Today marks my first full day in Tisovec. The apartment I will be living in is currently under renovation (good thing, from what I hear. One of the Americans who was also here last year said, “they were like from the 60’s—and not the American 60’s…”) so for the time being I am staying upstairs in one of the tiniest “hotel” rooms I have ever seen. I feel as though it is about the size of my dad’s closet with a bed, small nightstand, another little table with a TV on it, and a wardrobe all crammed in. I had to play Tetris with my suitcases to make everything fit and still have enough walking room to get around. The bathroom is equally small, thought the shower is pretty spacious and nice (when I shaved my legs, I had enough room for a full leg extension, and my foot was not even above my head. But I guess I’m pretty acclimated to small showers after four years of the “pods” in Saint Mary’s living quarters).
When my Slovak friends dropped me off we all thought this was it—that I would be living in the room all year. I was ready to roll with it, make it happen, ya know? I lived in a tent and slept on the ground all summer; small spaces ain’t no thang to me. But Miro and his father-in-law Imrich were positively outraged, “This is not apartment!” Miro sneered with disgust while an older, dignified Imrich shook his head as he silently looked around. They were already suspicious and leery of the town as-is, so in their protection mode they were ready to pack me up and take me back to Brehy, end of story.
School starts next week so the teachers are in the mist of all the behind-the-scenes prep work. Today is a big testing day for all the returning students, so I’ve been sitting in the teacher’s lounge for hours with no internet and nothing to do—I don’t even have my book with me. I’m still getting over jet-lagg so I’ve almost nodded off like a hundred times while trying to keep busy by reading some the guidebooks about Slovakia, Lutheran pamphlets and information, or any other English reading material this place is stocked with. It’s also freaking HOT up in herrr, and hot plus sleepy is perhaps the works possible combination. In fact, I think they just perpetuate each other—what came first, the hot or the sleepy?...
The teachers I’ve met so far are all totally awesome. They are mostly women, some are older but there a bunch of young ones who are pretty new to EGT or teaching in general, so I am glad to be working with people in a similar situation. I went to lunch with a few of them at one of the “local” spots where we order from a special menu and get discounted prices and stuff. Apparently the school cafeteria across the street is just bad for business. At the place we go to, you just sign yourself up a day in advance and eat the special meal—be it dumplings and stuffed cabbage (today) or rice and chicken (tomorrow).
I’m still not exactly positive what I am going to be doing—I’ll be assisting in English classes but I have no idea what that entails. Also, maybe they’re still hidden away but I haven’t really seen that many old folk hobbling around. I think it’ll take some time for me to send out the antennae and see what’s going on, and how I will tailor my plans for the writing I’m going to do here. It looks like I need to focus on teaching first and for-most, which is good because it gives me time to melt into the community a little more before I ask these people to bare their souls to me.
I can’t believe I’ve been rambling on this long and I have neglected to mention how BEAUTIFUL this place is!! The town is completely surrounded by mountains, which cater to the local four-wheeling (off-roading) scene, and this week the Slovak Nationals or something for paragliding are taking place from the surrounding hilltops. Yeah, this place has got it going on. The Muranska Plania narodni park (national park) is right next door, and apparently these hills are absolutely crawling with trails. From what I hear though they are also crawling with “medveds” (bears) and as I learned on my last foray in Slovakia, people think it is weird if you just take off on your lonesome to do activities. I need to scope more.
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