The Misadventures of a Runaway Graduate

2012-01-16T23:10:00.001-08:00

American Adventure

2012-01-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

Roman and I are back here now. Its a different kind of misadventure. I got a car, a job, and a fiancé since moving back. My job is interesting. I am working in a group home for disabled adults, during the night. I have learned a lot- something new each shift. Its stressful at times, its rewarding at times, but mostly its something in the middle. I think working night shifts is something everyone should experience at some point in their lives.

I’m getting really excited about our wedding. I have the dress, shoes, and flowers now! Mom is working on getting some kind of cake or desert lined up, and I still need to find a musician. It will be really fun. We found a translator for Romans family- its going to be a hectic awesome week when they visit.

This past Friday was Romans green card interview. We passed, and his green card was approved- he will receive it in the mail in about two weeks. He also got a work permit so he can find a job and get a drivers license.

People keep asking about our long term plan. We don’t really have one. I guess our plan is to work in the national parks for a while and see America, or attempt to see all of America. Then perhaps we will teach English as a foreign language somewhere amazing like Iceland. Whatever the future holds.... we will see when we get there.

Week full of children; moreso than usuall

2011-06-05T13:28:00.000-07:00

This week was a little bit crazy. I went to "School in Nature" with the third and fourth graders. I didn't know any of them, so they learned the phrase "hey you!". It was fun, they had classes in the morning and games and activities in the afternoon. Here is a picture of the fourth grade class I was responsible for- they had to pass the egg back and fourth with spoons, we named him Eggy and he had a cheer: "Eggy! Eggy! Go! Go! Go!"

When we got back on Friday, Janka and I changed bags, and hit the road again. We stopped at her house for dinner, and then headed to the "Lumen Festival" in Trnava. It was a christian music festival- Janka knew the director and we found alot of cool things at the booths there. Parachute band was there, and some others from New Zealand, and UK.

Janka's sister Lucy is in a dancing group, we went to a show of theres. Janka left us alone for a while, Lucy doesn't speak much English, but we played dress up and her dad took the Pictures.

Next, we had childrens day in Jankas village on saturday. We were in charge of face painting. For some reason Slovak children have a curious interest in peacocks.... so thats mostly what I drew.

Children's Day

2011-05-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

This Saturday was Children's day at school. The parents, and some teachers organized a day of fun for the kids at school. I think each town or region has their own each spring. Next week I am going with Janka to the children's day in her town.

This year there was gulash, of course, and soldiers and guns. there was a drama type thing of a battle performed by soldiers. Then, all the kids were running around with guns.

On to a new adventure

2011-05-22T09:35:00.001-07:00

I have decided not to come back to Martin to teach next year. I feel that it is time to move on from here, start a new adventure, and the next chapter of my life.

Everyone in Martin will be missed, and the life I had here taught me alot about the world, myself and Gods goodness. I am sad to go, but excited to start new.

Roman and I are going to be in Minnesota for the summer, being involved in St. Andrews life, and youth programs. After that, we are not sure yet. We are applying to many many jobs working in National Parks, Cruise Lines, Ski Resorts and YMCA camps. we are hoping to travel a bit and try some new things. If you have any opportunities, or ideas please let us know! we would be very gratefull!

Dolna Zdana

2011-04-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to my friend Janka's house. It was really fun, one of her sisters speaks english, other than that, I got to practice my slovak! She lives about an hour south of Martin in a little village, its a really cute town.

We had alot of fun. On friday we went to bible study with the kids. Janka, and two other girls take turns leading it. The children were too shy to use their english, but I told them what easter days are called in english because they were talking about holy week in slovak. Maunday thursday was a funny one to try to explain. Then we went to adult bible study and apparently I have a slovak twin because everyone in this whole village was telling me I look like one of the daughters of one of the families there.

Saturday we went to church confessionals. It was special because its holy week so there were four extra priests there. We did a little bit of paperwork, and went for pizza. It was cloudy and cold outside so we didn't do much there.

Sunday we went to church, the priest blessed all of the pussy willows.... because thats the slovak equivilant of a palm (?). then we had sunday lunch at Jankas house. It was really warm and nice outside so we were making wreathes from flowers. We got to play with her niece Emma, and some people from their extended family came over sunday afternoon. We played a little badmitton. it was great.

Janka's sister Lucia is in a folk dance group, so they pretended I was a doll and dressed me up.

The bus was so full on the way back I was almost sitting in the drivers lap. We made it home. Now let me tell you all the things we ate.

buchty- its bread dough balls that are steamed. They have plum jam inside, and you put poppy seeds on the top. they are good!

stinging nettel- her dad cooked some up with onions and a little bit of eggs. I was a little nervous to try them because I didnt want to have a itchy stomach... but it was good. No one else wanted to try it.

French potatoes- potatoes cooked in a pot with saur kraut, saussages, eggs and cream. yummy

most other things were normal. soup, chicken, stuff like that.

Art Project Adventure

2011-03-26T02:06:00.000-07:00

In true Ender fasion, Roman and I went to feed some ducks. Rolls are only 6 cents, so we spoiled them a little bit with fresh bread.

Walking along the river we found two tv sets that were busted up, except for the plastic frames. so we took them home to paint, and turn into something cool.

This project reminded me of two things of the past. Painting hubcaps in college, thanks to Robert Duerst, and finding awesome old man sweaters on the same river path with Alex Allin. The sweaters we washed, mine felted, and we wear them now, of course.

Finished pictures to come later, Its a two weekend project!

BIRTHDAY ADVENTURES!!!!

2011-03-26T01:50:00.000-07:00

On Friday, the American Ambassador came to visit our school. He was in Martin talking with the mayor, and he heard about our school. He came, we had a small assembly. The kids sang a song for him in English, and he made a short speech. I was really impressed because the students were pretending to listen, because they didn't understand, something they have never done for me... so way to go kids! After the kids left, the Professors of the bible school, and Jozef and the Americans were still there and they all sang happy birthday to me! :D the Ambassador sang happy birthday to me... what a strange experience.
Adventure 2. Friday was Roman and my first anniversary. We went to Bojnice to the zoo and the castle. It was really fun! Now I know enough Slovak that we talked to the animals, and about the animals in Slovak. It was a fun lesson. Of course we also ate some wonderful halusky, and I made some pumpkin cheesecake. Adventure 3. Roman and I got up early for a pre-church jog (oh yeah, we’ve been jogging. I know its out of character). Then we made some delicious blueberry muffins, and went to church. My birthday! Michal Valco brought us to a cave in the high Tatras. It was really fun; Marek and Michal’s nephew Ado came too. We went on a tour of a cave that is 34 km long. It was amazing. Parts of the tour felt like we were walking through forests of stalagmites and stalactites. We stopped at the Sheep cheese place on the way home. For dinner we made delicious cheeseburgers and potatoes. Roman liked them so much; he asked if I could make them again on Monday.

School Adventures: Quilts and Circulation

2011-03-26T01:37:00.000-07:00

Teaching about the Underground railroad is really interesting because the students get into it, i think they might like it! (dont tell them I said that though!) We made quilt squares for an artproject about the underground railroad. They had no idea what a quilt was so that made it more interesting.

In seventh grade biology, I am teaching about the human body. Durring the circulatory system unit we recreated the system on the playground. It was really exciting for the kids, and more entertaining to watch. The slide was the heart, two people were acting as valves to let cells in and out. Two people were the lungs, handing out balls aka oxygen molecules to blood cells, one person was a capillary, taking oxygen and giving carbon dioxide, and the white blood cells and the germs were playing tag. Here is a short video toward the end of the lesson: video to come later :D

Food Adventure!

2011-03-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

We had another cooking adventure with some of my Norwegian friends from bible study. Keep in mind that there was a Slovak present, but he was the recipie translator, via his mom. We made parene buchty. Its a steamed bread type of dough with plum jam in the center. you steam them for about 8 min, then sprinkle them with chocolate. they were pretty good, but unfortunately they were not up to par on presentation....

Missions Sunday

2011-02-27T21:37:00.000-08:00

Norwegians In Slovakia

2011-02-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

As a special break from studying, I took some friends from Bible Study on a Slovak adventure. They wanted it to be a "surprise" adventure so I did not even tell them where we were going. We hiked up to the ruins in Strecno.

Stain

Gina

Tonje and Stain

Birthday- Valentines Adventure!

2011-02-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

This weekend was Roman's 22nd birthday! I met him at the bus stop with a muffin birthday cake- it had a candle and everything. He is starting school later this week, and I have spring break already, so we went on an adventure! Destination: Liptovsky Mikulas.

We took a train weaving through the Mountians to Liptovsky Mikulas. You could see all the peaks of the Mountains doused with snow. It was really pretty! Our first stop was the water park: Tatralandia. It was so cool! the waterslides started inside, went outside, and ended inside. The water was from the hot springs so it wasn't cold, and all the pools were covered with steam. We got to swim around outside, looking at the mountains, the sunset, and the moonrise from a warm pool.

The waterslides were not at all ordinary. They were complete with sound effects, and led lights, and they mystery of the steam to cloud your look to the upcoming surprises. One was called "galaxy" and had lots of lights for the stars and solar system entities. Another one was a funnel that you got flushed down.

Day two of our adventure started with Coffee and Pancakes. We found a resturant called Tinky Pinky Palacinky. They only had pancakes- the think eurpoean ones like crepes. They were so good stuffed with bananas and chocolate. Then fully loaded with caffene we coverend the Juraj Janosik Torture Museum, the Art Gallery, and a few of the churches, and some shops in the square. I found a First grade book of activities in slovak to help me practice. I worked on it the whole train ride home!

Tomorrows adventure: the doctors office. I have a pretty nasty sounding cough that just doesnt want to let go.

Egypt

2011-02-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

I did some current events research today about Egypt and the Riots. Its so incredibly depressing how the government has made these people feel. Its hard for me to recognize and understand the passion they have about being treated righteously,and equally. I think its so moving how God can show up even in the midst of these riots to say "hey, guys, stick together"

Im thinking about doing a current events in my history classes about this because I am sure that my students really have no Idea what is going on just south of us.

2011-02-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

I was in the newspaper, because I am famous :D

You can try and read it in slovak in the link above. Dusan Hasko wrote the article, and I wrote the interview answers:

What motivated you to come to Slovakia?

Since early high school I have always wanted to be involved in overseas missions. I truly never expected to end up in eastern Europe until I got connected to Vision Slovakia through my church. The decision to move to Slovakia and become a teacher was a very natural transitional move- there was no pro and con list going, it all just happened.

Being here in Slovakia has definitely changed me significantly. I am much more relaxed, and outgoing. There is more room to be creative in all aspects of life. In Martin it seems that the culture is "if you can imagine it, you can do it". This attitude has a strong presence at the bible school- and luckily, its contagious.

The hardest change I had to make was learning to be flexible and go with the flow. Culture here is much more laid back- its a good thing, but hard to adjust to. My first weeks of teaching I expected to much from my students, and myself. You cant create a healthy learning environment in one day. It takes a while. Learning to be a teacher in a foreign place is definitely a challenge.

My favorite thing about Martin is the community at the Bible School. First, it was hard to find my place, where i fit, who my friends are, and how I could fully take advantage of my opportunities. Now I've found my place, surrounded by people who are supportive, understanding and compassionate. I am living amongst my second family.

