this year was about building relationships. Relationships with fellow teachers, with my American teachers, with students and building my relationship with my heavenly Father.
I have really seen this in action in the last two weeks and am thankful to have God point out to me so clearly before I left that this was the plan he had for me and that I did and still am completing it.

škola v prirade (School of Nature)
Last week I had the priviledge of going with 72 of my students (2nd-4th) graders to škola v prirade, which is basicly a week long camping trip, with some learning activities. There was only one other teacher on the trip (out of the 12 of us) who was fluent in English. All the others have various levels. Sometimes it was incredibly frustrating, because I got little or no translation for the big meetings and was always having to tell the students in my group that I didn't know what was happening, the rules of the game, or what we were doing next. Most of the time, however, I really enjoyed myself and got to know some teachers better. It was a very relaxed and fun atmosphere and I felt like I fit in. Magda (who is quickly becoming a close friend) and I had many chances to streghten our relationship. Magda is the 3rd grade class teacher and she speaks the least amount of English of all the teachers I work with. She has a very, very basic vocabulary and can put very simple sentences together, but talking with her is a struggle. However, she is incredibly willing to try and talk to me. On the way to camp, we stopped in a little town to get ice cream. This town is where Magda's mom lives and so she came to see her and Magda was so excited to introduce me to her mom that she did the whole introduction in English, even though her mom could not understand her! We had so much fun together. We always end of laughing about the words we don't know and trying to figure them out. Towel is a very funny word when you don't know it and have to go into the bathroom and point to where one would be to figure it out. On the way home, she pointed out the hospital she was born in and the high school she attended.
This was also a good time for me to bond with some of my students. I had a group of 16 students along with another teacher. Because I was in their group, my students all had to speak and get instructions in English. Many students would be unhappy about this, but my group welcomed me with open arms. Two of the girls insisted that I sit between them (actually sharing 2 chairs between the 3 of us, since we were short on chairs) at every meal. I even helped make up a new word in Slovak, which was a huge hit with my group. We were the black group, but our name tags were purple so we called ourselves the čierlovi group, the Slovak equivalent of blaple (black-purple). Our group made up a chant and a song for our name and loudly (proudly) called it at every chance they got. After we arrived back in Bratislava and everyone had been reunited with their parents, one of the girls on my team saw me, came running up to me, threw her arms around me and gave me a huge hug. It warmed my heart!

Field Trips and Last Week of School
This week I was able to go on 3 field trips, 2 with Magda's class. This offered us some more time to bond. One of our field trips was to the traffic playground - no not taking the children to a busy intersection and letting them play. It's actually a child size couple of blocks complete with sidewalks, streets, traffic lights, zebra crossing and train crossings, where kids learn how to follow street signs. Well, the lady that did the instruction for our group was awful. She spent 40 minutes outside slowly going over and over and over things (this was after the 30 minutes of instruction inside). She was telling our students things like "very bad" and even made a couple of them cry. But, it was an opportunity for bonding. And we did. Magda and I found it easy to communicate how frustrated we were at her and how much we didn't like the way she was treating our students. We find that sometimes words aren't really necessary.

So, God has been good this year, and I know that next year will be better (although still painful at times).

If you would like to hear more stories, please let me know by email. I would love to visit with as many of you as is possible while I am home. I will be home on July 2nd(Yippeeee!) and will be leaving again around the 18th or 19th of August. I look forward to seeing you all and having a chance to share more of the past year. Thank you again for all of your support, cards, e-mails, care packages and mostly prayers.

Becoming...

2007-06-06T22:28:00.000+02:00

So, I have been feeling this week more and more like a Slovak (or at least not a guest) these last few weeks.

Case in point. Last week, Karin and I went to our favorite little neighborhood pizza place. Side note: A while ago, when we had been in, our server noticed that we were speaking English and tried to get us an English menu. We told him that we didn't need one and he asked again. We finally convinced him we did not. The next time we came in, he didn't offer us the English menu, just accepted our limited and badly pronounced Slovak. End side note: So, we were sitting talking and just enjoying our meal like we normally do. Then, Karin noted that it seemed that we had it seemed slow even for our normally quiet pizza place and that the service seemed slower as usual. Now this may not seem like an amazing observation. But, it made us feel like regulars, to be talking about the service (which is definitely much slower than in the states).

