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.