CS Lewis Bilingual High School and Schedule for Block A

I teach 4 different classes to 4 different levels of students. 

1. Freshmen Conversation - this class is a supplement to the book the students are learning from in other classes. My goal is to get them speaking and using the vocabulary and grammar structure as much as possible. Getting them to speak is easy...getting them to speak in English is not so easy. 

2. Public Speaking  - this is a sophomore level class. It is a new course this year: they have combined two classes into one and I am the first to teach it. My goal is to prepare them to make all kinds of public speeches.

3. Writing - this is a junior level class. It is also a new course this year. I am building the curriculum for this one from scratch. It is the most time consuming, and I am glad it is only one block - see below. It is also the most grading intensive. 

4. Course Book - every level takes this class, but I am teaching the SuperSeniors. These are the fifth year students that are getting ready to take the exit exam (Maturita) and graduate from high school. This course has a text book (Praise the Lord!) and the students speak English nearly fluently. 

The school schedule here is very different from America. Our school year is broken up into quarters, which we call Blocks. One block is approximately 9 weeks long, sometimes a little longer. Classes might meet for one block, two blocks, or four blocks. My Writing and Public Speaking classes are one block - so the class will repeat with new students every 9-10 weeks. My Course Book and Conversation classes are four blocks, so a full year.

My schedule is below.

Classes are abbreviated as follows: Conversation = CO, Public Speaking = PS, Writing = WR, Course Book = CB

Freshmen = 1, Sophomore = 2, etc. 

the A, B, C, and Ds are the groups that each class is broken into. The number is the classroom.

The periods when I do not have a class are open/office times. We also sub for each other during those open times. For example, this Monday, I will be subbing during 2nd period for another English teacher. I also have lunch duty on Mondays and Hall duty on Fridays.

Check out the school website - you'll find the link to change the language to English on the very top right over the logo of the tree and lamp post. There are some neat things there and it will give you a better feel for the school. www.bilgym.sk

Settling In

First of all, let me apologize for my lack of communication in the last six weeks. It has been a good time of adjustment. Here is a list of things I am adjusting to:
1. new roommate
2. new transportation system (i've almost got this down, although new places are still an adventure)
3. not hearing English everywhere you go
4. trying to figure out what the signs say
5. new school schedule
6. fall weather
7. Slovak wet-ness (it rains or is misty a lot)
8. new classes at school
9. new food (The Adventures of Mel & Gina in the Canteen - coming soon to a theater near you)
10. new culture

Some things are easier to adjust to than others, but most of it is going well. I'm still struggling with the school part a little...just trying to stay a day ahead is tough sometimes.

It takes me a long time to go grocery shopping sometimes because I can't find what I'm looking for. Or I don't know what it should look like.

I think this is a general overview, and I'll try to get some more specific posts up as well.

Please continue to pray for me as I'm learning Slovak and building relationships with my students and colleagues.

No Water!

Monday evening when I was getting ready to get in the shower about 8pm, I turned on the faucet and nothing came out. I tried the sink…nothing…tried the kitchen sink…nothing. We were out of water.

Apparently, this happens occasionally, and you just have to wait for it to come back on. It was not back on Tuesday morning, so I went to school a little smelly with a washcloth and washed my face in the sink at school. I did wear perfume, so that masked the BO a little bit.

When I got home at 4, there was hot water, but not cold yet. The water was definitely brown, and left gross dirt stuff in the tub. I washed it back out after the water had run for a little while. We got the cold water back about 6pm, so I took a shower and got all clean. It was definitely more appreciated that day than most others.

Today is Saturday, and I'm trying to do a load of laundry. I'm afraid we are not going to have water again today. The pressure is low in the sink, and there is no water going to the washing machine. I turn it on, but no water goes into the tub. Ashley is still sleeping, and I don't know who to call about this unfortunate event.

But this is what life is like in Slovakia…there is no warning, and you just learn to deal. But I'm really hoping I don't have to go to church without a shower tomorrow. And clean sheets and clothes would be nice too.

First Days of School - sort-of

School officially started on September 2. The students came to their homeroom classes (I am not a homeroom teacher) and received a little bit of information. Then we went to a large opening session with the elementary school. After this, we took the high school students to the gym and each teacher introduced themselves. At this point, the students split back into their homeroom classes and stayed for about an hour. Then they went home about 10am. That was the end of the first day. We had a staff meeting at 11 to discuss the "field trip," which is code for emergency training, and then spent some more time planning.

