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
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
posted by BFRE at 8:32 p.m.
1 Comments:
Ohhh! I'm disgustingly jealous of the football games and opera! Champions League - wow!
I've also been racking my brain for any advice with regard to the distracted girls but I haven't really come up with anything yet. I'll keep thinking about it and, if anything comes up, I'll get back to you.
Thanks so much for the update - it sounds like you're having lots of fun (although that may not hold true if you decide to start collecting dirty diapers!).
I thought the other day that I should head to Britain for a year or two. Maybe Slovakia would be a better option ... hmm ...
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