November to December - Wow!!

November will go down as the most amazing month of 2011 for me.  It was action packed from start to finish and except for having to say some sad farewells it was amazingly happy.
A short visit home at the beginning of the month meant lovely time spent with Dad, Mel and Rose and Matt, Marie, Charley, Hannah and Luke and also some all too brief time spent with friends.  After returning to Slovakia I was thrown straight into my new job as Year 6 teacher at Forel International School, Bratislava and it has proved to be a wonderful new beginning.  I am thoroughly enjoying the experience of being a class teacher again.  The children are lovely although also challenging at times.  The other staff are proving to be great colleagues and I am becoming more and more involved in the life of the Bratislave International Church which has been such a comforting, spiritual home since I first moved to Slovakia.  Now that my life is back on an even keel again I can start to give back to all the lovely people in the church who supported me through my first two months in Trnava.  One of the ways I have found to serve is to provide cakes for our get together after the service on Sunday.  It is so nice to have an excuse to bake cakes, which I love doing but it means that I am not eating them too much!!  I still get to lick the wooden spoon though - shame I haven't got Luke here to do it for me!!

Having had a couple of exciting weeks settling into my new job I then had the joy of welcoming Mel, Kevin, Rose and John to my life in Bratislava.  Well actually we started off in Vienna and spent three nights there and managed to vist 4 of the 24 Christmas markets.  Vienna is a trully beautiful city, so well preserved and a new archtiectural treasure to see round every corner.  The Christmas markets were fascinating with sights, sounds and smells assaulting the senses at every turn.  Sadly, a lot of the goods on sale were not locally made and were extremely expensive but it was a wonderful experience and we managed to find a few affordable treasures to bring home!!  Kevin discovered a taste for bratwursts and Mel and John were rather taken by the potato pancakes!!  Rose just found the whole experience fascinating and behaved like an angel and of course found many people to charm with her ready smile.

We also had to take the decision to rebook my visitor's flight home because of the 'general strike' due to take place on Wednesday.  Having made the decision and booked the flights for Tuesday it was great to be able to tell Matt that he was getting to see them all again having thought he had already said goodbye to them for a year at least.  My loss was his gain and it caused great excitement from the household in Southampton.

Sunday morning found us on a bus heading for Bratislava and another Christmas market to visit.  Before that we settled into our city centre temporary home and then paid a visit to my apartment at Karlova Ves, in the suberbs of the city.  Having shown off my lovely pad and also cooked them all a traditional Sunday roast  then it was off back to the city centre.

On Monday I went off early to work leaving the others to explore Bratislava alone.  They had a great day enjoying the views from the castle, walking the cobbled streets of the old city and sampling the local cafes!! In the evening we visited the Christmas market which had a different atmosphere to the ones in Vienna and the predominant feature was definitely food!!  We had a lovely evening and again managed to make some purchases!  The next morning was sad as I had to say goodbye and that is always hard but it had been a great visit and I was glad that they had a bonus visit back at Matt's until the flight to Canada on Thursday.

The rest of the week flew by and before I knew it, it was Saturday and along with 6 other members of the church, I was on a train heading for Budapest and another Christmas market!!!!  It was my first visit to Hungary and Budapest and I will certainly be going back again in the spring to explore the city properly.  This day was dedicated to serious Christmas present hunting in a wonderful although very damp market.  Here there were some beautiful, local crafts for sale and everyone was spoilt for choice when confronted by stall after stall of items made from ceramics, wood, straw, paper, metal and almost any other material that can be used to make beautiful items.  Of course, there was also plenty of food and hot, aromatic drinks to tempt us away from shopping, but only for short periods.  To escape the rain and rest our feet we ventured into an amazingly glamourous restaurant with enormous crystal chandeliers and delicious hot chocolate and cakes - on my list to visit again when I return for a spring visit.  Then it was back on the train and safe return to BA in time to catch the last bus home which was packed with 'happy' students who live further up the hill from me.