Second case in point. I feel like I made a break through today. I was invited to one of my student's homes. For those of you who know me from Oster, you know how much I enjoy getting to know my students outside of school. I accept every invitation that I possibly can. Well, with the language barrier and just the different culture, I have not gotten any invitations. Until today. Today, at one of my conferences, I had a mom who spent a year in the states with her family, so her family all speaks English. She was lamenting the fact that she doesn't have anyone to speak English with. So, I volunteered to practice English with her. Her eyes lit up and she quickly gave me her phone number and email address and invited me to come to her house regularly to practice English not only with her, but also with her whole family. I am very excited about this opportunity and hope that it will open up more doors for me.

Easter in Krakow

2007-05-05T10:25:00.000+02:00

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...

2007-05-05T08:48:00.000+02:00

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

2007-04-02T13:09:00.001+02:00

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

Family and Friends

2007-03-24T23:31:00.000+01:00

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!!!

2007-02-04T12:26:00.000+01:00

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

2007-01-29T22:27:00.000+01:00

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

2007-01-27T14:29:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-01-24T11:01:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-21T13:38:00.000+01:00

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

2006-11-27T15:54:00.000+01:00

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

2006-11-22T08:28:00.000+01:00

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 ????

2006-10-19T17:40:00.000+02:00

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

2006-10-19T16:26:00.000+02:00

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!

2006-10-09T14:56:00.000+02:00

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!

2006-10-09T14:04:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-28T13:46:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-28T11:01:00.000+02:00

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.

2006-09-22T16:38:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-22T14:57:00.000+02:00

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!

2006-09-07T15:38:00.000+02:00

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.

Budapest or Bust!

2006-09-07T10:11:00.000+02:00

Budapest

This weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Budapest by train for a retreat with the team from Hungary. Budapest is only a two and a half hour train ride from Bratislava. It felt like a huge city compared to Bratislava. We got into the city in the early afternoon and immediately had to go shopping for food for our BBQ on Saturday. Shopping in Europe is quite an adventure. First, you must take your own bags as the stores charge for bags. Food is another adventure, as at this point we are shopping almost entirely by what the food looks like- as we can’t read the labels for almost anything. For example, we were planning on having hamburgers for our BBQ, so we bought ground beef to make hamburgers. Or so we thought. In fact, we had bought ground pork (aka sausage). Oh, well! We make porkburgers (actual HAMburgers), which were quite delicious. And of course the best part, you have to lug all your groceries back on the bus. So much fun!

We were able to see some of the sights of Budapest, the best was Castle Hill at night all lit up. We walked all around, looking at the grounds, flowers and statues. Then we walked down the hill and across a beautifully lit up bridge. We had a great time!

Interesting Fact #2

Most people in Bratislava live in flats. Many of them are in huge buildings, 10 to 12 stories tall, and 10 to 20 flats across. You have to have a key to get in or out of the building and out of your individual flat. So, when I leave my flat in the morning, I have to get out my key and unlock the front door. Then, of course, I have to lock it. After a walk down the stairs, I have to again get out my key and unlock the front door. It is quite an interesting system. So, it is very possible to get locked out of your flat, but locked in your building. Definitely not the best place to plan a quick get away!

School Update

I am teaching at CS Lewis schools, specifically the elementary school and middle school named the School of Narnia. We have been treated very well by everyone there. On our first school day, our school manager arranged for us to go check in at the police station (required to get our Visas), get cell phones, and get our bus passes. Slavka (the av is pronounced –ow as in cow), who works in the building our school is housed in, was kind enough to take us and treated us royally. She spent most of the day with us and we have found a wonderful friend in her.

I am teaching 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grade English conversation. I will have each grade two times a week for 45 minutes, except for the 5^th graders, which I will have 3 times a week. I will work in conjunction with a Slovak teacher who will be teaching English grammar. The head English teacher for Narnia is a wonderful woman named Jayne, who hails from England. Believe it or not, I sometimes have a harder time understanding her than the Slovaks, as she has such a thick accent and speaks very fast. She is incredibly bubbly and energetic. Working with her is going to be an adventure everyday and will never ever get boring. Jayne and I share a classroom, which is quite spacious. It is definitely not as well stocked or furnished as classrooms in the states, but has all the necessities. I am learning to be resourceful and creative!

Thank you so much for all of your comments. I appreciate them all as they make me smile and encourage me when I need it most. Please keep your comments coming. Thank you also for all of your emails. I am going to try my best to respond to all of them, but please be patient as it may take me a while.

Please keep me in your prayers as I will officially start teaching kids next week. I am excited, but also nervous as I realized today that my second graders really don’t speak any English. What a challenge they will be! I would also appreciate your prayers that I don’t get discouraged with my slow acquisition of the Slovak language. While I am learning, it is a slow process and it can be discouraging. Thank you so much for all of your prayers so far. I have had a very smooth transition and know it is due to all the prayers of the faithful.