A Saturday Adventure

2011-01-16T02:22:00.001-08:00

Hannah and I went on an excellent adventure. We hopped a morning train to Trencin, and wandered around. It has an awesome castle on a cliff, and you can climb the city tower to the to of the clock. We went up to the castle and the lady was saying that we can have a tour, but its in slovak, but we can have english text about it.

While we were wandering the lower castle, we saw no one.... so the cartoon played in our head about someone guiding us around the castle babbling in slovak, and us just reading the texts about all the awesome stuff.

Well we got the only guide that spoke english! (yay timing) and he was really funny. He liked to quizz us on things and ask us questions which is strange because now, being a teacher, I am the one that asks the questions. It was good though, he turned it into a competition between hannah and I. we both failed pretty good because neither of us could remember names or dates, just the fluff of the story- but in the end, I think she won.

Of course this castle had another bad ass queen- as usuall. This queen was young and beautiful, and married at 16 to a man who only cared about money, and war.... so he ignored her. Instead of having a hissy fit, she just went out and had many lovers. Apparently her ghosts still exists IF

1. you are a young man with a pure heart

2. alone in the castle at midnight

3. shout her name (barbora) three times

Of course we asked him if he tried it, but he said that he has never been alone in the castle at midnight... bummer. Asking him other questions we found out that he is one of the fencing champions in the summer durring the midieval tours. That sounds awesome, you get a special tour of the dungeons and stuff too.

Oh! fun fact- this castle has never been conqured. except by a house fire... so its mostly in tact.

2011-01-12T02:18:00.000-08:00

I can't really speak for my students, but I was really interested in my lessons this week for History (English Speaking Culture History). I finally am on track with some units that I really enjoy, and I hope the kids will actually take something away from.

Fifth grade is all about the American Revolution. It is really fun! We started off the year with Vikings, the discovery of America, and the first Thanksgiving. That was ok, but the Revolutionary war is really fun to teach about. This week I assigned each student to be a British or American Soldier. They all got to color one and glue them in the books they are making. Then we reinacted the Battle of Bunker Hill. All the American Soldiers were standing in one corner dancing because they were excited that they had already dumped all the tea into Boston Harbor. Meanwhile the other corner of the room was full of sneaky British soldiers who were going to surprise the Americans with a battle of "rock paper scissors"

The books we are making are really cool too, they fold out and have all kinds of pop up type pictures with information on the back. This one is a grassy hill that folds down and has information about the battle on it. The kids are really starting to get into it. Yay!

Sixth grade this week was my favorite. We started off the year talking about ancient Egypt. Now we have begun learning about the slave trade. I wrote an article about how the europeans kinapped slaves from africa and brought them to the Americas. We talked about the boat. I layed them next to each other on the carpet, snug and tight as an example of how the slaves were transported. the first question was "How long is the boat ride?" (three weeks to three months). and the second question was "where do we go to the bathroom?" they were pretty discusted with the answer....

Buska, Jozef's daughter, got really upset when I was explaining why europeans treated people like this. All of the sudden she bursts out (in slovak) "YOU ALL DONT UNDERSTAND??? They thought the africans were like animals. they treated them like sheep, pigs, or cows. they DIDNT care how they felt!"

I reached at least one person with that lesson!

Surprise!!!

2011-01-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some videos about the big surprise! First I went to my house and surprised my dad. His boss sent him on a "special project" so he would still be at home when I arrived. This video is at church, listen for the crash of the barbaque sauce jar smashing on the ground.

Our family christmas picture:

Afton ski trip with my parents. I do remember how to snowboard!

2010-12-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

Bratislava: A Winter Wonderland

2010-12-12T03:20:00.000-08:00

This is the President's Pallace in Bratislava. It was snowing like crazy when we got there, big fluffy flakes like in the movies. We threw some snowballs in the President's garden because the gaurds were inside.... pansies.

I wanted to sit on Santa's lap to tell him what I want for christmas but he wasn't there. So I used this inflatable Santa instead.

Next, Roman and Emily stormed the castle. We climbed up the walls. Just kidding, but we did walk up the hill and play on the playground.

View from the castle. Notice the UFO aka bridge. There is a Restaurant there.

The christmas market was really fun, for some reason I dont have a good picture of what it looked like but there was food and presents and crafts everywhere. Roman couldn't stop drooling because of the delicious smells of all the different kinds of meat. I thought the candied apples looked really pretty, and of course we drank some christmas wine and other, really terrible tasting alcohol that is "traditional". We wandered in the snow and ate chestnuts roasted on an open fire just like in the christmas song. It was an awesome day!

Bratislava School of the Arts

2010-12-12T03:00:00.000-08:00

In the middle of the Christmas Markets in Bratislava this Angel was standing on the fountian asking all the people if they have seen the star of Bethlehem. He was very concerned because he was the Lost Gabriel, he wanted to make it to Jesus' birth in time.

This is the star they were looking for.
It was stuck in a snowbank.

When they found the star, some shepheards came and made us all sing a song. Roman was singing too but he got scared when I turned the camera on him. Then we all followed Gabriel through the city alleys to a live Bethlehem scene.

When we got to Jesus, we had to all be very quiet because he was sleeping. And we got some candy :D It was delicious. Pretty strange experience.

Choir and Violin

2010-12-10T03:23:00.001-08:00

This is my friend Baska. She lives next door to me in the dorms. I always hear her singing and playing violin through the wall so I invited her to choir. A few weeks ago we played a violin duet with the choir, it was really fun! Its always less scary with a performance buddy. We have been playing some christmas songs too just for fun.

Meeting the Fiam Family

2010-12-10T03:07:00.000-08:00

Look how much nothing is out there!!! I really couldn’t see the end of the field. I had a little bit of Déjà vu when we were on the bus because it was a lot like driving through Nebraska. It was pretty and snowy though! It was about a 4 hour bus ride. Of course I got twitchy but Roman, and the rest of the people on the bus were surprisingly satisfied with just sitting….for a long time.

Romans family raises a few chickens, I was excited to feed them, and gather this fresh egg. It was still warm! I could feel it through my mittens. Then I remembered that it was warm because it was recently inside a chicken… so I gave the egg to Roman’s Mom….

This is his family: Peter (dad) and Peter (brother), Mom Jozefa, Roman and I , and Grandma.

Like at most of the recent Ender family gatherings, there was gunplay. Don't worry, no one got hurt or killed.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T04:18:00.000-08:00

Roman was introduced to thanksgiving this year. Brenda and Larry hosted dinner on friday night before biblestudy. Our american tradition included two slovaks, four norwegians, 5 american residents in slovakia, and two americans studying abroad in italy. It was really fun we had all the fixings and everybody brought something different.

It wasn't hard to see that roman really enjoyed the holiday, after all he is a young boy, eyeing up mountains of food. It was a great night of fellowship, friends and great food! Also a good reminder that even though sometimes we feel alone, we are surrounded by people also living abroad away from their family, fun, and cultural traditions

Oravsky Podzamok

2010-11-15T21:57:00.000-08:00

This weekend Roman and I took an adventure day. Saturday we went to Oravsky Podzamok with all the resident Americans, and an extra Slovak (a sad attempt to remain at equilibrium). We took an hour bus ride and arrived in a very small town nested in the mountains. There was an amazing castle hovering over our heads.

We killed some time by having some hot chocolate. We got a tour of the castle and all of its strange stories. Pictures work better than words:

There was a mirror that would make you look young and beautiful forever, unless you looked in another mirror. The queens closet where she kept her lovers, there was a divider in the closet so she could have two lovers.

There was also a story about a different queen who is a ghost in the castle because her husband accidentally cut off her hand while he was trying to abuse the help. She spent 5 months dying and appears around the castle in her wedding dress saying that she will pray for the king, her husband, who cut off her hand.

Newspaper Headlines

2010-11-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

Roman was making hot dogs for his dinner, I was bored of standing in the kitchen so I wondered to the couch in the hall, and picked up the newspaper... as a joke...and read the headline. I handed it to Roman and asked him if the top story was "This years potato crop is much less than last year"

I was right..... that was the biggest news.... wait- THAT WAS NEWS, and not only just news... it was THE NEWS!!! hahaha

made my day

2010-10-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today started off with daylight savings time. We had choir practice this morning, and we sang two songs in church. It was also reformation Sunday so my students, the seventh and sixth graders, put on a play about Martin Luther after the sermon. Reformation Sunday is a much bigger deal here. I think it has to do with the lack of abundance of Lutheran churches in Slovakia, or the close proximity to Wittenberg where it happened…

I went to the National Cemetery today (as part of my “Slovakification” process). It was so cool! I think more amazing than last year because this year I took part in it. I lit a candle for each of my deceased grandparents. I went at about 6:00 so, naturally, it was completely dark already. Walking through the front gates was absolutely stunning. At the foot of the cross stood hundreds of candles and a gathering of people silently saying prayers for their lost family members.

The paths snaking through the cemetery were dark and shadowy but the surrounding area of headstones and resting places were illuminated with dancing red lights. It was amazing to think that each small candle represented prayers. I placed my candles, and my prayers, among everyone else’s. You could feel the heat of all the candles from yards away.

As I was walking around I imagined God as Santa Clause. Except instead of reading children’s wish lists during one season, God reads our letters every day, all day, all year. He receives all kinds of prayers in different languages, some maybe scrawled with crayon complete with backwards letters and extreme misspellings. He still reads them all, and answers them all. I liked thinking that my prayers, were in a great big mail sack along side all the other prayers.

Halloween, and other Nations' Holidays

2010-10-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

Its halloween time again??? Without commercials, media, and advertising it completely snuck up on me! I bet the rest of you in america are just about ready for christmas to be in the stores on Monday. I will celebrate halloween this year by eating candy until I am sick.... just like the rest of the thousands of children in America. Ive got some gummy worms and some Reisens... that should do the trick just fine.

I am also observing All Saints Day this year along with the Slovaks. Its a neat holiday. Ive been told that its almost as big of deal as christmas (family wise). Everyone has gone home and they will be with their families remembering thoes who have died. They go to the cemetaries and light candles and bring flowers. Last year I was in Prague and it was cool! the whole cemetary was kindof glowing and it felt so alive. All kinds of people with their families, decieced and living.

I have three candles. One for Betty, who passed last spring, one for Wyman who passed 2 1/2 years ago, and one for Peter Banning, who passed... maybe 11 years ago. I think it will be nice to set aside sometime and think about them and thank God that they were a part of my family. Ill take pictures and post them later.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Muzeum Slovenkej Dediny

2010-10-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

Today was a lovely day for a trip to the outdoor museum in Martin. Roman and I walked there in the morning. It was sunny and a little bit chilly outside; the mountains have their first snow already.

There were animals milling about too. We tried to scare them, but they scared us and somebody stepped in their poo… but it wasn’t me! We saw old houses, an old church, and even a wagon house, hat maker’s shop, and many looms scattered throughout the buildings.

The buildings date back to the 1700’s and some relics came from the 1400’s. For a while we were on a tour with a guide. But I didn’t really listen because it was in Slovak… shhh don’t tell Roman.

The outdoor museum is like an old style village but each building is brought in from a different city in Slovakia. They take apart the original building, and reconstruct it in the museum.

We ate some really good halusky at the restaurant there, it was DeLicious!

