As the school year comes to an end, we are grading our final tests, projects and papers and preparing final grades. Our third year English students are completing their film projects and we look forward to the "Film Festival" next week. Each class prepares a film involving some characters, themes, and literary topics related to the American Literature that they have studied this year. They write the script, play the roles and put together the entire project, ending up with about a 15 minute film.

We finish our teaching duties on Thursday, June 17 and have to meet with our students during the next several days, finally giving them up to their class teachers after June 22. The students and teachers spend the rest of June cleaning and organizing the classrooms then they go on class trips. The semester activities have been decelerating since mid-May when the fifth-year students completed their Maturita exams. These are the nation-wide school-leaving exams that are required for graduation. They have an extra importance at the Lyceum, since the students take written and oral exams in English that certify them at a certain level of English competence. They completed their classes at the end of May and have disappeared from school to prepare for and take University entrance exams. These are rigorous tests that may qualify them for study in a particular discipline at the University. We spoke with a student today who is preparing for the exams in marketing and advertising where there are around a thousand students competing for twenty-five places. Another group that is missing during the last two weeks of classes is about half of the first-year students who are on a trip to Scotland. While the destination sounds great, the idea of spending two weeks on a bus, including four overnights, is less than appealing; we're glad we weren't asked to chaperone the trip.


This year we've had some opportunity to learn something about Slovak politics in spite of the language barrier. We've come to see some of the parties, including two that are in the current governing coalition as highly nationalistic and racist. There are hard feelings between Slovakia and Hungary - 700 years of oppressive rule of the Slovak people by Hungarian monarchs up to WW I might have something to do with that, but they seem unable to get over it. Slovakia instituted "language laws" last year that forbade the carrying on of official business in any language other than Slovak - a definite slap at the 10% or so of the Slovak population with Hungarian ancestry who live near the border with Hungary. The newly elected, equally nationalistic government of Hungary just passed a law declaring dual citizenship for any Slovaks of Hungarian descent and this brought a response from the current Slovak government threatening to remove Slovak citizenship from any person who receives this status. The most extreme of the Slovak politicians called for "Slovak tanks in the streets of Budapest" and the like. Add to this the general Slovak disdain for Roma (Gypsies) as was evidenced in one of the billboards posted by the SNS party.

Here are some sample billboard photos taken by my brother Ted on a road trip through Slovakia in early May - I accept responsibility for the translations on the pictures. The first two are by the "Slovak National Party," SNS , referred to above. The second shows a putative Roma individual who has clearly been feeding at the government trough. It turns out that the guy in this photo was duped into having it taken under false pretenses and then several features like the excessive tattoos were "Photoshopped" in. The party was forced to remove the billboards before the elections. The third photo shows a billboard of a new party, SAS (Freedom and Solidarity), a free-market, right of center party that actually drew over 12% in the election described below. The fourth photo shows a throwback from the Communist era - fortunately to no effect in the election.

The results of last weekend's election are in and there are definitely some surprises. While Prime Minister Fico's SMER party led all parties with nearly 35% of the vote, one of his partners in the current coalition government, the party of former Prime Minister Meciar, did not reach the 5% vote threshold that would give his party seats in the Parliament. So even with the hyper-nationalist SNS party with its 5.1% of the vote (barely enough to squeak into the Parliament), Fico will not have enough seats to form a coalition. It's now up to the four center-right parties, all of whom have pledged not to join SMER, to try to form a workable government. It was also interesting that SMER drew the majorities of votes in 70 of the 79 political districts in the country, leaving only 9 urban districts that voted predominantly for one of the opposition parties. Of these, 5 are in and around Bratislava, 1 is in Kosice to the east, 2 are districts that border Hungary, and one is an urban district in the north. This coalition will probably be led by people from the government that preceded Fico's government under Prime Minister Dzurinda and that had been instrumental in bringing Slovakia into the EU and adopting the Euro. This government was perhaps too friendly to business and European interests, and didn't pay enough attention to the people in Slovakia. Fico has played the Socialist/nationalist card during his government while showing a general disdain for freedom of the press and the usual civil functions of government. It is somewhat disturbing that nearly 45% of the population supports this line, but we are hopeful that a more rational government may be able to govern closer to the center and help to move the country forward.

Sue has been volunteering in a program run by the US Embassy in a Roma village outside Bratislava. The goal of the program was to establish a relationship between US citizens and the Roma people of the village. She is trying to teach basic English to high school age girls in a program containing students from age 8 through high school. She noticed that the students were very loud and undisciplined but a few of them were serious about wanting to learn. She also noticed constant fighting among the younger boys and girls. These traits seem to be typical of many Roma, at least as we hear about them from our students, so they make learning and succeeding in life very difficult. Sue has also spent time with some embassy officials who are trying to help some of the Roma with legal difficulties. One example of the straits they find themselves in is that most if not all the homes in the village are on land that is not owned by the Roma. They built their houses on the right of way over a gas pipeline and the local town officials are threatening to bring in bulldozers to clear the squatters away. Very few of the houses have running water or sewer facilities, so you can only imagine the filth and smell. Unfortunately, the people cannot get their act together to help themselves to save their village and the government seems to have no interest  in helping them. This has been a powerful learning experience, but also one that has left Sue wondering what can be done to help these people.

Many of our American teacher colleagues from around Slovakia and Poland are leaving for the States and next year there will probably be fewer teaching missionaries than currently. Apparently there has not been much recruiting by the ELCA due to its funding difficulties. They let the person go who had organized the recruiting and interviewing of teaching missionaries and so they are looking at some new ways of recruiting them in the future. 

We leave with good feelings about our work here. The students have been generally kind and appreciative of what we do. We've really enjoyed working with them. Both our American and Slovak colleagues at the school are great - helpful, caring, and hopeful about their work here. We've made many friends outside the school, especially in the Bratislava International Church.  It will be difficult to say goodbye to the many new friends we've made this year - at school, at church and in the community.


