A Week of Ups and Downs
16 December, 2005. 12.50 pm. Trnava, Slovakia.
I just finished my first week on the job--or at least shadowing the American teacher I will be replacing. It was an interesting week, although awkward at times. Brandon (the teacher I'm replacing) is well-liked in the school by students and staff, so I witnessed many long and tearful goodbyes. I tried to bow-out when I could, to give him some private time with his students. Next week will be a challenge since it is not only the last week before the Christmas holiday, but I will have to make a good first impression with the students and staff. I have some big shoes to fill. Brandon has been a great help, and I can see why he will be missed....
The week began with a visit to the Ralbovska family. I helped pani Ralbovska and Janka with some translations. It was a difficult job for me because the translations were all about architecture and building. There were lots of technical words that I didn't know. For example, "statics"--which wasn't in my paperback edition of the Oxford Canadian English Dictionary. But I think we did a decent job. Pani Ralbovska is an English teacher, so her translation skills are quite good. Janka was one of my first students at Canadian Summer School in 2003, and her English has improved with every year. On Monday afternoon I visited pani Ralbovska's school. Her students are 11-14 years old. It was fun to meet them and I hope I can visit the school again. Some of the students are remarkably gifted in English.
On Wednesday evening I visited Modra. This is the town I taught in for the past three summers, so it has a special significance for me. I met Vladana there, a student from Canadian Summer School who has her own wine and garden supply store in the town. It was great to see Vladana, and beginning in January we will have regular private English lessons together. Thursday evening I briefly joined Brandon and five students from the 5N class at the Christmas market in Trnava. We drank metovina (a warm honey wine) and chatted a little. This class is graduating this year, so these girls are among some of the more mature students I will be teaching. I'll attach a picture from this outing very soon....
On the down side of things, this week has not been a good one in terms of my relationship with Kristina. After my all-too-brief visit to Piestany last weekend, I suspected something was wrong, and when I heard only silence from her all week, I knew something was up. Sure enough, she wrote me yesterday to ask that we see each other this weekend so she can tell me something "in person." After a few clarifying SMS messages, it was clear that her news will not be good. So tonight, if there is time before I go to see Lubos, I will meet with her in Bratislava. I'm not entirely clear on why she has to tell me "in person" (since I already know what she's going to say), but I hope it is because she is truly a sincere and caring person. I also hope she can explain to me her reasons, since we've barely had time to get to know each other since I arrived. This is a big disappointment for me, of course, since we got along very well this past summer and had a very nice email correspondence throughout the Fall. Upon my arrival she was very affectionate and (apparently) sincere, so I am confused as to what has changed. Maybe in the past I was an exotic foreign fling, but now I'm a crazy foreigner who moved to Slovakia. Slovaks have a great insecurity about their country and few can understand why someone from North America would come here for more than a visit....
So, tonight I'll go to Bratislava. Maybe I'll see Kristina, but the purpose of the trip is visit with Lubos. I'll stay with him (in his house outside of Bratislava) until Saturday afternoon. On Sunday I will go to Partizanske to visit another old student, Mirka. She's an English teacher and she has graciously invited me for lunch. And then there will be the matter of preparing for my first full week as a solo teacher.... Being it's Christmas, I figure some Christmas-themed lessons are in order. I welcome ideas....
Oh, and the weather, by the way, is about +2 and very wet. It's been raining all day today.... Hope everyone is having a white Christmas season back home....
I just finished my first week on the job--or at least shadowing the American teacher I will be replacing. It was an interesting week, although awkward at times. Brandon (the teacher I'm replacing) is well-liked in the school by students and staff, so I witnessed many long and tearful goodbyes. I tried to bow-out when I could, to give him some private time with his students. Next week will be a challenge since it is not only the last week before the Christmas holiday, but I will have to make a good first impression with the students and staff. I have some big shoes to fill. Brandon has been a great help, and I can see why he will be missed....
The week began with a visit to the Ralbovska family. I helped pani Ralbovska and Janka with some translations. It was a difficult job for me because the translations were all about architecture and building. There were lots of technical words that I didn't know. For example, "statics"--which wasn't in my paperback edition of the Oxford Canadian English Dictionary. But I think we did a decent job. Pani Ralbovska is an English teacher, so her translation skills are quite good. Janka was one of my first students at Canadian Summer School in 2003, and her English has improved with every year. On Monday afternoon I visited pani Ralbovska's school. Her students are 11-14 years old. It was fun to meet them and I hope I can visit the school again. Some of the students are remarkably gifted in English.
On Wednesday evening I visited Modra. This is the town I taught in for the past three summers, so it has a special significance for me. I met Vladana there, a student from Canadian Summer School who has her own wine and garden supply store in the town. It was great to see Vladana, and beginning in January we will have regular private English lessons together. Thursday evening I briefly joined Brandon and five students from the 5N class at the Christmas market in Trnava. We drank metovina (a warm honey wine) and chatted a little. This class is graduating this year, so these girls are among some of the more mature students I will be teaching. I'll attach a picture from this outing very soon....
On the down side of things, this week has not been a good one in terms of my relationship with Kristina. After my all-too-brief visit to Piestany last weekend, I suspected something was wrong, and when I heard only silence from her all week, I knew something was up. Sure enough, she wrote me yesterday to ask that we see each other this weekend so she can tell me something "in person." After a few clarifying SMS messages, it was clear that her news will not be good. So tonight, if there is time before I go to see Lubos, I will meet with her in Bratislava. I'm not entirely clear on why she has to tell me "in person" (since I already know what she's going to say), but I hope it is because she is truly a sincere and caring person. I also hope she can explain to me her reasons, since we've barely had time to get to know each other since I arrived. This is a big disappointment for me, of course, since we got along very well this past summer and had a very nice email correspondence throughout the Fall. Upon my arrival she was very affectionate and (apparently) sincere, so I am confused as to what has changed. Maybe in the past I was an exotic foreign fling, but now I'm a crazy foreigner who moved to Slovakia. Slovaks have a great insecurity about their country and few can understand why someone from North America would come here for more than a visit....
So, tonight I'll go to Bratislava. Maybe I'll see Kristina, but the purpose of the trip is visit with Lubos. I'll stay with him (in his house outside of Bratislava) until Saturday afternoon. On Sunday I will go to Partizanske to visit another old student, Mirka. She's an English teacher and she has graciously invited me for lunch. And then there will be the matter of preparing for my first full week as a solo teacher.... Being it's Christmas, I figure some Christmas-themed lessons are in order. I welcome ideas....
Oh, and the weather, by the way, is about +2 and very wet. It's been raining all day today.... Hope everyone is having a white Christmas season back home....
posted by BFRE at 12:45 p.m.
3 Comments:
It should be a white Christmas here, we got a foot of snow last night and the temp. isn't supposed to get above freezing in the near future. It is nice but I wonder how long it will be before people start getting the winter blues. Seeing as it started early this year.
Hope things go well this weekend.
Its good that you have friends there to visit.
Talk to you later
Keith
Idea for Christmas lesson: a Canadian lesson in stiff staff Christmas parties--you could have some stilted uncomfortable dialogue amongst the students while slightly, but not satisfactorily, drunk.
Theressa
another Christmas language lesson: tell them about the much ado made over "merry Christmas" vs. "happy holidays" in the US.
Sorry about the broken heart...her loss!
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