Some Thoughts:

2010-10-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

This being my second year as a non- student I am beginning to miss the definition being a student had. Yes you study really hard, eat a lot of pizza, fight with roommates, and are under the thumb of some professors. But I miss that gratifying (almost meaningless) Letter that comes back on papers tests, and projects. "A" (or sometimes "B"). Those always made me feel so good! I’d is pumped for the rest of the day and start working hard on some other project just to get another one!

Now, in real life, I don’t get grades. It’s really hard to tell when you are doing something well, and really easy to figure out you aren’t doing something correctly, most efficiently, or the best you can with the tools your given. It’s way harder. Like long term paper, but it lasts an eternity. You dont get to hand it in and you most certainly don’t get you work back with comments, corrections and a grade.

Yesterday this trouble maker girl in my 5th grade class marched right up to me and stared me down as if she had power over me. She was mad at me. I gave her a 5 (F) on a science quiz. First of all, the quiz was easy. Second, half the questions were in Slovak. Finally, she NEVER listens in class, fills out her worksheets or does her homework. I wasn’t about to argue with her and raise her grade. She is also the bully of the class. So like the other students, she was staring me down and trying very hard to be intimidation and expressing her anger at me. It was quite funny because I was standing with a group of teachers. As a 10 year old, that takes some guts.... to try and bully a group of teachers. In my head I was saying ""oooooo, a 10 year old is mad at me, IM SO SCARED!!! HAHAHA" but luckily that thought stayed in my head. :D

Harvest Time

2010-10-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Fall is beautiful in Martin, especially when it stops raining!

This isn't a retaining wall. Its a carpet!? we went exploring in some shops.

Crazy Hats, Messy Paint, and Colorful Vandelism

2010-10-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy few weeks but I finally uploaded my pictures from recent adventures. My favorite picture this week(and perhaps of alltime)is of Me and my home made viking hat, and my violin. I was teaching the 5th graders about viking music. I brought in my violin. It was fun! I also played in the 7th grade durring our lesson on renaissance music, but I didnt have a costume....

This was my sewing tinfoil to my silly polarfleece hat..... who knew id do that in a lifetime.....

Ive also been working on the painting in the stairway. Roman is going to help me too per Fino's request. He is making stencils for some cool ferns and some other plants. It will be fun to mesh our styles together in one intensly colored set of stairs. Its really hard to get all the trees in the same picture so here is a few:

Roman and I found some new places with cool grafiti. Dont worry, I stick to my juristdicted area at the school :)

2010-10-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Math,

I dont know what I ever did to make you so mad at me. Im sorry that I just dont understand the language you speak. Please dont bring your wrath into my classrooms. its a bit humiliating, and doesnt help anyone much.

thanks

Emily

I am the WORST math teacher ever.....

Today I was teaching 7th grade math with Jozef. We are reviewing for a test so I made a Jeapordy game with all kinds of word problems. I like writing word problems its fun, they can be silly, and about funny things. The problem is that when i write them, I pull the numbers out of my head willy nilly.

Being confident in the ligitimacy of my word problems, I solved some of them, but most I left to "figure out later" like i do with all of my biology and geography and history stuff. Apparently I forgot that math is way more exact than any of my subjects that I like.

Jozef and I had a good laugh while kids tried to solve "unsolvable" word problems (only unsolvable for them, without calculators, and algebra), and it was expecially laughable when the answers that I did find.... were wrong.

We were lauging so hard that the kids were just staring at us wondering what the heck was going on. Oh math. thanks for coming back to bite me after all these years......

Fall Fun!

2010-09-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the "Martin Jarmok" festival. It is a fall festival where all kinds of booths are set up with crafts, food, and fun. The place was lousing with my favorite kids and their grandparents (the children of the bible school staff- it was also the first weekend of saturday bible school so all of their parents were at work). Its fun when the only people you know it a city are 10 years old, or 2 years old.

One of the big things to drink at the festival is "Burciak" it is like 'young wine' it tastes just like grape juice, and is really sweet and many times home made. It was good!

I went on friday to Jarmok with Monika and Mima. It was fun! I went to the edge of my braveness regaurding food. I had Lokse. It is goose liver and onions served on a folded tortilla. I was delicious but I was nervous about eating it because it was liver..... yikes! I am still alive though.

I did some christmas shopping too, and, I was by myself on saturday so I did it in slovak, and I think I did a pretty good job on my own. The best part about Jarmok was people watching. I had my camera ready most of the time:

that is totally a REAL owl... they had hawks and eagles and stuff too!!! :D i need a hat like that it would make me like 6 feet tall!!!!

But the undocumented moment i thought was most hilarious was 5 grizzly old me standing in a circle eating sausages. Each of them had a distinctly crazy mustache. Im sure they have some kind of mustache club or something.

This week in 5th grade biology:

2010-09-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

MUSHROOMS!

This week Mr. Hasko and taught about the forest floor, and plants that live there (mainly mushrooms). Unfortunately I broke Dusan's awesome mushroom hat between lessons, so only one class got to experience the full insanity of mushrooms.

It has taken me while to learn this, and I still dont like saying it, but it really has helped me in the past weeks gain some respect, and authority in the classroom. " I am your teacher, not your friend." paired with this montra, the kids have been told by Jozef that my name is "Miss Emily", not just emily.

To me this just sounds so southern! its funny to walk into a room to an echoing "miss emily" almost like a song.

Singing In Slovak

2010-09-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

I joined the choir. Ad'a has been trying to convince me to since last year. It is really funny to sing in slovak because you have to hold longer notes usually on a constanant. Strange concept. Im glad Mr. Pontious taught us how to sing in spanish, latin, italian, french and other far off languages because now its easier to sing, and not have a clue what you are singing about.

so- thankyou Mr. P.

Setting the bar

2010-09-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

I may have set the creative bar too high too soon. Here is my first costume of the year. It was for 5th grade teaching plant parts. The new classrooms dont have chalkboards or projectors yet so I had the students pin labels to me. I didnt get stuck though! I'll take that as a good sign. if you notice, its 1/2 a flower so you can see the stamen, overy, anthers,and pistil

I Painted the Town Red!

2010-09-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

Also blue, yellow, green and orange! The official opening and commencment of school and the new building took place today. The mayor was here, along with the local news team. I thought Jozef was joking when he basically dared me to make a plan for the boring white, prison type exterior of the school. Gladly and enthousiastically I took him up on his dare. The sketched plan did not even touch his desk before he asked Igor to order the paint. I was in shock for many days thinking "wow, Jozef trusts me too much!"

I got a bit nervous because I kept getting mixed reactions to the plan. Igor looked nervous about how bright the colors were, and many faces looked a bit shocked about it, but in the end it turned out well! Bohdan shows it off the most ive found, and he said I was "brilliant". Not to shabby.

Of course I had some help painting. It took three days, waiting it out between the drizzles and showers of the uncooperative weather. Ita helped alot as well as Gary and Jenine (the new americans) and a team of Slovaks exclusively speaking Slovak. Luckily sometimes I can talk to people, and even more often I can understand people. Now instead of immediately telling people I dont understand slovak, i just say I dont speak slovak.... its a subtle difference, but it tones down peoples surprise a little bit.

I finished the mural exactly 30 min before the ceremony. Im sure you can imagine me making some minor adjustments and touch ups in my dress clothes on this crisp fall morning :)

New Art Project

2010-07-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

I decided that I cannot sum up the last month in a blog post or two. its too little too late. so if you want, you can just get it in pictures via this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/em.ender87/SummerFun#, or just ask me :)

In other updates this is the new project I did today. We found this cardboard cut out in Martin during the cultural festival, and being the bad girls that Lisa and I are, we took it. In our defense we found it on the ground, and I used it as a stencil to make these cool shirts. Its a picture of the new crazy statue in town.

homeward bound

2010-07-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

everyone involved made it safely back to the U.S. with no complications or time crunches. Ill post more pictures and stories, and even videos later on. for now, time to rest up from the adventures :)

for everyone at home, if you want to catch up or something you can call my house (773-o647), or my new cell phone is : 651-343-6872

Croatian Adventure

2010-06-24T09:47:00.002-07:00

If you are American, you call Croatia, Croatia. If you live in Croatia, you call it Republika Hrvatsko. Either way, its on the Adriatic sea in Southern Europe. It is a hot, dry, Mediterranean climate with lots of figs, olive trees, grapes, and sea food. Here is a list of weird food I tried durring our visit there:

Octopus salad
raw shrimp
muscles
grilled squid
anchovies
walnut brandy
fish, still attached to the head and scales
cuddle fish, ink and all

The first day I was there, I met up with mom and dad for the first time in 10 months, it was really funny, they jumped out of the van and I got a little bit squished with hugs, we laughed super hard. We were staying in Trogir, just outside of Split. It was a beautiful seaside town with a labyrinth of shops and stores. I got to stick my feet in the sea!

the next days we headed off on a hike, and then crossed the boarder to Bosnia-Hercegovenia. There we swam in a river, and white water canoed with Mogli (from jungle book) as our guide. it was really awesome! At the end of out trip we had lunch, and I Jumped off a railroad bridge. Dad rewarded my calculated risk taking with a Pivo, strange behavior for a dad. We also went to a town called Mostar. It is divided by a river, and has Islam as the major religion on one side, and Catholics on the other side. A very bizarre place- we had a beer in a cave/bar that was playing belly dancing music.

After crossing the boarder back into Croatia, we arrived in Dubrovnik. we stayed in a small town outside of the big city in a bay filled with sailboats reminiscent of pirates. we kayaked out of the bay, across the sea, to an island and got to swim in a cave! it was beautiful! the cave glowed with a brilliant turquoise color! At the beach we ate a lunch of grilled fish and potatoes, the scales and the head were still an integral part of the filet, a good experience though.

Lastly, we explored Dubrovnik. It is one of the only standing walled cities. We took a walk around the top of the wall and there were no bad picture places. It was a for right on the sea! After the city, we went and found a rope swing. Unfortunately it wasn't a very good swing logistically, but it made for a really good swimming hole!

Favorite pictures from camp:

2010-06-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Games (Marek, Teo, Gabika, Andy, Janko)

Hiking (Buska, Jakub, Jozef, Ad'o)

Dancing at the Discko (Marek, I dont know)

Hike in the High Tatras (Terezia, Adam)

2010-06-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

I was pretty reluctant to be going to the school of nature, I just wanted an easy week of normal teaching before the rush of summer adventures began. Other teachers were not very enthusiastic to hop on a bus filled with rowdy pre-teens either. The week was really good in the end, the weather cleared up after weeks of rain, and we were right up in the High Tatras, and got to spend plenty of time out in the sun.

The trip was for the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade class- and we left the misbehaved kids at home. It was a good chance to meet all of my students for next year ( I will be teaching 5th, 6th, and 7th grade 'science in english') In the mornings we had some lessons and in the afternoons they played games with the College students who are studying to be teachers. The games were fun- I got to play some too. There were three teams competing in the games and I was the leader for the team "pijovice" or leach. They made a flag, and had a song and everything. very creative kids. We won at the end of the week, apparently the best team is a mix of 4th, and 6th graders.