Col 4:2-6Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us(me), too, that God may open a door for our(my) message, so that we(I) may proclaim the mystery of Christ…Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Budapest Visit

2006-09-06T15:36:00.000+02:00

Barbeque-ing in Budapest

Sam Kellum (who lives in Budapest with his wife and 4 kids) and I BBQing the poultry dogs and porkburgers on the "base."

Owen, 20 months, with his huge poultry dog and bun. There is no such thing as hotdog buns, so we made do with little(or not so little) rolls. His brother Calvin, 3, is in the background.

The teachers we visited in Budapest teach at a school that specializes in aviation, and they live on what is affectionately called the base. They have a hanger in the front yard, plus five or six helicopots and airplanes. They have an engine in the front hall. Very cool!

The Budapest Castle at Night. The grounds are beautiful at night.

Home Sweet Home

2006-08-29T11:44:00.000+02:00

First pics from Slovakia.... more to follow.

This is the building that I live in. If you walk up this pathway and to the right hand side of the building, I am on the first floor (we would call it the second floor) on the opposite side of the building. Home, sweet home.

This is the little creek that runs next to our flat. We cross it and walk next to it everyday on our way to school.

Just a beautiful skyline from our walk home from school one day last week.

We have a gas stove (Yeah!) which has to be lit with matches anytime you want to use it and no microwave, so reheating things takes some getting used to.
Our kitchen is charming.

Our little dining room and the first dinner at home. To the right are the two bedrooms, the the far left is the hall to the entryway and the bathroom. To the left is the kitchen and balcony.

Our first home cooked meal of sausage and chicken (leftovers from the beginning of school BBQ), bread, potatoes, carrots and onions, grapes and a tomato and cucumber salad.

Welcome to Bratislava!

2006-08-29T11:39:00.000+02:00

Ahoy! This is the greeting I hear most often in Bratislava. It is also used as an informal goodbye, although it is often said twice as a goodbye – Ahoy, ahoy. Each time that I post on this blog, I will try and add one interesting fact so that each of you can learn about the customs, culture and people of Slovakia. So…

Interesting Fact #1

In a family, the females have a different last name than the males. The females use the family surname but they add on the ending –ova. For example, my name should be Josifekova. I found this out when I went to the doctor and they put male on my chart because I have a Czech/Slovak name, but because it doesn’t have –ova at the end, I must be male. Interesting. So, I may change my name while I am over here to Jenni Josifekova – with the j’s being pronounced as y’s. So, Yenni Yosifekova is how it would sound.

Thank You

Thank you so much for your prayers this past week and a half. My team and I left the United States on Friday, August 18^th, with almost no problems. We had a little problem getting the family checked in, but through the power of prayer, everything was resolved quickly. We arrived in Bratislava on Saturday around noon and were warmly greeted by Daniel. It wasn’t until much later that I found out that he was the head director of our school. He greeted us enthusiastically, loaded our luggage into his van and off we headed to our new home. Our flat is located across the Danube from the old/main part of the city in the area called Petrazalka. As we quickly came to find out, it is the part of town that is looked down upon. We have fallen in love with our flat and it’s location. Petrazalka is made up of huge concrete buildings, one after another, after another. Most are twelve stories high and they are often not painted. Most have balconies, which can add charm to otherwise dull facades. Many people have huge baskets of flowers and plants hanging on their balconies and some have even painted them. Ours is quite plain, but we already have some small plants growing. Petrazalka houses over 160,000 of Bratislava’s almost 500,000 people, which is almost 1/3 of the population. Yet, in terms of acreage, it is a very small area. Petrazalka has the highest population per square km in all of Europe, if not the world. Quite an incredible place to live really.

We spent our first days in Bratislava exploring Old Town and getting acquainted with the bus system. Our flat is located between two great bus stops that can take us almost anywhere we want to go in Bratislava. On Monday, we went to the police station to find out about our Visa paperwork, got cell phones and our first bus passes. The flats here do not have land lines and everyone (from eight years old on up) has a cell phone. They are rather expensive to use so conversations are short and text messaging (SMSing) is very popular.

Right now, we have no internet in our flat (although we are trying to remedy that – but that involves our landlord), so I will not have easy access to my blog. However, I am going to try to write my blog on my computer at home and then put it on my flash drive and upload it at school. So, please be patient if the updates are slow.

Please, please, please

Please add comments after you read a posting. I love to get your feedback and to know who is reading my blog. It is encouraging to know that folks back at home are thinking of me and praying for me.

