I find myself not doing much after school. Sometimes I will go to the tea shop and read and have a cup of tea. Sometimes I will take a walk through the town, ride my bike, or go swimming. Sometimes, though I take most of the week to recover from the previous weekend's trip--like this week!

It is also VERY easy to look at your neighbor's paper this way. Or to give a sideways answer to or ask a question of your neighbor. Quite frustrating. 3.D took the test the next block, and I told them a fairy tale--the story of classmates who cheated on their tests and got 12 points taken off of their papers. I had no problems with talking during this test! They did very well, too. They were very frightened/nervous and begged not to write the test, but I told them the same thing--if they all do poorly, I obviously wrote a bad test. So we would take it again. They did incredibly well on this test--had absolutely nothing to be worried about. The first half of 2.D was scheduled for the test also, and they were very scared! One student Lukas, came into the classroom and announced something in Slovak. I asked for an explanation and was told, fire drill. I said, "Oh no you don't!! I need proof." So I sent Martina to check on this, and apparently, yes there was a fire drill. Except it was more a testing of the single fire extinguisher! The students were gathered around the fire extinguisher and they set some leaves on fire and extinguished the fire. That was the drill. And then class was cancelled! The "drill" took all of five minutes!!!! It was quite interesting!!! So, they get the test next week!!! So, in the second half of 2.D, the next hour, we had a good laugh about the fire drill and the free period, and reviewed for the test. As this is a test that third and fourth year students are getting also (a little modified for the second year students), the review sheet IS the test next week. I hope they study it. Ah, Thursday conversation class--which I like to call "The Black Hole." I don't know where all the students disappear to!! There are twelve students in class, I usually have seventeen students, so the class seems small already, so when two or three students don't show up, the class seems horribly empty. We continued with the history of the US--students did very well. The English skills of this class is quite high. Which is a relief, because even though they are on schedule with the topics, I feel like we are not covering the material. Maybe that is because I have an average of ten students each week. But the seminars are not graded, and there doesn't seem to be any consequence for missing them, I guess the consequence or "grade" is passing the maturita exams, which determines graduation. Oral comprehensive exams for high school! Most colleges don't even have those!

Went to a concert tonight at Dom Umenia Fatra (the house of culture) with Irina, a chemistry teacher. The conductor was Tsugio Maeda, from Japan, who apparently works with the Zilina Chamber Orchestra quite often. The first piece was by Jan Cikker, a Slovak composer. It was quite an impressive piece, especially the strings. They performed a composition by Yumi Akimoto, and the "Koncert pre husle a orchester G dur" (Concert for strings and orchestra in G major) by Mozart. Beautiful. After the intermission, the Mitsubishi Materials Choir and the Shikino-Kai Choir of Tokyo (in their only Slovak appearance) joined the music college choir from the city of Martin on stage with the orchestra for Dvorak's Mass in D Minor. When the music stopped I could hardly move. I didn't want it to end. The concert hall is not large, so it is very intimate--you can watch the musicians and see the expressions on their faces as they create this beautiful sound. You can watch the conductor closely as he leads them. It is stunning. Tickets for the orchestra range from $1.50 to $4. They offer a different program every week. I look forward to going to each one. Things like this are so accessible to people, unlike in the States, where a $30 ticket to the symphony is a bargain!

5 November 1999 Ah, Friday--my third year day! The first class, 3.A, are specialized in Sports, and I have a student, Dusan, who plays on the national Slovak basketball team, and two more who play on the national Slovak volleyball team. I have an ice skater, two tennis players, and more basketball players. They are very nice kids, but we tend to play more games than we do actual class work. But the games always involve English conversation, so they do serve their purpose. In conversation, we finished presentations on places of interest in the US. These kids did their research and were well prepared to talk about their cities. Always a great time in this class. They also try to teach me a little bit of Slovak every class. This class was "sneeze," (kychnutie), as I experienced quite a loud series of them during class! Tonight is my first Stuzkova. Cannot wait!

