Into the routine – then vacation again!

We experienced our first full week of classes during the week of 7 – 12 September. All went well and we felt that we may be able to cope with all the classes and uncertain schedules. The students continue to be pleasant, although we’ve begun to run into excuses – “Professor, please accept this work tomorrow because … (fill in the blanks with your favorite reason.)” Phil had to substitute for Sue in her third year English class one day because she was “assigned” to go to one of the apartment buildings housing American staff to supervise the cleaning of the heating system. This supervision didn’t call on her knowledge of higher thermodynamics, rather it was a matter of keeping an eye on the workers doing the cleaning. There still seems to be a level of mistrust in the society that we find interesting.




We were anticipating a day off on Tuesday 15 September for the Slovak National Holiday in honor of “Our Lady of Sorrows,” Mary, the patron saint of Slovakia. On Wednesday of the previous week we found out that the Director of the School had decided to cancel classes on Monday as well since most of the dorm students would probably miss class anyway. Not being ones to waste a four-day weekend, we busily got to work and planned a trip to visit Phil’s family near Dolny Kubin and perhaps extend this into a trip into the High Tatras if the weather permitted.




We left by train at around 8:00 on Saturday morning and traveled for a little more than three hours to Kral’ovany where we caught another rain for the short (17 km) trip up to Veličná, the birthplace of Phil’s grandmother and near the home of Phil’s cousin Iveta. The trip began in the broad plain of the Danube, then travelled north in the valley of the Vah river with the low hills of the Malé Karpaty (Small Carpathian) mountains to the west. We passed though land that was primarily agricultural (corn and sunflowers) except near some of the larger cities where we encountered auto plants and other heavy manufacturing – Peugot/Citroen near Trenčín and KIA near Zilina. The train from Kral’ovany ran alongside the Orava River and was a beautiful trip into the Malá Fatra mountains just to the west of the Tatras.

Iveta and her children, Ninká (12) and Maťko (8) met us at the Veličná stop and took us to their home for lunch. After partaking in the usual toast of slivovits, we sat down to a delicious meal of mushroom soup (with mushrooms from the nearby mountains and vegetables from Iveta‘s garden), fish and potatoes. Iveta’s husband had driven on his 4X4 ATV up into the mountains to pick blueberries, so we had a delicious cobbler for desert. Iveta’s parents have several large gardens where they grow vegetables, potatoes, and fruit, and where they keep a goat that they milk to make a wonderful, low-fat goat cheese – we could easily market this in the US. One of Phil’s cousin’s wife was celebrating her 62nd birthday so, in the usual Slovak tradition, she prepared delicious cakes and treats for a party. We spent much of the weekend eating the delicious food and drink prepared by various family members. It was special that so much of this was grown, gathered, distilled, etc. by the members of the family. It’s a much different lifestyle than we are accustomed to either in Bratislava or at home in Kentucky.

We’d like to give you some insight into family relations and local customs. Iveta and Phil are second cousins whose maternal grandmothers were sisters. Iveta’s mom’s brother Pavlo also represents another line of the family with Phil and Pavlo’s children similarly related. One of the reasons that we have corresponded extensively with Iveta is that she is a teacher of English in elementary school and so serves as an interpreter on our visits. We discovered that we understand a few more Slovak words and phrases than we did on our previous visit, but generally we are only able to give “stupid smiles of misunderstanding” during much of the conversation. One of our goals this year is to be able to have a meaningful conversation with all family members before the year is out. One of the things we learned about Pavlo was that he served in the Czechoslovak Air Force in some kind of navigation role during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We’d love to be able to talk with him about his and our experiences at that time.

In addition to the wonderful meals, Slovaks pride themselves on other forms of hospitality. On entering the home and frequently thereafter, a guest is offered a small glass of dangerously clear liquid. This could be slivovitz, a distillate of plums, hruškavitz, a condensate of pears, or some other fruit liquor. The custom is to look each other person in the eye and offer a toast of “na zdravie” (to health) to which the formal reply is “nech slúži” (let it serve us), followed by tossing the drink down is one swig. So far, we’ve mastered only “na zdravie” and peering into the eyes. The custom of fruit liquors has an interesting history. While Slovakia now enjoys excellent locally produced wines, the past Austro-Hungarian monarchs laid claim to all wine production and the local peasants were only able to drink beer or whatever else they could produce. This led the local folk to develop distillates of the juices of the several fruits that grow bountifully in the country – plums, pears, apples, etc. thereby leading to today’s libations. In addition to drinks, Slovaks also lay out plates of locally-made or home-made cheese, vegetables, and delicious small treats called koláče. These are thin cakes with fillings made of fruit, nuts, or poppy seeds. Sue promises to work on developing her skills a kolač-making.

After enjoying the family’s hospitality along with trips to an old village in the mountains as well as to church and a walk about town in Dolny Kubin, we returned back to Bratislava on Monday morning. We had previously planned to travel into the High Tartras, about ninty minutes by bus to the East, for some hiking on Monday, but the mountains were socked in by clouds and threats of rain. We are postponing that trip for a couple of weeks until a time when we can meet Iveta and the family for a day of mountain hiking.

We spent the Tuesday holiday preparing some clases for the coming week and then went to Devin castle just outside of Bratislava. This Slovak castle is located at the confluence of the Morava River with the Danube and overlooks Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic. It dates back to the ninth century as a castle fortification but contains ruins of a Roman settlement as well as archeological evidenc of habitation back into the Bronze Age. Unfortunately the castle is in ruins since it was destroyed by Napolean in the early nineteenth century.

Today, Wednesday 16 September, we returned to school to find slightly new schedules. Hopefully these are final (at least until some event requires changing them again). We only had a few changes to ours, the worst of which requires Phil to stay slightly later on Wednesday and Thursday than previously and requires Sue to have a relatively late class on Friday afternoon. We also have our scheduled “Substitute“ times, so we need to be aware of thee opportunities to replace absent teachers. Life goes on, thank God!