Sue traveled back to Michigan for two weeks in early May when her mom's health took a turn for the worse. Her mother was able to return home from the hospital, but hasn't had any energy. Sue was able to return to Slovakia after her sister Krista came back to Michigan from her home in Florida. At least Sue had an opportunity to see Kristen and the three girls, Karin, and our nephew Eric and his family when they all came for visits during her stay. Phil soldiered on, teaching several of her classes in addition to his own. 

In early May, we enjoyed visits with family members. Phil's brother Ted and his wife Marty joined their sister Kathy and her husband Marshall in a trip to central Europe. After several days in Bratislava and Vienna, Phil traveled with them to Orava to visit family and to see the sights in that region. We saw the castle in Orava and visited the homes of several family members including Iveta, Jan and Marie, and Pavlo and Milka, who we have visited several times during the year. We also got to see the villages and church where our grandparents had grown up, so we all got a better understanding of our heritage. Ted, Marty, Kathy and Marshall went on to Prague and Salzburg, using the train system without difficulty. Their return in the third week of May coincided with that of Sue, so we all got together in Vienna to wish Kathy and Marshall safe travels home. Marty and Ted came back to Bratislava for several more days of local sight-seeing. It's safe to say that we all enjoyed the opportunity to get together and share the joys of central Europe.

Two weekends back, we joined a group of teaching missionaries from throughout Slovakia and Poland for a weekend in Cieszyn, Poland. The Lutheran Church has a strong presence in this part of Silesia that straddles the border of Poland and the Czech Republic. The largest Polish Lutheran Church is located in Cieszyn and we were hosted by two women who teach in the Evangelical School there. We enjoyed beautiful weather, awesome pierogies, good Polish beer, and a great folklore show put on by some local performers. It was a great way to see our fellow teachers from around the region before we all head our separate ways this summer.

This will probably be our last blog until after we return home in mid-July. Our daughter Kristen, her husband Dave, and our triplet grand-daughters are going to be visiting for about two weeks after June 27 and we'll be flying back to Detroit on July 14. Grandson Sam will be spending time with his Aunt Karin, Uncle Brian and Cousin Caroline at Camp Cain during Kristen and Dave's travels. Sue will probably be staying with her mom for a while after our return, so our life may still be in flux through part of the summer. Nevertheless, we are anxious to get back home and see all our friends.

Travels with Karin, Brian and Caroline

It's back to school after ten days of travels and visit with family.  Our daughter Karin, her husband Brian and our granddaughter Caroline visited with us over the Easter vacation and we had a great time seeing some of the leading sites of Central Europe as well as enjoying the comforts of home in Bratislava.


We met up with them on March 31 in Prague and spent several days there, visiting the old city and the castle with a wonderful guide, Miša, and generally enjoying the ambiance of this lovely city.  Some of the highlights were the street musicians and entertainers along with the excellent beers for which Prague is so well known.  We also attended an organ and choral concert on Mandy Thursday in a church that was near our apartment.


After Prague we traveled south to Cesky Krumlov a medieval town that has been unchanged for several hundred years.  This had a castle tower that we could climb to view the entire town and was absolutely dripping with authentic tourist charm.


On Easter, we went on to Salzburg Austria, planning to stop at the cathedral in Linz for Easter services.  Unfortunately, our Garmin GPS led us off into the Czech countryside where we saw lovely hills, cows and villages; so we missed church and ended up in Salzburg in the late afternoon.  Due to Karin's interest in "The Sound of Music" we visited many sights that were related to the movie.  This gave us a good opportunity to drive and walk around the city and to see most of the important sites.  The weather was somewhat dreary, but we still had a great time visiting the churches and fortress of this amazing city.  One of the highlights here was coming into the cathedral on Easter Monday to hear part of a Mozart Mass that was part of the service, so our Easter was not without celebratory music.


We traveled back to Bratislava on Tuesday and Sue and Phil resumed teaching duties at the Lyceum while Karin, Brian, and Caroline saw some of the local sights.  Among these were a puppet show with props that can only be described as "Goodwill rejects" and a children's museum with almost as many guards as toys, but they found the time relaxing and up to Caroline's standards of enjoyment. We got to spend some time with Caroline as Karin and Brian went off to Vienna on their own, taking her to some Bratislava parks.  One of the things you can see on the video link below is her efforts to make music on the "jumping bells", assisted of course by Grandma Sue.


On Saturday, we took Caroline on the train to Vienna to meet up with her parents and to visit some of the kid-friendly sites there.  We all enjoyed a visit to the Spanish Riding School to see the Lipizzaner Stallions in their full Hapsburgian glory.  Caroline also enjoyed a carriage ride and a visit to the Prater Park where she rode the unusual "Pony Carousel", a string of ponies who perked up and walked around the ring immediately as the music began playing.  Dinner at the Prater's Schweitzerhaus involved great beer, potato salad, wiener-schnitzel and schweinsstelze.  The latter is 1 kg=2.2 lb. of spit roasted pork shank that can serve several people, especially if some like crackling skin (much like chitlin's).


After dinner at the Prater, Karin, Brian and Caroline went to an airport hotel to catch their early morning flight home on Sunday and we headed back to Bratislava on the train. We've entered into another week's work at school and things are pretty well back to normal after the Easter vacation.  Next week is one of our dreaded "Classification meetings" and "Parent's night", so we need to get back to reporting grades and making out quizzes.


For some views of our travel, click here.

Spring at Last

The winter doldrums have slowed us down a bit from blogging, but with the coming of Spring, we’re keen to talk about our adventures in Central Europe again so here goes.