the old town well in Marianske Square

I walk through this market every day on my way to school

6 November 1999 Stayed home this weekend. Did nothing except clean house and read. Did not stay out late at stuzkova, but the potential was there. People were just warming up at midnight! Took my bike around the outskirts of town today, walked to the top of a really big hill behind Solinky (my housing estate), which overlooked fields and a village, with a great view of the mountains. A family was flying kites and having a picnic, kids were running in the fields with their dogs, people were riding mountain bikes. Talked to my parents and friends on Yahoo Messenger and Voice Chat. I love this invention. It makes lonely nights at home way less lonely. I kind of like having no TV to speak of, although I suspect that the computer has taken the place of the television. Still, I am reading more than I have ever read in my life (and I read a LOT!), which is great. 7 November 1999 Maybe it is because I have been this travel fiend lately, or weather changes, or whatever, but stayed in bed most of the day because I didn't feel well. And, of course, read.

8 November 1999
This morning, I was on my way to work, opened the downstairs door to let the post-woman into the building, and she immediately handed me my mail!! All I said to her was, "Dobry den." (good morning). Do I look THAT much like an American?

There was no morning class today, as most of the fourth year students went on a trip to Bratislava to visit the university there. I thought that this afternoon's conversation class was going to be the same, at first ten students were absent, and then three trickled in, so eventually only seven of seventeen were missing, but we did not do the planned conversation topic. Instead, one student was listening to a CD, I asked him who it was, and he told me it was Richard Muller. I had seen his name on posters around town, and asked the kids about him. They let me listen to the CD and I looked at the lyrics. I had the kids translate one of his songs for me. They did a really good job it-- took quite a while to translate. Apparently, Muller is like the Slovak Bob Dylan. Very folky and very poetic. I liked it a lot. We had a really good class, and the kids told me all about Muller, and Slovak popular music. This is one of the topics I had planned for later in the year, but I am glad we got a chance to do it today. It also broke up the monotony of talking about countries! After the dancing fiasco of Stuzkova, I MADE Peter teach me how to dance toward the end of the class. The kids appeared to have fun shouting out directions to me (go back! to the left--I think it was good practice for them to have to shout out directions on the spur of the moment).

I got home today and turned on BBC World, just to see if anything happened in the news that day. They were presenting a live broadcast of President Clinton's giving a foreign policy address at Georgetown University. The Slovak Prime Minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, was present, as well as the Prime Minister from the Czech Republic. Clinton was giving a commemoration speech on the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the speech he discussed the emerging economies of the former Iron Curtain countries, including the Slovak Republic, and on its possible future entrance into NATO and the EU. Some people here are quite against NATO after it transported military equipment for use in Yugoslavia across Slovak territory and allowed NATO to use Slovak airspace during the Kosovo crisis. The population here is divided 50-50 on the proposal to join NATO. Apparently, the former Prime Minister, Meciar (who was PM right after the revolution) did NOT help this country at all either economically or with respect to international relations. He took the centralized businesses, sold them to his friends, and his friends sold those businesses for tons of money, took the money and ran. Now there is a great deal of unemployment in this country, as many businesses have been closed. The new administration, while plagued with its own problems, is trying to rectify the damage. The Slovak Republic, along with Russia, the Ukraine, and other Central/Eastern European countries is plagued by organized crime; every time I read the paper, I read of someone being kidnapped or killed by mobsters. Just as the US grew out of (pushed itself out of?) that phase of its history, I am sure the Slovak Republic will too. I have to remember that this country is the size of West Virginia and it is struggling with a free market economy after forty years of Communism. I guess some groups are taking advantage of this market in undesirable ways.

