Just Skating By

This past week (and weekend), I celebrated Thanksgiving with some of my fellow American colleagues. The ELCA Global Mission teachers from all the cities in Slovakia and in Poland came to Bratislava for a group celebration. Last Thursday, though, at the lyceum, we celebrated Thanksgiving on its actual day at a “turkey party” that the …

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On the train coming into Kraków at 8 in the morning, after a bumpy-night’s sleep and after listening to some randoms above us snore for a while, my friend Ella turned to me and said, “Welcome home.” “Oh yea,” I said out loud, laughing. “I guess I’m back where my family came from.” I think it …

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I arrived back in Bratislava this morning (bright and early at 7 a.m.) with my friend and colleague Ella. We took the night train back (just as we did on the way there), so we were exhausted upon arrival. This time, we shared a car with a nun, which was awesome. As Ella said, “Well, …

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It is amazing how small the world becomes during a visit to the Foreign Police. Last week, I made my second and third (and final) trip to the Office of the Border and Foreign Police in Bratislava, to secure my visa to teach. Just like our first trip, we made the best out of a …

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Today I got a letter from the Foreign Police telling me my application for temporary residency in Slovakia has been approved. Hooray! I got a notice from the post office that a letter from the police was waiting for me on Friday, but I couldn’t pick it up then because I didn’t have my passport …

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A dream I never thought would come true did last week. I went to Hogwarts. Every year at the school where I teach, faculty and older students organize a welcoming party for the new first-year students. It’s called Imatrikulácie, and it has a different theme each year. This year, it just happened to be Harry Potter-themed. …

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The last week has been filled with many wonderful surprises. During our first week here at orientation, we were told that we will experience many “highs” and “lows” during our journeys as missionary teachers. Right now, you could definitely say I’m on a “high.” When I first arrived in Vienna, I got in around the …

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1. Our colleague and friend Peter has started giving Slovak lessons for the Americans this school year, and I went to my first one last week. I learned half the Slovak alphabet and a few other phrases. The funniest one that sticks out in my mind is “rubber meat.” We will continue to have these …

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Think of your worst experience waiting at the DMV and then multiply it a couple of times. That’s how many Americans have described the experience of going to the foreign police to start the visa process. Before we arrived in Bratislava, we were required to secure certain papers for our visa (an apostilled birth certificate …

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It seems that with every problem, better education is always (at least partly) the solution. Today, I went with another American teacher to a discussion about the future of Afghanistan after 2014. Even though nothing too earth-shattering was said, it was interesting to listen to a panel discussion in another language  (with headsets that we could …

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