We attended a Slovak wedding on the weekend of Valentine's Day.  The bride was the daughter of Sue's Slovak teacher; they have become good friends and Sue had heard much about preparations for the wedding.  It was much like an American ceremony with some notable exceptions.  The bride and groom came right to the church from the groom's home where they'd had a ceremony joining the two families.  After marching down the aisle together with only a little girl to hold the bride's train, the couple stood before the minister who opened with prayer and then delivered a full sermon.  The exchanging of vows and rings was nice except that a soloist singing throughout this part made it difficult to hear anything that was said.  There were female and male witnesses who sat during the ceremony and rose only at the end to witness the signing of the marriage certificate in the presence of the entire congregation.  One interesting custom was that everyone brought a bouquet of flowers that they presented to the bride in the receiving line inside the church.  Apparently the bridal party takes these to the reception where they grace the head table.


We didn't attend the wedding reception because we had to go to the Lyceum Ball that evening.  This was a dressy event attended by students from every class, alumni, and teachers.  The students provided entertainment including a rock band, jazz dancers, a magician, acrobatic dancers, and martial arts. The American teachers put together a group of songs - some tasteless and some just plain bad, but we had fun doing it and our students seemed to enjoy it. The event was held in the communist era "Park of Relaxation and Culture", but with the student's decorations and some fancy lighting, it actually looked pretty nice. We especially enjoyed seeing our students so nicely dressed and on generally best behavior.  For some pictures of our students as well as a video of part of our musical performance, click here.


We continue to enjoy the rich cultural life in Bratislava and Vienna.  The Symphony season is in full swing with nearly weekly concerts.  We've heard an interesting mix ranging from several Mahler Symphonies to Copeland's Clarinet Concerto in a program of Brazilian and Latin influenced music.  We've seen good productions of the operas Aida and Eugene Onegin, and have enjoyed visits to the museums and shops in Vienna. We have a group of friends who we have dinner with on symphony nights and this has expanded our friendships beyond the school.


Bratislava International Church holds an important place in our lives as well.  We have many friends from the church and enjoy the regular opportunities for fellowship, whether at coffee hour after church or at the Wednesday evening soup dinners and services of prayer during Lent. Sue participated in the Women's Retreat this last Saturday on the topic of "Change" and decided that while we've experienced quite a bit over our lives, most of it has been good so we should just go with it.  Phil sings in the choir (actually a small chamber group) and enjoys the camaraderie of that group.  March 21 was the 325th anniversary of Bach's birth as well as the weekend after St. Patrick's Day, so in true International Church fashion, we celebrated both on Sunday morning.  We were joined by a pipe band from Limerick Ireland in celebrating these two holidays.  You can see some of the day's musical offerings by clicking here.


Late Winter Break during the first week of March brought us to London for a week of sightseeing, shopping, and theater.  We visited several museums that we had not seen before as well as some old favorites like the Victoria and Albert and Parliament.  We traveled out to Kew Gardens and while we enjoyed the orchid show and other flowers in the greenhouses, we would surely love to see it during the Spring and Summer when the gardens are in bloom. The goods available in the shops in London are much more interesting (and even better priced) than in the other places in Europe that we've visited.  Sue enjoyed the variety as well as interesting offerings.  Unfortunately, prices are still significantly higher than in the States, since all European countries charge about 19% Value Added Tax (rather than sales tax.)


We saw three plays and a movie in our seven evenings in London - Billy Elliott (the Musical), Habit of Art, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and the German movie "The White Ribbon".  "Billy Elliott" was very entertaining musical with excellent dancing by the child actors in the troupe.  "The Habit of Art" is a new play by Alan Bennett that tells of a group of actors rehearsing a play in which an encounter is portrayed between the poet W H Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten.  This was a wonderful comedy/tragedy which helped us to better understand what drives actors and how they seek to interpret complex characters.  We chose to see "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" because we had enjoyed teaching Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" and because the all-black cast included James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad.  While the performances were good, they just didn't seem to click with the passion and intensity that we had expected.  "The White Ribbon" by Michael Hanecke is a disturbing vision of a northern German town early in the last century and how the behavior and attitudes of adults led the children in the town to do some very evil things.  In spite of this somewhat depressing note, we really enjoyed our week in London and came away with the feeling that we had gotten to know this wonderful city a little bit better.  For some pictures and a short video, click here.


We are beginning to feel like the end of our school year is in sight.  One of the major benchmarks for our students is the Maturita exams that the fifth year students take.  These are school-leaving exams that qualify them for graduation as well as for special certification in subjects such as English.  The students took the written parts of these exams a couple of weeks ago and, because the school so values a quiet atmosphere for these tests, it excused the second, third, and fourth year students from classes for two days.  They went to museums, plays and the movies with the Slovak teachers while we American teachers stayed and taught the first year students in a separate wing of the school.  We'll have a similar change of schedule when the graduating students take the oral parts of their Maturitas in May.  When these exams are finished, they are done with the year, say goodbye and disappear.


Spring has finally come to Bratislava.  Much as in the US, winter was slow in leaving with snow lasting into the first week of March.  The weather in the last couple of weeks has been quite nice.  Two weeks ago, we took a tram to one of the outlying suburbs and hiked over a high hill (actually part of the Malé Karpaty – Small Carpathian mountains) to the castle ruins of Devin.  It was great to get out into the woods and see some of the first wild-flowers popping up as well as to enjoy the wonderful views of the Danube River valley well into Austria from the high point of the trail.


On Wednesday we leave for Prague where we will meet Karin, Brian and Caroline for a vacation around Easter.  We’ll spend several days in the Czech capital, then go on to Czesky Krumlov and Salzburg for several days.  We’ll return back to Bratislavaon Tuesday after Easter, and the family will visit here and in Vienna while we teach.  We’re really looking forward to their visit.

Winter in Slovakia

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas vacation in the states, spending almost all our time with family.  Travel was somewhat frustrating with a one day delay traveling home and a five hour delay coming back, but what can you expect at Christmas?  It was fun to spend several days at Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia with Kristen and Dave, Karin and Brian, and all the grandkids.  We were kept inside most of the time because of -22 degree wind-chill, but the family fellowship was especially warm.


