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!)

Boxes, Boxes, Everywhere...

We get closer to moving day(s) all the time. Since we will reside in two countries, we need two types of storage--long-term and accessible. How do you predict what you'll need, say, this Christmas time or next summer? Or where you'll be? We'll shlep stuff off to accessible storage tomorrow, hoping that what we choose is right. The donation van is scheduled for Thursday; amazing (or maybe not) how large that pile is getting. Then the moving and storage people come Friday. Saturday we'll be cleaning an empty house, and Sunday we take off for Arlington, the first stop on our "farewell tour."

How do you say goodbye to your home of nearly 28 years? We know it's time to go, the same way we knew when it was time to retire, but that doesn't make it much easier. We've experienced this before, but that doesn't make it easier, either! Neighbors came by last week and brought well-wishing card (kind) and a bottle of wine--really kind.

Nephew Phil(ip) has been here since Saturday, on leave from his AF assignment in Pensacola learning how to teach newbies how to be weapons systems operators. His military experience, not as a WSO or as a teacher but as a frequent mover, has been a blessing. We broke bread with Andrey and Oksana at their house Saturday night. Cristina came down Friday to go to a wedding, and got roped into packing a box or two, too. The Wednesday before we said "see ya" to Phil and Kathy because they were taking off to cruise the Baltic, and Mark and Sherry because they were off to NJ and NY. If they can go off other places, they can come to Bratislava, by golly! Maureen and Matt will be in this house sooner (we hope) rather than later, and the boys will liven up this neighborhood--but that doesn't make leaving the house much easier, either!

Paula got her teaching assignments this week--Brit lit and Latin American lit!

Time to quit and go eat lunch, and then pack some more. Tempus, after all, fugits.

A Great Couple of Weeks (mostly)

Special friends, special times, special places--all add up to a great couple of weeks, if you don't count filling even more boxes. But, we chose this position, so we won't complain (where anybody can hear us). We spent the weekend of the Fourth of July in Washington with Cristina and Dick and Sylvia Rortvedt. Family all, they provided great company, great food, and fireworks over the Washington Monument for us and several thousand of our closest friends on the lawn in front of the Netherlands Carillon.
We got to go to Power in the Spirit, the Virginia Synod's retreat focusing on worship and telling the story, and got to spend quality time with Diane Jacobson, who's directing the ELCA's Book of Faith initiative. She came to see us, oh, and to be the Bible study leader at PITS. Good to see her and take in all she had to say, good to get the great food at Roanoke College, and wonderful to see all of our good friends from around the synod. Diane got a little pot in Salem. Hope she shared with Paul and the other workers in Grand Marais. Sigh. We missed y'all!
Sunday Pastor Jean Bozeman, Assistant to the Bishop of the Virginia Synod, and Pastor Chris Farrow, who shepherds our home parish, commissioned us, and the people of St. Paul's put on a wowser of a potluck. We were treated in style, let me tell you! And Sunday evening we spent with our children, Cristina and Anna here and Joe and Erika on Skype. A bit of advice--it's better to have 2+2 or so rather than 4+2 on each computer.

The hardest thing, besides being so far away (geographically) from all here in the US of A, will be living up to all of the love we're being shown. But I guess we're going because of the unconditional love we've been given, so maybe it will all work out after all....

West (and North) Before East

So we went west, to California, before we head east. We plan to go north, too, to Arlington and Somerville, MA, and not-so-far west to Superior, CO before mid-August and our launch. Our commitment service gets closer, too, but we plan to do Power in the Spirit in Salem first. Adam and Austin were one of the main reasons for the trip, and definitely the cutest. Well, ok, we were very glad to see the others, too, including Marta, Laura and Andy, Drew and Ellie, Jen and Derek (who were really generous with their boys' time).


We listened very carefully to Pastor Becker at church, since he was speaking directly to us (oh, and maybe to the others who were at Trinity on Sunday, too). When you are called, say the lessons, you have the choice to hear the call or hear the world. That's freedom. But don't let freedom become self-indulgence. We think we've been called, and we'll stay that course until we hear that we're not. Erika told us that right from the beginning, if we'd have listened.

And now we're back to packing, and arranging, and cleaning, and.... We remember good times with all of those folks on the west coast, and look forward to more good times before we go and after we get there. We are grateful for your prayers, and be sure they are returned, for good, for y'all.

Blessings and grace.

Move Along, Nothing to See Here....

Because there's nothing to see, we've posted no pictures with this episode. We've packed some more boxes, chosen a moving and storage company, found a buyer for the Odyssey, held a garage sale, donated the leftovers to a thrift store, and on and on, but nothing very picturesque.

This is a real trial for old f- folks, at least old folks who have been in their house too long. How attached do you become to "stuff"? What does it mean to keep some things just because they have "sentimental value"? We've talked to a couple of ex-military folks who say that at about the second move overseas involving storage, they're starting to wonder why they stored that appliance that rotted out, or became obsolete, or why that box got into storage. And they were dealing with the government's money; we'll be storing by the pound at our own expense. Live and learn....

Obviously, we're still pointed at a mid-August departure for Bratislava, assuming no health considerations in the family dictate otherwise. Our fingerprints went in to the FBI today, so they can reassure the Slovaks that we're not terrorists. We're also still excited about the prospect of learning about a culture that is foreign to us in many ways beyond just geographics, and yet with people and ways of doing things that we expect will be too familiar (and too American) in many other ways. The new mega-mall with the Sheraton next door, for example. Now the new Rick Steves book that talks about Vienna and Bratislava teaming up to create an entrepreneurial corridor between the two cities with high rises and more mega-malls. Bratislava, the "new Berlin, only smaller." As Erika would say, we're not sure how we feel about that. And we haven't even gotten there yet!

So stay tuned, especially for posts with a little more graphic appeal. We head for California on Wednesday to meet our 7-month-old grand-nephews before, as Paula says, they're too busy with little league. That's precisely the problem we old f- folks have; time goes by too quickly to get everything done that needs doing. And we're not just talking about packing, either....
J&P

Messy

Messy. The house is messy as we pack things up, separate things to donate or put in a garage sale, store, or take. LIFE is messy, as we hear, suddenly, about our son-in-law's serious illness. Will we get everything packed? Where will God have us go?

The more things seem to be certain, the more they are uncertain. Still, we are directed to go somewhere. Right now we are still aiming for Slovakia, and we can only trust that we're pointed in the right direction. If not, I guess we'll be told!

Our commissioning service is scheduled for July 11 at St. Paul's, Hampton at 10:00 A.M. Y'all come! We're really looking forward to it. Meanwhile, if you have a yen to pack boxes, just let us know; we have plenty.