1-9 October 2011

I'm feeling swamped with the amount of writing I need to do lately. But not the kind of swamped that makes me want to get going on it; the kind of swamped that makes me want to sit and talk to myself about what I SHOULD be writing, but without putting anything down in written words.
So sorry Mom, and sorry to anyone who I owe an email too!
Here's a recap of any highlights I can recall from the last 9 days or so (including the days of the week in Slovak for your reading pleasure!)

Sobota 1/10/11: I worked really hard planning lessons almost all day and managed to complete half the plans for the week! I took one break to shop for undershirts (I realized the long sleeved shirts I bought last month are too low). I made the poor choice to go to Eurovea- probably the biggest shopping mall in the city. I don't know the exact size..maybe 3 or 4 times the size of the Flagstaff Mall...too big for me anyway. I spent hours looking at all my options, and getting distracted and forgetting what I had come to find. And I also forked out 16 euro for a bottle of saline solution. (I thought 10 euro in Ljubljana was expensive!) I think I'll try to buy it online next time.

Nedel'a 2/10/11: Took the day to relax, walk around the city, and take some pictures before church in the afternoon. I had an interesting conversation a homeless man. His English was about as good as my Slovak, so we communicated though bits of both languages and some broken/invented German, and lots of gestures. I'm not sure what we talked about- I think he told me a few of the places where he sleeps and tried to explain that rent is really expensive here. And I think he tried to warn me about the mafia. Whenever I tried to contribute anything to the conversation he would cringe and say, "Oooh, English! Noo! No English!! Ahh!" That made for a rather one-sided conversation and he eventually got bored and left me.
Later, after church, I went with Heather, Erik, and Marek to a little restaurant for dinner. We talked about how Americans use (or don't use) a knife and fork; a great conversation to have with another American as you're both eating and trying your best to use the utensils the right way while being scrutinized by a couple European guys. I laughed so hard I was almost crying!

Pondelok 3/10/11 Teaching...
utorok 4/10/11 teaching...
streda 5/10/11 teaching...
štvrtok 6/10/11 teaching...
It's not that teaching doesn't have it's "highlights," it's just that I don't remember any of them... Actually, I remember one thing. I gave the students in one of my adult classes a feedback form to tell me what they found interesting and useful in the lesson, but since their English isn't so advanced I told them they could fill it out in Slovak and I would have someone translate it for me. One of my students asked if I know Slovak and I told her, "Nehovorim po Slovensky... I say that quite often!" Every one of the students burst into laughter and I really don't know why! Some people say my pronunciation is quite good, but now I'm not really sure!

Piatok 7/10/11: I went to a useful meeting in the morning to get some help on ideas of what to teach to my adult classes in the coming weeks. Then in the afternoon I went with my boss and one other teacher to pick up some kids and record an audio file for an Slovak/English/German book for children. Quite an experience! I thought it was going to be easy, but actually I had to read a lot (very slowly) and it was much more difficult than you would expect! First I read some things for some sort of listening exam... then there was a series of narrations for the book that they were going to let the other teacher read, but they decided his male voice isn't psychologically good for children, so I read that too. Actually, when I first looked at the script, I saw one word that I knew I wouldn't be able to read without a problem, but I had no choice because I was the only female native speaker in the studio. The troublesome word was at the end of a sentence listing the animals that someone's grandparents have at their house, "...a cat, a dog, a cow, a few hens, and one cock." (Who even uses that word for an animal anymore?) I know it was immature of me to start laughing and I tried everything I could to be serious and hold myself together, but all the pressure I was putting on myself to NOT laugh only made it more unbearable, and finally my voice started cracking and I had to stop reading for a bit. On top of that, my voice was being projected into the room where the editor, my boss, colleague, about 5 Slovak children were waiting. I'm very glad the editor agreed that we could change the word to rooster instead! After that, the children recorded their dialogues with their cute little accents; their pronunciation was perfect, by the way- or SUPER as they kept saying :)   Finally, the other teacher and I recorded our pieces of the dialog and then our work was done!
One other bit of exciting news: Hela heard from the foreign police- they have my work and residence permits ready! I'm going to go pick them up early tomorrow morning!

Sobota 8/10/11: I taught my first private English lesson in the morning! It's a one-on-one conversation class, so I just talk, listen, explain things when necessary, teach some vocabulary, and get paid for it. An easy way to make a supplementary income :)
I had planned to go into work immediately after my lesson, but then I remembered that I needed to buy some stamps before I go to the foreign police, but I had forgotten my notes about how to ask for stamps, so I had to go into a bookstore and slyly use a dictionary to learn a few key words. After getting my stamps, I stepped out of the post office, into the drizzly weather, and felt an OVERWHELMING desire to read a book in a café. It was just that sort of Saturday. So I went to the Oxford bookstore to quickly pick out a new book, but that actually took over half an hour, I'm sure, because there was a British family in the shop and my mind couldn't help tuning into their conversations. I had forgotten how wonderful it is that I'm usually not distracted by the irrelevant information I overhear on the streets and in the stores! Finally, I selected Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey because it was less than 3 euro and I know I'll love anything by her. And I bought Sophie's Choice by William Styron because I've heard several allusions to it over the past few years and I haven't understood a single one of them! It's a thick book, which I tend to avoid, but already I've read the (very long) first chapter and now I'm definitely hooked. I spent 3 euro on a sandwich and hot chocolate and read my book while it rained outside. A perfect way to spend some time!
Finally, I made it into work and got quite a bit of planning done, although not as much as I wanted. In the evening, I went to a birthday party for some Slovak friends who I met in Groningen. There were over a dozen people at the party, and almost all of them had studied in Groningen at different times over the past few years, so it was like a big reunion! Great! I stayed out much later than I had intended to, and eventually had to take the night bus home: an experience I knew I would have one day or another, and I'm pleased to say I passed through it unscathed. Lucka and Marcin kindly checked the bus times for me before I left the pub and I realized I had less than 30 minutes to make it to the bus stop or else I would have to wait another hour before the next one would come. I REALLY did not want to sit at the bus stop at night for an hour, so I ran the entire way and made it in 11 minutes! I have no idea what the distance was exactly, but I think that was a good time considering I was wearing boots with a bit of a high heal! I arrived about 18 minutes too early and had to wait outside as the wind started to cool my sweat from the run...but all in all, it was a fine experience and not at all scary or dangerous (as far as I knew) :)

You can see the rest of the photos from my walk last week at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150393489800991.400622.705455990&l=721afc4a37&type=1