We returned back to Bratislava on January 10 and jumped back into the regular schedule the next morning with a school-wide church service and shortened classes.  There were still three weeks of school left in the first semester, but in reality we had to get everything of any consequence completed during our first week back since we had to have all the grades determined by the middle of the next week.  Anything that we took grades on after that goes toward the Spring semesters grades.  We also had to contend with end-of-semester parent meetings and the ever popular "classification meeting" where a report is given be each class teacher (like an American homeroom teacher) regarding the statistics for her or his class.  These include the numbers of boys and girls, of missed classes, of students with high honors, of students to be given disciplinary warnings, as well as the number failing.  Of course all these are given in Slovak with asynchronous translation into English.


Our semester break consisted of the day off on Monday, February 1, so we took advantage of the long weekend by renting a car and traveling up to Dolny Kubin to visit Phil's relatives.  It was an easy three and a half hour trip that took us north from the plain of the Danube into the foothills of the Tatra Mountains. In the past we have stayed with Iveta and Leonard, since they have a small guest cottage (chata) behind their house and since Iveta is a teacher of English who helps us to communicate with others in the family.  Since the pipes had frozen in the chata we couldn't stay there, so we stayed instead with Iveta's parents, Jan and Maria, at their home in Dolny Kubin.  All of us tried to communicate with some modest success.  Sue has been taking Slovak lessons and Phil seems to be able to pick up some of the words easily enough.  Thanks especially to Maria's patience in speaking slowly and repeating, we were able to enjoy conversation.  One of the things that we discovered was that they had been married three weeks after us and that we were both celebrating our 42nd wedding anniversaries during the months of January and February.  Another topic of conversation was the very strange winter weather that we have all been experiencing.  Bratislava usual has a week or two of light snow during the winter, but this year, we've had snow on the ground for most of December and all of January along with colder temperatures than normal.  Dolny Kubin, on the other hand, is located in the mountains and usually experiences deep snows from November through March.  This year however, there was no snow until the weekend of our visit and the ski venues were lamenting the poor season that they were having.


We spent much time in Dolny Kubin outdoors and active.  On Saturday, Leonard had taken Ninka and Matko to a skiing competition some 50 km away, and they had left early in the morning.  We opted to go with Iveta to Kubinska Hola, a ski mountain about 7 km outside of Dolny Kubin.  This mountain had gentle ski runs, at least on the part we saw.  We took the lift up and hiked around in the snow while Iveta skied.  Then we all hiked to a chalet near the upper ski runs.  There we had some hot chocolate and enjoyed the ambience of this old resort.  We returned to the top of the ski lift and Sue and Phil rode down while Iveta skied down.


We returned to Jan and Maria's for lunch consisting of Kapusnitza (Sauerkraut soup) and Slovak Pierogi (ravioli stuffed with potato, onion, and cheese, boiled and served covered with cheese and bacon).  After lunch, we met Tanya, Iveta's younger sister and her children Kup'ko (age 2) and Sashka (age 6).  Tanya's husband, Dushan, works for the Mountain Ski patrol service and so is gone most weekends.  Tanya and Dushan's family live in an apartment that Jan added to the house several years ago.  He added a story to the house and finished it to be a very attractive two bedroom apartment.  We visited with them and, after the children warmed up to us, we enjoyed their antics - very reminiscent of our grandkids.


Leonard returned with the other kids in the late afternoon and we went to an indoor water park that had just opened in Dolny Kubin.  We were all admitted at half-price since Mat’ko produced his grade report with all marks of 1 (the equivalent of straight A’s).  This facility consists of two pools – one cold for lap swimming and the other warm for relaxation and play, two hot-tubs, several slides and lots of chairs around the pools.  The warm pool also has lots of features such as sprays, bubblers, and a large circulating ring in the center that carries you around a large circle.  Water Parks of this sort are very popular in Slovakia and range from the traditional thermal springs and pools to giant parks with multiple pools and play areas that are primarily used in the summer.  The one in Dolny Kubin was very nice and we look forward to visiting some others in the spring when family members are here visiting – bring your swim suits!


On Sunday, we worshiped with Iveta at the Lutheran Church in Dolny Kubin.  It turned out that this was a significant service since it commemorated the 80th anniversary of the death of Jurová Janoškovi, the first General Bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (Lutheran Church of Slovakia) who was born in Dolny Kubin.  The preacher of the day was Bishop Miloš Klotik, current General Bishop of the Church and the person who had commissioned us at the beginning of our service in Slovakia.  After church, we went to the nearby ski hill in town to watch Leonard train Ninka and Mat’ko in preparation for their next skiing competitions then we returned to Jan and Maria’s home for lunch and a rest.  In the late afternoon we all went to the home of Maria’s brother Pavlo and his wife Milka.  Of course, there was more wonderful food and stimulating drink and we got more practice in trying to converse in Slovak. 


Click here for some video of our visit to Dolny Kubin.


We had hoped to travel to the High Tatras on Monday, but the weather was such that we wouldn’t have been able to see anything.  This is the fourth time we’ve been unsuccessful in seeing the mountains; perhaps when family visits in the Spring we’ll have better luck.  So we traveled home, stopping in Modra near Bratislava to buy some traditionally painted cups to add to our collection of souvenirs.  We then drove into Austria, just across the border, to shop at an outlet mall and to do some grocery shopping.  Even with outlet reductions, most of the clothes were ridiculously expensive, thanks in part to the Value Added Tax of 19%.  The groceries were close to the same price as in Slovakia, but there was a slightly better selection, although not large enough to warrant a special trip.