There were tallent shows, a disco, hikes, and many other fun things going on. On one of the hikes two of my students lead the way with me. they decided that my slovak name would be 'Milka' because emily = emilia, and the nickname for that is Milka. its also a really good brand of chocolate-overall win. I also told them what their american names would be. It has been so long since Ive spoken these names it sounded strange to me like; Theresa, Phil, Jake, Ryan, Rachel. It feels weird the longer you are gone. They also gave slovak names to my family Jake= Jakub (yakoob) Lisa=Lizinka Carl=Karlko and there is no close equivalent for Levi so they decided Leviko

For one of the morning lessons I got to teach the kids how to use a compass and map. It was really fun, we had a destination they had to find but it was also a race between girls and boys. there were pine-cone fights, and bog stomps. it was great! I told them about survival kits too, and how every girl needs a pocket knife (that's what my mom always says).

Umbrella's

2010-05-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

add them to the list of things I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!

today Roman and I decided to walk to tesco, it was bright and sunny, perfect for an afternoon walk. about 10 min later it started to rain. of course once we got to tesco it stopped, until we stepped foot outside again on the way home.

Luckily I had my ridiculously colorful, peace sign, happy face umbrella. It is little, Roman was carying it but we were both still getting wet. When it kept down pouring I decided to stop pretending to stay dry and have some fun. I was running around like a kid splashing through puddles and dancing in the rain. it was fun! When we got back I dripped puddles all the way upstairs to my room. It was great! :D I looked like a drenched cat.

2010-05-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Super Fun Weekend In Pictures!
I went with Michal, Starka, the kids, and our friend Tom to the Valcovi Cabin in Liptovsky Mikulas.
The lawn was long, the mower was broken, so marek got out the sythe. Pretty smart for a first grader. Unfortunately, no one wanted to return to martin with a missing limb.

Maggie's turn, it took 2 kids and 2 adults to fix it, and get it running.
and three kids to clean it! :D

playtime- they made dandelion soup, and I crowned maggie queen.

this is the knife I made hot dog sticks with after we built a fire from wet wood. watch out!

Happy Birthday Dad!

2010-05-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

All the way from slovakia!
One of my classes: Ivka, Dominika, Mat'a, Gabika, Katka, Daniel, Me, Kenny, Peter, Luky, Veronika, Natálka, Anika, Daniel, Lukáš , Ninka, and Adam

Všetko najlepšie k narodeninám
(all the best for your birthday!)

This week in pictures:

2010-05-20T03:49:00.000-07:00

I made some really funny costumes for science class this week! I was really excited about them. Its amazing what you can do with a few pipe cleaners, and headbands. When I recieved a package full of pipecleaners (maybe 200) from crafty Mrs. Lisa Ender i thought "what the heck am i going to do with these????!" well I thought of some things:

Earthquake week: the top is the Epicenter, the middle is the Focus. Kids think we are silly but they are always caught off gaurd by the next wild hat:
Volcano week! thats right, I get to wear my Cinder Cone Volcano hat for the next 5 lessons! wahoo! next is glaicers... that will be a bit more challenging.

Some advancements were made on the goal of bringing pie to slovakia. I helped Kamilko to make a banana cream pie for his mom's birthday. This should be right after the pictures of Kimil's first word, first step, graduation, and first pie. Look how proud he is to be holding a pie!

and since it hasn't stopped raining for as long as I can remember Kamil had to borrow my umbrella one day. I feel ridiculous walking around with it, but it was pouring rain. I cant imagine how silly he felt. Hopefully he forgives me for posting this picture, but its so funny!!! At least I didnt put it on facebook ;)

And alex- if you are reading this, The girls upstairs have the raidio on and your song is playing!!!!!! hahahaha I miss you come back pronto lady!

Geography Costumes

2010-05-15T04:45:00.001-07:00

This one we were teaching about the important lines of Latitude- the equator, the tropics of cancer and capricorn, and the poles. So, I am the northpole, and the equator, and Ada is the tropics and the south pole. the kids all tied string on eachother so they could have latitudes too.

We dressed as spies because we played "where in the world is Carmen sandiego" in class to learn latitude and longitude. I gave them clues and they had to find different cities, and the time zone they were in. They did not fully appreciate the humor of my clues. Its ok, they are only 10.

Art Projects

2010-05-15T04:39:00.000-07:00

A Valco Adventure

2010-05-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

I went on an adventure with the Valco' (Michal, Magdalenka, Marek, and Ado-a nephew)
We drove a few minutes south of town and went exploring in the woods. Everyone was fully prepared. Marek had a slingshot and a pocket full of rocks. Magdalenka had a Bow and arrow. Michal had a big bear killing knife, and Ado and I had some pretty big sticks.

We headed out over a hill and through the woods. It was a cloudy day but it was bright, and because of all the rain we have gotten it was very very green. It reminded me of pictures of Scotland. Marek and Ado were on a search for a bear, and then a wolf.

We went the trail down a ravine and I found a Skeleton. The kids were more enthralled by that than I expected. they wanted to take the whole deer skull home with them. I eventually talked them into just bringing home a tooth- but it was difficult.

Michal and I tried to teach Magdy to use her bow and arrow but she is only 4 so she isnt quite coordinated enough with her fingers to do it. Instead we braided crowns of dandelions and butter cups so we could be fairies.

Of course fluffy the dog came too. she left the house white, and came back a kind of mucky gray-brown color. She was banished to the bathroom as soon as we got home.

2010-05-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

The Broken Pumpkin
A story by Emily Ender

(pictures may be inapproprate for people who dont like injuries)

In a garden far far away lived two young pumpkins
The ground was just starting to warm up and their leaves began to soak up sunshine
With the sunlight lasting longer the pumpkins began to grow, and vine their way around the garden

there were bright tulips that sang songs in the rain
there were clovers that drank up the morning dew
and there was a magic singing tree.

The tree grew delicious cherries and
it hummed all day long with songs of busy bees

One sunny day the two pumpkins decided to leave the garden
they found some roller blades and took off to explore the yard
they found a maypole that represented spring was here to stay!
they were very excited so the went home to tell their friends in the garden.

On the way home they had to go down a very big hill
The pumpkins were scared but they wanted to go home- it was the only way back
The first pumpkin went down the hill
he was going to fast and tripped on some pebbles that were at the bottom
the second pumpkin was too scared so she walked down in the grass
the first pumpkin tripped and fell and broke his pumpkin head!

The two pumpkins hurried home to clean up the pumpkin guts that had spilled out
Not sure if they should go to the gardener to get fixed, the pumpkins asked mamma Ita.
She told them how to get to the gardener for help, and she sent L'ubo with them.

The Pumpkin was ok, he just had a small crack in his pumpkin head
the gardener fixed it up with a few stitches and sent him back to the garden to rest.

Based on a true story. All parties are healing, and healthy. Roman is the one with the broken pumpkin head.

Post commuunism; Teaching kids to Lead

2010-05-06T05:40:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I spent some quality time on the phone with my dad. Everybody knows that dads usually have great ideas, but it is hard to figure out how to put them into play sometimes.

My dad spent the last week at a Leadership Training Converence. He was still really excited about what he had learned, and the activities that he participated in while at the conference. He inspired me to try some new activities in the classroom with leadership in mind. In slovak culture, its easy to see that there are two scenario's- sometimes there are many leaders, and no followers. and the other times there are no leaders, only followers. So in the post communist era I have made it a goal to help my kids become better leaders, and better followers.

The tricky part is teaching English and grammar simultaneously.

I gave each student a word, from the spelling list, or from the book. Silently (we are practicing not talking constantly- usually failing) they had to alphabetize themselves across the length of the room. At the end I asked them these questions:

1. Was there a leader of the group?
2. Was there more than one leader? (one type of leader)
3. What makes someone a leader?
4. What does a leader do or have?

we had a dictionary for translation but even without using it they came up with some really good answers. I was impressed:

a leader is a good learner and a good teacher
a leader is friendly, nice and likable
they know what the group needs
they are smart and reliable, just and fair
they are the favorite person of the class
they are respected, and have respect (I prompted this one out of them)
they have a good brain
they are like Jesus
the protect the group, and are careful
they are attentive, strong, and sensitive

so now they know what a leader has. I think I want to have them think of people who they think are great leaders- in class, in life, and in history.

I am not totally sure about where to go from here, but it is definitely a start to something.

The Happy Slovak Frogs

2010-04-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

The Happy Slovak Frogs
A children's story by Emily Ender

Once upon a time in the land of Slovakia there was a little frog named Schmemily. She and her other frog friends Froman and Shkamilko survived the long gray winter. Finally, on fine spring day the sun came out and it was warm! They had so much fun frolicking around the pond!

The sun shone brightly into their rooms to wake them up bright and early in the morning. They ate a big hearty breakfast and set of on their grand adventures. First Schmemily and Froman decided to make a painting of their long time nemisis Rufus, the octopus.
Rufus the Octopus lived in the ocean, not the pond, but he still was so evil that Schmemily and Froman wanted every one to be "on the look out" if Rufus ever came around the pond. Rufus was really evil. He stole all the mosquitoes from the pond so the frogs had less to eat :(Shkamilko came out to play later, because he likes to sleep in. Sometimes hes a lazy frog but when he is awake he is the most athletic frog too. Shkamilko and Schmemily put on their froggy rollerblades and made Froman chase them around the square. It was a game of tag, but it wasnt fair because Froman had to run. Poor Froman. They got mosquito flavored ice cream and sat in the grass watching the clouds. They saw the first flight go over their heads after the volcano blew up iceland to smothereenes.
Froman and Shkamilko went on an adventure to tesco, while Schmemily and her friends Schmonika, Shyka, and Shmeveka drew with sidewalk chalk. They practiced their animal names and colors in foreign frog languages and they drew tasty treats like butterflies and caterpillars, and their fishy friends.
Shmeveka drew twister circles all over the sidewalk, and they played crazy Slovak twister. it was much harder than any twister Schmemily had ever played. After all their slime was dried up from the chalk, they went and played volleyball. Schmemily still stinks at volleyball, just like in 7th grade gym class.

Shkamilko and Froman returned from tesco and they played on the swings, and climbed all over the playground. They also tried to play frisbee for a while, but Schmemily wasnt very good at that either. Apparently she missed the classes on hand-eye coordination all together.

At the end of the day all the froggies were so tired the fell into a deep deep sleep as soon as the sun set. They needed to rest up for another full day of fun in the sun.

picture drawn by Ajka

2010-04-22T05:07:00.001-07:00

MORE BUDAPEST PICS:

http://picasaweb.google.com/em.ender87/Budapest#

2010-04-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

We started off our time in Budapest with a visit to the Market! It was great I've never seen such vibrant vegetables in massive quantities before. The strawberries were so red it looked like they were dripping flavor like paint. There were so many different fruit and veggie vendors, we couldn't figure out how people choose which one to buy from. The market was in a building that vaguely looks like the Corn Palace in SD. It was tiled and mosaic with different colors. the inside was humongous! and packed with people. All of the fresh produce, was on the ground level, fresh breads and cheeses, in the picture below I'm enjoying a delicious sour cherry and curd strudel. it was delectable!