Thank you all again for your support and encouragement as I am on this great adventure. I know that God has a plan for me in all of this, and it is great to know that you all have a part in it as well. Please keep me in your prayers. Our first day of school is September 4^th. Pray that we will be ready, excited and prepared for this challenging job. Pray also that I will be able to remember names as they are much trickier in a foreign language.

Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passesall understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think onthese things. Phil. 4:6-8

Ahoy!

2006-08-28T16:34:00.000+02:00

Dobre den!
Greetings from far away Bratislava in Slovakia. I am finally here. I have very limited internet access, and am working on a way to remedy the situation. I am going to try to get something better posted this week, but for now, know that I am safe and sound and loving it here. You should all try to come and visit as this is an amazing part of the world.
Cho!
Jenni

More about Training

2006-08-14T23:46:00.000+02:00

Daily life at Training includes a lot of walking around the campus lugging computers, notebooks and manuals. Time for early morning "Disco" meetings.

Praying around the table... Becky sneaks a peek at the camera.

2006-08-11T02:06:00.000+02:00

All of the 200+ new teachers, alumni and staff for the 2006-2007 Teachoverseas year.

The view from the cafeteria patio, that I look at each morning as I eat breakfast.

The William Carey International University (WCI for short) that I am staying at.

Less than Two weeks to go!

2006-08-08T06:39:00.000+02:00

A day in the life of...
Well, as hard as it is to believe, I have less than two weeks left in the US before I move to Slovakia! Yeah! I am so excited! Training has been intense and hard, yet very benifitial. I have made some wonderful friends... all of whom will be living in various countries around the world, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moracco, China, Vietnam, and Russia.
A typical day at training goes something like this...
6:15 - Wake up, shower and get ready for the day
7:00 - Go to breakfast and talk with friends
8:00 - Discovery Groups (affectionatly know as Disco groups) where we discuss things such as culture, leadership and personalities
9:00 - TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) learning stategies for how to teach overseas
10:30 - Sessions on our specific region (for me Central Europe) and how teaching there will be different than here
12:00 - Lunch with disco group to continue earlier discussion
12:45 - Free time, hip hip hooray!
1:30 - Session about the Teach Overseas organization
2:45 - Session about how to interact with our students
4:00 - Practicum Prep (planning lessons incorporating what we learned in our TEFL session)
5:30 - Dinner with disco group
6:30 - Leave for Practicum
7:00 - Practicum (We serve the community by teaching English class to Spanish speakers at a local community center. This gives us the opportunity to practice our teaching skills and also to give back to the community.)
9:15 - Return from Practicum and debrief with disco group
10:00 - Homework, housekeeping, and free time
11:00 or 12:00 - Bedtime
Wow! Just looking at that schedule makes me tired. It feels like I have been here for way more than just three weeks. And yet, I have less than two weeks left.
As I am finishing up my last two weeks, please pray that I would have the strength and energy to finish well. We had this weekend off and I was able to rest and relax with my new friends at the beach. It was much needed and appreciated by all. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

News from Slovakia!

2006-07-23T07:00:00.000+02:00

I am so excited. Just tonight I received an email from the head of the English/language departments at Narnia, the school I will be teaching at. She wanted me to know that I will be teaching conversational English to 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders! Yeah! I am so glad to know that I will be teaching elementary students. I may also be teaching one class for High School students. Materials will be limited, but I know that God is able to take 5 loaves and 2 fish and feed a multitude of people, so I have no doubts that He will equip me with the things I need. Thankfully, I have a wonderful tool (known as the World Wide Web) which will enable me to find games, teaching tools, and other resources that I need. God is so good!

Pasadena, California

2006-07-17T03:43:00.000+02:00

Hello all! Greetings from Pasadena, California! I arrived yesterday around 4 in the afternoon to the sweltering southern California heat. After getting registered and getting my room key, I went to my room. Talk about stepping back in time. It was probably built in the late 70's/early 80's and NO air conditioning! It was sweltering. My roommates first comment to me as I walked in the door was, "You're not Che!" I said no I was not and then we introduced ourselves (her name is Reba) and talked about the fact that for our five weeks of training they specifically did not pair us up with people on our own team. We are close in age and have a similar dry/sarcastic sense of humor. I think it will be a fun, if hot, five weeks. After meeting Reba, we went to the main room and made names tags and hung out until dinner time. I had not found any of the other people on my Slovakia team and was beginning to get a little nervous. Their are only five people (including me) on my team. Finally, on the way out the door, I met my first teammate!!!! Yeah! Her name is Karin and she hails from just outside Dallas, Texas. She is very fun and sweet and we immediately liked each other. We had a yummy BBQ dinner outside and finally met the rest of our team.