9 November 1999
I cannot even begin to express how fascinating it was to experience the fall of the Berlin Wall again, albeit on the BBC. I remember watching it on TV ten years ago and being fascinated then. I could never have imagined that I would be in this part of the world on the tenth anniversary of the fall of Communism! There have been endless replays of the fall on most of the TV stations here. I found an excellent site that discusses the fall, and this guy was there! Students were not really as excited as I was. Of course. I think many people here are disillusioned with democracy and what the revolution brought to Slovakia. I think people (with the exception of older people) realize that it is going to take a while for the economy to stabilize, but I also do not think they are too happy with some things intrinsically "American" that are now invading the country--McDonald's Beverly Hills 90210, Breastwatch, (I mean, Baywatch, MTV and some American music (Kurt Cobain is practically a deity). I can completely understand this (besides, Dave Grohl is much more of a deity than Cobain!). Of course, horrible American TV is probably all the television stations here can afford--so they see the worst of our media.

On the other hand, I have heard virtual horror stories about what happened here during the Communist regime, things that people are glad to be rid of. People could lose their teaching positions if they were seen going to church, so people went to church one or two or more towns away, so they would not be seen. There would literally be men with notebooks copying down license plate numbers (like in The Godfather!) and talking to neighbors. One teacher has been teaching here for over 30 years, and she told me that in the 1950s, the only English history book they were allowed to use at this school was Morton's History of England, because it was based on Marxist philosophy. Even today there are no history books, students learn history through lecture, as the textbooks are not up to date. Before 1989, if someone wanted to take a foreign language class at a language school, one had to wait in line almost overnight in order to register for classes. Of course, English was not a popular language with the government. It was mandatory for students to take Russian, though. Before 1989, if there was a shipment of some appliance in, you had to line up hours before the store opened if you wanted to purchase that appliance. People who were perfectly qualified for jobs were denied jobs if they refused to join the Communist Party. There were special sections of the Army (which is compulsory here for two years) for "undesirables" who needed to be "re-educated." Usually re-education consisted of labor in mines or the like. One was undesirable if one was a murderer, religious, had a different political opinion, or had ever lived in (or had much contact with) the West!!!! Also, their compulsory military service lasted not two, but three years!

Another teacher told me about May Day, 1986. The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred on April 28, 1986. No announcement was made and May Day activities throughout the Soviet controlled countries went on as planned. Including here in Zilina. It was not until later that they found out how badly the radiation contamination was. Slovakia borders the Ukraine. She also told me that the fruits and vegetables at the market that summer were HUGE.

In class today (3.D), we discussed " The Lottery." There is an old Slovak custom in the summer, in which people burn an effigy of "Old Man Winter"--a straw man. I told the kids that they basically do the same thing that the townspeople do in "The Lottery," except they burn a straw man instead of a real man. It took a minute for that to sink in, but I think it helped them understand the story. In conversation, we finished places of interest and talked about American customs. Finally, a little life in the class!

10 November 1999
4.D went to the computer room today to write to Jana in Hilton Head. Jana taught them last year and is very close to them. They wanted to write to her, and I am glad that the computer room is available at this time. First section of 3.C--the dreaded first test. They also were told the fairy tale of " the class who helped" before their test. They did very, very well and it shows on their grades (or, as they are called here, "marks"). In the second section of 3.C, we finished "The Lottery" and reviewed for the test. In conversation, we had a quiz on U.S. cities. Just another day at Gymnazium vel'ka okruzna (which means " the big circle"!!)

I used "inches" today when giving an oral exercise, and the kids looked at me like I was insane!