The upper floor was filled with crafts and other artsy stuff, linens, tapestries, embroidery, chess sets. Anything you can imagine. It was really cool to see everything Hungarian spread before my very eyes.
Next we walked across the Erzabet bridge and climbed up Gelart Hill. There is a very unique castle inside Gellart hill. It looks like a castle carved right out of the limestone. The inside is a large cave with a few different areas of worship as well as a stained glass window right in the side of the hill. Ironically the church was full of plants. how they grow without sun is beyond me. It was one of the most interesting church I have seen, every corner leading to something new. My climbing instincts tried cling to me like a monkey.... so of course i tried to climb it :)

below: mary and a stranger sitting in worship

We climbed Gellart hill to the top where there is a giant statue that is supposedly the "statue of liberty of Budapest" its a woman holding an olive branch, she stands for peace looking over the city. We needed a coffee refill- the view was fantastic! you could see the whole city from the hill. Oh, mom, that scarf im wearing- I bought it at the market :D hope you like it
Next to Gellart hill lies the castle district. I really liked the way this castle was built. It is called Fisherman's Bastion, but its not near the water, nor a refuge for fishermen. Since M.C.Escher is my favorite artist, I love playing with reflections in pictures and my own sketches.
Budapest is peppered with statues with makes for fun picture taking experiences. You all should have seen the look on Roman's face when I was flipping through the pictures on my computer. It was priceless. This statue boy reminded me of the boy in "where the wild things are" because he had a crown like him.
The next day we took a bus out to Hero Square. It is outside of downtown Budapest and is a memorial for all the people who fought for Hungary. There was a huge park behind the square so I spent most of our dime there walking around the park, people watching, and enjoying the sunshine. There were some interesting musicians and a small castle. I went to the Museum of Fine arts and got the privilege of seeing some original Monet and Renoir paintings. Our walk back was interesting as well, we traveled through 'real Budapest' rather than 'tourist Budapest' and we found a really amazing ice cream shop on the way home. We rewarded ourselves with some ice cream, I had the best strawberry milk shake ever, with real strawberries.

Our trip was great! and we got home safely :D

2010-04-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Im going on an adventure to Budapest with my friend Mary! I'll be back sunday to post some stuff about the trip.

This week was pretty uneventful, it rained every day, and I was sick. Roman took excellent care of me and I'm all better! Yesterday we even went to Zilina to meet his friend (other) Roman. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds eventually, but disapointingly, I woke up to the rain again.

Have a good weekend!

Easter Festivities

2010-04-02T03:03:00.000-07:00

We have had such beautiful weather recently in martin! It's springtime and all the people are starting to appear out of nowhere!

Thursday was the market in the square. Alex and I had fun looking at all of the pretty things that are specifically Slovak. There were kids all dressed up in traditional costumes dancing around and a blacksmith working on metal pieces.

Roman left for the weekend today, but not before we sat on a park bench for a solid hour drawing and planning the glass tree house we should live in. I asked him if we could also have a clown car, He said it would be better to have a tye dye bus... enough said. Ill post pictures when the tree house blue print is done.

We have also been tying up some loose ends and do everything fun for a last time before Alex leaves. Our mural got taken down, and the double stick tape was a great idea for the wall but when someone took the project down and rolled it up we couldn't undo it. it was unsalvageable :( Instead we ceremoniously burned a square, and tore apart the project before we recycled it.

Alex had 2 canvases so we decided we should paint them as one picture, and then swap. So we made a sun/star/ colorful thing.

Gummy Letters- fun new game

2010-03-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

More fun than alphabet soup, here they have gummy letters! Alex found them! How exciting!

Yesterday, I spent some time studying slovak while Roman was studying actual school stuff. As a treat at the end we got to play with gummy letters. He had to spell in English, and I in Slovak. It wasn't so bad because there was a severe lack of vowels...hehehe to bad for the person trying to spell in English......

Also, today I went to Catholic church, the girls invited me and I really couldn't justify turning them down. Its church, and as far as Catholicism goes, Im confused when its in English, so it doesn't really matter that its in Slovak. The church was really pretty though, lots of stuff to look at.

Today I found out that Alex is leaving on saturday :( bummer! She decided to start grad school in June, move to Austin, and be studious and smart, and get a masters in social work. I guess I cant really be mad that she wants to save the world :)

alex at the orphanage with Kiko, and Sofia

The kids had an easter program- they sang, and did skits and such. here's a picture!

Bright and Shiny spring day!

2010-03-25T01:14:00.001-07:00

Today was so nice out! it was so sunny and warm and the sky was an amazing shade of blue. The mountain tops still have snow and there was only one lonely cloud in the sky. Roman and I went on a walk on the river to take pictures of the water so we could use them in our sketch study of water and waves. We ran into some curious ducks, but we didnt have any bread to give them, so the became disinterested. It was so nice that we couldnt go inside until it got dark, and cold again. I'm a bit sun-burnt but that just means that it was a really good day.

Birthday fun and adventures!

2010-03-23T01:12:00.000-07:00

My birthday was so fun! alex and I made some amazing cheese burgers and pie, and then went out for a drink. It was great! Recently its been so nice and springy here so live outside now. Yesterday I even got to draw with chalk and play on the playground at recess. It would have been painful to be inside it was so nice out!!!

This is at birthday coffee on our way to get supplies for pie, and yummy cheeseburgers!

Pie crust and smoothie making. Alex had a little bit of bronchitis left over from last week so she wasnt allowed to touch anything we ate.

a wildly attractive picture of me taking the first bite out of our veggitable filled burgers. We had a picknic on the floor. It was great!

So im not actually 24.... alex didnt get the candles in time to use them on her pie, so we just pretended and used them for mine :) (im 23)

our project as of my birthday! we put two more strips up and continued working on the 4th in the series! :) half way done!

this is what happens when you use all the forks and put them in the dishwasher. You eat pie with chopsticks. :P

Birthday video from my Momma!

2010-03-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

Crazy week!

2010-03-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

"Misadventures bring more wisdom and better stories than Adventures"

Last week was so busy! I loved it!
monday I played with the Valco's kids(Magdalenka, and Marek)- we colored peacocks. apparently I made it their new favorite animal.

Tuesday I played with the Kacian kids (Terezka and Timko)- we played horses, and drew pictures where everything was the wrong color- Terezka's idea, shes my kind of girl.

Now I have a gallery of pictures the girls drew in my room! Its fun!

Wednesday and Thursday I caught up on work and lesson planning. Friday we went to the orphanage and got attacked by children! it was crazy!

We walked in and right away they wanted to start a dance party. They couldn't contain their excitement, their emotions surfaced more violently than they met. A few times I found myself at the bottom of a pile of children. For some reason they like to climb me (not Alex) I don't really understand, I'm not much taller than them.

We got out a camera and kids went nuts! they all wanted to take pictures, we had to break up a few fights, but it was totally worth it because we got some pretty funny pictures.

Saturday Alex and I wanted to work on our project and realized that we were out of paper, glue, and tape. the only thing we still have is squares. so that was a bit of a bummer- so we ended up coloring and then going to our friends house for some Norwegian pizza. which was SO GOOD!

Oh yeah, Im a teacher too

2010-03-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been forgetting to fill you in on the reason Im here.....

So the costumes from biology last trimester were so much fun! However, I've been teaching math lately and that doesn't leave as much creativity to make costumes and such. But I know my 5th graders, and I have to make it fun somehow- so I made Giant dice when talking about cubes and dice for 3 weeks.

and a Box-o-Shapes for our geometry unit. I try to include songs about shapes but there really isnt a good easy way to make math mind blowingly fun..... fear not, soon the geography unit will start! :)

Super Saturday!

2010-03-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday was great! Alex and I met for coffee to kick off the day with some caffeine! Then we walked to the store to get things to put inside Slovak pancakes. We picked out some Pineapple, blueberries, strawberries and a few bananas. When we got home, our slovak, Roman, showed us how to make pancakes the right way because last time it was a disaster! you can see:

this time they were delicious! I guess somethings its just easier to have a Slovak around :)

After our cooking, and delicious lunch, we headed to Alex's house for the art project of the day. We made so much headway on our mural! Three people working goes very fast. We also had the pleasure of being able to hang up one of the strips on the wall- that made us way more excited!

Magic Scissors

2010-03-07T00:20:00.000-08:00

Roman and I were playing a game that was really fun, we still play it. "would you rather have a ______,_____, or ______" for a pet. We got super creative at one point and I ended up with a scenario like this: "would you rather have a tiny penguin, a tiny elephant, or a pocket sized L'ubo?"

of course the right answer was the pocket sized L'ubo..... our friend.

That night I had the craziest dream since I moved to slovakia:
I was making a paper doll of L'ubo in my room, and I cut it out with these magic scissors, and he came to life! pocket sized and all! He still spoke only slovak but there was a cartoon bubble that popped up in english. It was awesome!!!

So I ran up to show Roman that I had a pocket sized L'ubo! We were so excited that we decided to make a pocket sized Kamil!!! (another friend)

We took our pocket sized friends to Zilina, and lost them in the square, so we were running around looking for them. We found a whole town of tiny people in a bush, so we were sorting through them looking for Kamil and L'ubo.

When we got back home, it was really "Indian in the cupboard style" L'ubo and Kamil slept in Kamil's desk drawer.

We thought it was so crazy, i made little versions of L'ubo and Kamil here they are:

L'ubo is almost always on the phone and his catch phrase is "oh, my english!!!" and Kamil likes to go to the gym, so in my dream he had weights that were marshmellows on a toothpick. His Phrase is "this is the english kitchen!" when we hang out in the kitchen.

Gangster rap and Happy orphans:

2010-03-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

Today Alex and I finally started our orphanage project! It was so much fun! We went to play with the kids and 'teach them some English'. It was so fun, hey were all so happy that we came to play! At first we were reading picture books with kids climbing all over us. They wanted to test our English as well as our Slovak- so we had to be on our toes a bit.

Some of the older kids were showing us how they can dance- so Alex jumped in and decided we should have a dance off. The kids ran to get some dance music and they came back with a gangster wrap cd, that was no where near appropriate for kids.... or anyone for that manner.

Soon everyone was dancing and it was so fun! I was holding a little girl that wouldnt let me put her down. It feels strange to dance to inappropriate music holding a child. Anyway, she was giggling so hard when I was spinning around. There was another boy who - his goal may have been to pull my arm right off but I will never know.

there were about 20 kids there that we saw, we got them all nice and riled up just before we left! I cant wait until next week

Crafty Adventures that make a mother proud (im assuming)

2010-02-26T02:45:00.000-08:00

Since you know I am Lisa's daughter, the following shouldn't come as a huge shock to you:

Project number one (the long term one) The HUGE MURAL:

we have now finished one strip that is 3.15 meters by 1 meter, and are about half done with a new strip. We have to complete about 6 of these to cover the whole wall. We borrow magazines and coupon books from many places. We have to convince Alex's roomates that we are serious, they pretty much dont believe anything we say..... which is normal, since we have some pretty wild ideas.

Project number two: FOUND OBJECTS

Only some people may appreciate this one. On our dog adventure the other day we saw many discarded items such as garbage, tv's, clothes etc. on the path. We were lucky enough to find some amazing sweaters. So we found a lost plastic bag, and took them home to launder and love. At first, my intention was to felt and make mittens out of the sweater, but its much to awesome and unharmed to hack it to bits. Plus, it shrunk from an XXL to my size! :)

Alex's is the gray one. It totally fits her style, she wore the old man cardigan with a short dress and high boots on her birthday, she can pull of some amazing outfits!