We’re into a pretty steady routine now.  In addition to regular teaching responsibilities, we’re active in the Bratislava International Church and in socializing with our colleagues from the school.  We eat together or go out almost weekly and are really enjoying their company.  Sue volunteers every Tuesday afternoon at a Roma (Gypsy) village outside of town.  This is a program run by the US Embassy – the goals aren’t absolutely clear, but it does give Americans an opportunity to try to help the Roma kids learn some English.  We regularly attend performances of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; there’ll be about ten over the next four months and look for other opportunities to enjoy the rich cultural life here.  We have enjoyed participating in a monthly Current Events Forum where local speakers (usually Slovaks) present their insights into the state of affairs here.  We’ve heard presentations on the Roma and problems educating their children, on the potential for more gas cuts as occurred last year when the Russians cut off the supply through the Ukraine, and on the role of women in Slovak politics and work life.


The last topic especially struck us as interesting, since it pointed to the changes that had occurred since the fall of Communism in 1989.  The speaker noted the weak role that women play in the nation’s politics in spite of the fact that women had played a strong role in the “Velvet Revolution” that led to the fall of Communism.  We are learning more about Slovak politics (there’s a Parliamentary election this Spring) as well as Slovak attitudes regarding the change from communism to capitalism and will share our thoughts on this in a later blog.

Christmas in Central Europe

Christmas Greetings from Bratislava Slovakia.  We're spending our first Christmas Season in Central Europe and finding that it has many similarities but also many interesting differences with the holiday in the states.

The season begins in conjunction with the beginning of Advent in the church calendar and starts with a gentle reminder of the reason behind the season, preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  In our case, we had a service of lessons and carols at the Bratislava International Church and got to sing a variety of songs from many of the different cultures in our community, including a Chinese piece and one from the Caribbean. 

Shortly after this, we celebrated St. Nikolas Day on December 6.  This is a celebration of Bishop Nikolas of Myra in modern Turkey who showed generosity to poor young girls in his parish by anonymously providing them with bags of gold to serve as their dowries.  He achieved this by throwing the bags down the chimney where they landed in the girls stockings that were drying next to the fireplace.  This is celebrated here by giving gifts on (or about) December 6.  St. Nikolas is accompanied on his rounds by "helpers" in the forms of angels and devils.  Good girls and boys get a treat from an angel while bad ones get a piece of coal or a potato from the devil.  Somehow, Phil was identified as having the right "body type" to play St. Nikolas at the Lyceum on Monday following December 6, so he went around to classes with his helpers dispersing treats or punishment (in the form of black marks for bad students) and leading the singing of Jingle Bells. 

This holiday also explains the lighted red horns and blue horns we saw on

kids during the early days of the Bratislava Christmas Market.  We had thought that these kids were just confused about Halloween, but see now how it relates to the season.  Christmas Markets are a great tradition in Europe.  They consist of covered wooden booths that are set up on the town squares, where a variety of holiday crafts, gifts, and foods are sold.  The universal constant seems to be hot punch and mulled wine, sold by the cup and consumed on the spot.  Each city has its own signature foods and gifts, but the general feeling is one of conviviality and good cheer.  We visited the markets in Bratislava (several times), Prague, and Vienna.

Bratislava's Christmas Market is the smallest.  It winds around two squares and spills out onto a third and the theme here seems to be an opportunity for family and friends to meet and share holiday cheer as a group.  In addition to the ubiquitous punch and hot wine, Bratislava also offers sandwiches of grilled meat (chicken or pork) on a soft roll with grilled peppers, onions and mustard.  Another favorite is lokše, a pancake filled with fruit, nuts, or meats.  The stands here offer hand-made crafts as well as slightly more commercial fare.  There is a stage where local musical groups perform - sometimes even in the same key.  There are also roving street musicians, including an accordionist who leads singing of holiday

songs and the one-man band who you may remember from the coronation film earlier in the Fall.  The general atmosphere is that of a party rather than a major commercial venture.  Every time we’ve been to the Bratislava Market, we’ve seen large groups of folks standing around eating, drinking, and just enjoying the atmosphere.



We took a trip to Prague two weekends ago since Phil was giving a presentation to the math department at the Institute of Chemical

Technology at the Prague Technical University.  In addition to visiting the Christmas Market, we also saw the Museum of Communism and attended a choral concert in a church near the main square.  The Museum of Communism was a stark reminder of the way that those governments destroyed people’s humanity.  The Christmas concert consisted of several choral works with two larger pieces accompanied by organ and orchestra.  The most interesting piece was the “Czech Christmas Mass” of Jakub Ryba that locates the Christmas story in rural Bohemia and sets it to folk music of the late 18th century.  Prague’s Christmas Market was commercial with a nice mix of hand-made and machine produced items.  There was a lot to look at and purchase and the food was interesting – ham roasted on a spit over a wood fire and pastries (called Tredlnik) that are baked over an open fire after wrapping them around a large wooden dowel.  They retain a spiral shape and are quite tasty when coated with sugar and cinnamon.


Last weekend involved several seasonal activities.  Last Friday afternoon, the American teachers at the Lyceum joined the former director of the school in making kapusniža for a Christmas dinner for all the Lyceum staff.  The recipe is similar to our family recipe for this delicacy but, as we found out on a trip to Slovakia several years ago, there are many variants on sauerkraut soup.  The “cooking” involved chopping onions, peeling and shredding potatoes, cubing pork, and peeling and pressing garlic - all in institutional proportions.  This activity was lubricated with copious amounts of homemade distillate.  That evening we attended the Christmas Concert by the Slovak Philharmonic, Chorus, and soloists.   The program began with Saint-Saens “Christmas Oratorio” followed by a broad selection of Christmas carols.  Some of the latter were in English and many were sung by the Bratislava Boys Choir with several amazing young singers.  Some of the orchestral selections reminded us of the “Cincinnati Pops” and the concert definitely put us in the Christmas mood.

On Saturday we traveled to Vienna for some museum visits and to see the Christmas Markets there.  We first visited the Belvedere Palace with its very nice collection of works by Austrian artists then we went into the central city to visit the Hofburg Palace, home of the Hapsburg and Holy Roman Emperors since the 15th century. By late afternoon, a good bit of snow had fallen, so our walks through Vienna had a strong Christmas feel. Vienna’s markets are more commercial than even Prague’s, but by walking through some of the side streets we encountered some interesting stalls and performers.  In one market, there were antique shops with overpriced but interesting objects.  On another square we encountered a group of musicians playing alpenhorns and brass instruments. 