Friday, the students arrived at 8:10 and went to their homeroom classes again. Then we split up into two groups: Theoretical and Practical. The theoretical groups had a class session of what to do in emergency situations. I was paired with a Slovak teacher, and she did the whole presentation in Slovak, so I have no idea what she was reading. But I'm pretty sure it had to do with first aid, what to do in a natural disaster, and what to do in case your friend gets alcohol poisoning. Then they switched groups and the Practical group had a few activities outside, but I wasn't there, so I am not sure what went on. Then we had fire drill at 11 and the students went home. We stayed and did some more planning and preparing for lessons.

Ashley and I went to see the movie "SALT" with Angelina Jolie Friday night. It was in English, with Czech subtitles. (Czech and Slovak are very closely related, and in general, they can always understand what each other are saying, so some movies are in Czech, some are in Slovak.) I really enjoyed it and it was nice to get out and just relax. The ticket prices are comparable to the US, but the popcorn and drinks are much cheaper.

Monday will be another strange schedule…Melissa and I will have 2 classes with the sophomores called NAT Chat - New American Teachers Chat. This means that they didn't have anything else for these students to do, so they get to hang out with us for a little while.

Tuesday, we will start actual classes. I will only have my first two classes since the SuperSeniors will still be doing some other training and seminar activities. But it will be nice to finally be in the classroom after all this planning time. I'm starting to feel like I'm ready to begin teaching. The first Block (quarter) will be more difficult than the rest since I will have all new classes. But after Block A, two of them will repeat, so it will be a little better.

Hrad Devin (Devin Castle)

OK...I can't figure out how to move the video to the bottom of the page, so here goes anyway. The video is 10 seconds long. In the courtyard of the castle, there is a very deep well. They provide a bucket, with a cup attached that you can use to pour a cup of water down the well and wait to hear it hit the bottom. In the video, Ashley dumps the whole bucket so you can hear it a little bit clearer. There is a lot of wind noise, because it was so windy, but you can hear the water hit the bottom of the well. Listen closely!

The Ruins of Devin Castle from the parking lot

Saturday we went to Devin Castle. I slept until 8:30 and then we got ready and left our flat about 10 am. We were going to try to leave earlier, but were pretty slow movers, which is alright. It had felt like a very long week, but I am finally adjusted to the time and on a regular schedule, so it's nice. My body is mostly adjusted, except for this really huge knot under my left shoulder blade. I'm working on finding a heating pad and am using the door jams to rub it out. I look like the bears that rub their backs on the trees, and it's working a little bit.

A Blacksmith at the Craft Festival

There is a great website here that will help you figure out which buses to use to get to where you want to go, but it was down on Saturday, so Ashley contacted a few friends that were able to help us figure out how to get to the Devin bus. We got off the 83 at the mall and walked across the bridge (under the cars) to the Novy Most bus stop. We bought bus tickets since the castle is outside of zone 1 (it's kind of a complicated system, and most of the time we don't need tickets because we have passes, but this time we did.) We were kind of just looking around, and then realized that the bus pulling out in front of us was the one we had wanted to be on, probably 30 seconds too late. The next one came 30 minutes later, so we went across the street to a very fun old-time craft fair. There was a blacksmith, people wood-carving, basket-weaving, making pottery, making corn-husk dolls, beautiful-magnificent-incredible-gorgeous eggs (the kind you might think of from Russia, but they are local here as well…not really expensive, but impossible to transport. I'd really like to have one, but have yet to figure out how to get it to the US. Any ideas?)

Slovak Knights

We went back to the bus stop and found our friends Melissa and Ryan there, so we joined up with them and got on the bus. It was about a 20 minute ride to the base of the castle. It's really beautiful out there. We paid our 7 Euro entrance fee…(still cheap by American Standards, but more expensive than normal for Devin due to the festivities) The Renaissance festival was just getting started really, so we wandered around the tents some, watched some Slovak Knights on stage…it seemed to be a comedy routine, since there was lots of laughing and Monty Python-type gestures, but it was all in Slovak, so I can't be sure of that.