Im so glad i have a friend that thinks its ok to find clothes in the woods, then wear them.
~mom, be proud enough for both of us, cause alex' mom is more....worried about her sanity :)

Project number three- FIX THE PANTS

So girls pants sometimes are dumb, they have the bleach marks, but really it just makes them more vulnerable to tearing. I got sick of trying to fix them up with regular thread, and hide the fact that I hate shopping, so i got out some embroidery floss, and went to town. these are now designated as my "play pants" ... I intend to do some more, until i run out of thread, but i want to learn a new stitch.

Birthday Fun!

2010-02-26T02:41:00.000-08:00

Today is Alex's birthday!

so I made her a birthday pie per request: Strawberry chocolate.
It was experimental but very good. and now gone. :)

We also had some morning coffee at our usual spot- Kamela, and she got to sport this lovely crown from her aunt and uncle! I think that maybe slovaks thought it said "Im a dufus" but of course, we always look like fools anyway!

we also went out for some pizza, worked on our project and played some card games. I got her a slovak birthday card, but I forgot to ask someone what it said before I gave it to her. We knew maybe every other word. Its more fun making up what it could say though.

She and Aestine (her Norwegian) are going to Bratislava for a concert! sounds like a fun birthday!

Child adventure

2010-02-26T02:29:00.000-08:00

Today, instead of borrowing someones dog, we borrowed a child. We thought it might be fun. Since there was no school, Marek was at home with grandma starka all day. I picked him up and ended up taking Flufinka also (the tiny white dog). I told Marek that he got to meet my friend Alex and that her favorite game was racing. He was so excited that he wanted me to take him to the train station to pick her up.

The dog may be small, but it sure can pull hard. It also goes completely insane sometimes and runs in figure eights around people, or just around himself. We went to the park, and played on the jungle gym, and made obstical courses and raced around.

Then Marek wanted to play hide and seek. Being geniuses, and since one of us had to stay with the dog, Marek decided that we should both count. Not thinking like a parent, we both covered our eyes and stood there talking to each other in the park (probably looking ridiculous). We started looking for him and both of us got an overwhelming feeling of panic when we couldn't find him in the first 5 seconds. We then decided that as much as we hate cheating, one of us probably should. Of course human trafficking came to my mind instantaneously.....

I found him in about a minute. He told me to prentend I was still looking so Alex could find him. She noticed I was walking around pretty cavalierly so she figured I found him. We cheated the rest of the game. We wouldn't want to loose other peoples children-it wouldn't look too good on a resume (or a background check)

Puppy adventure

2010-02-25T02:01:00.000-08:00

Today I wanted to surprise Alex, with a dog. So She came to meet me at the bibleschool and we went on a walk with Zorro. Hes the best dog. We had so much fun, it was a pretty springish day, muddy, and full of puddles. All of us got pretty messy, some of us found burrs....I even got out my rain boots and went puddle stomping for a while. It was really fun!

I also figured out some something really kind of funny today. So the past few days ive been having really terrible stomach aches in the evening. I got really tired of them so I was reading about all the things that could be wrong with me. Then, i was eating my granola and milk, just like every morning, and I thought maybe it tasted a little funny.... turns out Ive been drinking expired milk for about a week. Since I eat it at the same time every morning, I get a stomach ache at the same time every night. crazy.

outwitted by kindergardeners

2010-02-24T00:41:00.001-08:00

The other day I emailed Michal, to see if I could come play. So I went over to his house on Monday evening. I was greeted at the door by very happy children, Michal and Katka's plus another one.

Immediately I was reading books! They had one of my favorites from my childhood: "The Quiltmakers Gift" we closely examine all the quilts in the whole book and each picked our favorite. The best part of this was that i had Tereska in my lap, Magdalanka climbing on my head so she could see, and Marek- he was the book holder. It was great fun.

Later we decided we should all draw our favorite animals with crayon. I tried to pick on that maybe they wouldnt know in English....but of course. i was outwitted. those kids are geniuses. Fortunately they loved my peacock, and had me draw 3 of them. Marek drew his favorite, an iguana, and Magdalena a horse, and Michal, of course a T-rex, complete with its house.

Marek and Magdalenka also really enjoyed racing to see who could brush their teeth fastest, and get in their PJ's.

After I was exhausted of reading, I came home, and read some more.... to practice Slovak with the guys next door. But to get a break, they had to also read some English to me. :)

2010-02-23T09:21:00.000-08:00

this is our mural project. we know we have to make at least 6 of these strips that are 3.15 meters long... its a bit daunting.

epic fail on the palacky front.

2010-02-13T03:08:00.000-08:00

So slovak cooking really has not been working in our favor. We figured pancakes would be a bit easier because we have our own lumberjack/cowboy versions. We were wrong. these pancakes are flimsy tiny thin pieces of paper that cannot be flipped by anyone less than a professional.

Ill post pictures later so you can all see how epically we failed. and since we are tired of failing today we have a secret project to boost our morale around the kitchen and bring some American awesomeness to Slovakia. ill tell you the secret project later as well.

good song discovery!

2010-02-13T02:58:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we fall down and can’t get back up
We’re hiding behind skin that’s too tough
How come we don’t say I love you enough
Till it’s too late, it’s not too late

Our hearts are hungry for a food that won’t come
We could make a feast from these crumbs
And we’re all staring down the barrel of a gun
So if your life flashed before you, what would you wish you would’ve done

[Chorus]
Yeah, gotta start
Looking at the hand of the time we’ve been given here
This is all we got and we gotta start thinkin’ it
Every second counts on a clock that’s tickin’
Gotta live like we’re dying
We only got 86 400 seconds in a day
To turn it all around or throw it all away
We gotta tell ‘em that we love ‘em while we got the chance to say,
Gotta live like we’re dying

And if you plane fell out of the skies
Who would you call with your last goodbyes
Should be so careful who we live out of our lives
So when we long for absolution, there’ll be no one on the line

You never know a good thing until it’s gone

you never see a crash until its head on
All these people right when we’re dead wrong,
You never know a good thing till it’s gone

Excerps From Class

2010-02-10T23:47:00.000-08:00

For some reason today was more hilarious than usual. We had a test, and then we played a game to learn the new vocabulary. On the test they had to form 3 sentences in future tense about themselves in the year 2020 (they will be 21, or 22). They just had to write "I will go....I will be....I will have...."

One student shouts "ako sa povie fasista?" automatically my head went to fascist (it sounds similar) little did I know thats exactly what he meant! then he pounded his hands on his desk and proclaimed "I WILL BE FASCIST!" an unusual thing for a 10 year old to strive.

then we were playing a game I made up called "where do I hurt". They were learning the new vocabulary for the unity (headache, stomachache, toothache, broken arm etc.) so I taped a sign to their backs and they had to ask their classmates to try and guess what it was. On student say's "am I hurt on my head? (yes) Am I hurt on my mouth? (yes) DO I HAVE THE HERPES??" I could not hold back my laughter.... of course he meant cold soar ..... but since I was laughing another student noticed and commented "teacher emily, I am thinking this word means different in english because you are laughing so"

yes daniel. it means something different.

Then it was time for the girls class. During their break I was talking to Buska. I told her she was silly today.... she was acting and trying to take over the classroom or something that was entertaining. of course she turns around with "teacher emily, I am silly today but you are silly all of the times." Life goal complete! yeah!

SLOVAKIFIED!

2010-02-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here is our Halusky experiment!

sad day! they dont work! sorry :(

Pages from my journal:

2010-02-08T00:05:00.001-08:00

Culinary adventures

2010-02-06T03:36:00.000-08:00

This week was filled with adventures in the world of culinary activities. First, since Slovakia has no idea of the wonderfulness of maple syrup, Kristi brought some back for us when she went to the states. We ate pancakes and french toast for about 2 weeks straight. My friend, Roman, was also curious about the american favorite of 'french toast'. I taught him how to make it, simple enough, until it came time to pour on the syrup. As you may know you need to soak the break, without drowning it... a very tricky ratio for beginners. As I was explaining this to Roman, he handed me the bottle of Aunt Jemimah, and backed away slowly "leaving it to the expert". It is now a slovak approved dish :)

Next we "ASKED A SLOVAK" our new TV show about cooking- how to make bryndzové halušky.
I will post video later from our show. So, bryndzové halušky is somewhat like the Slovak version of Macaroni and cheese. its made with sheep cheese, and its melted halušky which is a potato dumpling type thing. It is the national dish and it is velmi dobre!

Alex and I have also been planning some amazing trips, art projects and miscellaneous fun. We are planning a potential trip to the Ukraine at the end of February, and we have many cooking plans for the future as well as fun things around martin. We had to make a list so we don't forget anything! The list has become very long.

so be on the lookout for video and pictures from our cooking adventures, as well as "journal pages from a runaway graduate" ive been heavy into the art side of life lately.

dovi

2010-02-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

Krakow is Kinetic

2010-01-31T10:01:00.001-08:00

train ride- seemed like the polar express

Krakow was amazing! I was continuously surprised by the sheer volume of people milling around in the streets at any point during the day. There are people everywhere, speaking many languages, of all ages, peppered with diversity. It was awesome.

more fun on the train.

Hannah and I started out our journey on Friday morning at the Martin train station. Because there was a "blizzard" (to any Minnesotan it was just a regular snowfall)our train was a bit delayed but we traveled to Krakow transferring a few times. Staring out the window tirelessly and attentively the entire trip we saw northern Slovakia, some of the Czech Republic, and Poland. It was about a seven hour train ride but it seemed to fly by.

When we arrived we promptly got lost. Apparently we walked the completely wrong direction right out of the train station. We finally got back on track after we talked to at least three people. We tried to speak polish, it didn't work so well. We found our stay at the Tutti Fruitti hostel in the main square. each room was a different fruit. we had the room with strawberries everywhere. It was a very colorful and welcoming atmosphere.

We ditched our backpacks and asked the hostel receptionist for a good Polish restaurant. she drew on a map where to go, and told to follow the sign with a grandma cooking on it. We assumed that it would be easy to find, and right on the street. we assumed wrong. This time we asked two people, and weaved in and around in a maze of government looking buildings and hallways that didn't look to inviting. we walked through a kitchen door and we were greeted by a polish woman dressed as a grandmother, the interior looked like a traditional polish home, wooden walls, floors, and heavy wooden tables and benches. The food was FANTASTIC! I had Peirogi which is like a noodle stuffed with meat and of course saur kraut. Later we went to a Jazz club and had some Polish beer, and listened to some music.

At the jazz bar, listenin' to some good tunes.

Day two started out with a Auschwitz-Birkenou tour. It was about an hour bus ride, so there was an 'introductory video' about the concentration camps. The video was honestly the most disturbing part of the whole tour. It had real footage from the camps and events within the camp. It was also partially an interview with a SS soldier who was there. They showed doctors examining children and babies that had died, and it showed the people getting sorted into groups of "fit" and "unfit" people. It was terrible, and it made both Hannah and I sick to our stomach's.

Birkenou

When we arrived the tour guide took us into a series of replicated buildings. The exhibits were interesting... but I dont want to reveal too much about it in case you have the chance to visit someday (and i hope you do). The most interesting fact I learned is that the chemical used in the gas chambers was invented by a Jewish chemist. It was intended to be used as a bug repellent.