We are winding down now, with the last day of school yesterday followed by the Kapuzniža Party last evening. This morning, we all gathered for a Christmas service and the students were dismissed.  We returned to school for a few hours to catch up on final details before the holiday.  We are leaving early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning for home and are looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks with family and friends.  Our sincere wishes for a Blessed Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year go to you all.

Road Trip around Slovakia and Thanksgiving

We had yet another vacation on Tuesday, November 17 as well as the day off (as dovilenka - a vacation day) on Monday,  November 16 and this gave us the opportunity to take a four day driving tour of Slovakia.  The holiday was the "Day of Freedom and Democracy" in honor of the arrival of a democratic government 20 years ago in Czechoslovakia.  So on Saturday we picked up a rental car and headed north out of Bratislava.

Our first stop was at Bojnice Castle about two and a half hours drive north and east.  We passed through rolling countryside as we left the Danube plain and headed into the lower mountains.  This is a spectacular Cinderella's fairytale castle in a beautiful setting on high ground above a charming village.  As with many of the castles in Slovakia, this has a long history dating from 1133 through Hungarian nobles up to the time of Count John Pallfy, who renovated the castle and furnished it during the 19th century. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful craftsmanship and artistry of the decorations and furnishings.  For more information on this castle, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bojnice_Castle.

From Bojnice, we drove north to Liptovski Mikulas where we met with friends who teach at the school there.  We had dinner at a typical Slovak restaurant where the food was hearty and cheap.  We then spent the night in a pension in a nearby town; one that had another small castle that was not open to visitors.  We planned to attend church on Sunday morning at one of the famous wooden churches nearby, in the town of Svaty Kris (Holy Cross).  This is one of five so-called "Articled" churches, created in the 17th century after Emperor Leopold's "Decree of Tolerance" - in reality an anti-reformation effort.  According to this decree, Protestants could build churches of wood without the use of nails or metal.  The churches could not have towers or otherwise look like churches and could not face onto the main street of town.  Moreover, they had to be built within one year and could only hold one service per week - a strange form of "tolerance." 

The church in Svaty Kris had been moved from its original site when the latter was to be covered by the water of the man-made Liptovsky Lake. It was a little difficult to find in spite of the fact that it was large enough to seat 6,000.  It's location was outside of the town and not very well-marked by signs so we arrived 15 minutes after the advertised starting time of 9:00. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone at the church and no evidence of a service.  We spent some time taking pictures outside and trying to peer inside through the windows, but were puzzled by the complete absence of people or explanation.  For more information on these churches, go to the site http://www.liptovtravel.com/artikularny/

We next traveled to the High Tatra mountains, only about 25 km from the place we spent the night, hoping for a change in the weather.  The rain let up after a while, but all afternoon the clouds hung low and we got only an occasional glimpse of mountains.  This was similar weather to our last trip in 2006 to these mountains, so we have as yet to view them in their glory.  We noted many tree-less hillsides that had been devastated by a windstorm 5 or 6 years ago. We drove through the mountains to the village of Zdiar with its many intricately painted houses, typical of traditional folk architecture in this region.

In the late afternoon we stopped in Kežmarok to see a couple of churches and the castle there.  This was one of the towns of the Spiš region which had been settled in the 12th century by German miners who had been invited in to work for the Hungarian lords who ruled at the time. There was another wooden church (closed) in the center of town right next to the new (1906) Evangelical Church that was one of the strangest churches we've ever seen.  This church was built in the style of Turkish gothic - if there is such a thing.  We would have liked to see the interior, but of course it was closed.  We spent the late afternoon walking through the old part of the city toward an unusual castle that was modified and added to in different architectural eras.  Kežmarok has some very unusual architecture.

We spent the night in Levoca, historically the principal city of the Spiš region.  We intended to see the town hall and St. James Church, particularly the altar in the latter which is claimed to be the tallest gothic alterpiece in the world.  Since we knew that the church was closed on Monday, we waited until after Sunday evening mass to enter to see the interior of this church.  Unfortunately, they turned the lights out very quickly, so we only had a few minutes to see the altarpiece and other aspects of the church, but it is clearly very beautiful.  Unfortunately the town hall was also closed for renovations so we didn't see its interior and much of the exterior was covered by scaffolding and construction screens.  For more information on St. James church go to http://www.chramsvjakuba.sk/en.html

On Monday morning, we headed out of town to visit the ruins of Spiš Castle.  We found a sign directing us to a parking lot from which we could see the lower parts of the castle through the fog.  There was a steep, muddy trail up to the castle which we took only to find a sign at the top saying that this entrance to the castle was closed. This highlighted for us a problem in communication that seems to be part of Slovak culture.

We drove on to Košice to visit with Delores Wright, a teacher in the Evangelical School there who we met during orientation. She showed us around town and particularly the beautiful St. Elizabeth Cathedral that is located in the center of Hlavá Ulice, the Main Street of this city. We found this street to be somewhat reminiscent of Budapest with nice shops in the 19th century buildings on either side of this broad pedestrian street.  The gothic cathedral is the largest church is Slovakia and contains many beautiful works of religious art.

On Tuesday, we headed back to Bratislava with a stop in Svolen where we wanted to see the gothic renaissance castle there, but unfortunately we found another closed castle although the grounds were open.  The other interesting sight there was an armored train that had played a role in the Slovak National Uprising at the end of World War II, when partisans cooperated with the Red Army to drive the German army and pro-Nazi Slovak puppet government from the country.

