Munich Madness

Earlier in October, I went to Oktoberfest in Munich.

I had planned on leaving Bratislava with a friend and then meeting another friend in Munich. However, both of them canceled on me. I questioned whether I should go or not. I decided to go anyway because I had already bought the ticket.

I left Bratislava Friday night and planned on staying in a sleeping car at night. However, I had no place to stay Saturday night. I planned on sleeping at the train station. Two of my friends went to Oktoberfest the year before and said the train station was an acceptable place to sleep. Finding a hostel or hotel in Munich during Oktoberfest is like finding a needle in a haystack. A bit worried and a touch excited, I was planning on bordering my second train when I received a message from a friend who said she had a friend who would let me stay with her Saturday night. What good news!

I arrived Saturday morning at 6:30 and walked around the town for three hours before going to Oktoberfest. After some time, I called my friend's friend, Verena, and we met up at Oktoberfest. We were then fortunate enough to enter a tent. Getting into a tent without a reservation is just as hard as finding a hostel or hotel during Oktoberfest. Inside the tent was one big celebration of singing, dancing, eating, and drinking. Everyone was merry.

Sunday, I walked around town with my hostesses friends. The city was very charming. I enjoyed the city very much except for the large number of people who were still intoxicated at 10 a.m. from the day before.

One of my favorite places was a church in which there was a footprint in one of the tiles. My hostess, Verena, said that this was the footprint of the Devil. I decided to see how big his feet were, and, turns out, we have the same shoe size. Either that or I am the Devil.

After walking around town, I caught a train back to Bratislava. The trip was very exciting and an emotional roller coaster.

For those who were wondering what the Oktoberfest Police Station looked like. Turns out this building is permanent. Everything else at Oktoberfest is taken down except for the police building. So, they use the building for two weeks and it stands there with computers and whatever else they have in a police station for 50 weeks a year.

My Refrigerator

When I returned to Slovakia, I found a new addition to my apartment: a broken refrigerator! I found not only this, but also the stench of death and mayonnaise engulfing the apartment whenever the door is opened.

For about two weeks, Larry and I attempted to fix the problem on our own. We knew that the whole machine wasn't broken because the freezer still worked. But what do we know about refrigerators? We did have a manual in English, at least. So we told our vice principal who takes care of our numerous problems.

The 'landlord' for the apartment was the first to attempt to fix the refrigerator. She merely looked through the manual for a solution to the problem as if we didn't think about looking at the manual.

Then a week later, two refrigerator repairmen came. After about a half-hour, they said they fixed the refrigerator. Thank the Lord, we said, we can finally buy perishables!

The next morning we wake up to frozen orange juice in the refrigerator. The repairmen turned our refrigerator into another freezer. We attempted to change the temperature, but even on the lowest setting, everything freezes.

The weather here in Bratislava has cooled, so we have a new refrigerator, one that actually works - the windowsill.

My New Classes

This year, I am teaching a new class - 4th year religion. This course doesn't have a title, so I call it, "Biblical and Church History." As you might have figured from my titling of the course, we survey Biblical and Church history. We have one textbook, "Manna and Mercy," which overviews the Biblical story (and has cartoons). Yet, after that, the students have to rely solely upon my lectures for their knowledge. Talk about having to be on my game.

Each 4th year student has to take this course, so I have four classes of 14-18 students each. I taught some of these students the previous year, so I am excited to teach them again. In fact, most are excited to have me as a teacher again. (The student who looked as if my every word was hurting her does not fall into this category). Even the student with whom I butted heads most of the time last year said, "I am glad to be having class with my favorite professor." He either learned one of two things. One - butter up your teacher. Two - I'm the best teacher this side of the Danube. I believe he learned the former.

I also teach two groups a course in American Literature. One of these groups only has seven students. At first, I was worried we would have many long classes where no one says anything, but, in fact, they participate and listen very well.

The final course I teach is English conversation to a younger group of students. They were rather shocked that we can only speak English in the class.

My schedule so far has been very polar. Monday, I had five classes. Tuesday, I had three. Today, I had four. Tomorrow, I have two. Friday, I have six. Tuesdays and Thursdays are nice, but Friday won't be fun starting at 7 a.m. Nevertheless, the schedule is bound to change. It always does. In Slovakia, I have learned not to get too familiar with anything.

So, those are my new classes.

An Eventful Evening

Sunday evening a bunch of us went to visit our friend Zuzka who lives in another village about 45 minutes away by bus. The majority of the evening was low-key, relaxing, and fun. We grilled out, walked to the Danube, and watched the sunset.

All was fun until the ride home. Two Slovaks drove to Zuzka's house, so they offered to take us home. I rode with Jan, the driver, Jon and Maika, who had been in Slovakia for only a week now. This sounded great until about 5 minutes from our apartment.

