Spring in Slovakia

25 March, 2006. 8.59 pm. Trnava, Slovakia.

Late this afternoon I returned from a three and a half day teaching adventure in the High Tatras (organized by CLIP Centrum, a private language school in Trnava). After finishing my classes at Obchodna Akademia on Wednesday I took a train to Poprad (the Gateway to the Tatras) and I led an intensive English course for four employees of a geographical informations company at Hotel FIS in Štrbské Pleso (a popular ski resort-town). This dramatic change of scenery (Trnava is situated on a plain) was refreshing. My teaching resposibilities were also refreshing as the students were very keen to learn. Teaching adults, who pay for their lessons, is remarkably more rewarding than teaching high school students who only come to class because they have to. Not only am I paid handsomely, but the students participate actively! And when you consider my surroundings for these three days (see picture below), it was like a dream! Unfortunately I haven't skiied since I was thirteen years old, so I decided this was not the right time--I didn't want to risk breaking my legs when I was expected to teach! Nonetheless, it was a nice place just to walk around, taking in the scenery. Coincidently, I was in Štrbské Pleso this past summer with Miro as well....

Last weekend I visited the Galérie mesta Bratislavy (City Gallery of Bratislava). On permanent display at the gallery is Pasáž (Passage) by Matej Krén. This consists of two walls of books, surrounded on the floor and ceiling by mirrors. When you walk into this small room, it feels as though you are in an endless tunnel of books! I have a picture of this on my mobile phone, but at the moment I don't have the technological know-how to transfer it to a computer! In the meantime, here's a website (in Czech) with some information and pictures: http://www.matejkren.cz/cs/passage/ . This gallery, at the moment, also has an exhibition on modern Slovak and Czech art that is excellent.

Teaching at Štrbské Pleso...

DVD's, Deception, Dubnica, and Damn Good Music

14 March, 2006. 8.34 pm. Trnava, Slovakia.

The last week and a half has been busy. Beginning last Monday, I began working on a project with a private language school to record a CD/DVD for English language learners (Beginners). On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evening we worked until after midnight. It was my task to read a list of more than 1,000 words, very slowly, along with some expressions. While I did this, I was being recorded by two video recorders--one focussing on my head and shoulders, the other focussing just on my mouth. It was a slow process as we were not working in a studio, but borrowed space. Therefore we had to work in the evenings when it was most quiet. I am curious to see how the final product will appear. Of course this meant I was rather tired for most of the week because I was doing this job in addition to my regular teaching duties at Obchodna Akademia and the Slovak University of Technology (and my new temporary teaching duties on Wednesday evenings at CLIP Centrum, a private language school).

On Wednesday evening I experienced a taste of Slovak crime first hand. After the pig slaughter I had a nice cache of sausages and fresh pork specialties, but because I have no fridge my only way of keeping these food items fresh was to put them on my window sill. I live on the ground floor, but it takes a bit of a stretch to reach my window and I'm off the beaten path so I thought the food would be safe. Sadly it was not. On Wednesday evening, at about 1am I heard the thief snatch my pork from my sill, but I didn't get out of bed in time to see who it was. But I have my suspicions..... I am thinking of acquiring a bag of dirty baby diapers to place on my window next time, just to teach my thief a lesson.....

On Friday night, as usual, I joined pani Ralbovska to watch Slovak Superstar--but this time we were mainly interested in scanning the crowd because her daughters, Janka and Lenka were in the audience. We didn't see them, but it was a nice visit nonetheless. Saturday morning I caught a train to Trencin (you might recall that this was the city that I thought I was going to live in before I left Canada in November) to visit Yuri and friends. Yuri is a Canadian of Slovak heritage whom I met here. He invited me to join him on the weekend to attend another football match. We travelled to nearby Dubnica to watch FK ZTS Dubnica take on Inter Bratislava. Dubnica won the match 2-1. Yuri's friend Oscar joined us for the game in Dubnica and afterwards we headed to Povanska Bystrica, where we enjoyed Oscar's hospitality and several drinks at a local pub and disco. The evening finished for us at sometime after 4am! On Sunday we travelled back to Trencin and hung about the city lazily.

Last night (Monday) I joined Lenka and Janka for the Zuzana Smatanová and Miro Zbirka concert (Best of 2006 Tour). Smatanová, http://www.zuzanasmatanova.sk/ , is a young singer who is somewhat reminiscent of Alanis Morissette. I have two of her albums and enjoyed her performance tremendously (as did the crowd of about 2,000). Zbirka, http://www.zbirka.cz/ , is a Slovak legend (something of a mix between Gordon Lightfoot, Gowan, and Tom Cochrane). He had the crowd singing every word and although I didn't recognise or understand much, I walked away a fan.

Lately I've been having some trouble with a few students at O.A. Two young girls in the 1E (1) class have decided that they no longer wish to actively participate in my classes and therefore chat in Slovak with each other almost all the time. Of course this is distracting to me and the rest of the students. There is no system of punishment in schools here (i.e. detentions, etc, like in Canada), so I really have few options. I've asked them to be quiet several times and spoken to their class teacher about the problem, with apparently little effect. It is a frustrating experience, to say the least, especially because these are intelligent girls and I have no problems at all in the 1E (2) class. I hope I can find a reasonable solution soon, before the problem gets out of hand.

Other recent activities that I've neglected to mention in these pages:

15 February - FC Artmedia Bratislava vs. PFC Levski Sofia (Champions League, Football), Trnava (Score: 0-1)
17 February - Lucia Lužinská and Alltime Jazz Trio, Penzion na mlyne, Trnava
24 February - Slovensky Mytus (Slovak Myth), Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
6 March - Lucia Di Lammermoor, Opera, Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava

Pig Slaughter in Šurany

5 March, 2006. 7.43 pm. Trnava, Slovakia.

I spent this past weekend in Šurany, a small city southeast of Trnava, visiting the Kovac family. Jan, and his twin daughters, Iveta and Zita, were my students in Modra this past summer. Jan picked me up in Trnava on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning we rose at 5 am to prepare for a traditional Slovak pig slaughter. I was a little apprehensive about witnessing this event because I've never before witnessed the death and slaughter of a mammal (only fish), but since I've been here I never say "no" to an invitation unless I am otherwise occupied--plus it was an opportunity to visit some old friends. The slaughter itself took place in the backyard of Jan's friend, Ivan the butcher (Ivan told me he has slaughtered 60 pigs a year for the last 40 years!). The morning began at 6.45am with two shots of homemade pivovica (beer brandy--brandy made from left over barley and wheat used to make beer), and during the course of the day we polished-off 5 litres of white wine (boiled with figs and sugar--very good!). I witnessed and assisted in the killing, cleaning, slaughter, and processing of the pig. It was a very interesting experience and I was not quesy at all. In fact, I've never tasted finer pork in my life! The pig we slaughtered was aproximately 130 kg, and it took more than 10 hours from beginning to end. I took a surprising number of pictures--enough in fact to publish a "how-to" manual in pig slaughtering....

This week will be a busy one as I begin recording a language CD tomorrow evening with a colleague.

Perhaps my most artistic photograph from the day's events....