We learned and observed a lot on this trip.  Slovakia is a beautiful country with various different regions, each with its own charm and attractions.  The highway system is quite good.  There are very good limited access highways in much of the country, and the other two-lane roads are well-designed.  The land is heavily agricultural, even in the mountains.  We were really impressed with the richness of the soil as well as with the size of farms.  There is a deep and interesting history with many sites that support its study - from early Celtic sites to castles and cathedrals that speak of the several different cultures that have impacted the country.  We did not see a great deal of poverty except in the Roma (Gypsy) villages that we passed through.  These villages contained the roughest of shacks with garbage strewn to a considerable height all around.  We have seen signs of unemployment in the villages and cities, with some poor neighborhoods, but the social support network seems to take care of most needs for these people.  The Roma are an obvious exception, but we don't know much about them. We hear a lot of opinions from our students and others about their character (or lack thereof), but we are curious to learn more about why they live in such poverty.  We feel that Slovakia has a long way to go in terms of meeting the needs and desires of tourists - it is not "tourist-friendly."  The people who provide service in restaurants and hotels are very good at providing service, but other agencies that could be providing information, quidance, and service to visitors are almost non-existant.  Accurate and specific information is often in short supply.  In spite of our disappointments with not being able to see much of what we had planned to see, specifically the insides of churches, castles, and museums, we came away from this short trip with a good feeling about the country and its culture.

After returning home, we experienced two thanksgiving celebrations.  On Thursday, the student council at school organized a "Turkey Day" complete with turkey and  (some of) the trimmings.  They put on a Thanksgiving skit and we American teachers sang a song that one of our group had written.  It was fun to eat with the students and enjoy their efforts at celebrating our holiday.  On Saturday, we had a Thanksgiving party (again at school) with all the ELCA missionary teachers from Slovakia and Poland.  They all came to Bratislava for the weekend, so we had plenty of opportunity for fellowship and good food.  Everyone brought some parts of the dinner, as best we could construct them from Slovakian recources - canned pumpkin, Jello, and fried onion rings (for green bean casserole) are virtually nonexistant.  We had a great spread, enjoyed skits by the various groups, and played the gift-giving (and -taking) game of "IT", sort of a frantic version of a white elephant exchange.  Both of these events gave us the opportunities to be thankful for the experiences and friendships that we are forming here, but also to reflect on those from home who we miss very much.  We love you all.

Busy Times in October

The last several weeks have been filled with friends, exams, and issuing the first sets of grades.  Our friends Barbara and Doug Faires had been visiting in Central Europe since late September, using Bratislava as headquarters.  In addition to traveling to Budapest with them, we saw them several times here and travelled to Vienna Monday of last week to meet them for dinner.  It was very good to have friends here and to enjoy a little of home with their company.

We had been giving regular quizzes and homework in our classes, but two weeks ago, we gave the first round of tests to all our students, so we did lots of test-writing and grading.  The students did pretty well, but we were disappointed by the attitudes of a few students who don’t seem to take school seriously.  I guess this isn’t too surprising with teen agers, but somehow we hoped they’d be better here.

After grading tests, we still needed to accumulate scores and enter “marks” for each student into the “Classification Book.”  The marks are numeric scores from 1 – 5, with 1 being high and 5 indicating failure.  This is really equivalent to our usual grades of A – F without pluses or minuses.  The difference is that each student gets a number of marks in each course over the semester and these are averaged by the “Class Teacher” and then discussed by all the teachers at a “Classification meeting” at the end of the semester before a final mark for the course is assigned.  That’s not a meeting that we are looking forward to.

We continue to be somewhat mystified by the Slovak system, but we’re learning to go with the flow.  We occasionally receive official papers for our signatures, all with the assurance that these are either mere formalities or “something that is new this year.”  Since they are in Slovak, we can only understand about 15% of what is written, so we may have agreed to some form of involuntary servitude for the rest of our lives.  We recently received our Slovak medical cards for treatment in state-approved clinics and hospitals.  In addition, we were given European medical cards, that will supposedly pave the way from medical treatment should we be traveling within the European Union.  We hope we don’t need to use any of this, but it would be interesting to find out how it works. 

We received our visas and work permits on Wednesday, so we’ll now be official (and able to re-enter Europe legally after returning home for Christmas).  This was a long and drawn out process involving visits to the magistrate for criminal background checks, to the doctors for physicals and x-rays, and to the foreign police for checking that all the data is OK.  But now we have the visas good for two years pasted into our passports, so we’re able to come and go in the European Union for the next couple of years without limitation.  It’s somewhat amazing that we have been able to work and receive pay from the state as well as medical benefits without any official documentation.

The American system also baffles our Slovak colleagues.  We’ve tried to explain the idea of “local control” of schools and especially the relation of this to housing patterns and the quality of education received in some neighborhoods in the US.  Our colleagues cannot understand why the state or federal governments put up with the apparent inequalities of educational performance, and why don’t they just fire the “Director” (i.e. school principal) who allows such things to happen.  They are used to a much more centrally controlled system.  The Slovak Department of Education directly monitors the performance of the schools and, even in the case of a church-related school like the Lyceum, exerts influence over the “Founders,” the governing board of the school, as well as on the Director who administers the school.  Ah, the joys of central control, but they do pay our salaries!

We don’t know how many of these ideas come from the time of the communist government or even from the current social democrat government system, but we have noticed a decidedly different attitude among our students regarding ideas of cooperation and collaboration.  We were warned about student cheating and copying, but it occurs on a very large scale here and students seem to see nothing wrong with this type of collaboration.  Phil did a small experiment with his first year social studies students when they were studying the characteristics of cooperation, competition, interdependency and independence.  He gave his students an index card and asked them to write the word that best described their attitude - on one side either the word cooperative or competitive and on the other side, either interdependent or independent.  Almost all the students in both classes said they preferred cooperation and interdependence.  This is quite a different attitude from most Americans who seem to prefer competition and independence.  The students were also appalled at the idea that in some American classrooms the professor who “graded on a curve” might only give a limited number of “top marks” and that the students would then be in a situation where they might be competing against each other for those marks.  They definitely have different attitudes toward issues of competition.