11 November 1999
Yay! Thursday! Many 4.D kids were absent today, I don't know why; maybe they were afraid to see their test results. Some of them should have been! I took off twelve points (2 letter grades) for the students who were "being helped" or "helping" and gave those twelve points to those students who neither helped nor were helped. There was much complaining and pouting during this class, but I think the point made it home. I felt really badly for them, as this is one of my favorite classes, but the level of "discussion" in that class while the test was going on was unacceptable, and I had to make a point. They seemed to feel better when I let them know that my policy (even in the States) is to drop the lowest grade each year. I think this will be that grade for some of them. It was funny, the two kids who protested the most had IDENTICAL tests!! That actually made me laugh, and we had a great time comparing answers while I tried to make him see why he got the grade he did (his counterpart was absent--surprise!!!). We were going to play Brain Games after reviewing the test, but we never made it that far! In 3.D, my American Lit class, we reviewed the test and started right in with vocabulary to "The Old Man and the Sea." Actually, it is a condensed version in the magazine Friendship. We also read the short biography of Hemingway. Both sections of 2.D: Test!!! I almost felt sorry for the kids, they were so nervous, but once they saw the test, they seemed to calm down--absolutely NO talking in these classes--they did really well. I had to call a few names out though, in order to get them to keep their eyes on their own papers! One student had her pen case (most students have these small, zippered pen cases--they are quite cool, at least to me, who LOVES office supplies!) open and was very interested in the contents of it. I was interested too, so I went over and picked her pen case up, and lo and behold, there were her vocabulary definitions written on a very small sheet of paper. The test had not started yet, so I didn't play basketball with her test, but she willingly offered the paper to me, and I willingly threw it away! The afternoon conversation class (the black hole!) actually had nine students today! We had played a quiz game on the United States and then gave a collective "Whooo Hooo!" that we were finished with the countries!

12 November 1999
Ah, 3.A. What can I say about 3.A? I always go in there with the best intentions. We are going to do vocabulary, we are going to WORK today. And we always seem to get sidetracked. We always end up having some sort of discussion or end up playing some sort of game. Today was no different. But this time the game was a little hard: I wrote a sentence on the board, their job was to change that sentence into another by following the oral directions I gave. This was also a task for me, as I had to give the oral directions slowly and had to enunciate. They did very well. Third year conversation is ALWAYS fun. We had a short quiz game on the United States, as in most of my conversation, and I have only one thing to say--Thank GOD we are finished with the countries (at least with this class)!!! I cannot imagine how boring it has been for the kids if it was this boring for me! But I hope at least they learned something and it was not too horribly boring. Judging by the amount of laughter that we engage in daily, I think not.

13 November 1999
Just another weekend in Zilina. Did not do much of anything, just did some lesson planning, read, and played on computer.

14 November 1999
Again, the same--sleep, read, and generally relax. I know I should be going on an excursion somewhere, but had no desire to do anything this weekend.

15 November 1999
SNOWING!! And it is beautiful! I was planning to do some Christmas shopping today after school and it is going to be great to shop in the snow (sneh)!!!! The sky is gray, it is really quiet here (except for the cars on the road), and the snow is falling softly, but it is sticking. The weather has been rather mild to this point. I lived in DC where the occasional two inches in winter would completely shut the city down. The snow this morning would have done that. But by the afternoon, the ground was just a muddy mess. It only stuck in places. So I have not officially won the bet yet.

I am so glad that the computer room is available on Monday mornings. I know the students really like it, mainly because it gets them out of class, but also because I am chomping at the bit to get some sort of communication going with students at HHHS. I put the e-mail addresses of Jana, Mark, Brandon, Allison, and myself on the board, and just as practice, the kids could write to anyone of us, as I don't really have a project set up yet (Judy Munchmeyer and I are working on this). As classes are only 45 minutes, I thought that this was enough time to practice using e-mail (although many kids are well versed in this). Ah, afternoon conversation class. Half the class (8 of 17) were absent. I heard that this was traditional after Stuzkova--students get to take a Monday off after the ball. So, I went in intending to (finally!) finish the United States, but we ended up watching a home video of the ball. The English teachers had "warned" me that this season is a little loopy, as kids are very excited about their stuzkovas and they always want to watch the videos the Monday after. So we did. It was great fun--and I had some kids translate most of what was going on, so, in a way, we did have "conversation." I can justify ANYTHING!!!

