matriculation

it's sunday morning here in kosice, and i've just finished a fresh fruit salad and a croissant. now i'm sitting enjoying my coffee, listening to some iron and wine. fresh food, quality coffee, quite mornings, good music... some things in life never get old.

this weekend has been good in so many ways. friday evening, our gymnazium had a program for all of the new students and new teachers at the school. they call the event something equivalent to "matriculation." the students in the year before their graduation (like our juniors) prepare the program. for the first two hours, we enjoyed a traditional folk dance, skits, singing, dances, lip-syncing. perhaps my favorite part was during a dance that once of my classes prepared. all of the girls from the class had choreographed a dance to a lot of different songs. suddenly, at the end of their dance, "bad romance" by lady gaga began to play. then, one of my male students, walked out as lady gaga! it was so perfect. he is a big fan of lady gaga, and he looked exactly like her. it was brilliant. generally, i was so impressed with the students. it seemed like they were fearless in whatever they did... for instance, the folk dancers had to wear traditional slovak clothes, dance a traditional dance to traditional music. i could imagine old people in the U.S. enthusiastically doing such a thing-- but NEVER teenaged boys and girls. they would be embarrassed and grumpy about it. however, the students who performed the folk dance had so much energy and enthusiasm. they looked so happy, and all of the other students also really enjoyed their dance. there wasn't any ridicule, laughing or awkwardness. the same attitude continued throughout the evening. after the program, there was a two hour dance for the students. it was great to watch the students completely relaxed, having fun, and enjoying each other's company. it didn't seem like any of the students felt awkward, afraid or embarrassed... SUCH a contrast to my memory of high school dances. even students who i perceive as a bit awkward were entirely comfortable, dancing their heart out and simply having fun. and what was most surprising, for me, was that the teachers were also dancing with the students! a lot of teachers were there to chaperone the event, but it didn't feel like a duty for them. they had wine for the teachers to drink, and rather than standing at the side watching the students, the teachers went down and danced with the students. and not just young teachers, but old teachers, middle-aged teachers, awkward teachers... everyone. and the students didn't feel like the teachers were intruding on their fun... they were welcomed as if they were one of their peers. it really was such a unique experience for me. i enjoyed it so much.

(this is quite stalkerish, but i found some photos from the event of facebook. wow, if my students are reading this, i'm sure they think i'm totally lame for stealing photos from someone's facebook. but i hope that you, dear MN readers, will enjoy the photos... even if i had be shameless, undignified, and prideless to get them. you can see the photos above.)

after the program, i went out with two of my colleagues. they are both french and teach in the french bilingual section in our school. we went to a bar and met some spanish teachers from the spanish-bilingual school in kosice. it was a really fun night. everyone was friendly and kind... we even saw some of our students out! one of the best parts about going out in kosice is how inexpensive everything is. a glass of wine is maybe a euro and a half, and beers are only one euro. food is equally as inexpensive.

saturday was also a really nice day. in the morning i met a woman, eva, for coffee and cake. i met this woman at our school, and she speaks really wonderful english, and she is so kind. the morning was delightful. then in the afternoon, i met my lady-gaga-fan student, also for coffee. and then, in the evening, i met my french and spanish friends for dinner at Med Medina, a really nice restaurant in kosice. (to give you an example of how inexpensive everything is, i had a main course dish and a glass of wine for only 6 euro). by the end of the day i felt quite pleased because i realized that i'm starting to create a life here. it is so nice to be building relationships, even if the process is going slowly.

today i don't have very much planned, except that i get to meet my friend, vesna, this evening. this week i will get to go to another hockey game, and then this weekend there is a holiday so i will be going to prague. the weekend after that, i will be going hiking in the high tatras with my new friends, and then the weekend after that i will be going to krakow. whew! it will be a busy few weeks... hopefully a good, busy few weeks.

acting nosy and stalkerish again, and i found this video of my students. just to give you an idea of the program, these are my male students from Septima, performing a dance to justin bieber. enjoy :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUHCBQgEsgo

that's all for now. please send me an email, message, phone call, etc. and let me know how you are doing. i miss the daily life of MN.

lovingly,

anna