Me, Darla, Becky, Vic & Karin

Becky is from Filmore, New York (an hour from Buffalo) and just graduated from college. Vic and Darla both have taught high school in Ohio. They have two great, well-behaved children named Ana (pronounced with a short o) and Domonique. After dinner it was back to the main room for a short meeting and then the first of many break-out sessions. Breakout sessions are when the different regions separate into their own groups (China/Vietnam, CIS - formerly Russia, Central Europe - my group, and Morocco). This was where the fun began. We played umpteen name games. By the end, I was tired of name games, but I also had memorized almost all thirty names. Yeah! Now, to get to know everyone better. By 10:30, I was exhausted and ready to hit the hay. Which is exactly what I did. The second day started with a wonderful time of worship and teaching. More name games - since everyone had changed clothes and hairdo's. Then on to a pool party with the rest of the Central Europe team. The people on the team are great. About 20 are going to the Czech Republic, 12 to Hungary and our team of 5 to Slovakia. The pool party was held at the home of the man who started my whole adventure - Henry Eu. Henry was the man who was at the World Impact health clinic with his wife and handed my sister, Kacie, the business card that started this whole process. It was very cool getting to talk to him and thank him for the role he played. We also had our first Slovakia team meeting at the edge of the pool. Ahhh... if only all are meetings could be poolside.
How we spend our evenings!

2006-05-22T05:00:00.000+02:00

Jenni’s on the Move… Again!

In The Beginning…

It all began with a birthday and a business card. For my birthday, my sister Kacie sent me a business card for an organization called Teach Overseas. She had met the Vice President of Teach Overseas at a clinic and decided that this would be the perfect opportunity for her big sister. After a visit to their website, I received and read their brochures. It seemed very exciting, but I was not ready yet to take the leap of faith.

However, TeachOverseas was ready for me and they kept calling and leaving me messages, which I didn’t return. Finally, after the third phone call, I said, “Okay, God. Maybe You are talking to me like you did to Samuel. (I Samuel 3:1-10) I am listening.” And I called them back and talked to one of their representatives. After a wonderful hour long chat, I agreed to take a look at an application and pray about filling it out and sending it in.

After much time in prayer, I made the decision to apply. I was accepted and chose Slovakia as the place I wanted to go as I would possibly be able to teach elementary school. During this time of pondering and praying, God answered many questions and concerns I had. Kacie decided that she would move to San Jose to look for a nursing job and take care of my house and my kitty. He also gave me a passage of scripture as encouragement and confirmation that I am following His will. God is amazing in the way that He speaks to us! I encourage all of you to be listening for His voice. You never know what He wants you to do or where He wants you to go, but I promise you, it will be amazing!

The big important details…

When: Mid July to Mid Aug, 2006 – Cultural and teaching training in Los Angeles area
Mid Aug to Mid June 2007 – Teaching, living and learning in Slovakia
Where: Bratislava, Slovakia – the capital city, located on the western edge
What: Teaching English and other subjects to middle or high school students
Why: To share the love of God and the English language with those in Slovakia
How: TeachOverseas is a non-profit organization that sends teachers to countries all over the world to teach English and share the love of God.

II Corinthians 2:14-17

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

What will I be doing?

I will be teaching English to elementary, middle or high school students. At this time, there are two different schools where I could be working at. One is an international school and one is a bilingual school. I will be teaching for about four hours a day. These schools all have block scheduling, more like a college schedule than an elementary school. For more information, go to http://www.teachoverseas.org.

Why am I doing this?

As many of you know, I was able to take two trips to St. Petersburg, Russia in 2002 and 2003. Those trips changed me forever. I have wanted to return to Europe ever since. When the opportunity to teach overseas came up, I prayed about it and really felt the Lord saying, “Go!” I want to be able to go overseas and use the gift of teaching that the Lord has given me to bless others. The opportunity to go overseas is one that may not always be an option, so I am excited that I can go and have such an amazing adventure!

Where is Slovakia?

Slovakia is located in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and is located on the western edge of the country.

Your Prayers Are Needed!

For Health...
Living overseas is always different and it can be hard to adjust.
For Strength...
I will have to learn how to do everything, shopping, going places and conversing, all over again.
For Wisdom...
I will need wisdom to keep up with lesson planning and finding my way around a new country.
For Power...
I will need will- power to keep going when things get hard and when I get homesick.
For Opportunities...
I want to be able to share the love of God with not only my students but with everyone I meet.