16 November 1999
I am still amazed at how seemingly unstructured, yet brilliantly structured the schedule of this school is. Not everyone is here from 7:50 until 3:00 every day. The classes (they are called lessons here) are organized much like those of a university. Sometimes you meet every day, more often than not, you meet three times a week. English conversation (which is a seminar class--two lessons, or ninety minutes) meets just once a week. The students (and teachers!) have off campus privileges (but it is not considered privilege, it is just a given), so if you do not have a lesson, you are not required to be in the building. So, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, I do not start until after 10:30 am. On Wednesday, I start at 7:50, and on Thursday, I start at 8:45!!!! I have expressed a modicum of guilt about this to my colleagues, as I always seem to be the one straggling in later than everyone else like a lazy schlub. But, as they point out to me, I am here until 3:00 every day because of conversation classes, and everyone else gets to leave around 1:30. Everyone seems really happy that I am here this year, if for no other reason than they get a one year reprieve from conversation class! And it is true, when I gather my things in the afternoon, I am usually the only one here (in the language wing of the building). So when I think about it that way, I have less guilt, but in relation to my colleagues at HHHS, who are there from 7:15 - 3:00 every day, HUGE guilt!

Gave a test in 3.D today. The kids wigged! I had to explain (again) that I was not out to get them, that if the test was too hard, we would simply take it again. They did incredibly well. In conversation class, what a surprise, we watched the stuzkova video.

The Leonids are falling throughout Europe tomorrow night. I spent a few nights on Hilton Head before I left at the beach, and saw many shooting stars. I can't wait to see them from here!

17 November 1999
Today was Student's Day. There were no classes for students, but they had a program to attend this morning at Dom Umenia Fatra (the House of Culture). The Zilina Chamber Orchestra played some beautiful music--Bach and Mozart-- and the Beatles!!! The orchestra played "Yellow Submarine" and at the appropriate time, all the musicians shouted "Hey!" It was great! So basically, it was a half day for students, and they spent the rest of the day at a Freshman Presentation--basically making fun of the first year students--hanging out and at night there were many, many discos in town!

Student's Day has an interesting history in Czechoslovakia. On Oct. 28, 1939, university students staged protests against the Nazi regime, and Jan Opletal and eight other students were killed. On Nov. 17, which is international Student's Day, there was a huge memorial demonstration at which more students were killed, Czech universities were closed, and 1200 Czech and Slovak students were sent to concentration camps. On Jan 16, 1969, Jan Palach willingly performed self-immolation as an act of defiance/protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechslovakia. Opletal and Palach are honored on Student's Day, and it was on this date (17 November) in 1989 (50 years to the day of the Opletal demonstration), that the Velvet Revolution occurred, that is, the day that 750,000 people participated in a legal, peaceful demonstration to commemorate the death of Opletal, that launched the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, and the independence of both Republics.

So I spent most of the evening watching television, as all of the stations were broadcasting footage from 1989.

I NEED to start taking Slovak language lessons. Someone showed me an advertisement in the newspaper and I cut it out--I was going to take a class, but the newspaper ad was incorrect--there are no classes! I have definitely learned patience here. I went looking for the office where the classes were supposed to be held, and first, there was no room number posted . Only the name of the organization. Then, the doorkeeper told me it was in C block on the second floor. It wasn't. Then she told me it was on the top floor (7th floor, no elevator) of another wing in the back. It wasn't. Apparently MANY businesses don't have the name and room listed in the directory. It is all very interesting. I asked two people (which was QUITE an accomplishment) and one knew exactly where it was (it wasn't there) and one had no idea what I was talking about. Finally someone at work knew about this company and they only offer Slovak lessons once a year for Peace Corps volunteers, so that ad was about five months out of date!! Thankfully, Dana and Sona came to my rescue. They know a man who teaches at one of the basic school who taught those Peace Corps classes, and he is my new tutor. I will meet with Vlado next week, twice a week for 90 minutes. Maybe by the time I leave I will be able to speak the language!