We saw a police car motioning cars to pull over to the side of the road. There was already one car in front of us that was stopped. The policeman walked over to the driver's side window and asked for the driver's papers. Jan gave him his papers. Then the policeman administered a breathalyzer. (Slovakia has a zero-tolerance policy for drinking and driving) I began to get worried after the first time Jan took the test and the policeman made him take it again. I was sure that he hadn't been drinking and worried that something was wrong. It took him three tries before the test was complete. He passed.

All was well except the policeman said Jan was missing a certain paper and said it would cost 2000 crowns (100 dollars). This must be paid on the spot. Jan said he didn't have that much money, so the policeman said 500 crowns would be enough. Jan didn't have that much either, but the rest of us in the car pitched in to help.

After the policeman left, we all suspected it was bribe money.

Okay, we figure, that's over, let's just go home. So Jan tries to start the car, but no luck. He tries again and again and again. No go. So the policeman comes over. "Good," we think. "He is going to help us." Not quite. Jan tells him what is wrong and the policeman walks away, gets in his car, and drives away.

Then the conversation Jan and I were having before we were pulled over popped into my mind. Somehow we got onto the topic of the main things wrong with Slovakia. Jan said there were three things: education (this may be wrong but that's not the point), health care, and the judicial system. Oh the irony, I thought.

So, everyone except Jan gets out of the car to push the car, hoping that this will help the car start. We were running and pushing as fast as we could, but again no luck. Finally, we found a side street and a parking spot. Jan said he would have his dad get it towed in the morning.

As we were walking back to our respective apartments, I said to Maika, "You know we set this whole thing up just to scare you." Things seemed to work as if they were set up, but we surely didn't set them up. Strange how events happen in relationship to one another. What are the chances that we get randomly pulled over, Jan doesn't have the correct papers, the policeman bribes Jan, Jan's car won't start, the policeman won't help so we have to push it? Any of these events could have happened differently on any given day. Well, Sunday night, the odds didn't matter.

Thus Begins Another Year

Well, I took the summer off from blogging, but now I am back in Slovakia, ready for another year.

I left last Thursday afternoon from Lansing, MI, and I arrived 18 hours later on Friday afternoon. I didn't sleep much on the plane but was out for about a half away. I considered this an accomplishment. Nine hours is a long time to be on one plane if you can't sleep. I flew United and was disappointed in their movie selection. United is a little behind other airline companies as far as technology for movies is concerned. I had a screen to myself, but I could not start and stop the films as I have been able to on other airlines. Oh well, at least they fed me twice.

This past weekend was spent settling back in and meeting up with old friends and making new friends. School begins next week but this week is teacher's planning week. I am excited to see the students again and get back into the classroom.

School's Out!

Today was the last day of school. Classes haven't been taught since Monday, but the students still had to come to meet with their class teachers, clean classrooms, and play sports in the gym.

One of my students came up to me a few days ago with a bar of chocolate.

"I just wanted to thank you for learning us this year," she said.

"It's teaching," I responded.

"Whatever," she replied. "I just wanted to thank you. That is all."

Slovaks have trouble with the different between teach/learn because their word is the same, only when they want to use learn, they add a reflective.

Though I was first slightly disappointed that she forgot the difference between teach/learn, I realized that even though she made a grammar mistake, she was still speaking truth. I learned my students very well this year. Better put, I learned about my students. Or, I learned from my students. Also, I learned with my students. The prepositions can continue.

Grammar mistakes happen. I even find myself making more grammar mistakes, or at least catching them, here than when I was in the States.

Thank you's do not always happen, but, when they do, they make a world of difference. So, whoever you are, thank you for reading my blog this year and thinking about me and praying for me. Stay tuned for more updates.

Grilling Out

One of my favorite activities here in Bratislava is going to Josh's flat where there is a terrace. On the terrace is a grill. Now that the weather is very warm. Grilling out is a great option any night.

We grilled out twice last week. Once the began raining just as we started eating, so our little picnic had to move inside. The second time is what is now known as "The Caveman Night."

Jozi , Amy, and I were at the store and I was looking at meat when I saw that there was a pile of turkey legs available. I took one look at them and said we had to buy them. So we did.

As you can see in the picture, we didn't have a bag for our turkey legs, so we put them in our pockets. You have to pay for bags sometimes here.

We bought 3 legs - one for Josh, Jozi, and myself. When we arrived at Josh's, Jozi, Amy, and I began a caveman chat. We then put the meat on the grill. It was around 8 o'clock.

An hour and a half later I was rather hungry and demanded we finally eat the legs. Unfortunately, the legs were so thick that it wasn't even cooked yet.

A little while later I took a bite out of one of them and it was finally cooked. Nearly two hours later.

I had never eaten a whole turkey leg before, and now that I have completed the task, I would like to try to eat a whole turkey. Maybe I should start with a chicken.