So now it is December, the second Advent candle has been lit and I even decorated my apartment today.  A small, sophisticated amount of decorations but enough for me at the moment.  Oh I also went to church , baked another cake and went to the Pastor's birthday party.  Life here is never dull and 'I'm loving it'.  Talking of McDonalds - my clever grand daughter has been selected to work in the McDonalds in the Olympic Village next year.  Well done Charley!!

My flights are booked for returning to UK just before Christmas - thanks for agreeing to pick me up in the early hours of the morning dad - good thing the National Express actually stops in Wymondham.

I hope to see lots of friends and family whilst I am home and I look forward to welcoming some of you to my new home at some time in 2012.

Have a wonderful Christmas and may 2012 be a great year for you all.

Settled in pastures new

It is ages since I sat down to write a blog and I am sorry that it has taken me so long.  However, in my defence, I have been very busy!
I moved into my new flat in Bratislava on Thursday 30th October and by the Sunday evening I was totally moved in, unpacked and felt so much happier than I had for weeks.  I returned  to Trnava on Monday morning to complete my final week.  It was easier than I had anticipated and everyone was very kind including the head and they seemed genuinely sad that I was leaving.  It was hard to say goodbye to the friends I had made but as I set out on Thursday evening to return to my new home my heart soared and I sang along to my worship CDs all the way home.
I quickly packed and was collected by taxi at 6.30 am on Friday to catch a coach to Vienna to fly home to the UK for a week.  It was thye cheapest flight I could find so it was via Munich but that was fine and I arrived at London Heathrow mid afternoon. John met me and we hired a car and drove to Gatwick.  The next morning we met Mel and Rose as they arrived at Gatwick from Canada - a joyous reunion.  They had had a good flight but were obviously tired so we set off straight away for Norwich.  A wonderful week followed which seemed to fly by all too quickly. Poor dad, I think he wondered what had hit him with three of us in his house but he coped wonderfully and made us feel very welcome.  I think that he rather enjoyed having a baby in the house again!   I managed to see many friends, although briefly, but sadly time did not allow me to see all those that I would have liked to and I apologise if I missed you.  Llse and Dave came over from Ipswich on Sunday which was great and it was wonderful that they got to meet Rose and see Mel again.
Mel and Rose and I travelled down to Matt and Marie's in Southampton on Friday and we spent a lovely weekend with them.  Wel,l I only actually had one day as on Saturday night I set off for Heathrow to catch the 0600 flight on Sunday morning - never again!!  Now I know why it is such a cheap flight.  I spent 4 hours sitting in the car hire lounge waiting for a bus to take me to the airport and didn't actually get any sleep that night.  Never mind, I had had a great week and now had a new job to begin.
My first week at the Forel School has been wonderful.  I am one of two Year 6 teachers as a large Year 6 is being split to make two smaller ones.  I spent a week working alongside the present class teacher who is wonderful and I learnt a lot from observing her as well as getting to know the children.  Everything in the school is conducted in English and there is a fascinating mix of nationalities amongst both pupils and staff.  I was made to feel so welcome and have begun to regain my professional confidence and feel like a real teacher again.  I am looking forward to Monday when I take over my new class of 11.  I feel happy, settled and professioanlly fulfilled again and also have a visit from Mel, Kevin and Rose to look forward to in less than two weeks time and then Christmas to follow.
Thanks again to all of you who are following my blog and supporting me with positive comments and prayer.  I feel very blessed and can now look forward with optimism and hope.
I look forward to seeing many of you during the Christmas holidays.
Bye for now.

