Since living in the Slovak Republic, I've gotten as good at blogging as I am at the Slovak language. In only my second post of the past five months, I will try to briefly describe what I've been doing here in Sala (said SHala). It should be noted that when I first told the Ambassador, "I Live In Sala", I had to repeat myself, as he was seemingly confused as to whether I was speaking Arabic. To be clear, I do also plan to survive here for the next 5 months In Sala, insha'Allah, if God wills it.
My town’s a quaint place, just
east of Bratislava,
Population, 20,000, they have
named it Šala
It’s not pretty to look at
but there’s nothing to hate
The forest, the trails and
this river are great
I’m lucky that B'lava is less than an hour away
A weekend spent there makes me feel A-O.K.
To first introduce myself at
the start of the year
I announced my presence with
chocolate, “Hello, I am here!”
(People are really into chocolate here and are constantly sharing it
in the staff rooms and giving it as small gifts. It's a good place to be.)
Some colleagues, shown here
are incredibly kind
We enjoy coffee while
students shop and unwind
(we actually went on a field trip to Bratislava and the students
shopped at the mall while we sat around and enjoyed the day in this cafe)
To be honest, at first, I
felt a bit sad and quite lonesome
I’d go to Kaufland to hear
music and be with any person
I had moments of weakness, followed
by remorse
After the purchase of Choco
bobbles and Wummis, of course
But my students make
everything fun and so worth it
Creative and smart, post-Kindergarten, it’s perfect!
Yet they still act like kids,
love to act and sing along
They’re down for it all, even
that Whole-New-World song
Turns out I’m not an
assistant, but I teach by myself
Which I admit I like doing-- I’m
not put on a shelf
We work hard to prep Maturita Test- they'll ACE it
But also have fun, like time
for pumpkin mosaics!
I’ve had time to travel quite
a bit since I’ve been here
Three day weekends give time
to visit, both far and near
I thought, ‘It’s a ghost town!
People have all gone away”
Then found them at the
graveyard, celebrating All Souls' Day
Thanksgiving was fun,
Fakesgiving in Banska Stiavnicy
Then with the ambassador,
here slicing up a fat turkey
In December, Mikulas Day
arrived completely unannounced
I entered the school: with
glitter and coal, students pounced!
My school is shown here, not
the real but the fake
We ate it for days, a
delicious Stuskova cake!
Ah, stuskova, stuskova, how to describe Slovak Prom?
Can’t say much other than it
was completely the bomb
My students like to party hard—it was total dance heaven
We didn’t stay until three,
not just four but 'til seven!
I’ve been learning some
Slovak from these little children
Always have a good time when
I spend the day with them
We pretend to drive cars, one
yells, “CERVENA”, “RED!”
We wait until finally,
“ZELENA!”, “Go ahead!”
In January, I began volunteering at a daycare of Slovak children whose parents would like them to be exposed to English. In the time that I have been there, I have learned more Slovak words and phrases from these four-year-old students than I have from any adult in the past five months.
