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.