Here, and Oriented (Sort of)

We arrived in Bratislava, received our orientation classes, and are ready to begin life in Slovakia as faculty members of the Evanjelike Lyceum, right? Well--maybe, but more on that later. First, the process. We flew from Dulles to Vienna through Zurich on 11-12 August with few mishaps. One suitcase got delayed from Zurich to Vienna, but considering the amount of stuff we brought, that was no big deal. We opted for Vienna beginning Thursday to reset our body clocks and recover from our "farewell tour," but first we schlepped our luggage from the Vienna airport to our hotel, the Prinz Eugen, chosen because it stands relatively close to the Sudbahnhof, where all trains bound for Bratislava depart. The absence of one suitcase did not bother us then, you can believe. This pictures Prince Eugene's palace, the Belvedere, not our hotel, although they are not far apart. Eugene displayed buck teeth and great military genius, and when the Turks are at the door people ignore your less comely aspects and pay you lots of money to lead the army. That's what the Hapsburgs did and that's why he had the money to build his palace. But he never married. Go figure.

We walked around Vienna a lot and rode the U-Bahn, the underground. We also saw many churches, heard many organs, and ate very well. Monday the 16th did come, however, and we strapped on and rolled our bags the half kilometer or so to the train station. We found out that a train for Bratislava-Petrzalka left a little after noon, so rather than waiting for the 1:10 we hopped aboard. This disconcerted Peter, who was supposed to meet us, because we waited in the station rather than arriving on the 2:05.

Then we received our first surprise--rather than having an apartment in Petrzalka, the part of Bratislava where the school is located, Peter took us to our new home in downtown Bratislava.
This is the view from our place. In previous lives the apartment had two bedrooms, although Phil and Sue, who had the apartment before us, turned one into a giant living room. So, once we get it set up, folks can come to visit us and still have a bedroom--we'll just eat in there later! Many hotel options exist nearby, however, since we are downtown.

Orientation began with a "get acquainted" dinner that night. Claudia Nelson came by to get us. She interviewed us back in the spring, and was set to teach the teachers. She had first stopped two floors below to gather in Bill and Kathy, the other couple, and then we went on to the headquarters of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, the Lutheran church in Slovakia. Apartments there house the six singles. Eight of the ten of us are new this year. We learned how to take the bus to the seminary, where we had dinner.

Tuesday morning we took the bus on our own up to the seminary for breakfast. After breakfast Pastor Arden Haug, European Mission Director for the ELCA and pastor of the International Church here, led devotions, and Claudia started teaching about teaching English language learners. We also had Slovak language lessons and went off to get our bus passes and register with the Foreign Police. On Friday night we had a "talent-no-talent" show. Finally, this morning, we were commissioned to this work by Pastor Haug and Bishop Klatik of the Slovak church.

So what did we learn during orientation? First, Slovak is a very difficult language. Second, good teachers of English as a target language are very gifted people. Third, those who come to serve the school from the ELCA, and those who are already here are also very gifted. Will we succeed? While we know there are difficult times ahead, especially in the first couple of months, We are committed (and called, and commissioned) to try. Keep in touch!

And Awaaay We Go!

At least we hope so. Here we are the night before we're supposed to fly, and the airline is giving us trouble about staying longer than the country says we should (90 days). So we'll have to go to to the airport to explain that we'll be taking a train to Bratislava, where we'll be registering with the Foreign Police and applying for a resident visa. That way they'll let us fly!

We're at Cristina's in Arlington, VA, now, finishing our "farewell tour," after a great time with Anna in Somerville, MA, Erika and Joe in Superior, CO, Dale and Janet in Cedaredge, CO, back to Anna's and now back to Cristina's for our launch from Dulles tomorrow. Oh, yes, and a visit to Tutankahmun, the golden boy, the pharaoh. Well, we didn't see him exactly, but a lot of his stuff and his relatives' stuff. Hmmm, a lot of this experience has focused on stuff. Stuff we didn't know what to do with. Stuff we stored. Stuff we gave away. Stuff we sold. Stuff we took to Arlington, Somerville, and Superior. Stuff we intend to take with us to Bratislava--did you SEE that pile? And that's not all of it. Do you suppose anyone will care in 3000 years? We won't remember what we had in three.

So right now we see through a glass darkly, but in a week or so we'll see more clearly. Some things, anyway. We start orientation with dinner on the 16th. We'll let you know more after that. Na'zdrovie! (OK, Andrey, za'zdrovie!)