The fifth year students have a very nice tradition somewhat like our proms.  In November before they begin preparing for their very rigorous end-of-year tests, the classes put on parties for their families and teachers.  They arrange for a nice dinner, put on a program and recognize their family members as well as the teachers who have impacted their studies.  Then they have a dance that lasts until the early morning.  It is certainly a nice way of thanking the people who have been important in their lives. 

The students have very limited school-related activities.  There are a few clubs and some intramural sports, but no organized sports, school newspaper, or other opportunities for students to learn leadership skills.  Some of the students are involved in sports, music or folk dancing outside of school, but most of them just go back to their dorm rooms or to their homes if they are commuting students.  Interestingly, each time we’ve left Bratislava on Friday afternoon, we’ve run into some of our students on the train – whether we’re heading for the Tatras or to Budapest.  Similarly, we see many of them returning to school with their suitcases from the train station early on Monday morning when we take the bus to work. 

We continue to be involved in the Bratislava International Church.  The church is still without a full-time pastor, but we are fortunate to have Rev. Arden Haug, The ELCA Director of Missions for Europe and the Middle East, located in Bratislava.  He serves as Interim Pastor and leads the service when he is in town.  Fortunately, Intern Pastor Taryn Montgomery arrived two weeks ago and will be able to pick up some of the work of serving the community.  She will also be teaching a couple of religion classes at the Lyceum so her life will be very full.  Taryn is a student at the Philadelphia PA Seminary of the ELCA  who will be preparing for ordination after she returns from this internship.  Taryn’s husband, Christoph Schmidt is also a seminarian who completed an internship last year and who was scheduled to come to Bratislava with her to teach at the Lyceum.  Unfortunately he had a recurrence of cancer for which he has been undergoing treatment and is expected to rejoin Taryn in late November.  We’re all looking forward to greeting Christoph.

The Bratislava International Church is provided pastoral support by the ELCA, but is a truly international congregation.  There are fellow members from South Africa, Korea, Iran, England, and many other countries and it is a wonderful and culturally rich community.  We worship in the Malý Kostal (Small Church) that is adjacent to the Velký Kostal (Big Church) where services in Slovak are held.  These churches were built in the late 18th Century and reflect the multi-national German-Hungarian-Slovak culture from the time.  Bratislava was the capital of Hungary between 1536 and 1784 and, during this period, Evangelical (Lutheran) churches were not allowed to be built to look like churches nor were they allowed to have doors onto the streets.  For this reason, both churches look very simple from the outside and both open onto an alley that connects two streets.  I’ve included some pictures of the exteriors as well as the interior of the Malý Kostal.

  

We think the modern picture that illustrates the development of the Evangelical Church in Slovakia is interesting.  You can trace the baptism and crucifixion of Christ through the arrival of Bishops Cyril and Methodius in Slovakia; the Reformation led by Martin Luther; the building of the church on the main square in Bratislava; the Counter-Reformation and resulting difficulty in building and keeping Evangelical churches in Slovakia resulting in laws outlawing building of any except wooden churches without using nails; the declaration of freedom of religion by Emperor Franz I; the building of the Big and Small Churches along with the development of the Lyceum; the string of church leaders as well as those national leaders who were related to the Lyceum.  This picture sure tells a story.

We’ve also begun to enjoy and appreciate the arts in Bratislava and Vienna.  Two weeks ago, we spent a rainy Saturday visiting the Cathedral of St. Martin and the National Art Gallery.  The gothic cathedral dates back to the 14th century and was the site of Hungarian coronations from 1563 through 1830.  It’s a beautiful representation of this style of architecture and contains many interesting treasures.  The Art Gallery had some interesting modern exhibits including one on the Czechoslovak exhibit at the Brussel’s Worlds Fair in 1956.  Also that Saturday we enjoyed a modern ballet by a company from Brno, Czech Republic.  This was held at the new and very modern Slovak National Theater near the Comenius University.  Last week we went to the first in our series of concerts by the Slovak Philharmonic.  They performed Dvorák’s Stabat Mater in the historical National Theater Building on the Hviezdoslavlvo Square.  This is a beautiful baroque hall that is not designed for symphonic concerts, but the orchestra’s hall is being renovated over the next two years, so we’ll see our concerts in this smaller venue. 

Last Saturday we spent the day in Vienna, visiting the Museum of Applied Arts, shopping, and having dinner in a wine heuriger on the outskirts of the Vienna Woods.  The museum contains household goods and furniture from Roman times through the present and gave us further insight in comparing the arts and crafts style furnishings we saw in Budapest with those in Vienna.  The wine heuriger  is a cafe-restaurant for presenting the new wine of the season in a rustic, informal atmosphere.  We sat at a large table with a Viennese  couple – he originally from Bratislava and she from Portugal.  You buy your food by weight from a counter, much like a cafeteria, but the food was excellent and unusual – cooked pumpkin and kraut; spinach soufflé, excellent beef and ham, and great cheeses and desserts to start and finish the meal – and of course a liter of the local white wine.  When I asked the vintage, our table mate said that “it didn’t know its name yet”, but nevertheless it was very fresh and good.

Yesterday, while perusing the local “Things to do in Bratislava” on the web, Sue found that we had a choice of the Festival of Gregorian Music and a local Jazz Festival, both taking place over the weekend.  So last night we attended a concert by five Scholas, i.e. cathedral schools for teaching and singing Gregorian music, and held in the Jesuit Church of the Savior (the former Lutheran church near the main square that was converted to a Catholic church during the Counter-Reformation).  The singing was excellent and the venue was spectacular, both visually and aurally, for this concert.  Next week we have a fall break, beginning on Thursday October 29, so we decided to go to the Amalfi coast in Italy.  We’ll report on that trip in the next installment of our blog.