The entrance to the castle grounds

Then came the castle itself. It was really incredible, and Ashley says it's just a baby castle, and not nearly as pretty as the others, but I really liked it. There was a game exhibit with really really old games…and some set up that you could play. Melissa and I played a game similar to Checkers, and it was harder than it looked, but was really fun! We went as far up as we could and took a lots of pictures. It was really windy and cool - probably only in the mid 60s. The locals think Fall is here to stay now and it won't get much warmer for a long time. I could have probably stayed for a long time, but everyone else felt like they had seen everything so we went down to see what time the bus came, and we had just missed it, so we ate lunch at a little place at the base of the castle, missed the next bus again, and walked around the outside of the castle. We found a little place where we could do some mountain climbing, so Ashley and I scrambled up about 25 yards or so and took a picture. Then we came down and caught the next bus back to town. We went back to the craft fair and did some more browsing, but still didn't buy anything. I still haven't decided if I want to go back or wait for the Christmas markets…I saw some things I really liked, but Ashley said there would be more and better prices at Christmas.

Our Checker-type Game: AlQuerque

We came home and did some deep cleaning in the kitchen. Two months of just sitting leaves things pretty dusty and a little gross. Plus, we wanted to rearrange things so that it was a little more organized and easier to find. Then we made a trip to the grocery store for some staples and stock items. We will probably need to do this again in the near future as we find things we wish we had on hand. Good news…I found a chocolate chip muffin mix! It's not quite the same, but makes a good substitute. It's weird, because that’s the only muffin mix we could find…but lucky for me, it's my favorite!

It was a very good day and I felt very good about all we did.

Can you tell how windy it was?

The Slovak Doctor Visit

(Actual Date: August 24)


Today Maria took us to the Slovak doctor to get them to say that we are not carrying any communicable disease and we are healthy enough to live here…at least that’s what I think we went for. We were not supposed to eat or drink anything, so I was really glad we got there pretty early, because this girl loves her breakfast. The first stop was a very nice and bright and clean office, similar to a Public Health place where you might go to get vaccinations for tropical adventures or just updated shots. The plan was to see the doctor, pee in a cup, and give blood. The problem was I had not had anything to eat or drink, and was pretty dehydrated.

I saw the doctor first and she asked for my weight and height…She was a bit upset that I couldn’t convert it into kilograms and centimeters, but she just put down the pounds and inches instead. (Melissa was able to convert this for her using her handy Slovak phone.) It was a little weird to me that they didn’t want to weigh me or measure me themselves. (Note: if American doctors would do this, the overweight problem might disappear. “And how much do you want to weigh today?”)

I waited while the doctor saw Melissa, and then they wanted to take my blood. Apparently, I was out of free blood. I’ve never had to fast before giving blood before, so I’ve always had plenty. But not today. They tried the right arm first, and found a vein, but only drops were coming out. Then they tried the left and couldn’t get anything. I was sent out to drink as much water as possible. By this time I was pretty light-headed, and really wanted to eat, but tried to fill up on water instead. I think I probably drank about a gallon of water, then they made me try again. This time they went for the top of my hand, pushed the blood down my arm, and used a suction-type needle, like you would to inject your meat before barbequing, but not quite so big. They managed to get 5cc and called it good. I ate a banana and some dried fruit I had with me for breakfast to help with the light-headedness. I had finally had enough water that I could pee in the cup, and we were off to location number two.

We had to have chest x-rays done at the hospital. If you can imagine a creepy psycho ward, you would be pretty close to the hall we were in. It was the x-ray/ sonogram/ultrasound hallway, and I really hope the rest of the hospital wasn’t like that. The one major difference from America: no paper gowns. Just strip down and walk into the x-ray room. There was a changing room, and you were the only one in there with the x-ray tech, but it was still pretty weird. I think this part was worse than the blood part, just because it was awkward. It actually went very quickly though, and then we were finished. Melissa and I made it back to school about 11:30, after stopping to have something to eat at a restaurant near the school.

We spent the rest of the day doing school stuff and came home for the evening.

Random Monday Notes

(Actual Date: August 23)


I had to be at school an hour before Ashley, so I went on my own and made it with no problems. We had several meetings in the morning and an orientation in the afternoon. We were able to get tickets for lunch and had a special Slovak dish called Halusky. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was pretty good. I’m going to go to the little grocery store near our flat by myself this evening for the first time. My internet still is not working, so I can’t post these blogs yet, but I am going to try Plan C tomorrow – get someone to call the company for me.