Time for Change

Well, time has moved on and I came to the conclusion a few weeks ago that I was the wrong person in the wrong place.  The school is run in a way that I find difficult to cope with.  The owners make most of the decisions and many of those decisions are not based on sound educational values but for show or for finacial reasons.  Staff are very much seen as commodoties and are not really valued or respected in the way that I am used to.  The two native English speaking teachers, myself and my colleague Nick are viewed rather as 'English machines' to be plugged into as many classes as possible so that our 'Englishness' will somehow be transmitted to the children.  Thus I found myself teaching classes from Yr 1 to Yr 7 and everything in between despite the fact that I am neither infant or secondary trained.
In addition to the educational issues there are the accomodation issues to deal with too.  I am sharing a flat with two Slovak women who are really lovely and we get on well but it is a two bedroomed flat and so one of them sleeps in the living room - not an ideal situation and I find that I am spending most of my leisure time in my bedroom.  There is no English speaking church here in Trnava and very few English speakers.  Well this is Slovakia and I chose to come and live and work here so what did I expect?!!!
The fact is that this is a place too far for me and I have decided to move to Bratislava and work in an English speaking international school.  I have been going to Bratislava every Sunday to attend an international church.  There is an Americam Pastor and an American Intern and about half of the congregation are from the USA.  The other half are either British or from other nationalities but speak English.  They have made me feel so welcome and have supported me through this difficult time.  They have become my church family and it is through them that I have a new job to go to and a new flat to move into.
I have made some lovely Slovak friends during my short time in Trnava and I will miss them.  My flat mates are lovely and another friend, who is married to a Canadian has been amazing.  Keeping me company when I have been lonely, helping me to open bank accounts etc and showing me some of the lovely places around the area.  This weekend we visited the Red Stone Castle which was fascinating and will be a lovely memory to take with me.
So how do I feel about events so far?   I feel sorry that I can't hack it here - I am not as strong and independent as I thought I could be.  The fact is that I need a network of friends to survive happily, I need my own space to live in and I need to work in a school where I can believe and trust in the educational ethos.  I thank God for His faithfulness in leading me to a wonderful church and surrounding me with his love and I pray that I will be able to repay Him by serving this church and my new school effectively.  I have cried quite a few tears of sadness over the past two months but I have also shared some wonderful times and I can now look positively to the future.  I hope that the school here in Trnava can find another English teacher but I also hope that they learn how to treat 'foreign' teachers better and trully become a bilingual school in the future.
I take over my new flat on 20th October, fly home for a holiday on 28th October and start my new job on 7th November so much to look forward to.
Thanks to all those who have been praying for me, please continue to do so as I enter this new phase of my Slovakian adventure.

Two Weeks On - The Honeymoon is Over!

Well two more full weeks have gone by and I have to say that they have not been easy.  This really is a very different system to work in and although it is a bilingual school it is not a bi-system!  The school is run totally as a Slovak school and it has gradually become more apparent that the owners want to keep to the Slovak ways and require the native English speaking teachers to teach English subjects in a Slovak way.  Haven't quite worked out how to do that yet! It has been difficult to find out how, especially as the induction process for new staff is sadly lacking.  There seems to be a sad disregard by top management/governors for the personal welfare of staff and one ends up feeling like a commodity rather than a person.  The other members of staff are really lovely and several of them have made a great effort to help but the attitude of the owners/managers leaves a lot to be desired from an English perspective. This has made life a bit difficult and these two weeks have been rather a struggle.  How this will work out I am as yet not sure.  The one thing I am certain of is that without the support of the International Church of Bratislava life would be a lot more difficult.  They are a wonderfully welcoming congregation and I have already been put on the Sunday School rota and am doing the intercessions in two weeks time.  It is so nice to be hugged into a Christian community and this Sunday I was taken out to lunch by one of the families and I saw a new part of Bratislava.  I really love the city and am beginning to find my way around it despite the fact that I only visit once a week.
So how do I feel after a whole month in my new environment?  Theer have been some great times and I have met some lovely people.  The children are great and I am certainly enjoying being back in a primary classroom.  I have also had times when I have been homesick and felt very much like a 'stranger in a strange land'.  On the whole though my experiences have been positive and I never thought that this adventure would be plain sailing.  Life is never that simple!! I would welcome prayers and I am trully thankful for the support and encouragement I have already recieved.  Watch this space and I will keep you informed as to how I am coming to terms with this different system.

Photographs from Slovakia

As promised here are some photos from Trnava.  They are not brilliant quality as they were taken on my iphone but hopefully they give you a flavour of my new home and surrounds.




 This is the view from the balcony.  I live in an identical block except mine is orange not yellow!

