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.