After the tour, we headed back to Krakow, we had to get coffee to get re-energized. We intended to see everything Krakow had to offer before morning. We set out in the direction of the Wawel castle and the University that Copernicus attended. It was really cool! on the way we encountered many incredible cathedrals, and a monastery. Everything was really intricately designed. We also made it to the Jewish district to see some synagogues and have a Kabab. It was DELICIOUS!

Wawel castle

After food we stumbled on the mall. I know, it doesn't sound anything like me to go shopping.... really ever. But we did. Hannah is 'in the know' about fashion and clothes and things, and I was just scared, and completely overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of all the people. Inspired by the uniqueness of polish fashion Hannah talked me into a few purchases.

Our day ended with another visit to a Jazz Club. This one had a wonderfully warm atmosphere. There was lively music, and a homey feeling to the place. We ended up talking to some guys from Holland. They had a few days off work and just decided to visit Berlin and Krakow for the weekend.

We almost made it home to Slovakia on Sunday without getting lost.... until we got to Vrutky... a mere 5km away from martin. Sometimes train conductors like to play pranks on people by not being on the correct track, and not announcing that they are in a different place. As you can imagine this game isn't very fun for passengers who are confused anyway. This wasn't even an issue of not speaking Slovak because we ran into my friend Milan, who was going to Bratislava. He was helping us find our way because his train was 3 hrs late (blizzard). We went to the track that was indicated by the giant time table... and we watched the train pull away from the completely wrong track. Luckily Milan helped us get home via bus- we were too exhausted from traveling to even comprehend bus schedules po slovensky.

Krakow is one of my favorite cities, of the ones I've visited during my crazy Slovak adventure. Its definitely very unique and has SO MUCH HISTORY!

Slovak food explained: a fractured fairy tale by emily ender

2010-01-28T10:47:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time in the land of the USSR, there was a food factory. This food factory was located in present day Russia and served the greater eastern European area. The food factory was the grandest factory in the world. The technology was light years ahead of the rest of the world. It had magnificent machines that were well oiled, and extremely productive.

The factory produced all sorts of foods. Pizza, Halusky, Spaghetti, along with a wide assortment of deserts and cereals. Trucks came from all over Russia to deliver potatoes, and other root vegetables. The factory also had a giant secret garden lush with tomatoes, beans, peppers, and other delicious treats.

One day, a nuclear reactor about 100 km from the food factory, malfunctioned and caused a terrible disaster. As part of the aftermath the food factory started to produce some wacky concoctions. The nuclear disaster caused the machine to mix up the order of operations. As a result food was assembled incorrectly. Corn and peas ended up on Pizza, there were beans in the spaghetti sauce, and potatoes in the pancakes, and ketchup exploded everywhere!!!!

At first the factory workers didn't notice the disastrous mistake so the food was still delivered to the good people of the USSR and greater Eastern European Region. At first the people thought it was odd, but the mistake was never corrected... so to this day food is still a little mixed up. ...

and the people lived happily ever after!

the end

Sometimes you just have to laugh....

2010-01-26T10:51:00.000-08:00

I was probably just as terrible of a speller when I was 10. I just wanted to share with you the giggles I get from grading the weekly spelling test. I give them the words a week ahead of time- most kids know the list in order, from memory. some- well, they just make me laugh.

here is the list from this week:

Lili Pat (not a spelling word, i found it written somewhere else) goal: Lilly Pad

schoode (should)

Browen (brown)

Eais ( i have no idea)

hagry (angrily)

Guqikly (quickly)

Karfly (carefully)

To je blaznive

2010-01-24T23:27:00.000-08:00

(it is crazy)

Sweat is slowly crawling down your face as you strip off wool layers like sheep in spring. Your heart is pounding, your face is burning, and probably a shade of scarlet, lungs are burning, and you don't know if you can keep going without another bite of peanut butter sandwich. Gasping for air, you turn around and see that you are absolutely, at the end of the earth. A quilt of clouds is spread out before you and the sun is beating down relentlessly. the breeze cools, now its freezing.

for as far as you can see there are only blanket like clouds so close they seem tangible, and the stiff peak above you. Giddy with excitement, and now cold because you stopped moving to take in the landscape, you hurry through the uneven snow falling every few steps making it seem as if you are drunk with sunshine. Now its so steep you need to climb with your hands as well. sliding your sweaty hands into your wet mittens is uncomfortable, but who cares. You are almost to the top!

Today Mat'o took us on another excellent mountain adventure! Hannah came too. If you recall in my earlier posts, there is no such thing as switchbacks here....they just bomb right up the mountain, which is almost more fun. Today our destination was Maly Krivan (5,492 feet) the peak a 5,200 foot gain from its base in Martin. It was an incredibly beautiful day, the first day of sunshine in weeks.

As I was hiking I could not stop thinking about how crazy it is that I came from being an infant, living in the bottom of a canyon in California, all the way to the top of a peak in Living in Slovakia, 22 years later. The scenery at the top was Post card perfect. Hannah kept asking me if it was fake, or if we were dreaming. To je Blaznive....

well now for some pictures! :)
feel free to check out all my pictures at : http://picasaweb.google.com/em.ender87/Slovakia#

Strecno Ruins

2010-01-24T23:26:00.001-08:00

The adventure warriors made a comeback today. I wanted to show Alex and Hannah the castles at Strecno. We took an early train from Martin to Strecno as we got off in Strecno, the girls were confused that there really was no train station, we just got dropped off in the middle of nowhere. A little wary now, and recalling all the stories I told them about being lost on adventures they began to hesitate as I took off down the road.

"Emily are you sure this is the way??"
"how far is it?"
"are you SURE???"
"i think its the other way"

I dont blame them but I tried to explain that I had been lost here twice before and I was confident in my direction, and approach to the castle ruins. I also ensured them it was ok because if all else failed we have the "adventure bag" aka emergency survival kit stalked with all things needed to survive in the wilderness.

We decided to forgo the touristy guided tour of the castle in business and go straight for the raw history of the ruins. We walked for almost 45 minutes down what appeared to be someones driveway, next to the river, under railroad tracks before we could get any glimpse of the castle. As soon as Hannah saw the castle skeleton peaking out between bluffs she jumped up and down in excitement and only then did she finally believe that I knew where I was going! As we got closer, our anticipation got the best of it because we decided to go off trail, and shimmy up this cliff instead of taking the road around. The castle was at the top of the cliff and it was awesome! The surrounding area was enclosed in a hazy fog making it all seem that much more mystical. Also the sun was shining bright, allowing Alex to wear the aviators she loves.

We explored every nook and crany of the crumbling building. It was awesome! The remains of the walls were high pillars standing alone. we had a picnic at the top too. We had peanut butter sandwiches, and graham crackers and a special treat from Norway, brown cheese. This cheese only exists in Norway and is the best cheese on the face of the planet! As you probably got from the name, it is brown-kind of the color of peanut butter, which i thought was weird at first but its
just so good. I cant even describe it.

So after our picnic, we headed back down. We were looking for a place to eat but since strecno is very small, and everything in Slovakia closes on Saturdays we ended up at a smoke filled bar next to the train tracks eating bacon flavored chips and beer. It was humerous because we were the only girls, and the only people under the age of 50. We played cards, and they intently watched the futbal game on TV. Soon our train came and we made it back home. Still craving halusky we went to get some. I think halusky will be our next cooking adventure.

a few days ago we decided to try our culinary skills at Slovak food. we made zemiaky placky (potato pancakes) they were good. we also made a gravy for them but someone accidentally put Krupica (like, cream of wheat) in it instead of flour so it was an interesting texture. but it was good all the same. We want to have a cooking show of all different international foods.... and cook them without the help of anyone from that nationality, it would be like a comedy cooking show. I think it should be aired right after the Ellen DeGeneres show.... she could even cross over and be on our cooking show with us.

and now exaustion sets in and I have no words left..... off to bed! :)

Puzzle Madness, Graffiti, and furniture stores

2010-01-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

hannah and I and our awesome puzzle

This past week has been a whirlwind of adventure madness! I made some new friends, started a new art project, and am re-researching.

There has been a new arrival here in martin! Hannah is a 2nd year elementary education major from Minnesota. She is doing her J-term work here at the elementary school. She is teaching classes with Lubos and learning more about the teaching process, and how the three of us Americans ended up here. (shhhh no one tell her! none of us know what were doing)

hannah, me, Alex, Kristi

Alex is from Texas. Like the rest of us, doesn't really know how she got here. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in social work, and ran away from her enrollment in grad school to be an Au Pair in Norway. She loved it so much, she came to martin to have some more adventures living abroad. She will most likely be teaching here starting next year, and we are excited to have her here in martin.

We have spent a lot of time hanging out and sharing perspectives of the world, and of course our crazy adventure stories - and lessons we've learned in life.

We decided that it would be cool to collect pictures of graffiti from everywhere we go, and everywhere we see. I like graffiti because there is such a freedom of expression in an obviously public space. I think it adds life and character to a city (even though its illegal in many places- details details)

Alex and I at play in a furniture store. we sat on EVERY couch.

Hannah, Alex, and I also discovered that we all have a good aptitude for puzzles. We found a globe puzzle so we HAD to get it. We also started a 1500 piece puzzle we found in the basement. That one will definitely take a while!

Sunset in the square

Its nice to be able to show Martin, and Slovak experience in general with people. We have many adventures already planned, as well as a 'bucket list' of things to do before Hannah leaves in a few weeks.

Now on to research- I decided to keep researching human trafficking. Its a depressing subject but I really want to keep learning. Recently I've been reading about trafficking and India. Its interesting to see how it differs between regions. I would like to have a world map and visually track my research by making a flow map. I could study each region and draw the origin of victims and the destinations and see if there is an overall pattern, and just to see the movement. I think it would be quite interesting.

Hannah and graffiti man

I also have started a new project - not quite sure yet but something to do with the differences of dating between cultures. Its fun reading about how the dating culture in America is pretty much non-existent. it has turned into a 'hook-up' culture. Whereas, other regions and cultures still are very strict with the intent of a relationship. It should be interesting. This project also gives me the opportunity to interview people as research instead of just relying on written sources. (I don't really know how I thought of the idea)

Future Tense

2010-01-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

So I gave my students a project about Future tense, the were to write a book about what their life would be like in the year 2050. They finished, and then they wanted to write a story about what my life would be like in 2050. I will be 62 (yikes!) so here is what they came up with, its pretty funny!

Group one:
Emily will be a singer, Her name will be 'Blue Angel'. She will be the queen of pop and have lots of concerts. She will have a cat named Carmelle. She will drink a cocktail of life, and she will live forever.

Group two:
Emily will be a grandmother. She will have four grandchildren named willy, peter, emily, and milly. She will live in New York City in a very big house. This house will have a big zoo and a big water fall. She will have ten big robots in her Zoo. she will have an eiffel tower, and be married to Enriqe Ingalsias and Paul blom. Paul will be a director in hollywood.

(paul is their old english teacher, he works in the 4th grade.)

Group Three:
Emily will be the King of pop. She will also be a teacher. Emily will have a dog named Zorro. She will live in slovakia. She will be married to David Beckham, and her brother will be Barak Obama. She will be richer than Jenifer Lopez.