Two views of my bedroom - my personal space

 The kitchen/diner

 Three views of the living room

This weekend there was an annual street fair in Trnava celebrating the history of the town.  It seemed to have feature a period resembling the Norman times in the UK.  There were many people dressed in costume selling crafts that they were making at the fair.  In the evening there was a re-enactment of the defence of the walls of Trnava which have been restored and surround much of the town.  It was a really amazing site and felt both familiarly English and yet very Slovakian at the same time.

 People in costume by the town walls

 The tented area

 I climed the clock tower - 140+ steps.  These are the views from the top.

One whole week at school

It is Saturday morning, not very early as I needed a BIG sleep.  That was one exhausting week.  Teachers everywhere work hard but teachers in Slovakia certainly work extra hard in terms of contact time.  We officially start work at 8 – that is with children – and our first proper break is at 12.00.  There is a 10 minute break at 10.45 but it isn’t long enough for anything other than drooping off the materials you have been using and picking up the next lot.  I move from class to class teaching maths, science or English.  I asked for a trolley for science equipment and a custom built one, beautifully made, arrived yesterday, so that will certainly help to transfer equipment.  We also have lunch and playtime duties and early morning ‘greeting’ duty!  So all in all, pretty hard work but I have to say that it is fun – most of the time.  The children are generally pleasant and hardworking, although we have our share of behaviour problems as in any school anywhere.  There are many similarities to English schools but also many many differences.  Some of the differences are refreshing and make life easier and some of the differences are frustrating and my fellow English colleague and I spend time discussing these and wondering how we will adapt.  The head teacher is very open to suggestions and as we are a bilingual school and are planning to take Cambridge International exams there will have to be changes towards a more English system but not too much.  The school is only 3 years old and only became fully bilingual this September so we are all learning.  I believe that the school has the potential to be great but it will take a lot of hard work by staff and pupils alike.  Meanwhile, are there any experienced early years teachers out there who can give me any idea how to teach maths to a class of 16 Yr 1 children who don’t speak a word of English?!!!!

Another interesting piece of news that we receive on Monday was that we, the staff, are going to have a school uniform!  At first I thought that it was a joke but no – by October we will all be wearing black skirts or trousers and matching polo shirts and fleeces in a pleasant shade of blue with the school badge on it.  It will certainly make choosing what to wear each day easy – which black skirt or trousers shall I wear today?!!!!

I am off today to open a Slovak bank account prior to pay day and also investigate the mobile phone market.  There is a Slovak branch of O2 which allows me to call O2 subscribers in the UK for local rates.  All I need to find out is if the recipient of my calls has to pay too.  I still don’t have Wi-Fi at home but at least I have plug in broad band and the Wi-Fi situation is in hand I am told.  As it seems to be free I am not complaining about the delay.  I am confident it will arrive before Christmas.

I am yet to register with the local police.  There has been so much paperwork to fill in but I am assured that I am legal because the process has been started so hopefully it will be completed this week.  It gives me an identity card, access to Slovak health insurance, the ability to pay tax! and a variety of other of life necessities.  I will report on that experience once it happens.

There has been much sadness in Slovakia this week after the terrible air crash in Russia which killed a whole Russian ice hockey team.  In that team there were several Slovaks one of whom was a very high profile player here.  Several of them had also played for Canadian teams including the Vancouver Canucks. It seems that the whole ice hockey fraternity has been affected by the loss and is in mourning for those young lives lost.

I am off to Bratislava for the first time on Sunday as I have discovered that there is an international, English speaking church there so that is where I am headed.  I don’t think that services only in Slovak without a modern hymn in sight (or sound) is going to keep me spiritually satisfied for the next two years so adventuring I must go.  However, I am very aware of God’s presence here with me and He certainly answered my prayers for help this week as I began to finf my feet in the various classrooms.  This week was a getting to know the children week and mostly we were not teaching formal lessons.  However, on Thursday morning I was about to have my third science session with year 6 and felt very strongly when planning on Wednesday evening that chats and quizzes had been done enough and that it was time to have a ‘proper’ lesson.  It was the only class that I felt needed it this week so I went ahead and planned it carefully including a PowerPoint presentation for the Interactive White Board and a practical activity.  When I arrived at work at 7.30 on Thursday morning the head came and told me that there would be two new parents coming to watch one of my lessons as they needed reassurance that they had made the right decision in moving their sons to our school.  “Which lesson?” I nervously asked.  You’ve guessed it – Yr 6 science.  Praise the Lord – all went very well, the parents loved the lesson and I subsequently discovered that one of them was the sister of the owner of the school.  Yes indeed, God answers prayers.

