A Shot in the Dark

8 December, 2005. 10:55am. Trnava, Slovakia.
Were those gunshots? In the early morning and evening I swear I hear gunshots. I must be near a shooting range, or a military training facility (I hope!). I’ll have to ask about this.... I’ve been in Trnava now for three days. When I first imagined coming back to Slovakia to work for a year, this was the city I imagined. I am most familiar with it, it’s close to Bratislava, and it’s only a couple of kilometres from the little town of Modra where I’ve spent a lot of time the past three summers. Even better, the Ralbovska family lives here. They’ve been friends for almost three years now and pani Ralbovska was instrumental in finding me a job. Janka helped me get my very own mobile phone last night. Since it doesn’t look likely that I’ll get my own internet access anytime soon (thus ruling out communication methods like Skype and Google Talk, at least for the moment), this is the only way to actually here my voice (if so desired). My mobile number is 0908 442 782.

Trnava is a nice city, also known as “Slovak Rome” because of its prominent churches. One of Pope John Paul II’s last international visits was to Trnava. The city is on the Small Carpathian Wine Route. The landscape is rather prairie-like, believe it or not, but the nearby Carpathian hills are visible on clear days. Bratislava is 45 kms away.

I spent a good part of the day yesterday at Obchodna Akademia, meeting with the teacher I will replace. Oddly enough, his name is Brandon. He seems like a straight-up guy. He’s from Atlanta, Georgia, and already the students are picking up on our different accents. The school is a very good one–certainly one of the nicest I’ve seen in Slovakia. The students are hand-picked and the main area of academic focus is economics. All students major in a second-language–either German or English. My job will be to lead conversation classes–23 lessons a week. This will give me plenty of time in the evenings to give private lessons, I hope.

Right now I am living in a high school dormitory, across town. The school specializes in building and construction. The people are nice here, but I am anxious to get a private room. At the moment I have a room to myself, but I must use communal bathroom and shower facilities. The shower facilities are only open from 3:30-9pm, which is a real pain. And there’s no need for an alarm clock here–every weekday morning at 6:30 an announcement is made to wake-up the students and then the radio is played through the intercom for a full hour. But the price is very affordable and I can get my meals here, if I wish. The biggest difficulty will be laundry–there are no laundry facilities here, so for the moment pani Ralbovska has offered to help me.

There have been no new major developments with regards to the drama with the Canadian Language School, except to say that Miro continues to fight in my corner. His commitment to my cause has been simply incredible. I would truly be lost without his help. One interesting note: when we were visiting the Department of Labour here in Trnava to get me a new working permit, the woman in the office (who is the only person who gives such permits in Trnava) noted that the Canadian Language School has NEVER applied for a working permit for any of their foreign teachers. This means that technically all of the foreign teachers who work for at the CLS Trnava branch are illegal!! And the CLS people had the nerve to tell me I was illegal!! Incredible. I feel awful for their teachers, who probably have no idea..... CLS demands more than 6,000 crowns from me, but since I signed no contract, they don't have a leg to stand on. Maybe I should mention to them that I know about their situation with the Department of Labour.....