Group Four:
Emily will be friends with Brad Pitt and Paul Blom. She will be richer than Beonce. She will have 10 sisters, and 5 brothers. Her husband will be Jonny Depp. Her mom and dad will live in a ghost castle.

This project was really fun to read and grade. Kids are pretty creative! :)

winter fun.

2010-01-06T04:58:00.000-08:00

My new boots! Dont you wish you could wear childrens' shoes?

I didnt have a hat, so i gave him hair instead!

Complicating the Uncomplicated

2010-01-05T02:42:00.000-08:00

In light of spending all this time by myself, I've used my time to do a lot of reading, and praying and drawing and such. While reading "The Hiding Place" I began to think about current situations of war, and I have some thoughts.

In the book, from the very beginning of the gathering of German troops, all of Holland is greatly affected. The war was close in proximity, as well as taking a toll on their everyday lives. In past wars in the U.S. this was also the case. The entire country was effected, and could feel the heaviness of combation through women, children, men drafted. It was deeply embedded in the culture of the times from the Civil war all the way to World War II.

Since there has been 2 continuing battles most of my adult life I decided to learn more about them. In the beginning of these wars, I wasn't old enough to fully comprehend what was going on, or why so I-along with the rest of my generation- simply put it on the back burner. Studying the Afghanistan and Iraq wars did not help me understand why we are involved at all. Its interesting how the government can turn something simple into something extremely complicated.

It just seems odd to me that we can push aside in our minds the true effects of these battles, and not let it effect us. Seems cold. An entire generation is unaffected and uninformed, because they want to be. People my age are much more worried about extremely materialistic things when they could be doing something that would matter. I've been devoting some time to try and figure out how to remedy this situation.

anywho. that's what I've been thinking about. If you have any insight or anything, please leave it in a comment! :)

oh and- I recommend "the hiding place" to everyone it is EXCELLENT! (also its a movie)

2010-01-04T14:50:00.001-08:00

Mato took me on an adventure into the snowy mountians! we ate icicles, they were good!
I spent about 4 or 5 days doing a puzzle. it really made me mad. but ieventually finished it.
Brenda and Larry and I went to Banska Bystrica, its where the National museum of slovak uprising is. hence the tanks surrounding the snowman.

Frankfurt is Funky

2009-12-29T05:08:00.000-08:00

Frankfurt is a funky city. It is home to most of Germany's modern art collections, and has been rebuilt since WWII giving it a weird mixture of modern, and old architecture.

I took a train from Bratislava, through the Czech republic, through Dečín and Dresden. It was a pretty long trip but I got to see almost all of Czech republic in daylight. Its pretty flat so you can see through miles of snow dusted fields and farmland. The steeples in each town stick out pretty well.

Dresden train station had a tree my mom only dreams of having in the Sanctuary in st. andrews. it was 3 stories tall! and perfectly decorated! Frankfurt also had a huge tree in Old downtown, but it was outside, and i considered it cheating- but it was still pretty huge.

The first day in Frankfurt we walked around new downtown, and old downtown. New downtown is pretty much high rise bank buildings, because its the banking center of Europe, and old downtown is touristy and historical and really neat. there is an old church there that has ruins from WWII and a model of the original building, which was a lot bigger.

Interspersed with the old architechture are really modern buildings like the mall, which as about 5 stories, and is made of glass. two funnels of glass fall right into the center of the building all the way down to the main floor, I thought it would make a good slip n' slide- except it would be hard to get back out, which then it would need to be a slip n' slide / climbing wall.

Our christmas wasnt very christmasy, most things were closed so we walked around to all the parks in the city. 30% of frankfurt is a park so you can just follow them weaving in and out of the city. It was really warm too, so it was a really nice walk. Of course I played on just about every playground, and I chased a lot of pigeons, I could have caught one, but I was too scared!

Christmas night we didn't have much to do, and we were pretty tired, so we broke out the puzzle at the hostel. 1000 pieces. we stayed up till about 3:30 in the morning working on it. Some guys at the hostel pitched in to help after a while too.
so, next to me is GIJeff, and across from me is our MN friend Jeremiah, and a kid from Boston.

oh, I just realized I keep saying 'we' and i never introduced the male lead in this story. Sorry, I met my friend from high school Jeff (also known as GIJEFF) in Frankfurt. He is stationed in the American army about an hour away from Frankfurt. It was his first christmas away from home as well. Some of you might know GIJeff from this piture- unfortunately his curly locks are gone now.
I had to include this picture, it just depicts how awkward high school was and everything. i love it. (also, this is the dress i made out of ties)

So the Frankfurt skyline is also pretty nice, the cathedrals are all lit up, and there are lots of bridges. I got some nice pictures of that too.

I met some really interesting people on the train on the way home. The three elderly people in this picture are from the Czech republic, and they are related by marriage in one way or another. The young woman is from the Philippines but is working at IBM in Brno, Czech Republic, and there was also a middle aged woman from California who is creating a children s book. The woman in red really loved talking to us, in Czech, and wanted to tell us all her whole life story. the problem was is that the three of us that spoke English didn't speak German or Czech. So we took what I could pick out in Slovak, and tried to figure out what she was saying. it was pretty hilarious. I am working on a sketch of frankfurt like the one of zilina, and prague, but ill post it later.
well that's pretty much all I have to say about that, Frankfurt is Funky, it was fun, now on to the next adventure!

2009-12-22T04:42:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Ill write all about Germany when I get back on the 27th! TIll then

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Emily

Youth Group Christmas Party

2009-12-18T07:20:00.000-08:00

The youth group also had a Christmas program. It was funny to watch because they picked on the professeurs and made them do crazy things.

Roman, my slovak teacher :P

Lucy! (she says hi to all the St. Andrews Folks)
Michal - My Slovak dad! :)

Christmas Program

2009-12-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

This week's huge project was the Christmas program. Each grade prepares something to perform. Wednesday night was the First and second graders. They sang some songs and told the story of Christmas. They sang some English songs, but most of it was in Slovak. the kids were really cute all dressed up like angels and sheep and shepherds.

I played my violin with one of the third graders. I want to publicly thank my parents, and everyone else who came to all of my violin concerts, thank you for telling me I did a good job even though I may have barely squeaked out a melody. I also want to apologize for any loss of hearing that I may have caused. With that said, this third grader Jurjai, did the best he could! we only had one day to practice. He looked adorable in his bow tie. He got a bit nervous and we had to start the song over twice.

(pretend there is a picture here....i ll get one later)

On Thursday my 5th graders, and the 6th graders performed. I sat in the second row taking pictures with Jozef's camera, and my own, constantly making faces at the kids trying to get them to smile. they all looked very scared.

Anika, Martina and Katka as angels

all the kids as angels, Adam is Gabriel

they did a dance, sang some songs, and did the whole nativity play. it was mostly in Slovak, but i danced with them for their last number, I had to because they called me out! yikes!

Renada, and Ad'a the teachers I work with

Slovak Food:

2009-12-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

Usually Kristi and I eat about half our meals, and Paul polishes them off, but for some reason this day we were all stuffed.... so we got creative.

so here we have a Halusky face, with a ham mouth, pepper eyes, saur kraut hair and steamed bread ears. Our waitress laughed- that was our goal.

Kristi and Ben's Wedding

2009-12-18T06:25:00.001-08:00

So Ben and Kristi got married via skype on Saturday December 12 2009. It was a beautiful ceremony. I was the maid of honor, the best man, the dress seamstress, the florist, and the officiator. It was hard work, but totally worth it.

Jozef, or as we affectionately call him "pappa Jo" gave kristi away. Of course, our dog Zoro was there. Bill Nye the science guy also made an appearance as my lovely date.

All of the wedding attire was made by me, the materials used were mostly masking tape, plastic bags, and toilet paper. I have no idea how I acquired the skills to create a dress out of TP, or flowers out of paper napkins.

Here is a picture of me giving the toast at the reception. We were drinking medovina champaign (alcohol made from honey) it was a touching speach, i cried. :)

**this is 98% a joke**

Mule Deer and Gangster Style

2009-12-18T06:18:00.000-08:00

Igor and Mat'o took us on another adventure! We went to a giant field and walked around in the mud! They know us well enough to know that that is something we would enjoy :) ! There was a mule deer (danieli) farm so we got to see them. The leader of the pack came right up to the fence and let us pet him it was sweet! I also found a bone, and we ate some crazy berries that were like grapes but turned your mouth into Velcro. We also spent a good chunk of time trying to climb upside down on the fence. It was great fun!

Hrad Sklabina

2009-12-06T13:11:00.000-08:00

The adventure warriors made a comeback this weekend! Kristi and I kidnapped Jan's (our pastor) German Shepard named Zorro. (Jan told us we could take him) He was an excellent companion and guard. We walked to Hrad Sklabina about 9km away. The castle was all in ruins and in the middle of no where. it was a really nice walk through the country side! Zorro is our new pet, Jan said he would love for us to take him out more often! we are excited about that and will definitely need accompaniment on future endeavors. It was about an 11 mile trip, we almost made it home before it got dark. We wore out the dog, and ourselves.

to see more pictures go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/em.ender87/Slovakia#

Mikuláš v Meste

2009-12-05T00:53:00.001-08:00

Its the beginning of the Christmas here in Slovakia! This weekend there is a festival in the square. They turned on all of the lights around the square and Mikuláš v Meste (saint nick) is giving out candy to kids. There is also a devil running around because tradition has it that he puts coal in the shoes of bad kids, in some tales he kidnaps them. Other cultures traditions are fun! Kristi and I call Mikuláš v Meste, pope santa because he looks like he is wearing the popes hat.

Here are some pictures of the lights in the square, and Kristi and i dancing in the square (its kind of our hobby).

They made our dance floor all pretty!!! (jut for us!)

The water cycle!

2009-12-04T16:15:00.001-08:00

For water cycle day I taught them this song, and of course, the actions to the song! :) and I got to squirt them all with my gun and they loved it! it was so much fun!!

"Water travels in a cycle yes it does (yes it does)
water travels in a cycle yes it does! (yes it does!)

it goes up as evaporation,
it forms clouds of condensation,
it falls down as precipitation yes it does! (yes it does!)"

A Slovak-American-Norwegian Thanksgiving

2009-12-03T02:50:00.001-08:00

The turkey shot out of the oven, and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table and partially demolished a chair

It ricocheted into a corner and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen, completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows, it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling where there'd never been turkey before

it blanketed every appliance, it smeared every saucer and bowl
there wasn't a way i could stop it, the turkey was way out of control.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure, and i thought with chagrin as i mopped
that id never again stuff a turkey with popcorn that hadn't been popped!

Thanksgiving was really exciting! Larry and Brenda hosted dinner at their apartment, and had a fresh farm turkey to prepare! It was delicious! Dinner was very diverse since all of our traditions are different (even those of us who celebrate in America). There was stuffing, cornbread stuffing, Slovak mashed potatoes, mustard green beans, turkey, gravy, bread, and relishes. It was all very colorful! For desert I made 2 pies, and the Norwegians brought a kind of rice pudding with fruit sauce on the top, and some type of pastry that was delicious! We all ate way to much, we had very little left overs since there were about 13 of us. It really felt like we were surrounded by family!

unfortunately Paul was sick with something fierce. so we made a plate for him to eat later. He appreciated the leg!