Well that is all my news for this week.  Thanks for reading it, hope you enjoyed it and I promise to add some photographs soon – there have been requests!!!

Bye for now.

Almost a week later

Well here I am after almost a week in Trnava and what an experience or rather experiences I have had.  The weekend was strange as I had no flat mates.  One was helping her sister to move houise and the other was still away recovering from an oeration.  On Saturday I finshed unpacking as best I could given the limited amount of furniture in my room including the rather major lack of a wardrobe.  Anyway, having explored the local area on foot and then chickened out of driving anywhere I spent a pleasant enough evening with a bottle of wine and a DVD.  The following morning I set off for the 9.00 am service at the local Protestant church.  Well it was absolutely fascinating.  It is a beautiful building, quite modern and designed like half of an amphitheatre. i.e. semi-circular.

Inside, the seats are arranged in tiers in a semicircle facing the altar which is against the flat wall in the centre.  High above it is the pulpit.  Priests in this church must not suffer from vertigo.  The service began on time with the arrival of the priest who has rather long grey hair and is about late 40ish.  It became immediately obvious to me that there were no similarities between Anglican church services and this one and I didn't have a clue what was going on.  Everyone seemed to know all the words to everything and there was no order of service.  Everything is sung by the priest or the congregation and all prayers are said standing up and all hymns, which are more like psalms, are sung sitting down.  I had thought that at least I would be able to take communion but I realised, too late, that in order to do so I needed to have stood up at a particulsr time in the service to make it known that I wanted to do so - I'll know next time!! As my Mel would say - snooze, you lose!!  Anyway, despite the strangeness of it all, I found it rather lovely and felt a profound sense of peace whilst there and the singing was trully beautiful.
After the service I had arranged to meet a school colleague who had promised to take me on a walking tour of Trnava and also to show me how to catch a bus to Tesco - yes a Tesco superstore on the edge of town.  We had a lovely time touring the old and new parts of Trnava including Tesco where I picked up some much needed provisions and we ended up in an amazing chocolate cafe enjoying a cup of melted chocolate with fresh fruit to dip in.  I promise to take anyone who visits me - it is trully delicious.
On Monday I drove myself, under the strict instructions of my friend TomTom, back to Tesco and ajoining shops and spent several pleasant hours wandering around, reading Slovak labels and using my newly purchased dictionary.  I now know that decaf coffee is 'Bez kofeinu' - obvious when you know!
In the evening I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected arrival of my flat mate whose Godfather had kindly driven her back as she wasn't allowed to drive all the way across Slovakia herself after her recent op.  We spent a pleasant evening chatting and then it was time to get a good night's sleep ready to start work the next day.
Since then I have been permanently attached to my laptop writing a years' worth of lesson plans for Grades 1,3,5,6,and 7 science which I am now responsible for.  In addition I will be teaching Grades 1, 3 and 5 maths and Grades 1 and 3 'library'.  They seem to like to allocate me the odd numbered classes.  The children return to school next Tuesday so I have much to do and having had a bank holiday on Monday we have another one tomorrow, Thursday, (there are a lot of one off holidays in Slovakia!) and during the holidays the school is locked so I don't have much time left to prepare.  However, today internet was installed in the flat.  As yet it is not wifi but at least I can blog, email and search the internet and for that I am very grateful.
So how do I feel after my first week.  Funnily enough, very settled and at home.  My colleagues are warm and friendly and my two young flat mates are delightful.  Living here is an experience every minute of the day. I struggle to understand what is going on some of the time but a lot of the time it is rather refreshing to let the hubub of life just wash over me and just concentrate on the important things in life - especially the people and from next week onwards, the children.  The fact that I can stay connected to friends and family back home is hugely important too and I consider myself really blessed to have had such a positive experience so far.