The Head English teacher gave me a special gift today of a Slovak language textbook so that I can learn more Slovak. The best part is that she helped write it! Her name is on the front cover…isn’t that cool? Now I just have to find the time to use it…and since I don’t have internet, I guess I’ll start tonight! (update on this: I have completed lesson 1, but don't remember much of the vocabulary...probably need some flashcards!)

First Church Service

(Actual Date: August 22)

I decided to go to church with Ashley today, and since it’s an evening service, I slept in again, but not so late. I got up about 10:15 or so and did a load of laundry. It literally takes two hours for the washing machine to cycle one time, and then we have to hang everything to dry. We have a rack on the balcony and we also hang things from the antlers in the common room, especially big things like sheets that don’t really fit on the rack. (I will eventually post pictures of this, just haven’t had a chance yet to take one.) Ashley made pancakes for brunch and I’ve been working on typing up these blog posts for a couple of hours now. I’m still not sleeping well, but someone told me that for every hour of time difference from where you left will be one day of adjusting. So I’m looking at 9 days, since I left from California. I’m taking it easy today and hoping that I’ll be able to fall asleep at a decent hour tonight so that I can get up and be ready for school training in the morning. We will not have students until September 2. (Sept 1 is a national holiday celebrating the Velvet Revolution.) But I have a lot to do to get ready for classes, and I’ll need every minute of this next week and a half.

A Lazy Day

(Actual Date: August 21)


Slept in really late – later than I think I have ever slept – I was up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and then finally fell asleep about 7 am and thought I’d get up about 9 or 10, but rolled over and the clock said 12:52pm. At first I thought something was really wrong with my clock, so I got up and checked with Ashley…yep, was really 1pm.

I probably could have gone back to bed at that point, but figured I should probably be up for a little while. I got dressed and Ashley took me to a little Slovak/Czech/Hungarian restaurant near Old Town called Divny Janko’s – which means Weird John’s. It was a beautiful place and had really good food for a great price. Then we walked around Old Town for about an hour and made our way home.

I finally got to skype with my mom for the first time since I arrived and it was really good to catch up with her. I had talked to my dad several times, but sometimes a girl just needs her mamma. After hanging up, we made another trip to Tesco for a few more things. I think this will definitely be a weekly thing (at least) for a while until I’m all set up. We had some leftover spaghetti for dinner and I tried to get ready for bed, but I really wasn’t very tired. So I watched a movie and finally laid down about midnight.

Staff Team-Building and a trip to IKEA

(Actual Date: August 20)

at a park outside of Bratislava (similar to a State Park)

Friday was a team-building day which basically meant that we were all going to do something fun together. Several people met at a trail in Petrazalka to bike or roller-blade to the park outside of Bratislava (someone said it might have been 12km, or about 5 miles). But since I did not have either of those options, I joined the cooking team. We met at the school and walked to a bus stop that would take us out to the park. We found the park and the top chef who drove a car full of supplies. We helped carry supplies in to the park and found a place to set up. Slovak BBQ is nothing like the states, but it was pretty good. They had chicken, bread, sausages, raw vegetables, grilled zucchini, grilled bacon, and some kind of cake for dessert.

It was very pretty and relaxing. I had a good time, but it was pretty hard to join in because most people spoke in Slovak the whole time. Reason #953 to learn Slovak quickly. All the teachers speak English (it’s required by the school in order to get hired), but most are not comfortable using it all the time. And honestly, if I had to speak in Spanish all the time, it would not be very easy for me either, so I don’t blame them.

getting the food ready for lunch

When I got back, I met up with Ashley, Jenni, and Katie for a trip to IKEA. I got a rug there and a rubbish bin (trash can), some picture frames, and a few other items to help me set up my room a little better. I will need to make another trip, but I can only buy what I can carry, and that’s a new concept for me. It’s weird to not be able to just buy what you want since you don’t have a way to get it home. I really want a desk for my room, but I have to find someone with a car that would be willing to go to the store with me and bring it to my flat. So I’ll get one eventually, just not right away. (Thank you, Ozona, for getting me ready for that one!)

By the time we got home from IKEA, we were ready to put our stuff away and start thinking about bed. I seem to be able to go to sleep for a couple of hours, but then I wake up and can’t go back to sleep for a couple more hours, then I finally fall asleep again and wake up really late! (see next post)